Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 69

This is a Good Book Thursday, September 15 2022

I’m reading Lavender’s Blue. And Rest in Pink. Bob has One in Vermillion. We’re both sick, not of the books, but actually ill. The idea is to finish all three by the end of the month and then take October off because we’ve read these books so many times that the words just blur together now. Bob has decided our next book is going to be called Zombie Pirates on an Iceberg. I’m so tired I’m considering it. And then there was the magic door he came up with:

Enough about my problem (Hi, Bob). What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, September 14, 2022

We’re at the end of One in Vermillion, and we’re slowing down to figure out the over arc of each book and the arc of the entire series and the good news is, the arcs are there. We’ve got some rewriting to do, okay I’ve got some rewriting to do, but overall, everything holds together. YAY. I also chopped vegetables, made stroganoff, and sowed clover seeds everywhere. Big plans.

What did you work on this week.

Happiness is a Quiet Sunday

It’s really not quiet here; it’s a beautiful day so people are out whooping it up on the lake, which is nice. Even loud happy is a good sound. But mostly it’s just quiet here, lots of trees, some rain, a little wind, a lot of green, calm quiet. Which makes for a very quiet happy.

How were you quietly (or noisily) happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, September 8, 2022

I’ve been re-reading romances because I need to stay in that realm of thought as we finish up One in Vermillion. Bob is still agitating for a zombie Christmas novella set in the same town, and I am still ignoring him. Do I seem like somebody who would write a Christmas novella? I only did one once, and that ended up with Chinese spies because I ran into plot problems and asked Bob for help. His idea of a great Christmas novella plot point is a black helicopter. I am looking forward to The Golden Enclaves which is out in two weeks (third in the Scholomance trilogy), and our plan is to be finished with Vermillion by then, so I can read anything I want at that point. Nothing but good times.

So what did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, September 7, 2022

I’m working at loving autumn which, while not quite here yet, is heading our way in the northern hemisphere. Aside from raining constantly for the past three days, it’s been glorious here. Also cooking again–for awhile there all I did was type and sleep–so making stir fry and spaghetti was a real thrill (not exaggerating). I bought an egg bite maker–I was intrigued, okay?–and I’ll be playing with that. And I’m hauling trash out of here like there’s no tomorrow. While typing a lot.

So what did you do this week?

Argh Author: Deal on Deb Blake’s Forbidden Fatality

Hey, Deb Blake’s Furbidden Fatality is on BookBub this week for $1.99.

A lottery winner uses her good fortune to save a local pet sanctuary, but when a body is discovered on the property, she just might be in the doghouse in this first book in a new, charming cozy mystery series from author Deborah Blake.

Kari Stuart’s life is going nowhere—until she unexpectedly wins the lottery. The twenty-nine-year-old instant multimillionaire is still mulling plans for her winnings when rescuing a bossy black kitten leads her to a semi-abandoned animal shelter. They need the cash—Kari needs a purpose.

But the dilapidated rescue is literally going to the dogs with a pending lawsuit, hard to adopt animals, and too much unwanted attention from the town’s dog warden. When the warden turns up dead outside the shelter’s dog kennels, Kari finds herself up a creek without a pooper-scooper.
With the help of some dedicated volunteers, a cute vet, and a kitten who mysteriously shows up just when she needs it, Kari must prove her innocence all while trying to save a dog on death row. Now she just needs to hope that her string of unexpected luck isn’t about to run out.

Bio
Deborah Blake is the author of the Baba Yaga Series from Berkley (Wickedly Dangerous, Wickedly Wonderful, Wickedly Powerful), as well as the Broken Rider Series, and the Veiled Magic series. She has also published eleven books on modern witchcraft with Llewellyn Worldwide, along with a tarot and an oracle deck. When not writing, Deborah runs The Artisans’ Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a friend in 1999, and also works as a jewelry maker, tarot reader, and energy healer. She lives in a 130-year-old farmhouse in rural upstate New York with various cats who supervise all her activities, both magical and mundane.

Happiness is a Rewatch

We talk about rereading all the time in here, but this past two weeks I’ve been rewatching. For some reason, I stopped watching TV and movies the past couple of years. It wasn’t a decision, I didn’t decide I was too good for film, I just lost interested in that kind of story. But this past two weeks I’ve been catching up on things I’d watched before, mystery (The Art of Crime), fantasy (Doctor Who), home improvement (Love It or List It), just a catch all of comfort re-viewing. I’m looking at Legends of Tomorrow, Person of Interest, Leverage, all kinds of favorites along with suspiciously eyeing new shows that I might possibly consider while I’m writing the series-that-will-never-end (we’re contemplating a fourth book maybe). But mostly I am finding a great deal of happiness in revising old favorites. Doctor Who, in particular, is hitting all my pleasure points because when that show was good, it was spectacular. Anybody here remember the one about Van Gogh? Bill Nighy at the end of that one still makes me weep. Incredible TV. And then there “Blink.” Or the first Matt Smith, an almost perfect hour of narrative. But I digress.

What made you happy again this week? Or for the first time?

Give Each Character the Best Lines

There’s an NYT article by Eleanor Stanford about her favorite line from “When Harry Met Sally . . .” that’s my favorite, too: “You’re right, you’re right, I know you’re right.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that (and thank you, Nora Ephron). The essay analyzes why, and it made me think about some of my other favorites. Like . . .

“That escalated quickly.”

“There’s no crying in baseball.” (Bob hit me with a variation on that one yesterday.)

“And someday you’ll die, and I’ll come to your funeral in a red dress!”

I was thinking about the reason some lines stick around and I think it’s because they reflect some universal feeling, encapsulate that feeling in few words–surprise, fear, rage–while recalling a moment in a film that just nailed that complex emotion. The way “I miscalculated” is not nearly as effective as “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Or “I’m done here” is not nearly as delicious “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Or “I love you madly for all time” is not nearly as knee-weakening as “I know.”

Your turn: What lines from books, movies, songs, whatever do you use because they shorthand the moment for you? Or for whatever reason?

This is a Good Book Thursday, September 1, 2022

So here we are in the first month of the new year. I know a lot of people foolishly believe the year starts on January 1, but anybody who has ever been to school knows that it starts the day after Labor Day with new pens and fresh paper and a great backpack, probably with candy hidden in it somewhere (although that may just have been me). And also books. Books are a big part of education. We should stop banning them. Just saying.

So what are you reading to start the new year?

Working Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Sorry, I was working and lost track of time . . . and day. Also, what the hell happened to August? It just started a minute ago.

So what did you do during the fifteen minutes it was August?