In a few days it will be the Romantic Times Convention 2013 in Kansas City, MO. The M&M Writers are excited about our basket! Three of our members will be signing books and doing panels. If you are attending the conference, be sure to say hi to us!

AMANDA CARLSON:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
2:45pm – 3:30 pm Club RT
3:30pm – 4:00 pm Club RT

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
11am – 2 pm Giant Book Fair

SHAWNTELLE MADISON:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
3:30pm – 4:00 pm Club RT

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2013
10:00am – 11:00am Specialty True Colors: Writing Diversity for a Diverse Audience
11:15am – 12:15pm Craft The Research Notebook from Hell — Keeping Your Series Organized
2:45pm – 3:45pm Specialty Mermaids and Monsters: Making Myths Come Alive
4:00pm – 6:00 pm E-Book, Indie Published, and Graphic Novel Expo

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
11am – 2 pm Giant Book Fair
7:15pm – 7:45pm FAN-tastic Day Author Appearance (Session #2) (Full list of authors)

SANDY WILLIAMS:

FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013
10:00am – 11:00am Reader Anything Goes in Urban Fantasy: Authors Tell All

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
11am – 2 pm Giant Book Fair

We’d love to see you there!

(A SECOND BIG HUGE DISCLAIMER! I am a horrible photographer. I swear the meal below tastes so much better than it looks. Really!)

Deadlines are a part of an author’s life. They always loom on the horizon, and when that horizon rushes up and slams itself into your face, the rest of your life gets put on the back burner. Important things are overlooked. You know, things like feeding your family. For some reason, they need to eat every day.

Trying to think of something to eat and then actually attempting to cook it with two toddlers running around the kitchen always stresses me out. We end up fast fooding it more often than not when I’m in the last stages of writing a book, and not only is that expensive, but it’s not the healthiest thing to do either.

I’d heard about freezer cooking before, but had never tried it out. I started to over the last year. Some of the meals didn’t turn out so well. A few of them did. More importantly, they passed the Husband Test. (The Husband never eats leftovers, and taking something previously prepared out of the freezer kind of seems the same as leftovers, so if he approves of the meal, it’s a winner.)

Some people do freezer cooking in a day: they plan out weeks or a month of meals and cook them all at the same time. I can’t do that. I don’t like to cook, and the kids are always around. But I can double or triple recipes when I cook them, then freeze what we don’t eat. That’s what I do with this pesto shrimp pasta recipe. It’s my favorite freezer meal so far, and it’s so yummy and so easy to make. The Classico Pesto Sauce is fabulous!

PESTO SHRIMP PASTA

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 lb shrimp
1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half (or any small tomato will do, I think)
12 oz. Angel hair pasta
1 jar of Classico Pesto Sauce*
Salt and pepper to taste

 DIRECTIONS

1. Boil pasta according to package directions.

2. While pasta is boiling, heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat and cook minced garlic for 1-2 minutes.

3. On medium-high heat, add the shrimp and sautee until completely cooked.

4. When shrimp are cooked, add in tomato halves. I usually don’t put in the whole pint, but you can if you’re a big tomato fan.

5. When pasta is finished cooking, drain it, then return it to the post and add the jar of pesto.

6. Combine pasta with the sauteed shrimp and tomatoes or, alternatively, serve pasta on plates and top with sauteed shrimp and tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

 Note: This recipe probably serves 6-8. My husband, me, and our 19 month old twins eat a little less than half the recipe. I freeze the rest, let it defrost overnight and reheat it on the stove for dinner. Then I usually have enough for lunch the next day.

* My husband made pesto from scratch once. It took a good amount of work and wasn’t, in our opinion, as good as the Classico pesto.

I’ve only listened to portions of THE SHADOW READER audiobook. Listening to someone else read your book out loud? Yikes! It’s hard to do! I think the narrator does a good job with McKenzie’s voice, but it’s not the voice in my head. That’s my problem with all audiobooks – the voices in my head are perfect. I don’t have to adjust my ears to someone else’s interpretation of the characters’ voices.

Because I have such a difficult time with audiobooks, I’ve never really checked out Audible.com. For that site to be worth it, I’d have to listen to several audiobooks a year, I think. But Audible had a free trial over the last month, so I signed up for it and downloaded a free book. I chose to listen to NO EASY DAY, the autobiography of one of the Navy SEALS who went on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

My Goodreads review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/532484023

In short, I loved the book. I think I might have loved it even more than if I’d read it, which NEVER happens with audiobooks. This book was so entertaining and informative that I wanted to circle the block several times just so I could continue listening to it in the car.

Now that I finished the book, I’m itching to listen to more. I’m going to stick with nonfiction. I’ve been wanting to read more NF, but I haven’t found time to shove it in between my fiction reads. Audiobooks let me read when I’m cooking, cleaning, running, etc. And I have to stay that I LOVE Audible.com. It’s so freaking easy to use! The previous audiobooks I’ve listened to, I’ve borrowed from the library, and it was a pain in the butt getting them to my iPhone. I had to download them through Overdrive, change some setting on iTunes, and then cross my fingers and hold my breath hoping it transferred to my phone okay. Recently, it hasn’t been. It hasn’t transferred them as audiobooks, and so the chapters were all messed up and it wouldn’t remember my place and it just wasn’t worth the hassle to try to listen to a book.

For me, it’s worth paying Audible.com for the ease of listening to the books. It helps that they’re having a sale right now. 200+ audiobooks for $4.95. Cheaper than a paperback book! I downloaded SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper. Yeah, I’m on a SEAL kick. I figure it’s research for my future books, which will involve a military.

Hey, I wonder if I can write off these purchases as business expenses? lol

Anyway, I highly recommend trying out some nonfiction audiobooks. And check out Audible.com. I think the free trial promotion might still be going on. If not, you can grab a book for $4.95!