Free Iceland!

Or... Rather, Free & Iceland
by Bethany Maines

Helloooooo from Iceland! I am away on vacation - travelling in the viking founded, former Denmarkian colony, mostly known as Bjork's homeland.

I've learned some fascinating things about Iceland in my scant two days here. For one thing, they don't have family names here; they use one of their parent's names plus the ending dottir or son. So I would be Bethany Raymondsdottir. I have yet to discover how they pick which parent's name to use, but personally, I'm hoping that bribery is involved. (Hear that mom? I'm open to gifts.) The second thing I've learned is that Iceland is passionate about their language and have been pushing to maintain it, keep it, and share it since the 1600's. They've done so well, that even modern Icelanders can read the ancient saga's that were written down starting in the 1200's.

So far the weather has been crystal clear and cold, which has been fantastic for the amount of walking we've been doing. We've walked a great stretch of Reykjavik and our feet our sending up signals that perhaps we should consider using the bus! But we are really hoping that the weather holds through until at least tomorrow since we're off to try and catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights tonight.

Perhaps it's the vacation talking or perhaps it's Valentine's day approaching, but I'm in the best of moods, so all of you will get the benefit. February 13 - 15, The Dragon Incident will be free. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors! And enjoy this tale of Quetzelcoatl, a Bellingham WA strip club, and a soccer game for the ages!

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It...

by Bethany Maines

It’s a new year! And you know what that means? Time for resolutions! Personally, I resolve to stop obsessively watching old episodes of the West Wing. (Actually, I really don’t, but in public we’re going to pretend that I do because it’s embarrassing to obsess over a show that’s over a decade old.) I’m also making the usual one about going to the gym more and eating more vegetables. Which is also my husband’s resolution.  Only he’s far more serious about it than I am.  He’s actually resolving to try eating meat free a couple of days a week. I fully support this idea, but it has kind of put a kink into my regular dinner making plans. I just don’t have a repertoire of vegetarian recipes yet. He’s been contributing some fun new meals and an oil-free hummus recipe that is highly delicious, if slightly over the top in roasted garlic, but we’re still low in the whip-something-up-in-a-pinch vegetarian recipe department. So that will be my 2013 challenge – learn to cook vegetarian.

If that weren’t enough of a challenge I’ve also decided that 2013 is the year that I will be putting out a new series of short stories. I’ll be trying out new characters, self-publishing, and vegetarian cooking all in one year and I don’t mind telling you that I’m a little bit worried about it all. I’ll admit, mostly I’m worried about the cooking. I don’t like mushrooms and every other vegetarian recipe seems to feature mushrooms, but the self-publishing and new characters are also weighing a bit on my mind. I really don’t want to starve while in the midst of a new creative endeavor. Not that I will starve. I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough fat reserves that I can subsist until at least February before I actually start to starve, but if I go on steak consuming rampage I’ll be blaming the great profession of writing. I cannot be expected to produce sublime creative work or even moderately entertaining creative work on a protein deficit.

And so, dear Stiletto followers, if you wish for a sneak peek of my paranormal adventure Tacoma series you may visit CityofDestinyStories.com. The first story, The Dragon Incident will be released next week and I will give a free copy to the person who submits the best meat free recipe between now and January fifteenth.  You may leave a recipe in the comments or email it to me at carriemae.agent@gmail.com! And please remember… I hate mushrooms.