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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We are not alone in the universe - by Vijaya Schartz

Byzantium Book 2, BLACK DRAGON. Check it out
with my other books HERE

The mainstream scientists finally agree that it would be impossible for us to be the only intelligent race in the universe. And it seems that many ancient texts all over the world speak of visitations of powerful gods wielding thunderbolts, and other strange beings, some blue of skin, some with many arms, some with wings, others who emerged from the sea… who possessed incredible technology and waged war in the skies on their chariots of fire. 

Gods warring in the sky in ancient sanskrit texts 

Since Chariots of the gods, by Erich Von Daniken was published in the seventies, science is now answering many of his questions. Ancient mythologies might have described aliens descending from the sky, and their advanced technology was interpreted as divine powers. Some ancient ruins show signs of being destroyed by nuclear weapons millennia ago, and are still radioactive. 

In the light of our quick progress and our push for establishing colonies on the Moon and on Mars, it stands to reason that, if they are watching us, these other galactic races with incredible technology will want to make official contact with us… before we develop into a full-blown interplanetary race and interfere with their domain. 

It may be that we will colonize the closest planets long before they make contact with us. What will we do when they make contact? How shall we communicate? Do we have a plan? 

In the movie ARRIVAL, a linguist is tasked to decipher the language of aliens attempting to communicate with us. Since language is intrinsically linked to a culture (believe me, as a French person living in the US, and writing in English, I find it to be the truth) understanding an alien race would mean learning about, and understanding their culture… to determine their intents. 

Why did they come? What do they want? Are they friendly and want to study us, like the adorable alien in E.T. or have they come to eat us and plunder our resources, like in INDEPENDENCE DAY? 

How will the Military react? What if they have a different notion of time? What if they want us to get to their level and offer new knowledge and advanced technology? What if they are our creators through DNA manipulation, and are checking on our progress? Will we pass the test or will they destroy us with a great flood or a plague? Are we evolved enough to understand their motives?

In a speech to the U.N. in 1987, President Ronald Reagan said, “I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.“ Carl Sagan, Winston Churchill, Stephen Hawking, all considered the likelihood of our first contact. 

But how can negotiations happen between galactic cultures, without a world government able to represent the entire planet? It’s impossible when so many factions are at odds, when they wage political and religious wars against each other, and the world leaders have a selfish appetite for power. 

Some leaked reports say the governments of several countries are already working with different groups of aliens and replicating their technologies. Others say there are many alien factions as well, and they are at odds with each other. 

UFOs buzzed the White House in 1952

There is even a documented instance when Aliens attempted to make peaceful contact with the White House over half a century ago, but the powers of the time were not ready to make peace with the rest of the world or publicly acknowledge the presence of aliens. 

If World Peace is a condition for our admission in the Galactic Confederation of Planets, I will visualize World Peace, and hope I’m still around to witness this momentous event that will forever unite the Human Race and give us a new direction. 

In the meantime, I write Sci-fi where Humans have already sprung into space and rub shoulders with alien races and cultures. Don’t miss my AZURA series (a planet inhabited by winged beings with astonishing powers) and my BYZANTIUM series (set on a space station at the fringe of conquered space). Of course, you can expect strong heroines, brave heroes, and a few smart felines.

Happy Reading!

AKIRA'S CHOICE

Sci-fi action romance

Byzantium series

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When bounty hunter Akira Karyudo accepted her assignment, something didn't add up. Why would the Galactic Trade Alliance want a young kidnapped orphan dead or alive?

She will get to the truth once she finds the boy, and the no-good SOB who snatched him from a psychiatric hospital. With her cheetah, Freckles, a genetically enhanced feline retriever, Akira sets out to flush them out of the bowels of the Byzantium space station. But when she finds her fugitives, the kidnapper is not what she expects.

Kazmo, a decorated Resistance fighter, stole his nephew from the authorities, who performed painful experiments on the boy. Stuck on Byzantium, he protects the child, but how can he shield him from the horribly dangerous conditions in the lawless sublevels of the space station?

Akira faces the worst moral dilemma of her career. Law or justice, duty or love. She can't have it both ways.

ANGEL FIERCE

Sci-fi action romance

Azura Chronicles series

Get it from your favorite retailer HERE

Something’s rotten on the angel planet. When Avenging Angels turn up dead, Urielle, their Legion Commander, suspects the handsome intruder brought unspeakable evil to Azura.

Maksou never met a woman he couldn’t seduce. He came to the forbidden planet to rescue his friends and get rich in the process, but the jungle crawls with lethal life forms… including a gorgeous warrior angel, who saves his life but keeps him prisoner and challenges his irresistible charm.

Urielle, sworn to protect Azura at all costs, has no use for a maverick who ignores the rules and endangers the planet… no matter how attractive. Especially when the Galactic Trade Alliance (GTA) wages a secret war to get their greedy hands on the priceless crystal at Azura’s core.

Vijaya Schartz, author

Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes

http://www.vijayaschartz.com

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Why I love research—Tricia McGill

Find all my books here on my Author page at BWL

A week or so ago I went by ferry along the Yarra River from Docklands in

Melbourne to Williamstown just down the coast a bit. The ferry chugged along at roughly the speed I would imagine was taken by the early settlers. I love my city despite its ever-growing concrete and glass towers. The story goes that John Batman wrote in his journal on 8th  June 1835 two days after sailing up the Yarra River, "So the boat went up the large river, and I am glad to state about six miles up found the river had all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village."

That last sentence later became famous as the "founding charter" of Melbourne.

Batman signed a so-called treaty with 8 Wurundjeri Aborigine elders to gain 600,000 acres of land around Port Philip, or Melbourne as it would become, and another 100,000 acres around what is now Geelong on the other side of Port Philip Bay. For some time Batman's Treaty, as it came to be called, was assumed by some historians to be a forgery.

By 1838, just 2½ years after John Batman’s announcement that “This will be the Place for a Village“, Melbourne’s population and infrastructure had already grown. By then Melbourne had 3 churches, 13 hotels, 28 business places, and 64 dwelling houses.   On October 27, 1839, the ship David Clark arrived from Scotland in what was then called Hobson’s Bay with 166 adults and 63 children—a voyage of more than four months. The new arrivals were taken ashore in the ship’s boats at the beach opposite Williamstown, and walked overland two miles to the banks of the Yarra River, where 50 tents were pitched in three parallel lines, each numbered to avoid confusion. The newcomers could only reach Melbourne via a punt on the Yarra. What began as a collection of tents and huts on the banks of the Yarra River that was used for bathing and drinking water, by 1850 become so polluted it was the cause of an epidemic of typhoid fever resulting in many deaths.

 
So as you can guess my imagination worked overtime that February 2020 day as the small ferry chugged peacefully along the Yarra River, where towering buildings now reach skywards in splendour, as I try to picture what it must have been like for those early settlers working their way in their vessels along the river where it is likely kangaroos, or emus sat and stared at the intruders. Or possibly natives who were conned by Batman out of the land that had been solely theirs for thousands of years.

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