My New Hobby – Soap Making

I have been interested in the process of making soap in a vague way since I started shaving with a double-edged razor, in December of 2011. The concept of soaps and their different properties and ingredients came to my attention in a way that they never had been before.

I read a forum thread about a guy who was making his own shaving soap. It was interesting. One part chemistry, one part artistry, and it was neither difficult nor expensive. A bit of oil, a bit of horribly dangerous caustic chemicals, and voila. I have a problem with dry skin on my hands, so I thought the ability to create my own hand-and-face soaps with extra emollients and the like would be great.

Game on, then! I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the raw materials of soap making, while not expensive, are not easily available for the low prices that make soaping affordable. Olive oil, just to give you one example, is far more expensive in the grocery store than from a soap/cosmetics supply, with warehouse store prices falling in between. So over the course of a couple of weeks I picked up some vegetable shortening (palm oil), economy bottles of olive oil, and coconut oil. Pure lye is available at home improvement stores as drain cleaner, so I picked up some of that. A second hand crock-pot and a paint-stirring paddle for my drill, and I was ready to give things a try.

New Soap: Orange & Cedarwood Hand and Facial Soap

My latest batch of soap seems like it’s going to be a good one.

My very first soap was a hot-process soap made with 50% olive oil, 25% coconut and 25% palm. It’s not a bad soap, but it’s not a great soap, either. My daughter thinks it’s drying, but I’m not sure how, and my wife complained that the soap was very slippery. The lather is a bit on the thin side, too, something caused by the high percentage of olive oil.

So I did some research in my books and online at the Soap Making Forum and came up with a new formulation to try. I lowered the olive oil content and beefed up the palm oil. In addition, I added shea butter for its conditioning properties and decided to include some additional glycerin as a humectant. I saponified it with 100% sodium hydroxide.

Fats

Palm Oil	40%
Olive Oil	25%
Coconut Oil	25%
Shea Butter	10%

Additives

Glycerin, 3T/lb of oils

Fragrance

Blood Orange FO	50%
Lime EO	20%
Cedarwood EO	30%

I created a cylindrical loaf in a Pringles can. The new, shorter cans are just about perfect for a 1lb batch – it left me about 1″ of space at the top of the cylinder.

The loaf came out of the can (which I snipped at the top and peeled off like a packed of canned biscuits) after 48 hours. It was still slightly tacky to the touch, but had set nicely and smelled great. I used a wire clay cutter to slice it into discs. It worked fine, but the length of the tool and the need to get it all the way down to the surface of the table made it awkward. I also didn’t have a guide or miter box, which made the cuts a bit wobbly.

My Concerns

My primary worries are that the scent will turn out not to be pleasant once the process is done, and that the soap will be too soft because of the amount of glycerin. Updates on that when I check it in four weeks, 6/3.

Review – Old Blood’s Fate by Michael Merriam

Old Blood’s Fate by Michael Merriam is a fast-paced urban fantasy with heavy elements of thriller and romance.

Jack Clausen is a Creek man transplanted to Minnesota from his native Oklahoma. After a trip back to his old stomping grounds to write a travel article, Jack ends up on a crashing plane with Emma (a magically gifted flight attendant) and Old Coyote.

After mysteriously surviving the plane crash, Jack is soon caught up in the schemes of Coyote an the other First People of North America.

I liked the way this story was executed. Jack’s character is important enough to warrant the attention of the powers present in the book. At the same time, he is not so powerful or wise as to make his struggles meaningless or unrelatable. The Animal People do a good job of combining “regular guy” qualities and ancient wisdom and power, like the best myths of most peoples. The “fate” aspect of the book is definitely present – something that I usually don’t care for. However, it’s not heavy handed, nor does it result in a feeling of inevitability or fatalism. Instead, it manifests as a tendency toward coincidence, and a drawing together of the major actors in the story. I found it a very tasteful way to handle it.

The romance subplot is important, but doesn’t overpower the rest of the plot. The progression of the relationship is very believable, as well. The sex scenes are pretty hot – fans of Merriam’s earlier work will notice they are considerably more graphic than his usual “cut-to-curtains-blowing-in-the-windows approach.

There are questions left unanswered by this book, and I liked that. It would have been too pat to answer ever question that was brought up, and would have weakened the overall impact of the story. Whose theories about the story’s major problem were correct? What will the overall impact be of the way the problem was resolved? These things are left open ended, or totally unaddressed, inviting the reader to think about them for himself. They also leave room for Merriam to expand on this setting and these characters, without being locked in to an obvious next step. (In fact, I believe I recognize at least a couple of characters as having already appeared in one of the stories in the collection Shimmers and Shadows.)

Unfortunately, my eBook copy of the story suffered some copy editing issues. Nothing that prevented me from enjoying the story, but a few that broke the flow of my reading.

In summary, I definitely recommend this book for fans of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and folklore based tales.

Rating: A solid 3.5 stars.

Review – The Devil’s Hand by M. E. Patterson

M. E. Patterson appeared on my radar completely by happenstance. He was one of those random Twitter adds that you can never remember after the fact. Either he added me based on the other people I follow, or I saw him mentioned in a Twitter post and checked his profile out myself. I was immediately intrigued by the description of his first novel, The Devil’s Hand. I used to play a bit of online poker for real money, and was actually beating the game. So an Urban Fantasy novel where the protagonist is a poker player appealed to me.

It took me a while to get around to reading it. I always seem to have either more books than I can handle at a time, or less money than I want to spend on them. Somewhere there exists a happy medium, but I haven’t found it. I finally got around to it last week, and I’m pretty glad I did.

Trent Hawkins is the so-called Luckiest Man Alive. After surviving a horrific plane crash, he goes on to capitalize on his luck in Vegas. Not unexpectedly, casino bosses and the Gaming Commission take a dim view before long. He and his wife leave Vegas, broke and blacklisted. That’s where we come in. Trent and his wife are headed back to Vegas so she can take a dream job. Things immediately begin to get weird.

A rain of fish and a hail storm herald the couple’s arrival in Las Vegas. Odd things are happening in the shop of an old friend of the family. And when a vagrant preacher comes to the children’s hospital where Susan works to try to capture a girl to whom he has no connection, the ride really begins.

Along the way, questions are answered, like “why is Trent so lucky?.” Others are raised. We’re left with a sense of closure on the current story, but an impression of what else may be to come. The Devil’s Hand is the first book in a series called Drawing Thin, and I plan to keep reading.

The writing in Devil’s Hand is evocative and sturdy. The storyline is face paced and stays interesting. The forces moving behind the scenes turn out to be familiar fare for urban fantasy and horror readers, but in an interesting permutation that’s similar to but not quite the same as many others I’ve read.

The book’s big stumbling block, like many other indy offerings is in editing. There were a few places where misspellings and the like made it into the final version of the book, and one notable instance where the declared outcome of an important hand of poker was different from that described by the action. To Patterson’s credit, when I mentioned this on Twitter he owned up to it and sent me a link to the material that had been erroneously cut, and which will be added back in the second edition.

All told, I give The Devil’s Hand 4 out of 5 stars for engaging action, well realized characters, and a refreshing take on familiar supernatural elements.

The Devil’s Hand at drawingthin.net

M.E. Patterson on Twitter

Time to interrupt the crickets

I’ve been neglecting this place, and writing in general. I posted about the scary hamburger fingertips that prevented a lot of optional keyboarding before. I’ve also been helping my wife get off the ground with her website and part time crafting business, Ladysea Creations.

I’ve also been learning about and plotting to start making soap. Expect some posts about that as I get going.

It also appears that my break from writing hasn’t ruined my interest in my story, or writing in general. So it’s time to get back to that in a serious way.

In short, I’m back and glad to be back. I’ll be making a couple more posts over the next day or two about indy books I’ve read recently.

Messed up fingers make it hard to write

Since the start of the holidays, I’ve been having a rather extreme bout of eczema. This has made it extremely difficult to do much writing, either fiction or here on the blog.

Review – Gown of Shadow and Flame by A. E. Marling

I finished Gown of Shadow and Flame last night. It’s an ambitious novel for young adults that takes on genre tropes in an interesting way. It’s set in the Lands of Loam, the same general setting for Marling’s “Enchantress” novels for adults.

What It’s About

The book tells the story of Celaise, a town girl embarked on a trial, and Jerani, a member of a plains herding tribe. Celaise has been sent on a mission to contain the growing threat of a bizarre creature called a “headless” or a “rock-back” before they overrun the plains and attack the cities. Jerani’s people are some of the most sorely afflicted. Jerani is one of the tribe’s warriors, and has had to take full responsibility for his family much earlier than usual because his parents are both gone.

Described this way, it sounds like a standard quest novel. I suppose it is, but it has some very nonstandard participants.

Celaise is a Feaster, a person gifted (cursed?) with the ability to weave illusions that inspire fear. They take that fear and distill it into their Black Wine which grants them greater power and strength. This is the first way that the book departs from the standard tropes. Feasters are predators, and Celaise is no exception. Usually, a similar protagonist like a vampire would be reformed, regretful, and conflicted. Celaise’s only regret is that the Lord of the Feast has forbidden her from feasting on humans during her trial. She’s an active predator, and hates and distrusts her fellow humans. She’s only helping these people because the Lord of the Feast can (and will) hurt or kill her if she disobeys. The Lord himself asks her to do it because he doesn’t want the creatures bothering him and the other Feasters in the city.

Jerani is treated as an adult in his tribe, though a young one. He’s a conscientious father figure to two younger siblings, and mostly happy with his lot. Doing the chores of a mother and a father takes its toll on him, but until the rock-backs start massing, he’s pretty content. There are rivalries with other warriors, and a girl who won’t look his way. Missing are the usual rebellion against authority, desires to get away and general lack of direction you frequently see with older teen protagonists in YA novels.

The setting itself adds another layer of originality to the story. The Lands of Loam show a mixture of influences from south-west Asian and African societies in the real world, with a healthy dose of originality thrown in. Jerani’s plains-people are a simple and low-tech society whose lives center around their herds of huge-horned cattle. They live on the slope of a volcano (which they consider their goddess, the Angry Mother), trading the added fertility for crops and grazing for the occasional need to rebuild the village after an eruption. They distrust outsiders and their strange, sacrilegious ways.

Celaise has to find a way to use her power against the bizarre rock-back creatures, headless beasts with mouths on their chests and eyes on their shoulders, without being able to feed on humans to replenish herself. She can’t allow the Greatheart tribe to learn she’s a Feaster, or they’ll drive her away at best, or kill her. She will need to overcome her enormous distrust of normal humans to work with the Greathearts and eliminate the threat. And finally, she has to figure out what the strange beasts are afraid of, or her magic will be useless.

Jerani becomes the liaison between his tribe and the beautiful stranger that comes among them. He thinks she may be an avatar of their goddess, or one or Her attendant beings. His younger brother is pushing hard to be accepted as a man and a warrior before he’s ready. And their father hasn’t been right since their mother died.

How I Liked It

After a bit of a shaky start, I ended up loving it. The characters (with a couple of exceptions) are complex and enjoyable. The setting is unusual and captivating. The choice to use an unrepentant murderer as a protagonist was interesting in itself. Celaise and Jerani’s arcs of growth are believable and engaging. The clash of cultures was predictable in some ways, but original in others, and left me quite content.

Marling’s fantasy is all informed by a healthy sense of the creepy and disturbing. The rock-backs continue this trend with their bizarre anatomy and faceless insectoid implacability.

I felt like this book worked on multiple levels. The most obvious is the quest-story. At the same time, Marling is dealing with questions of responsibility, maturity, and growth for Jerani. Trust, independence, and chemical dependence are themes that concerned Celaise. (There’s a definite correlation between the amount of Black Wine she’s been using and her mental processes.) Individual desires and growth vs. societal expectations and tradition are a fairly common theme with young adult protagonists in both adult and YA books, but Marling deals with his without resorting to iconoclasm or mindless conformity.

But…

The sheer amount of unusual or outright strange stuff is a lot to digest as the story gets going. In addition, he starts out just before things get bad in terms of the rock-back encroachment. Trying to get Jerani and Celaise into their respective places in the story, he switches back and forth between the two perspectives in the first chapter repeatedly. All these things together resulted in a bit of a herky-jerky feel at the start. It was more than worth it to ride this out, because once the stage is set, the story unfolds very well.

Summary

Title: Gown of Shadow and Flame
Author: A. E. Marling
Recommendation: Definitely recommended
Rating: 3.5/5

Disclaimer: I received a reviewer copy from the author.