It’s a very surprising thing when you pick up your phone and your agent is calling out of the blue to tell you that your publisher wants you to write the companion novel to an upcoming Cate Blanchett/Clive Owen movie. A film that’s the follow-up to Elizabeth, which was nominated for seven Oscars. A film that tells the story of England’s magnificent Elizabeth I during the period of the Spanish Armada.
Can you say: Numb with disbelief?
Needless to say, this was an offer I couldn’t refuse. So watch for me on the red carpet when The Golden Age premieres. I’ll be the one in the drop-dead blue dress.
Phew. I don’t know about you, but all the celebrating that’s been going on around here lately is making me thirsty. Let’s have a drink! Our guest today is the wonderful and amazing Mia King, whose debut novel, Good Things will be in stores everywhere next week. She lives in Hawaii, so is not being subjected to the unforgiveable Chicago weather that will be bludgeoning me this weekend. I’ll do my best to keep my location-jealousy in check…
Feel the Heat! Mia King’s Ultimate Lava Flow
2 oz strawberry pureé
1 oz light run
1 oz sweet & sour mix
1 oz coconut syrup
1 oz half and half
Ice
Pour strawberry pureé into a 14-oz hurricane glass. Fill blender with ice (about 1/3 full) and add all other ingredients. Pureé until slushy. Tilt hurricane glass to the side, and gently pour blender pureé down the inside of the glass, careful not to disturb the strawberry pureé. The strawberry pureé will start to flow to the top. Garnish with slice of pineapple and orchid. No orchid? Okay, fine, one of those cheesy paper umbrellas then!
KRISTY: Are you anything like Deidre in Good Things? Like, can you actually make any of those scrumptious sounding recipes?
MIA: I can but I have to admit I’m more of a Rachel Ray, K.I.S.S. kind of gal. I’m pretty good at taking whatever I find and making it edible, but I don’t think it would land me a TV show or my own line of branded baked goods. Still, I loved coming up with the recipes and having friends try them out and tweak them (I’m really much better as a taster …).
CARRIE: If you had to live in a shack in the woods, as Deirdre winds up doing, where would you prefer to be?
MIA: I once saw a picture of E.B. White typing in a cabin on a lake in North Brooklin, Maine. The picture was shot in black and white and the cabin was sparse and spotless. Totally inspiring. And clean. Very clean.
CARRIE: Of course you live in Hawaii, so I suppose it’s so gorgeous there that even living in a shack would be delightful. Do you spend all your time in a bikini chasing waves?
MIA: I spend all of my time in sweats chasing my kids. We don’t get to the beach nearly enough as we should.
TASHA: Volcanoes: roast marshmallows, throw in a virgin, or run?
MIA: Volcanoes are serious business here, especially since ours has been flowing since 1983. Also, Pele, goddess of the volcano, is definitely not one to be reckoned with. Last I heard, she takes virgins, but men only.
KRISTY: Your husband, Darrin Gee, is also an author, with a non-fiction book about golf coming out this year. How do two writers live in the same house and not throttle each other? Or at least whack each other with golf clubs once in a while?
MIA: Our therapist says we’re doing great!
MAGGIE: What three things can anyone living in Hawaii not live without?
MIA: Costco. Costco. Costco.
KRISTY: Domestic Diva Throwdown: Martha Stewart vs Sandra Lee. Last one standing and why…
MIA: Martha Stewart, hands down. I’d like to see Sandra Lee under house arrest with perfectly pressed khakis …
CARRIE: You have 32 minutes to whip up an elegant dinner designed to impress with the ingredients you have on hand right now. Who’s on their way, and what do you make?
MIA: The Dalai Lama. We’ve got 6 oz of leftover grass-fed NY steak, leftover jambalaya, fresh papaya, frozen salmon, frozen mahi mahi, edamame, leftover rice, way too much fresh broccoli, leftover macaroni and cheese (Annie’s organic white cheddar shells). Lots of stuff in the freezer, including the frozen fruit medley from Costco (for smoothies). Canned goods too. OK, here’s what we’ll do: we’ll re-heat the rice, stir fry the edamame in canola oil with shoyu (soy sauce) and chili pepper flakes (the Costco packets leftover from some pizza we brought home), put the packaged mahi mahi in a bowl of water until it defrosts, about 10 minutes (they’re individually packaged – again, Costco). Chop up the fresh papaya, pull out the mango pieces from the smoothie bag, add the canned pineapple, blend it up quickly then put it on the stove with a cup of sugar and turbo reduce it (if I really get short on time I’ll nuke it on medium or add pineapple marmalade). Throw the mahi mahi on the grill (I have no idea if His Holiness is eating fish these days but we do – with more time I’d dip it in egg, cover with panko flakes and chopped mac nuts then pan fry on each side). We’ll stir fry the broccoli with a little shoyu as well in case he’s not eating fish. We have only one tub of organic tofu, so I’ll slice it and serve it cold as a side dish with sesame oil and chopped green onions. Cooking for a Tibetan Buddhist couldn’t be easier.
Thank you, thank you, Mia for joining us today! Tune in next week, when our guest will be Friend of the Good Girls, Robert Gregory Browne. Let me know if you’ve got any pressing questions for him. But first, take a minute to answer the questions Mia’s left for us:
1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
See ya next week!
xo
Tasha
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Many congratulations Tasha! Can’t wait to see you on the red carpet!! I really think I might have to figure out a way to join you…
1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
** This giant stuffed Scooby Doo that I won at Great America like 8 years ago. It sits here and taunts me daily.
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
** Oh my. How delicious. I’d have to go with the Starbucks pumpkin scone. Man, now I want one right this minute!
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
** Well, it would be about ME of course and the fabulously insane life that I lead…okay, a little too much? Yes, I thought so too. I guess I would call it “You’re kidding, right?” and share with the world the unbelievably annoying things that I can’t believe happen every day. For example, who would believe that a week after having a cold with a fever of 102…on the road to recovery…that someone over the age of 30 would then get pink eye on top of it and be quarantined for 7 days? Say it with me, “You’re kidding, right?”
by Carrie on February 2nd, 2007 at 1:49 am
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[…] Friday, February 2nd, 2007 in Writing, Blogroll, Publishing, Good Things, Writers, Mia King, Deidre McIntosh The awesome women of Good Girls Kill for Money are hosting a cocktail party today for GOOD THINGS! They asked some killer questions and you won’t want to miss the amazing Lava Flow recipe that we included with the post - it is guaranteed to turn up the heat! Hats off to Tasha Alexander for the invitation. Please stop by and say hi — I’ve got some questions for YOU on the post as well, and can’t wait to hear what you have to say! […]
by Want to Read a Killer Post? « Mia Musings on February 2nd, 2007 at 4:51 am
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Tasha, thanks for hosting me and GOOD THINGS! And can I tell you how totally awesome it is to hear your good news?! It’s too amazing for words and I can’t wait for the companion book to come out. Congrats!
by Mia King on February 2nd, 2007 at 5:00 am
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Go, Tasha! Congratulations! Just remember all us little people when you’re hobnobbing with Brangelina and them.
by JDRhoades on February 2nd, 2007 at 8:03 am
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Hey Tasha-
That so rocks! Can I be your “seat-filler” for the big night?
1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
It would have to be the drawer of odd socks in my laundry room–I’m sure that someday all their mates will magically appear, so I don’t throw them out.
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
Oh, this great asiago cheese bread that comes in a mini-loaf–perfect for snarfing down with a glass of wine.
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
I’m not sure what I’d call it, but it’d be a travel show–so I could visit all sorts of lovely little towns around the world.
by judy larsen on February 2nd, 2007 at 8:40 am
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Dibs on Premiere date!!! I have a great dress and everything! What? Oh, you want to take your BSH? Sheesh! Congratulations, T, what an honor!
Now, Mia, if the DM (yep, we’re that close) ever actually gets to your house, give me a call. I’ve got some questions for him. And only one of them involves Richard Gere.
1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
**I have a can opener I’ve had since I was a teenager. It’s sort of disgusting, and it skips about 40% of the can so I have to open every can twice, and despite the fact that I know that can openers are inexpensive, I just can’t seem to give this one up.
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
**Oooooh, Starbuck’s 7-Layer Bar with the trans-fats added back in. I’ll be needing a chai tea latte with that too…
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
It would be called “I LIVE HERE WHY?” subtitle “It’s Amazing I Don’t Kill These People (Clearly I Am A Saint)” and it would feature all of the things that make me crazy about my neighborhood.
Oh, and Carrie, you’re kidding, right?!
by Kristy on February 2nd, 2007 at 9:58 am
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1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
We don’t have room for such a thing. It’s already gone.
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
Baker’s choice, based on what he thinks I’d like today, and a pot of perfectly matched tea.
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
It would be called PAY ATTENTION, and give a boost to writers, musicians, artists, and filmmakers I think deserve more notice, plus whatever happened to goose my enthusiasm or tick me off that week.
by Keith on February 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am
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Yay, Tasha!!! Clive Owen is yummy. And the book is going to be brilliant!
Hi Mia! Can’t wait to read the book. And that recipe above, I think I might steal… our COSTCO just opened. Thanks for the ideas.
1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
I’ve got several years worth of Architectural Digest. It’s not like I’m going to re-read them, but they’re just so pretty to look at, all stacked neatly…
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
(I’m sensing a trend here) Starbucks new five fruit banana muffin. So addictive.
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show.
It would be called “WTF?”
I’d let people come on and complain about people who annoy them, so they could get it off their chests. (I’d get to bitch too)
Once everyone is in a state of bliss, I’d move the programming to how to make books sexier so they would get the same kind of attention as movies and sports in the mainstream.
by JT Ellison on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:03 am
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What awesome news, Tasha! Congrats!!!
by Tori Lennox on February 2nd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
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Congrats again, Tasha!
1) Let’s see…stuff I really need to get rid of….how about just one of the boxes and boxes of “memorabelia” I have packed away in the garage. Old journals, movie ticket stubs, old posters from my early bedrooms. I am never going to sort through it, and neither are the nieces and nephews who will eventually wind up with it.
2)Oh wow, fresh pastries delivered every morning?! I LOVE this town! Chocolate chip scones and an ice blended mocha (notice I don’t say a frappacino, because I want to encourage the wonderful indie coffee-meisters everywhere)!
3) Yikes! We’d have to call the show WHERE’S DIANA? Because I’d be way too nervous and self-conscious to have my own show. Plus I hate how I look on TV. You do know the camera adds 57 pounds, don’t you?
by Diana Killian on February 2nd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
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Congrats on the wonderful news!
Getting that call would have been… incredible! Have a blast writing it.
Also, hats off to Mia and her debut novel, Good Things. I’ve ordered a copy and plan to read it in fits and spurts as I struggle to meet my own publishing deadline for my 3rd novel!
Great grog, ladies. I’ll be back.
by Holly Kennedy on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
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Tasha, you know how excited we are for you!!!! And if you need an extra body at that premiere, just ask! 
1) Man, I need a total ho-fest around here. I tend to keep more of the kids’ pictures then I should. But how better to chronicle their development then the way they draw people (from circles, to ovals with legs, to faces, etc.)
2) ANYTHING chocolate. Brownies, I think. NO! WAIT! Boston Creme Pie! Oh yeah!
3)My own show. I’d do some chick-day-out thing. Preview chick flicks, find good fondue places to eat, top chocolate cafes in the country, best beaches for picking up cute guys…that kind of think. As for a name? That’s like titles. And I’m not fond of titles.
by Laura on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:40 pm
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Tasha — congratulations!!! That is fabulous news, and you will look mah-velous on the red carpet.
by michele on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
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Congrats Tasha! Mia can I say how impressed I was that you could whip that dinner together? If the Dali Lama came here he would be looking at limp celery and a can of soup.
by Eileen on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
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Gong Xi, Tasha! Very exciting. BTW, I love those long gloves.
1) What needs to go? How about 10 years of back issues of Martha Stewart Living? I know I shouldn’t be keeping them, but at least I tore out all the ad pages so the issues are a little more compressed!
2) Baked goods? Nothing for the month of February, since I’m on the Atkins. Nothing from Starbucks, either. I do need variety, so I’d probably like to have to a different mini-tart/pie every day. Lemon meringue, fresh strawbery custard, key lime with graham cracker crust, pear frangipane… yum! Then I’ll be on Atkins again for the next year (or two!)
3) Own show? It would be called Wayno the Wino. I’d travel the world by sampling my way through the vineyards of different countries. How fun! When do I start???
by William Sen on February 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
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For those of your who may not know, the above post was left by the real-life William Sen, a character in GOOD THINGS (not his real name but he is very blog-shy) who really is a Martha Stewart junkie …
by Mia King on February 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
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1. What’s one thing in your house that you should throw out or give away, but just can’t?
An old bike in the shed. I have two others, but this old ten speed’s too big to throw away and the front fork is almost rusted through so I don’t want to give it to anyone else. Every year around Christmas I tell myself I’m going to give it to this guy around here who’s famous for fixing up old bikes and giving them to needy kids. But I can never find his address in time.
2. If you could have any baked good delivered fresh to your every day for a year, what would it be?
That’s easy. Krispy Kreme donuts. Awesome when fresh, the next day, not so much.
3. A local cable network wants to pay you to host your own one-hour TV show. The offer is to good to turn down and you have an unlimited budget for programming. What would it be called and what would it be about?
Something like the old Playboy After Dark TV series. A talk show in a cocktail party format. I could host it in my silk bathrobe. My ambition has always been to have a job where I never really had to get dressed and I could drink at work.
by JDRhoades on February 3rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
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> My ambition has always been to have a job where
> I never really had to get dressed and I could drink
> at work.
And “President” is already taken.
by Keith on February 3rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
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[…] Friends of the Debs in Hollywood! Friend of the site, Tasha Alexander of Good Girls Kill For Money (which hosted a Mia King cocktail party on Friday!) has been tapped by the powers that be to pen the companion novel to the follow-up of the seven Oscar nominated film “Elizabeth.” The sequel is called “The Golden Age” and will star Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen. (Deb Kristy is trying desperately to worm her way onto the red carpet at the premiere, but it’s not looking too good.) Long live the Queen! […]
by The Debutante Ball » Blog Archive » News Flash! on February 4th, 2007 at 11:22 am
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Aloha Tasha and Mia!
Congrats to you both. I am four islands over from Mia (on Oahu).
Answers to questions:
1. My cats.
2. Coconut rolls from Fiji.
3. “On the aft deck with Pat” where I recline on a lounge chair and pontificate.
by Patricia Wood on February 4th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
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Hell yes on taking Hollywood by storm, Tasha!
Questions:
1. Everything. I don’t need ANY of this crap! Why did I take it all with me!?!?!
2. Eclairs. I’d toss an old person out of a window for an eclair.
3. “Screaming Inbreds Throwing Chairs and Exposing Themselves.” It’d be pretty much like every day time “talk” show, but the title is more honest.
by nathan on February 5th, 2007 at 2:13 am
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Thanks for all the kind words, guys! I wish I could take you all to the premiere. THAT would make for a fun party.
Nathan, I’m so with you on getting rid of everything. Well, everything but my books. Sometimes I think cleansing by fire is the only option for the rest of my crap…
by Tasha Alexander on February 5th, 2007 at 10:25 am
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And Kristy, I totally want to see your TV show…
by Tasha Alexander on February 5th, 2007 at 10:26 am
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1. All the books I will never have time to read. But throwing is a no-no. Give away.
2. Sweet bread.
3. The Rob & Brett show. Where Brett Battles and I sit around and talk about how wonderful we are. Brett, of course, does most of the talking.
by Rob Gregory Browne on February 5th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
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Rob! That might be almost as good as the E! True Hollywood Story…
by Tasha Alexander on February 5th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
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Tasha, Congratulations! That is great! I am so excited for you.
by Christina on February 7th, 2007 at 10:30 am
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