Eating in Paradise

I never knew much about Acadia, Nova Scotia, no more than that Longfellow's mawkishly sentimental poem Evangeline was set there because it says so right in the poem.  And, to be honest, I never really read much of the poem.  While we were driving the Cabot Trail, I downloaded it (oh, I LOVE my Kindle) and figured I'd have it read by the time we got to Grand Pre where the Canadian National Park commemorates the forced evacuation of the Acadians.  (Lousiana - Acadians - cajins:  oh, I learned so much on this trip! But I'm not spoon-feeding you; go look it up yourself.) Who  isn't familiar with Evangeline’s opening lines:

     This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in
     garments green, indistinct in the twilight. . . .
Sounds familiar now, doesn't it?

     Then Evangeline lighted the brazen lamp on the table, Filled, till it overflowed, the pewter tandark with
     home-brewed Nut-brown ale, that was famed for its strength in the village of Grand-Pre. . . .
There are orchards and corn fields, flax grows and fish are plucked, chest high, from the fishing weir.
It all gains flavor (heh, heh) when you're reading it while breakfasting on Strawberry Croissant French toast at the English Garden B&B in Indian Brook.

When he sees her, Evangeline's true love Gabriel, "knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the knocker of iron." My heart beat pretty loudly at a little restaurant outside Halifax where I ate seafood chowder in a broth so clear that you can't imagine how it holds all the flavor.

In Acadia (originally a translation of Arcadia, meaning paradise),
     Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine, Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and
     purple amorphas. Over them wandered the buffalo herds, and the elk and the roebuck; Over them
    wandered the wolves, and herds of riderless horses. . . .

It must have been a magnificent countryside indeed that can still produce the dinner I had at the Blomidon Inn In Wolfeville:
     Lobster chowder with the meat of two lobster claws floating in cream.
     Halibut caught five minutes before being poached in lobster broth with more lumps of lobster dotting its
     skin.
     A waffle with a large (FINALLY, someone realizes the inportance of a serving of ice cream sizeable
     enough to have some with every bite of its accompanyment), drizzled with raspberry sauce and smeared
     with chocolate ganache.

I can shed a tear when I read,
     Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow, Side by side, in their nameless graves, the
     lovers are sleeping.

     List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of
     the happy.
Mournful and happy.  *sigh*  I'll no longer be eating
sweet beet risoto (Restaurant Le Caveau at the Grand Pre wintery)
or
seafood fritters, crisp on the outside and meltingly delicious on the inside (same place)
or
lobster salad that must have contained an entire lobster on a fresh roll (Grand Banker in Lunenburg).

No more scallops sauted to a caramelized crunch (Anapolis Royal, little German restaurant, not the one by the amazing Historic Gardens, but the one waaay down the street).  Won't be able to sneak a sweet (oh, so sweet) apple off the tree at the National Park in Grand Pre. 
Who loves Acadia now, eh?

The Cozy Author's Den

It’s been a bit over three months since I uploaded by baby, my darling, my little poochie-coo onto the Kindle site, and a bit less than three months since I’ve tried to learn the ropes of marketing that ethereal object, an e-book. With my total lack of foundation in marketing, publishing or social media, well, let’s just say the words "completely lost" come to mind..
I was fortunate to be invited to write several guest blogs either about Jaguar Sees or about creative writing, and I’ve since needed real self-discipline (not something I’m overly full of) to continue to look for arenas (the official word is “expand my platform”) to play the town crier with my book.

I was in J.C. Penney’s buying, ahem, unmentionables, and while I was checking out, a long-lost friend came up to the clerk declaring, “Hello, Claire.”  I channeled my author friend, Austin Comacho – the most happily extroverted person I know – and said, “I wrote a book, and the heroine’s name is Claire.”

Do you know she was interested? Actually interested! I gave her one of my Jaguar Sees cards, and, well, you never know where a sale will come from.
Last week I read through my things-to-do list and saw there was an Amazon group site that I hadn’t investigated. I had gone on their bulletin board, but, frankly, I find bulletin boards completely confusing and have never been able to figure out how to use them. This site, however, is Amazon’s Author’s Den. Author's list their books on the site, and readers search it for books they'd enjoy.  You register your book on it with a short description, a little biography and personal picture.

Ugh, a picture. Let’s face it, I take a terrible picture. Or, more accurately, I can take pictures fine, but pictures of me are terrible – either that, or I’m a lot uglier than I think I am. Either way, I used a picture Steve took of me at the shore so if I’m not beautiful, at least I look relaxed.

The site also provides a space to list all the tag words that might relate to your book so when people search, for, say, Shamonic thriller (‘cause, you know, there’s a huge audience clamoring for that), or, more likely, international thriller or nuclear mystery, Jaguar will be on the list.

I uploaded all the information, and you know what? There are actual hits on the page. Hits that aren’t me. Hits that are one-time hits because the site doesn’t count multiple hits. From those hits on the page (I think of them more as inquisitive taps), there have been a few hits on the book’s site at Kindle (http://amzn.to/hUuFdS -- in case you wanted it). With luck, out of all those, there will be a sale or two.

Ah, if I’d only known. I would have registered on the Author’s Den in the very beginning. (For all you nescient authors, now YOU know.) Now I wonder what else it is that I don’t know. Oh, so much!

Miles on Disc

You already know how enamored I am of my Kindle, so I was disappointed to learn that two new science fiction books I had a desperate need to read were not available at the Kindle store. Taking a research view, though, I figured going back to hard cover would be a test; is this true love or merely a first impressions crush?
Which book to read first? I dithered a while but in the end selected Lois McMaster Bujold's Cryoburn. This is a new story – after a long hiatus -- in the Miles Vorkosigan series, and I anticipated with delight sinking deep into the story. Unhappily, I did not sink as deep as I'd like because I had to keep moving my book mark and turn pages (don't let them stick) and, when I read in bed, I had to shift from one side of the book to the other. Then the book fell closed and I saw the bonus CD that had been included (since I'd received these books before we went on vacation, I'd forgotten about it). I figured it was extra material, artwork, fan material, things of that nature. I popped it into my computer and, low and behold, it was the entire book just waiting to be copied to my Kindle! Not only that, but the gods bless Bujold, it seems to include (I haven't compared feature by feature yet) the entire Miles collection plus extra essays of hers and art. Okay, I couldn't care less about the art, but the other stuff? JACKPOT!
I'll still be stuck reading Connie Willis' All Clear in hard copy, and while I must admit that I like having the hard copy of both these books around – just to complete my sets, you know – I really DO prefer an e-reader. Never thought it would happen, but there you are.