"Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression." Bronson Alcott
When writing fiction, it's okay to break a few rules. Unlike political incorrectness, grammatical incorrectness harms no one, and in general is more pleasing to the ear. A narrative should flow smoothly, not read like a research paper.
I'm not talking about poor grammar, unless your character comes from that background. Even then, don't go overboard with dialect. A little goes a long way. In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White say, "The best dialect writers...are economical of their talents, they use the minimum, not the maximum, of deviation from the norm, thus sparing the reader as well as convincing him."
What I'm referring to is all those prickly little rules we learned in grammar school, such as never end a sentence with a preposition, and never begin one with a conjunction.
"I can see him, up above," is more likely to be said in real life, instead of, "Up above, I can see him." And because of this, I'd rather end that sentence of dialogue with a preposition. But did you notice how I just started two sentences with conjunctions? If you've broken a writing rule, but it passes the natural speech test, you're pretty safe!
Remember, smooth flow and naturalistic dialogue keep the pages turning!
Have you broken any rules of writing lately?
Tweet me @: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
"Just a hunk, a hunk of burning love." From the song "Burning Love" (lyrics by Dennis Linde)
I know I've mentioned this more than once, but food is love, right? And nothing says love like chocolate!
Years ago, my mom was making a yummy dessert called hot fudge pudding cake. And this was long before I'd ever heard of hot or molten lava cake.
I believe this recipe comes from The Cincinnati Enquirer. It's easy and low fat, because unlike other lava cakes, it's not loaded with butter and whole eggs.
Make this "hunk of burning love" for someone you love this weekend! Enjoy!
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Cake
1 cup flour
2 t baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 cup skim milk
1 T canola oil
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Topping
4 T cocoa powder
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 3/4 hot water (heated, not boiling)
Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 inch square pan with cooking spray; set aside. For cake, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa. Stir in milk, oil and nuts; mix well. Spread in prepared pan.
For topping, combine cocoa and brown sugar. Sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over entire cake. Bake 45 minutes. Serve warm. Makes six servings.
What's your favorite chocolate dessert?
Tweet me @: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
I know I've mentioned this more than once, but food is love, right? And nothing says love like chocolate!
Years ago, my mom was making a yummy dessert called hot fudge pudding cake. And this was long before I'd ever heard of hot or molten lava cake.
I believe this recipe comes from The Cincinnati Enquirer. It's easy and low fat, because unlike other lava cakes, it's not loaded with butter and whole eggs.
Make this "hunk of burning love" for someone you love this weekend! Enjoy!
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Cake
1 cup flour
2 t baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 cup skim milk
1 T canola oil
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Topping
4 T cocoa powder
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 3/4 hot water (heated, not boiling)
Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 inch square pan with cooking spray; set aside. For cake, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa. Stir in milk, oil and nuts; mix well. Spread in prepared pan.
For topping, combine cocoa and brown sugar. Sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over entire cake. Bake 45 minutes. Serve warm. Makes six servings.
What's your favorite chocolate dessert?
Tweet me @: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Bite Sized Words of Wisdom
"To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice." From a Chinese Fortune Cookie
A perk of being a favored customer at our favorite Chinese restaurant is getting a ship load of fortune cookies with our take out orders. The owners have two boys about the same ages as mine, and they always play together whenever we stop in--hence all the cookies!
As we sat eating cookies the other night and listening to each other's fortunes, the kids didn't understand them. While I explained the meanings, I thought, "These are pretty cool--and some would even make good dialog!"
Nowadays, the fortunes aren't really fortunes, but more encouragement, inspiration or words of wisdom. Thought I'd share a few today as--"food for thought." If some are Chinese proverbs or quotes without proper credit given, I apologize. The only attribute I can make is "From a Chinese Fortune Cookie." Here are a few favorites:
Can you remember a favorite fortune from a fortune cookie?
Thanks for stopping by!
A perk of being a favored customer at our favorite Chinese restaurant is getting a ship load of fortune cookies with our take out orders. The owners have two boys about the same ages as mine, and they always play together whenever we stop in--hence all the cookies!
As we sat eating cookies the other night and listening to each other's fortunes, the kids didn't understand them. While I explained the meanings, I thought, "These are pretty cool--and some would even make good dialog!"
Nowadays, the fortunes aren't really fortunes, but more encouragement, inspiration or words of wisdom. Thought I'd share a few today as--"food for thought." If some are Chinese proverbs or quotes without proper credit given, I apologize. The only attribute I can make is "From a Chinese Fortune Cookie." Here are a few favorites:
- Excellence is the difference between what I do and what I am capable of.
- We must always have old memories and young hopes.
- Fortune favors the brave.
- There are many ways you can be hurtful, but only one way to heal. That is through love.
- Blessed is the man who has found his work.
- Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success.
- A faithful friend is a strong defense.
- For insight on quandary, turn to people with firsthand experience.
Can you remember a favorite fortune from a fortune cookie?
Thanks for stopping by!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Inside the Mind of a Murderer
"Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life." Daniel Webster
I recently read an excerpt from Michael Capuzzo's new book, The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases. The section I read (featured in the August issue of Reader's Digest) focused on a woman who murdered her live-in boyfriend after finding out he'd found a "decent girl" to bring home to mom and dad.
I thought the information provided would be useful to anyone developing a character who just happens to be a murderer.
The victim, 24 year old ladies man Scott Dunn, had moved from his well to do home in Philadelphia, to a small West Texas town in hopes of turning his troubled life around. But his real troubles began upon meeting waitress Leisha Hamilton.
A year after Scott's murder, his father, James Dunn, was put in contact with Profiler Richard Walter. By this time the unsolved murder had become a cold case.
Dunn explained the first time he heard from Leisha. She'd found his name on a phone bill and thought he needed to be contacted because Scott had been missing for four days and she was concerned. Dunn had never heard about her. The only girl Dunn knew anything about was Scott's soon to be fiance, Jessica. Leisha claimed Scott had vanished without a trace, only leaving behind his car. And she hinted in subsequent conversations that since she was closest to Scott, she should get his car. Hmm...
Dunn had recorded Leisha's cold, atonal voice, and played it for Walter, saying he'd never heard anything like it. After Scott's disappearance, police regarded it as a missing person's case. Dunn pushed for a luminol test in Scott and Leisha's apartment. Luminol detects blood as diluted at one part per million. Even after rigorous cleaning, when the chemical is sprayed on walls in darkness, they'll glow blue for 30 seconds. The walls in the apartment glowed blue like they'd been spray painted. DNA tests confirmed the blood as Scott's.
According to Profiler Walter, "the careful cleanup speaks to an elaborate plot. The murder was purposeful, not recreational." Recreational is choosing a random victim for sadistic pleasure. But a carefully organized crime, cleanup, and body disposal indicate a power assertive, or PA killer. "The killing is all about power--incapture, restrain, torture, kill, throw away, 'I win, you lose' kind of power."
Upon examining Leisha's personality, Walter found her very bright, sexy, flippant and manipulative. She had a long list of lovers, husbands, and one night stands, as well as five children--all by different fathers. She claimed only to love the ones conceived in love. Hmm...
The end for Scott came the day Jessica called and Leisha answered the phone. Walter says, "If anything is going to get you killed, it's to reject the psychopath and say, 'I'm better than you are.'"
Before Scott disappeared, he was seen sick, leaving a party with Leisha. Walter believes at that point, Scott was poisoned. He speculates that Leisha then called on neighbor Tim Smith to help murder Scott. Smith had sent Leisha fawning love letters saying that if Scott weren't around, they could be together.
Walter says this is classic setup for a female PA killer. She'll enlist trickery to disable a stronger male and/or acquire a sympathetic and weak accomplice.
But calling attention to herself was Leisha's biggest mistake. She called Scott's father. She also played the coquette with detectives on the case calling them with new information and pretending to be afraid of Smith. But she moved in with Smith in order to set him up to take the fall. Walter says, "The need for stimulation is quite insatiable for a psychopath, the ego gratification to prove they're smarter than anyone, the gotcha."
In a later meeting with Leisha, Walter says, "I've noticed you seem to have a great ability to attract men...But for the life of me, I can't figure out what they see in you. Can you explain it for me?" After a startled silence, she smiled and said awkwardly, "Well, I don't know," then excused herself to get back to work.
When a detective with Walter asked why he called her a dog, he said, "Leisha thinks she is smart enough to outwit everybody. What we must do is make her feel insignificant--unimportant. This will drive her crazy, and she may well make a mistake."
Walter later received from a detective a pencil sketch by Leisha of the murder scene. The drawing had been given to the detective by an ex-boyfriend she took up with after Scott. The drawing documented the torture of Scott Dunn. It indicated that she'd chained him to a pallet. At the bottom of the picture was a key depicting handcuffs, a needle, a knife and a gun. Also shown were fists and a blunt instrument.
"This is classic," Walter said. "She drew this to memorialize her achievement." She'd also made other dramatic changes classic to post murder behavior. Walter says killers use murder to to stimulate personal growth. "It was a very dark self-help movement--'I'm Okay, You're Dead." Since the murder, she'd moved on to two more boyfriends and had a child by the last one. She'd also gone to nursing school, while continuing to work as a waitress, and graduated at the top of her class.
Walter says,"If you're accused of being a murderess, how do you cleanse yourself of all suspicion? You become a healer and dress in white."
Leisha was eventually convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Phew! One less murderer roaming the streets.
Hope this information is useful in any future fictional character development you're working on. And be sure to read Capuzzo's book! I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing. How about you? Do you have a true crime work you'd like to recommend?
Follow me on Twitter@: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
I recently read an excerpt from Michael Capuzzo's new book, The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases. The section I read (featured in the August issue of Reader's Digest) focused on a woman who murdered her live-in boyfriend after finding out he'd found a "decent girl" to bring home to mom and dad.
I thought the information provided would be useful to anyone developing a character who just happens to be a murderer.
The victim, 24 year old ladies man Scott Dunn, had moved from his well to do home in Philadelphia, to a small West Texas town in hopes of turning his troubled life around. But his real troubles began upon meeting waitress Leisha Hamilton.
A year after Scott's murder, his father, James Dunn, was put in contact with Profiler Richard Walter. By this time the unsolved murder had become a cold case.
Dunn explained the first time he heard from Leisha. She'd found his name on a phone bill and thought he needed to be contacted because Scott had been missing for four days and she was concerned. Dunn had never heard about her. The only girl Dunn knew anything about was Scott's soon to be fiance, Jessica. Leisha claimed Scott had vanished without a trace, only leaving behind his car. And she hinted in subsequent conversations that since she was closest to Scott, she should get his car. Hmm...
Dunn had recorded Leisha's cold, atonal voice, and played it for Walter, saying he'd never heard anything like it. After Scott's disappearance, police regarded it as a missing person's case. Dunn pushed for a luminol test in Scott and Leisha's apartment. Luminol detects blood as diluted at one part per million. Even after rigorous cleaning, when the chemical is sprayed on walls in darkness, they'll glow blue for 30 seconds. The walls in the apartment glowed blue like they'd been spray painted. DNA tests confirmed the blood as Scott's.
According to Profiler Walter, "the careful cleanup speaks to an elaborate plot. The murder was purposeful, not recreational." Recreational is choosing a random victim for sadistic pleasure. But a carefully organized crime, cleanup, and body disposal indicate a power assertive, or PA killer. "The killing is all about power--incapture, restrain, torture, kill, throw away, 'I win, you lose' kind of power."
Upon examining Leisha's personality, Walter found her very bright, sexy, flippant and manipulative. She had a long list of lovers, husbands, and one night stands, as well as five children--all by different fathers. She claimed only to love the ones conceived in love. Hmm...
The end for Scott came the day Jessica called and Leisha answered the phone. Walter says, "If anything is going to get you killed, it's to reject the psychopath and say, 'I'm better than you are.'"
Before Scott disappeared, he was seen sick, leaving a party with Leisha. Walter believes at that point, Scott was poisoned. He speculates that Leisha then called on neighbor Tim Smith to help murder Scott. Smith had sent Leisha fawning love letters saying that if Scott weren't around, they could be together.
Walter says this is classic setup for a female PA killer. She'll enlist trickery to disable a stronger male and/or acquire a sympathetic and weak accomplice.
But calling attention to herself was Leisha's biggest mistake. She called Scott's father. She also played the coquette with detectives on the case calling them with new information and pretending to be afraid of Smith. But she moved in with Smith in order to set him up to take the fall. Walter says, "The need for stimulation is quite insatiable for a psychopath, the ego gratification to prove they're smarter than anyone, the gotcha."
In a later meeting with Leisha, Walter says, "I've noticed you seem to have a great ability to attract men...But for the life of me, I can't figure out what they see in you. Can you explain it for me?" After a startled silence, she smiled and said awkwardly, "Well, I don't know," then excused herself to get back to work.
When a detective with Walter asked why he called her a dog, he said, "Leisha thinks she is smart enough to outwit everybody. What we must do is make her feel insignificant--unimportant. This will drive her crazy, and she may well make a mistake."
Walter later received from a detective a pencil sketch by Leisha of the murder scene. The drawing had been given to the detective by an ex-boyfriend she took up with after Scott. The drawing documented the torture of Scott Dunn. It indicated that she'd chained him to a pallet. At the bottom of the picture was a key depicting handcuffs, a needle, a knife and a gun. Also shown were fists and a blunt instrument.
"This is classic," Walter said. "She drew this to memorialize her achievement." She'd also made other dramatic changes classic to post murder behavior. Walter says killers use murder to to stimulate personal growth. "It was a very dark self-help movement--'I'm Okay, You're Dead." Since the murder, she'd moved on to two more boyfriends and had a child by the last one. She'd also gone to nursing school, while continuing to work as a waitress, and graduated at the top of her class.
Walter says,"If you're accused of being a murderess, how do you cleanse yourself of all suspicion? You become a healer and dress in white."
Leisha was eventually convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Phew! One less murderer roaming the streets.
Hope this information is useful in any future fictional character development you're working on. And be sure to read Capuzzo's book! I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing. How about you? Do you have a true crime work you'd like to recommend?
Follow me on Twitter@: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Slimmed Down Spinach Quiche
"Real men don't eat quiche." Bruce Feirstein
I disagree with that statement, because there are a lot of sexy French guys that do. And my husband, a pretty hot looking, manly Scotsman does, too!
Quiche is a great main dish, since it's quick, simple and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's also easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive.
As with any pie, the crust has the most fat and calories. My recipe is crustless. And with a pudding (egg and milk) based pie, whole eggs, heavy cream and butter can add a few inches to your waist line, as well! None of that found here.
Hope you enjoy this recipe. Serve it to a real man. And if you are a real man, make it for yourself!
Slimmed Down Spinach Quiche
2 8 oz. packs frozen spinach
1 medium onion chopped
12 egg whites
1 12 oz. can fat free evaporated milk
1 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cayenne
1 cup 2% cheddar cheese
2 T flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x12 inch Pyrex dish with cooking spray; coat with flour and set aside. Thaw spinach in microwave, then saute with onions.
In a large bowl combine egg whites, evaporated milk, salt, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. In a small bowl, mix cheese with flour, then add to egg mixture; whisk together. Add spinach to egg mixture and mix well.
Pour quiche into prepared dish and bake for 40-45 minutes. Makes six servings.
What's your favorite quiche?
Follow me on Twitter @: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
I disagree with that statement, because there are a lot of sexy French guys that do. And my husband, a pretty hot looking, manly Scotsman does, too!
Quiche is a great main dish, since it's quick, simple and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's also easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive.
As with any pie, the crust has the most fat and calories. My recipe is crustless. And with a pudding (egg and milk) based pie, whole eggs, heavy cream and butter can add a few inches to your waist line, as well! None of that found here.
Hope you enjoy this recipe. Serve it to a real man. And if you are a real man, make it for yourself!
Slimmed Down Spinach Quiche
2 8 oz. packs frozen spinach
1 medium onion chopped
12 egg whites
1 12 oz. can fat free evaporated milk
1 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cayenne
1 cup 2% cheddar cheese
2 T flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x12 inch Pyrex dish with cooking spray; coat with flour and set aside. Thaw spinach in microwave, then saute with onions.
In a large bowl combine egg whites, evaporated milk, salt, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. In a small bowl, mix cheese with flour, then add to egg mixture; whisk together. Add spinach to egg mixture and mix well.
Pour quiche into prepared dish and bake for 40-45 minutes. Makes six servings.
What's your favorite quiche?
Follow me on Twitter @: maria_mckenzie. Thanks for stopping by!
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