Buying an American Sycamore for Vera!

Plantus Occidentalis as a memorial to our head housekeeper, Vera Kraker. We're buying the tree along with the planting kit from Fast-Growing-Trees.com.

Making dinner for some late arriving guests

I am making dinner, from scratch, of course, for some late arriving guests. Airlines are becoming harder to deal with and the service is getting worse. Time to come up with a better mode of transportation.

Lavender Ganache is back! But it wont stay long. Only as long as our Spring Cubes!

Lavender Ganache is back under truffles. Enjoy them while they last.

The swimming pool here at the Greenville Arms (1889 inn)

The pool is up and running. It's not yet swimmable. Just shocked it and I could see the algae dying in droves. Spring is finally here at the Greenville Arms and the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops.

Our 2013 Anniversary Trip to The Rabbit Hill Inn

Kim has already beaten me to the punch and published her account of our 21st Anniversary Stay at The Rabbit Hill Inn. (And yes, Kim is my trophy wife.)



But I have all the cool pictures. I already published many of those pictures on Facebook but here they are with my story and I'm sticking to it.

Our trip began with a rousing and clarifying drive from our inn in Greenville, NY to The Rabbit Hill Inn in Vermont, where we were destined to eat, play and sleep for almost every day of our stay. (Sound familiar?) We stopped off on the way to some cute and quaint shops and had lunch chocolates and coffee, saw the sights and enjoyed our drive. Go read The Trip Up before continuing.

The first thing we did was the arrive at the inn.



We had a beautiful and luxurious room. The room was called The Nest. Half of it was hot tub, shower and vanity WITH, I might add, a fainting couch. A fainting couch is not a luxury but rather a necessity if your wife is a silent film star, a quilter or a knitter. Now, go read about our room now, and then come back here. The devils and enjoyment are in the details and I'm not cluttering up this postmodern Bauhaus post with post-premodern details. Did I mention all the pictures? They're on the prePostBauhaus Room Post. Swedish Furniture.

What else did we have, food of course. We ate at the inn and the food was good. I wont give you an exhaustive bite by bite but I will give you a barrage of pictures. The problem with food pictures is that I am not always sure what I ate where. I should make up a sign and photograph it before I do the food. I'll have more pictures from other restaurants in my next post. And so concludes my Anniversary Trip Main Article. There is one breakfast picture. Can you find it?

My writing website is coming together.

I wont be moving my writing posts from here to there but I do have three more writing posts that I have been sitting on and I'll inaugurate my new website with those posts and more. I also have some great shots of the inn and other stuff.

I do post on my Facebook pages. Example,

It's not that hard to get back to work on novel three now that I know how it will go. All I had was the introductions and a few pages of the first chapter. Now I am finished with Chapter 8. I'm on a roll again. This is turning out to be a horror novel in the Omniverse setting.

I find it harder to get back to my editing of Book 2. Writing is easy. And I am getting much better. Book 3 is heads and shoulders above Book 1. Though, to tell the truth, Book 1 is pretty good.

I've also outlined a new horror novel not set in the Omniverse. I had the idea for a long time but finally it gelled. Thank you Stephen King. :-) I've been reading On Writing by Stevie. Good book.

The Self Referential Room Post: The Nest Room

Here's another supporting function for the main post about our trip to The Rabbit Hill Inn. I am not going to put

Defun TheRoom(Y)

in this post. No need. You get the idea. It's not meant to stand on its own as a post but rather it's meant to go hand in glove, or in this case, romantic hand in romantic hand, with the main post. Because I am practicing making all of my novels (posts) stand alone, I will assume you have not read anything else before this post and write accordingly.

Our room was huge. (I know, I know. If you've come here from the main program, ah, post, you know this already.) It had a two person Jacuzzi. I almost said two man but in this case it was a one man and one woman hot tub though I'm the one who loves going into hot tubs, not Kim, and I only went once. I needed it. I had slipped an fallen on some black ice and my rear end hurt for our entire stay. I might have gone into the hot tub more but we were having such a great time that I kept forgetting.



Go ahead, weep with envy. We also had a beautiful four poster



with a romantic fireplace. (As seen from the comfy bed.)



Now, you may sob. Get on with it. Don't worry, sob in the privacy of your own office, family room, bedroom. We wont tell.

Add to the bedroom area a loveseat and a chair, both wicker. (In my mind, I've divided the room into two areas, "bedroom" qua "bed and fireplace and other stuff" and "bedroom" qua "spa".) Don't forget the coffee table. From the loveseat, I wrote and edited my novels. I brought my laptop with me. I've read that many great writers stayed at and lived in inns. I'm hoping that some of that goodness rubs off on me. Can you picture me, hunched over the glass coffee table typing away? I can and that's why I later moved down into the bar area. More on that later.



Finally, we come to the all important fainting couch. Next to the wicker fainting couch was a vanity. I remember my sister Colette had a small wooden vanity. This was a large wicker vanity and, though I had no use for a vanity and I don't think Kim used it except as a place to drink her morning coffee, Kim did use the fainting couch. She knitted socks on that beautiful fainting couch.



And finally, I didn't take a picture of the nice and serviceable shower or the toilet. They were together in the "rest room" located in the "spa" portion of the bedroom. Nor did I take a picture of the sink which was outside the "rest room". Those of you who think I'm criticizing the arrangement need to rethink that. This inn was built in the 18th century and space is an important consideration. Just the fact that they were able to fix all this into The Nest is impressive. Our inn, or that house that became the inn, was built in the 19th century, a hundred years later, and even so, Room 6 has its private bathroom in the hall and a sink in the room. It also has a TV. The only guest room that does.

But I did take a picture of the view outside the window from the sink area.



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The Trip Up!

Defun TheTripUp(X)
Not to have the Brits out do us, this is a very short version of Kim and I going to OUR North Country and enjoying the sights. Since I was, and in my heart of hearts still am, a software engineer, you may call this post a subroutine. (It's really a function, though.) It isn't meant to be executed (read) on its own but rather is meant to be executed (read) in context of the larger main program (post). Jump: But first, go see the movie, The Trip. "She was only sixteen years old."

Great, now that we got rid of those fuddy-duddies, we'll get on to the good stuff. "Gentlemen to bed, for we leave at nine thirtish."

Kim and I labored in good weather and in better weather driving, riding through harrowing adventures, with only one purpose in mind to relax at The Rabbit Hill Inn. And harrowing doesn't quite cover this adventure. (Just a little gratuitous foreshadowing.) But before I can return a value from this subroutine (really a function) I have to post pictures of our trip UP. That's the whole purpose of this block! "Gentlemen, and Ladies, to bed! We ride at a quarter past ten!"

First we stopped off at this Café for pulled pork sandwiches, Kim's favorite. Yeah, I too wish our North Country had better restaurants! What I wouldn't have given for some truffled pâté de foie gras. The Cafe was called, Kim tells me, "Moose something or other." (Hey, it was almost two months ago. OK. A month and a week. But a lot has happened. I've sent out my novel and have written a second and started another. I can't remember the name though I know it isn't the Blue Moose or the Cool Moose!) Thank God I didn't get the sweet (maple) sauce but the original recipe.



And we browsed the stuff. The Cafe was mostly store. The Cafe part was a couple of tables in the back and a grill up front behind the cash registers. If you get a chance, stop there at the Mouse Cafe something or other.



With hindsight, ah, hartsight, um, more like moosesight, no that doesn't sound right either. Let me think. With mooseaforethought, we should have continued on to The Moon Dog Cafe in Chester, Vermont. We had great scones and some good espresso drinks. Not that Big Moose something or other was bad, the pulled pork original, though overly sweet, was still decent. I think Kim and I would have preferred a less sweet sammy.

Moon Dog carried Life By Chocolate but no longer. They now have some other, not as good, chocolate. I'm not even sure it's organic. But the confections are too sweet, again, for our tastes but that might be the original sauce talking.



And how fantastic is this? There's a quilt shop, Country Treasures, right next to the cafe? I hope some of our quilting and dying students read my blog. I know they read the Art Workshops blog, right?



(Kim is giving me a blow-by-blow of a passerby deciding whether he wants to take a workout or bench-press bench our across the street neighbors put out as trash. He's putting it in his truck, taking it out of the truck, back in the truck, looks at it, takes it out of his truck, puts it on the ground, picks it up, puts it down, picks it up and puts it down. Kim is softly saying, "Indecision, indecision, indecision. They just put it out. Our across the street neighbors just put it out with a futon." Then he picked it up and put it in his truck, walked away from the truck, circled the truck, took it out again and then finally put it in and drove away. "Let's see if he comes back in a few minutes. I'm sure he will," Kim tells me. Now she's off to get the mail.)

Gratuitous yellow houses:


And now, back to the car, for we ride at 14:35 hours, more or less! We have relaxing to do. No lollygagging, neither in snow nor sun for this is our vacation (holiday.)



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Coloring Easter Eggs using Blueberries and Beets

Every Easter, Kim and I decorate eggs. We have up, till now, used the commercial dyes and preparations. But this year, Kim decided only natural colors would do. And even though we have some natural and organic dyes that we use in Life By Chocolate chocolates, Kim wanted to create the dyes from scratch. We used blueberries and beets.

!!! Spoiler alert: the blueberries made a much better dye then the beets. !!!

First gather your supplies!



Next, mash up your bloobs, short for blueberries, and dice your beets. Cut the beets into medium sized chunks. You need about 2 cups of each. I recommend using more than 2 cups of beets or cutting them into smaller chunks. 2 cups for the bloobs is just fine. We cut our beets into very large chunks, see the picture below, and used only two cups. (We tried putting in an extra tea spoon of vinegar but that didn't do anything. I'd recommend smaller chunks or more beets for a better dye.)



Now add 2 cups of water to the beets and also to the blueberries. Bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.



Once they are done, strain out the particulates.



Next, add one teaspoon of white vinegar to the dye. The vinegar acts as a binder. If you've used commercially prepared dyes, you will remember this step from your other egg coloring adventures.



Before using your dye, let it cool to room temperature. Don't put the hot dye into your refrigerator; the heat will spoil your food. If you are in a rush, use a bain marie but don't add any more liquid to the dye.



When the dye is ready, have fun coloring your eggs! Make sure you turn your eggs while they are in the dye to assure uniform coloring. I would suggest that you leave the egg in the dye for at least 3 minutes.



Don't forget to set them aside to drain. As you can see, the blue dye came out dark and the eggs retained their color when left to dry. The red dye tended to slide of the eggs even when we left the egg in the dye for over ten minutes. This created a beautiful, if subtle, mottled egg surface. Don't forget to blot them dry. Do not rub them or you will rub the dye off. (Kim and I used the rubbing technique to create stripes and other effects.)



Now enjoy your colorful, naturally dyed eggs. Go ahead! Revel in the satisfaction that you have used only natural vegetable dye this Easter and have made the dye with your own two hands. Be smug. You've earned it.



Come to one of our fabric dying classes this year at the Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops.

Rejection #6

I am only slightly more disturbed about this one because it is Bookends Agency and Jessica Faust's blog sold me on the agency. I wasn't expecting a hit on this one. They're not doing fantasy. I thought I saw urban fantasy on their list and thought, why not? But after checking, I don't see it on their list anymore. Maybe they'll like The Inn of the Star Crossed, which is a historical fantasy set in Civil War Manhattan and upstate NY. It has romance in it too. Well we're only up to 6 rejections. I need to get to 100 rejections before I start getting hits. Keep your fingers crossed.

Forward progress: I have cover photos for the two Facebook pages, The Inn at the Crossroads, The Inn of the Star Crossed. Now I need one for the Omniverse.

Qualified Success! Yay!

I have reserved two websites, Mark Vincent LaPolla.com and Mark LaPolla.net. (As of the writing of this, 3/31/13, they are under construction. I hope to look back on this period of my life and chuckle.) I was too late to get Mark LaPolla.com but I don't really need it. I have also created two Facebook pages, The Inn at the Crossroads and The Inn of the Star Crossed. (They are also both under construction.) As I have said, it was Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog post which triggered my epiphany. (Well, triggered might be a little misleading. It was a combination of my own blog posts and comments I made on her blog that eventually lead me to the conclusion that I am a dunce.) But it was the eBook Write Good or Die that has cemented my position and my desire to get published as an eBook even if I have to self-publish.

I can hear Joe Koranth shaking his head saying, "Haven't you been reading my blog? Have you learned nothing?" And I must reply, "Yes, you are right. But first, I have to make sure my book is worthy." Actually, that's not my real response. I have my name on tons of paper. Just Google either "Mark LaPolla" or "Mark Vincent LaPolla", especially the latter. Many of my papers and articles and such comes up associated with my name and that is a fraction of my work. I was publishing before the internet and not all of my papers are on the web. But someone is starting to do just that. I recently found one of my Behavioral and Brain Sciences papers with Bernie Baars on the web.

My main point is, I am just beginning. I have many queries and manuscripts out. I'd hate to self-publish only to find that a publisher has accepted my book. I will, however, only accept a decent deal. After all, I don't need the money and though I may have a long career as a writer ahead of me, I don't think I can match Mr. Koranth's amazing output. I am late to the self publishing game. But I hope to have not only two completely manuscript s by the end of the year, but a third as well. Even though Kim and I run two art schools, a painting school and a fiber art school, I don't have any cover art or covers for my books yet. (Calling all art students! Does anyone want to take up a commission?)

Forward progress! Or in the famous words of the 10th Doctor, "Allons-y!" And no, bow ties are not cool unless you are in full dress. Sorry, Matt.

I know, I know. Many of you want to kill me because either you are looking for chocolate from Life by Chocolate, or you are looking for the menu for this year for the workshops, or you are, God help me, looking for more information about Caramel Cutters, my highest traffic post. And what did you find? You found all this writer gobbledigook. There, you now have all the links. Go and enjoy and see you at a Workshop.

Branding! Writing: the Author as Factor!

Don't ask me why it took me this long to figure out that I needed a website branded to me. My only excuse, and it is an excuse, is that I was taught in the corporate world, especially in software start-ups, you should never brand the founder of a company. Because, when you want to sell that company, you will have to sell the founders with it. Or when you go public, your IPO, the founders will have to go public, too. Remember, the CEO and CFO are not always founders. Rather what you should do is brand the product and let it stand on it's own two feet. The Hailey twins, Shawn and Kim, branded the Meta-Software to them. They were the gold standard, not HSpice. The Hailey twins were the factory, not Meta-Software.

Look what happened with Apple. Founder Steve Jobs is the classic example. While Steve was alive, Apple could do not wrong. It could miss two quarters and still climb to $705. But without him, Apple lost 33% of its market cap. Why? Because Steve Jobs == Apple. That didn't happen with the Woz. Woz who? Exactly. Nor has that happened with Bill Gates. We tried to do that at BrightStreet, an online promotions company I helped found.

That is exactly how we run our inn. Unlike the previous owners, Eliot and Tish, we try not to associate ourselves closely with our brand. No, rather we try to make the painting school, the inn, the art quit and fiber art school, the chocolate factory and retail store stand on its own two legs. These three brands, Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, The Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, Life By Chocolate, are what we push. Those are our brands. We are just executives at Woodchuck Ventures, Inc., our company. So, even though we will be here forever, we wont live forever.

When it came to getting a website and branding me, I didn't make the connection. But it is obvious, after a ten ton epiphany fell on my wooly headed, dense, numb skull that the writer and the artist is the product. Or at least, the write or artist is the factory and company all combined into one. Here I was thinking only about branding my work! But who produces the work? I do. And that's probably why writers of all stripes complain when people ask them about their process, where they get their ideas from, why they did this vs. that. Many will say gruffly, "Read the book; it's all in there." Or they might say, "I don't like to talk about my work. Anything I have to say is in there," pointing to his or her newly minted novel.

But if the writer is the factory, then those questions are nothing more than QA, quality control. What the writer does in rewrite then is QE or quality engineering. But the customer, the reader, wants to know about the internals. The customer needs to connect with the factory, or factor, to get a warm and fuzzy about the product. And that is why I am going to get a website ASAP!

Is it no wonder that my first novel was about Silicon Valley?

Websites: Whoa Nelly! Blogs: OMG, I'm a dunce!

Here I am debating with myself about self publishing and guess what? I have no website. I have been sending out queries and synopsis and even whole manuscripts to publishers and I have included the Life By Chocolate website. I did this thinking to myself, "OK, they want a website, I have one handy." Holy moly. I would have done better to send them my Publisher's Marketplace website. Me pongo rojo. =%-}

And writing experience. I have included not only my scientific and technological writings, all well and good, but also my small press and literary journal publications. The short stories and poems I have written. All of these, while cool, are not recent and are pretty moldy by now. I forgot to mention my blogs:

Life By Chocolate Blog

The Art Workshop Blog

And most damning of all, I did not mention that I was a featured publisher and writer for FoodBuzz. Sure, that might not help me with fiction directly. If I had been writing that cookbook everyone wants and I haven't done yet because I'm too involved writing novels that aren't yet selling, it would be a big selling point. Even for my fiction writing, it's a selling point because it shows that other publishers have wanted my writing.

Kim has suggested that I get another blog for my book writing and I think she is right. I'll get a website and power it with blog software. I'll also get Chip, my brother-in-law to pretty it up.

This doesn't mean that I will cancel the debate on self-publishing but it does mean I am taking the first steps to create the framework for self-publishing and marketing any book that I do publish. I am a dunce! You heard it hear first, folks. But I am correcting that glaring bit of ignorance. Painful but true.

My Story So Far, only a sprinkling of chocolate

I have been remiss in writing for this blog. There are only so many times I can talk about chocolate bunnies, hearts or bark and there are only so many recipes I have to publish. (See, I even published my Egg Nog Recipe AGAIN.) I don't publish any of my chocolate recipes because the work involved to bring you up to speed on how to make beautiful chocolates would be daunting. And let's face it, I'm lazy and I'm busy. I know. I know. Everyone wants me to write a cookbook. I have more than enough recipes to make it worth my while to write and to make it worth your while to read.

So, then, why have I not written those cookbooks? The answer is simple, I've been spending my time writing Fantasy Adventure novels. Yes, you heard that right. I've taken up, once again my aged Mac laptop, a hand-me-down from Kim, and started writing. Or as the kids say, a hammy-down. (I take comfort by reminding myself that at least it isn't the old Royal I used in the past.) I am sending queries out to agencies, for example, BookEnds Agency, and to publishers, for example, Istoria. Indeed, Jessica Faust's blog has been most helpful.

My friends from the good ol' days of software, large paychecks and stock options, have asked me repeatedly why I don't self-publish. They have wondered aloud at "why I am going Old School." And today, after reading Kristin Kathryn Rusch's blog, especially the article The Logic Behind Self Publishing, I am beginning to wonder myself.

As most of you know, I am on Facebook and I have been giving my friends there a blow-by-blow. I have very vocally and visibly given an accounting of my rejections and successes. (Five (5) rejections, four (4) from agents and one (1) from a publisher who requested my full manuscript. Of those five (5) rejections, two (2) said that my work was intriguing and one (1) said they would happily look at my next book to see if it fit with their business. I currently have one (1) manuscript request outstanding. Waiting on either a contract or a rejection slip. Not that nowadays one actually gets real paper slips. No, no, I am waiting on an email.)

I am not new to publishing. I am well published in science, technology and the social sciences, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science (graphics, automatic programing), Linguistics (phenology, theoretical syntax and computational linguistics), Psychology (consciousness and cognition, computer implementation of memory wrt language), and Space Sciences (don't ask.) And, in the past, on that old Royal, I've had short stories and poems published. That was back in the day when there still was such a thing as a rejection slip and it took money and stamps to send work to hardcopy, I can roll them up and swat flies, magazines. I took a slight detour into writing software rather than fiction and didn't stop once to look back. (OK. Maybe once.) Why? For the fun and the money. Oh, it was once a lucrative career.

Now that I am an innkeeper, I find myself with some free time. Remember, innkeepers don't get days off, they get months off. Or as I say in my novel, The Inn at the Crossroads,

"There’s an old saying in the inn trade, 'Innkeepers don’t get days off they get months off.' Meaning, when you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Either you had people at the inn or you were bleeding cash. As a software consultant, we had a similar saying but with, I thought, a better outcome. 'When you’re on the beach, you are on the beach.'

'On the beach,' is consulting jargon for 'not working.' It’s sort of a play on 'beached' or 'beached up.' If you aren’t working as a highly paid software consultant in Silicon Valley California, you were literally having a party with friends on the nearest beach, drinking beer, or expensive Premier Cru Bordeaux, and grilling burgers, steaks or fajitas."

So, I come to a crossroads in my life, do I self-publish or do I continue with writing queries and sending out my manuscript to publishers and agents or both? Ms. Rusch makes some bang up points in her article, and in her blog in general. She's a hellofa business woman and I recommend her website/blog to everyone. Here is the rub. How do I KNOW when my work is good enough to publish? If I self-publish I have to also self-judge my writing. I take and have taken comfort in the past that a professional editor and/or agent was at the other end of my pipeline judging, helping and editing. Indeed, my wife was a technical writer, a writer of eBooks in the early 1990s before it was popular, before Amazon. My sister Colette Polsky was and still is an editor. I have not been just sitting on my books. I have sent them to friends, Ed Leed, for example, for great feedback. I have read them to my wife and have gotten valuable feedback. I have sent them to my sister, Colette, and her husband, Donald, for terrific editing and feedback. And yet I dither still. I am at a crossroads. Do I turn left and die? Do I turn right and live? Or do I just stand in the crossroads and wait? You decide.

I have a feeling that many of you will start pestering me for the recipes of my new dishes. Please pester away. You know I encourage you to do that. It wont get written unless I hear from you either in person or on this blog.

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." -- Samuel Johnson

New Menu! Art Workshops Late Breaking News!

I have completely changed the menu for the art workshops. It is an all new menu and it is terrific. I have taken pictures of some of the new dishes with my iPhone. And, of course, as always, we'll have terrific vegan and vegetarian dishes for those that do not eat meat or use other animal products or by products. For those of you who follow Life By Chocolate on Facebook, you've already seen most of these pictures. Enjoy!

This year we will be having


Steak Diane




Steak Diane is a classic and we are closely following that classic tradition though the sauce will not be prepared table side it will come from the kitchen ready to eat and enjoyed.

Fingerling potatoes and snap peas will accompany this dish.



Orange Tilapia



This is one of my favorite fish dishes. It's bright and light and very colorful.

Steam asparagus and pecans will round out this dish!


Chicken Creole Jambalaya


An awe inspiring Jambalaya make with roasted chicken and turkey sausages. A flavorful but not too spicy treat.

Rice and carrots will complete this already complex and flavorful meal.



Chili



I lived in Texas for over nine years. This chili is a wonderful dish, again, not too spicy but packed with flavor. I am using one of our favorite meats here at the Greenville Arms, short ribs. This is a treat.

The Chili will be served on a bed of faro. Shredded parnips and asparagus will garnish this dish.


Pesto Coated Lamb





Finally, I will be retiring my famous and delicious pistachio rubbed lamb! The lamb will be cooked to perfection, as in the past, but the flavor will be very different from my signature dish. However, no one will be disappointed. This will more than "wow" regular and and new students alike.

This will be served with our spectacularly snap peas and carrots. Or I may do a very nice string bean dish.

We are also changing our desserts. The only dessert we will be keeping from last year will be the Beet Chocolate Cake. Sorry Carrot Cake aficionados. Though we may do Carrot Cake seasonally.

This year we'll also have a Tiramisu, a Lemon and Blueberry Streusel a la mode, New Yorkish Cheese Cake, Seasonal Tarts, pies or cakes, and of course our wonderful organic chocolates.

We'll also have our freshly baked breads to accompany each meal. Come to a workshop and indulge yourself.