An Introvert-Writer’s Guide to Celebrating Mardi Gras by Connie Vines

#1 Celebrate from the comfort of your home.  

Am I kidding?  No.  My husband is from Louisiana.  We have vacationed in New Orleans, many times. I absolutely love New Orleans’ French Quarter. However, my husband has always declined to vacation during Mardi Gras season.

“Why?”

“Because there are people.  Huge crowds of people.  Loud people who toss/throw things at you.  They also get drunk and. . .” he explained.

I got the idea.  He was probably correct.  Reality-Mardi Gras might be too intense (recalling my experience with the man and the tickle-feather at the Renaissance Faire which did not end well).

Still, the origins of Mardi Gras can be traced to medieval Europe, passing through Rome and Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries to the French House of the Bourbons. From here, the traditional revelry of "Boeuf Gras," or fatted calf, followed France to her colonies.

On March 2, 1699, French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans, and named it "Pointe du Mardi Gras" when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday. Bienville also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" (which is now Mobile) in 1702. In 1703, the tiny settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated America's very first Mardi Gras.

My day job requires interaction with staff, students, and social events.  I enjoy preparing regional meals.  I also like to throw family parties and get-together s with a small group of close friends.

Each year I host a “Mardi Gras” dinner party (I am an Introvert, remember.  No wild dancing or bead-throwing on the agenda). 

If you’ve ever traveled to New Orleans or are familiar with bayou cuisine, you may have tried a muffuletta. It’s one of my all-time favorite sandwiches.

 Muffuletta is both the name of a Sicilian sesame bread - and the name of a sandwich created by Italian immigrants (one branch of my family-tree originated in Sicily) in NOLA using the same bread. The sandwich combines Italian deli meats and cheeses with olive tapenade to create a layered sandwich unlike any other.

It’s Carnival season and there’s no shortage of delicious food to enjoy before, during, and after Fat Tuesday. If you’re having a Mardi Gras party, this slow cooker muffuletta dip is the perfect appetizer to serve to your krewe.

You can transform this quintessential New Orleans sammie into a dip for easy enjoyment at any party.  Plus, it’s research for my WIP set in New Orleans.

Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker

In a small slow cooker crock, combine giardiniera, cream cheese, chopped provolone cheese, cubed salami, and olives. Giardiniera is an Italian relish made of pickled vegetables. You can find it at the grocery store near the pickles.

Slow Cooker Mardi Gras Muffuletta Dip

Ingredients

1 jar (16 ounces) giardiniera, drained and coarsely chopped (Walmart—which I discovered by accident— Muffuletta mix in a glass jar).
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese
1 package (8 ounces) sliced provolone cheese, coarsely chopped
4 ounces hard salami, cut in small cubes
1 cup sliced pimento stuffed olives
½ cup sliced olives
Pita chips/muffuletta bread

Instructions

In a small slow cooker crock, combine all ingredients except pita chips.
Cover slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or LOW for 4 to 4 ½ hours. Stir occasionally.
Serve with chunks of muffuletta bread/pita chips.

After your party, indulge in a steaming cup of coffee with chicory and hot milk while reading an exciting novel available at BWL Publishing.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

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https://books2read.com/Lynx  and my other novels, too!

What happened to Shrove Tuesday? Asks Tricia McGill

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As I have mentioned before, I attended a small church school for the first 6 years of my school days. I loved that little school as we got to go to all the religious festivities, my favourites being what we called Pancake Day but I much later learnt was Shrove Tuesday, and the harvest festival held at our local church. We would have to take a basket of fruit or vegetables along which the priest assured us was then distributed to the local disadvantaged people. 

I also loved Sunday School as we got to hear all those amazing stories from the best story book of all time—the bible. Call me a sinner but the only time I visit church nowadays is for a wedding or funeral and even these are few and far between as either my younger relatives get married in their garden or go over to Bali or similar and marry on a beach, and most funeral wakes are held at the funeral parlour.

Anyway, the essence of this post is to find out why we (or should I say I?) don’t hear much about Pancake Tuesday any more. Perhaps this is due to me not living in the UK now as it still seems to be a tradition that is held up over there to this day.

While searching online I came across an informative post at:

http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pancake-Day/  

My thanks go to its creator Ellen Castelow for the following facts and figures:

Shrove Tuesday is held before the start of Lent, which for Christians is the 40 days leading up to Easter (a traditional time of fasting) It always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday. The bell that would call people to confession was called the Pancake Bell and this apparently is still rung today. So that blows my theory of Pancake Day not existing any more out the window.

So, back to Pancake Tuesday which to me was a fantastic celebration. I’ve always loved them and we would have them at home with sugar and lemon or in good times with golden syrup atop. As most everyone knows they are made of batter and fried in a pan. The story goes that the tradition started as far back as 1439. Shrove Tuesday was the last chance the housewives had to use up the simple ingredients of eggs, flour, salt and milk before Lent. Even I, terrible cook that I am, can master such an easy recipe. I doubt I could manage the racing and tossing them as I go with much skill though.

A pancake race of some repute is held in Olney, Buckinghamshire each year and the original started some 600 years or more ago when a woman of this town heard the shriving bell calling them to confession while still in the process of cooking pancakes and headed off to church clutching her frying pan. Rule is that the women of the town must wear their apron and have either a hat of scarf on their heads. The pancake must be tossed three times during the race. 

Many towns and villages throughout England still carry on the tradition in some form. Also, some towns held a football match on the day, but a lot of these have died out.

Something I didn’t realise is that in some countries Shrove Tuesday is known as ‘Mardi Gras’, meaning Fat Tuesday in French. So, there is the connection with using up food before Lent. Mardi Gras celebrations are famously held in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Venice. And news to me, is that the Mardi Gras held in Sydney Australia each year is connected, although this year is to be held on 3^rd March.

Acknowledgements also go to this site for more information garnered about Shrove Tuesday: 

https://www.whyeaster.com/customs/shrovetuesday.shtml

Visit my webpage for reviews and excerpts from all my books.

Mardi Gras! Ooooh La La! By Connie Vines

Mardi Gras 2017 falls on Tuesday, February 28.  Today.😘 🎉

This is why today is the most perfect day for me to post on BWL Authors’ Blog.

My upcoming release “Gumbo Ya Ya” an anthology for women who like romance Cajun, takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana and features Mardi Gras and Cajun/Creole culture.

For those of you not familiar with Mardi Gras, I’ll give you a bit of a summary, via pictures and links, so that you can experience the excitement of The Big Easy (as New Orleans in called).

The most popular time to visit New Orleans is the extended weekend before Mardi Gras (February 24- 28). Come then and you'll be sure to catch the most popular parades, like Endymion, Bacchus, Zulu, Rex and all of the festive celebrations throughout the whole city.

Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday," is the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Most visitors will plan to arrive no later than Saturday, February 25, 2017 in order to enjoy an extended weekend of festivities.

Watch the Floats and Catch Mardi Gras throws.

Enjoy jumping up to catch beads, doubloons, cups, stuffed animals, etc.! Yell, "Throw me something, Mister!" at the float riders. Bring a large, sturdy plastic or cloth bag to hold all the treasure you'll be catching. If you try to put all of your beads around your neck, you'll have a hard time standing up straight. Be prepared: some people get so overcome with excitement they will occasionally jump in front of you to grab what a rider has thrown to you. Don't get into a tug-o-war; there are many more floats on the way. Some visitors from far away hold up a sign saying where they are from: our local riders love to see that people from out of town having a good time, and will throw to them to make sure they do.

If you can’t visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras, try ‘tasting’ a few of the famous ‘foods’ of The Big Easy!

For easy to prepare New Orleans Fare visit All Recipes http://allrecipes.com/recipes/192/holidays-and-events/mardi-gras/


Listen to Mardi Gras Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJARs46wMZ8


A video look at New Orleans during Mardi Gras.  http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/videos.html

Let the Good Times Roll!

Connie 

My favorite New Orleans Cafe, Cafe DuMonde

Coming Soon

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Writing tips I've learned from my long ride by Sandy Semerad

     It's been a lengthy journey, going from news reporter to author. I'd like to think I've learned a few things along the way, although I have often pondered this question: 

   Has working as a reporter helped me write better novels?

I hope so, but it’s been quite a ride. It didn’t start off as I intended.

As a child, I made up stories in my head, but as a reporter, I had to stick to the facts—“just the facts mam.”

In my early years, as a wet behind the ears journalist, I struggled to write a proper lead sentence with who, what, when, where, why and sometimes how. Or at least I was told that was the proper way.

I’d lose sleep, agonizing over the five w’s, not to mention the how’s. With perseverance, I learned to please my editors and meet my deadlines.

I still think it’s important to know the rules, particularly the rules of grammar, but it’s equally vital to find your own voice. Breaking the rules might be part of that process.

As for my journey as a writer, I have evolved. I’ve learned to construct simpler lead sentences, without including the five w’s all at once. I felt it was my obligation as a news woman to inform readers without boring them to death.

Readers crave excitement and conflict. That I know.

Who wants every question answered in the beginning? Not I.

It wasn’t until I moved to Florida that I started writing down the stories in my head. I saw a man fall from the back of a truck into a car, and I wondered: What if this happened to me on my way to New Orleans during Mardi Gras?

I entertained myself with this story until the characters began to multiply. I couldn’t keep them straight in my head. So I started writing about them. In a few months, I had a novel, or at least the first draft of a novel.

In reading through my first draft, I realized I needed more conflict. It wasn’t easy placing my lovely characters in danger, but I bit the bullet, and ruthlessly overwhelmed them with problems. I made them struggle and fail and encounter death until the very end. Call me merciless.

I also learned how to start off my tale with an inciting incident. I call this hooking the reader. Hook the reader with every turn, I say. Add hooks in the beginning, cliff hangers at the end of each chapter and at transitional breaks.

For me, the beginning of my story is the most challenging. How will I create a life-changing event? Will this event be the death of a loved one, a divorce, a murder, a job loss, a terrible accident, or a violent argument? Whatever, it must be riveting.

My first mystery novel Sex, Love, & Murder (previously Mardi Gravestone), begins with two inciting incidents. In the prologue, the president and my main character Lilah--a journalist and young widow-- are shot. After the prologue, I have the first chapter starting the week before the shootings. Lilah is in an automobile accident. A man is in a coma as a result of that accident. As the ambulance takes him away, Lilah discovers his tossed suitcase, containing cash and the details of a murder.

In Hurricane House, my protagonist is mourning the death of her fiancé when she discovers a body in the gulf.

In A Message in the Roses, Carrie Sue unlocks a diary revealing secrets she has yet to resolve.

But I must confess, when I first began writing novels, I suffered from backstory-itis, commonly known as information dump. (I define back story as anything that has happened to a character before the inciting incident).

As an avid reader myself, I enjoy a story with unanswered question. I like to ponder and wonder. Adding too much of the back story takes that pleasure away from me.

Now I find it helpful to write a back story for each of my main characters before I begin my tale. I want to know my characters as well as I know myself. Armed with this knowledge, I can add back story as needed.

In A Message in the Roses, Carrie Sue’s parents died in a plane crash. I mentioned this in the first chapter, because I thought readers needed to understand why she grabbed a letter opener and tried to stab her cheating husband. If I failed to create sympathy for Carrie Sue, readers might not like her and understand her impulsiveness.  

Including back story can be tricky, no question. It can be almost as complex as utilizing the five senses in scenes.

I have a tendency to overwrite, and for that reason, I hide my first drafts. No one sees them unless I badly need the opinion of someone like my husband, whom I trust.

I wish my every word and every sentence were impeccable but, I no longer bow to perfection while writing the first draft.  

Perfection, I’ve found is an elusive goal, entirely subjective, and in my life, it seems I’ve attained more from my imperfections and failures. I’ve certainly learned never to give up, no matter what, and I sincerely hope you’ve learned a few things from my writing struggles.

Whatever you take away, I want you to know: I write with passion, and when you think about it, writing with passion, might be the best tip of all.

To read more about my work please visit my website and the links below: www.sandysemerad.com

Buy link, A Message in the Roses

Buy Link, Huricane House

Buy Link, Sex, Love & Murder