Wow! It’s been a great summer for the SAGE trilogy! Reviews are starting to come in, and they’re positive. People are not just putting up with the strangeness, they’re getting it, which makes me all kindsa happy. I’ve had some interviews and some author spotlights, and now readers/authors/bloggers in the Google+ Community of Readers Meet Authors and Bloggers have chosen The Fall of Onagros, Book 1 of SAGE to spotlight for August.

Hop on over to The Bookworm’s Fancy for the kickoff, links to Erin’s previous spotlight of dear old MomGoth (me), links to other participants, and a Rafflecopter giveaway of The Fall of Onagros.

Meanwhile, one of the Spotlighters, Richard Abbott, author of In A Milk And Honeyed Land, has invited me to participate in a Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop. As my Sweet Little Baby Angels must know by now, as if they couldn’t tell by my happy chubby picture, I am all about the food.

Here is the blog hop general blurb:

Welcome to the Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop! Each participant invites a number of others to answer five questions about a recent or forthcoming release, and a recipe that fits with it. Links to the participants I have invited may be found in a while, just above the extract and recipe. Their contributions should be in place soon after this, so check out their blogs over the next few days.

Now for the Random Tasty Questions:

1) When writing are you a snacker? If so sweet or salty?

Preferably both. I love sweet and salty together. I try to keep that to a minimum, because people who sit for long periods of time, moving nothing but their fingers and coffee mug, don’t need a whole lotta calories.

2) Are you an outliner or someone who writes by the seat of their pants? And are they real pants or jammies?

I find I can write more spontaneously if I have at least a general outline, so I don’t have to stop and choose a path as I go. Of course, if some interesting alternate presents itself, I stop long enough to figure out if it could lead to a workable conclusion, then follow that branch.

Oh, usually blue jeans, sometimes my monkey drawers.

3) When cooking, do you follow a recipe or do you wing it?

Usually wing it, although I’m more apt to stick fairly close to the recipe the first time I make it. And with any kind of bread, I stick pretty close to the recipe proportions.

4) What is next for you after this book?

I already have the trilogy out, and a science fiction book (SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING). I have a YA/NA sorta-paranormal under contract and in edits. I’m doing some rewrites on a previously published book with a view to republication, and I have a series of cozy mysteries under construction.

5) Last question…on a level of one being slightly naughty and ten being whoo hoo steamy, how would you rate your book?

Minus seven. People apparently have sex, since they have lovers and children, but that isn’t part of the plot, and I figure my readers either know how it’s done, in which case they don’t need me to tell them, or they don’t know how it’s done, in which case my book is not the place for them to learn.

I’m tagging:

K. A. DaVur
Joanna Foreman
Chris Garrison

~ * ~ sample from The Fall of Onagros, Book 1 of SAGE ~ * ~

When he was calm, he rose. According to his water clock, it was nearly his usual time, anyway. He stirred up the central fire, laid on some blocks of charcoal, and filled the three-legged kettle which straddled the fire-pit with water from a jug.

He lit a candle and stood before his herb-cabinet, debating which to choose for the central pot. The taste and scent of it would color his day; so, it must harmonize with the day. Perhaps he should take his vision into account when choosing.

Common sage, to soothe his nerves? Clary sage, to sharpen his vision? He chose the dried leaves of the first, the salted pink-and-white flowers of the second. He carried a handful of each to the open kettle, meditating on their qualities and natures, and dropped them into the heating water.

He folded his blanket and rolled up his pallet and stored them in a cabinet carved with the device of the House of Onagros.

As he performed the exercises which kept his aging body strong and supple, the smells of the sages filled the room; the Common was rich and bitter and astringent, the Clary was camphoric and piney. A strong smell, medicinal, and not entirely pleasant.

~ * ~recipe using sage leaves~ * ~

Take a few fresh sage leaves, the bigger the better. Wash them and pat them dry. Heat some oil in a skillet (nut oil is very nice, but olive oil is nice, too). Fry the leaves in the oil until they’re crisp and beginning to brown. Serve them on top of rice, couscous, chickpeas, or anything that’s good with sage.

Here is the list of people who have participated to date, so far as I am aware:

• Christy English
• Donna Russo Morin
• Nancy Goodman
• Lauren Gilbert
• Lucinda Brant
• Prue Batten
• Anna Belfrage
• Ginger Myrick
• Jo Ann Butler
• Kim Rendfeld
• Cora Lee
• Jessica Knauss
• Susan Spann
• Patricia Bracewell
• Kathleen Rollins
• Richard Abbott
• Marian Allen (me)

Don’t forget to go over to The Bookworm’s Fancy, and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Someone tries to cook something they find in a fiction book.

MA