Kim Harrison's Blog, page 36

Day of woodies

It must be cold, because the big birds are packing up together and making the rounds in the neighborhood. I had these two big guys come to my feeder yesterday at the same time. The bigger picture has both a red bellied woodpecker hanging from the eaves and a yellow shafted flicker on the feeder. I see the red bellied quite often, but the flicker is more shy, though I hear them a lot. They have an exotic kiik-kiik-kiik-kiik voice, and their yellow feathers laying about when they molt are as distinctive as blue jays. (Which I’ve seen a lot of this year as well.) I like the close up I have of him because it shows his face markings, which you don’t get to see very often. You can just see the yellow on the underside of his wings. They show really well when he flies.

I woke up thinking about the work, (always a good sign) and I’ve got a few days left on it. My last run through is going well, and it’s not as top-heavy as I feared. I’ll be done with it before Friday if I keep this pace and don’t run into any snags. It feels good to be able to slow down and look at it with relaxed eyes.

 

Phew. I need a vacation from the weekend

I’m glad to sit at my desk this morning. No, there wasn’t a lot of snow to shovel. No family to entertain. No big shopping, though I am starting to plan out the menu for Superbowl next weekend. (I’m making soft pretzels and guacamole.)

Nope, I’m exhausted because it was a Lord of the Rings marathon, and Guy and I watched all three extended versions without commercials and with all the extras.��I am exhausted! Guy actually had to wake me up this morning. It did give me time to knit in front of the TV, though. It’s a mess with more bobbins than I’ve ever worked with, but it’s moving forward.

More importantly, I’m in the home stretch for Peri’s first editorial rewrite. Frankly, this has been one of self-doubt since I’ve changed the story so much, and much of that touches on the pace, which is kind of the backbone of any book and mostly instinctive for me at this point–or at least it used to be. It feels even more top heavy toward the beginning for an action/thriller than before, which is why I’m going over it one last time to see how the changes I put in might be keeping those first 100 pages moving. ��But if I’ve learned anything in the last ten years, it’s trust your editor, and nine times out of ten, I can see what she was trying to do by the time I get to the end, even if I don’t see it in the beginning.

Guy, who never reads my rewrites, did this time, actively coming out into my office and looking for chapters.

That is a very good sign.

 

Shhhh, writer at work

Sorry for not posting lately, guys. I am alive and well. This rewrite is kicking my ass so I’m kicking it back.

Any hour I can steal for it is being stolen, but I’ll be back probably before I expect it.

–Kim

Must have more yarn. More yarn . . .

Okie-dokie. The Frank Lloyd Wright gauge/pot holder is done, and this is what I learned.

I can use the Kitchner stitch to marry the two pieces together very successfully, and it’s not that much of a pain in the butt. The edges fall naturally, not forced, and the edge itself is nice if I pay attention and do it right.

However, unlike other pieces where I knit the front and back simultaneously, there is a clear separation between the front and back, almost a tube fee.. They aren’t clinging to each other as they do in my usual method into a solid whole. Being wool, I might be able to force the issue with a little, careful, almost felting, but I don’t want to lose the crispness of the front so it would have to be done very carefully.

Working both pieces at the same time to get that solid, one-piece feel would require me to work with three, possibly four yarns in my hand at a time (which tends to bunch the pattern,) or work with the bobbins in an unusually tight situation, but it would eliminate the need to make the back separate and I’d have that “cling” back.

Do I want that solid piece feel bad enough to try a few more swatches? I think I do, seeing as it’s Thursday, and I won’t be able to get to the yarn shop until Saturday.

Peri is going to be a bear for the rest of the week.

Progress all the way around

Thank all that is holy that I’ve got a month of uninterrupted Peri. That’s my January motto. We are gelling, baby. Gelling. It’s about what I expected at this point, but still a relief.

On the yarn front, it’s gelling as well. Honestly, one of the things I like about knitting is that you can make progress in a shorter time. Okay, taking a month or two to finish a project might seem like a long time, but when your usually delayed gratification takes two years, a month is fast.

My gauge for the Frank Lloyd Wright scarf is just about finished. I’m still debating whether to slip the black stitches on the purl sides instead of purling them to give it a smoother finish. If you knit, you might be able to see where I tried it out in the above gauge, but don’t look too closely. I did leave a few mistakes here and there since, golly, it is just a gauge. Also, I��like the way the slight variations in the yarn itself give a stained glass look, but now I’m wondering if a more crisp yarn might result in a more polished finish. Either way, I do want to put a back on this thing, and that will keep me busy until I get the yarn I want–whatever it turns out to be. I usually knit the back right along with the front, but with three yarns already in play, it was getting a little crazy. I’ll knit a back separate and just mend them together. Or maybe pick up stitches and go that way. . . Mmmmm. Looks like I’m going to at least have a Frank Lloyd Wright pot holder if nothing else!

Hustle

I’m going to have to hustle today. I’m about a fourth of the way into Peri’s rewrite, and I want to get it done a week before February starts so I can go through it one last time which means I have to pick up the pace a little to have that extra week. Blahh, I do not like being rushed in the rewrite, but I can’t stand handing in something that I’ve not gone through to “clean” it. So hustle I am and plan on doing a little plot editing in the copy edit. Guy is reading it as I go, and he ate four chapters up yesterday, and came looking for more. (Which is a very good sign all the way around.)

At least I’ve got snow to look at, and trust me, it’s easier to sit at a desk when you can see the cold stuff sitting on the ground. Burrr. Even the dogs aren’t eager to go out. It brings the birds in, too. The junipers, especially, look nice right now with a little dusting of snow. It was the robins this year who ate the juniper berries, waiting until after the first frost–which I think is interesting. I’ve no idea who ate the yew berries. Hopefully the winter won’t be so severe and they will grow a little this next year. I’d love a little more privacy. They aren’t getting a lot of sun, and the soil is crap there, but they’re yews, and most survive crammed up against foundations with no light and zero water. We’ll see. First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap. I’m on second year with them, and might do a little shape pruning next spring.

Ha, ha! Got snow!

Yes indeedie, we got some snow!Just enough to hide the blades of grass, but it’s enough to put the jump in the dog’s step and the hustle in my bustle. I’m not fond of cold, but I do like the snow, even as I’m glad I don’t have to get out in it apart from sweeping the six feet from my back door to my office.

What I’m aiming for

 

But being inside means no yard work, which means more time to knit! Yesterday, Tim and I went on a not very successful yarn hunt. I’d been wanting to get to the yarn shop in Frankenmuth for a few months, but when I finally did,  found they had lots of lovely yarn, but not what I was looking for. Much as I hate it, I think I’ll have to cave and buy online. We were planning on hitting a few more stores on the way home, but the open-weather pocket closed in, and we had to hustle back. It was interesting to see how much more snow an hour north had.

So, no new yarn. Just as well. I’m still working up the pattern. I want a Franklin Lloyd Wright scarf and don’t think there’s a pattern out there, and honestly, I love the challenge, so even if there was one, I’d ignore it. Getting the lines to slant at the right angle is tricky. Almost, almost have it. So close . . . Fortunately due to a stitch being taller than wide, the horizontal triangles are turning out wider than I expected, so I can take that ugly hitch out where it crosses the line, make them taller, and that will even the line some more.

Once I have the how of the center angle lines, the rest will be easy. But first, I have to find the yarn . . .

Right now I’m using a pure merino wool, not machined but very even in texture, slightly heavier than sock weight. I like the way it gives almost a stained glass look. The back of the scarf I might do in an alpaca or something softer. I don’t make myself scarves very often, so when I do, I use really nice yarn.

Empty Spot on My Shelf Needs Filling

It’s almost nine as I write this, and the sun is just peeking over the neighbor’s house. I’ve yet to see a car, dog, or jogger, but the squirrels are out. Ice has sealed down the koi pond, and the bird feeders are full, and there’s a spot on my shelf for one more book. Looks to me like it’s time to kick some more ass.

Yep, I should have been taking the week off between Christmas and New Years, and I kept half that promise by not posting. It gave me an extra hour or so a day, which I really appreciated since I’ve BEEN WORKING ON PERI FOR FIVE DAYS!

And I’m really enjoying myself.

Crap on toast, but it seems like forever since I’ve been this excited about something. The last couple of Hollows books were great, but it was the joy of tying off of threads and building conclusions. I’m back to building possibilities, leaving things open, proposing ideas and walking away to see what the characters do with them, and I am loving it. Maybe I am a “like beginnings better” kind of a girl. (shrug)

But regardless, I’ve been working in silence this last week, and it feels good to be posting again. I’ve got a new editor and I like her style though it is a lot. . . louder than I’m used to. (This is a good thing.) I truly miss my marked up, messy paper where I struggle to read my editor’s handwriting more than I thought I would, but you grow or you die. And I hope she understands after looking at my first submission with a probable feeling of “Where’s the Kim sparkle?” that it’s in the editorial rewrite that I put in a lot of the sparkle and shine. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing until I get someone else’s ideas in there too, and I know it.

So . . . every rewrite is a chance to become a better writer, try things out, put more tools in the tool box so to speak. This time, the biggest limb I’m going out on that wasn’t editorial suggested is taking something that was personal and good and tweaking it to be common knowledge and scary–until Peri figures it out and it becomes good again. I didn’t see this possibility in the first handful of my personal rewrites, I didn’t see it in the submission copy, but after finishing the extremely ugly rough draft of book two a few months ago, (which is really no more than an idea, a sketch, a maybe framed by text and chapters,) I think this is the right thing to do. Scary as it is.

Happy New Year!

recipes

There was a call for the recipes that I mentioned yesterday. Here they are!

Mom’s Cranberry Tea

1 pound fresh cranberries

3 quarts of water

1-2 cinnamon sticks

Boil for ten minutes, then drain through cheesecloth (I line a colander with it.) then add:

2 cups white sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup orange juice

Mix and serve hot.

 

Grandpa’s Spiced Pecans

1 egg white

1 tablespoon of water

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound pecan halves

Combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, lightly beat egg white with tablespoon of water. Add pecans, stir until coated. Sprinkle sugar mixture over pecans and mix well. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees F for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Remove nuts while warm to cool on wax paper.

Going on holiday, back in a week?

I got up early this morning, even before the sun came up. A part of me wanted to acknowledge the beginning of the day, now that they are getting longer. Yes, we celebrate the new year at the end of the month, but honestly, it feels to me as if the wheel has already begun a new turn.

There are a few things that I know I’ll never see in my life. One is a total eclipse of the sun. The other is the winter solstice at stonehenge. It’s the second that has the potential to haunt me, but I know someone was there, bundled against the cold, held in the arms of the one they love as they and a handful of others, acknowledged the universe affirming that all things change, even as they stay the same. Sometimes . . . knowing others have seen is enough.

It’s about eleven as I write this, and I’ve already been busy in the kitchen, making a new stewpot of cranberry tea and pan of sugared pecans. One is my husband’s mother’s recipe, and one is my grandfather’s–it’s a blending that seems fitting today. After finishing my online morning work, I do believe I’m going to find a place in the sun and sleep until it moves and I’m again in shadow.