CABIN FEVER

Snowed in all week. Only now the melt begins, icicles drip, drip, dripping from the eaves.

A week of missed appointments but rare beauty. Dug the Subaru out several times with no real intention of going anyplace. Made a huge pot of vegetable soup.

Came down with a head cold that couldn't have come at a better time - didn't want to stir from the couch anyway!

But with the warmer temperatures comes the realization that soon I'll be able to stir from my den once more - get up to the store to replenish supplies. And I'm more than ready to get out and around. I'm running out of tissues - and good humor.

POEMS FOR 2012

Resolved: Write a poem for each month this year. The collection is called Twelve Occasional Poems for the End of the World. I'll publish it on 12/21/2012! Once it's out there in the universe the universe can go ahead and implode for all I care. I will have done my job.

I love the whole idea of the end of the world. Change is the only constant after all. Every day is the end of the world as we know it. Half the fun is seeing what's coming at us over the eastern horizon. The other half? Seeing what we can make out of whatever it is before we lose the light.

Boxing Day Delights

Turkey soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Fresh baked gluten-free fruitcake cut with my gloriously lovely new knife (Thank you, Victoria and Eric!).

Two sleepy tabby cats on the daybed.

Ahhh - all the simple pleasures of the day after.

Happy Solstice!

This will be such a quiet Solstice this year. No rushing around, no stressing over cards and shopping. We have chosen to give ourselves the gift of peace this year. We aren't even planning a big dinner. I have a 20lb turkey I got for free up at Fred Meyer at Thanksgiving. Today I'll throw it in the oven and forget about it until it falls off the bone, at which time I'll dismantle it, divide it into packages for the freezer and set the stock pot to work for a massive turkey soup. If anyone drops by I'll greet them with steaming bowls of soup and gluten-free bread.

There is no snow forecast but I love this photo from Christmas a few years ago. It sets the proper mood. May your holidays be filled with love and laughter (and fragrant soup)!

Sunset on this November novel

Here it comes! Still have about 3000 words to go to the 50k mark. This is always the hardest slog there is. The mental muscles are burning, the breath comes in ragged gasps. Will I make it before midnight? Will I actually manage to come up with a PLOT???? The jury is still out.

Have to admit I despair of this year's novel. Sad to say, it is a disappointing child. It is unruly and unfocused. I catch her daydreaming in the back of the class. If anything comes of her I shall be the first one to be surprised. Ah well, the value is in the journey. See you in December when I'm sane again.

HERE WE GO!

Okay, it's the first day of November which means that I'm writing a new novel. This one is number seven. The working title is Foggy Night, City Bridge and for the first time I'm writing a fantasy. Here's a brief synopsis of the story (What do you think?):
Fog enshrouds the First Avenue drawbridge. It is stuck in raised position to allow a tug to push a barge up the Duwamish River. Homeless Vietnam Era veteran Dee Dee O'Neil stands at the rail waiting for the bridge to lower so that she may pass to the other side. She is late for check-in at the Pioneer Square shelter. Once the doors are locked she will have to sleep in a cold doorway as she has done countless times before. She won't make it to the shelter that night or any other. Instead she will be transported back to the war years where her life twisted out of control. A mysterious young woman offers her the opportunity of editing her past choices, thus changing her fate. But will she take the chance?

Ghost Story Month

October is a month made for reading ghost stories! (hint, hint - Red House Blues is a ghost story. Read it and review it PLEASE! Thanks a bunch.: Red House Blues)

My cozy mystery set in Westport, High Tide and Low Expectations, is on its final revision. Have to have it off and away by the end of the month because (wait for it) next month is National Novel Writing Month - AGAIN! And I'm so far from having a plot for this one that I'm already panicking.

(photo: Inn of the West Wind looking toward the Maritime Museum at Westport - key scene in High Tide and Low Expectations. Hint: the widow's walk plays a role in the murder.)



Want to do something completely different with the new NaNoNovel. Considering writing a fantasy set in the years 1963 to 1967 - Kennedy to war protests but with a twist (not sure what that is yet - time travel? It's been done but it's fun.). This Spring I transcribed a packet of letters I wrote during those years - surprised they were so content-thin and self-involved considering how momentous the period in our history. Ironically that was the only decade I didn't keep a journal. So since I have little to check my memory against I can give free rein to the imagination . . . I'm welcoming all ideas. What do you think?