The · Year · of · the · Second · Novel

Sometime just jotting down two or three lines of ideas to use sometime in the distant future in some undefined project can make me so happy! :-) Being away from my writing always unsettles me, but it takes very little to give me purpose.

Thankful Thursday:
1. I am thankful that I can feel thankful. I no longer take that for given.
2. I am thankful that my husband planned and cooked a meal tonight.
3. I am thankful that we have a fireplace and it's cold and dark outside and perfect for fires.
4. I am thankful for the lovely lunch I had with my mother.
5. I am thankful that I have a soft bed waiting for me at the end of a long day.

The first snow of the year. Well, sleet really, but still. I am compensating by having my woolly-sock-clad feet up against a roaring fire.
Speaking of wool, I have completely lost it and I am buying yarn and crocheting AND knitting like a madwoman. Years of pent-up craftiness (!) seems to have caught up with me. Pictures to come soon! I bought more wool today. Will knit and felt slippers for mom & grandma for Christmas.

On another note: my computer seems to have crashed. When I turn it on I just get the wallpaper but no icons or anything. I am using my mini-laptop at the moment. I have everything backed up (I think), so that's not so bad, but it's a hassle and it'll cost money to fix (if indeed it's fixable), neither of which makes me happy.

No writing for quite a while now. Too much work. Which I procrastinate from by crocheting.

Being sick makes for no blogging. I am not writing and have just begun gently working. And I don't even read, really. But I did begin knitting in front of the TV last night. Leg warmers. My own design. Whenever I decide to just make the design up as I go along the result is always, I say always, disastrous. It never works and I get frustrated and throw the knitting into a corner and never pick it up again. Sometimes that happens even if I do follow a pattern (like with that sweater I was knitting for hubby, some of you might remember it, well it started turning out weird and is now abandoned). And yes, the concept of leg warmers AND my own design... I predict disaster. But I will keep you posted, with pictures. If I ever get far enough so there's anything to take pictures of.

I have a tiresome head cold. I hate that. Too sick to do anything yet not sick enough to sleep all day long.

At least hubby is cooking for me. I likes that. And he bought me lots of pudding cups.

Today: rain!
Unfortunately I have to go in to town for an appointment, so I can't benefit from this, work-wise. But I did squeeze in some of my own writing this morning (I am proud of how I so far prioritize my own writing, in the past I would have done it the other way around) and I crossed 60K today! Man oh man this rolls along. I am stunned, actually. And in fear of how long this story will end up...

Ok, so I succumbed. It's sunny garden and a book for me. So what if I will suffer totalpanic when deadlines approach... I have never seen a September like this before, and I intend to enjoy it!! Ice-cream and The Children of Húrin await me.
Bye!

Things are falling in to place in my manuscript. I just keep hearing them go "klick", "klick". A very minor character I introduced recently suddenly becomes the catalyst for the big disaster that needs to happen very soon. That kind of thing.
I love it.
And next day I get to write, which probably won't be tomorrow, I'll hit... Oh no, I dare not say it. But an important milestone word-count wise!

I was browsing our capital's largest bookstore yesterday, trying to choose a book for myself (I ended up with The Graveyard Book). I passed one of the displays of English fantasy.
A book caught my eye. It looked familiar. It was ...

Carrie Jones' Need!
I was BLOWN AWAY! I wanted to jump up and down and just squee and tell EVERYONE that I know the author! And there was a guy flipping through the book, reading the back and the jacket flaps and I wanted to tell him to BUY IT but I was too shy. I didn't have my camera, but I met up with my mother later that day and when I told her about it she said "Let's go back and take a picture!", because she always carries her camera with her.

Carrie, do you realize what this MEANS? Need has made it all the way over here and your books are now not just available online but IN THE STORES. You have ARRIVED, girl!!

Anyone else find this addictive?
www.20q.net

Today I am off to Ikea!
Fall is coming, and nesting season with it, I guess.

Or then I am just procrastinating. Yesterday I started working again with the 3 freelance jobs I have running parallel this fall. And I don not yet have a functioning brain after the very relaxing vacation I had. So I thought... maybe Ikea sells brains?

Heat wave. Brain has melted. Writing seems like a far-off mirage in the quivering air. Reading in hammock is only option for survival.

Reading list:
Have read: Princess Ben and Wicked Lovely (enjoyed both, Wicked Lovely was really brilliant)
About to read: Princess Academy, The Book of a Thousand Days, Goose Girl, A Game of Thrones and Stoneheart, all fantasy books.
Have you read any of those? What did you think of them? I'd be intrigued to know!

Today I received a letter stating that I have officially been accepted as a member of the Writers' Union. I got lots of papers and forms to fill in with the letter, plus a booklet with a list of all the members. So many famous names... Names I grew up reading. I am one of them now. It's HUGE.
(You have to have published two works of fiction to be eligible for membership.)

Tomorrow we leave for the cabin. Until the end of July my blogging will be very sporadic, as we have no internet connection there. I wish that everyone I know will have a beautiful, serene summer.

Tonight's menu for my husband and me plus my sister and her boyfriend:

Whole artichokes with beetroot butter
Spring chickens with lemon-sage butter served with truffled new potatoes
Three kinds of cheese
Mint chocolate parfait with berries

I was thinking of starting off with champagne, then a lovely semillon/sauvignon blanc white with the chicken, and a tokaj with the cheeses and dessert. Espresso for dessert.
And yes mes amies, all made from scratch!

Hey, this myth-writing was fun! I wrote one more today. About the sun's mirror and how Thunderbird got his fire.
Now there might not be some writing for a while for me, I have to help my gran next week and that will take up at least four writing days. I hope it's not too difficult to get back into the text afterward.

1. I am expecting my god-daughter, her twin sister, their parents and the family dog any minute now. Lovely! I intend to treat them to home-made strawberry smoothies in the garden. It's sunny and warm for once.
2. The neighbour just informed me that I have planted my potatoes all wrong. Hmph.
3. I have made a fantastic mint chocolate parfait for when my sister and her boyfriend come over for a luxury dinner on Sunday.
4. Made a tiny bit more progress on the WIP today.
5. And... Um. Do I have a number five? Not really. Hope your have a great weekend!

Last week the work rolled on so easily - too easily. I got suspicious. And yes of course: this week I have been stuck. It felt like I kept needing to do more and more research, and suddenly the cosmology wasn't holding together at all. I made no progress.

Today I decided to tackle the cosmology issue and wrote a creation myth, so that I would know how and why things work the way they do. And it worked! I have the good basics of a myth which can be elaborated upon, I learned new things and at some point the myth can be incorporated into the story. I think I should get unstuck a bit now.

I've decided to take a break from my writing over the weekend - I have been doing so well, and my experience tells me that if I go too fast I tend to get stuck. But now it's five thirty Saturday evening and I find myself missing my main character...
I think I might sneak in a bit more writing later. Just a bit...

1. The dog probably has a bowel inflammation. She's started pooping on the floor at night. Poor little thing.
2. I hit the 30k mark today! *Proud*
3. The newly painted desk is finally all organized (see photos below).
4. Organizing all my papers went much more easily when I listened to a detective novel on CD.
5. It got very cold and rainy here. After a heat wave of 78 it's down to 42. What's wrong with this country??

Rolling along, 2500 new words today. Woo!