RJ's Autism Awareness Blog Hop 2020

Hi, this is Eli. I’m participating in RJ' Scotts Autism Awareness Blog Hop for 2020. Every year, RJ does a blog hop with other romance authors to bring attention to autism.

For example, did you know that dogs are helpful for autistic individuals? Dogs have been shown to improve autistic children’s quality of life, independence, and safety. The presence of a trained dog can reduce aggressive behavior, calm the child, and serve as a link to the child’s community.

You can learn more at RJ’s website, and check out her master list of all the author’s participating in the blog hop.

http://rjscott.co.uk/autismbloghop2020

Plant-Based Eating in the age of cOVID-19

The theme of this year’s blog hop is food, so I thought I’d share something that I really value. I have been following a WFPB (whole food plant based) diet since around 2016. I haven’t always been strict about it, but when I stick to it for longer than a few weeks, I feel so much better, have so much more energy, am sharper mentally, and I honestly love the food.

Since the coronavirus has upset the apple cart (or the Hostess Ding Dong cart for me), I have been much more aware of how important it is to eat healthy, stay active, and guard my health. Every. Single. Day. If illness strikes, I want to have the best chance of recovery. Also, we know that certain foods, like sugar, feed viruses while others, like garlic, onions, lemons, and any food high in vitamin C, help boost the immune system. Fortunately, a WFPB diet is rich in the most helpful foods.

Even if you don’t want to give up meat and dairy entirely, you can bring more plant-based meals into your life—for your health and for the planet’s.

I subscribe to a meal plan that I love called Clean Food Dirty Girl. Every week they send me a meal plan with a grocery list, all the recipes, and instructions for a “batch cook”. I typically do the batch cook on the weekend. It means 3-4 hours in the kitchen, but then I have food for the entire week. Usually there’s a grain, a soup, a salad dressing, a side veg, and an entree or two. In the image below, there’s a potato salad and chili-spiced Tofu dish. You can mix and match the elements to get lunch and dinner all week.

Batch cooking is super helpful because when you have delicious, healthy food all ready to eat in the fridge, you’re less likely to grab for that bag of chips or cookies out of hunger or laziness.

Whole food plant based cooking uses no oils, processed flours, or sugars but it does use a TON of spices. Literally before I began this way of eating, I had one small drawer of spices that were often years old. Now I have two large drawers, and I have to replace spices often. Spices are not only super healthy but they give a true depth of flavor, far more than you find in prepackaged foods.

You can try a free meal plan at Clean Food Dirty Girl or simply try one of their dozes of free recipes. A few of my favorites are the African Peanut Stew and the potato salad. I promise both are super delicious, even to omnivores!

That’s my quarantine routine. However you guard your health, stay well during this surreal and challenging period. Read. Love. Appreciate life.

xxxxooo, Eli

When you face massive upheaval

We bought our farm in Lancaster County, PA in 2010. Since then, things have been busy but relatively stable. We've loved the farm and it's been a stunningly beautiful, bucolic, serene place to write. I made a home office, but I rarely use it. We have a back room that's all windows, and that's where we spend 99% of our time. It's lovely to write on my laptop and look out over acres of green trees and a pond down below. It's like being in a private park all the time.

The farm has also inspired a number of books. All of the books below were set partially or entirely on our farm.

But as idyllic as this place is, it's also a lot of work and expense to upkeep. And honestly, my husband and I use so little of both the house and the property. I know a larger family, or someone who wants to use the farm as a farm, would appreciate the place more and do much more with it. 

Over the years, we've considered starting a B&B or wedding venue or even a farm sanctuary. But the reality is that my husband and I area both introverts and I spend a great deal of time inside my own head. So us being professional hosts would not end well!

I've always been fairly transient, moving every few years. So the prospect of moving on to something new is exciting to me rather than depressing. But that doesn't mean it isn't a ton of work and stress.

We put the farm on the market in April and I took nearly a month off writing to try to get things ready. Now I find I have a little more time to write again as we're in wait mode, making sure the place is kept very clean and nice for the occasional showing and tinkering on less critical improvements. I'm also slowly going through every cupboard and getting rid of stuff or packing it. I'm looking forward to the day we have "60 days" or less to vacate to help goose my motivation.

Even in wait mode, though, our life is in upheaval right now and will be until we can settle into "The next thing". That can be disconcerting and annoyingly distracting. My brain is like a cat checking out a new place, constantly sniffing at this or that idea, posing forays into the unknown, doing research online, trying to figure out what might happen if we did x, y or z. It's not very conducive to absorbing myself in someone else's story.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR US IRL?

I'm not sure. My husband has a good job nearby, so we'll likely stay in the area and rent a house. But with two dogs, even roly-poly, snooze hounds like our bulldogs, that might be a challenge. 

WHAT'S NEXT FOR ELI EASTON?

I'm currently working on a revised and expanded version of Puzzle Me This. But my big new WIP is a YA with a m/m romance that revolves around a school shooting. I've been really sort of obsessed with coverage of school shootings lately, rather infuriated, and also I feel so much empathy for parents who need to send their kids out every morning with this lurking fear, to the students who have to have this threat hanging over them, to the young activists who are going up against the NRA bullies to try to get things to change. I know it's a tough topic, and will likely be one of my more angsty books. But I feel a need to write about it. I hope I can do justice to the subject matter. And maybe my own life being in upheaval right now helps me write more angsty stuff. 

As for longer term, wherever we end up, I'm sure you will see our new setting in many future Eli Easton stories.

Thanks to my readers for your ongoing support. You make it possible for me to write by buying my books, reviewing, making fun graphics, and sending me encouraging and inspiring emails. Love you all.

Eli