Author: Kim Olgren

2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference: What a Blast!

~ Kim Olgren ~ 1 Comment

Two days after conference I am finally getting my bearings again. I go to a writers conference to learn and to connect like most everyone else. Like most everyone else I work my ass off doing it. 14 hours of workshops, 7 hours of connecting and schmoozing whilst having a meal and several more cocktail hours of connecting and schmoozing. All this over the course of a three-day weekend (there is a fourth, optional day on Thursday that I didn’t participate in). By Sunday morning I am usually hiding behind copious amounts of coffee, overstimulated, exhausted, and walking around in a bit of a fog.  At the same time I am content and happy to be among my people all weekend and thrilled with the learning experience. I noticed several others in the same condition. I tell people it’s like going to Hogwarts. Well, I think there is a clear correlation anyway.

Conference Experience

The Pikes Peak Writers Conference (PPWC) is known as the friendliest conference in the country and ranks as one of the top ten writers conferences in the U.S. This year the conference earned attendees from as far away as Ireland. So is it true? Is PPWC the friendliest writers conference in the nation? You betcha! This was my second year at conference. I was so overwhelmed my first year I kept to my workshops and didn’t talk with much of anybody. That was not for lack of trying on the staff’s part. PPWC staff made me feel so welcome and comfortable that first year that when I returned this year I made nearly two dozen connections including authors, publishers, and editors in several different genres. I practically felt like an old pro at this conference stuff.

Registration is a breeze, swag bags are awesome (this year included a free book!), and if you even think that you might be feeling lost or overwhelmed there is always someone nearby to help you out. In fact, they may know you need help before you do. Most likely they have been there and done that.

How friendly are these people. Well, I walked up to a keynote speaker’s table and asked if a seat was taken. Staff members piped up trying to gently tell me the table was reserved when I saw the sign. I played it off with some clever comment (at least I hoped it was clever) and ended up being complimented on my “radio voice” (I was a little hoarse that day). No snooty upturned noses, no rude comments or questioning of my cranial fortitude. No, instead I was complimented.

 Speakers

Holy cow, the speakers! Move over Tony Robbins. Get out of the way Zig Zigler. Find a new gig Mike Dooley. Meet the 2015 PPWC speakers, Mary Kay Andrews, Andrew Gross, R.L. Stine (I call him Bob), and Seanan McGuire! All wonderful authors, highly inspiring, with impressive histories, and individual flair and styles all their own. If you’re not motivated about your writing by the time these people are done with you, you need to find something else to do with yourself. You should have heard some of Bob’s fan letters, hysterical!

 Workshops

There are up to six workshops going on at any given time between breakfast and dinner. Open and closed critique groups and speaker panels round out this portion of the conference. Authors, editors, agents, and specialists present workshops on everything from craft to the business of writing. Tough stuff like plotting, keeping the pages turning, query letters, what agents are really looking for, platform building, how the process of writing a book and getting published works and many more. My best advice, fork over the cash for a recording so you can get all the fabulous workshops you’re going to miss while attending to your priorities or stuff that’s not recorded. So many talented people including Barbara (Samuel) O’Neal, Josh Vogt, Robert Spiller, Angie Hodapp, Cara Lopez Lee, Kevin Ikenberry, Laura DiSilverio, Liz Pelletier, and many more! Once again, if you’re not on fire about your writing after these people are done with you, you need to find something else to do. Maybe even check to see if you still have a pulse. Just sayin’. No, there is not Kool Aid.

 The Zebulon

The Zebulon is a comprehensive writing contest that includes a rounded list of genres and mimics the process of submitting a story for publication…only much faster. You can purchase a critique of your story and you will receive a scorecard so you can identify your strong points and work on the areas you’re not so strong in, including your query letter. So worth the small investment.

 Start Saving Up Now

So much more is available including query 1-on-1 and professional headshots as well as a book store. Then there’s the friends, comradery, and priceless moments to be had at every turn. This year there was even a ghost hunt. I save up all year just to go to this conference. I suggest you do the same and I’ll see you next year! There is a payment plan, so there’s not much of an excuse. I met writers of all kinds from erotica to nonfiction and everything between.

If you’re a writer and wondering if a conference is something you should do, let me save you the trouble. As the Nike ad says “Just Do It”. It could be one of the best decisions you could make about your writing career. Until Next year, adieu, magical PPWC. Back to the muggle world for now.

As always, feel free to drop comments or questions below and discuss. Love to see what you think.

Bigot on Facebook Says We Are All Stupid Sheep

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

Not long ago I had a bit of a spat with a friend on facebook about manifestation. I know, I know “A spat? On facebook? No!” Specifically, the practice of manifestation. I say specifically, because that will become significant in a few moments. First, a little background info.

I was joyfully procrastinating through my news feed when I came across his post. To protect the innocent (who are welcome to comment below), let’s call my facebook friend Apollinaris Paul. Hey, I didn’t choose it, this random name generator did. Now I’ve pretty much thought of Apollinaris as a reasonable and intelligent kind of guy. I’ve been friends with him on facebook for years. My friends on on facebook include a very eclectic group of people from all walks of life and many different belief systems. The reason for that is, I don’t judge. I absolutely love the mixed up mix of people in my friends list. There are times when I don’t agree with what someone has posted and sometimes I feel like I have to put in my two cents and sometimes I just don’t think it’s worth it. Apollinaris made a post attacking people who practice manifestation, (especially for their own gain) as selfish at best and resorted to name calling and insinuation of complete, moronic, stupidity right out of the gate.

Obviously Apollinaris has a bug up his butt about something. Maybe he lost a friend or family member to manifestation. Maybe he attended a seminar of some kind and came away less than enthused. Maybe he was just having a bad morning. I don’t know, but I was moved to say something. I commented that there was nothing wrong with focusing on bettering myself or my circumstances. After all, how could I make the world better if I couldn’t make myself better? He said I had the wrong context and the wrong conclusion.

Wait a minute? Who died and made you the stupidity labeler? It was then that I decided to bow out and that my response required way more than a facebook post. I posted that I agreed to disagree and that was that. How about we break down some definitions here.

According to Dictionary.com, prosperity is a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects, good fortune. Manifestation is an outward or perceptible indication, materialization, or spiritualism. I think the latter definition of spiritualism is more applicable in this case and I still stand by my statement that it is not wrong for me to focus on my own betterment, including my financial situation.

In fact, according to the bible, God encourages manifestation through spiritualism. It’s called faithful prayer and it is generally not considered a con or woo-woo horse crap. In fact, God makes a habit of promising prosperity in exchange for believing in him, having faith, praying to him, and following his word. I can’t make this stuff up. It’s already written down. There are dozens of verses in the bible that mention going to God in prayer for whatever, anything, including prosperity. I think this one sums them all up: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24. This is the definition of the practice of manifestation, as is praying to God about your problems and laying them at his feet, then trusting that he will help with them. Most spiritual practices use something similar. Ask for it. Believe it. It will be yours.

Apollinaris also used the not quite seaworthy statement that there was no way that the starving little girl in a 3rd world country could manifest her way out of it by humming about it. Whatever that means. But would the visiting Christian missionaries tell her to pray about it and quote a verse like the one above? You betcha. He also charged the manifesters with manifesting food for the world’s hungry and manifesting world peace. Who says we aren’t already working on that???

Later in the discussion, long after I had stopped commenting and someone else who was not quite as nice as me had begun defending the practice of manifestation. Apollinaris admitted the mistake that had caused the whole argument. He conceded that he had made a sweeping generalization about those who use manifestation, mentioning me specifically as someone in the tiny minority with actual good intentions. He later deleted this comment along with the comments of the other manifestation defender, leaving only the comments of the one person who agreed with him and my initial comments which he ridiculed and tried to make me look the fool for. He continued the conversation with his comrade, bashing people who had the audacity to desire prosperity. I shake my head in disgust. At least have the courage to let the conversation stand as it really happened. But hey, it’s your wall, you get to do what you want. This is my blog. I get to manifest whatever I want on it.

The problem with sweeping generalizations is that they tend to skim over the very people who are trying to make a positive difference in the world. Sweeping generalizations at best, become arguments and at worst start wars (the Christians are infidels and must be cleansed, the Jews are inferior in every way and must be cleansed, the Muslims are bloodthirsty warmongers and must be cleansed, people who practice manifestation are stupid sheep, people who follow a God that has no name are stupid sheep, people who don’t believe in God must be saved or die, all Native Americans are lazy alcoholics, White people think they’re entitled everything and are better than everyone else, all black people are criminals, the rich are inherently evil). You get the picture, right? Sweeping generalizations are obviously quite dangerous. Apollinaris defends this as the generalization of the masses being observable. What? Rather than the few or the one? So…

Jesus wasn’t observable? Died for our sins. Prayed to God to forgive us.

Ghandi wasn’t observable? Starved while praying for peace.

Buddah wasn’t observable? Left the palace to pray for enlightenment.

Martin Luther King wan’t observable? Changed the face of human rights.

Really?

I thought Apollinaris would be respectable and had the ability to have a civil conversation, or debate. Instead, he came off as a condescending, rude, bigot. And now, after discovering he deleted portions of the conversation, I must add, coward.

Look, I’m not trying to bash a religion, a belief system, a way of thinking or even poor Apollinaris. I just call ‘em like I see ‘em. I’m not saying that we don’t need to think of all the starving people in the world (by the way, let’s think about the starving families, and forgotten veterans in our own country before we start sticking our noses in other people’s business and save the word, shall we?).  I’m saying that maybe before you post a sweeping generalization on public media that calls into question the foundations of people’s very belief systems, you might want to think it through just a little bit more and be prepared to have an honest, open, and civil discussion about it.

For the record, my manifestation practice includes, but is not limited to: praying for world peace, the starving, the homeless, the forgotten, the forgetters, my daughter, my grandkids, my son, my husband, my mom, my granny, my family, my neighbors, my city, my state, my country, my planet, the dogs, the cats, animals everywhere, the good people, the bad people, Apollinaris Paul, and yes, myself.  I practice random acts of kindness, I save empty medicine bottles because there are places in the world where they have to put people’s medicine in folded scraps of cloth or paper and I have to take a lot of meds because my body doesn’t work right, I donate to local humane society, I recycle, I help out where I can. How about you? Sometimes I’m petty, sometimes I’m angry, sometimes I’m sad, sometimes I’m jealous, sometimes I’m lazy sometimes I’m mean. I’m not perfect, but I strive to be the best I can be in my own way. How about you?

Apollonaris had his say on facebook. Now I’ve had mine. Feel free to comment and/or discuss below to put in your two cents.

Review – 50 Shades of Grey

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

The highly controversial movie debuted in theaters this Valentine’s Day weekend. The internet has been abuzz about it for weeks before its opening. Rumors about who was going to play Christian Grey went on even longer. Having read the first book in the series which I found disinteresting enough to not bother with the next two, I thought maybe the movie would improve what the book was lacking (like that ever happens). So for our dinner and a movie Valentine’s date, hubby and I stood in the line that everyone eyed to see 50 Shades of Grey.

If you are offended by nakedness of any kind, BDSM behavior, or sex in general, you should probably sit this one out. If you aren’t interested in shallow storylines that just don’t really work, don’t bother. If you’re looking for a good example of what the BDSM lifestyle entails, do not look to this movie to give it to you. If you want to see this movie so you can flood the internet with petitions to ban it because it’s an example of abuse, please don’t waste your time…and everyone else’s on the internet.

Anastasia is a literary student who does her roommate a favor that puts her life on a major detour. She attempts to interview Christian Grey, a magnetic, rich, well-dressed businessman with a supposedly tortured soul and a dark secret. Chemistry apparently happens during the interview and Christian decides he wants to get to know Anastasia better…no he doesn’t…yes, oh God yes, he does. Anastasia decides that, even though she’s terrified of Christian’s dark side, she still wants to get to know him and his “secret” better…no she doesn’t…wait, yes she does. This is about as much tension as this movie manages to muster out of a situation that is rife with potential to be a veritable tightrope.

Instead, the sold out theater of movie-goers I was with did a whole lot of laughing. So did I. It was like a cheesey wannabe porn flick. The ones that make a big production of making a storyline so it’s not so much like a taboo thing. Making a real case for Christian Grey as a twisted and tortured soul was never quite convincing because of this cheesiness.

Is there abuse in this movie? That is arguable. I know, I know “but what about the scene at the end???” I’m not going to give it away, I’m trying not to create any spoilers here. What I can say is the same thing I said when I started this review, if you are offended or triggered by BDSM behavior, you probably don’t want to go there. If you don’t know what BDSM is, please, look it up. Yes, the last scene is difficult and even more so because it plays like an over-the-top effort to try shock us into investing in the belief in Christians poor, tortured, soul. The effect fails miserably and we end up grateful for the abrupt ending to the movie, which I found…unsatisfying.

In my humble opinion, there are only a few groups of people who could be truly offended by this movie.

  1. Those who are truly triggered by the types of sex acts portrayed in this movie.
  2. The BDSM community in general, this film makes an already stigmatized group of people seem even worse.
  3. Anyone who believes that not-so-great writing should make it to print, let alone film.

Bottom line, 50 Shades of Grey is not nearly as dangerous to your average, fairly well adjusted person as certain people would have you believe. It is the same as any other movie, simple entertainment. An evening (or maybe afternoon, if you’re into that sort of thing) diversion that I wouldn’t pay to see in the theater. Wait for the DVD or Blueray unless you’re like me and just can’t stay out of a good down and dirty controversial conversation (no pun intended).

two stars

What did you think of 50 Shades of Grey? If you’ve read the books or seen the movie please feel free to share your opinions in the comments.

Desire Leads to a Different New Year Perspective

~ Kim Olgren ~ 2 Comments

So here we are, nearly half-way through the first month of the new year. If you’re like me, New Year’s resolutions don’t really work for you. I stopped making them years ago.

But last year I found something different.

Danielle LaPorte put out this book called The Desire Map and that was a game changer. Now before you tune out and go off thinking “Oh, God! Not another self-help guru’s sheep spouting the wisdom of said chosen guru.” Take a moment to think about this.

What if you stopped thinking about your life in terms of goals, and instead, focused on how you want to feel? Seriously. All those things that you want to do or get done, lose weight, find the right someone, write that book, are all intended to make you feel a certain, desired way anyhow. What if you focused on those feelings and the things you could do on a daily basis to support them?

But I digress, this post is not about the book, the system, the day planner, the cards, the book groups, or the facilitators springing up around the world. The D-Movement (I just made that up myself).

This post is about how focusing on how you want to feel; a subtle shift that changes everything. Including what you thought were your goals. It changes the way you think about everything.

So here’s my case in point. I am not one for routine. I find it to be mindnumbingly boring…a creativity and momentum killer…basically a big downer. However, the practical, hardworking Capricorn part of me knows that routines and schedules are necessary to success, which also means I have a very difficult time putting down a task that is unfinished just because the time to work on said task is up and I must move on to the next. I was having trouble coming up with a way to be more comfortable with routine and schedules. Does this sound immature? It doesn’t matter, it’s the way I feel and I am plenty mature enough to acknowledge my faults and deal with them or work around them <sticks tongue out and makes face>. Also, I have a physiological challenge that cause me to become foggy or unable to focus for anywhere from an hour to days.

I went to the go-to Desire Map group on facebook.com to help me brainstorm an answer because I’ll take a little help from wherever I can get it, I’m exploitative like that. I got a lot of really great answers from going with the flow to wonderful mantras, to-do lists, thinking of it as taking control, and doing what feels good. The coolest thing was that everyone shared what they felt in their heart might help me. No one, single person posted anything like “just suck it up and do it, you pansy!.” That in itself was immensely impressive to me because, you know, there’s always one in every group.

So, my fair readers and DMapers, without further ado, here’s what I came up with. It resonated with my entire being and at the same time struck me as a gigantic, DOH!

I found the secret to submitting to a routine and scheduled tasks was…

drum roll please…<apple drops on noggin>

Nurturing.

What?! I know, right!!!

Here’s the thing, all those “routine” tasks that I think are so boring and ask myself “why do I have to do this?” about, are only nurturing me. Dishes, laundry, housework, only gives back to me (mainly because we are empty-nesters now and there are no kids here anymore to suck up the benefits of my labors. Love ya kids! Mwah!). Scheduling writing time, exercise time, and meditation time only gives back to me, sometimes many-fold more that I put into it. So before you think that I might need a maid and an assistant – I know these things are beneficial and nurturing to me because of the way I f-e-e-l after I have done them. Clean, proud, accomplished, happy, content, and generally good.

So, when I perform my routine, when I schedule these things that are important to me, but may or may not want to do at that time, I am taking care of me, nurturing myself, taking time to love me. In turn, nurturing myself allows me to be more nurturing to others and that’s what it’s really all about.

If you want to know more about Desire Mapping and the great things you can do with it, Check out Danielle LaPorte’s website at DanielleLaporte.com if you find you’re fired up about it, join our group on facebook.com. Happy New Year! May your best and greatest destiny be yours!

As always…feel free to discuss below.

Road Trip Photo Essay: Colorado Springs, CO to Points West…and South, Part II

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

As promised, this is part two of our trip to the four corners area. So without further ado, Part II.

Mesa Verde Park covers 81.39 miles of mesas and valleys in the southwest corner of Colorado. The park includes over 5,000 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings. These were the ancestral lands of the Pueblo Indians who later moved further south to join the Pueblo people of Arizona and New Mexico. No one knows for sure, but droughts were probably the main reason for the move. Knowing where they could go, and that the people further south were friendly probably helped make the decision to move a little easier. These people inhabited the Mesa Verde area for 700 years building their apartments in the caves and learning to live and farm the top of the mesas. They are called the Anasazi in the language of the modern Pueblo, meaning “ancient ones” and consisted of Navajo and Zuni people. Oh, by the way, Mesa Verde is Spanish for green table.

Outside the visitors center you will be greeted by the Pueblo Potter, a 2009 limestone sculpture by Adrian Wall.
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But the first thing you see besides the building is The Ancient Ones, a breathtaking statue by Edward J. Fraughton. My picture here doesn’t do it justice, the light was not in my favor. It depicts a scene out of everyday life for these people. A man climbing a cliff face with nothing but small hand and footholds carved out of the rock to hold on to with firewood on his back.
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Here’s a closer peek.
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The next thing we did was plan our visit with info and maps provided by the visitors center. We already knew we were not going to see the Cliff Palace and we wanted to do our own, self-guided tour which left us one clear choice that would take us to Spruce Tree House and Mesa Top Loop Road.

Spruce Tree House is one of the few cliff dwellings you can visit without a guide. To get there you must descend to the valley floor via a half mile of switchback trail (you’re going to climb back up this trail to get out so make sure you are physically ready to do it in the heat and sun) then cross the valley floor and take a short path up to the cave. There are also petroglyphs to see here if you have time to take the two mile, round-trip hike to see them.
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The dwellings reach deep into the cave making use of every nook and cranny.

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Corn grinding stones
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More of Spruce Tree House
20140912_123203 Open Kiva. Kiva’s were underground structures with wooden roofs believed to be used for spiritual and community gatherings. Normally all you would see from these angles would be a small, square hole with a ladder sticking out of it.20140912_123240

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Looking down at Spruce Tree House as we finished climbing back up out of the valley. You can see a couple of the switchbacks here.
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Once we were done gawking at Spruce Tree House, it was time to take on the next leg of our Mesa Verde Adventure, which was actually several rolled into one.

Mesa Top Loop Road is a six-mile driving tour with twelve sites along the way. Some are seen from a distance such as Cliff Palace, the largest dwelling in the park which can be seen from Sun Point and Sun Temple stops.
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Others sites, can be visited during the drive on top of the mesa including an old, man-made reservoir and surface dwellings like these.

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There’s a lot more to see on this drive. Including, a 365 degree view from South Point View (also where the fire watchtower is located).

Speaking of fires…don’t be discouraged by some of the views that you’ll see on the Mesa Top Road Drive. You’re going to see some real fire devastation, but at the same time, your going to see tremendous renewal. The fires exposed a lot of new archaeological sites and more opportunities to learn about the Anasazi people.
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Between 1934 and 2003, the Mesa Verde Park has experienced 12 major wildfires, all determined to have been started by lightning. Since 2000 alone over 24,000 acres have been scorched. But then you will also come across breathtaking views like this…
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and this…20140912_154137

and this…a short hike to South Point lookout, and 365 degrees as far as the eye can see, haze allowing…
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20140912_152128I feel so blessed to be able to travel and see the wonders and history of stuff like this and to have a smartphone with decent camera to record it! Now for some practical stuff.

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When I said to make sure you are physically ready to hike in Mesa Verde National Park I meant it. I saw at least one ranger have to go down the switchback path at the Spruce Tree House with oxygen and a portable defibrillator. Elevations range from 6,000ft to over 8,500ft. The guided tours require guides for a reason. Access to the Cliff Palace includes climbing down a long, narrow ladder in a sandstone crevice near the edge of the cliff. Don’t push it. Stop and take a break if you need to. Pace yourself. That means go at your OWN pace. The path to Spruce Tree House has benches and rocks to sit on along the way. There is poison ivy on this trail and it is marked. You are forewarned.

Bring plenty of water with you. We were there just two weeks ago and although the weather was mild (in the 80 degree range), the sun still gets hot in a hurry and there is not much opportunity for shade. Although some signs and websites say water is available at every stop on Mesa Top Road, it is not. Don’t take the chance. Bring your sunscreen!

Finally, if you really want to explore the wonders of Mesa Verde National Park. I would recommend making a long weekend out of it. We only saw a small fraction of what the park has to offer. There is a resort area and plenty of camp sites as well. Stay a couple of days and take some time to explore. There is also a restaurant at Far View Area. Nothing fancy. but there’s food, drink, and a gift shop. The park fee is $5 or $10 depending on what time of year it is. The guided tours are $4 unless you opt for the twilight tour and that’s $12. Make sure you get a map and a visitors guide and read them. Make sure you don’t miss and cool or important stuff!

The last leg of our journey saw us leaving our lodgings at the Ute Mountain Casino and Hotel a day early. We traveled to Pagosa Springs and stayed the night there in a really reasonable, tiny, family owned hotel by the highway called the Alpine Inn that I found on tripadvisor.com. We visited a couple of the local pubs, took a gander at the hot springs pools at The Springs hot springs and made a mental note to come back just to go there. We had dinner at the second best and more reasonably priced restaurant in town, Boss Hog’s Restaurant and Saloon. The people were very friendly and the food was decent.
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Our route home took us over Wolf Creek Pass and through the San Luis Valley, down the Cosmic Highway (Highway 17). Note to self, RV camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, and/or at the UFO Watchtower should be in my future. I could see how the great, wide open, and sparsely populated San Luis valley could seem like a nice place to land your space craft.

The western side of Wolf Creek Pass started out beautiful beginning with Treasure Falls, about 15 miles east of Pagosa Springs. The falls are named after Treasure Mountain, which legend says, holds the secret treasure of some Frenchmen that snuck into the area and struck it rich.

It was a cool morning so the mists hung over ponds along the way and the air around the falls was crisp and heavy with the smell of deep pine forest. You can do a side trip here and take the trail to the top of the falls for about at 300ft climb. Set aside about 45 minutes if you want to make the 1/2-mile round trip.
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As we made our way further up the pass things began to get strange, then downright eerie, then just sad. Here in Colorado we’ve been battling the pine beetle for some time now. On the front range we have seen some issues, but nothing prepared me for the absolute devastation of so many old pines over such a large area. In this case, it was the spruce beetle. Tens of thousands of acres in the San Juan forest, including Wolf Creek Pass have died leaving vast swaths of dead trees interspersed with other species not affected by this particular beetle. This is a wildfire just waiting for lightning.
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The eastern side of the pass was a little better and dropped us into the San Luis Valley. From Alomosa, we found ourselves on Highway 17, The Cosmic Highway with one more mountain range, the beautiful Sangre de Cristos, to cross to get home.
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If you look closely, that barely discernable, hazy line of demarcation at the foot of the mountains is the Great Sand Dunes. A desert of sand dunes, in the middle of the Colorado Mountains with Medano Creek flowing through them. Again, you can’t make this stuff up.
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With the Sangre de Cristo mountains behind us, we started the last 45 miles of our trip, heading into Canon City, then north back to Colorado Springs.
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Back at home after a full week on the road I was glad to be back in my own bed with my own pillow (big satisfied sigh). We also missed a cold snap in the Colorado Springs area that apparently had brought a dusting of snow to some parts of the area. Temperatures were back inthe 70s and 80s by the time we got back. Oh shucky darn.

I love trips like this where I get see so much. Sometimes it can feel a little bit like sensory overload, with so much to see, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love to travel and see new things and share them with others who may share the same passion. Happy travels everyone! Be safe!

 

Homemade Italian Croutons Featuring Garlic Festival Garlic Ghetti

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

So you over-proofed your French bread and ended up with a flat loaf of what could have been sliced up and made into biscotti had you known it was going to flop. Note to self, set timer when proofing bread while novel writing. Even if you are sitting in the dining room right outside the kitchen. Seriously. Do it.

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Why yes, that is a Shun bread knife, thanks for noticing. If you’re going to bake bread, get a good bread knife. ‘Nuff said.

Alright, back to our sad little loaf of bread. Do not despair! Bake that sucker, make some Panini, and/or, you could make these, but I warn you, they are addictive! You can also make these with regular, well-formed French bread or pretty much whatever bread you want. This particular batch was made from a partial loaf of flopped home-made French bread that would have been on its way out. No kidding. Instead I made these Italian flavored croutons. Even failures in the kitchen can turn into something wonderfully yummy. Plus I just saved some cash on those store-bought bags of jawbreakers covered in preservatives.

You’ll need:
About 4 cups of bread you have cut into roughly, 1-inch cubes
4 teaspoons melted butter (salted)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Garlic Festival Garlic Ghetti
1 teaspoon dried parsley

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300˚. Chop bread and set aside in a large bowl. Combine butter, olive oil, Garlic Ghetti, and parsley in small bowl and stir until all ingredients are incorporated and there are not lumps. Drizzle the Garlic Ghetti mixture over the bread and toss until thoroughly coated. Spray a cookie sheet with olive oil spray to prevent any sticking and bake for 30 minutes turning once at 15 minutes. Store any croutons you don’t eat warm from the oven and manage to cool, in an airtight container or zipper bag. The hardest part is staying away from them long enough for them to cool so you can store them.

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Ta-da! Crispy little croutons that are going to make your salad very happy!

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Just look at those little cubes of crunchy goodness! (Eats a dozen before you know it.) STEP AWAY FROM THE CROUTONS!

Check out the Garlic Festival website for fun garlic spice blends and other cool stuff including a kick-ass, lemon garlic pepper and something called Garlic Garni that is awesome sprinkled on meat, veggies, and even in salad dressing.

Road Trip Photo Essay: Colorado Springs, CO to Points West…and South

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

Last week the hubby and I took a road trip to the four corners. Apparently he thought this was an important place to see. Having been there, I informed him that there was absolutely nothing to see there but a concrete monument. Still, he insisted that this was a must see on his bucket list so I booked us a room and off we went. I don’t know if you’ve seen what absolute desolation looks like, dear reader, so let me show you.

This is the most exciting part of the four corners monument. Incidentally, this is apparently no longer considered the actual location of the four corners. According to Conde Nast Traveler, the GPS location of the four corners is 1,807ft to the west. Traditionalists argue that the current location is where the original borders were set and therefore, the four corners are exactly where they are supposed to be. You decide. I’m getting out of the heat.20140911_124858-1

Here’s what it looks like outside the monument…for miles…and miles….and miles.
four corners desertThe moon landing could have easily been faked and filmed here instead.

However, the road trip from Colorado Springs, CO to Towoac was wonderful! Towoac is a small town just outside of Cortez, CO located on the Ute Indian reservation. We stayed at the Casino/Hotel on the reservation. If you’re interested in the area you can see some reviews I did on tripadviser.com here Ute Mountain Casino and Hotel.

Changing colors and really green mountains were a beautiful site after the last 10 years of drought we’ve had in Colorado.
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We got a great view of the Collegiate Peaks as we bypassed Buena Vista. That would be Mt. Yale, Mt. Harvard, and Mt. Princeton. No joke, you can’t make this stuff up. All are fourteeners, meaning they are 14,000ft or more high.
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Oh, and we ran into this guy…
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From there we traveled through lush mountain forests and over Red Mountain pass where evidence of the mining booms still stand. We went through Silverton, elevation 9,308ft, and Ouray, elevation 7,792ft.
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Ouray, CO.20140910_175605 20140910_175906

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The other objective of this trip was Mesa Verde National Park. We also spent a night in Pagosa Springs and had a somewhat sobering trip through Wolf Creek Pass, but I’m going to save that for the other half of this long photo essay. Until then, please enjoy some more photos of our great Rocky Mountains!

The Chalk Cliffs, Buena Vista, CO.
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Curecanti National Recreational Area near Gunnison, CO. The water level is a great sign of some recovery from drought.20140910_161146

Another good sign, streams and waterfalls to be seen around almost every bend in the road!20140910_180506

To be continued…

This is What You Do with London Broil Leftovers

~ Kim Olgren ~ 3 Comments

Like red meat? These recipes build on a fresh, grilled and marinated London Broil. This will easily make three meals for two out of one good sized hunk of steak (about two pounds). “London broil” refers to a method of cooking this tough cut of lean beef that was especially popular from the 1950s through the 1970s as a way to make the inexpensive cut of meat more palatable. This first recipe is the London Broil.

Recipe #1 – London Broil

london broil

Marinade
Ingredients

4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 2-pound (or so) boneless “London Broil”
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prep

  1. Tenderize steak with a piercing tenderizer like this one Jaccard Meat Tenderizer (you can us a fork, but it’s way more labor intensive). This is a good time to get out some of that aggression you might have been bottling up.
  2. Combine everything but the salt and pepper with the steak in a large zip-top plastic bag and seal. Marinate in refrigerator at least overnight turning occasionally. Let all those flavors marry and have a splendid honeymoon.
  3. Preheat grill and rub with some olive oil. Grab your steak out of the bag and throw it on the grill about 4-8 minutes per side or until no more than medium rare.
  4. Remove steak from grill and let it rest for about 10 minutes so all those tasty juices can redistribute throughout the meat.
  5. Cut steak into thin strips slicing against the grain.
  6. Reserve about 2/3 of the steak for the next two recipes. It might be hard, but you’ll thank yourself later.

Hint: if you make the garlic butter for the next recipe now, with the London broil, you can serve this with a salad and some garlic bread (remember to get the pre-sliced French bread).

Recipe #2 Open-Faced Steak and Cheese Garlic Bread Sandwiches

Steak Sandwich

Ingredients
1 packet powdered au-jus mix
1 packet brown gravy mix
3 cups water
Leftover London broil (reserve the gravy and half the meat for the 3rd recipe)
4oz cheese, shredded or sliced (can be provolone, mozzarella, or even Monterey jack)
8 slices French bread (from a pre-sliced loaf to help control bread portions)
1 Garlic Butter (recipe below)

Garlic Butter recipe

1 cup softened salted butter (you can use salt free if you’re watching your salt)
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic (we love garlic, adjust to your preference)
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup parmesan cheese (not that powdery stuff, don’t skimp)
Sprinkle of paprika

Throw it all in a small mixing bowl and mix until smooth. Do this ahead of time so that the flavors have a chance to mingle and get good an happy together.

Prep

  1. get out your meat (ha, ha) and let it sit and warm up a little.
  2. combine au jus and gravy packets in a sauce pot with the three cups of water and bring to a boil (if you want to get all fancy and make your own, knock yourself out, but this is supposed to be a down and dirty quickie weeknight meal).
  3. once the gravy mixture has come to a boil, reduce heat to simmering and slice your London broil pieces in half twice. Once on lengthwise and once width-wise. Add pieces to the simmering gravy.
  4. Simmer steak in the gravy for about an hour or until steak pieces begin to hold the gravy and become tender. This is how you’re going to make the steak tender enough for sandwiches.

Helpful hint: If you don’t want to eat red meat three times in one week (although the portions are small) you could split the meat and gravy in two and make the second and third recipes at another time. They’re flexible like that.

  1. Slap some garlic butter on those French bread slices and toss them in the oven to toast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.
  2. Once the meat is tender, add four strips or so to each slice of toasted bread being careful to reserve half for the next recipe (or not, it’s up to you, these are pretty good saniches).
  3. Sprinkle or add 1 slice of that cheesy goodness on top and return to the oven, turning on the broiler, just long enough to melt the cheese.

This will yield 4 open faced “sandwiches” per person. Plenty. Trust me. I serve this with a Caesar salad or baby greens with a good Italian dressing or homemade vinaigrette.

Recipe #3 Beef Stroganof

Serves 4, you can freeze some for later…or not 😉

beef stroganoff

Ingredients
8oz uncooked egg noodles
Last of your London broil
3 fresh green onions, sliced (all of it, not just the green part)
8oz of fresh mushrooms (I use baby Portobello)
8oz sour cream
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prep

  1. cook noodles as directed on package without added salt or fat
  2. while noodles are cooking, sauté onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a nonstick pan until mushrooms and garlic are tender and browned a bit. Add salt and pepper.
  3. add gravy and meat mixture to the mushrooms and onion and warm through until it comes to a boil. Thicken if needed with a thick flour and water mixture (add slowly and stir constantly to avoid lumps and/or over thickening). Turn down to a simmer and add the sour cream, stirring thoroughly.
  4. Serve over cooked and drained egg noodles.

Serve this with a green salad with cut up veggies in it like broccoli, carrots, snap peas, and red peppers.

Since the carbohydrates in these recipes are fairly low and controllable they are all diabetic friendly. Each is accompanied by a salad by design because in most diets, well, salads and veggies are free, and filling, and good for you! You do have to count the dressing, though. Awwwwww! Drat!

NOTE: To clear up any confusion, these recipes originate from one, single, grilled London broil. Each recipe builds upon the last giving your three different meals for the week.

If you get a chance to try these recipes please let me know how they turned out for you. If you have a “London Broil Leftover” recipe to share, please feel free!

Excerpt from Lux Lucis Proeliator

~ Kim Olgren ~ Leave a comment

Here we go…it’s been a while friends and fiends of the blogosphere. I’ve been busy with a number of things including writing my first novel. The following is an excerpt from my newly finished novel Lux Lucis Proeliator (The Light Warriors) in which we meet James Brigand. Irish, doctor, and high-ranking Proeliator who doesn’t know it yet. Feedback is welcome and certainly considered.

Somewhere in the chilling drizzle doctor James Brigand thought he heard and even more chilling sound. An unearthly howling yanked him out of his lucid meditative state. It must have been that damned O’connell dog howling again, he thought he remembered some kind of warning about this kind of howling. Yes, there it was again, then a yelp, then silence. O’connell must have thrown a shoe at the animal as he often did to make shush him up, but then James realized it was too quiet. Rising from his meditation rug, and moving silently across the stone floor to the back window on bare feet, he drew back the curtain just a crack to see if he could see the dog in the back yard adjacent to his own. It was quite foggy and the drizzle had been coming down for days, but none of that changed what he saw with his own two eyes. Something was eating O’Connell’s dog alive and it was not animal nor human. In fact he wasn’t completely sure what it was he was looking at, but it somehow seemed vaguely familiar. Although James was sure he had but slit of the curtain open the creature locked eyes with him. Its eyes were red and wild, and strips of flesh and fur hung from its bloody maw that was lined with pointy, razor sharp teeth. It looked somewhat like Grogoch, but the Grogoch were benevolent creatures that helped with planting and domestic things asking nothing more than a jug of cream for their trouble. The Grogoch would certainly not eat one’s dog. The next thing James knew the creature had appeared at his window, just the other side of the glass. Its hideous jaws wide open and snarling like a rabid animal.

1st Time NaNoWriMo Observations: Pansters vs. Planners

~ Kim Olgren ~ 5 Comments

So like a good little NaNoWriPar (National Novel Writing Month Participant) I’ve been following my local activity threads on the NaNoWriMo website. The first thing I notice is that there are few first-time participants like myself and these seem to me much younger than me. Oh well. C’est la vie. I didn’t get into this to hang out with any particular crowd. Our Municipal Liason (ML) is the owner of a local book store in her tenth year of doing NaNoWriMo. In an event where it seems that one is considered a winner simply by finishing, this seems to be big deal. And believe me, finishing, is no easy feat. We are talking 50,000 words in 30 days (November 1 – 30). Around 300,000 writers will participate and about 10% will actually finish. Pray for me people. Pray really, really hard!

An interesting dichotomy has garnered more of my attention as of late that is basic to writing and yet nonetheless fascinating. It is the division of the “pansters” and the “planners” otherwise known as “plotters” (suddenly I’m hearing the battle of the pugs and the poms from the musical Cats in my head). It’s not a new concept and much has been written on the subject. Basically, some writers write by the seat of their pants, throwing everything out there and seeing what ends up sticking during the rewrites, yes plural, meaning several. Obviously if you throw so much spaghetti at the ceiling, you’re going to have to clean it up. Others, opt for a more organized approach, these are the planners. Planners write outlines, make meticulous character development charts, create complicated story trees, map plot points, and basically leave as little to chance as possible. There are pros and cons to both approaches making neither one necessarily right or wrong except in the eye of the person doing the actual writing.

Pansters experience the divine art of creation through sheer imagination. A panster doesn’t think about where the story is going, how many scenes it’s going to take to develop each chapter, whether or not he is hitting plot points at the right time or if the character that just appeared out of nowhere is actually necessary to the story or what kind of ice cream she likes. Pantsters just write. In fact, the less thinking there is, the better. This allows for a purer channel for the story to come through and pantsters live on a kind of faith that their characters will come through and introduce themselves in all their idiosyncratic glory when the time is right. Of course this means tons of work on the tail end in the form of re-writes, but allows for a free and flexible flow of creativity. Sometimes pantsters don’t even know how a book is going to end until they are quite a ways into it. Hence the pantster runs a high risk of getting hopelessly lost in the big, scary forest of a story of her very own making <shiver>.

Planners/Plotters on the other hand, plan as much as possible on the front end of a project. They are the ones busy making outlines, developing story trees, mind-mapping and using any number of other ingenious organizational tools to map out a book long before any actual writing begins. By the time a good planner is finished with her planning, why, the book has nearly written itself. Unfortunately, writing this way doesn’t leave a lot of room for creative flexibility and when new material shows up that doesn’t fit into the paradigm of the world already built, it often must be scrapped or tabled for use somewhere else rather than be explored. However, Planners usually have little to do once the first draft is written as they’ve already planned out the entire thing and know how everything is going to turn out.

Who are these pantsters and plotters? Well, I’m about to drop some heavy duty, maybe even surprising names on you here:

Pantsters

Stephen King –

Preeminent “King” of horror, notorious pantster

Ray Bradbury –

Science fiction writer extraordinaire, pantster

Kim Olgren –

NaNoWriMo participant, multi-genre writer and blogger, pantster (okay, maybe not that big of a name…yet)

Planners

Charles Dickens –

Master Storyteller, planner

Edgar Allen Poe –

Yes, really, despite spending most of his time in one intoxicated state or another, planner

J.K. Rowling –

as with many fantasy writers, planner

Most writers fall somewhere in between the two. pantsters might use some plot points or a loose outline and many planners are not nearly as structured and rigid as the tools of the trade may indicate. However, I’m learning that many pantsters and planners are quite passionate about their particular approach to writing.

If you are a writer, which method do you prefer? Are you a pantster, riding the wave of the story and seeing it through to the end? Or are you a planner/plotter, putting things together with an end already in mind? Why does your particular method work so well for you?