100 pre-orders reached over the weekend!  On to 250. Don't forget to pre-order if you haven't, and even if you have why not pre-order again for a friend?  In the meantime, how about another recipe? No cocktails this time, but food (because it's usually good to have something in your stomach to soak up all that alcohol, huh?) There's a scene in the book where Susan and Edith Vale cook chicken hash together in Edith's kitchen in Pasadena. The recipe actually comes from Julia Child. Many people, when they think about Julia, think French food, of course, but Julia was born in Pasadena (this is discussed briefly in the book btw) and she died in Montecito, a short ways up the coast from Edith's house at Trancas. She also had very strong New England ties, and in her book "The Way To Cook" she includes many recipes for hearty New England fare. Like all New Englanders, Julia had a thrifty side. So if you have leftover beef, or ham or chicken, turkey, what do you do? You make hash, of course. So here's the recipe for Chicken Hash that Susan cooks (while Edie watches and smokes Parliaments and drinks her Manhattan). It's a great way to use up leftovers. It's crusty on the bottom, but tender inside. If you like, toss a poached egg on top. Enjoy!!

Chicken Hash (recipe adapted from Julia Child's "The Way To Cook"

1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked chicken, skin and bones removed

salt and fresh ground pepper

2 tbsps. olive oil

1 cup onions, finely diced

2 tbsps. butter

2 tbsps. flour

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 cups diced peeled potatoes (about 2 large Idaho)

3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

3 tbsps. chopped Italian parsley

1)  Cut the meat into a 1/4 inch dice. In a bowl season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

2)  Place potatoes in saucepan, cover with water. Add a little salt and bring to simmer. Cook, about five minutes, until potatoes are tender. Set aside.

3)  In a 10 inch skillet (non-stick is best for this) melt the butter and saute onions until tender and lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Blend in four. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.  Add in one cup chicken stock. Bring to simmer, stirring, for another two minutes, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. This is your hash base. Fold the potatoes, meat and the remaining stock into the base. Cover and simmer, slowly, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hash begins to crust on the bottom. Uncover, stir the crust into the body, and if the mixture seems dry, add a little extra stock. Taste for salt and pepper. Cover and let crust on the bottom again, 10 or 15 minutes more.

4) Stir up again. Blend in the cheese and parsley and cook, 5-10 minutes more, uncovered this time, until the bottom is nicely browned and well-crusted.

5) Either flip the hash over in the pan and slide onto a platter, or remove portions and flip over onto plates so the crusty side is up. You could serve this with tomato sauce but good old ketchup works well too.  Edith Vale would insist on Heinz Ketchup and Heinz only because she's insane about this kind of stuff.

Time for another book recommendation Sunday. I'm speeding it up to 5 books this time, mainly because my procrastination on starting this weekly update has led to quite a few of the books getting really close to their funding end date before I could get around to them. While I didn't intend it this way, this week sort of puts on display one of the earliest genres that attracted me to storytelling - science fiction. My fantasy geekdom may be more often on display nowadays, but I'm still a complete sci-fi geek as well. I'm a bit of a Trekkie, Brown Coat, and Whovian(my first love of the three was Trek and without it I may not have moved on to the others). My sci-fi fandom goes far beyond that though, with an especial love for the particularly cheesy bits(did I hear someone say Ice Pirates?).

Enough of me geeking out over my own geek though, the point was that 4 of the 5 books this week are science fiction. Without further ado I'll get on with it. As always the links to the books are embedded within the titles, and links to the author pages are embedded in the author's names. After all 5 books I'll briefly list the funding time remaining on each.

 "The Continuing Adventures of Starbuck McClaw" by Jen Elizabeth Rose: I love this premise, and the prologue's delivery keeps me chuckling every time I see it. To better sum it up though I'm just going to quote from near the prologue's end.

"That is where I will let the story begin, but before I do, here here are some important facts to know:

1. Mummies are mostly from Egypt. They are dead people, very well preserved because of many chemicals, the dry Egyptian climate, and also wrapping them in cloth.

2. Mummies do not have any organs. This includes the brain.

3. A Brain is pretty essential for storing memories and thoughts and things like that.

4. The shrouded figure/young man in a lab coat is named is Steve."

"Dax Harrison" by Tony Valdez: I think this one does a great job of showing off both the shiny hull and the dirty outskirts of its universe. Plus I've always been a bit of a sucker for a captain who's at least a bit of a ne'er do well. The narrative also does a good job of changing just enough depending of the focal character to reflect that character's personality beyond relying solely on the character's actions, creating a story that has us learning about the character's through nuance as well as words and actions. To me this always serves to draw me in further, since it is the same way we naturally interact with and learn about each other. Read it and you'll both see what I'm talking about, and I suspect you'll also greatly enjoy yourself.

"Feyside" by Peter Birdsall: The one fantasy book on this week's list. I must say I find myself getting lost in this one's descriptions, which for me is a good thing. The narrative paints such vivid imagery of both the settings and the characters(beyond merely the physical) that you can't help but be absorbed into the sight of as well as by the personality of each. Beyond this the excerpts currently up do a grand job of presenting the magic of the Fae in the manner I most often think of it(both grandiose and subtle at the same time), and interjecting that magic into the otherwise ordinary world(whether rustic logging camp or prosperous trade town) in a way that only increase the effect of wonder. Again, read it, enjoy it, and order it if you're even half as enchanted by this one as I am.

"She is the End" by A.C. Weston: I may sound repetive here, but once again great use of narrative to describe both setting and characters vividly. You'll hear variations on those points often from me because honestly the two things I enjoy most about reading are being drawn into a new world to explore and being able to study well-written/interesting/unique characters. I suppose that's why sci-fi and fantasy have always been my favorite genres, because in my experience they deliver the most interesting/unique/breathtaking new worlds and characters to submerge myself in. The excerpts from this book exemplify both points, and it does it in a manner which is also wonderfully fast paced. Writing scenes that both flow at a breakneck speed and provide you with enough details to fully draw you in is(to me anyway) one of the hardest things to do, and A.C. seems to do it with complete ease. Read it and see.

"Ghosts of War" by Paul Robinson: Okay, I'm going force myself to not be repetive over my enjoyment of narrative here, but its true of this one as well. It also does a good job of flowing as a fast pace, which shouldn't be surprising since it follows a group that I like to think of as "Delta Force or Navy Seals in Space". Don't get the wrong idea from my cheesy description though, its not just a blow-em-up action flick style of story. You do get character development and drama, which again is one of the main reasons I typically take the time to read a story. Ultimately as with all good books, this one's own words show itself to be a good book far better than my words ever could. So, as always, I have to suggest you read it for yourself and see.

Since I'm posting this one so late, I'll tell you how many days there are for each as of tomorrow. There's 9 days left on the funding for "The Continuing Adventures of Starbuck McClaw", 12 days left for "Dax Harrison", 18 days left for "Feyside", 22 days left for "She is the End", and 27 days for "Ghosts of War". I know I've somewhat broken my own guideline laid down last week of focusing on books that haven't met the Quill goal yet by including 2 that have hit that goal in this week's recommendations, but they were just too good to not recommend them.

Thanks for your time, and I promise to be on time with my blog post on Tuesday.

Going to be very busy durig Christmas.  Work is truely insane, I may not have time to update for awhile.  So for now, here is chapter 5.  Hope everyone enjoys it!