(To get it onto your computer, easiest way is to click below, which will pop-up the full-size version. Then right click and Save As…)

At any rate, the cocktail was pretty good, but not great. I think I need to play with it some, as mine came out a bit unbalanced. I think I went with too much Peychaud, being the bitters fiend that I am. But give it a try, change it up a bit, and let me know what you come up with.

• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Italian Vermouth (I used Dolin Red)
• 1 oz French Vermouth (I used Dolin Dry)
• 2 dashes Peychaud Bitters
• Stir. Serve in Old Fashioned glass.

This week’s Sunday cocktail is named for Robert Burns, and the standard recipe comes from the venerable The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book It’s basically a souped-up glass of scotch. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory way; it’s a really lovely cocktail, with the punch of a good scotch and the floral notes of absinthe and bitters, rounded out by our old friend sweet vermouth. My take, to continue my recent bitters craze, is to add an additional dash of grapefruit bitters, which brings out some more of the absinthe character.

Be forewarned, though: as heavyweight as scotch can be, overdoing it with the absinthe totally unbalances this drink. Absinthe is a hint here, not a fist to the face.

• 2 oz Scotch (I used a solid single-malt, not-too-peaty scotch)
• 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (I used Dolin Red)
• dash of Absinthe
• dash of Orange Bitters (I used Fee Brothers West Indian Orange)
• dash of Grapefruit Bitters (also Fee Brothers for mine)

EDIT 05/01: The sale is over. But Devil’s Hand is always available at the low price of $2.99, so even if you missed the sale, you can still get the book for real cheap!

So, here’s the inaugural #sundaycocktails concoction!

The Tuxedo #2.5

For my slight twist on the classic gin cocktail, I started with a foundation from the very excellent Savoy Stomp blog.

To be fair, I love the foundation drink as-is. But after drinking more than a few of those, I decided to toy with it a bit and see what I could come up with that might put a little bit different spin on the Tuxedo #2.

First off, I like my absinthe. I like it probably more than most folks, so if you’re really not big on the absinthe, feel free to drop back to the Savoy recipe and just use a “dash” instead of my boosting it up to a full 1/8 oz or more (I tried pushing 1/4 oz. absinthe, but that overwhelms the drink, so fair warning to ya).

Secondly, I felt like the dash of maraschino liquor vanished under the gin. Depending on what gin you use, your mileage may vary, but I switched mine up to a full 1/4oz.

Finally, I toyed around with the bitters, using Fee Brothers west indian orange bitters and their grapefruit bitters. I really like this combination. You still get the delicious orange notes, but with many gins, I think the grapefruit bitters brings out a lot more of the floral quality, which adds some real magic to the cocktail. I omitted the lemon peel, as I felt like it just didn’t work as well once you have the added cherry and citrus notes, but feel free to try it with lemon peel yourself.

My take:

• 1/4 oz. Maraschino liquor
• 1/8 oz. Absinthe
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers west indian orange bitters
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters
• 1 1/4 oz. Dry Gin
• 1 oz. French Vermouth (I used Dolin)
• shake in a cocktail shaker, pour, and drop a Maraschino cherry in the glass

Make friends, not enemies

This has been repeated over and over ad nauseum, but I think it does bear repeating, just so it gets beaten into your skull until it sticks. Don’t antagonize people on Twitter. No matter what. Someone calls you out and says your book stinks? Ignore them. Someone calls you out for unfollowing them? Ignore them. Someone just being a dick? Ignore them. Really. It accomplishes nothing if you make enemies, and ends up making you look bad. Your goal should be to encourage the people who are awesome to keep engaging with you. Be a friend, a champion, and a leader. Don’t be a schoolyard bully or a whiner when the bullies target you. Take it in stride and focus on the twitter followers that matter.

Where to put links / where not to put links

Possibly controversial. I’m not saying I know best, but take this as an example of how I do things, which has worked well for me so far. When someone follows me, I send a thank-you DM and a mention of who am I, what I’m about, and that they can find some links in my profile. People are smart. They can find your profile on twitter and click the link if they’re interested. Spam me with your link up-front and, while I’m not offended or upset, it does make me think you’re a bit unpolished as far as professionalism goes. It’s about the “soft touch.” Don’t beg people to be your friend or look at your stuff. Same goes for tweets. Don’t @mention people with a link to one of your sites/books unless they’ve asked specifically for info about something. I’ve had brand-new followers send me a thank-you DM and then promptly @message me with a “please review my book here it is at http://amazon.com/whatever”. Ugh. Don’t do that. It just comes off as needy.

Promotional tweets are different: you’re not calling someone out specifically and demanding they look at it… a promo tweet is just some info thrown into the firehose… if they want to sample it, they can, otherwise they won’t. No big deal. If someone complains about promo tweets, maybe you’re tweeting them too often (your discretion as to what too often means), but probably not. Some people misunderstand what Twitter is for and how it works; they think it’s a personal communication tool for them, like IM or texting with their close friends. If those folks get upset with your promo tweets and unfollow with an angry message, just go back to my first tip about ignoring. It’s better for both of you to part ways in that case.

Focus on the interactors

When people take the time to @mention you or write you a DM, for God’s sake man write them back! You can tell the difference between an auto-reply and an authentic one. Sometimes I don’t reply to all the automated messages that @mention or DM me. But if you talk to me directly, I will do the best I can to get around to writing you back. I think it’s important, because that’s what Twitter is about: engaging with people. If I didn’t want to do that, I wouldn’t be on Twitter.

Have fun with your followers

Seriously! Part of the magic of social networks is building social connections, even if they’re a bit ethereal and tenuous. I’ve got lots of really great folks in my twitter rolodex. Many of them interact with my weekly, some daily. It doesn’t matter if those interactions sell a book or are even all that important or meaningful. It’s fun to engage with others. It’s fun to find out what they like, what they think, and how that relates to your experience. And everybody loves sharing those kinds of things. So engage them and have fun!

Song and Signal is the first book in the new “Post-Helix” universe, a dark future where alien machinations spiral around ancient Helix Gates. A future in which humanity faces an uncertain fate. This is space adventure as imagined by Kindle-bestselling novelist, M. E. Patterson, author of the Drawing Thin series of supernatural thrillers.

Song and Signal is expected to be released this summer, 2013, for Kindle, Nook and in paperback!

Six months after the terrifying blizzard that ravaged Las Vegas, Trent Hawkins finds himself deeper in despair than ever before, with his wife banished to the enigmatic Realms of Shadow, his new ‘daughter’ a constant test of his will, and his months of working for a demonic cabal grinding down his resolve. To make matters worse, his obsessive search for a way to return his wife to the land of the living takes a dark turn when he falls afoul of the mysterious Mr. Gadreel and the fire-wielding assassin in his employ. The truth of Trent’s own past and the supernatural underbelly of modern-day Vegas grow even stranger than before as Trent faces his foes, new and old, and the fate of all mankind may rest on his choices.

Meanwhile, in the Realms of Shadow, a surprising journey is undertaken–a journey that might be the key to saving Trent, Celia, and the world. Or, it could be the catalyst that ends everything.