Thursday 27 June 2019

The Perfect Boiled Egg


The Perfect Boiled Egg

Now, I know, there is much debate about the perfect boiled egg. I'm not trying to be controversial😜. This is not a method that claims to make the epitome of boiled eggs for everyone, HOWEVER, it is a way of boiling an egg that produces the exact same results every time.

I don't know about you, but I've always found boiled eggs to be hit and miss. I'd use a time at my house and it would be perfect, then use the same time at my parents house and the egg would be over done or not done enough. Then I discovered the secret!

Keep reading to find out what it is...

Ingredients


  • 2 large free range eggs
  • 2 slices of bread of choice - I favour multi-seeded wholemeal
  • butter (or spread, or nothing if you are so inclined)
  • beverage of choice - mango and lychee green tea with honey is my choice

Equipment


  • 1 pin (one with a large head is the best, like the ones that are covered in plastic on the end and look like pearls)
  • 1 desert spoon
  • 1 small saucepan
  • a timer of some sort
  • water
  • a double egg cup or 2 single egg cups
  • 1 teaspoon - preferably with a flat handle
  • butter knife
  • 2 plates
  • toaster


Instructions


  1. Fill your saucepan 2/3rds with water and place over a high heat - if it is hot water from the tap of kettle it will be quicker.
  2. Put the bread in the toaster and pop down. Now I like my toast well done and cold for making soldiers because the structural integrity is better. If you like your toast warm, do this step once your eggs are on.
  3. Pierce the top of the eggs with the pin very gently. This will stop them cracking when they are placed in the boiling water.
  4. When the water is boiling, lower the eggs into the water using the desert spoon. Avoids any chance of scolding.
  5. Start timer for 4m30s. This produces a runny egg where the yolk is beginning to firm up on the outside and the white of the egg is no longer clear, but there is some runny white under the yolk. If you like your egg less done, reduce the time, more done, increase it.
  6. When your toast pops - take it out and put it on the plate to cool like you are balancing 2 cards against each other when making a house of cards. This stops the toast going soggy. If you like your toast with butter melted in - just butter it straight away - that's what i do for toast and jam, but for soldiers I use this method.
  7. When the timer goes off, carefully tip away as much of the hot water as possible down the sink. Then immediately fill the saucepan with cold water. Tip out again and refill with cold. This will stop the eggs from continuing cooking. THIS IS THE SECRET I MENTIONED!!!
  8. Pop the eggs into the egg cups.
  9. Cut up your soldiers - I butter them afterwards - I know, weird, but then they don't get soggy.
  10. Tap the top of the egg with the teaspoon to crack the shell, and use the handle of the spoon to carefully lift away the top of the shell. None of this whack it off with a knife in this house - too much chance of shell in the egg!
  11. Use the spoon to nip off the top of the egg white until the yolk is visible and consume.
  12. Dunk soldiers and be happy (while trying not to get egg yolk all down the front of the new top).
And there we have it - my chosen method for getting the perfect boiled egg and soldiers every time. I had this for my breakfast this very morning, actually.

So I know there are many methods for boiling the perfect egg - which is your favourite?


Photo for banner by Steve Harvey on Unsplash

Wednesday 26 June 2019

Writing and General Update


Hello, one and all. Sorry I have been remiss in posting here recently, I've been super focused on writing and getting one of my novels ready for submission.

The Writing


I've mentioned before that I'm writing a novel series based off of my novella Mina's Children: The Legacy of Dracula and I've been focusing on that a lot. It's going well and the second books is shaping up nicely, while plans to extend Mina's Children into a novel are afoot too.

It's weird, but having a notepad for this one has been the key. I make no excuses for my brain, it's just the way it is!

The Submitting


Last year I finished writing a novel called Ellie Grange and the Mythical Space Diamond and I knew I wanted to try and land an agent with it. However, I've been letting it sit, because I also knew I wanted to change the ending a little. It just wasn't quite right.

Turns out, with some distance, it only needed a little tweaking to fix what felt wrong, so yay!

An agent just requested the manuscript after reading my query letter, so I really, really hope they like the book. Keep your fingers crossed for me!


Wattpad

As I've mentioned before, I'm an ambassador over at Wattpad - which means I'm a volunteer who helps out with some stuff, and it's a great place to hang out. Link to Ambassdors profile on Wattpad.


I've been posting original fic and fanfic over there for a while and I've decided to do a big push with some of my old fanfics, to share them with a new audience. Those of us who came from Livejournal know AO3 is THE place for fanfic, but there are many, many people on Wattpad who have never heard of it.😮 My plan is to entice people in with fanfic and then hopefully hook them with my original work too ðŸ˜Ž.

Wattpad is a little pickier about what content is and is not allowed than AO3 - for example, no PWPs 😭, a story has to have plot as well as sex or it's not allowed, but there is still a thriving fanfic community over there.

I'm stacking up a whole heap of fanfic to post and having a lot of fun doing it (not that I'm not posting original work too). It gives me a chance to:

  1. re-edit some of my older work - I'm looking at you wayward commas, or commas lost in action, or OMG how many "and then"s are there in this fic?! 😂
  2. create covers for them - which is fun

There are some that can't go over because they aren't suitable, but I can rarely ever write a story with out it growing a plot, so most of them are good.

I did discover I have one Weiss Kreuz story which is basically 17K of porn. It does have plot, but the plot revolves around the sex, so I'm thinking it's probably on dodgy ground. ðŸ˜‚

The Issue of Plagiarism


And before you ask "What about the plagiarism problem" - because I have had so many people ask me that when I mention Wattpad, I have no idea why some people think Wattpad has a reputation for plagiarism and not helping writers.

Yes, people's stories sometimes get copied and re-uploaded by unscrupulous individuals to Wattpad or other sites, but Wattpad has a very clear, easy to follow procedure for having them removed. As I mentioned to someone on Twitter, I have had way more problems with people stealing and uploading my eBooks from other sites like Smashwords and Amazon than anything on Wattpad.

Wattpad has more than 65 million users, so there are bound to be some bad apples, but they (unlike some other sites I could mention) work very hard to make sure they are dealt with.


Canadian Lovelies


Wattpad are Canadian, but they have users from all over the planet. They are also lovely💖 just like their country's reputation and they have a whole section of their site dedicated to helping writers expand their audience and get the most out of the platform. Wattpad loves writers and it wants writers to love them.


Friday 7 June 2019

New Free Exclusive Short Story - #FreeFictionFriday


It's that time of the month again, and by that I mean Free Fiction Friday!

Every month we, over at Wittegen Press, have a free short story for the wonderful subscribers of our Wittegen Press Newsletter. Never fear, if you are not yet a subscriber, it is easy to join and the links to this month's story are in the final welcome email.

The stories rang in genre and length and we try to mix it up so that everyone has something they enjoy.


This month's free story:

The Journey Home by Sophie Duncan

genre: high fantasy

Morgan has been betrayed, attacked by assassins and magic that could only have come from one of her own. Now she must learn what it means to trust and love so she may heal.


We offer each short story for download in PDF, ePub, Mobi and AZW3.