Novelista

Think of an orange. The bright, pebbly skin. The sweet, juicy insides. Oranges pair well with foods like chocolate, toast and vodka. But, how about with mozzarella? Or tomato? Olive oil and capers? Garlic and red onion? Absolutely. Do not be fooled by its breakfast and sweet persona. Oranges play well with more savory items also. In Sicily, from where a portion of my ancestors hail, oranges are used in salads with lettuce and shaved fennel. Since that salad is delicious, we decided to change it a bit. My mom has the best food ideas. There are many times where we sit around and talk about different recipes. This recipe is one of them. Take a Caperese Salad. All it is is sliced fresh mozzarella, tomato slices, fresh basil, and a drizzle of olive oil. Now let’s look at our more Sicilian version: Sure we have slices of fresh mozzarella and tomato. But we also have sliced red onion, black and green olives, sliced garlic, and slices of supremed cara cara oranges. ...

I can remember where I was when I wrote each of my favorite poems. This is the fun little story behind my poem, Dogs Bark off in the Distance. During the summers of both high school and college, my family would spend a good number of evenings around the kitchen table playing games. Some nights we’d play poker. Some nights we would play board games like Sorry or Scattergories. The kitchen table would be filled with snacks both salty and sweet. I was usually losing if we were playing Sorry. All four of my little plastic yellow game pieces would sit in the start while the other colors would grace the squares around the board. It became a running joke. I bet if we broke out the Sorry board today, we would have a good laugh as my pieces stayed stuck in start. Our table sat in front of the sliding glass doors that went out to the deck. We would always have the door open, which would provide a great cross breeze with the open front windows. You could hear everything in our suburban n...

Dogs bark off in the distance As i look out my window at the trees swaying in my head i hear a music calling me and dogs bark off in the distance. A light flashes above my head i think about the fan circling around its idol the statue june it gets hot and dogs bark off in the distance. I sit and watch the cars swerve by monkeys climbing the sky falling on the hen laying eggs frying with bacon and dogs barks off in the distance. I see people jogging on a trail left behind their back door where the draft comes in crowd being led into battle and dogs bark off in the distance. This is the life saving device opening the garage where mechanics work on planes flying overhead that is spinning a web of life as dogs bark off in the distance. --IE Castellano

The new Make Your Offer website is great community of readers and writers where we can chat about anything under the sun and offer to buy most the e-books below retail.  The site's founder interviewed me for MYO's blog.  Read the interview here .

Check out my interview by author and blogger, Kate Aaron. It's my very first author interview and I couldn't be more excited.

Eulogy From A Late Arrival by Anne Mikusinski It must have been some party The afternoon you left And I, tardy as always, Caught up in ephemera, I came too late to say goodbye. I wanted to be there To see you off And wish you a safe journey As you left for parts unknown. Being late is not fashionable When goodbyes are involved The loose ends that are left Dangle like shoestrings And lie in wait to trip me up. The unsaid words hang in the air Unspoken thoughts haunt me in late hours. Nothing to do but remember And hope I run into you again. May 15, 2011 For Warren. RIP I wish I'd known sooner. About Anne Mikusinski: I have been writing stories/poems since I was seven years old. Some of my influences are Robert Frost, EE Cummings, and Dylan Thomas. Find Anne on Twitter

I was reading an article in the Christian Science Monitor today about “boomerang kids” – adults who move back home with their parents after living away for either school or work. The article says that the move back home is an upward trend. And it claims, “surprisingly, most ... don’t mind living with mom and dad.” The trend, according to the article, has taken hold because of poor employment options and economic situations. Adults without families of their own move home to save money, not live in squalor and to stay off the government doll. Then, the article takes a more sinister tone. It says, “it also means young adults are caught in a murky phase between adolescence and adulthood.” They ended the article with a quote from the co-author of Not Quite Adults: Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood and Why It's Good for Everyone , Barbara Ray. Ray states, “‘If the “launch” feels blocked for too long, will this generation's optimism curdle into bittern...

Since the day he was born it was always there ingrained in the deepest part of his soul the instinct that drives him To be all alone in a world that rejects him going against the grain the most important thing to him To be accepted by himself in order to love what he does in his mind, heart, and soul Living, learning and teaching he, himself all his life without knowing but finally understanding Something he feels his heart knowing his head spinning his legs moving Never stopping not complaining finally telling his never-ending story --IE Castellano

Every Wednesday I’ll be posting a poem written either by me or from a submission. See the Poetry Submission page for details. Enjoy!

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the robins have returned to my little area. My cats are having a field day watching them peck at the morning grass from the safety of a window ledge. On a gorgeously clear Sunday, like today, the motorcycle brigade roars down Main Street off to some point in the mountains. Over the low rumble of engines, church bells call their congregations inside their stained glass houses. Inside my late Victorian, butter bubbles brown in a pan over a low flame. The robust aroma of coffee permeates the kitchen before escaping down the hall. Ham is sliced off the bone waiting to be reheated in a pan. Eggs, fresh from the farm, are cracked into the bubbling butter. My family and I sit around the table to eat. Soft butter melts into toasted bread while the pulp floats on top of the orange juice. My dad and brother crack open the egg white allowing the golden yellow yolk to run all over their plates. My mom and I savor well fried ham slices as well as s...

Ah, March. Spring is well on its way. Of course some of us could argue that winter never really made an appearance. This morning, the snow jokingly played in the air only to melt on contact. However, this evening snow blankets with a vengeance. I missed the snow this winter. I missed the entire month or so of days in the 20s. Some would call me crazy. They loved the mild winter. These will be the first people to complain about our extra buggy spring. Every action has at least one reaction. Sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes a mixture of both. The whims of March can bring us snow, rain, sun, warm, cool and pretty darn cold. It can fake the trees into early bloom only to encase the flower show under a coating of ice. Reports of crocuses blooming have sprung around the area. I have pretty lemon yellow daffodils planted by a previous owner that have yet to show their green leaves. Regardless of what the weather brings, this is the time of year I anticipate planting my...

For all those who missed my birthday ebook coupon, I am participating in Smashwords’ Read an Ebook Week. The coupon code you need is on my book page . The site-wide promotion runs until March 10th. My next book, a dystopian science fiction, is coming along well. The projected release date is sometime in late April. I am trying to push to make that happen, but it might get moved into May. When the date gets closer, I will set a more concrete release date.