anna genoese

Hello, it has been forever. I mostly hang out at annagenoese these days, feeling like I'm never quite pithy enough for the cool kids and their 140 characters.

The past few months, c_katherine and I have been working diligently to get the sequel to Salt and Silver out. We've self-published, but as two professional editors, we did not skimp on the editing, proofreading, book design, etc.... We're extremely proud of both the content and the book production, and we're thrilled that the book is finally available. We think people who liked Salt and Silver will enjoy it, and I hope that even if you didn't read Salt and Silver, you'll give this one a shot.

Gaby has always felt a little too big for her small town -- but once she moves to New York City, she realizes she's a little too plain and a little too nerdy for anything really exciting. Then she meets a geeky-cute guy who insists he's a "blood demon" and there to save her. That's less exciting and more scary -- and it gets scarier when it turns out he's telling the truth, kicking off twenty-four hours of mayhem, adventure, doppelgangers, snobby demon hunters, and a mermaid who likes to gamble.

And death. So much death.

The hero and heroine of this book are both asexual (but not aromantic); the heroine is plus-sized. They run around north Brooklyn, and run into vampires, demons, witches, a cranky diner owner, demon hunters, doppelgangers, and a gambling mermaid who might be a trickster god. There is minimal gore; most of the fighting is done with salt and tricks. Oh, and sometimes Doors talk and lead you to Hell dimensions.

We hope you enjoy it!


Buy Blood and Salt from Amazon!

Yesterday I acquired rhubarb, and last night I chopped it up -- most of it went into the freezer to store while I wait for my pectin to arrive. (Mail ordering pectin. I can't believe it's come to this, that grocery stores no longer stock it. What a world.) I took this opportunity to practice my brunoise skill. Brunoise is a type of cut -- first you julienne whatever you're cutting, which means to cut it into sticks that are 1mm x 1mm. This itself is incredibly difficult. Then, to brunoise, you cut the sticks into a cube that is 1mm square.

I am not very good at this, but it's fun to practice. (It is fun for me any time I get to wield a sharp knife and chop things.)

Some of the rhubarb indeed went into the freezer to await the pectin that will turn it into jam (well, strawberries will also be involved); the rest of it, though, went into a bowl with cornstarch and sugar and powdered ginger, and was baked into Smitten Kitchen's rhubarb coffee cake, which was a big hit when I served it to guests this morning. That recipe calls for the rhubarb to be cut into 1" slices -- but I did that when I made this recipe for my birthday, and found that such large pieces of rhubarb stay too tart/sour, and get a little too stringy and slimy for my taste. The rhubarb I cut into an imperfect brunoise was exactly right, though -- a little tart, a little sweet, not at all stringy or slimy. Highly recommended.

Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!

This might be my favorite prompt in the whole meme. Here are things I love in books:

• Lesbian detectives! Bonus points if she falls in love with a reformed criminal (a la fandom's version of White Collar). (Oh, gosh, if White Collar was about a lesbian FBI agent with a significant other and they ended up in a poly relationship with a female con artist, I would... well, I'd be thrilled, but also shocked as hell, since that would never end up on TV!)
  
• Mossad agents. Bonus points if they are hunting down Nazi WWII criminals.
  
• CIA agents. Bonus points if they team up with the Mossad to hunt down Nazi WWII criminals. (Triple bonus points if the CIA agent and the Mossad agent are lesbians who fall in love.)
  
• Diners. I love diners. I want every book to be set in a diner. Okay, maybe not every book -- but I will definitely pick up almost any book if the main character owns a diner, works in a diner, or frequents a diner so often it's mentioned in the cover copy. (A million bonus points if the book is about a lesbian CIA agent and a lesbian Mossad agent who fall in love while catching Nazi criminals while... running a diner? Perhaps time travel is involved so there can be a WWII setting...)

Okay, looking at this list, I realize it is much more of a wish list than a list of things that books I've read have actually contained/been about. I mean, I have never read a book with a lesbian CIA or Mossad agent, much less one in which they fall in love while running a diner and hunting Nazi criminals. If you have, please share the title!

So here's a new, real list:

• YA set during WWII. I read a lot of this when I was growing up, thanks to the huge library at my shul. My favorites in this genre include:
  
  
  • Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family (that's the first book; I love the whole series)
    
  • Renee Roth-Hano's Touch Wood
    
  • Ian Serraillier's Escape from Warsaw
    
  • Budge Wilson's Thirteen Never Changes
    
  • Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic
  
  
  
• Books with diners in them. Seriously! Like Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen -- or, oh! Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine!! (Haha.) (But seriously.)
  
  
• Secret agents. CIA, FBI, Secret Service, Mossad, MI5, MI6, I don't care. Give me a secret agent -- particularly with a romance. I'll read action-adventure books, too, but I am much more discriminating about the action-adventure/espionage books than I am about romance novels. I will read any romance novel with a secret agent romance, especially if the romance is cross-agency or happens on a mission. My favorite is probably All the Queen's Men by Linda Howard -- yes, please! Or Shining Through by Susan Isaacs, which incorporates many of my favorite things, including spies, fighting Nazis, a WWII setting, and a heroine from New York City. Thumbs up! I actually read Shining Through at least four times when I was nine years old. It is very important that neither of the secret agents die at the end of the book, and that they do end up together, not fighting or betraying each other! They don't need to get that "traditional romance novel happily ever after" (which I often loathe anyway!) -- I just want them to be semi-committed to a relationship (polyamorous is fine, monogamy not required!) with each other and not be killing each other or killed themselves. You see? I don't want a lot!
  
  
• Dystopia. Although... I am not sure this really belongs here. I will read any fanfic that has a dystopian setting (especially if it's set in the near-future or in the present with a slightly alternate history), and I will watch any dystopian TV show for at least a few episodes, but those, to me, require less of an investment than novels. And dystopian novels, as we all know, can be very very very awful. So I am partial to dystopian novels, but I will not read just any dystopian novel. However, obviously, if you write a dystopian novel about a lesbian Mossad agent fighting Nazis and falling in love with a lesbian CIA agent whilst running or spending a lot of time in a diner, I will absolutely read it with no hesitation.

Your turn! What gets you going every time? Any book recommendations for me?




( Other days of the book meme )