Friday, October 23, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Rebekkah Ford, Author of Legends of Deceit



Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.

Festival food is the best in my honest opinion. 

I love fried bread with melted butter, covered in cinnamon sugar. 

It launches me into a state of instant joy and giddiness. 

Then we have the delightful artery-clogging, mouthwatering, pastries filled with cream cheese and a gelatinous goo of berries that will send your dopamine’s soaring to new realms of ecstasy. 

The aroma of barbecue meat loaded with sodium and corn syrup is wafting in the air, tickling your senses. 

While moving through the high-spirited crowd, the smell of sticky, sweet caramel corn and cotton candy promises moments of pure pleasure and possibly hours of gastrointestinal discomfort. 

But you don’t care because it’s only for one day.  

Besides, you have a 50% chance you’ll be fine. 

No worries.

You give in to hedonism. 

You indulge and brace yourself for possible extra toilet time that night and popping artificial-flavored Tums into your mouth to cure the raw burning indigestion that has you white-knuckling the counter as you grit your teeth through the pain. 

But you push those thoughts aside. 

Be gone negative thoughts. 

You don’t need to be manifesting that into your life. 

It’s all good.

Alaris in Legends of Deceit is a reluctant heroine thrust into a magical world of nobility, deceit, werewolves, fairies, and insidious trolls. 

She is also friends with a dragon.

Alaris discovers she is a princess in a realm close to earth but doesn’t want any part of it. 

She wants to go back to her normal life in college back on earth, but she can’t. 

Her dad is the king of Atheon and throws her a huge party so the people in the kingdom can get to know her. 

Narik, who is one of the warriors protecting her, escorts her to this festival-type event. 

She spots a tall, blue-skinned woman in the crowd. 

Her movements are fluid and graceful like a ballerina.

          “What is she?” Alaris asks Narik

          “She’s a nereid. Her name is Oona.”

          “What’s a nereid?”

          “A sea nymph. They’re friendly and helpful people.”

There are elves, dwarves, goblins, and fairies in the mix. 

Celtic music plays in the background as Alaris navigates the crowd and checks out the food vendors. 

The sign on one advertises steak hoagies, hot sausage, hamburgers, French fries, and . . . 

          “Fish on a stick. Raw and still breathing for your enjoyment.” Alaris wrinkles her nose at Narik.

          “It’s to cater to our aquatic friends,” Narik says. “And then we have the bloody liver sandwich for the weres.” 

          “Yum. Yum.” She makes a face, and he laughs. “I think I’ll get a cheeseburger and fries.”

          “I’m going to order the hot sausage on a hard roll with fried onions and mustard.”

          “That sounds good, too, but I’ll stick to my all-American meal.” 

They get their food, go to a beer tent (you got to have a beer tent that not only serves fine ale but other alcoholic beverages as well) to get their drinks, and then sits at a table to enjoy their festival food.

Afterward, the music picks up to an upbeat Celtic tempo with flutes and fiddle. 

With their bellies blissfully full, the atmosphere flowing with laughter and happiness that only festival foods and drink can create, Alaris and Narik joins in on the fun and performs an Irish step dance.

To me, that would be the perfect day and night. 

I’m a health-conscious vegetarian (I sometimes eat fish, though); however, when it comes to festival foods, I will indulge myself and take the risk of experiencing unfavorable side effects. 

Why would I do that to myself?

Why not?

We all deserve a treat day once in a while, don’t you agree?

Just thinking about fried bread has me dreaming about it.

What is your favorite festival food?

My characters in my other books also love their treats and good eats. 

I think because I do. 

When you read one of my books, be prepared to be part of their experience when eating something sinfully yummy or drinking a delightful cocktail that was illegal during Prohibition.

You’ll enjoy yourself without the repercussions but will also want to manifest it into your world. Guaranteed. 

Cheers!

Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Rebekkah!


You can find Rebekkah here:

RebekkahFord.com

Twitter @RebekkahFord

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon



Friday, October 16, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Paul Flewitt, Author of Poor Jeffrey


Horror, at its heart, is the exploration of the darkness within mankind. It is an introspection on the evils that men do. It holds up a dark light on the human condition, and tells certain truths that are often hard to stomach. What it also does is break down taboos; those conversations that you only ever have between trusted friends in darkened rooms, with the curtains closed and doors locked, hoping and praying the following morning that nobody heard your midnight confessions and darkest fantasies. Horror tells you to look at this thing, this hideous article that man has done. Examine this thing and know it, search its entrails for subtle meanings. Grow to love this disgusting thing, because this thing could be you.

It’s important to understand all of the above before I get into the meat (pardon the pun) of this post. You have to understand that horror writers are observers. We are not bogeymen who wish to tear your heart out, nor do we attend midnight rituals where virgins are sacrificed on the altar of creativity and imagination … at least, none of the writers I know do that. It’s important for you to know that, despite writing with such delight when it comes to the following, I never have actually tasted human flesh.

“Why cannibalism? Why would you even think to write about that?”

Two questions often asked of me when Poor Jeffrey was released, most often by the more squeamish of readers. The answer is, because I don’t think that it has ever been done in the way I did it. Writers often make cannibals animals, driven by a bloodlust to consume human meat. Other times, the cannibal is arrogant and views other human beings as mere herd animals, ripe for slaughter and put on the earth as another food source to be hunted and consumed. Then there are the tribes of South America, who hunted and ate humans because they literally were just another food source in the jungle. They called the white man “long pig,” due to the similarity between the taste of human meat and porcine. There is, I found after some research, another motive for cannibals. This is the motive that I wanted to explore and found interesting.

Some cannibals imbibe human meat out of love. That sounds pretty perverse, doesn’t it? “I killed you and ate you because I love you.” Doesn’t quite ring true, does it? Let’s dig down into the logic of it though, before we make our judgements. The act of sexual intercourse is perhaps the closest we ever get to oneness with our partner, isn’t it? For a brief time, we become one organism conjoined at the loins and hearts. Our bodies move in rhythm to achieve climax, before laying in sweat and exhaustion, remaining there to prolong that feeling of oneness that we all crave. What if that oneness can be maintained forever? What if, in the act of consuming that person we love, we achieve true oneness? We keep them safe in our bellies where no one can rend and divide us, extracting their essence into ourselves forever. We truly become one entity. What if the act of consumption is really the ultimate act of love?

What if … That is the question that haunts every writer of dark fiction when they set the pen to the page. What scares us is that we sometimes find the answer to that question.

Eat well.



Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Paul!



You can find Paul here:





Friday, October 9, 2020

9 (and 1/2) Year Blogiversary!

 


Another year (and a half), another full menu of tasty reads! 

The bright side of this crazy CoVid year is that quarantining gave us lots of time to read. :)


These deliciously creative authors stopped by to share their food for thought:

Stuart Aken - Blood Red Dust

Adam S. Barnett - The Judas Goat

Gordon Bickerstaff - Deadly Secrets

Lisa Black - That Darkness

Elizabeth Blake - Pride, Prejudice & Poison

Sandra Bolton - Key Witness

Laurie Boris - The Kitchen Brigade

Linda Bradley - Maggie's Way

Teyla Branton - The Change

Angela Britnell - The Wedding Reject Table

L.M. Bryski - Blood Chill

Carole Bumpus - Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Books 1 and 2

Lucy Burdette - The Key Lime Crime

Jeri Cafesin - Disconnected

Yvette Calleiro - The One Discovered

Elaine Calloway - Windstorm

Julian Coleman - Cesar

Sue Coletta - Marred

Cheryl Colwell - The Proof

Brian Converse - Stone Soldiers

Doug Cooper - Bump Time

Carra Copelin - Katie and the Irish Texan

Marianne de Pierres - Burn Bright

Emily Deibler - Rabbit Heart

Lisa Doan - The Pennypackers Go On Vacation

Rebecca Enzor - Speak the Ocean

Janna Wong Healy - Let's Get Lost

Bo Kearns - Ashes in a Coconut

Eichin Chang Lim - The LoveLock

Emily Mah - Chasing Sunrise

Jessica Winters Mireles - Lost in Oaxaca

Luke Murphy - Rock-A-Bye Baby and Red Zone

Karen Pokras - Ava's Wishes

Rick Polad - Change of Address

Jan Ruth - Silver Rain

Elizabeth Schechter - The Rape of Persephone

Barbara Scoblic - Lost Without the River

T.L. Searle - Aquila

James Shipman - It Is Well

Angela Silverthorne - Cries of Mercy

Gina Tang - The Beijing Family

Jessica Tornese - Linked Through Time

Sweta Vikram - Louisiana Catch

Beem Weeks - Strange Hwy

June Winton - The Golden Horn

Louise Wise - Eden


Since I was fortunate enough  to have SO many delightful guests this year, I couldn’t squeeze in a single FoodFic musing of my own! However, below are some (I’m sure I’ve forgotten several) of the books I read over the past year that weren’t reviewed here at BWATE?

Eye of the God - Ariel Allison

The Darkest Minds, Never Fade, In the Afterlight, The Darkest Legacy - Alexandra Bracken

Eve, Once, Rise - Anna Carey

The Elite, The One, The Heir, The Crown - Kiera Cass

Dragon Teeth - Michael Crichton

The Passage - Justin Cronin

Into the Water - Paula Hawkins

Switch - Chip & Dan Heath

Memory of Water - Emmi Itaranta

The Water Cure - Sophie Mackintosh

Blossom Street Brides - Debbie Macomber

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

Filthy Rich - James Patterson

Queen for a Day - Maxine Rosaler

This Savage Song - Victoria Schwab

The Cast - Danielle Steel

Bedchamber Games - Tracy Ann Warren

The Girls at 17 Swann Street - Yara Zgheib


As always, please feel free to suggest some great reads for me in the coming year. :)

Friday, October 2, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Lisa Doan, Author of The Pennypackers Go On Vacation


When food expectations go up in flames…

We’ve all been there. The buffet that was supposed to be piled high with shrimp and all you find is a heap of mayonnaise sprinkled with slivers of celery and tiny shrimp that came out of a can. The barbecue that was going to deliver all manner of meats, but somehow the steak and chops have eloped into the forest and you’re left with the last burned hot dog and a bag of chips.  The dinner party where you suspect, based on the roast that has been roasted by way of meteor, that the hosts had a major fight in the kitchen shortly before you arrived. Even the picture of a Big Mac at the order window and the resulting dripping mess are a bait and switch.

Sometimes, it’s your own fault. I once ordered crab dip at an Irish pub. Should I have been surprised that it was a crockery swimming with freezer-burned crab floating in a sauce that I believe was Campbell’s Cream of Potato soup? No, so that’s on me. Often, though, it’s not your fault. You had reasonable expectations. Or at least optimistic expectations and who can blame you for that?

Charlie Pennypacker’s hopes are raised high when he goes on a Disney cruise with his family. He assumes, as a matter of course, there will be mountains of jumbo shrimp and endless orange soda. He is particularly interested in the shrimp as it is a delicacy that has never crossed the Pennypacker’s threshold. Mr. Pennypacker holds the opinion that “One shrimp is affordable, but you need six and that’s how they get you on the price.” Unfortunately, Mr. Pennypacker has been pinching pennies on more than shrimp and the cruise he booked is an illegal knockoff. Disney buffet is out, Wisney Cruises fine dining is in, and Charlie’s expectations are about to go up in flames.

The chef is not a real chef and, like most young men thrown into a kitchen, he has a limited repertoire. Fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, egg salad, egg casserole or maybe just eggs in a pan and let’s see how they come out. In one ambitious moment, he manages to pull off hotdogs. It looked dicey at first, but he eventually figured out you have to take off the plastic wrapper first.

Still, shouldn’t Charlie forget about the food and just enjoy the experience? Shouldn’t we all? Shouldn’t we don a devil-may-care attitude and say, “I don’t care that the crab dip is an affront to crabs everywhere. I don’t care that this crab died for nothing. I don’t care that I have to gnaw through the freezer-burn. I’m socializing with my friends!”

Maybe we should, but I’m still thinking about that wretched crab dip and Charlie is still thinking about why he hates eggs so much.


Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Lisa!



You can find Lisa here:

LisaDoan.org

Twitter @LisaADoan

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon