Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

Tonight, I'll go out and eat gumbo with friends. I'll launch bottle rockets in the general direction of Bud Rip's, and I'll drink a cube of mojitos -- that's right. And of course, I'll have to look back over 2010 with fond nostalgia. After all, I'll only ever have one first book. There's the chance that I may -- someday -- have a first "New York" published book, but All Along the Pacific  will still always be my first. That happened this year. It really happened. This may seem a little redundant, but some days I still can't believe it. I'm eternally grateful to the people who have worked to make this happen -- my mom who did the illustrations, my thesis team, the staff at Open Heart, my husband for his patience, and anyone who decides my book is good enough to buy. Thank you everyone for making 2010 one of the best years yet.

I finally pulled the taro up yesterday, after a few frosts had killed off most of the leaves. It certainly didn't get the full time in the soil that it should have, but I did get plenty of tubers to use. Half of the harvest I sliced up and put in the food dehydrator as a first step toward flour. I probably should have done a little research first. Seems it would have been better to make poi first and then dehydrate it, which in hindsight makes a lot of sense. Boiling it first would get a lot of excess starch out of it which might affect the bread consistency afterward. I'll try that next time. I still have a bag full of taro tubers in the fridge as well. For, I'd say $0.99 worth of investment -- and some time -- I've got quite a bit of stuff to work with. I've also got bread starter going right now, and have been baking everyday for three days straight. So far, the sponge method is working best. A cup of starter is mixed with a cup of flour and water and left to...

Today I turn thirty-three years old. Eleven days ago my first book released. Here are some comparisons (first novel year minus birthday year, according to Wikipedia): Stephanie Meyers 28 Anne Rice 35 John Steinbeck 27 China Mieville 26 Gabriel Garcia Marquez 35 Jane Austen 36 Those average to about 31.2, so I guess I was a little later than average, but still on a fine schedule if I can keep my workload up over the next few years. This week, I wrote a speculative fiction story for an anthology. It had to be set in the 1920s, but include paranormal, science fiction, or horror elements. I went the sci fi route. I'm afraid it's lacking something -- a more dynamic meeting with the red herring, perhaps. A gun fight in an alley... I don't know, but as it is, I'm only 500 words from the limit on the anth, so I don't think I have much room to add anything. I know I'm supposed to be starting back on Magpie , but that's going to wait until the New Year. I...

A few weeks ago, students were shown two pictures of the fall of the Berlin Wall. From those pictures, some vibrant writing grew. These students had a ten-minute history lesson before writing... Berlin Wall By Andrew I pushed through the crowd. People stood, screamed, yelled, jumped, and chanted. So may people piled in the massive crowd. We crowded like ants fixing their hill, only we fixed our city. I fought closer to the front. I needed to get a hit in on the wall that separated my city, my people, my family. I finally arrive. There was a man with an ax. He chopped away at the wall. He wore a pink sweatshirt and blue jeans. His friends around him looked unusually calm to me compared to the other people in the crowd. I figured that they'd stood longest considering how close to the wall the were. I then realized I possessed nothing to hit the wall with. Disappointed, I watched the man. Once he became tired, I grabbed the ax and flung myself at the wall. I hit it. The cement chippe...

I put up our Christmas tree yesterday while the Buccaneers played against the Falcons... I bet you know who I was cheering for in that match-up. We are starting on year two with living in half the house, so again we have a small tree, a white tinsel number, that sits on top of the Brunswick .78 player that belonged to my great grandmother. That means no listening to Bessie Smith for the interim. We are putting up only gold and white ornaments, hoping to make up for the sorry $20 Big Lots tree with the sheer decadence of the decorations. My ornament for this year was an air ship. It's silver, but I put it up anyway. My birthday is in a month: thirty-three years old. I like double numbers. I'm one of those people that makes a wish at 11:11, so it seems like a nice year. To celebrate, I got tickets for the Tales of the Cocktail holiday event, Tales of the Toddy. We went to this last year, and it was awesome. This year may even be better because it is in the Monteleone, which I...

All Along the Pacific , my collection of historic fiction, is now for sale at shop.debrincase.com . It went on sale last night. Please help me make it one of the best-selling books from Open Heart ever by placing your order now! This book spans California history from about 1850 to 2005. The stories are loosely based on real events, with nuggets of truth burred in sometimes strange and wacky tales. Thanks for your support and happy holidays!