Somehow, I've finished the first draft of the next book. 

I had the characters and a few scenes on my head, but I dove in on May 1 and worked flat out for 68 days. 

It's rough, but it's done. 

30 chapters. 97k words. 68 days. 1 crispy friedd writer brain. 

I'd like to hold off until the weekend before I start edits, but I'll probably only make it to Thursday.

Throwback

So for those of you who've been here for some time, guess what? I still sew! And not just things for craft shows - actual garments.

Currently I'm making a shirt for my husband, mostly to prove to myself that I still can. It's been a while.

I swore at the collar, sweated over the burrito-wrapping of the back yoke, and almost cried over the sleeve plackets. 

So, nothing new.

I just pressed the side seams and sleeves and did the topstitching there. All I have left - all - are the cuffs, the buttons, the buttonholes, and the hems.

Oh, is that all?

I've attached proof of sewing, what I'm calling the Shirt of Many Colors.

And just think, when I met him, his wardrobe consisted of black, white, gray, and light blue. And they say you can't change men.

Lights Out

Outdoor solar lights on the coffee
table. At least they didn't give off heat

It's officially summer. I thought I wouldn't have much to write about this week, because we were expecting a heatwave and I don't do well in heat waves. I didn't do well before menopause; now that my internal thermostat has set itself about 5° higher, I do less well.

Last Thursday, there was a prediction of thunderstorms. By late afternoon nothing had happened and we all assumed the forecasters were wrong again. Then, suddenly, a strong blew through the front of the house and I heard a bang from the back yard. That bang was my patio umbrella heading for the back fence. I grabbed it, got pulled along with it for a few feet, and finally wrestled it to the ground. It then rumbled once and rained for a few minutes and stopped. 

No biggie, right? 

Shortly before 5:30, the lights flickered and went out. And stayed out. For 28 hours.

George Carlin had a bit about how society would go to hell without electricity, and once again, George wasn't wrong. The main thing was trying to keep the phone charged, so I could see what was going on in the world, but then there was also the worry of my two basement freezers. Which were full. 

Thankfully, the grid in our town is so uneven that a neighbor at the other end of my block actually had power, and because she has a fussy toddler, she keeps almost no food in her freezer. So we moved all the freezer stuff to Rachel's house. 

I will not discuss the grudge I now have against our local pizza place, which still had power but closed their dining room so neighbors couldn't camp out and charge their phones. Even if they ordered food. So the power outage is turning into a weight loss plan, because I've just given up pizza.  

The lights came back on Friday night, and I swapped a bottle of wine for four bags of still frozen food. 

That should have been the end of it.

Yesterday at around 6:30, I went downstairs to do some laundry. Heatwave = lots of extra sweaty clothes. While down there, I noticed that the freezer's light wasn't on. Being versed in old style tech, I kicked it. The light flickered and went out again. I opened the lid. It was cold, but not freezing. Some quick research told me that several potentially fatal things could have happened when the power came back on, and as the freezer was 15 years old, we decided the best course was a quick replacement. 

Except it wasn't quick. Amazon couldn't get me anything until next week. Walmart could have it delivered to the store, but didn't have any in store. Home Depot only had refrigerator size freezers. So we ended up at Best Buy, who had a nice little 5 cubic foot freezer on sale. Within 30 minutes, it was downstairs and plugged in, and the old, leaking freezer was dragged up and put outside to finish draining. 

So, a 90° Sunday where we unexpectedly moved to small appliances and spent several hundred dollars. 

Still less miserable than losing all that frozen food. 

Home Sweet Home

A few variations on this theme. First, through many walks around town - going to work, coming home, going to the store, just getting out of the house to walk and think about plots... lots of flowers and some wildlife. 

The deer was actually ambling down the street just a block away, gazing over the various gardens like they were checking out the buffet before diving in.

The second photo is the living room, cleaned up for the camera crew the other week. Because it will never be that tidy again and I need to share proof that it ever was.

Coming Soon to a TV Near You

Last Friday was an interesting day. 

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by one of the stores I sell through. They said that a local public television producer was looking to talk to someone who did "traditional" sewing, it or what he called "grandma crafts." (I didn't have to be a grandma, or even grandma aged, I just needed the skills.

We spoke, I agreed, and they appeared Friday morning - an hour early - to film. Thankfully I sent my husband downstairs to answer the door. Suddenly I heard all this laughing and talking, and it turns out that the producer is an old college friend he'd lost track of years ago. 

By the time I was ready, they were still talking. 

We did the interview, then they shot some film of me in my sewing room, and then they left to take more video in two local stores where my stuff is for sale.

Monday I sent along some photos to flesh out the piece; before and after, some custom pieces, a few craft show shots. 

It will air on a local program some Friday soon. I'll post out here when I get a copy of the video.

Free!

For anyone who hasn't read it yet and may have an interest, Songbird is free on all Amazon platforms - TODAY only. 

(Though being Amazon, it might linger through tomorrow. But don't count on it).

If you do decide to read it, you can see for yourself which of these two recent reviews is correct.

US 

UK

Canada

Australia

Long weekend

Sometimes long weekends are for relaxing. Sometimes not. 

This past weekend was definitely not relaxing and also not productive in my usual sense, although I did get some writing done because otherwise, who am I? 

When we bought this house in March 2018, one of the things I wanted to change was the partial wall in the living room. Most houses on our block have an archway between the living and dining rooms and a closed stairwell. That was removed and the staircase opened up probably in the 1960s when the previous owner moved in. 

I have no issue with that, but what they did instead was a counter height short wall with three glass display shelves above and a spotlight over that. I'm assuming the previous owner's wife displayed all of her shiny knickknacks there. Certainly the women in my family would have sold a close relative for a display piece like that. 

But in a small house you need wall space. The only place to put my great aunt's secretary desk was up against that non-wall. And when I'm sitting at my writing desk, in what was formerly the dining room and is now my writing space and where the bookcases live, I look straight through those shelves at the back of the secretary. Not the best view. 

All this is to say that in a confluence of events, I picked up a very large piece of drywall on my local Buy Nothing group, found the original living room paint, retrieved the white trim paint I had lent to a neighbor, and borrowed a utility knife from another neighbor, because all of my sharp objects had gone missing. Since found, just none of them in their rightful places.

Over three days, I cut and installed drywall, taped the seams, built a corner where there was none, sanded and painted, then cut wooden shelves to fit, wallpapered the back of the drywall so I'd have a pretty view from the desk, cut trim wood, installed the shelves, and put everything back. 

I went to work on Tuesday to get some rest. But at least I can say I know what I did all weekend and it looks good. 

It's also comforting to know that although I haven't used them in quite some time, I still have skills.