Ah, new love

Is there anything more wonderful than the beginning of a relationship? It's all potential. There's been no disappointments, no heartbreaks. You can't even imagine how it could go wrong. Sure, in the past, with others. But not this time. This time is perfect.

That's how I'm feeling about my new novel (N2). The beginning of a novel is the honeymoon phase. N2 is full of surprises and delights. I think about N2 all the time. When we're apart, I miss it. I can't wait to share my ideas with N2 and hear what N2 wants to tell me.

I know one day N2 and I will come to a point when we don't "get" each other. The glow will wear off. N2 will become withholding and distant. I'll say lots of things N2 takes the wrong way. Okay, I admit it: I'll be cruel and heartless. I'll start to lose interest. N2 will start to get on my nerves. But no matter what happens we'll always have the first 100 pages.

Short fiction contest

Wild Blue Yonder
Frontier Airlines' In-Flight Magazine
Short Fiction Contest

c a l l f o r e n t r i e s
Current theme: Cool for July/August 2007 issue
Deadline: April 15, 2007
Submit via email: fiction@gowildblueyonder.com
W i n n e r R e c e i v e s :
$250
Publication in Wild Blue Yonder and on the Web site www.gowildblueyonder.com
Free online or in-person writing workshop from Lighthouse Writers
W r i t e r G u i d e l i n e s :
The story must be no more than 2,500 words.
Submit only one story per reading period, please.
The subject matter must be appropriate for all audiences, which means that adult themes are not encouraged.
Submissions should have a cover page identifying the author, the work, and associated theme. Include address, phone number, and e-mail address on cover page; the author’s name should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript.
Stories should be double-spaced with at least 1-inch margins.
If stories are submitted by mail, please enclose an email address for response. We will recycle the manuscripts.
Submissions must be previously unpublished.
Via e-mail, submit stories as a MS Word attachment or an rtf.
WBY reserves the right to edit or cut copy for space considerations.
The story cannot include any information on competing airlines.
This is an ongoing competition, and writers can submit stories over multiple issues.
ighthouse will contact selected authors for revisions (if necessary), but stories do not officially win the contest until the story is approved by the editorial staff at Wild Blue Yonder.
If none of the contest entries is deemed suitable by Lighthouse or if Wild Blue Yonder decides, for any reason, not to publish the story we select, Lighthouse reserves the right to solicit fiction from non-entrants, including but not limited to faculty, staff, and students at Lighthouse. In such cases, the contest resumes with the subsequent issue. Every good faith effort is made to select winning, suitable stories from the entry pool.

For more info, go to Lighthouse Writers Workshop.

I'm not messy...I'm efficient

36% more time-efficient than someone with a much neater desk, to be precise. So say the authors of A Perfect Mess. Pilers, they say, "leave important stuff within reach." Amen!

This is such good news, I can't tell you. But I can show you. This is my desk today. Piled high with books and magazines that I'm using for research for my current novel.

You've heard of fung shui? My husband says I practice "flung shoe." He's clever, isn't he? He may be clever, but I am time-efficient, and now I have proof!

Thanks One Heart Dancing for the article from Glamour that tipped me off to this book.

Recipes

The first is for whole wheat (and somewhat healthier) pancakes. I made it up the other day...and it worked. I thought they were delish.

1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder (I find this works at high altitude; for lower elevations?)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp melted butter
1 cup "sour" milk (1 cup milk + 1 tblsp lemon juice)

Typically, I'd recommend one egg, but we were out of eggs so to the above I added:
1 tblsp flour
1 tblsp corn starch
1/2 tsp canola oil
2 tblsp milk

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Don't overbeat-lumps are good. I served mine with toasted walnuts (for protein, fiber & omega-3 fats) and a little warmed apricot "simply fruit." Oh yes, and butter. Very, very tasty! Next time, I'll try leaving off the butter on top and using flax oil.

The 2nd is a recipe for book sales. Or at least according to a survey of 813 people by the ad agency Spier NY quoted in Publisher's Weekly and today's Denver Post, here's why people buy books:

49% friend's recommendation
45% familiarity with author
32% description on jacket
22% reviews
21% advertisements
17% placement on best-seller list
16% reading group pick
12% cover design

Obviously, this is a very interesting topic to me. What makes you buy a book?

Elizabeth Edwards

I want to send healing prayers and good wishes and positive vibes to Elizabeth Edwards and her family.

Bulbilicious

First Book

I've been asked to donate a book to a First Book online auction sponsored by Lewis and Clark College in Idaho. First Book is a national nonprofit with a mission to give children in low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. Sounds like a good mission to me. When my book is online, I'll post the link. Maybe then somebody will bid on it. Cause...I kind of have to wonder if I have much of a Idaho fanbase, ya know?

Writing walks

Today is drizzly and chilly. A perfect day for a writing walk. A writing walk is when I tell myself the story I'm working on as I walk. Walking helps me get out of myself and into the world of my book. I let my worries and obsessions go and imagine my people and their lives, and on a good day I can even get whole scenes.

Today, I walked to Head Start where I volunteer for the Read Aloud program. Last semester, one of the little boys used to greet me by saying, "No books!" And after every book I read, "No more books!" Slowly, he stopped protesting. Then a few weeks ago he asked me for a hug. Today, after I read a book, he asked me to read another one! Watching kids go from book-haters to book-lovers or from shy, Spanish speakers to eager English speakers, shows me the power of story magic.

And today when I got home I found a surprise gift from my best friend waiting for me on my front porch! Thanks D! (And rock chalk Jayhawk!)

What a great way to kick off writing my next novel. And just in time. The first 100 pages are due to my Lighthouse classmates in a month!

I've got the fever!

Planting fever, that is. It hit yesterday. I planted a few pots of pansies, in addition to the raking and weeding, and that was all it took. But 24 pansies weren't nearly enough. Our drab, dreary yard needed color and now. Yes, daffodils and scila are coming, but in the meantime, we NEEDED COLOR.

I decided to plant pansies between the flagstone path to the neighbor's house (for the mail carrier) and our house, and also on the mound in the corner I call "iris hill." I started with the perfectly sane idea of keeping to a color scheme, yellow and blue, to go with the daffodils and scila. But I went to City Floral, so I ended up with a sunny yellow and a sky blue, sure, but also a variety of sherbet oranges, wine reds, apricots, lilacs, deep purples, and combinations of orange and purple and gold and red and cream and wine. I bought any pansy that caught my eye, which turned out to be 16 six-packs. Unfortunately, it turns out that not even 120 pansies are really enough color for our large front yard.

But we'll just have to wait for the bulbs to come up because, fever or no, after three more hours of raking, weeding and planting, I am so sore I made hubby swear that tomorrow, no matter how much I might want to (there's still plenty to do), he won't let me work in the yard.

It was worth it though. And now the gods are rewarding my efforts: it's raining. Rain. In March. In Denver.

The great outdoors

Is it the warm sun (which came out again today, after all)? The singing birds? Endorphins? The sense of accomplishment after clearing up months of debris?

Or the wonderful feeling of community? I wasn't outside for more than 20 minutes before Zeta, whose husband died a few weeks ago, walked across the street to say hi, and Brenda said she looked forward to admiring the yard this summer. Haywood, who can't grow flowers, but grows wonderful vegetables, stopped and promised me greens, peppers and tomatoes this year.

I know this is a funny picture to post. But my neighbor Rob saw me filling the Dumpster and said, "You've been busy." And I felt so good. Plus, the yard still looks less than beautiful...so a photo of all the leaves and stalks and mush I cleared from the yard.

Whatever it is, two hours of cleaning up the yard and I am in a GREAT mood!

Women & books & publishing

Here's a study looking at women (who buy the vast majority of books) and their ideas about nonfiction books. The purpose of the study: "Women are a powerful and influential group. We’d like to gather information about their economic impact and the dynamics that influence their book buying decisions. The study will also look at factors that could help more women become successfully published authors." If you participate, you get a copy of the results. Could be interesting.

Spring cleaning

Spring is in the air, and it's clean up time. Yesterday, it was 60-some degrees and sunny in Denver. So, of course, I spent the day inside cleaning my office. De-Orange Mint and Honey-ing my space to make room for Novel 2 (which has a working title, but I'm not in love with it, so I'll be referring to it as N2 here). I put away files and took down pictures and quotes and clippings that I have collected while working on Orange Mint. I made space for files in the top file drawer for N2. And I bought a giant cork board to place inspirational visuals for N2. For example, I wrote a description of one of my new characters and was later flipping through a magazine and saw a model who looked just like I imagine her to look. So she's up on the wall, along with another picture. So far there are just the 2, but over the next few months I'll be adding lots, and it feels good to make room (literally and figuratively) for new ideas, new stories, new characters.

Our yard needs cleaning up too. The scila and daffodils will look much prettier if they're not blooming next to withered brown stalks and icky, smashed leaf-mush. Later this weekend (when it will be less beautiful), I'll get outside.

I did it all backwards weather-wise, but for my own peace of mind I needed to clear the office space before I clear the yard space.

What are y'all making room for this spring?

The Pajama Gardener in print

Months ago I submitted a very brief essay to Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living (a publication of Better Homes & Gardens). Today, I received a copy of their Spring 2007 issue. They printed an excerpt from my essay as part of "Stories to Share: Readers relate garden experiences, both recent and long-remembered." Two other writers and I made the cut.

It's a lovely magazine, so I encourage you to check it out. But for those who may be interested, here's my entire essay (sort of how the Pajama Gardener was born):

The Pajama Gardener

You would know our front yard by two things: the giant Colorado rose boulders that plow like ships through oceans of flowers and me, the lady gardening in her pajamas.

A few years ago my husband and I xeriscaped, replacing lawn with drought-tolerant trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses and groundcovers. Our idea was to plant low-maintenance plants. But I discovered I enjoyed weeding, dead-heading, pruning and keeping company with flowers. I ended up not just creating a garden, but becoming a gardener.

Usually I’m so eager to get outside I don’t even change out of my nightclothes. At first I’d only go out in my p.j.s early in the morning when I could safely expect to go unnoticed. I’d go inside and dress when I saw the first dog-walker. But over time I grew more concerned about the garden’s appearance than my own. Now you can find me outside in my pajamas as late as noon. What do the neighbors think? Are drivers slowing down to wonder at the California poppies or at me? I don’t care.

Add me to the list of the other characters in my urban Denver neighborhood: Big Voice Charles, the adult son of the couple across the street who you can hear coming a block away. The Faller, the heavy kid who regularly falls off his bike. Teeny and Tiny, the large, elderly black woman and the small, ancient Chinese woman who stroll by together every morning. And the Pajama Gardener: the woman so drawn to her yard she can’t be bothered to get dressed first.

The power of orange and mint

Got cabin fever? Tired of snow and gray skies? Feeling blue? Get yourself some orange...orange essential oil that is and some peppermint oil. Then:

• splash a few drops in your bath water (though the peppermint is cooling like menthol)
• put a few drops on a tissue or in a bowl of hot water and place them next to you
• add a few drops to your bottle of lotion (make sure the essential oils get diluted)
• heat them in an oil diffuser (I use a clay pot diffuser with a tea light candle)
• or sprinkle a few drops on your clothes (be careful with fine fabrics) or in your hair

Will perk you right up. No calories. No side effects. (Read the directions. Don't use undiluted oils directly on your skin and keep them away from mucous membranes.)

I've got peppermint oil heating in my diffuser and some orange oil in my hair at this moment. Edits are almost done. Life is good.