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.

At some point I’m going to transition this to book news only.

I already keep a personal blog and I thought it would be okay to maintain two but instead it is one more thing I am always rushing to get to and doing poorly.

If you like authors with personal blogs, mine (since 1996) is here. Today’s post is about my Dad helping me get the dutch oven ready for no knead bread.

The book news is: hopefully by the end of the summer.

Future Tulips

Last weekend I had insomnia and realized I was pushing myself too hard to get Book #2 out. It’s not even like I don’t have time. It’s more like I have limited brain juice after work and the other things I have to do during the week. So I pushed pack my deadline with the editor for July. Book will probably be out in August or September.

On my way to California for some family stuff.

Up to my eyeballs in revisions and going slower than planned. I am in awe of these writers who can work at such a brisk pace. When I know what I’m doing I can draft quickly but sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what I want to do. There is no short cut to that part.

Or if there is, I haven’t figured it out.

Friday my MLS team started the new season. I’m a season ticket holder so I go to all the games. My favorite pre-game ritual is Hot Lips pizza and an IPA. Season opener is like Christmas, birthday and 4th of July. So happy we’re back.

Watching UCLA warm-up on beam. Photo by Robert Hughes.

Yesterday I fulfilled a longtime goal by going to my first NCAA gymnastics meet. UCLA was at Oregon State. I was in full geek girl mode — enthralled every minute I was in the room. I was even clapping during warm-ups. It turned out super fun. Both teams had a great meet with lots of amazing routines. It was fun to actually hear the floor music for a change. I liked seeing how the teams warm up from event to event. And I enjoyed watching the coaches watch their athletes during the routines.

The entire meet was a highlight but particular favorite moments: Peng Peng Lee on beam, UCLA on floor, UCLA on the sidelines, Maddie Gardiner and Kaytianna McMillan on floor.

UCLA highlights are here. Be sure to watch Kyla Ross’s 10 on bars. (Scroll down)

Oregon State wrap up is here.

One last favorite moment was at the end of the meet when they invited all the kids to the floor to dance with the gymnasts. When Madison Kocian joined her teammates on the floor you could see the crowd make a major shift in her direction. They started a conga line before a riot started.

I was obsessed with icicles during the big freeze. I ran outside to take pictures numerous times. It seemed like every time I looked outside, the icicles looked bigger or the light was better. The snow and ice are gone now but there may be more photos in the future.

I don’t think I’ve ever written about it but I am HUGE fan of NCAA gymnastics.

I got into it quite a few years ago when I found a special about the Georgia Gymdogs on one of my cable channels. This must have been back during the time when they won something like 5 championships in a row. Year to year it seems like my access to meets changes. One year I had tons of PAC12 meets but now the selection is stingy. I can access a ton of meets through streaming but often the timing isn’t where I can drop everything to watch gymnastics. I prefer to DVR them and then watch a few rotations when I have time to sit in front of the TV.

I’m not invested in any certain team. I end up liking the teams I get to see on a regular basis. One of my favorite teams is UCLA and they will be competing in Corvallis at Oregon State next weekend during the day. We’re making a day trip to see the meet and I am geekishly excited. We were going to see Utah a few years ago and we both had one of those viruses where you’re on your back in bed moaning and groaning for days. We had to miss it.

Fingers crossed we have good weather and a great meet.

As per always, I had some fun clipart but I can’t figure out how to make it do what I want it to do and I’m out of time. Enjoy Santa floating in the clouds.

I’m going to be offline for a few days. Don’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone.

Enjoy your holidays.