Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 20

Working Wednesday, October 9, 2024

This week I started working on The Honey Pot Plot, found my serger in the garage (I’d lost it back in NJ, and then it turns up here in PA?), started to sort my yarn so I could find something, did so much laundry I got high off the detergent fumes, got my sweeper running, finally hung the mirror in my hallway (heavy sucker), put up a tack board across from the laundry so I could block crochet pieces on it, experimented with smoothies, did whatever Veronica asked of me, went out to dinner with friends, and read a lot. And yet, there is still so much more to do. And read. ARGH.

What did you do this week?

Happiness is Finishing a Big Task That’s Been Looming Over Your Life. Or Two.

Finished my taxes and the truck draft of Very Nice Funerals. Now I am broke but happy. The relief is positively gleeful.

What made you gleeful this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, October 3, 2024

This week I read Naomi Novik’s Scholomance Trilogy again. (I’m a big Novik fan.) Originally, I loved the first book, really liked the second which was much more complex, and got so lost in the third one that I sort of skimmed until I got to the end. This time I loved the first book, thought the second was terrific, and actually gave the third one a fair read. It’s still the one I like the least, but it was a lot better this time around, and it made me think about trilogies in particular, the idea that you can’t just keep repeating the same story, you have to arc a trilogy like a novel. So the first Scholomance was about El, a loaner with a terrible future who forms alliances, and it was very personal and so much fun to read (I love an angry heroine). The second one was about El again, and she had support now, but she was still fighting prejudice and still trying to do the right thing within the confines of her murderous school, and it was still fun. But she graduates at the end of that one, so the third one takes place in the big wide world with El at the height of her powers; she can pretty much do anything at this point. So a new setting, new problems, new antagonists . . . I think it was just too different from the first two when I first read it. And it was much more complex, and that made it difficult, too. Mostly, I think, I just missed the confined setting of the school, within which Novik had built a fabulous but self-contained world.

Anyway it made me think a lot about trilogies which is good because I’m finishing up one with Bob now, and we’ll be starting a new one after this. I like trilogies, we can do so much more with character over three books. I just have to think about them more.

So what did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, Oct 2, 2024

I am still working on Very Nice Funerals, but I’m so close to the end now. I really have to send it back to Bob and then he can go through it again and send to betas. Also, taxes. I’m behind on everything. AAAAAAAARGH.

What did you work on this week?

Happiness is Slowly Getting On Top of Things

I have so many things that should have been done last week, last month, last year that I’ve been losing my mind, but I’m finally getting a little bit of a grip, some of it done, some of it closer. Mostly, I’ve let myself slow down because I was making myself crazy. (Two Happiness posts last week? Yeah, that was me.). So this week I told myself to slow down, and I actually accomplished some things. That felt great. Slowing down felt great, too.

Happiness is finally getting stuff done without making yourself insane.

What made you happy this week?

Argh Author: Brenda Margriet’s Silverberry Seduction Seasoned Romance Series

Our own Brenda Margriet’s Silverberry Seduction Seasoned Romance series is out on October 1.

Five standalone, steamy, slow burn, contemporary romances
Main characters 35 to 55 years old

Friends-to-lovers Found family Second chance Opposites attract Fake relationship

Available to pre order now. Have it delivered to your ereader October 1! Only $9.99 for a limited time.
https://books2read.com/SilverberrySed...

SECRETS UNDER THE COVERS
Two long-time friends…one impulsive seduction…zero percent chance their lives will ever be the same again.
(Helen and Nathan both 55)

LOVING BETWEEN THE LINES
A one-night stand neither will forget.
She wanted a final fling before choosing science to make her a single mom. He needed an escape from the regret grinding him into dust. Her baby isn’t his…but maybe family is more than DNA.
(Lynn 40, Benjamin 35)

TURN THE NEXT PAGE
High school sweethearts, their marriage was shattered by tragedy. Thirty years later, a startling confession reignites long banked embers.
(Aubrey 52, Phillip 53)

STRICTLY BY THE BOOK
An adventurous, go-with-the-flow historian…a scrupulous, stick-to-the-rules scientist…an attraction so wrong it’s absolutely right.
(Natalie 36, Rafe 42)

TOO GOOD FOR WORDS
Ride hard or stay home…
A phony friendship between an ex-con biker haunted by his past and a suburban mom with an uncertain future shifts gears with startling consequences.
(Penta 44, Cash 48)

This is a Good Book Thursday, September 26, 2024

This week, I stole time from my never-ending to-do list and read Aaronovitch’s “The Masquerades of Spring,” a novella that was rich in history (like all the Rivers of London books) and took place in NYC during the Harlem Renaissance (like none of the Rivers books). I’m going to have to read it again to get it all straight in my head, but it has Aaronovitch’s vivid characters and twisting plot so I was happy.  Then I read “Winter’s Gifts” which was Rivers of London in Wisconsin, and I’m not sure I got all of that, either, so I’ll happily reread.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, September 25, 2024

I have been working my ass off on about a million things and I’m still behind. But I’m getting there.

What did you work on this week?

Happiness is Your Kid Coming To Visit For Your Birthday

Mollie came to stay. We talked about publishing, and then we had dinner with Pat and laughed like loons (they ganged up on me), and then we came home and called my brother and sister-in-law (her uncle and aunt) and did a speaker phone call with them and laughed like loons, and then sat up late talking about crochet and laughed quietly because we were tired. Then the next morning, we went to breakfast and talked about fiction and marketing, and then Mollie did some business calls until Pat and her fabulous dog Louise came by and were appalled by my housekeeping (understandably) and kissed Mollie good-bye, and then Mollie packed up the yarn she’d scored while we talked about crochet plus two small end tables I didn’t have room for, two baskets, and a llama tree for her cats, and the whole thing was a perfect, perfect birthday; perfect, perfect happiness.

What made you happy this week?

Happiness is Positive Gossip

Jancee Dunn wrote in the NYT Well newsletter that “positive gossip” is healthy, that when you talk about other people but say good things, it’s good for your mental health, too. Like my daughter, who came to visit and was so generous and loving that I was proud of her all over again. Or my friend Pat, who is harassing me to walk with her because she’s afraid I don’t get enough exercise and she doesn’t want me to die. Or Bob, who has spent the better part of a month making sure his mother-in-law is safe in assisted living. Or the people on this list, who are always kind to each other and so supportive. We need to talk about the good stuff, too, not just our happiness (although that is crucially important to share) but also talk about the many, many, many good people in the world. The bad stuff makes the news, the good stuff makes Argh.

What good stuff made you happy this week?