Pine Needles Underfoot

The main floor of our house is infested with pine needles. We got the tree early, left it up late, and kept it watered, but man, after weeks, that tree was dry, and when it was consigned to the outside it shed needles and more needles as we dragged it kicking and screaming out of the house. The needles are all over everything: rugs, the cats dishes, clothes, everyplace. It's like there was a big pine needle explosion.

Yesterday was a truly miserable day, weather-wise. Temp barely above freezing, raining cats and dogs, slush everywhere, puddles too big for one's personal best broad jump, and we had seven, count-em, seven errands to run, appointments that just couldn't be blown off.

Got home late and had a 1)piggy house and 2) dinner to cook for company. Finally, at six I sat down with a big glass of rum with ice. Just the ticket. I made jambalaya with shrimp and andouille sausage. Lots of spices and hot stuff (Tabasco and cayenne). Zowie! Our noses were running but was it tasty. And enough for tonight, too. I whipped up a batch of apricot bars with apricots from the 'Cot King - Gonzales Orchards in California. http://www.apricotking.com/. Zowsa!

This recipe was the best and I added some grated lemon rind and a soupcon of lemon extract to make it extra yummy. Easy to make, too.

Another overly-busy day today, and what happened to the long, dreary days of winter? Now they're short dreary days, although we had sun today with plenty of black ice this morning to keep the pulse pounding and the legs attempting to balance. May I humbly suggest that Sperry makes good shoes to grip the road, the sidewalk or whatever. The boat deck, too, of course.

Tomorrow, my heart gladdens because I've got a ham bone (see photo) the size of Cincinnati to put into the navy bean soup. Ah, it will be a winter feast. And there is joy because no weight was gained between Thanksgiving and New Year, at least not weight which was not immediately discarded.

I was looking at e-publishers today and got myself into a funk again. Poor old World of Mirrors does not look like it is going to find a "traditional" publisher, and it is such a fun book. I had so wanted to have a book signing at the cute little bookstore in Hiddensee. Maybe one on Ruegen, and another in Stralsund. Merde.

Onward, onward. Through sleet and snow and dead of night and agent queries la la la!

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In Flight

The working title of my new book is "In Flight," with nothing to do with planes and everything to do with running from scary people who want to kill you. I'm 23,000 words into the book, assuming it will run about 100,000 words, quite normal for a suspense book.

Right now, I'm getting the romance that will be critical to the story off the ground, and introducing the characters. The ex-wife is the last character, and she'll appear about mid-book. I have my first restaurant scene. Not many of those--this will be the only one set in a nice restaurant. Everything else will be road food or eating on the run. Literally.

Did you notice in Da Vinci Code that no one ever stopped to eat or go to the bathroom even though they were travelling all over Europe? Maybe somehow had a supply of granola bars, but I doubt it. When is Dan Brown's latest book coming out? People have almost stopped asking.

I'm learning about the golf tour and teaching swimming and for a short story I'm writing, about a robot fish. No time to query agents lately. Seems futile. They don't answer emails, at least half of them don't. The author never knows where the missive landed, if it did.

An editor has had my book for 10 months now, and in the meantime, I've rewritten part of it. So it goes. I noticed the tiny store in Empire had lots of Burning Man books, calendars, etc., and I figure if the book is ever published, I can sell it at Bruno's in Gerlach and at the Empire store and the Reno Airport and if Reno has a bookstore, there, too. So that would bring in some steady sales.

Still waiting for a signing at the bookstore on Hiddensee off Ruegen. It would have been such an honor and so much fun. Sigh. Pipe dreams.

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