Some advice for Friday and two contests

Taking advice–always a good idea, esp when it is good advice!

A group I belong to on mystery writing posted this link to good advice from a former cop on setting up crime scenes in your stories–hey, it’s a fellow blogger on wordpress!

Nice article by a former cop on Crime Scenes: The Do’s And Don’ts.

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/crime-scenes-the-dos-and-donts/

 

Contest

Sleuths’ Ink presents “WHODUNNIT?” Put on your Colombo trench coat and
write a 700-word mystery. Prizes. http://tinyurl.com/bfd59us Deadline is approaching.
Entries must be received before May 31st to be eligible for prizes.

Who’s thinking about Halloween in May? I am! I need submissions.

http://www.mysteryandhorrorllc.com/submissions.html

(scroll
down to see description and boss cover)

We’re publishing an anthology of
mystery stories set during Halloween, MY “most wonderful time of the year”.
Paranormal elements are acceptable as long as they are in keeping with the
Halloween theme and the central story is a mystery. We’re seeking stories that
are 4000 – 8000 words in length. Query about reprints. We will accept multiple
submissions, but not simultaneous submissions.

Open submission period:
April 20 – July 15th, 2013.

Please see our Guidelines and Payment page
for further information on the rights we ask for and the compensation we offer.
The latter includes a $5 advance on royalties.

http://www.mysteryandhorrorllc.com/guidelines-and-payment.html

Thanks
for your time,

Sarah E. Glenn

Spaccatelli

You may bring home scarves and ceramics–ok, so did I, from your trip to Italy but I also came home with three packages of pasta–all cuts that are difficult and in one case impossible to find here.

Trofie are available in specialty stores as is squid ink pasta. I bought these in specialty stores. But it is the package (I kilo large) we got from a grocery store that excites me most-spaccatelli–a cut bucatelli pasta, not just cut short, but slit down the middle, A die cut pasta, this shape holds the sauce in a whole new way. Tried it at Cin Cin, a great restaurant in Palermo and hunted for it all over until another person on our trip found it in a grocery store for me. It’s made by Proia,a Sicilian pasta maker. Saw their plant outside of Catania on our way to the airport. My pictures and this pasta are my fave recordi from this trip, by far. Pic will follow.

PS Cin Cin is a GREAT place to dine

 

Review of Book on edible flowers

Review of Book on edible flowers

Review of cookbook ‘Flowers on the Table’

The idea of flowers on the plate as edibles is not a new one but it is gaining momentum in the foodie community. 

Monday, May  6, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/search_results?q=joan+leotta#storylink=cpy

Travel

Travel.

Travel

Hi! We are back from a family vacation. That’s why I didn’t post–due to some unforeseen problems, I was without internet most of the time. Many of you are planning a family vacations right now. I urge you to include the children in the process of deciding location, what to do and when to go. All of this makes the time together much more fun. Our daughter suggested this trip to Sicily. We were happy to make the trip to watch her discover that part of her heritage. My sister-in-law came along–Jennie’s godmother–making it even more of a family occasion. We ate a lot of gelato, a lot of pasta, a lot of fish, many pastries and did a lot of walking. Wonderful!!!! Hope your trip goes as well and that when your children are adults they will still want to be with you when they relax at the beach, in the mountains, on a cruise or abroad.

See my upcoming food blogs for more information on what we ate! (Wednesdays)

Renovations–Need your help

Hi! We’re doing some household renovations and I will be offline for a while and off the blog for a longer. I’d like to make good use of this time for writing and posting as well as for having the joy of a lighter load in the house (we will use the renovation as a time to clear out things as well as put in the new. I’m not asking you to come and clean out the house or help lay the new floors. What I’d like is for you to use the comment section to tell me what you would like to see in Family Creativity, Food posts and writing and performing posts. Do you want to guest? Let me know. When I start up again, I’ll try to fill your wish lists as best I can. The purpose of my blog is to serve you while putting forth my ideas and books. How can I deepen our relationship and broaden the appeal and utility (to others) of the blog? Thanks. 

Why for children?

Because what we do for them is timeless.

Why I perform for children–a FB friend asked this and I gave a short answer, but the feedback on our Easter Puppet show is a much better illustration.’ Our church, Faith Presbyterian in Myrtle Beach, put on a puppet show. I wrote it and helped , two other members helped with puppets, yet another person dressed the puppets, The show stuck pretty close to the scripture story of Easter. Easter is over, but the show goes on–one of the women filmed it on her iphone and now the show is posted on the page. A former member in another city just commented to say her three year old has watched it three times and loves it. So, Easter bunnies and  chocolate are gone but the Truth marches on into the hearts of little ones, even after The Day. Humbling and reminds me how important is the work we do for little ones.