| The LOCH-2 CHARACTER CONTEST | |
That's right, we're talking sequel, and I will need characters, so now's your chance to be immortalized between the pages and on kindle monitors everywhere! CONTEST RULES: Go to www.SteveAlten.com and click on the LOCH CONTEST link. Upload the trailer to your YouTube page and spread the link around. BE SURE to send the link to Stan Tremblay, the contest judge at stevealtencontests@gmail.com so he can track your views. The top 30 viewed uploads will be characters in The LOCH-2. KEYS TO BIG VIEWS:
It only takes 5 minutes to post the movie on YouTube or a website, but it takes some creativity to NAME THE TITLES to entice people to watch. The contest runs from January 1, 2012 thru April 1, 2012. Anyone whose combined uploads track over 1,000 hits will receive a personalized signed MEG poster. |
February Recipe:
Superbowl Recipe: Soft Jumbo Pretzels
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Yield:
12 jumbo pretzels. Time: 3 hours Ingredients: 4 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 1/4 Cup warm water, 5 Cup flour, 1/2 Cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon canola oil, 10 Cups hot boiling water, 3/4 Cups baking soda, Pretzel salt to taste, 1 egg, whipped until frothy. 1. In the bottom of your Kitchen Aid or Bosch Mixer dissolve 1 t sugar and the yeast in the warm water. I just stir it around a bit with a spoon. Let it sit for 5 minutes, or until the mixture begins to bubble and rise.
2. Add salt, 1/2 C sugar, oil, and 1 C of the flour. Mix for about 30 seconds.
3. Add the rest of the flour 1 C at a time. This recipe needs ALL 5 CUPS of the flour. It will seem a bit stiff at first, but the pretzels still turn out very soft with all 5 cups. You need this much flour, or your finished product will be more roll like than pretzel like.
4. Once all the flour is added mix on high for about 8 minutes.
5. Let the dough rest and rise for 1 1/2-2 hours. The dough needs to rise until at least doubled in size. This recipe takes a while to rise, but don't cheat this step. The pretzels will be much more difficult to roll out if the dough hasn't risen enough.
6. Heat your oven to 450 degrees.
7. Punch the dough down and divide it into 12 equal portions. I used a sharp knife sprayed with cooking spray and a cutting board for this step.
8. Place each piece on a sprayed cookie sheet and let them rest for 10 minutes. Don't skip this step....unless you enjoy letting the dough rule over you while you shape it. Give it a rest and you will be In-Charge-Marge. Otherwise, the dough is very hard to manipulate.
9. Combine the 10 C water and baking soda in a large pot. Bring it to a boil.
10. While the water heats, roll each dough piece into a long thin rope. Twist it into a pretzel shape.
11. Put each piece (one at a time) into the boiling water for 30 seconds.
12. Place on a sprayed cookie sheet and brush the beaten egg over the top. Sprinkle with pretzel salt. 13. Bake for 8 minutes. Enjoy!
We opted to leave the pretzel salt off on occasion. When they came out of the oven we brushed butter on the top and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar.....delicious!
IF YOU HAVE A RECIPE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, please e-mail to me at MEG82159@aol.com Put RECIPE in the subject line. |
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Greetings!
February 2012 UPDATE
I've been receiving a lot of e-mail from readers asking about the release of MEG 5: Night Stalkers. The novel hasn't been written yet, the game plan is to release the book with a MEG MOVIE. At best, that means summer 2014. My next release would be The OMEGA PROJECT, which I expect to complete this month. Once we commit to a publisher, I will offer you a free chapter. If you enjoyed The LOCH and GOLIATH, this will be your new favorite Alten thriller.
Enjoy the update.
Your friend,
Steve Alten |
Hybrid Sharks Found in Australia |
 No, it's not Deep Blue Sea-2, but I covered this in MEG: Hell's Aquarium.
Read the story... |
Orca Attacks Sharks in Surf Zone |
Angel's surviving pups swear revenge in MEG-5.
 | | Orca attacks Sharks |
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PHOBOS: Mayan Fear First Editions still available! | |
 PHOBOS: Mayan Fear threat listed as potential 2012 concern!
Check out the February 2012 issue of Popular Mechanics. The title of the cover article is "Game Over, 12 ways the world could end in 2012." Many thanks to reader Mary Schlosberg for sending the info.
Buy PHOBOS at Amazon... |
Lost World of Sea Creatures Discovered | |
Albino creatures, deep sea vents...where have I heard this before? Thanks to Heath McKnight for sharing this info.
Read the story... |
Living Tips: Change your life -- Rent the movie: I AM |
Tom Shadyac's writing/directing career was launched in 1994 with the Jim Carrey smash hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. In the years that followed, Shadyac would establish himself as one of the most prolific comedy directors in Hollywood while working with some of the biggest names in the business. Huge hits such as Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Accepted , and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, have helped establish Shadyac as one of Hollywood's most successful writer/director/producers. In his latest project, a documentary entitled I AM, Shadyac asks some of today's most profound thinkers, two questions - What's wrong with our world, and what can we do about it? This moving, inspiring film won the Audience Choice Award and the Student Choice Award at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado, where it premiered last May.
 | | "I AM" - Official Trailer |
Watch the Movie Trailer.... |
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Just when you thought you heard it all: | |
a) Eugene "Butch" Flenough, Jr., was arrested in Austin, Texas for robbery of a pizza restaurant after employees identified him. To hide his face during the robbery, Flenough wore a motorcycle helmet, which had "Butch" and "Eugene Flenough, Jr." written on it.
b) In Oslo, Norway, Jermund Skogstad, fifty, was moving into his new apartment when he took a break to get something to eat. He went to a nearby cafe but forgot to take his wallet, which contained his new address. He was unable to find his way home. "This is embarrassing," he told a newspaper a month later, hoping word of his plight would reach his new landlady, whom he had paid a month's rent in advance.
c) Shirley Koota, 62, of Miami, accompanied her husband Bert, 65, to a pistol range to learn how to use their new .22 automatic. During the lesson, she squeezed off a round, and the hot cartridge, ejected by the pistol, flew down the front of her dress. It startled her so badly that she whirled around and shot Bert in the leg.
d) Two men, aged 16 and 18, after an attempted burglary in Larkspur, CA, in 1989, scaled a chain-link fence outside town to evade police who were following them, only to discover later that the fence was the outer perimeter of San Quentin Prison, where guards soon arrested them.
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Have you read a story that borders on the ridiculous? Send it to Steve Alten at Meg82159@aol.com |
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Joke of the Month | |
A Scot was drinking in a bar in London when he gets a call on his cell phone. He orders drinks for everybody in the bar as he announces his wife has just produced a typical Scottish baby boy weighing 25 pounds. Nobody can believe that any new baby can weigh in at 25 pounds, but the man just shrugs, "That's about average up our way, folks...like I said - my boy's a typical Highland baby boy."
Two weeks later the man returns to the bar. The bartender says, "Say, you're the father of that typical Scottish baby that weighed 25 pounds at birth, aren't you? Everybody's been making' bets about how big he'd be in two weeks. So how much does he weigh now? The proud father answers, "Seventeen pounds." The bartender is puzzled and concerned. "What happened"? He was 25 pounds the day he was born."
The father takes a slow swig from his Johnny Walker Whisky, wipes his lips on his shirt sleeve, leans into the bartender and proudly says, "Had him circumcised." God Bless The Scots !
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IF YOU HAVE A JOKE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, please e-mail to me at MEG82159@aol.com Put JOKE in the subject line. |
New Cancer Protocol - Announcement in February | |
We had hoped to break the news in January, but wanted to wait until the FDA approves the new video and website announcing this incredible information.
Expect a special newsletter soon. |
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Stay well, stay safe and know this author really appreciates you. And please purchase copies of PHOBOS: Mayan Fear & GRIM REAPER: End of Days - I guarantee you will enjoy them!
Steve Alten, Ed.D. |
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