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A New Place to Find Brass Gears, Having Your Book Read to You, and a classic Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipe

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I found a where you can get a handful of brass gears that are bigger than wrist watch gears. The timers that control old washing machines and clothes dryers used mechanical timers. Those timers used brass gears. If you can find a shade tree repair guy that fixes old washing machines and clothes dryers you might be able to bum a couple of timers off him. The machines will be fifteen or more years old and may not be worth repairing.

Reading your book out loud is good advice. I do it, but I have a better way. I let the computer read it to me. That way I can concentrate on the sound and flow of the words.

The computer never gets tired of reading. I get hoarse after reading out load for a couple of hours.

I have been using Naturalreaders, but I am using TTSReader more and more. All text to speech programs will not know all the words you use or get tense right (like read and past tense read (red)). It is a little disconcerting when the program sounds the word out. They are getting better, but it’s going to take time. Give these programs a try.

I am not affiliated with the companies that make or distribute these programs. I had problems with the amazon and google text to speech programs and found these program better for my use. I use the free version, which means I break up my book or chapters in to small pieces and feed them into the program. I use the pause triangle at the top of the program to stop the speech and make notes in a hard copy of the manuscript that the program is reading. I have found that TTSReader will back up to where the cursor is and re-read the part it has already read. Very handy.

These programs are not ready to produce an audio book, but that day is not far off.

Self promoting plug to buy my book “The Daemon Boat”.

Classic Thanksgiving side, Fruit salad.

Fruit Salad, from an old family recipe from the 1950s

1 crisp sweet apple
1 orange
1 can pineapple cold
1/2 cup English walnuts
1/2 cup coconut
1 banana reserved

Directions;

Add pineapple to medium bowl.
Peel and cube orange, add to bowl.
Peel, core, cube apple. Add to bowl. Mix till apple pieces are covered with juice. That will prevent browning of the apple pieces.
Toasting walnuts is optional. Chop walnuts into large pieces. Add to bowl.
Add coconut to bowl.
Mix well. Taste and add sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon if desired.
Just before serving peel banana and add to individual serving bowls, if desired. There were people in my family that were allergic to bananas.
Without bananas the salad will store, covered, in refrigerator for days. It’s good for breakfast with coffee and a piece of pecan pie.

Makes enough for two.
You can add sliced grapes, raisins, tangerines. Do not add great fruit, it is too bitter and will react with heart medicines.
Do not add celery. Celery is not a fruit. Do not add mayonnaise, that’s not a fruit either and some people are allergic to eggs. Do not add pepper, or cream or other non-fruit items.

Stay strong, write on, and read your book, out loud.

Professor Hyram Voltage

You need conflict for your story. You Need Big Conflict.

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Don’t think war, think revolution. Revolution pits brother against brother and father against son. Even mother against father. That’s conflict.

The east coast is sinking. I recently saw an article where Boston is having troubles with rising sea levels. They have signs on one street where at high tide the street is flooded. Of course someone is going to have to pay to fix it and the ones that live there don’t want to pay for it.

Living on the west coast, in California, I feel left out. You never see anything about the problems that rising sea levels will cause in California. Near me is a marina where the houses have a boat dock for a back yard. It will not take much of a sea level rise to flood those houses. Of course California is not close to the nation’s capital where all the political action is. It’s like California doesn’t count. The people in Boston had better be concerned. California has the third longest coastline in the U. S. And California has some expensive coastline.

What’s that got to do with writing Steampunk?

Political visibility was worst in the steampunk era. There was only a single railway line connecting the east and the west coast. Telegrams were very expensive. Letters could take weeks to get from one coast to the other. The west coast could fall off into the ocean for all Washington DC could care.

What we need is a steampunk story where California and several neighboring states/territories succeed from the union. Why? What if they were being heavily taxed and not getting anything for the money that’s being taken. Don’t forget that the civil war started income tax. It was not popular, but effected the very rich. What if the politicians got greedy? What if they figured that since California had gold then Californian’s should pay more? The money is being used to pay down the debt that was run up during the civil war and of course to pay for other east coast things (like graft and corruption). Arizona would not succeed, but that’s another story or subplot. Air ships cannot haul a lot of people. With only one railway line through the rocky mountains it would be easy to cut off the military from getting to California. It’s takes months for a ship to get from the east coast to the west coast.

Stop the trains at the top of the Rocky Mountains in the winter and the troops could freeze. Think Donner Pass. All you have to do is blow up the tracks in front of the train and behind the train. Now you have a couple of thousand troops without enough food or water, that’s conflict or a sub plot. The locals in the rocky mountains might turn on the troops if the troops took their food. Many people in the mountains, in the 1800s, were living hand to mouth. Take out a couple of bridges and the troops would be stranded. The train tracks go over some deep gorges. A big airship could haul maybe a hundred troops and some equipment so hauling an invasion force would not work. But Californians were armed and knew how to use their guns. Once the troops get to California they could not just live off the land in California during the winter.

Ad, Wanted Beta Readers. I’ll read your book if you’ll read mine.

If an effort to sell my book here is this week’s recipe.

Bacon pancakes

Ingredients, enough to make about 12 Pancakes:
8 oz bacon
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs yolks, beaten
2 large egg whites
1/2 stick of melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/3 cups milk (use buttermilk if you plan ahead)
Serve with warm maple syrup and soft butter.

Cook bacon.
Drain and cool bacon.
Separate the yolk from the egg whites.
Place dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add milk and beaten egg yolk. Mix a little. Add egg white and fold in. Do not mix heavily. Leave lumps (adding egg white last and genteelly folding them in makes the pancakes fluffy).
Break bacon into pieces and add to batter

Heat skillet, spoon batter into hot pan. Water will dance on pan if it is hot enough.
Serve and enjoy.

Stay strong, write on, and think revolution.
Professor Hyram Voltage

Bacon doughnut holes.

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He beat me to it.
Bacon doughnut holes.

see https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2015/06/bacon-and-egg-doughnuts-perfect-for.html
From the foodwishs site

See his web site. This recipe is a little tricky to make. So many times it looks like it’s a failure, but it isn’t.

Ingredients for 8 to 10 small Bacon and Egg Doughnuts:
(this is a half a recipe, so I would highly recommend doubling everything)
6 strips bacon, sliced, browned, cooled, and chopped (save some for the tops)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp cold water
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
vegetable oil for deep frying
maple syrup to garnish

  • Fry at 350 F. for about 7 minutes, turning often, until puffed and well-browned
  • If doing in batches, hold in a warm oven

Nothing says breakfast like Bacon
Professor Hyram Voltage

Taking photographs at a Convention, plus a recipe; Bacon Quesadillas.

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I’m an amateur photographer and technology has let me down. I like to take photographs at science fiction and steampunk conventions. I take a lot pictures, close to 400 photographs at the last convention. See the previous three blogs for a sample of the ones that turned out good. Yes, just like in writing they don’t all turn out good. But in photography you don’t get to do a rewrite, maybe a little editing in the developer program.

I don’t like to use a flash. It annoys the people at panels and a flash in the face distresses some people. But I have no choice.You may not realize how much better the human eye is compared to a camera. Even new expensive cameras. Indoors, at the convention, it may look brightly lit, but it’s dark to the camera.

My indoor camera setting are 1/60 of a second for the shutter, f 5.6 for the aperture, and an ISO of 3200. What’s that mean. 1/60 of a second means the person I’m photographing can’t move and I have to hold the camera very steady. An aperture of f 5.6 means I should buy a better lens because f 5.6 is the biggest the lens I have will open up (f 5.6 is how much light the lens let get to the camera sensor, and it’s not much). And a senor speed of ISO 3200 means the pictures are grainy (they look blurry and noisy if you blow them up). For posting on the web the pictures are OK. But if you want a 5 by 7 print it’s a lot of work to get rid of the grain and you can’t get rid of all of it.

Outside, in the day time, the camera takes great photographs.

So, if you see me using a flash, forgive me. I’m driven to get a decent photographs. I try to keep the flash usage down and use it only before and after the presentation, but there are times I have to get that special shot.

I have been using the little built in flash on the camera. The professionals use the big honking flashes mounted above the camera. Watch out world, I got my big flash out and I’m going to use it. I missed several shots, at the last convention, because the pictures had too much grain in them. Or it could have been camera shake. Using the big flash will fix that. I may even get a new lens. It will cost over thousand dollars. You have to really love your hobby to spend that kind of money. The lens will cost more than the camera, the two lens that came with the camera, the flash and a bunch of accessory that I got when I bought the camera.

Stay strong, write on, and smile, you always look better when you smile. Have you ever noticed that when you photograph three people at once, one of them always blinks (you end up with a photo with one person’s eyes closed)?
Professor Hyram Voltage

Nothing says breakfast better than bacon.

Bacon Quesadillas

Ingredients
2 slices turkey bacon
1/4 tsp. powered garlic or 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, diced (can use one green onion)
1 tbsp. Taco Seasoning
2 tbsp. tomato paste
8 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 avocados, pitted and diced
2 tsp. olive oil, divided
1 large flour tortilla or small flour tortilla or corn tortilla if your out of flour tortillas
8 oz. or half a cup or a small hand full of shredded cheese white, yellow, Monterey Jack, Cheddar, or Mexican
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions

In a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, cook bacon with garlic and onion until softened, 2 to 4 minutes. Add taco seasoning, tomato paste, 1 tbsp water; cook on medium-low for 5 minutes. Set aside.
Warm a large non-stick pan over medium heat with 1 teaspoon oil. Place a flour tortilla in the pan and sprinkle half with cheese, beef mixture and more cheese. Fold tortilla over and lightly toast on both sides until cheese is melted.
Cut quesadillas into wedges and serve with lime wedges and sour cream.

Taco Seasoning, home made,
1/2 tsp. ground chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground paprika or smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin