Okay, call me old-fashioned ...

... but I still like those old-fashioned foods, the kind the cafeteria cooks prepared back in the dark ages of my elementary school years. Forget wraps and sliders; these ladies in their bibbed aprons and hairnets rolled out comfort foods day after day.
Among my favorites was creamed rice with a rich topping of brown sugar. My mother never made it; neither did either of my grandmothers, so I relied on the school to feed my addiction.
Another food I've loved since childhood is tapioca pudding. My children, who don't share my affection for it, call it fish eye pudding, because of the translucent tapioca.
Don't care; not gonna stop me.
When I'm sick or down in the dumps, it's at the top of foods I long for. I'm also quite partial to cream of wheat when I'm ill, another food my children regard as coming directly from the pantry of Satan.
The kid in me is quite happy to feast on fish sticks and tater tots when I'm home alone and lazy. Stick 'em in the oven, transfer them to a paper plate and I'm good to go. My tummy's full and there are no dishes to wash except one cookie sheet.
I know some people celebrate with champagne or fine chocolates, but I much prefer those Chessman cookies from Pepperidge Farms to do the trick. In fact, I ate a whole package of them a week or so ago.
Upon completing the manuscript for Blood Oath, the last of my Shadow Ancient vampire series, I ate half the package with a very cold mug of milk.
And when I got my first print copies of Out of the Shadows, the first of the Shadow Ancients series, I ate the rest of them, this time with a cup of coffee flavored with hazelnut creamer.
All this talk about food is making me hungry. So if you'll pardon me, I'm off to the store to find myself a box of fish sticks and a bucket of tapioca pudding.

 Coming soon: Blood Oath, book four in the Shadow Ancient series
from Resplendence Publishing

Where did the decade go?

My wise grandmother warned me once that the older you get, the faster time goes. I understand now, since it seems like only yesterday I was greeting 2010 and now here we are, in the second decade of the 21st century.
I suppose I ought to make some resolutions. But we all know, don't we, that I'll never keep them. I fear I'm too impulsive for long-term change.
I am not, however, without discipline. That's good, since I have two books to finish for publication this year. The first is Blood Oath, the fourth in my Shadow Ancient series. I love my vampires, I really do, but I'm moving in a different direction with Claimed.
That one, which will come out in the second half of 2011, includes our mysterious Guardian Protective Services, better known as the agency. But the heroine is half-Valkerie, on the run with a jaded free agent for Guardian who connects himself to her with an ancient Sumarian binding spell.
2010 was a great year for me as a writer, but it was also pretty good personally. Despite last year's lack of resolutions, I managed to lose a little weight, I've whittled down my debts and managed to clean out a good chunk of the basement.
All in all, a pretty good year ... and I'm waiting in anticipation to see what the new year begins.