Shen Tao (Taos Toolbox ’23) has sold her first novel in a number of markets, mostly at auction. After workshopping The Poet Empress at Toolbox, she finished the book, went straight out and got an agent, and then started collecting advances. A seven-figure advance in the States, a six-figure advance in Britain, another six figures from Germany, some pre-empts in Italy and Spain, and no doubt more to come.

This sort of thing happens once in a career, if you’re very, very lucky. Though it must be said the book is terrific. When I read the first piece at the workshop, all I thought was, This is the real deal.

It should appear early next year, at which point you should feel free to stampede to your nearest bookstore and buy it.

Grand Canyon sunset, Feb. 2025. Small sun dog at right.

Here’s a spotted eagle ray cruising over the reef in the Turks and/or Caicos, 2016.

Eagle rays are impressive, with their ten-foot wing span, but they don’t hang around for long. They’re both fast and shy, and if they see divers in their vicinity, they’re out of sight very quickly. They’re pelagic fishes, living in the deep ocean, and only hang around islands and reefs if they happen to run into them on their travels in the Big Blue.

This one zoomed past, giving us only a few seconds to admire it, but then our guide Bob pointed a course orthogonal to the path of the ray, and we followed him along it. It seems that eagle rays will often circle back once they’re out of sight of intruders, and so we got another look at it as it crossed our track. Awesome.

Picture by photo pro Troy.

So what to do with a beef round roast? It’s tough, it’s very lean, and it can be kind of flavorless.

Yet roasts can be comfort food, and comfort is what I’d kind of like given recent events, which include freezing weather for the last week, and a tomorrow promised to remain below freezing all day.

So beef round? The traditional method is to braise the hell out of it, for a couple hours or so.

I decided to go another route. I marinated it overnight in a marinade of Worcestershire, soy, balsamic vinegar, garlic, mustard, and olive oil. Then I chucked it in the sous vide pot for eight hours at 133 degrees, after which I seared it on an ultra-hot pan.

So here you see the London Broil I produced. A lovely medium rare all the way through, and every bite tender. It still was lacking in flavor somewhat, but I could mitigate that by reducing the marinade and serving it as a sauce.

Served with sweet corn and Kathy’s sublime ginger and broccoli in soy sauce. And a double Malbec blend, one variety from 1100 meters, and the other from 700.

With this, who needs dessert?