Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 31

This is a Good Book Thursday, May 2, 2024

I’m still working on Ngaio Marsh because the rest of my life is overwhelming. Rereads are good for comfort.

What did you read or re-read this week?

Working Wednesday, May 1, 2024

How the hell did it get to be May? Never mind. This week I’m doing a final pass on Rocky Start, working on Very Nice Funerals, finishing my taxes, trying to get my printers to work, and oh yeah, trying to get the office/living room into some kind of shape. Argh.

What did you work on this week?

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Okay, before you say it’s still a mess, I know, but I got the computer desk and the couch switched around and ran the vacuum and hauled a bunch of trash away, so PROGRESS. And I am writing a book here, y’know.

Yeah, it’s still a mess.

The Office 1: 2024

Those of you who have been here forever know that my office becomes a pit very quickly and then I finally do The 12 Days of the Office posts as a way of guilting myself into getting organized and running the vacuum. Today is that day.

Well, yesterday was that day. Yesterday I was looking for something that I needed to do the day break pages on Rocky Start and I could not find it. So I spent the day rearranging furniture, cleaning (yes, I actually assembled my vacuum and used it), putting craft stuff in the guest bedroom and yarn in my bedroom, throwing stuff out and . . . it’s still a freaking mess. So I will be putting up Office 2024 pictures until this place is organized. I’ll talk more about it on Working Wednesday, but here’s where it was when I started yesterday (Monday). (I showed this picture to Bob and he said, “Where do you sit?”)

Crusie’s Guide to Art 5

This is a lot funnier once you see the whole painting. Bacchus and Ariadne by Guido Reni in the Los Angeles Museum of Art

Happiness is Frost Free Nights

So tonight at dinner, a friend announced that the nightly frosts were over for our neck of the woods which means I can put herbs in pots outside and maybe some cherry tomatoes. Which means it’s really spring. That makes me happy.

How did you feel warm with happiness this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, the Late Edition

Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I’m starting at the beginning on Ngaio Marsh.
What are you reading?

Working Wednesday, April 23, 2024

I have FINALLY got my kitchen organized. There’s something about a kitchen, especially one you’ve never worked in before, that’s really tough to arrange, especially if it’s smaller than those ginormous magazine kitchens. As in, is there a logic to plates, bowls, cups and glasses storage? (Yes.) How much of my limited cupboard is going to go toward pantry? What the hell do I need in a pantry if I can get groceries delivered every day? (Because I don’t want groceries delivered every day.) And do I really need all these pieces of equipment? (No.) I’m still not done, I still have to work with the equipment I’ve got to see if the pieces are worth finding a place to store (my air fryer is under a table behind my couch right now), but I’ve got things mostly sorted. Big helps: buying a small freezer to add to my already overstuffed kitchen and putting up a pot rack on the wall over that. I’m feeling very adult about the whole thing.

What did you work on this week?

Crusie’s Guide to Art Lesson 4

A detail from “Spring Landscape” by Lucas_van_Valckenborch 1587
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Happiness is Making Progress

I’m behind on everything, but I am slowly making progress and things are working out well. So I’ve decided to not feel bad about being behind. Everything will get done when it gets done. One day at a time. Getting out from under the pressure I putting on myself is damn near orgasmic.

Happiness is lowered expectations, people. What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, April 18, 2024

Last week was six kinds of awful, so I decided to put my mind on something completely different, a very old book I’ve been working on for a very long time called You Again. It’s my homage to the country house murder mystery, especially Agatha Christie’s versions of it, so I reread The Hollow and my fave, 4:50 to Paddington. Then I went on to Marsh and Overture to Death; next up: Death and the Dancing Footman. I’d already read all of these long ago so I know who the murderers are, which means I can watch while Christie and Marsh duck and swerve their ways through the plots, playing fair with all those fascinating characters. It’s a master class in mystery writing, or would be if I started taking notes. The biggest lesson so far, which was not a surprise: It’s the characters, stupid. You’d think it would be the plot, but it’s the characters that make it work.

So what did you read that was enjoyable this week?