Unveiling

Well, I can finally share a few of the homemade items from this Christmas. Above are two of the four pairs of earrings I made (as you can see, I made them way back when there was still grass to be seen).

Above is a watercolor paining I made of Kurt Vonnegut, as a gift for my Vonnegut-obsessed husband.

And I baked and batched up a number of cookie tins (with homemade tags) as gifts this year, featuring chocolate/hazelnut shortbread, Russian tea cakes, mini chocolate-covered nut cups, and of course cornflake wreaths (the very last of which I will devour today with my lunch).

I also made a few other little things here and there...mix CDs, homemade gift certificates, cards, scrapbook page, etc. I think I'll expand the homemade gift-giving even more next year. Yes...it takes more time and it's far easier to just go buy something. But I had a lot of fun making things, and one can't deny it saves money. And really nothing took very long. All four earrings took maybe 30 minutes total, and even the watercolor was only about an hour's worth of work. Probably the biggest hassle was baking cookies, but my plan for making the dough ahead of time and freezing it receives two giant thumbs-up.

Sorry the photos aren't so great...I have yet to master low light close-ups. I think I need to use a tripod.

Hope you had a great Christmas! In my next post I'll share the absurdities of our romantic get-away in Minneapolis. And hopefully I'll have updates on HP. But for now, I'll leave you with this heartwarming Christmas tableau, where my various office desk totems (loch ness monster, three-legged pig, and green sweater bunny) gather around the roaring fireplace and decorate their Christmas tree.

Ready for Christmas

Just a couple photos of our tiny apartment all dressed up for Christmas. Actually, the bathroom is the most Christmas-y area of our home, but it was impossible for me to get a decent angle for picture-taking. Just imagine what the bathroom in little Cindy Lou Who's house must be like...ours has that kind of stripey, sequiny, Suessian thing going on, only perhaps a bit more downmarket. Anyway, our little cave is glittery and cheerful.

I've been done with shopping/wrapping for a little over three weeks now! Internet shopping is my favorite invention EVER! Like a million times better than sliced bread and the cotton gin and pasteruization. Kind of. Anyway, I needed to finish early because the confluence of busy end-of-term Registrar's Office duties, plus end of semester grading, would otherwise make the shoehorning in of Christmas tasks an overwhelming nightmare. Which means all I'm left with is baking.

As for baking, this year I decided to make the cookie dough early and freeze it! This Christmas the code word is "efficiency." I don't know how that will work, though. I've got the dough protected by literally four different layers of various kinds of wrapping material (wax paper, cling wrap, foil, and freezer bags). If that works out fine, then on baking day (Wednesday night) I just have to form the cookies and bake. Who knows how they'll turn out, but I can at least confirm that the dough tastes amazing!

Once I make it through this week's nastiness...final grading and Friday's 14-hour day (commencement)....Dave and I are rewarding ourselves with a weekend get-away booked at a swanky hotel in downtown Minneapolis! That's our Christmas gift to each other this year ~ time together. With cocktails, room service, and a hot tub! Hope you have relaxing rewards planned for yourself as well over the coming week.

Have a merry Christmas!

Thanksgivingness

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Ours was "ok," as Thanksgiving is for me usually (sad to say) kind of a hassle...not that I ever really have to DO anything, but my memories seem to center on women doing all the work while men sit on their asses and watch football. It's not that way anymore, certainly, but I still persist in thinking of Thanksgiving as a gender-unfriendly obligation and an annoying pebble in a perfectly-good stretch of time off. That sounds very ungracious about a holiday meant to celebrate gratitude, I know. I did enjoy watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, though, as I do every year -- the only show that is more fun to mock is the Miss America Pagent. I like to watch closely and rate performers on their lip-synching abilities. Rick Astley was the big lip-synching loser this year. And the long weekend was notable, also, for the almost absurd number of chores we managed to cross off our list. I realize now that me + Dave + joint weekday off = superpower efficiency (E=dtw).

As for what I'm grateful for....there are some big ones this year. But I also like to appreciate the little things. Below are some smaller, rather random, things I'm grateful for at this precise moment:

- Sinclair Lewis (I'm reading...and very much enjoying...Main Street right now)

- Burt's Bees lip balm

- Glittery Christmas ornaments

- Yardsticks

- The adorable bunny that lives in the bush outside our apartment building

- Dave's warm, strong hands

- Emory boards

- Grilled cheese sandwiches

- Swifter wet jet

- Strangers who say "hi" when they walk past you

- Rain, the neighbor's dog

- Ice cold milk

- The organ in "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo

- A fresh box of Kleenex

- Having a student ask me what my favorite book is...and actually seem to be interested

- Warming my hands on a mug of tea

- Periwinkle

- The amazing dream I had last night (Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jude Law were playing
Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, only Byron and Shelley in this case were also members of a vampire cult led by Oscar Wilde and they had to solve a series of crimes taking place amongst a consortium of Cure fans residing in a spooky mansion isolated in the prairie wilderness...and themselves falling prey to the vampiric poets). So grateful for that fantastic blending of the cultural debris in my life....historical research of Frankenstein, commercials for Twilight, my circling of The Tudors DVD set in the latest Acorn catalog, my husband's citing of The Cure as a favorite band in an interview he did for the Hill-Murray student paper, the setting of Main Street, and I'm not sure how Oscar Wilde made his way in there except I do own an Oscar Wilde action figure that was recently dusted.

- A lunch hour where I'm momentarily so carefree that I can spend my time blogging and worrying about which particular cookies to bake this Christmas!

I hope you also take time to appreciate all the little things that contribute in their own wee way to your happiness, comfort, and satisfaction.

Want noodles? I'll show ya noodles.

So. Monday Dave and I were at Noodles, and I can tell you Dave was all over that mac and cheese. It occurred to me that homemade mac and cheese would be super easy to make. Plus I could make a pound of the stuff for what we just paid for a single semi-warm serving. And (I suspected) I could make it even more delicious and decandent...which is what all comfort food should be, after all.

So. Last night I cooked up some fancy-schmancy pasta and some fancy-schmancy thick-cut bacon. I mixed together milk, flour, butter, cream cheese, sharp cheddar, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and a dash of chayenne. I didn't measure anything...just kind of melted it all together in a saute pan until it metamorphasized into a tasty sauce. Finally throw noodles, bacon and sauce all together and you get COMFORT FOOD NIRVANA! Seriously. Exclamation points all over the place. I can't say that this is quick or that it's easy-clean-up. It was time-consuming and messy. But I can say that the trouble is worth it if you're feeling under the weather or blue and need a little cheesy comfort....or -- like me -- just have it in mind to rebel against fast food. Up yours, Noodles! In your face!

Wintery Tuesday

The view outside my window looks awful wintery! I like this weather, though, with the naked trees against a backdrop of grey, blustery sky. I could do without the cold, but aesthetically November pleases me. I'm one of those people who should have been born in a cottage on a moor and kept a tame crow as a pet or something. Flocks of sheep would somehow be involved as well, and violent thunderstorms. Might as well throw an evil landlord in there too. Perhaps I have the start of my next novel...

I've been busy with all sorts of creative projects, which has been very satisfying! Unfortunately I can't share pictures or even details yet as most of these projects will be given as gifts. That reminds me though...I should take photos to share once it's past the time of spoiled surprises.

HP has been pushed aside for most the semester (each year I underestimate the time/energy teaching takes...plus the election has consumed a lot of my attention!), but I've scheduled the weekend after Thanksgiving as my own mini writing retreat! Goal: finish revising horrible middle section. Prediction: Success. Dave has made a pledge to keep me focused, no matter what excuses for procrastination I may invent.

Have a good week....eat some soup or something!

Long Time Gone

Wow! I guess it has been awhile since I last posted. What exciting things have I been up to? Just trying to keep on top of class, caretaking, and general chores. October is my busiest month of the semester, with special English Department events, student conferences, midterms, and many papers to grade. In a couple weeks I'll be able to coast a bit more. Whew!

So not much time for writing, painting, or much of anything outside work-related duties. This weekend I did, however, host my annual Halloween Party for my niece and nephews. This year my mom co-hosted so it wouldn't be as much work for me. That made it more fun and overall more reasonable in terms of time and work. Desite snow and cold, we had a great time. And I was able to make handmade gifts for the kids, which is something I love to do. Normally I write ghost stories for them, but this year I gave them ghosts-in-a-bottle!

It was pretty easy. I just got some bottles from Michaels, and to make them look older I brushed on a mixture of silver paint and an acrylic thickening agent. Stuffed some polyfill inside, along with a watercolor ghost, and then covered the cork with glitter glue. All in all I think the materials cost $4. Then I tea-dyed some old ribbon and scraps of paper, onto which I wrote a little poem to go with each ghost. Voila!

I also made some Halloween "crackers," which basically were just the cardboard roll of toilet paper stuffed with goodies and wrapped so they don't look like...you know...toilet paper rolls. But hey! It's just cardboard, and using trash for craft-making is a very green thing to do.

As for costumes, everyone looked great. I was kind of lame this year...I pretty much just wore a dress and a flower thing on my head and called myself a "wood nymph." Dave, as usual, had the best costume. He wore a suit, a long black coat, a top hat, carried a fancy walking stick and wore a pig nose ~ his costume for a Captialist Pig. Emily was a zombie rock star (she won the costume contest, by the way), Nick was some kind of a scary guy, and Matt was a storm trooper. We had lots of great food, games, and entertainment.

I think the above is my all-time favorite photo of Matt!

Clara and Hannibal

As promised, here's Clara ~ my latest watercolor in the "creepy Edwardian kids" series. I love her. She looks partly worried, partly sulky, and partly dreamy...like she's just figured out where the treasure is buried. I finished her awhile ago, but only now have gotten around to photographing. She was done far more quickly than Daniel, and I think the writing on this one is a little wonky and less restrained. I'm not sure how I feel about that. But as for Clara herself, I couldn't be happier.




Since I was photographing, I also include my very first watercolor! This was done 2-3 years ago (?). Recently I outlined it with ink for more crisp lines (I'm liking the ink + watercolor effect). Anyway, as you can see this is Hannibal my husband's beloved but deceased dog. I based it on a photo and even though it's not an exact likeness Dave was pleased with the result. To me, he looks grumpy after having been woken from a nap.




Well, not much new to report. I have not had time to progress much with writing, although I'm currently teaching Beloved and that's giving me lots of good ideas about writing on ghosts. So even when I'm not writing, I'm soaking up ideas; once I'm full of ideas I can wring them out onto the page and see if they work or not.


It's still Mercury retrograde, and I read on my sister's blog that her car battery died at a particularly inconvenient time. See! Beware.


Today is my niece Emily's 11th birthday. At 11 she's more mature, confident, kind, thoughtful, and giving than most adults I know. She's interested in everything, and is so fun to be around. She's very special to me. Happy birthday Emily!


Finally, it was a tie for your favorite "cool sounding" word. Persnickety, Quantum, Indubitably, and Snorkel each got one vote. In the meantime, I've heard that Cattywhompus is another cool-sounding word to consider, and others have offerred up Hobgoblin, Balderdash, and Discobobuated. "That persnickety hobgoblin is full of discombobulated balderdash and is indubitably cattywhompus." I'm going to try to finagle an opportunity to use that sentence today.

Mercury Retrograde

You guys aren't really into apples and football, according to my last poll. So there goes my "Vikings and apple sauce!" theme party idea.

Honestly I have little to report, since it feels like I do nothing but grade, eat and sleep. But I did want to you warn you...Mercury is retrograde. I'm not one of those astrology freaks, but I read the wonderful Astrologyzone website (http://www.astrologyzone.com/) and have noticed that things get messed up about a week before Mercury is retrograde and until about a week after it's done (should end Oct. 18). Things just go WRONG, man. Every car problem we've had has been during a stupid Mercury retrograde. Mercury is supposed to be in charge of electronics, mechanics, communication, travel and so when it retrogrades, all those things are in the hands of demons! Again, I'm not saying I totally buy into all this, but I can't deny that things get freaky during these times. Even when I don't know it's retrograde (otherwise I'd just chalk it up to self-fulfilling prophesy). It will seem like there are endless problems and eventually I'll go "hmmm...could it be?" and look it up to find that yes! That horrible planet Mercury is messing with my cell phone. Or whatever.

So, be wary. I've had laptop issues, a package I ordered is missing, my printer at work is on strike, our smoke detector died, and (worst of all) I witnessed a squirrel fall to its death from the top of a tree! Actually, it may have lived. I went up to see if I could help and the squirrel was still breathing but not moving. Then later that day I walked past where it had fallen and the squirrel was gone. I'm hoping it took a little rest, stood up, brushed its fur off, said "whew!" in chirp-language, and then went into the hollowed-out trunk of a nearby tree where it could receive the squirrel equivalent of an x-ray. But that was a hard fall. It went "thump" and everything. I'll have to find out how to help a damaged squirrel in case of future emergencies. As for other Mercury retrograde issues, Dave uses 4 different computers at his work (he has 4 different classrooms, in case you're wondering), and 3 of the 4 computers aren't functioning properly right now. Not even their tech people can figure it out.

Next post will feature a photo of my newest watercolor.

We Don't Need No Education

Good morning!

Not much new to report with HP. I did work on it this weekend and almost finished the first chapter of the "dreaded middle bit" and then my computer kind of shut itself down for no reason and refused to start. Which is almost the exact same scenario that occurs in one of my anxiety nightmares. That said, I'm amazed at how I didn't even come close to freaking out. It was like "ho, hum, I guess that gives me some time to make rice krispie treats." My calm attitude was justified by the fact that I was able to get back into the laptop later, and I carefully saved my most recent HP version. But I suppose I should figure out what's going on. I think perhaps a new battery is in order? I've had the laptop for 4 years, which I know is a long time in our twisted world of disposable electronics, but I personally don't think that's a very long time to expect a laptop to work. I have no intention of replacing it any time soon.


In one of my previous posts I complained about how little time I allow myself to actually focus on finishing HP. Well, I did take one step recently toward better balancing all that I have going on. I dropped out of my E-Learning Certificate program (for the time being). There are all kinds of reasons I did this. One reason was the nagging panic I had been ignoring. Even though my alert, ambitious self had been saying "of course you can handle working full-time, teaching college, and being a full-time graduate student! You just need to be organized and diligent," my subconscious, realistic self had tripped the emergency sirens. Plus last week I was finally able to see the syllabus for my first graduate class, and seeing the details of this class is what finally helped me realize that this was not the time to start a graduate program. Nothing looked particularly difficult, but it did involve a lot of little details and one big group paper/presentation. And I know how those horrid group projects usually go. Especially if one member of the group is an English teacher. Other considerations played into my decision as well: the strict cohort structure of the program, the fact that my husband has just started his new job and that's meant a lot of changes, the fact that we're also both still property managers and need to stay on top of all that, and the knowledge that we'll be buying a house in spring and moving. Plus, yes. There's the novel to be finished. With so much going on, it became clear to me that now was not the time to throw yet another goal onto the huge bonfire of my time. Doing the graduate program next year makes more sense.


So, that does free up more time for HP (I hope to use the time I would have been in class to work on the novel instead). And that's why I had time to work on the novel this weekend. And make rice krispie treats! Which were, by the way, delicious.


Hope you had a great weekend!

September Weekend

I'm just popping in for a quick post, knowing I won't be able to again for another week. Hope your weekend was lovely! Mine was ok. I had a lot of little chores to get through and felt really tired all weekend, so it wasn't the best weekend ever. But it's probably the last weekend I'll have until Christmas that doesn't involve some kind of grading, so I tried to fit in some relaxation and thankfully there were some wonderful moments. Here are the highlights:


* Found some magical beads at Michael's Crafts; under normal light they're a pale amethyst color, but under fluorescent lights they're robin's egg blue! They make me think of fairies. No specific plans yet, but they're bound for something special.

* Enjoyed the perfect "autumn weather moment" on Sunday. While I love fall's crisp sunshine and apple orchards just as much as anyone, even more I love the introspective melancholy of a wet autumnal Sunday, complete with church bells, the sounds of a distant train and someone chopping wood, yellow leaves sticking to your shoes, and the comfort found in returning to a warm home and making yourself a hot cup of sweet tea just as the rain begins to really pour.

* Dave and I shared some ginger cookies I picked up at the bakery at Kowalski's. Normally I'm underwhelmed by their bakery, but these cookies were amazing! They were the culinary equivalent to my perfect fall day, only smeared with frosting!

* Did some writing...still working on the same chapter as before, feeling frustrated because my descriptive abilities pale in comparison to Joyce Carol Oates and all her annoying, disconcerting talent (On my lunch breaks I've been working my way through her famous short story collection The Wheel of Love).

* Made some progress on the unending, soul-sucking filing project. To make this project less like torture, while sorting my piles I watched the Masterpiece Theater production of Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen (the one with Anne-Marie Duff). Definitely made my task a little less hateful. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/virginqueen/

* Had brunch at Mickey's with a couple friends and had great coversation about books, movies, travel, and teaching! And as much as I wanted to order the buttery decadence of Mickey's bacon omlette, I ordered the chaste and demure oatmeal instead. That makes me pretty awesome.

Hope your weekend had plenty of highlights as well!

Daniel

This is another watercolor I thought I'd share. I started this one over July 4th weekend. I actually did most of it while lounging around at Gooseberry Falls, but only finished it up last weekend. I'm hoping to do a whole series of these mysterious, slightly sinister Edwardian children. Whenever I'm in an antique store I snatch up some of the sad discarded photos they usually have in stacks somewhere near the counter. I always wonder about those. Where do they come from? I assume the photos come from estate sales, where someone has died and photos are left behind and they figure why not sell the photos to people like me, who buy them for their own weird purposes. But why wouldn't relatives want them? Everyone must be dead who knew the people in those photographs, and now they're just being sold to strangers in some store. Sad. Anyway, I modeled this intense little boy on a child in one of those antique store photos. I have plenty more to work with. Next will be a scary little girl named Clara, who I suspect likes the seaside, caramel apples, and dead trees.


Tomorrow is my first class of the semester. I'm as prepared as I can be (without going overboard), so tonight I hope to relax and get some sleep.


Oh, and you've voted and Jay Gatsy wins the presidency! Great choice, old sport! And seeing animals is your favorite thing to do at the State Fair.

Alice Artwork

In honor of the winners of my "Favorite Character from Alice in Wonderland" survey, here are my watercolor tributes.

It was a three-way tie between Red Queen, Alice, and the Cheshire Cat!

Below are the finished paintings...sorry that they're a little blurry. One of these days I'll get a scanner, which would be much better than trying to photograph the pieces. I'm really enjoying doing watercolors lately. I use the watercolor pencils, which is a really easy way to start watercoloring...espeically if, like me, you're mainly a sketcher.

Hope you enjoy these!

Red Queen

Mmmmm...Corn-Dog-a-Licious!

I forgot to mention that Dave and I went to the Fair on Friday, as a reward for making progress on the unending soul-sucking filing project.

I met this cute bunny who was about to be judged by the 4-H people. I told him (her?) that no matter what, he was a WINNER! But, being a bunny, it had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to convey my appreciation for its cuteness by touching his little foot through the cage. He didn't really like that, though, so I finally just stopped harrassing him...but not until after we took this photo together.

Otherwise we did everything we always do at the Fair. I suppose that's the joy of the Fair...the joy of repetition and familiarity. The International Bazaar changed, which was new! But despite the big changes...it still somehow seemed exactly the same. Same vendors. Same layout. The Fair can't change for real. It can only kinda change. It may change some on the outside once in a great while, but its kitschy heart will always be full of art glass, tractors, sheep shearing, misshapen people, and the smell of things frying. May it always remain so.

Favorite moment? We saw a chick hatch at the Miracle of Birth barn. There was a little boy in front of us with his very-pregnant mother. When he saw the chick push its way out of the egg he was enraptured...but then a cloud passed over his face and he looked over at his mom's belly with an expression of alarm.

What was your favorite Fair moment?

Why is There so Much to Do?

Oh, hi again!

First of all, I have not been writing. I've been thinking about writing, and I did that partial-chapter revision I already wrote about in my last post. But right now time is not on my side. The new school year is standing at the front door clearing its throat and getting ready to knock, which means I'm spending all my time doing the dozens of last-minute tasks I need to feel prepared for the long plunge. It's like getting ready to die. That sounds like a horrible way to describe things, but I think it's pretty true. It's the "death of free time." Especially this coming semester, with my crazy life as a combination of staff-faculty-graduate student. Goodbye, friends! Goodbye, social life! Luckily, all the things I'm busy with are important to me, so I won't complain anymore.

So, where does that leave HP? Poor little HP, always pushed to the sidelines. If only I could take a few months off from all my obligations and just focus on finishing the novel. I've been writing it for three years....and yet, that's not three solid years. I've only been able to write it for a few months at a time, during semesters when I'm not teaching. So when just counting the months I've had to devote to it, it hasn't even quite had a full year of attention. And even during those limited "writing months," it still only gets my time every other weekend or so, since the full-time job and normal chores fill up much of my time. All told, I think I've only been able to spend about 500 hours on the book...which sounds like a lot, but is only equivalent to about three months of full-time work. If I'd had 3-4 solid months of just writing 40 hours a week, I would be where I am now, after 3 years of trying to fit this in during my sparse free time. That's sad to me. I mean, I'm glad I continue to work on it despite these obstacles...and I guess I'm not willing to quit teaching...and I need to work...so this is how it has to be. But I feel bad that HP has such a tenuous claim to my time. Therefore, I'm going to try to fit in some writing each week...even if only for an hour or two. That's the plan ~ to at least keep stirring the pot, regardless of what else I have going on. Then hopefully when January arrives I'll be able to spend a great deal more time on it again. And once I look into the copywrite issues, I'll perhaps start posting the revised chapters here in case people want to start reading it.

Next post will feature my watercolor tribute to the winners of the Favorite Alice in Wonderland Character contest. I have Alice and the Cheshire Cat done, but then The Queen of Hearts snuck up to make it a three-way tie. So to be fair I'll need to do her watercolor as well.

Busy Times

Hi Reader,

It's been a busy few weeks. I've been spending almost all my free time (including my lunch hours at work) preparing for the fall semester. My first class starts September 4, and I do all the prep work I possibly can prior to that first day. I plan each class period, write all my assignments for the whole semester, do all my research, proof everything a number of times (I can't be expecting my students to do this if I don't!), and this Thursday after work I'll makes copies of everything I need for the whole semester. I then organize all this into folders, each folder representing a different unit. It's a lot of work...probably about 15-20 hours a week for the last three weeks. But the good thing is that when the semester finally starts, I only need to focus on teaching and grading. I won't have to do all the other class prep that fills the "free" time of teachers. That's important to me, since I also work full-time during the semester and will additionally be a student mysef...I'm taking a graduate class on e-learning. The good news is that after this week I should be finished with all my prep work, and can hopefully relax a little before the new school year starts up.

Oddly enough, I did manage to fit in some writing time this weekend. I almost finished my revisions for the first chapter in the "scary middle part" of HP. I made more changes than initially intended. I changed some of the prose into dialogue and added a scene between my main character Ana and her soon-to-be antagonist Elly. But right now they're kind of friends. All the better to pit them against each other later on! I ended my revision right at the moment when Ana first realizes that something is very wrong with her cubicle. Nothing major...she just notices the window in her cube open when it shouldn't be and has a weird feeling of being watched.

Other things that happened this weekend: my husband spent some time preparing for his new job, which starts today; had dinner with our delightful friend Joanna and her magical cats; saw this crazy documentary called Man On Wire about the Frenchman who in the early '70s tightrope walked between the World Trade Center towers (in a weird coincidence, this tightrope-walker's name is Phillipe...just like our cement mime!); went to the Joke Joint to see my brother's girfriend perform her comedy routine. We also worked on our enormous unending soul-sucking filing project. I finished a thoroughly-satisfying vampire novel called The Companion (sent to me from England by my friend April). We watched a bizarre documentary on Mary Shelley that was part biography, part travelogue, and part nature program. And, finally, we got our lifetime fill of Michael Phelps.

So, a little bit of writing and a lot of other stuff. Sounds like a lot to cram into a weekend, but I ended up taking a vacation day from work in order to do it all. And now if I finish everything this week I can celebrate by going to the fair on Friday!

Bunny Wins the Day!

In the "What is your favorite woodlands animal" poll, the BUNNY wins...followed closely by owl. Deer and Chipmunk each got 1 vote.

Congratulations, Bunny! You win a trip to the beautiful island of Jamaica for you and all twelve members of your family. You will enjoy luxury all-inclusive accomodations at Sandals Resort, where you may participate in a wide variety of watersports, snorkeling, horseback riding, or just hopping along the beach. Sandals resort has two 4-star restaurants, featuring fresh seafood and (perhaps more up your road) an extensive salad bar. Enjoy this well-deserved award, Bunny! I'll leave your plane tickets and itinerary right under that big chrysanthemum in the garden.

Happy Days

All kinds of good things have happened since my last post. Here are the highlights:

1. Husband signed a contract for an AWES-OME teaching position, which starts in a matter of weeks and pays pretty-dern-well, considering he's a relatively new teacher. Now he can stop wearing that pickle-barrel and begging for food on the street corner!

2. I got two raises...one for my own teaching position and one in my normal job. Not huge raises, but still.

3. I finished revising/rewriting all my chapter cards for the "middle passage" of HP...now I can move forward on the nuts-n-bolts revising.

4. My lovely friend JoJo and her equally lovely family were in town this weekend from their hometown in Chelmsford, England. We delighted over the marvels of Grand Avenue, Como Park, and Porky's drive-in. They also got to visit with Phillipe, the cement mime (pictures will surely follow at some point).

5. I went to the dentist for my cleaning/check-up and for the first time in something like 4 years I do not need any crowns, fillings, fillings replaced, or wisdom teeth pulled. They simply said "try to floss more" and let me go my own way without further harassment.

6. Husband got me another birthday gift, which is a small (very small) piece of land on the Kincavel estate in Scotland. It's only about enough land to stand on, but it's enough to effectively make me a Laird. Or, rather, a Lady. So now everyone should call me Lady of Kincavel. Now I have to go to Scotland, find my square foot of land, and build a fence around it.

Now the next phase of work begins...preparing for new jobs, new school years, more writing, and of course flossing.

Blowing though the Jasmine of my Mind

This has nothing to do with anything, but I'm listening to a reggae remix of the song "Summer Breeze" and thinking what a perfect summer song it is and trying to come up with other perfect summer songs.

Here's my list of summer songs...at least the first 20 I can think of. Some are obvious, some maybe more personal. Most are pretty old school. And of course there are summer-themed songs not on this list because I simply don't like them (I despise "Summertime Blues").

What songs would you add to this list?

"Summer Breeze" by Seals and Croft

"Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles (but this is also an autumnal song to me, for some reason)

"I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash

"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest

"Summer in the City" by Lovin' Spoonful

"The Summer" by Yo La Tengo

"Summer Teeth" by Wilco

"Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and those Shondells

"Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly and the Family Stone

"Stir it Up" by Bob Marley

"Raspberry Beret" by Prince

"Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys

"A Summer Wasting" by Belle & Sebastian

"July! July!" by The Decemberists

"In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

Pretty much anything Motown

"BBQ USA" by Mojo Nixon

"Sweet City Woman" by...that guy and his banjo

And the song that represents the summer of 2008 for me? "Mercy" by Duffy

Love and the Mississippi

Dave and I have safely returned from my birthday camping extravaganza! Here are the Top 10 things we learned:

* We're too old to be camping in tents

* I'm awfully fond of being clean and dry

* Dave has great taste in jewelry

* Turkey Spam isn't that bad

* Marmite flavored chips, on the other hand, are ish

* I probably wouldn't have resorted to cannibalism if I'd been in the Donner Party

* Solid shampoo is a wonderful invention

* It's good to have an extra sleeping bag in the trunk of your car

* Use fresh (not year-old) marshmallows for s'mores

* A cement mime can come in handy

So, yeah. We were at Itasca State Park, and we did our Minnesotan duty by walking across the Mississippi River at its "creek" stage. It sure is cute when it's little! There were baby ducks and little fish and pretty rocks. We also saw Indian burial mounds, which was spooky...and just as we were saying "wow, this is spooky!" a tree actually fell down near us. It's like the Indian ghosts were saying "run, white land-stealers!" We bought lots of gift-store trinkets, especially since it was my birthday. Dave gave me a lovely necklace for my birthday too. We had a lot of nice quiet time, which I spent reading a book on the Donner Party...kind of weird to read about people freezing and starving to death while I lounge under the sun eating yogurt-covered peanuts. And probably not best to be eating turkey Spam while reading the gritty parts. Finally, most of our weather was lovely and we had a lot of fun.

On the negative side, we ate pretty poorly, I would say. I don't what the deal was, but we never really managed to get a roaring fire going. My friend April sent me an awesome box of goodies from her home in England, and I brought along a couple selections: Trendy Seaweed Snack (delicious!) and Marmite Chips (horrid!).

Also, it rained...rained hard!...our first night and got everything in our tent pretty wet, resulting in the Tent Relocation Project. Finally, I threw out my back. See! Too old for this.

As for Phillipe, our cement mime...perhaps the less said the better. He did, however, seem to scare off most of the animals and a few irritating children on bikes.

Did no writing. Didn't even think about it.

I win!

Ok, I don't win anything...except a Dairy Queen (courtesy of my husband)! That's right, I finished the first third of HP this weekend. Cut out a bunch of adjectives, tightened things up, toned down a few scenes that were maybe a bit...um...over-the-top, and am all ready to start the "Dreaded Middle Bit". I can't think of that too much right now, though. I'll think about that tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're going to Itasca State Park for some good old-fashioned tent camping. I'm bringing along my chapter cards for the "Dreaded Middle Bit" so I can really start confronting the ghost. My main purpose for this final revision is to increase the tension. When I first started HP I wanted it to be very literary and serious. Now I just want a page-turner, and I realize that's not so easy to come by. I'm thinking back to all the books I could not put down and borrowing their tricks.

In the meantime...if a ghost were haunting you at work, what would most freak you out? What would really scare you? The ghost meddles some with the computer and email, plus does the usual moving things around and making things "spooky." Any other ideas?

Thanks go out to JoJo for her feedback on the revised "Part 1" of HP. JoJo could be a book editor, but she also happens to be a very talented writer. I'm very lucky to have her help!

Finally, I watched two movies this weekend. Bathing Beauty, an Esther Williams movie that had almost nothing to do with swimming until the end, when for no reason whatsoever Esther Williams puts on a big water show while Xavier Cugat and his band of ethnic stereotypes play bongos in the background. Plus, there's fire IN the water! Pretty awesome! I also saw Gothic, an insane movie directed by Ken Russell. I rented this because I'm teaching Frankenstein in the fall, and the movie is loosely based on the genesis of that book. If you want to feel like a slightly Goth freshman English major in the '80s, who has just drank both tequila and absinthe at a friend's cabin while reading Cliff's Notes on Frankenstein, then this is the movie for you!

I'll post again after camping!

Procrastinations and Pie

Lovely Readers,

I spent an hour and a half working on one paragraph last night. That was one messed up paragraph! Granted, I was also distracted by Entertainment Tonight (yes, I have the TV on while I write...don't judge). But still, regardless of the paragraph's faults and Madonna's supposed divorce, I think and hour and a half pushes this beyond "polishing" and more in the realm of "procrastination." I also procrastinated a few other ways last night: insisted on making a Jell-O Dream Pie that neither Dave nor I ended up eating, reorganized my mixing bowls, and spent some frustrated time searching for my pie iron cookbook. Despite all these unnecessary distractions, after the paragraph hump I did manage to polish three chapters. Go me!



A little about my self-imposed timeline. HP is divided into thirds. I have been revising, polishing, and repolishing the first third for about 5 months now. Why? It's hard. Some big-time revising needed to take place, including reordering chapters, rewriting the entire first chapter, adding scenes, deleting other scenes, and changing some significant details (all based on the feedback I received on the first draft -- thank you readers!). The first third of the book simply bears the brunt of these major revisions. That's my official line. But the real reason is the middle section of the novel...well, it scares me. There's a ghost. I thought I knew how to write about ghosts. But I kind of don't. So now that the first third is almost finished (only one more chapter and I'm done!), that means I have to confront this ghost, who points her finger at me and laughs: "you have no idea how to write about me, do you?" I look away and nod, sheepishly. Certainly delaying this confrontation makes some sense now. And if anyone wants some Jell-O Dream Pie....you know where to find me.

Introduction

Hi sweet readers,



I'm starting this blog on the eve of my birthday, as sort of a gift to myself. Kind of a cheap gift, but a very nice one. You will see by the blog's description that it's meant to detail the trials and victories encountered during the completion of my first novel. But hopefully it will be more than that as well.



But let's start with the novel, shall we? It does not have a title, poor thing. Perhaps I'll end up having you vote for one. Its working title for now is Haunted People, but other options are rumbling around in my head. I won't know the real title until it's complete. At that point I'm hoping I'll look at it and, like a newborn, immediately know which name fits...if it's a Henry or a Ralph. But for now, I'm calling it HP.



Right now it's 308 pages and doesn't quite have an ending yet. I know the basics of the ending, but (without trying to sound spooky or cheesy) the characters kind of need to lead me to it. The first lesson I learned in writing this novel is: by page 100 characters become people and, like real people, they surprise you. So far in this book, intended villains have become sympathetic characters, a "good" character revealed a malicious core, and my heroine turned out to be someone I'm not sure I totally trust. I've learned to be flexible and let the characters do what their personality and the situation most calls for...which means the ending is still a cloud in the sky.



Rather than going into plot, I'll tell you my intentions for the novel. I wanted to write a good old-fashioned gothic novel, but place it in a contemporary setting. Without knowing more than that, a wonderful thing happened. I work in a 150-year old building. It used to house priests, and is the kind of place nobody wants to be after dark or alone. One day I needed to fetch something from my office during the weekend. Even though I avoided it as much as possible, circumstances have in the past forced me to sometimes be in the building during the "scary times", and my usual plan was to walk to my office as calmly but quickly as possible, then once in my office lock the door immediately. I did the same thing on this particualr day. Everything seemed fine, but as soon as I locked the door, someone (something!) was turning the knob and pulling it back and forth, as if either trying to get in or get my attention. For argument's sake, let's say it was a person; they would've had to be right behind me to start pulling the knob that soon after I locked the door. And yet nobody was anywhere near me. Furthermore, the door has a window so I'd naturally be able to see anyone standing on the other side. It was either The Invisible Man or... the ghost of the priest that supposedly DIED IN THE OFFICE NEXT TO MINE!! AGH! Sounds like the makings of a great book, right? Ah ha! I thought so too. So after recovering from the incident, I decided that the perfect setting for a contemporary gothic tale was in an office. What if a woman takes a new job and finds her cubicle haunted by her dead predecessor? The answer to that is the premise of my novel.



Ok, enough for now. Thanks for reading!