Next...

The books are in charge. I know that now, and most of the time I accept it.

I thought I might be writing another Tudor book next, or maybe the more contemporary book that's been in my head for ages, but no. It's Pearl's turn.

Pearl is the eldest daughter of Ava Kimber, the main character in my 1930s series. In Coming Together, she is thwarted by youth and her mother and prevented from going to Paris for a year with her aunt. But now it's her turn. It's 1946, the war is over, and she's off to fulfill her dreams.

This is the blurb I have so far:

A city on its knees. A young woman with a dream.

All her life, Pearl Kimber has yearned to live in Paris and write. With the long years of WWII over at last, she’s traded the familiar for the intoxicating allure of the City of Light. She has twelve months to make her dreams come true. Nothing can get in her way - not even love. 

But as she wanders the streets of a city still torn by conflict, Pearl discovers a new Paris—a city of hope and endless possibility. As she falls deeper in love with the city and its people, she’ll uncover a story as captivating as the city itself, a story only she can tell.

Will Paris be the muse she’s always sought, or will the weight of the past be too heavy to bear?

It's only about 1/4 of the way done, but optimist that I am, I've put it up for pre-order for my birthday, January 31, 2025 (past the dumpster fire of election season and the recovery we will all deserve once it's over - I'm not guaranteeing how much brain I will have during that period, so January seemed safe).

The garden is really coming along. I made ratatouille this morning in the Instant Pot and the only ingredient I had to buy was onion. It feels good to have all that available. 

Also, in hot weather, there's nothing like coming with an instant pot instead of spending a few hours over the stove. When I first got the pot, I bought an extra liner, which makes labor intensive dishes like this a lot easier - I don't have to dump out the first stage of vegetables, I can just switch in another liner. And I have a silicone lid, so I can just put the whole pot into the fridge when I'm done. 

I like my ratatouille both hot and cold, so it doesn't matter to me.

What's your favorite straight-from-the garden dish?

Routine

Do you have one? Do you need one? Or do you drop into your day like the balls in a pinball machine, scattering everywhere? 

I'm a little of each. I have certain routines I like to follow - tasks on my calendar that get done each week, because otherwise I'd forget - and if I don't get my Monday morning at the coffee shop, I do get a little grumpy. The rest of the time, there's a list, and so long as the bulk of items on that list get done, I don't care in what order. 

A lot of writers like to sit down at their desk at a set time every day, staying there for a certain period or a certain number of words. That doesn't work for me. I've spent so much of my life writing in small corners of my life - at work, on the train, waiting in line - that a large stretch of time usually pushes me to do something that takes a large stretch of time to accomplish. I can do words in a few minutes, and come back to them later. It may not be the most efficient, but that's how I've trained myself to work, and this dog is too old to learn new tricks when the old ones serve perfectly well. 

This heat wave we've been having has definitely thrown off my routine. I haven't seen the coffee shop in 2 weeks, other than standard Saturday breakfast club after the farmers market. My daily 2-mile walks, which absolutely helped my writing brain, have also been curtailed. The only task I'm really keeping up on is the garden, because if I don't, it will die and we will have no veggies. 

So what's your method? Are you a list maker? A list checker? Or do you fall free form into your day and still get all the things done?? Or do you fall free form into your day and still get all the things done?

Long hot summer

It's hot. It's been hot for days, and it's going to be hot for more days. Philadelphia is good at heat and humidity, but we had August in June, and now we're having August in July.

The heat has sucked every bit of energy out of me, but since things still have to get done, I'm running on fumes at this point. 

Which means today's check-in is very low effort, but I did want to share that if you are in the UK, Songbird is on 99p sale for the entire month.

Are you a summer or winter person? I'm definitely winter - you can always put on more clothes, but I haven't yet figured out how to take off my skin.

Here's the link to buy, if you're so inclined. It says something about the heat level that I had to be reminded to do this.

Stages of grief

Last week I told you about the mastermind group I joined. A week ago today was the first zoom meeting - just the coach, his assistant, and nine slightly nervous writers. 

After some preliminary chat and an explanation of what was coming, he went over the goals section in each of our applications and gave us his thoughts on them. (The application was long - longer than most job applications I've ever filled out).

When he got to mine, he read out, "I'm confident in my books, my sales are decent, and I have a lot of good reviews, so what I'd like to learn is how to market them bettter and get them in front of a wider audience." 

That seems reasonable, right?

Right?

"Well...." he starts, and gives me an apologetic smile. "Your blurbs are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Those covers, though, they aren't doing you any favors."

What?

The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

"No!"

"#%&@*$!!!"

"Can I keep the cool font?"

"This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

"Hmm. I wonder if that cover designer I talked to a while ago - the one who did the covers on books I bought, but whose covers I didn't want to be like - has any availability?"

So that's where I am. It's the Tudor books he's talking about, and while I do LOVE those covers, and always will, thtey don't sell the books the way they should. And I've paid a significant chunk of money for this coaching, and he warned in the application that there would be hard truths and apologetic smiles.

I just didn't think it would happen in the first week.