today

Even in the grandest of adventures, occasionally the staggeringly mundane rears its ugly head. -- Peter David

These have been quiet days. A whole two and a half weeks of quiet. I'm pretty sure that I have some sort of walking pneumonia, so I'm still taking it slow. Some days I feel cheerful enough to get out of the house for a while; other days I creep from nap to nap. So yes, it's been quiet.

But lovely. And really, autumn is the best time to be sick. The days are so pretty, and there is apple cider and pineapple cake...

Serious yum.

And the rainy days feel companionable in a way that sunny ones can't be. Though clear days have their uses too... The sweet gum tree in our backyard is playing its annual farewell symphony. It changes every day, and I snapped a few pictures on a crystalline afternoon...



Lovely.

The writing is still going, going, going. I'm trying to finish this massive third draft of my novel before the end of the week, and the start of Nanowrimo (which will take me into an entirely different book, woo hoo!)...

Today went well, but if you see my protagonist, give her a hug. The scene I wrote today (2435 words so far, and hoping for more) brought her to one of her lowest points in the whole book. Poor thing. Moral: Never ever be a protagonist in a novel. It's a messy business.

And, too, I'm knitting away, turning out scarves and coffee cozies for our Etsy store. Maybe we'll be open in a week or two?? I'll keep you posted... It's exciting and a wee bit nerve-wracking as well. (This black and green scarf I've designed? I'm knitting as fast as I can, but I can't tell yet if it's going to be disastrous or my favorite ever...)

There it is, the daily news. Go toast the red and yellow leaves with a mug of apple cider.

she's not too creative today.

I've been sick for a bit, but I mustered words enough for a post on my other blog--a happy little meditation on being sick and being well, so click over there if you'd like some words today.

I'm not creative enough for a second post, but if you'd like an antidote to grey and rainy weather, here are some beach shots from my Florida trip two weeks ago... enjoy!

(Note: please excuse the spacing on these pictures. My blogging template and I are having a philosophical discussion about it.)

days with rain in them

It's been pouring for hours, surrounding us with that half-light that tricks you into thinking this day has no time--it's still morning, or maybe it's evening, and what does it matter?

I've reached the bottom of my mug of hazelnut coffee. Just the last, cold, bitter sips. I've been knitting this morning as I watch the rain--two new coffee sleeves, destined for our Etsy store. I love calling knitting work. Propping my feet up, knitting and purling, "oh, I'm just getting a bit of work in." Marvelous.

Now the morning has become afternoon, and I'm still lounging around, pretending to get my thoughts together... but actually I'm avoiding my writing. I spent the last two days working on a scene that was meant to take half of a day. But it kept wandering around, this scene. Skittering away, deflecting my attempts to get to its end. And then the characters would go silent and stubborn on me. So I'd chip away at it, sentence by grinding sentence.

Oof. Not my favorite way to work. I'd rather be surrounded by all their voices and unable to keep up. I finally got through Scene Terrible, and it has its moments of loveliness, I admit. Even amidst all the dangerous "the writer doesn't know how else to convey this information so she's dumping it all HERE" paragraphs. There are a few of those...

The next scenes are far more promising, but I have this sentences are hard! mindset, so I'm rainwatching instead. And taking the last sips of coffee.

Oh, and contemplating the insane: I'm doing Nanowrimo again this year, my third time. I've had good luck before, winning in 2006 and 2008. I used it to leap ahead in my drafting pace for my main novel. But this year I'm doing something different: I'm trying out a completely new idea during Nano--a middle grade manuscript I thought up during August.

It will be a juggling, chaotic month: Nanowrimo with this new idea--its feisty characters, its twisty possibilities, its hilarious names. I have no idea what will happen in it, no clue to its ending. Just a handful of characters and a sense of the tone. But I can't wait, I can't wait, it feels promising and fresh and daunting all at once.

But I'll also be planning the next huge revision of my main manuscript... annnnnd working, very slowly, on its sequel. Oh, and knitting for the Etsy store. Oh, and visiting my niece again.

That's right. That's November.

My brain feels a little full--a lot of people chattering in there, bouncing off one another, and off all my knitting ideas, my dread of the day's work, my lovely memories of family...

Reason enough to absorb the peace of falling rain today, isn't it?

But there's hot apple cider to chase me away from the windows and back to my desk, to this next scene. So I'm living from rainshower to rainshower, slow sentence to the next, mug of coffee to mug of cider. It's that sort of day.

and i am back...

After ten days of road tripping to Florida and back, here I am again.

My brain is fuzzy, there is laundry to do, there are photographs to print, and a life to remember... What all was I in the middle of? Which draft? Etsy? Was I knitting something?

It was a wonderful trip to see my little sister and her family, and there are thoughts and pictures to share later...

But just for now, I'm going to go make a dozen lists. Lists make me feel like my life is in something resembling an order. Lists that are neat and clean and bulleted, with slick margins around the edges...

Hmmm. Number your papers from one to ten...