The Reluctant Barbarian – Recommendation Thursday

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Do you enjoy fun? Humour? Fantasy? Well then I have a book for you. It was my favourite book read in 2018.

The Reluctant Barbarian

Arthur Jenkins would have been happy to live his life the way it was until he finally died, but the angel in his office has different ideas. He’s there to grant a wish Arthur made as a kid, and it’s a doozy. It’s also a wish he doesn’t want in the slightest. After all, what grown man would want to be a barbarian hero? Seriously! Whether he wants it or not, Arthur is getting that wish granted. Angels have quotas too, you know. Join Arthur, Dead Mike and Valeria the Paladin on a quest across the land, having unwanted adventures while looking for a comfy place to sit.

John Haas has a fantastic imagination, great sense of humour, and wonderful understanding of narrative flow. He’s also recently won a spot in Writers of the Future.

His followup novel to The Reluctant Barbarian is due to be released this year from Renaissance Press.

Go read the book!

Éric

Blush: Sophie Labelle in Ottawa

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This is an emergency Blush post.

Sophie Labelle (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) is giving a talk in Ottawa on Monday, February 11, 2019 at Venus Envy on Bank St.

She is an incredible artist (Assigned Male Comics) and public speaker. She will be answering questions in French and English and then signing her books (available at time of the talk if you don’t already have any of them).

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

Beer Battered Fish Recipe

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

This recipe is inspired by Alton Brown but I made some modifications in the proportions and spices.

I recommend 1855 Kichesippi Beer it’s really smooth and goes well with the Rainbow Trout.

Print

Beer Battered Fish

Extra Crispy and flavourful battered fish.

Course Main Course
Cuisine English
Keyword Battered, beer, Fish, fried, pub
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

Batter

  • 3/4 Cup Flour
  • 1/2 TBSP Baking powder
  • 1 TSP Dill
  • 1 TSP Pepper
  • 1/2 Bottle Dark or Amber Beer

Other

  • 3 Medium Fillets Rainbow Trout
  • 2 Litres Oil (Vegetable or Canola)
  • 1/4 Cup Cornstarch

Instructions

  1. Combine batter ingredients and mix until there are no lumps.

  2. Place in fridge and rest of 10-15 minutes

  3. Heat oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 Celsius) in skillet, wok, or deep fryer

  4. Remove skin of fish and cut into 4-6 inch squares

  5. Dry fish on paper towels and dredge in cornstarch  

  6. Drop fish into bowl of batter and make sure it’s well covered. Using a fork to lift the fish, place it into the oil.

  7. Cook until batter has solidified a little and flip. Once everything is golden brown (2-4 minutes) take out and drain on paper towel.

Do you have a favourite fish recipe?

Éric

Top 5 Unprofessional Habits When Dealing with a Freelancer or Small Business

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Hello!

Being polite might seem like an inconvenience, but it goes a long way towards being seen as professional.

As an author, freelancer, or small business, you are your brand. How you treat others reflects on you, your service, or your product.

When you treat others rudely, you show a lack of respect and it can be quite hurtful. Some also hold grudges.

This image of a person with a trashcan for a head made me laugh. Artist Jono Doiron http://www.jonodoiron.com/

5. Talking Trash

This should be the most obvious. If you didn’t like the service or product you should let the person know first.

I’m obviously not against airing my disappointment with a brand online or in person, but there’s a difference between not being happy and being treated badly.

Not being happy with something you paid for is unfortunate but something that needs to be negotiated with the provider first.

4. Negative Negotiation

I have been told, “Your stuff is good for someone who doesn’t do it professionally” as a lead up to asking me to lower my prices. I let the client know that after twenty years of experience in being paid to do layout, I’d consider myself a professional. (Yes, my first paid projects were when I was 15-16.)

It’s a common technique to compare products or say things like, “My cousin could do this for free” or “I can do it myself” in order to try and get a discount.

Stop doing it. If you want a professional then they will cost.

That being said there are plenty of other ways to negotiate. For example, if I do more than one job for a product I’ll give a discount. (Eg. Ebook =150; Print = 150; but Print + Ebook is 250)

3. Being Antagonistic

Things happen during a project. Things could not be clear and something isn’t what you wanted. Talk to the person and work it through. Don’t be snarky, most likely they didn’t do it on purpose. A type or misalignment or wrong flavour, etc… Just talk to them and they’ll fix it.

2. Not saying Thank You

There’s no need to send a gift basket or anything grand. Just a small email saying thank you for your work. That’s classy and makes everyone happy.

1. Ghosting

In the past I’ve worked on a project for a client, then they asked me to clear time or give a quote for further related projects. I waited and never heard back from them. Then I saw on social media that they’d gone with someone else.

I don’t care that they went with someone else, but it would have been nice for them to let me know. I could have supplied the source files for the first project and I would have wished them luck. Since they switched after the first in a series of projects, without telling me, it shows a great lack of professional respect.

If you ask for a quote and decide to go in another direction, let the person know. Or let them know you’re asking others for quotes in the first email.

Any of these things can be rude, thoughtless, or just annoying. They are all unprofessional and in some cases will make a Freelancer or Small Business not work with you in the future.

Is there anything I missed? What do you think?

Éric

Blush: Recommendation Wednesday: Time article about teens

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My cousin shared this article from Time a couple weeks ago.

Image from www.time.com

It brings up some excellent points about the disconnect between what teenagers are taught and how the “rules” are applied in reality.

For one thing, when most teenagers (and adults) think about rapists, they think of some murky, shadowy stranger armed to the teeth lying in wait for their victims in the bushes.

Which is incorrect.

Rapists look like anyone who doesn’t listen when their partner says no.

Rapists are anyone who doesn’t get (and I quote from the article) “[…]consent needs to be
informed, enthusiastic, sober, ongoing and freely given.”

We should be teaching everyone about consent.

I mean, if my 2 year old can get it, then so can teenagers and adults. It’s not that hard, once you’re taught how it works.

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

Seren Plentyn and the Secret of Hokulua Station – Chapter 1

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 4.5 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 1: All kinds of leaks

The stars were in different places, they always were, but with a little concentration Seren could map out their location. The universe was impossibly large, but her and her people had spent time untold sailing the stars.

Hokulua was a generational exploration and protection space station. Most GEPS were crawling with scientists, soldiers, and their children. Hokulua was quiet but it wouldn’t be for very long. There were a ten million souls on their way to the station and it would be the flagship of the Starchild Family.

“State-of-the-art my ass!” shouted Mr. Plentyn as he paced around the living quarters, angrily tapping at his tablet. “More like experimental and unstable!”

“Did Hoku refuse to give you your coffee again?” Seren’s large smile lit up her face making her skin seem to glow. Her bright green eyes were questioning as well as teasing.

“No, Hokulua Station didn’t refuse to give me coffee… more than once. It’s this blasted power drain. I can’t seem to stop it. The station is using twice as much power as it should and every time I patch a hole a new one opens up.”

“Have you asked Hoku?”

“Dear child. Why would I bother asking a glorified entertainment AI something I know it can’t answer?”

“So you asked and it gave you one of those weird phrases again?”

It was Aern’s turn to smile at his daughter, he shared her dark brown skin and reddish hair but he had light amber eyes. “Yes it said, ‘Plasma Beasts are at the gates’; whatever that means.”

“Wish I could help,” she said and meant it.

Walking over to the wall and the food dispenser, she asked, “Hoku, can I have some orange juice and a breakfast number four please.”

The soft deep voice of the station’s AI replied, “That will take forty percent of your daily recommended rations food intake. Are you sure you want to proceed?”

“I’m doing a space-walk today and will need the extra energy. Please proceed.”

The food appeared in the food slot and she could have sworn she heard Hoku say, “Good luck.”

She ate in silence, watching the stars. It was the way she ate most mornings. Her father was up and fed hours before her and she liked the quiet.

“I’m here to make sure you don’t miss your first shift,” Jan stood at the door in their uniform. Their blonde, almost white, hair and nearly translucent skin glowed slightly in the dim light of the living quarters.

Seren made a rude noise and drank the last of her juice.

“Jan you know that you don’t need to wear your uniform right?”

“Just because the rest of the military isn’t here doesn’t mean I can slack off. Might as well get used to it.” Jan was officially known as Private Jan Ng, they’d graduated and passed military training a week ago. Seren hadn’t applied for the military but instead tested and passed the tests for both the engineering corps and her real passion, the archeological civilian branch. She wanted to follow her passions but didn’t want to leave her father. He’d had too many people leave him already.

“Well I’m not wearing a uniform until I have to.” Instead, Seren wore a deep red button up shirt with a pair of snug kaki pants, with her comfy dark brown boots.

“I love you, Dad. I’m off to find out where our air is disappearing to.”

Barely looking up, he replied, “Love you too. Be careful.”

“Dad! I’m eighteen!”

“The vacuum of space doesn’t care how old you are.”

She kissed his cheek and headed out.

“So, Private, are you excited for everyone to show up?” Jan’s parents were part of the advance team with Seren’s father that were sent ahead to prepare stations or sent in to repair old stations.

“Mother-of-Stars, yes! This quiet is painful; I’m so glad I won’t have to do this again.”

They headed to the nearest transportation pod. A small train-like transportation controlled by the AI. It would seat twenty when the station was fully manned.

Each pod could move along one of the arms of the station. Like all Starchild Stations, Hokulua was built with a micro-star in the centre of four large rings. Each ring touches at least touches the other rings and has four bridges connecting to the micro-star engine and power station.

Each ring is given a designation, Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and Delta. Each quadrant of each disk is given a letter, A, B, C, and D. Finally each quadrant of each ring had a hundred floors. Each of the floors was roughly six hundred square metres.

“So we need to walk the entire alpha-ring today?” asked Jan.

“No just the top of A quadrant,” Seren said and then added, “That’s still four kilometres.” They had been hired to inspect the outside hull of the station and make sure that there were no air leaks. If there was an air leak, even a small one, it would glow a florescent orange when it hit the cold of space.

The transport pod stopped at the spaceport and they reported for duty. There were five of them that had been hired but only four had shown up.

“Just like Annie to be late or forget to come to work,” joked one of the others.

They were given their sections and assigned space suits. Seren went over to hers and something wasn’t quite right. The suit wasn’t hanging like the others, but was put together and leaning in the locker storage.

The visor was oddly tinted dark brown. She was about to disconnect it when Jan grabbed her hand. With a tremor in their voice, they said, “Your suit is leaking blood.”

Read Chapter 2

While you wait for the next chapter, check out previous serial stories: