Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 384

Publication, reviews, and unsolicited advice –

So, you know, only a couple weeks now till BLACK DOG hits the shelves! Very exciting!

February 4th, I believe, according to Amazon.

This is when I get nervous. Reviews, you know! What if people hate this book? What if *people I like* hate this book?

BLACK DOG has 14 reviews up at Goodreads already — 10 of ‘em are four or five stars; 3 one or two stars. I know you’re probably thinking that that those three negative reviews are eating me alive, but, and here is the first bit of unsolicited advice I am going to hand out for free:

IMPORTANT TIP #1: If you are a writer? Consciously choose to focus on the positive reviews.

Not everyone is going to love your books. I bet it’s no trouble for you to think of a couple or three authors whose work you simply detest. (Certainly I can.) Popular authors, too. There is no reason for everyone in creation to love the same books. When some people don’t love your books, don’t dwell on that. Instead, read the positive reviews, print them out, show them to your mother, quote the most perspicacious bits to your friends. Dwell on those reviews.

IMPORTANT TIP #2: Even people who love other books you wrote may not love this one. Think of three of your favorite authors: have you loved every single book they’ve ever written? Of course not. I did not keep the Rusalka books by CJ Cherryh. I hated the Nazi duology by Barbara Hambly. You all know how much I love Patricia McKillip, right? But I was severely disappointed by SOLSTICE WOOD.

And that’s okay! If an author you love writes enough books, eventually she will write one you don’t like. If YOU write enough books, eventually you will write one that any particular reader doesn’t like, even if that person is usually a fan. THAT IS OKAY. I still love McKillip and Hambly and Cherryh. The reader-writer relationship will survive even a very strong disagreement about the quality of one or two books.

IMPORTANT TIP #3: Don’t go out of your way to force your friends to tell you they didn’t really like one of your books. This is just my advice, and of course totally unsolicited, but personally, I never ask my friends, especially my writer-friends, what they thought of My New Book. I figure if a friend read it and loved it, they would tell me. The writer-friends among them may be sincerely too busy to read it right now, or scared that if they do read it, they might hate it, and that would be so uncomfortable. So I never ask Have you read it yet? What did you think?

Your mom, now. She is required to buy a copy, and one or two to give away, and she must read it and tell you she loves it even if she really doesn’t read books in your genre. Because, hey, that’s what moms do.

IMPORTANT TIP #4: Now that I have several friends who are book bloggers, I have a new, firm rule: Don’t get bent out of shape if a blogger-friend dislikes one of your books.



That rule has actually been in place for a while. Bloggers put their opinions out there, after all. One blogger — a blogger I follow all the time and really like — did not care for CITY. (Yes, I remember that review, even after five years.) I know of two bloggers I sometimes follow who didn’t like HOUSE OF SHADOWS.

Hand out your book to 200 bloggers, and this is bound to happen. It just is. People — strangers, friends, bloggers, fans — are sometimes going to dislike one of your books. If you’re not going to be a hermit, I think it’s so important to get it rock-solid-settled in your own mind that this is okay. To give people permission (in your own mind, I mean) not to like one of your books.

Or else you can be a hermit, I guess. But in this wide world, it’s a shame to close yourself off like that.

Have you watched the second Hobbit movie?

Because whether you have or not, you will probably enjoy this parody by Sarah Rees Brennen.

BILBO: Hey the Ring makes me able to understand the giant spiders who have kidnapped us! Invisibility cloak & evil language translator, is there anything the ring can’t do? It’s like a naughty pocket knife.

SPIDERS: Dwarf for breakfast, hobbit for second breakfast!

BILBO: Why won’t this magic translator ring turn off!

Many really funny bits, especially if (like me) you can’t take these movies very seriously.

Oh, hey, look, Andrea Höst has a guest post over at The Book Smugglers

“When asked to write a post recommending female SFF authors, I decided to remove my own self-imposed bias of favourites, and stick simply with “authors of books I kept”. And so here is a list of “Female authors with a physical book on my SFF bookshelves”.

Yes, this post will be long.”

Yeah, I bet. That would be a long, long list for me. Yet, oddly, I am missing quite a lot of the authors on Andrea Höst’s list. Or maybe it’s not that odd, as she goes from A right through Z, for a total of 99 authors. Wow! There are a ton of authors on this list who are new-to-me — way too many — some I definitely need to add to my TBR pile(s).

Constance Ash, for example, I’m sure I never heard of her, which is too bad, as I sure went through a horse-crazy period. (Actually, I am still more or less in that horse-crazy period, so I think perhaps I should look up this series.)

Pat Cadigan, I never read anything by her. TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP is an amazingly evocative title.

Cara d’Bastian’s UF series sounds amazing — set in Singapore and Malaysia, really? I just have to try that.

I have Susan Dexter’s THE PRINCE OF ILL-LUCK on my TBR pile downstairs; it’s another for the reader who enjoys a horse-centered story, I hear.

And on and on. I mean, that’s only into the D’s! Lots of authors I know on this list, too, of course. Click through and I bet you’ll find both favorites and new-to-you authors.

One author from this list I’ve never heard of but am definitely planning to try: Cara d’Bastian

The author I’m most familiar with: CJ Cherryh, of course, though my favorites list from Cherryh would be quite different. I mean, CHANUR, sure, but where’s CUCKOO’S EGG? And ANGEL WITH A SWORD was never one of my personal favorites.

The author I’m most pleased to see on this list: Doris Egan, GATE OF IVORY, which is the first book in a wonderful trilogy that didn’t get the attention it deserved when it first hit the shelves. It came out in omnibus form some years ago and I made several friends buy it then. Ooh, ooh, and Margaret Mahy! I just love many of Mahy’s books and don’t think they’re as widely known as they should be. And there’s Judith Tarr’s LORD OF THE TWO LANDS, a historical fantasy I just love. Martha Wells! Another author who should be absolutely a household name.

Most beautiful cover: I really like the cover of THE RED COUNTRY by Sylvia Kelso. I’ve never heard of the book or the author, but that cover would make me pick up the book in a bookstore. “An Australian writer who writes densely poetic novels, most set in Australia, or fantasy worlds with Australian landscapes.” Densely poetic, eh? Sounds very much like my cup of tea.

Book I’ve most wanted to get to: THE STEERSWOMAN by Rosemary Kirstein. I’ve heard about this and the concept sounds really interesting.

Flawed books that I have nevertheless read many times: Anne Maxwell’s DANCER series, starting with FIRE DANCER. I think the series as a whole suffers from continuing romantic angst that keeps on going long after it should have resolved. And the romance is so clichéd. Yet . . . yet . . . I really like these books anyway. Now that I see this author on the list, I kind of want to go re-read at least the first book yet again. I do agree that it’s a real shame the series was cut short at three titles.

Most seminal: I agree, Andre Norton had a huge impact on me exactly in this way. I, too, think of weapons and vehicles in just these terms — needlers, skimmers. I never, ever thought of that before. But yeah, Norton sure did set up ideas about how to write SF adventure stories.

Click through and check out this list. Who’s your favorite? Any glaring omissions? You’re invited to fill in gaps in the comments.

I’m glad to see I’m on there already, otherwise, yeah, that’d be a glaring omission, all right. But no, I’m happy.

I do have an author to add, though, so I need to go leave a comment.

Global Foods, Butter Chicken; or, taking a break to cook

So, you know, Global Foods Market in Kirkwood, MO is such an interesting and useful grocery store. Someone asked me recently if it was really all that different from Schnucks or whatever, and the answer is: Yes. Not that we have a Schnucks within fifty miles anyway, and it’s certainly worth stopping there if you’re going that way, but Global Foods is totally different. That’s why I took the last day of Christmas break and ran up for a nice foodie shopping trip.

I mean, if you want baby bok choi? Global Foods has beautiful baby bok choi. But if you’re bored with bok choi, they also have shang hai mieu, which has a much flatter, paler-green leaf and thinner stalks. I never got it before, but I made a chicken soup last night: chicken breast, chicken broth, shang hai mieu, fresh julienned ginger, snow peas, and beech mushrooms. A dash of soy sauce, and a drizzle of sesame oil to finish the soup. It was quite good. The shang hai mieu has a mild flavor and holds a nice bite after about 10 minutes of cooking. I may get it again — I do try to get some interesting produce when I’m up there. They certainly have lots to choose from. Fresh lychees, sometimes. Lemon grass. True yams, yucca, purple potatoes, whatever. Plantains, obviously, but you can actually get those at the local WalMart, amazingly enough.

I got a package of five-spice tofu, though. You sure can’t get that at WalMart. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. I’ll need to look through my Chinese and Japanese cookbooks for inspiration.

Global Foods does not have lots of the normal things. I don’t think they have dried cranberries, for example. But they have dried cornelian cherries. Cornelian cherries are the fruit of Cornus mas, a type of shrubby dogwood. I planted a couple several years ago, but only one has flowered so they haven’t set fruit. I picked up a packet of dried cornelian cherries to get a preview of what the fruit tastes like. They also have dried goji berries. I just planted a goji berry vine, but who knows when it will set fruit?

I really like making dosas and tamarind potatoes. I have made dosa batter from scratch before, but I have to say, the dosa mix at Global Foods is significantly easier. I picked up two boxes. Now I’m kind of regretting not picking up half a dozen. For the potatoes, I can use tamarind paste, tamarind concentrate, or if I’m feeling wild and crazy, fresh tamarind pods — all of which are available at Global Foods. The concentrate is the easiest to use, though.

I get corn husks for tamales at Global Foods, and lots of kinds of dried chiles. Pomegranate molasses. Halva. I am always tempted by their many, many kinds of imported sausages and cheeses, but most are pretty expensive. I got goat meat, once. Canned octopus, once. This time I was tempted by canned eel, but didn’t quite feel brave enough. Every kind of lentil, dal, pea, and bean. I found these great beluga black lentils this time, which I never saw before ever. I always get dhura dun basmati rice there, which is by far my favorite rice. I like their mochi — I like the kind with custard inside best.

So, yeah, even if we did have a real grocery store here, I would still hit Global Foods a couple times of year. I always try to get something new to me. This time it was manioc (cassava) flour and those interesting beluga lentils.

But! Even if you don’t have a great international grocery store handy, you can still make really excellent food. We don’t have an Indian restaurant anywhere nearby, but I have made several different versions of Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhanwala) over the past few months, but I made this version tonight and it was the best version I’ve made yet. And you can make it with ingredients you can probably pick up locally in almost any grocery store.

Butter Chicken (Saveur Dec 2010)

Marinade:

1/2 C Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp canola oil

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 3-inch piece ginger, thinly sliced

Salt to taste, about 1/2 tsp kosher salt

8 pieces skinless chicken pieces, or four skinless chicken breasts

Raita:

1/2 cucumber, seeded and grated

1/2 carrot, grated

1/2 tomato, diced small

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 C Greek yogurt

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground cumin

Sauce:

1 tsp red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 green cardamom pods, cracked

2 whole cloves, crushed

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 3-inch piece ginger, grated

1/3 C heavy cream

4 Tbsp butter, in pieces

1 tsp garam masala

4 fresh or frozen curry leaves (the only item you can’t find at a normal store, and really nice to have. There aren’t any substitutes, so if you don’t have any, just leave them out, don’t add basil or bay leaves or whatever.)

Salt to taste

Basmati rice or naan or whatever you like to accompany the chicken

Okay, now, here is how to do this so the dish is as easy and quick to prepare as possible:

The day before you want to cook this, make the marinade in the morning before you go to work. Put all the marinade ingredients in your handy Preethi spice grinder (or a blender or food processor) and zap it into a smooth marinade. Spoon or pour into a zip lock bag. Add the chicken. Squish the marinade around to coat the chicken. Put the bag in a large bowl, place in the fridge, and go on with your day.

That evening, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. It is a terrible thing to preheat the oven all the way to 500 degrees and then not do something with it, so this would be a great time to make a pizza. If you are organized enough to do that, good for you! Whether or not you are prepared to make pizza, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the chicken and all the marinade on the baking sheet. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes. It does not need to be done all the way through; you will finish cooking it in the sauce. Chill, covered, until you are ready to finish the dish.

Make the sauce — either a day or two ahead, or the morning before, or right when you are prepared to finish the dish, whichever is most convenient:

Combine the chili flakes, garlic, cardamom, cloves, crushed tomatoes, and ginger in a saucepan. Simmer for 25 minutes. Use a blender or immersion blender to puree the sauce. (This is a great reason to get an immersion blender if you don’t have one.) You can now chill the sauce and wait till you want to finish the dish, or of course you can go on and finish it now.

Either way, before you go on, make the raita. You could do that while the sauce is simmering, for example.

You could probably make this raita further ahead of time as long as you use Greek yogurt so it won’t get so thin on standing. I doubled this recipe to be able to use the whole cucumber, tomato, and carrot, because who wants half of everything left over? Anyway, seed and grate the cucumber and grate the carrot (I use a food processor with the shredding blade). Dice the tomato. Put all the vegetables in a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Let set 10 minutes. While waiting, combine the other raita ingredients. The Saveur recipe suggests plain yogurt but I strongly prefer Greek for this raita, especially if it is going to rest overnight. Anyway, squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the vegetables (don’t go nuts about this, but squeeze firmly) and add to the raita. Let set at room temp while you finish the chicken.

When you are ready to finish the dish: Start the rice. If you are using dhura dun basmati, I find that 12 minutes on low heat plus 12 minutes off the heat is perfect. Anyway, once the rice has been started, place the sauce in a skillet and add the chicken. Heat and then simmer gently for 10 minutes. This will finish cooking the chicken. Lift the chicken out of the sauce and add the butter, cream, and curry leaves. Stir until combined. Add the chicken back to the sauce and turn gently to coat. Simmer very gently five minutes. Turn the heat way down and keep warm, if necessary, while the rice finishes cooking.

Serve over rice or with naan, with the raita and, if you happen to have some, mango chutney. I would say this is about as good as any Butter Chicken I have ever made, or ever had in a restaurant. 100 percent of spaniels also approve of this recipe.

Wintry Romances: Theresa Romain

So, I recently read the second book in Theresa Romain’s Holiday Pleasure series, which at the moment contains three titles: Season for Temptation, Season for Surrender, and Season for Scandal



So these romances form a loosely-linked series, with the protagonists of each continuing as secondary characters in the next. I read them out of order – #3, then #1, and as I said, I just finished #2 last night – which was fine, because each story stands well alone.

The challenge for Book #2 was to get Xavier from being a total rat (in Book #1) to a good guy (in Book #3). Theresa Romain handled this very believably, and here I would like to just mention that I like the psychologically believable ways in which her protagonists screw up their lives. I started to say particularly the guys, but Frances from It Takes Two to Tangle is certainly carrying her own baggage. It’s Frances’ issues which drive that plot, mainly.

Back to the Holiday series, though. I hereby like the first the best, which is interesting, because I think what especially appeals to me about this one is the lack of psychological issues for the protagonists to work through. Nor are there any bad guys, really, unless you count Xavier (that rat!), who just appears at the end. All the charm and almost no tension. Or at least no tension related to horrible villains. That really appealed to me – it was just what I was in the mood for – and actually perhaps the lack of horrible villains is particularly suitable for a Christmas-themed story?

So, Book #1, Season for Temptation. I loved Julia so much! Julia and her ginger biscuits. She is such a cheerful extrovert, she babbles so charmingly, she is so bubbly and enthusiastic about nearly everything – especially about breakfast! I have always enjoyed cheerful, bubbly people, in the real world as well as in books, no doubt because I’m not much like that myself. And James was an excellent foil for Julia. One could see why he’d gone and gotten himself engaged to Louisa by accident, that was basically because he is the noble sort right from the beginning, but it did rather put him in a fix, of course, or there wouldn’t have been much of a plot. But basically I just enjoyed Julia so much I wouldn’t really have cared if there hadn’t been a plot at all. Also – and this is different for me – I really liked how Romain handled the major sex scene in this particular book. It didn’t seem at all contrived or unrealistic or dropped in just to meet the reader’s expectations, and it didn’t feel voyeuristic, either. It actually made me laugh instead of skimming lightly over it. That’s quite an achievement.

Okay, moving on, in Book #2, Season for Surrender, we get to focus on Julia’s sister Louisa. Louisa is not just bookish and quiet; she also possesses natural aplomb, which is certainly an excellent quality in a protagonist. We do have a protagonist with issues in this story, though (Xavier, of course), and a quite horrible villain. I found the part where Xavier is floundering, unable to think how to handle his horrible cousin Lockwood, rather difficult to read. Though at least Louisa continued to handle everything with composure, and eventually Xavier pulls himself together, of course, and starts quoting Machiavelli, and at the end Lockwood doesn’t know what hit him, which is satisfying.

I am not a hundred percent sure I would have bought Louisa’s transition from the first book to this one – from utterly miserable when forced into a social situation, to able to handle anything Lockwood throws at her – but what made this work for me was that she found out about the bet between Xavier and Lockwood very early on. This was a great way to handle things, because as soon as she found out about that bet, her determination not to let Lockwood win gave Louisa a plausible reason to want to handle even very uncomfortable social situations. And even one situation that went well beyond uncomfortable. But she handled it. And of course everything worked out in the end.

Then in Season for Scandal, as you may recall, we switch our focus to Xavier’s cousin Jane, and straighten out her life. I will say, the brown paper packaging was a particularly nice touch in that one.

So that was three Christmas-themed Regency romances this year: a good excuse for making real hot chocolate and curling up cozily on the couch with half a dozen spaniels and a cat. I expect Theresa Romain will most likely have another one out for next Christmas – and I expect I will enjoy that one, too.

Just ate way too many cheesecake buns, and updates

I made buns based on these, from Willow Bird Baking.

Naturally I did not follow the recipe, though it looks luscious. I wanted to use some plum . . . um, thick syrup? Thin jelly? That I made last year when the plums were coming in. Plucots, actually, but plums for all reasonable measures of “plums”. Anyway, I wanted to get the plucot syrup out of the freezer, so I made these buns. Or buns much like these.

I only spread half the cheesecake filling on the dough before rolling it up. Now, having just eaten way more than my share of these buns, I think I could have used the full amount, though it would have seemed like a lot. But I was spreading plucot syrup over the cheesecake layer, so the buns seemed full enough when I rolled up the dough.

I baked these for about 35 minutes. I don’t know why it seemed to take longer for me than for Julie, but so it was.

Anyway, plucot cheesecake morning buns: like a taste of summer. I’ll take some of the nicest buns over to my parents after a while, but it won’t be any trouble at all to eat the rest myself. I had better plan to stick to apples for dessert tomorrow.

In other news: just went over 50,000 words for Christmas Break! So I feel pretty satisfied. 50,000 words in one month isn’t bad. It’s like doing NaNoWriMo, only I started with 32,000 words already sitting there, so I’m now up to 82,000 (obviously). I’m thinking this ms. will come in at about 94,000 words, which is VERY SHORT for me. I have actually thought of a subplot I will probably put in, since plainly there will be room for it. I may do that before taking a break (no promises).

In still other news: Giedre is exactly three weeks from her official due date. The roads should be clear in another two days or so. May they stay that way until after Giedre has had her litter! With three healthy puppies on the ground and gaining weight, I will not care what the weather does. (And may Folly come into season NOW so I can breed her while the weather is good, too.)

I do like having puppies ready to go to new homes in the spring. But this whelping in winter thing is scary. I mean, even scarier than normal. I’m thinking next year maybe I will put off breeding any girl so that she will be due in decent weather.

Historical manias

A very interesting link I spotted at Martha Wells’ website. The actual article is by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, at Mental Floss, not a website I was familiar with before now.

I had never actually heard of any of these manias. I was thinking it would be like the tulip mania and things like that, things you can basically understand — crazy optimism driving insane bubbles — but no.

1. The Deadly Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages. Had you heard of this? Listen:

The plague swept the countryside and, almost just as suddenly as it had come, disappeared. Until July 1518, in Strasbourg, when a woman called Frau Troffea picked up the tune again and danced for days on end. Within a week, she was joined by 34 people; by the end of the month, the crowd had swelled to 400. If they’d been inmates in a Philippine prison, the whole thing would have been choreographed, set to “Thriller” and uploaded to YouTube, but since this was the Middle Ages, they just died. Dozens perished, having literally danced themselves into heart attacks, strokes, and exhaustion.”

That is so weird. That is SO WEIRD. I mean, it’s also a cleverly written essay, all that about the YouTube, but the actual phenomenon, who would DO that? What were the lives of these people LIKE, that they could be sucked into something like this? Actually McRobbie explains just how bad life was at the moment, and how once people got the idea of dancing plagues into their heads, then fear and depression could render them vulnerable to this kind of thing.

But still.

2. The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962 — school girls who redefined the idea of a laughing jag. Poor kids. I can almost but not quite imagine.

3. Dromomania, or Pathological Tourism — an inability to stop traveling. Not sure I believe in this one, though it demonstrates the fads that hit mental health professionals. That’s useful right there.

4. Koro, or Genital Retraction Syndrome — damn those fox women! Actually, the psychological phenomenon does say a lot about the society where men (mostly) are afflicted with the idea that their genitals are shrinking. But it seems hard on the fox women. I always liked fox women.

5. Motor Hysteria — this one afflicted nuns, and I’m not surprised, considering how grim life could be for nuns in the Middle Ages, some of whom were not volunteers. No wonder there were occasional epidemics of nuns acting out symptoms of demonic possession.

Anyway, a very interesting article. Kind of makes you look around for epidemics of hysteria in the modern day. Internet lynch mobs spring to mind, but I doubt the symptoms last long enough to count; nothing like a sixteen-day laughing jag. I wonder if there are ever epidemics of, say, anorexia, that go through a particular high school?

I have to share this:

The most dangerous trail in the world (it says). Click through and scroll down. I believe it.

I got this link from Rae Carson on Twitter.

Scroll all the way down to see what’s at the top of this trail.

Warning: I’m not afraid of heights at all, but some of those pictures just about gave me vertigo anyway.

So, did you know Marie Brennen sometimes writes fan fic?

Apparently there are requests for particular types of fan fiction, as part of a thing called Yuletide, in which people request stories set in particular worlds — specifically worlds that don’t ordinarily draw a lot of fanfic attention. Did you all know about this? The Yuletide FAQ says:

What is Yuletide?

Yuletide is an annual fic exchange for rare and obscure fandoms. Participants sign up to write a story of at least 1,000 words in a fandom someone else has requested. In return, they receive a story of at least 1,000 words in a fandom they have requested.

Isn’t that interesting? I had no idea. I could not possibly write in response to Yuletide prompts — I really do not do short fiction, not to mention that I find it really impossible to capture the proper voices from someone else’s work. But Marie Brennen can and does. There are links to her stories from Swan Tower.

Everything from Wheel of Time to Romeo and Juliet – quite a range.

I am not familiar with the Wheel of Time series, but Tybalt’s problem in “Nothing But One of Your Nine Lives” is certainly not one I would have expected!

Anyway, you might enjoy these.

Now I know a lot more about plumbing than I used to

These are the books that should be in the library:

These are some classics — Jane Austen and Dumas and I don’t know what all — plus A and B genre hardcovers. Sarah Addison Allen, Gillian Bradshaw, Marie Brennen, Lois McMaster Bujold, Stephen Brust. I would definitely have been very very sad to have anything happen to these books!

Here is where all these books ought to be:

You see the hole? Isn’t that a nice hole? We cut up too high to start with — I swear it sounded like the break was right at the top — but it turned out to be only about six feet up after all, infinitely easier to get to than we thought it might be.

Here is the culprit of all yesterday’s annoyance and today’s lingering dampness:

I don’t know if you can see this properly? The pipe split lengthwise for about an inch. Amazing water could do that. I mean, I know ice cracks stone all the time, but you can’t begin to bend the metal back with a pliers. I tried, just to see. It just seems startling to see how what water can actually do. Dad says this is a terrible soldering job, so don’t be judgmental, right? It’s been years since he soldered anything, and his hands are not as steady as they used to be. He’ll be eighty in March.

Did you know there is this little thing you can hold in your hand that you use to cut a section out of a burst pipe? The things carpenters and plumbers come up with are so clever. Then you can splice in another section of pipe and there you go, water, poof! Though using a soldering torch in a library is a little nerve-wracking, I will say.

This morning, I’m glad to say, no such interruptions. I wrote 1000 words and finished the scene I was working on. Taking a break now. I’ll press on this afternoon. I should just barely make it past 50K written over this Christmas break, taking the ms. to nearly 90,000 words total — in other words, I should be close to a complete draft by the time school starts (Monday). That was my basic goal, so I’m pretty pleased with that and ought to finish this draft by the end of the month, just about when I wanted to. I do think it’s rather a mess, but it’s hard to tell when you’re in the middle of things. I will probably let it set for a month or so — it’s good not to have a tight deadline for it — then go back and read through it and see how it looks and start revising.

And eventually, somewhere in there, I suppose I’ll have to figure out whether a lot of insulation needs to be pulled out of the wall and discarded and if so how much of the wall will need to be taken out for that to happen. Sigh. On the plus side, not everyone has a Go-To Guy like my Dad to take their walls apart and put them back together again afterward, so I really can’t complain. Thanks, Dad!