I have just received a contract for two books!!! That’s all I’m saying for right now…but I’m THRILLED and will put out more info as soon as I can (i.e. as soon as I actually SIGN said contracts!!!).
In the meantime, let the champagne and the wine flow…!!!
No, I’m not talking about the now-defunct soap opera. I’m talking about my passions in life – first and foremost is my husband, of course. But next is my undying passion for writing.
I love writing. Even when I hate it, I love it. The hate thing usually comes about from me getting in the way of the story. The love thing comes about whenever I sit down to write and time flies because I am so absorbed in the story.
Plus, the ability to work anywhere, any time, is a huge perk. Yesterday, as a friend worked on recording songs for her 4th grade play, I worked on paragraphs to wrap up the books in my series. So that was really nifty. Having a pen and paper really helps, though playing plots in my head is fun, too.
I guess I’m lucky.
Cooking is another passion. Cooking for people with special dietary needs is a challenge. I am cooking for a family tonight, only one of whom is a vegan – but I’ve got the perfect recipes for us, so I’m excited about dinner. Sounds funny, but there you go.
My gardening passion kind of dried up this summer. I hope to resurrect the garden in time to plant for winter crops – easy to grow in So Cal, but we’ll see if the cash and the time is there.
Passions. Life without them would be an unrelenting gray, I think.
I had the best hot chocolate ever in February 2005. Hubby and I were in Paris for our anniversary, and we stumbled on this patisserie on the Isle de St. Louis on a chilly morning.
The scent of chocolate permeated the air. We didn’t even think of resisting its call. So, as we sipped our chocolate (to DIE for), hubby prowled around and found the recipe, hand-written, on a card by some chocolates. So he copied it.
One memorable morning, when Paris was a distant memory, he made me this Decadent Hot Chocolate, and I was pleased to remember, yet again, what a lucky girl I was to have married him.
The recipe is below…but be careful. You can tie people to your side with this hot chocolate. On no account (if you’re single) should you give out the recipe…
1 cup high quality 60% cacao chocolate (I use Ghiradelli – but regular choc chips are fine) 4 cups milk, 3 Tlb powdered baking cocoa, 3 Tlb white sugar, 1 cup heavy whipping cream.
Put chocolate in a pan, and add just enough milk from your 4 cups to float the chips a bit. Heat until chocolate is melted through, stirring the entire time. Once melted, add the rest of the milk a little at a time, keeping the heat on medium (don’t boil!). Then add the powdered cocoa, one Tlb at a time, whisking it in. Do the same with the white sugar. Once that is incorporated, slowly add the 1 cup heavy whipping cream, stirring the entire time. Continue to stir until the chocolate is hot again. Then drink and be glad you are human!
IF you wish, in the spirit of the movie Chocolat, you may add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper to spice things up.
Now you know!
Now listen up, folks. This is a lesson for everyone who uses email for important communications. What I am about to tell you is imperative for you to assimilate and REMEMBER. The remembering part is the really important part.
Are you ready to be enlightened? Okay, here we go…ahem.
When you are doing any kind of business via email, it is imperative to double check to WHOM you are sending said email. Otherwise, such business could a) go to the entire company; b) go to everyone but the person you had expected it to go to; c) go to YOURSELF because you were stupid enough to have replied to your own email.
So. Guess which one happened to me, when I sent the REQUESTED FULL to the editor who was anxiously waiting to receive it? Yes. I sent it to myself. MYSELF. (Palm to forehead sound here.) Thank goodness said editor is lovely and patient and sweetly enquired today if I were still interested in sending it to her, or if I had planned to shop it around instead?
So I, completely boggled, sent it immediately to her (thank goodness I remembered the flash drive with the novel on it!) and told her I’d send her another follow-up email, just in case my messages weren’t connecting for some reason. So I sent it off and did my research of my “send” box.
I was so embarrassed to find I’d sent the novel to myself. In my defense, I will say I was up at 4am that morning and had been doing taxes (and that’s another story and not my fault), because I didn’t want it to seem like I was nerdy and needy and anxious to get the file to her. And because I wasn’t fully awake (only on my second cup of coffee, for goodness’ sakes), I sent the stupid novel to myself and have been biting my fingernails (figuratively – I had a manicure last week) ever since, waiting for her reaction.
So then I had to follow up with a, gee, I goofed, I sent it to myself email. I just hope she believes me because, darn it, it’s the truth, as stupid as it may be.
Now I think I will go to sleep. When I took off my eye makeup, that stuff got in my eyes and they’re all blurry now…
…and that’s the end of the lesson.
I’m beginning to think people are divided into two distinct sections (okay, more than that, but go with me here!); those of us who tear through books and pass them on to friends with no intention of rereading them, and those of us who read. And reread. And reread again and again and again and again and…am I boring you?
I used to be a library girl. The Bookmobile that came to our neighborhood was my Nirvana…and the librarian loved me, because my 8 year old self would check out the thickest books available for my age group (The Phoenix and the Carpet, Five Children and It, eventually hitting up the Nancy Drews I didn’t already have). Of course, I didn’t realize at the time that publishers made the books fat and small for small hands and big minds. But I digress.
I love the Kindle that my husband bought for “us” (read, me, but hello, he’s absconded with it, the cad!); it can hold all the books I love to reread. Every single one (that’s available for Kindle…). All that lovely bookish indulgence, right there in the palm of my hand. If I ever got my hands on it, that is. (But that’s okay. I’ve got the Kindle App for my iPod Touch. Life Is Good!!!)
But how does the Kindle (and other e-readers, for that matter) sit with those who read, give away, and forget? I know there are a lot of folks out there, and some of them in what used to be called “straitened circumstances” absolutely love their local library (when it’s open, of course) because they don’t have to KEEP the book. They read it, they return it. Why would these folks even bother with a Kindle, or a different e-reader? They read. They give away, or never, ever re-read. So why would they get an e-reader?
Perhaps folks will eventually check out e-readers from the library, set up with just the books you know you want to read. When you’re done (after a year or so, lol), you return the e-reader and pick up another one, already pre-loaded with the latest Oprah picks (okay, or whomever replaces her in the must-buy-this-book world). Maybe that’s what will happen.
However it turns out, I find I’m fascinated with the thought.
I’ve got to run, sorry! But…it’s October. That’s when I re-read The Lord of the Rings each year…in hardback…