Anakalian Whims

What if you thought strawberry was just the flavor of your favorite candy?  What if that’s all it was?

If you plug Senate Bill S510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, into any search engine, you get a whole lot of people up in arms about the government not allowing people to home garden or save seeds.  True?  Maybe; maybe a stretch.  Maybe just the beginning. . .

This is the idea behind my new novel series, Seed Savers.  Today I’m posting a excerpt from chapter 6.

HOW LONG HAD IT BEEN, Ana thought to herself, since real food had appeared on store shelves? She counted the years and then thought of the children. She realized it had easily been gone for the entirety of their short lives. And the backyard gardens had disappeared even sooner—especially in cities. Why, urban gardens had been an oddity even when she was…

Taking pictures of teens, particularly young teens, can be awkward.  This is because it is an awkward time for them.  They aren’t fully child nor adult.  Mutants, they are somewhere in between.  As such, as a photographer, I am always trying to find the right balance.  You don’t want to treat them completely like children and neglect the fact that they are changing, but you don’t want to overemphasize what they are going to become either, and forget that they still want to giggle twenty four hours a day.  Sometimes you see both.  Even in these few photos can you see the change.  Some are youthful and fun, and in others you can’t help but see the future for these two girls.  It may be awkward, just like them, but in the end, it is also pretty cool.

Image Credit

I have a passion for the Classics. Classic movies. Classic Cars. Classic Rock. Pretty much anything old school totally rocks my boat. So of course I am a fan of Classic books. I think more readers should be too. But time and again I run into The Three Classic Excuses. Too much work. Too boring. Too long. Baloney. Not all Classics fit these stereotypes. I try to dispel these myths through my posts here on Quirky Girls Read on a regular basis. Many kind visitors leave comments stating that they will add a Classic to their To Be Read pile. But you and I both know all that means is that it will be used to prop up the pile rather than being picked up and actually read any time soon. So out of desperation I am resorting to bribery to show readers that Classics can be…

If you love books, you know that steampunk is a genre.

If you’re pretentious, you know three different ways of pronouncing “genre” and scoff — pish-posh! — at lowbrows who pronounce it incorrectly.

If you’re literary agent Cherry Weiner, you know that there are different branches of steampunk (cowboy, gaslight, etc), because YOU INVENTED IT and are too cool for school.

This is an interesting and worthy genre, and all good fun. I believe it is far, far superior to the over-used genres known as “sparkly vampire YA nonsense trying to ride the coattails of TWILIGHT” and “angry elves with lightsabers riding into battle against dinosaurs in spaceships” and yes, those two things basically exist.

As a man who’s only fashion instincts are “three piece suits” and “nothing that makes you look like a doofus,” I appreciate this little video of steampunk clothing, especially the line, “I want…

Another Trigger for Inspiration

Inspired by a comment from Andi Klemm about smell being an inspiration for her in a discussion about the muse, I thought I would list some of the smells get my Southern writing MOJO brewing:

1) Limes, Vanilla & Coconut

Those mean that summer is HERE. I have so many memories tied to those three smells. One whiff and I can travel back to a thousand different places.

2) Sandalwood

I had a bottle of Sandalwood lotion in college. For me to be able to remember that should be proof enough that scent triggers memories 🙂  This smell is tricky though. I don’t like the incense smell of Sandalwood, but I like it in everything else.

3) Jasmine

One of my all time favorites. I love Jasmine, especially night-blooming Jasmine. When I had ventured too far from home when I was fresh out of high school, I had a pot…