Open Thursdays!

Every week on this blog, Thursday will be Open Thursday, a day for welcoming guest bloggers and interviews, posting videos, tackling freestyle topics, sharing tips and tricks of the trade, finding cool websites, reviewing books, editorializing, etc. Contact me for more info if you'd like to contribute to Open Thursdays. For next week, I hope I already have an interview lined up.

To kick off Open Thursdays, I will share my trailer for Strings Attached:

Launch of Topical Tuesdays!

Starting next week, Tuesdays here will be dubbed Topical Tuesdays, when I hope to present a topic, and have other authors and book folk weigh in with their views. I will be bumming comments off other authors throughout the week, but would love to have you contact me if you have an opinion!

Next week: Balancing Writing and Motherhood

Meatless Monday!

I wanted to depart from writing for one day a week on this blog, and since food/cooking is a huge deal for moms, it seemed natural for me to do a recipe day. Now, I am not the fanciest cook on the block, being busy and under a fairly tight budget, but I do manage to crank out three nutritious meals a day, as well as at least two satisfying snack times. So, it seemed this was my best option.

Introducing my new feature: Meatless Mondays!

Meatless Monday has a long history, being first rooted in the war effort during the first World War, a time when people were encouraged to conserve resources at home to supply the front with basic needs. Now, organizations have taken this idea back up, promoting the adoption of "Meatless Monday" in all homes in order to improve health and help relieve the planet of the massive drain represented by our modern meat intakes.

I'm not a vegan, but I am a vegetarian all week long, and on Mondays I do try to avoid animal products in spirit with this ideal. Veggies and grains are, in short, easier on the planet to produce and more economical for feeding large populations.

So, on Mondays, I will try to give simple, tasty and easy veggie meal ideas. They will not always be vegan, but I will try to keep them veggie-heavy. So, if you are a vegan, vegetarian or a meat-lover who just wants to get more variety, I hope you will enjoy this feature - and feel welcome to contribute!

Starting off very simple this week with a staple of veggie dietary planning, Hummus, a necessity for most non-meat eaters due to its ease, low cost, protein/fibre richness and wonderful taste:

2 cans drained canned chick peas, or equiv in soaked dried peas

water as needed

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon olive oil

parsley

Optional: Black pepper, diced red pepper, tahini.

Place your chick peas in a blender or food processor with the lemon juice and oil. Add seasonings gradually, continue blending. If the mixture gets too dry, add water and extra oil. (You can use the water from the can of chick peas, but this adds extra sodium.) When smooth, pour into bowl. Add parsley to the top as a garnish. Refrigerate covered. Serve with pita, pita chips, or a veggie platter. Also delightful as a spread for sandwiches.

Your Participation is Needed!

ATTENTION!

This blog will be open to readers/writers/publishers/sellers/etc. for the following features:

• Submissions for Meatless Monday recipes.
• Quotes, opinions or even editorials on various issues for Topical Tuesdays. Contact me, if I don't contact you first!
• Suggestions or requests to be interviewed/reviewed, or to guest blog, or just rant about something, on Open Thursdays.
• Emailed synopsis or trailers, etc, for Free Friday promo days - no limit to these, and will be posted the week I receive them.
• Special Release Celebration or taking a guest shot on Excerpt Sundays - this will currently be exclusive to my fellow WHP authors, for the time being.

Anything else you got, feel free to contact me.

This is, naturally, free, and open to more than just authors - I'd love to hear from publishers, PR folk, editors, readers, book sellers, book club folk, cover artists, and others. Just contact me! Of course, you will get full credit, a line or two about yourself, and whatever links you wish.

Hey, it's a free shot to get some PR - though this blog is small now, I have hopes it will grow.

I am sure it will, with your help!

How to contact me:

• Through Facebook (friend me!)
• Through my website
• Via comments, below

Or email me at anneholly2010ATgmailDOTcom!

I hope to hear from you very soon.

FYI! My NEW Blogging Schedule!

I've decided to work out a regular schedule for this blog, so I know what's happening.

So, watch for these features, which I hope you'll enjoy! If you'd like to take part, I'm very easy to find on FaceBook or on my website, and I'd love to hear from you.

How the week will look, in addition to any little "coffee break" ponderings that might come up throughout (especially when I feel an urge to procrastinate):

Excerpt Sundays - Short bit of my writing on my FB page. (Might not be every week, but at least once a month.)

Meatless Mondays - Vegetarian recipes or home tips. (Submissions welcome.)

Topical Tuesdays - Pick a topic every week and I will ask writers to speak up on it. Contact me for more info!

Writing Wednesdays - All about my writing and publishing journey. .

Open Thursdays - Guest Bloggers, videos, freestyle topics, tips, cool websites, reviews, editorials, interviews, opinions, etc. Contact me for more info!

Free Fridays - Free self-promotion for other authors and various book folks, or myself should I have no volunteers. Contact me for more info!

Personal Saturdays - Day off or short snippets of my life as a mom and writer.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Releases will take priority when they happen! (TBA)

Holidays, etc., may be excepted.

Progress...

I decided to put a WIP ("work in progress") progress box on the blog - see sidebar to the left.

This addition is so I can be better motivated to make steady progress, instead of slacking off or fiddling with designs for the future when I have current works that need my efforts and attention. I got the idea from one of my favourite new blogs, Heroines with Hearts.

So, the long and the short of it is that this past month has been a wash in terms of actual words accumulated, and I really need to hustle to get these things done.

This progress box shames me. Time to get to work, so I can enjoy watching those numbers climb... and start slapping DONE on them!

Excerpt Sundays!

Hi folks! New feature alert!

On Sundays, I will be giving a sneak peek of something I have written on my FB fan page.

Starting today!

Come on over to see some sizzle from Strings Attached!