#ScribesAndMakers 2025.07.22 — Show us something you've created. Tell us the story behind it.

There's not much of a story, here. Both my spouse and I have families where preserving fruit in alcohol was a thing (Ukrainian & Italian extraction). In both traditions, what got used was with a neutral spirit, aka vodka. My grandmother used to make her vodka, and reportedly blew up the kitchen sink in a Chicago apartment a long time ago.

These cherries are preserved in bourbon, and newly made so they've about a month to go to be fully enjoyed. I'm creative when it comes to food and food preparation, so a few years ago after making vodka cherries and having left over cherries after running out of the Tito's, I tried a bunch of things like Triple Sec and Old Granddad. The batch I made with Uncle Nearest generated a fandom.

Sadly, I used my reserved Uncle Nearest for this batch. The new bottles just bought, obviously made by a distiller who bought out the original entrepreneurs, cheapened it. It was obvious: dark brown verse light reddish brown, even discounting the address change. Sad.

I think they'll make good cherries next year, though, if not for drinking neat.

More in #AltText.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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Quart bottles stuffed with dark cherries, mixed with a solutions of mostly bourbon and sage honey diluted in water. The resulting cherry bourbon cordial is wonderful, as are the boozy cherries. An empty bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 lays empty in the foreground.
Quart bottles stuffed with dark cherries, mixed with a solutions of mostly bourbon and sage honey diluted in water. The resulting cherry bourbon cordial is wonderful, as are the boozy cherries. An empty bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 lays empty in the foreground.

I finished Atmosphere on Saturday and, after sitting with it for a few days, I think it might be one of my favourite books ever.

I thought Taylor Jenkins Reid would struggle to surpass Seven Husbands but man, this does.

I really really hope this gets adapted (properly) for the big screen because the narrative deserves it.

Read it!

9/10*

*Marks removed for emotional devastation

#FediBookClub#Books#Reading#Read#Book#Author#Literature

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden - 7/10

I finished this gem yesterday and honestly, I was blown away.

I didn't expect to be so pulled into another post-war story but here I am! Thankfully, this one was queer with an interesting plot following the treatment of Jewish people in post-war Netherlands.

I learnt stuff, I enjoyed the pacing and act structure, and I would recommend!

#FediBookClub#Books#Reading#Read#Author#Book#Literature

"The Remains of the Day" by: Kazuo Ishiguro

It is the summer of 1956, when Stevens, a man who has dedicated himself to his career as a perfect butler in the one-time great house of Darlington Hall, sets off on a holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and, unexpectedly, into his own past, especially his friendship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton.

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-remains-of-the-day-a-novel

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People seem to be less and less confident speaking their beliefs #online.
Online, is not where our future battles will be won.

To paraphrase Lenin — the #power is in the #streets, waiting to be picked up by those who know how to use it. #Mamdani figured out how to pick it up in the streets.

In this vein, I exhort you all to help redirect the knowledge we generate online TO THE STREET.

If you have a favorite #blogger, ask them if they’ll begin making their work in an accessible, downloadable, #pamphlet form that can be distributed on the street.

If you are a blogger or #author of substance, please, help us help you. Open your work up to reproduction and on the ground distribution.

We need to educate and infuriate those outside our online bubbles.

Let’s all help get the #WordOnTheStreet.

I've been reading Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh recently.

At first, I wasn't really sure about it. But I kept going and I am so glad.

Characters which seem bland at first go through an emotional washing machine. Everything changes.

A single line I came across yesterday really stood out considering current political climates.

"A peace brought about with the threat of violence is only a war in waiting."

Other writers, I'm looking at putting some of my short stories on Book Funnel, making sure to tie it all to my Buttondown email list, but I have a Payhip account. How do you use the 2 without it feeling redundant? I love the fact Book Funnel provides customer support to readers, but it seems like adding Payhip is redundant? Or if I have Payhip, why should I even bother with Book Funnel? #Author#Books#Writing

Whilst I try to only rarely cross-announce on the various writer challenge game hashtags I frequent, I'm doing so because March 30th, today, I am answering questions asked of me on Talk To Me Day hosted by Scribes and Makers. To ask, please include a question and these three items:

#ScribesAndMakers#TTMD @sfwrtr

Follow the two hashtags to participate in the answers and fun.

Here's the announcement: https://indieauthors.social/@saposcat/114240655183968909

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