Day #1 of 100 Days of Happiness
The brilliant author Nancy Robards Thompson recently issued a #100DaysofHappiness challenge and I’m taking her up on it. If you’ve been following me for a while, you might recall my 100 Days of Bikram Yoga challenge, where I not only did 100 straight days of Bikram yoga, but I blogged about it most days as well. 100 day challenges apparently work for me.
So here’s my entry for Day 1.
As some of you know, our youngest daughter left for university this past weekend, leaving me a little… forlorn. Motherhood has been my primary identity for well, most of my adult life. Natural childbirth, breastfeeding, homeschooling, the works. Attachment, baby. All the way. Plus, I’m a Scorpio. We grab on. Tight. (Mama Doesn’t Share Food!!)
Which was all great. Until now when my primary task IS to let go.
Some things were easier when our girls were smaller. For instance, we could tuck them into bed, set the alarm and know they were safe. Some things were almost unbearably sweet: the fresh-from-the-bath smell when tucking them into bed. The full-belly laughter. The innocent, wide-open trust in their eyes. The hand-holding.
But there was lots to counteract that easy sweetness: screaming fits, hours-long bedtime rituals where I just wanted to spray them with Nap-Time (come on, you’ve thought about it too!) not to mention the power-struggle between 30 pounds of arched-back fury and a non-negotiable car-seat. In the dreaded mommy-van.
As our daughters have grown into independence, I’ve morphed as well. But this milestone, last chick launched, is forcing me to evaluate my life and goals. The Next Stage of my life is here. How do I want to play it? (And for the last time, Honey. Naked Wednesday is NOT a thing.)
So this is my Day 1 of Happiness: I’ve got a wide-open world ahead of me, with three fantastic adult children and a husband who loves me even when I get broody and existential. I’ve got a career I love, with readers who remind me that exploring the landscape of relationships through fiction is important. I’ve got excellent friends who also love me, despite my neuroses, or what I call The Adventures of Roxanne’s Brain.
Change can be hard. But life is very, very good.
USA Today Debut!
- At June 03, 2015
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 0
Hello my friends!
I’m delighted to announce that today, I appeared on the USA Today Best-selling Books list with my very first romance novel, THREE RIVER RANCH.
This might not mean much to most people, and no doubt I’ll be back to normal…(insert sound of a needle ripping across vinyl)
NEVER! This is a watershed moment in my career, something I’ve been striving for since I began writing! I seriously can’t breathe, I’m so excited, people! I’m going to be kicked off the internet soon for excessive use of caps and exclamation points. BUT I DON’T CARE!!
As some of you know, I’ve been working super hard this winter, but I had no real thought of hitting a list until this week and even then, I was afraid to hope. All authors dream of being able to include the words Best-Selling Author with their names and the USA Today list is one of the most coveted.
A good book is an author’s triumph but a bestselling author is a publisher’s triumph.
I don’t know where I heard it, but it’s true. In today’s market, getting our work seen by potential readers is our single biggest hurdle – after writing the books in the first place, that is. I’m forever grateful to my publishers for the support and enthusiasm they’ve shown my work.
Entangled Publishing launched the THREE RIVER RANCH series in August of 2012 and it’s their muscle that’s brought my work in front of enough readers to make this list. Tule Publishing released my THIS OLD HOUSE novella series between September 2014 and April 2015 – which has been a little brutal on all of us – but those stories have also been warmly welcomed by readers, further increasing my reach.
But the bottom line is that you, my readers, have put me onto this list.
So let me say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, THANK YOU for reading my stories.
Thank you. <sniff>
Beer Can Chicken
In my most recent book, I mention a wonderful dish called Beer Can Chicken. It’s really just chicken roasted on the barbecue, on top of a can half-full of beer. It doesn’t have to be beer. It could probably be wine, soda or juice. I bet lemonade would be fabulous. Nevertheless, I like to live on the wild side, so it’s beer for me.
Here’s how I do it:
Beer Can Chicken
You will need:
A barbecue
A beer-can-chicken roaster
A roasting chicken
A can of beer – can also be soda, lemonade or any flavorful beverage.
Olive oil
Montreal Chicken Spice (lemon pepper or any barbecue rub would work fine, too)
Fire up the Barbie, nice and hot. Drink half a beer, saving the other half in the can. Slather a nice gloss of olive oil on your chicken, then sprinkle it with generously with your seasoning. Set the can in the roaster device. Prop that baby (watch out, it’ll be slippery) onto the can, ie: insert can into chicken. Yes, it looks mildly disturbing.
Turn the front burner off, but keep the back burner on, so that you’ve got a fairly hot (how’s that for specific?) barbecue. Set the chicken-and-device onto the front part of the barbecue, so that it cooks on indirect heat. Close lid. Pop another beverage and do something else for an hour or so while your chicken cooks.
Check on it occasionally to make sure it’s not burning. You may need to adjust the temperature or the position of the chicken. It’s important it doesn’t sit directly over the heat.
When the skin is a deep, dark, golden brown, the thigh bone moves easily in the socket and only clear juice comes out when you poke it, your meat is done.
Remove it carefully from the barbecue, then even more carefully, grab it with tongs and pull it off its beer-can perch. Put it on a warm plate and cover with foil for ten minutes or so, so the juices retreat back into the meat.
Carve. Serve. Enjoy.
Note: do not drink the hot beer. Actually, try not to look at it when you pour it down the sink. It’s pretty disgusting.
Read the full post, originally on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs
The giveaway there is closed, but I’ve also got one running at Roxanne’s Facebook Party for Cinderella’s Cowboy that’s open for a few more hours.