I spent a long weekend last weekend visiting family. There was a fire upriver and we had to go through part of it to get back to the highway. I have another photo of the fire crew but I can’t find it at the moment.

I have a cover and about 90% of a blurb. I hope to share all the news next weekend. I would promise but there are variables so I’ll just do my best.

This is Gracie, one of the cats at Mom and Dad’s house.

This is the plan right now:

Release Book #2 Ester’s story the first week of September.

Some sort of promotion for Book #1 in August — probably a freebie. I will announce when I figure out the dates.

I’m finally writing the prequel story about when Arnie and Linda met in college. That will be a promo with the newsletter the minute I get it done.

I’m starting notes and outlines for Tommy’s story, Book #3 and Linda and Arnie for Book #4. I wouldn’t even venture a guess on release dates at this point. Let’s get this one done before worrying about that.

I’ve been working like a maniac and for weeks, ignoring all my other responsibilities but the draft is done.

I’m going to spend some time catching up on regular life before diving into the promotions and starting on Book 3.

I’m hoping to release around the first week of September.

More updates to come.

I keep telling myself I’m going to give up on tomatoes. The past 3-4 years by the time I get enough tomatoes to make it worthwhile, summer is over. But here I am sprouting them on the windowsill. I can’t resist.

I have recently been reminded how much I love my thesaurus. The actual hardcover Roget’s that my Mom gave me when I was in college. (That was in the 80’s.)

I sometimes use online versions but just like browsing for books in a bookstore is different than browsing online, searching for words in a book leaves more room for discovery than using a digital source. Right now my book is open to 952 Resentment, Anger. There are three columns of words plus 953 Jealousy, 954 Envy and three paragraphs for 955 Retaliation are on the same pages.

When I was in high school we were assigned a huge research report. Our teacher scolded us for thinking we could open the thesaurus and exchange one word for a different word in the same section. I did that.

Now I use my thesaurus for brainstorming. I’m not sure I can articulate my process. If my setting is a desert I might look at words that I associate with desert to see what comes up. Or maybe write sentences about the same idea using different words. Sometimes I make lists of words if I’m feeling stuck. In the front of the book I have all kinds of asterisks: “good rock and roll words” “space travel” “look at for food.”

I have no concluding sentence.

Finished. Completed. Ended.

My sister was staying with us and she found this article with this recipe in the paper (we still get a newspaper) and she set it aside to see what I would think of it.

She and my husband guessed that I would throw a fit about a apple pie with chard and cheese. Instead, I decided it was interesting and worth a try.

This is the second time I’ve made it. The recipe is a pain but the results so worth it. I eliminate the powdered sugar and serve it as a main dish. I use a sour cream pie crust — I can’t find a good recipe to link to, but mostly butter and again, no sugar.

Pie is my favorite food and I keep vowing to find more interesting recipes to try. I need to look for the next new thing.

I also made bread. I haven’t been baking because of other projects including Crooked Rock Book #2 so I made up for it this weekend with the pie, bread and chocolate chip cookies.

Book is coming together. Still aiming for the end of summer.