Hurricane Finger Food

As Hurricane Sandy smacks down into the eastern seaboard of the United States, I can't help my overwhelming urge for finger foods. Snacky-snacks. Should I go out and buy chips and salsa? Should I make peanut butter cookies? Banana bread?

There's a rational reason behind this desire: should the power go out, I'd need foodstuffs that do not require heat to prepare or refrigeration to keep.

There's an irrational reason too: Hurricane Sandy is the best reality TV of the season. All consuming drama. Infinite outcome possibilities. Occurring in real time. With chance of interactivity should the storm reach where you live. This sort of drama needs snacks.

Or at the very least we can all tweet #HurricaneSandy again and again.

I thought that, seeing as I'm hunkered down in the Midwest, that the hurricane posed no issue for me. Then I saw the Weather Channel's map of "likely power outages" (not me) and "possible power outages" (holy crap, that's me!) and I decided it couldn't hurt to take a trip to the store, stock up on essential snack food, get some fresh batteries, and fill a couple pitchers with drinking water.

They've not said if the power outages are possible all the way as far inland as Chicago and Wisconsin because of the winds alone (they're gonna be doozies) or if it's going to be because of rolling outages and demands on the grid. I remember all too well the rolling blackout of 2003 that darkened New York to Detroit. That was actually the first time in my life I'd ever seen a "brown out" before the blackout. My mother later told me that "brown outs" were common when she was a kid -- the television, which was on at the time,  got dim, then came back, then dimmed to almost nothing, then came back, then ... nothing. Four days worth of nothing.

President Obama got on air and made a very calm, very presidential, very rambling statement that people need to follow evacuation orders so that the first responders we have in place won't be unnecessarily put in harm's way. Reading between the lines: don't be selfish.

New Jersey's governor -- and I know very little about New Jersey's governor but this statement fits with everything I know of him -- says simply: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

Their concern is well founded. My New Yorker friend reposted this link to a Hurricane Irene cartoon today on Facebook. The fear among public officials, weather forecasters, and FEMA is always that when we predict a bad storm and it doesn't happen, that the next prediction will be seen as crying wolf.

Of course, all it takes is looking at the water mark in Battery Park. Today, four hours before the storm makes landfall, the water mark is only an inch below its height during Irene.

I'm not terribly worried for me, but being prepared never hurts.

Prepared. Like buying tortilla chips.

Twitter abounds with pictures of people's preparedness bounty. Namely beer. Practical for multiple reasons -- passing the time and, should the power go out, having all that cold beer filling the fridge will help keep the entire contents from rapid spoilage. (Not that we need more reasons for beer.)

Prepared. Like laying in supplies of brie and water crackers, Swiss Roll Cakes and salsa.

Prepared. Like checking the flashlight, finding it dead, then being responsible and purchasing new batteries for it, only to put in said new batteries and have the light bulb pop and die. So I have no flashlight. The good news is that I have plenty of candles and those at least give off heat -- important for someone looking to be prepared for a Midwestern windstorm and/or winter. Unfortunately, they also give off scent.

Scented candles: ready to stink up blackouts in pastel colors and high class holders. And banana bread (it's cooling on the rack). Yep. We're prepared.

Bourbon, Tea, Ghost Tales

Today I'm on Spinster Aunt, Bourbon and Tea, talking about my favorite ghost stories and how that love grew into the something that shaped the anthology I recently edited, Specter Spectacular:13 Ghostly Tales.

Ad of the Week

You may have seen this one on TV -- I hope you have, it's cute -- but this version is the "online edit."

Coffin Hop

Speak Coffee to Me isn't part of this year's Coffin Hop, but World Weaver Press is. Hop over there to enter for the WWP prize by telling us about your favorite ghost stories and find out more about the horrifying Halloween Coffin Hop.

Got an appetite for ghost stories? Be sure to enter the Goodreads Book Copy for one free signed-by-the-editor print copy of Specter Spectacular: 13 Ghostly Tales between now and October 31, 2012. Open to all US mailing addresses.

And you don't even have to join Coffin Hop to win -- you just need to enjoy a good creepy tale or two, or a funny ghostly tale, or a heartwarming ghostly tale or ... you get the drift. Don't want to take my word for it? Tangent Online, short fiction review buffs, have stamped their approval on Specter Spectacular saying it's "a fun, quick read" and "a nice little collection to read this Halloween."

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Specter Spectacular

by Eileen Wiedbrauk

Giveaway ends October 31, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

All Shook Up

I've never been an Elvis fan -- I should preface this post with that -- but I've also never been an Elvis hater. In fact I never really thought about the King of Rock and Roll except for the passing mention in The Outsiders where the uptown kids love the Beatles and the greaser boys think that Elvis is way better.

So when the manuscript came across my desk for The Haunted Housewives of Allister, Alabama, a tale of an upper-middle class housewife who has a haunted Velvet Elvis forced into her possession, I didn't entirely know what I was getting into Elvis-wise. But the writing was fabulously witty and the main character, Cleo Tidwell, was enchanting. In fact, Cleo Tidwell quickly put me in mind of Stephanie Plum, a character I'd consumed with ravenous speed one winter. So I dove on in to the world of ghost Elvis and possessed Velvet Elvis. And it was a riot.

I've learned so many wacky Elvis factoids in the process of editing and publishing this book. When you finish the novel and realize how much true Elvis stuff falls in the realm of the strange, it's hard not to imagine it as the perfect basis for this kind of fun, witty, cozy mystery with a paranormal twist. Susan Abel Sullivan did her research -- fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, anyone? Apparently there's a knack to making these sandwiches. If I'd have tried, I'd have not thought to make the paste, so the result would have been ... different, I'm sure.

If you enjoy Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, or more generally cozy mysteries, Southern humor, and witty writing, you can grab the ebook of The Haunted Housewives of Allister, Alabama today (early release) or the trade paperback on October 30. Or perhaps just warm up to the novel with the sneak peek of chapter one on the publisher's website.

Ad of the Week

Twitter is a strange beast

This is the honest to goodness truth. I made the following graphic because I couldn't get over the incongruity of what I was reading. Then again, as a barometer of society and what we're all talking about ... seems pretty accurate.

Grab Bag

My energy has currently been sunk into getting the Haunted October blog tour up and running and all the graphics settled and books out and ... whew. Well, I suppose it's too soon for a "whew," but I'll take any accomplishment as a small victory. So this Tuesday's blog post is a grab bag o' interesting stuffs, making it in just under the wire, minutes before midnight local time.

Got a ghost story you're sharing on  your blog? Haunted October wants to hear about it!

A.E. Decker's fabulous "Viva le Macabre" is a glorious reveling in fall, "the season of dying." And Kristina Wojtaszek's series on Haunted Folklore at Enchanted Conversation magazine is an interesting start to a five part series running each Monday in October.

QR codes for bikes -- how smart is this? Stolen bike has easy to trace barcode dohicky that you can register with the police for free ... if you live in London.

Fifty Shades of Chicken is an honest to goodness cookbook/great Fifty Shades of Grey parody. Someone tried to shift my attention to Fifty Shades of Bacon after I mentioned the cookbook on Twitter. But Bacon is a novelized parody. And Fifty Shades of Chicken is a succulent feast of innuendo, from the "bound" and trussed chicken on the cover to the foodporn table of contents: "Dripping Thighs, Sticky Chicken Fingers, Vanilla Chicken, Chicken with a Lardon, Bacon-Bound Wings, Spatchcock Chicken, Learning-to-Truss-You Chicken, Holy Hell Wings, Mustard-Spanked Chicken, and more, more, more!" 

Mustard-Spanked, eh? I think "spanked" is a verb that ought to be used more in food description. Watch, in a year, it'll be on every high-end menu.

Beware the Highland werewolf. Rawr.

Mars Rover Curiosity finds evidence of water -- water! a Martian stream bed! -- and Honey Boo Boo gets more coverage on TV. Sadness. Good thing the wondrous nerds and geeks of the world (yours truly included) get their news online and from NPR. What will the Mars Rover find next? A three-fingered button that, when depressed, produces breathable air?