Today is Pecan Cookie Day.
Or Eat an Apple Day.
Your choice.
(I’m thinking Pecan Cookie.)
This is a Good Book Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019
I found a great new (to me) YA author and read a four-book series of hers: Maggie Stiefvatert’s Raven Boys series. Supernatural plot with a great cast of characters and some lovely writing. A girl named Blue who amplifies supernatural powers meets four boys from an expensive finishing school who turn out to be more than they seem. You know how I love team stories, and this one is surprising in its complexity, one of those stories with interlocking parts that act like gears. Also the all-female family crammed into Blue’s house is another team/family of interesting complexity. And then there are the Bad Guys Things. Lots of fun.
What did you read this week?
Working Wednesday, September 18, 2019
I am now officially invigorated by fall, or at least the approach to it. The weather here has been paradise–seventies all week with balmy breezes–and I survived another birthday, so all is well with the world. And I’m finishing up my two current crochet projects (the monster shawl in Blackstone Tweed and the Suncatcher in Hawthorne) and getting ready to dive into the dozens of projects I started and then lost interest in or just lost. Also have a new idea that might solve my white board problem. And I got two full year calendars, one for house projects and one for writing. And I put up the last of my wall organizers in my living room that is now my office. I am on fire, I tell you. Plus Nita. Argh.
What did you do this week?
Your Tuesday Outtake
This outtake used to be a lot longer, Then I cut it down. Now it’s out. I don’t think we’re gonna miss it since (a) it’s not very good writing and (b) it’s kind of all over the place. So 6500 words down (I cut some other stuff besides this), 8500 to go on Act Two. (Acts One, Three, and Four are done). Argh. Continue reading
Color Me Happy
I’m SLOWLY getting the house turned out, and while I’m doing that, things are turning up, including some bright quilts and a lot of bright yarn. So happy making. Makes me want to paint the whole house bright yellow. Well, it is yellow on the outside, and of course the bedroom would stay pale blue because that’s so restful, although my bedroom is pink, but since it’s mostly windows and a lot of white woodwork . . .
Color is happy-making, is what I’m saying.
Also, dogs.
What made you happy this week?
Cherry Saturday, September 14, 2019
Today is Housekeeper’s Week, which means this is not my week.
It’s also Cream-Filled Doughnut Week, which means it’s really not my week.
It’s also the day I realized that while my plan was to cut the first scene sequence of Act Two from 9,984 words to 5000 words, I have only cut it to 6500 words, and while I might be able to winnow down another hundred or so, that’s about it.
It’s really truly not my week.
But if you like housekeeping and cream-filled doughnuts, this is your time, baby. Go for it.
New Deal on Agnes; Blog Still Broken
Agnes and the Hitman is $1.99 today at Amazon and Apple.
And the blog is still broken, so who knows how many of you will see this. ARGH.
Have a great Friday!
ETA: And Mollie’s pretty sure they’ve found the problem and fixed it. Let us know if anybody is still having problems after you’ve cleared your cache.
This is a Good Book Thursday, September 12, 2019
This week, I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell, Emily Nagoski, John McPhee, and a lot of emails from the Washington Post’s Voraciously section. And I’m devouring Nora Ephron’s Heartburn AGAIN because it’s the most marvelous heartbreaking funny book ever and reminds me of my own divorce so it’s cathartic, too. Plus I’m really happy to be divorced from that guy, so the book has a happy ending. I love happy endings. And, of course, I’m reading Nita. I just ordered a year-at-a-glance calendar so I can mark “NITA’S FINISHED” on it in permanent marker.
What’s on your reading list?
Working Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Yes, I’m working. Three guesses on what. “Writing is hard,” she whined. Also crocheting for sanity and about to tackle a stack of dishes so high the dogs are afraid to go into the kitchen. But mostly, it’s That Damn Book. Trying not to think about all the commemorative things that will drop tomorrow. Honestly, the hardest thing I’m working on now is optimism. But I can do. WE can do it.
Whatcha working on, Arghers?
Nita Final Drafting, Now With Obscure Notes
One of the things that happens as I work on a final draft is making notes about the little stuff, like Button pushing her glasses up her nose in Act One and Two and then not again. It’s not major rewrite, just making sure that I hit everything I’ve set up, repeat motifs, that sort of thing. So I use sticky notes on my desktop (all virtual) and at the end, where I am now, I go back and try to make sense of them. Most of the time, I can, but there are always a few puzzlers. So in the interests of getting a Monday blog post up here, here are some of the notes I’ll be processing this afternoon. I’ll be finding them stuck all over the place and on pieces of paper strewn through out the house, but for now it’s this. Talk about whatever you want in the comments. Have a nice Monday!