Author Archive for The Gourmez

Nonfiction Bragging – An Insider’s Guide to the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend

A few months ago, I got to add a second item to my list of professional photography credits for this amazing book for lovers of General Hospital, but somehow, I forgot to announce it here!

The book is written by Katrina Rasbold, my talented boss over at All My Writers, and I can guarantee she’ll crack you up with her Southern dame prose. As the description reads,

A must have for all fans of the iconic soap opera, General Hospital! This book provides one-of-a-kind photos and stories from behind the scenes of the premier GH event of the year…. [Katrina] gives you smart tips on how to navigate this complex and intense fan event to get the most bang for your buck and for your time….Who crashed the party at the 2013 Main Cast Luncheon? What GH beauty from the past arrived at the Main Cast Luncheon to announce that she is now on the current cast? Who was the breakout star of the weekend who had hearts throbbing on Sunday?…She shares insider stories from her years working the event, plus includes over 450 photographs from her own personal collection, more than 300 of which are from the most recent 2013 General Hospital Fan Club Weekend!

You can purchase this tome through Amazon as an e-book or through CreateSpace as a print book in either black and white or color. It would make a great Christmas gift for fans of the show, which I can say because I’ve been one since the womb! The book definitely prepares folks to attend the fan club weekend, but it’s chock-full of insider stories that any GH viewer would love to hear.

Here are what readers have to say so far:

“It’s a delightful book, quite helpful to the person who is off to such a fan weekend. I am sure that much of the travel and packing advice is applicable to any such event in a hot climate. Written by a woman who has been there, done that, I would listen to her words and follow them in order to best enjoy the event. Best of all, you can add this book to your Kindle and carry it with you for a handy reference! As far as I’m concerned, it’s a must-have for anyone who plans on going to any fan event.”

“I remember watching General Hospital when it was in black and white (at least at my house) and featured stories about Steve and Audrey Hardy and the nurses at GH. I’ve never been to a GH event (wrong side of a very big country) but after reading this book, I feel as though I’ve been there. Insider tidbits about the participating actors, sure, but also the very necessary information about packing, hotels, where to go, when to go there, and the protocol for any GH event. A fun read even if you never make it to an event, and an indispensable one if you do plan to attend this yearly event.”

“Katrina captures the experience of the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend with unabridged honesty, humorous, truthful tales of unbelievable and unforgettable moments that positively and lovingly spotlights both the graciousness of the actors and the enthusiasm of the fans. The collection of personal anecdotes, hundreds of photos, and insider information about how to prepare” to attend this four-day extravaganza is a MUST HAVE for not only those fans who wish to attend, but also ANY fan who has loved this 50 year young daytime icon!”

I can’t leave you without a picture of me at the event, now can I? Enjoy!

: Me with John J. York.

Friend Bragging

I’ve been wanting to promote some friends with new books and blogs out for a while now…so long of a while that I’m not sure I can classify them as new! Two of these friends are from All My Writers, the entertainment website where I write columns on General Hospital, Glee, and currently, trying out the slate of Fall TV show premieres.

Let’s start with Katrina Rasbold, webmistress of All My Writers and writer of many new books she’s published to Amazon this summer. One of them is a guide to the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend featuring photography by me, but I’ll post a separate entry promoting that. The rest of Katrina’s books range from instructions on making candles with a spiritual intent–

–to discussing the principles of Energy Magic for those of you attracted to that practice–

–to a memoir about her life growing up in Kentucky that’s on my must-read list.

She’s adding Arthurian romance to her collection soon. I’ve read Katrina’s blog posts for about a decade, and her style of writing is always entertaining and full of a woman who’s determined to live life to its fullest, whatever that may mean at that time. You can buy all of her work here.

Review of Homeward Bound

Emily Matchar, a journalist and writer based in Chapel Hill for at least part of the year, published a book, Homeward Bound, on the movement toward reclaiming the domestic arts for women among twenty- and thirtysomethings, which she coins as “the New Domesticity.” When she sought reviewers (meaning my copy was free), I jumped at the chance because I’ve been fascinated by the do-it-yourself attitude of our generation: chicken raising, canning everything, and covering every body part in some form of cable knit. I often feel like I’m the only person I know who doesn’t want to sew her own dresses or make radish pickles. I admit to being amused at the misadventures my friends have trying to keep chickens alive. I get the appeal of gardening and the pride of wearing something you’ve made yourself, but it all takes so much work. And time. And I manage to fill up all my time with work as it is. Why would I want to add more?

Which is what Matcher’s books asks: Why are more and more people spending their time making their own vinegar or sewing their own cloth diapers? Is this a trend backward or forward? What are its roots? Matchar interviewed many women, and some men, who are partaking in the more extreme ends of this movement by taking themselves off the grid, committing to attachment parenting, and/or blogging all about the experience and making careers out of making homes. There’s no judgment in the book, and Matchar deftly handles the irony of a generation of people returning to what their feminist forbears fought to get away from. In fact, many of the women in the book frame reclaiming the domestic arts as an act of feminism, as having the right to choose whether to have a career or a life in the home and to relearn the skills that were taken from them due to being deemed oppressive.

Blog Update: Look, it’s migrated!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve (or rather, my husband has) moved my food, drink, and travel blog over to my main website. This is effectively me saying “Screw niche blogging!” and keeping all forms of my writing together. It’s probably silly, but I always felt bad when I posted about my fiction writing on the Gourmez, like I was interrupting my readers’ feast to say, “Hey! There’s this other thing I do too! See! Read my things on the bookshelves behind the dinner table!”

So now it’s all in one place, and I think I like the change. It feels more authentic to me somehow, like all of Becca the Writer is now on display. I’ve also begun taking my camera out to restaurants again, so I think that means I’m nearly settled in here in the Bay Area. I’m not going to maintain the three posts a week I was doing in North Carolina–that was just insane of me in the first place, especially because I contribute columns to All My Writers on a weekly basis as well. But I will aim for twice weekly posts about food and drink, mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And when I have other things to share with you, it’ll just pop up randomly on another day of the week like this blog today. Sound good?

My husband assures me that no RSS feeds need to be updated, but I don’t know if that’ll always be the case, so there’s no harm in clicking that little button on the top of the page to get the feed for this site instead. And I know most my blog readers are North Carolina based at present, but I hope you’ll still find my food adventures worth exploring from 3,000 miles away. For once, my Californian friends are enjoying seeing places they can go instead. I think that’s a fair turnaround after six years of blogging.

Me and my cousin Daniel doing the tourist thing in North Beach.

And now back to fiction for the rest of today. I’ve got a giant bird I need to wrangle into a short story. It flew out of the last half somehow, and now I must lure it back in. As always, thanks for reading!

Fiction Bragging — “Blow ‘Em Down” released at Beneath Ceaseless Skies!

I am thrilled to announce that you can now read my steampunk retelling of the Battle of Jericho, “Blow ‘Em Down,” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Special 5th Anniversary Double Issue #151!

The full text of the story is now available on BCS‘s website for free, along with the rest of the fantastic stories in the issue. On that page, you will find download links for all e-reader types that you can also use to acquire the issue for free.

Of course, I would encourage you to purchase the issue for your e-readers because I think it’s worthwhile to support good art, and I hope you will think “Blow ‘Em Down” qualifies as good art. If you agree, you can make that wallet-busting $0.99 purchase at Amazon or at Weightless Books.

And now for your teaser,

From our brass band’s vantage point at the Gilgal plains, the glass dome was impenetrable. An immense central copper tube supported it, using a full city block for its foundation and generating energy for the whole town by absorbing the sun rays trapped within the glass. One skygate operated through the top of the dome, opening only to let merchant airships and their escorts in and out. The ships floated by so high, we could barely make out what was seared into their taut material: giant brands bearing profiles of the cityscape. The same image, embossed in a black pattern, circumnavigated the dome’s bottom edge. A single word in bold typeset appeared above each repetition: Jericho.

They never sent so much as a volley our way. Who could blame them? We looked a sorry mess after forty years spent crossing the desert, but we were many. Forty days our parents had been told, but as it turned out, solar-powered chariots don’t work so well in the desert. The salt from the Red Sea air had rusted most of their steel frames within days of the crossing, leaving us with only a handful, and those were barely powerful enough to raise one person off the sand at a time. Then there was the pillar of smoke blocking out half the sky. Little sun meant less energy for our solar cells to regenerate. When the pillar lit up like a fireball that forgot to fly at night, we tried to mine the heat, but we never could get the calibrations right.

Again, you can read the rest of “Blow ‘Em Down” right here.

My Aha Moment and a dramatic reading of “Sardines”

A few weeks back, I recorded my aha moment. How does one record an aha moment? Funny you should ask, because I didn’t know either until the aha moment team asked me to come in and do a little video session with them for their national campaign. The “they” in all this is Mutual of Omaha, and “my aha moment” is an ad campaign they’ve been running for the past couple of years. It’s a clever way to do promotions–a team of videographers tours the country and invites locals to come into their Airstream and share the aha moments that have set them down whatever path they are pursuing, whether charity work or a career.

Borrowed from the “my aha moment” Facebook page.

You can peruse all the videos and commericals they’ve produced at their website. I participated at their Raleigh, NC, stop and shared about my writing and the moment when I realized I was a writer for real…at the tender age of 9 (maybe 10). Watch my aha moment below!

I think it turned out pretty well! But what didn’t make it onto the reel was my dramatic reading of the poem I composed that day in Monterey. I can still picture the light blue paper I was finally able to jot it down on once we returned to the hotel in the evening, but alas, I no longer have the sheet of paper. I do still have the poem, however. And here I am, reading it in all it’s fourth-grade glory.

Now I hadn’t read that poem in years, and I surprisingly realized that (1) I was writing curveball horror twists in the 4th grade! Genre fiction is definitely for me; (2) I was already concerned about sustainable food! I honed right in on how overfishing had destroyed Cannery Row’s sardine trade, no doubt having heard it from a tour guide or read it in the tourbook on the way to Monterey; and (3) I managed to capture a sense of place for Cannery Row, which is something I always try to do in my travel posts. It’s hilarious to me that my writing interests have not shifted much since that time.

I hope you enjoyed my aha moment and “Sardines.” I may make a series out of reading my elementary-school short stories and poems. Any guess as to what’s going on with this picture?

If you answered the cover page for a short story that involves a haunted house under water, then you’d be right! And yes, that’s a giant blue whale with rainbows and clouds on its skin. Oh yes, it’s a winner, my friends. Think Lightspeed would be interested?

Five Truths for North Carolinians

If we’re friends in the flesh, then you may have heard me go off on one of these rants before. Call it therapy in anticipation of our move, but I have a few things about North Carolina I want to get off my chest. And because Southerners like to believe everything’s better if you coat it in sugar or butter it up, I’ve followed each with a counterpoint extolling what I love about this state.

1. The sky is not Carolina Blue.

Sky in North Carolina.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, Tarheel fans, but the sky is the same color everywhere you go, and that color is not Carolina Blue. It’s called sky blue, and that’s because it existed well before the University of North Carolina was a speck in dear old William R. Davies’ eye. You do not have a patent on the color of the sky, and it’s darn obnoxious that you think you do.

Sky in Yosemite. Oh look, it’s the same!

1a. Your House Divided bumper stickers are pretty cute.

Credit: Outdoor Wholesale Dropship

I love it when couples antagonize each other, and there’s no better way to observe that than during a basketball game with split Duke and UNC allegiances among the hosts. What’s even cuter is that NC State fans actually think they are UNC’s rivals. It makes me want to rub the whole Wolfpack’s heads with condescending pats.

2. Get some damn streetlights.

Those are the things on the right.

And while you’re at it, throw in some sidewalks and lane reflectors, too. Driving at night here is a guessing game—is that a lane divider over there or is it more construction on Davis Dr.? Who knows?! It’s too damn dark to see. Don’t even try and read the street signs. In fact, maybe you should just avoid traveling at night, especially if it’s raining. Turn on your brights, and all you’ll get are reflections in the puddles of water washing over the asphalt. There is a resistance to night pollution in this state. For all you city folk, night pollution is the collective effect that electronic lighting has on our ability to see stars. I’ll take being alive over seeing stars any day. Pun intended.

Food Writing Bragging: New Post at WRAL

If you were on vacation last week, you may have missed my newest post at WRAL’s Out and About blog. I was, and I almost missed it myself! This one is on all the amazing foodstuffs you can find within a block of what I call Durham’s Bermuda Triangle for foodies, also known as the intersection of Mangum and Parrish streets.

Pain aux pistaches at Loaf.

Take a food tour through the South’s Tastiest Town

By Rebecca Gomez Farrell

Posted: May 27
Updated: May 29

Durham, N.C. — For foodies, the intersection of Magnum and Parrish streets in downtown Durham is a Bermuda Triangle they may never want to escape. Within one block of it, in any direction, is a plethora of eateries, bakeries, and bars that prize local ingredients, quality products, and creativity. Consider this your guide to a perfect food lover’s day in Durham without doing more than crossing the street.

Stop 1: Breakfast at Monuts Donuts (110 East Parrish St.). This donut and bagel shop used to operate out of a tricycle. Cake and yeast donuts come in flavors like chocolate chai and the delicious maple bacon bourbon I sampled. Bagels are also a hot commodity and can be topped with eggs, cheese, and … maple sriracha? Counter Culture iced coffee should help with that morning headache….

Read on for all the stops on my foodie tour…and to see just how many times I can manage to misspell Mangum in one article. Find the rest of it here, along with a pretty awesome slide show of the tour, if I do say so myself.

State of the Blog

I’m moving to California.

Me in 2011 with Los Angeles at my back.

There is no set “when” yet, but if all goes well after listing our house next week, it will be sometime in August. There is no set “where” yet, but if all goes well with Ben’s employment options, it will be in the Bay Area, with LA as a second choice.

This means a few things. One is that the restaurant and cocktail reviews on this blog have largely been focused on the Research Triangle area of North Carolina where I’ve lived for the past seven years. It’s where I’ve come of foodie age in terms of learning about cuisine, about how great chefs truly make it a craft, and about how sourcing local and sustainable products from farmers you trust is yes, a good idea for the welfare of animals and the treatment of soil but also an amazing treat for your taste buds.

There is no way to ever express my gratitude for these lessons North Carolina has taught me about appreciating what I eat. The people in the food industry here are passionate, committed, and really easy to spend an evening with. Many of my fellow food bloggers have become cherished friends, and that is not to mention all the other cherished friends we have here: friends from Ben’s alma mater of RPI, friends from working at UNC Cardiology, friends from helping organize Traction the last couple of years, and dear god, the friends I’ve made in the writing community here, both in food and in speculative fiction. I will miss you all with an ache I already know too well from having left those I love behind before. It’s the price I pay to satiate my wanderlust and indulge my writerly curiosity about the everyday lives of people in different regions. In choosing not to put down roots, I’ve acquired several regrets, but I know my regrets would be greater if I’d stayed in one place. That North Carolina kept me for seven years is one of the best compliments I can pay it.

So why California? I’ve lived on the East Coast for a decade now, and it’s time to return home for a while. I’ve been aching for those first friends I left in 2003. My soul needs a refresher. It needs the smell of redwoods, the sound of sea lions barking, and the sight of fog in the valley.

Morro Rock shrouded in fog.

But it won’t be a complete return to what I know, because I’ve never lived in the Bay area, and if it’s Los Angeles, I haven’t lived there since I was 8. I’m excited to see what it’s like in California as a true adult. I’m excited to see what changes have come to the food culture of the region, to learn what else I never realized about it before becoming food aware—I was honestly clueless I lived in a winemaking region on the Central Coast, folks. There were grapevines, but I never quite realized what they were for.

One of many wines from the Central Coast that I’ve reviewed since leaving that same Central Coast.

So what does that mean for the blog? Well, it’s not going away anytime soon because that house does need to sell, and I do have a lot of restaurants to cross off my must-dine list before we leave (Want to join me? Comment!). There are a couple local businesses I’ve wanted to profile but haven’t had the chance to, and I’d like to fix that. But I do expect my posting to lessen once the great move approaches, and when we make it to California, I will plan my next blog strategy after settling in and scoping out the food blogging and writing community there. I may aim for joining larger websites that already have an established following or perhaps keeping on as I have been with a focus on my new hometown.

In the meantime, more personal blogs like this one will crop up because I have a lot to work out, you see. It’ll be hard to say goodbye to an area and people who’ve treated us so well, and I will have a few things to say about that as the move progresses.

North Carolina, treating us well.

I have plenty of fears that my friends in California and the state itself have changed enough that fitting back in may be a struggle—you see, I have this tendency to create fantasies for more than just my fiction and that includes a keen nostalgia for times and places past. I am intensely curious as to how Ben will react to life in California and how he’ll think it compares with those fantasies I’ve constructed. Have I imagined the glory of dry heat and mosquitos only when you’re camping? Will Ben understand the perfection that is San Francisco sourdough? Moving three cats across the country will also be an adventure worth documenting.

They may not agree.

So you may get more Becca than the Gourmez in the coming months, but you should still get plenty of good eats and drinks, too. Regardless, thank you, dear readers, for joining me on this “quest toward becoming the elusive ‘gourmet’ without bothering about things like tannins and foie gras” as I wrote in my original About the Gourmez page in 2007. There has been some tannins and foie gras talk since then, but I hope learning about them together has been fun, and I have no doubt I have plenty more to learn. California’s restaurants will be my next classroom.

And what a view it has.

Fiction Bragging Reminder: Last Week to get “Bother” for Free!

In February, I let you all know about the opportunity to get your hands on one of my short stories for free for a limited time. And now that time is almost at an end! “Bother,” along with many other fantastic stories collected by M. David Blake for the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology, will only be available until 4/30. So what are you waiting for? Click your browsers on over to Stupefying Stories and get your copy! And be sure to give Durham author Mur Lafferty your congratulations on being nominated for the Campbell Award for the second straight year. Some of her work is also available in the anthology. You can find her at the Murverse.

Here’s what I posted to explain the anthology in February:

Published by Stupefying Stories, the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology is now available for free — that’s right, free! — for anyone interested in perusing the works of authors eligible for Campbell award nominations this year. What’s that? As M. David Blake, editor of Stupefying Stories explained,

Named for John W. Campbell, Jr., whose 34 years at the helm of Astounding Science Fiction (later renamed Analog) defined the “Golden Age” of the genre and launched the careers of dozens of famous writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is presented annually at WorldCon to an outstanding author whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the previous two years.

What does this have to do with me? Well, with my sale of “Bother” to Bull Spec nearing on two years ago now, I became eligible for the Campbell Award. I have absolutely no expectations of being nominated, especially because I haven’t had other speculative fiction published since then — I’ve been working on my first fantasy novel instead of sending out my short stories. But “Bother” has been reprinted in the anthology, and now’s your chance to read it for free along with other worthy works by a large list of fantastic speculative fiction authors. All for free until the Hugo nominees, including for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, are announced at the end of April.

To take advantage of this amazing access to these stories, just click here and chose the e-format you prefer at the end of the publication announcement post. And if you do read “Bother,” please let me know what you thought! Us writers do thrive on feedback.

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