These are so easy, and taste THE BEST when they are fresh out the oven. I bet you've got all the ingredients needed in your cupboard too. 

Try it now!

Warning: This are VERY moreish!

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist - today's post was from New Zealand!

I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Flight Behaviour', and I struck a real gem among her words last night, cuddled up in bed. The protagonist, at this point, is going out to check a scientific instrument, showing dedication and interest in a project she never dreamed she'd be working on, right in her backyard (page 323). It's pouring with rain and yo-yoing between 30-40 degrees Farenheit (it's an American book). 

Doesn't it make you shiver? I can remember mornings like that...

It's good writing for empathy and atmosphere, but the real reason I wanted to share this masterful (part) sentence was to showcase the skills Kingsolver has for 'show, don't tell'. The idea of this tool for writing is to create texts which enable the reader to tune into the story through action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings of the characters involved, rather than through description.

Why is 'show, don't tell' so important? It's essential to good writing, and something I try to achieve on every page I write. The writer is hinting at a subtext, in this case, the personal description and character of the protagonist. She is clearly someone who needs to wear glasses (or perhaps chooses to - but in this case, most people would leave their specs at home if it was raining, should they not require them for more than a fashion statement!), who owns a decent outdoor weather-ready coat, and the character needs to be able to see clearly for the task she's about to undertake. The creative writing leaves it unsaid, unshown, yet obvious about what the character looks like in a basic form. You can get all of that from one little sentence about a waterproof hood. 

The old adage 'show, don't tell' is so important to writing it's now included in Key Stage 2 English classes in English schools. Bravo!

Anton Chekov put it brilliantly:

​However, 'show, don't tell' should be implemented with some caution. According to writer James Scott Bell, "Sometimes a writer tells as a shortcut, to move quickly to the meaty part of the story or scene. Showing is essentially about making scenes vivid. If you try to do it constantly, the parts that are supposed to stand out won't, and your readers will get exhausted." In other words, use with restraint! Joshua Henkin also agrees. The object of the work is to find a perfect balance between a deep, vivid picture conjured in the readers mind, and allowing them to fill in the blanks themselves.

Over half way through the (thick) book, I'm not enamored with 'Flight Behaviour'. Yet, page by page, I notice examples of fantastic writing I hope to emulate one day. And that's reading, not critiquing. I'm reading as a reader, not as a writer (for fun!), but hopefully some of the better examples of writing are drip feeding into my consciousness, day by day making me an improved writer.

Check out these quick and dirty tips on showing, not telling from Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty - well worth the read.

I'd love to hear if you've been struck by a specific sentence or two while reading. What has the text spoken to you?

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist - this week, tips for perfect holiday snaps!

No, there's no elephant seal meat inside these, you'll be glad to hear. I think they're hideous animals, violent, selfish creatures, and ugly at that - just like this pie! 

I had some shortcrust pastry to use up from my sweet potato pie baked for Halloween, so I lined four muffin tins with the leftovers. Then I finely sliced ham, dropped it into the bottom of the pie case, and covered it with scrambled egg mixture. They took about 30 minutes to bake at 180 degrees, and created some fantastically uneven (ugly!) elephant seal like pies. They tasted amazing, but they're not something I'd make for company!

Have you ever created something new and ugly, yet tasty?

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist

This is a poem I wrote a while back, some therapeutic reflecting - always helps! Does anyone else write through boredom or through difficult times? (Of course, I write this in my own time!)
​

---------

​Time is going backwards
It’s the time of day
I ponder what’s for dinner
And wonder what to say.
 
“How’s your day been, baby?”
The question that I dread.
It’s nice to be asked, very polite
But a grumpy answer’s in my head.
 
I hate that I’m bored stupid
And I’m one for feeling guilty
When I’m not working for my cash
And filling time with tea.
 
It makes it hard to leave the house
Always something to do there
I could be cleaning, baking, reading, cooking,
Do anything I care.
 
Staring at bogus spreadsheets
And looking forward to lunch
Trying to look occupied
Colleagues a busy bunch.
 
I feel like I’m praying
For an email to pop in
Something to action, something to do
And my day could begin.
 
My talents are skills are wasted
In this dead end role
But where do I want to move to?
How do I leave this hole?
 
Keep looking, keep seeking
A better job’s out there.
And when one day I’m happier
I’ll have an answer to share.

​------------
​

If you like what you're reading, why not check out some more of my writing here on Miss Write?

See you again soon!

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist

To say ‘so shoot me’ seems a little inappropriate, but that’s how I felt this weekend when a friend of mine (let’s call her ‘L’) told me she’d been told by a ‘mate’ that her inaction on changing her Facebook profile picture to a French flag was ‘offensive’.
 
I too haven’t changed my Facebook profile picture to the watermarked French flag. 
 
The reasons I haven’t changed my picture to the red, white and blue in support of Paris and the French after the atrocities, sadness and horror over the last few days is because I refuse to be a part of a minute symbol going viral over social media. Of course I feel angry, scared, horrified, sad following the events of the Paris attack, but I refuse to jump on the band wagon here. Many won’t know Beirut (Yemen) and Baghdad (Iraq) also suffered Isis attacks in the same 24 hours. Where are those two flags on Facebook?
 
There’s been 289 terror attacks so far in 2015. Given 16th November is the 320th day in the year, that’s pretty astounding.Sure, some of them happen on the same day, but that’s still not far off one a day in the world.
 
Where are the Facebook flags for the other countries hit by similar horrors?
 
My point is, as you can hopefully gather, that similar events of terror happen around the world almost every day, yet why do we give special attention to the Paris attack? Yes, France is our next door neighbour. Yes, the attacks are creeping into western nations, not just restricted to ‘dangerous lands’, but this has been happening for decades now, I think it’s fair to say. My awareness of terrorism started on September 11th 2001, news coming in from New York city and Washington.
 
But why the media storm and public support for this one? Perhaps it’s because of the British links. We’re more than just neighbours, with 0.8% of the Parisen population being British (17,500 people). There’s been no census taken in Lebanon (capital being Beirut) since 1932, so this kind of data is just not available, but my assumption would be there’s far fewer British people living there. Same goes for Baghdad – I can only find stats for British Iraqis living here, or troops in Baghdad, but no population numbers of British people living there.
 
Maybe that’s the secret: France features strongly on our radar for jobs, second homes, holidays, politics.... From an early age we’re aware of France. History education when I was at school focused strongly on the Allies in the two world wars and the royal family tree, with French ancestry. My school also taught French to all students from the age of 11-16. And how many British people haven’t visited France? Myself, I’ve been to Nantes (French exchange at school), skirted in and around Calais and the surrounding villages (booze cruise), I’ve spent at least three family holidays in and around Frejus, I’ve driven through it on a road trip to Rome, and spent a weekend in Paris with a friend. There’s probably more occasions, but memory fails.
 
Should the fact France is our close neighbour be the reason why we bowed our heads this morning, and leave other nations, like Iraq and Yemen, ignored? The close relationship link does make sense why we may be more supportive to the French, but then why would USA-owned and Latin America dominated Facebook choose France to support so openly over all the nations under the force of terror? No one created a widget for the Yemen flag this week.
 
The two minutes silence today held across Europe was, of course, respectful and supportive. After all, why shouldn’t we show our respect for those who died and support for those who live on? We did the same for the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris in January.  
 
Perhaps it’s the sheer numbers of casualties involved that we feel so connected and shocked? It’s obvious the attacks with bigger impacts will make more of a global media impact.
 
Here are the terror attacked in 2015 (so far) which, as in Paris, killed over 100 people each time:
 
137 people were killed in Yemen’s Sana’a mosque on 7th March
25th June: 148 people died in Syria in a massacre involving car bombs on the Turkish border
In July, 145 people died in a shooting in a Nigerian market place
It’s estimated that 100-180 people were killed in July’s car bombs in Iraq
In Turkey itself, 102 people were killed in Ankara in October, 508 injured, when suicide bombers decided to destroy a peace rally.
 
There’s similar numbers of dead involved in all cases, and it makes it no less horrifying when the attacks happen somewhere most Europeans probably won’t ever set foot in (with the exception of Egypt), and most know nothing about the atrocities.
 
Perhaps terror is accepted as inevitable in these countries? How awful. Just because France is deemed safer than many parts of Asia or Africa or compared to the Arab nations… but those innocents affected by the violence won’t care about that. That’s their town, their country, their family. The one glimmer of hope is that the Egyptian plane bombed last month, killing 224 people, was in the news for weeks, and there were no British people on board for national morbid interest. However, although Egypt is not seen as a particularly ‘safe, western area’, we as a nation have been happy to holiday there. The incident being a bombed flight was also bound to produce more media attention than a terrestrial attack. So that’s why. Horrendous. Still no Egyptian flags on Facebook.
 
I wonder if Syrian, Yemen, Turkish, Nigerian, Iraqi nationals posted their flag on Facebook in solidarity? I don’t have any Facebook friends from these countries, but it sure didn’t make the viral waves the French flag did. (PS. Wonder what Syrians are posting and searching for on Facebook?)
 
It’s all politics. That’s what sucks. Often devoid of human traits, politics is a powerful thing. Egalite, fraternite et liberte, indeed. However, I am no politician. I am a member of no political organisation, but I try to keep up with world events. I don’t watch the news, preferring to get snippets when I choose instead of being bombarded constantly with negative stories.

So, what was ‘L’s’ response to her offended friend on Facebook? “If you’re offended, that’s your problem”, she argued, and pointed out that L’s profile picture is too small to host all the flags of terrorist tormented nations and peoples. Well said. I, like ‘L’, would rather reflect in private, and pray on a wider scale. Pray for the world. 

​I’m a caring, thoughtful, sympathetic person and I don’t need to colour my photo to prove it. I choose to pray for the world and I don't believe it's all French. No offense.

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist

P.S. What's worse that posting the flag as a watermark on your face - and I won't go on about this for long, I promise - is when people have posted pictures of them on holiday in Paris, perhaps under the Eiffel Tower. So what, you've been? Show off. 

Tomorrow, I’m off to my first writing course since… ooh, 2010? A whole day dedicated to writing and learning more craft. I’m excited, and very grateful – it was my present for our first wedding anniversary from El Husbandio, back in August. I’m so thankful he’s supportive of my writing, and I can’t wait to meet some new like-minded faces.
 
So what do I hope to gain from this course? It’s entitled “Tools for Fiction Writing” with Louise Green, and, quote, aims to “help you start, improve and develop your stories by looking at some of the key elements in any fiction writing such as plot, character and form.” Last time I went on a course (Winchester – highly recommended!) I learned a lot about structure in writing 60,000+ word stories, which I’ve managed to capitalise a little on for my current work in progress. This time, I hope I can learn skills so I can reach that 60,000 word count goal and get past the 35,000-40,000 brick wall I crash into. This book has legs for a marathon, but it’s slowed to a crawl.
 
In comparison to my writing from 2010, I believe I’ve grown. I’m working on including more emotion in this work, trying to really touch the reader, and I have a lot more experience with a wider audience, having blogged for various new websites this and last year. My portfolio has expanded, adding the ‘bake’ aspect to this Miss Write blog, and I’ve grown in my own personal experience too. This all, surely helps in improving my writing skills. Meeting new writers also helps me by inspiring work and enthusiasms, so I can't fail tomorrow - even if I'm surrounded by anal academics and proffering poets!
 
I know this course, even if there’s no specific gems I leave with, will encourage me and give me the boost I need going into a winter of writing. I haven’t been as dedicated as I should have been in re-starting the penning of my second book, since pledging a re-visit to the script back in August. You know, a two week holiday, a full-time job, buying a house and moving twice has its distractions!
 
So, tomorrow, look out Bristol University. I am reminding myself of my WIP tonight – it’s only 20 pages at the moment, so that’s no challenge. I’ll be writing like a beast, hopefully, through November – my own scaled down, more sociable, gentler version of NaNoWriMo.
 
Pens at the ready, I’m ready to write!
 
Lou x
 
Find me on Facebook
…and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist

I don't have any kids (yet), so I can't really trick or treat, but I'm a big fan of Halloween all the same. Here's how you Halloween with no one under 20 years old...

​After all the lead up, here's how my Halloween went down. Like a bat out of hell, if raced past, even with a bed time of 1.30am! We had soooo many trick or treaters - love it - the food was a success, and everyone got in the spirit/booze. Check it out!

Feeding Frenzy

I made 'dragon's blood' cocktail (sangria, essentially) and non-alcoholic bat's piss (a jug of lemonade) for the t-totals. 'Wink Murder' made an appearance once the food had been devoured. Halloween themed tunes were playing all night - just google 'devil' songs!

That's how you Halloween like an adult. 

Lou x

Find me on Facebook
...and on Twitter
Born to be a Tourist