Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 8

The Happiness Quiz

The NYT has a happiness quiz to help you figure out what kind of things make you happy.

So now that you know, what made you happy this week?

Happiness is Getting the Brain Cells Back Together Plus Spring

I am feeling MUCH better, back to work (happily), big new plans, and in the middle of all of that the NYT did this thing on memorizing poems and made me think about the poems I’ve memorized from just reading them so often. Theodore Roethke’s “I Knew A Woman”: “I measure time by how a body sways.” Elinor Wylie’s “Now Let No Charitable Hope” with its evaluation of the years of her life: “But none has merited my fear/And none has quite escaped my smile.” Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning.” Christina Rosetti’s “Goblin Market.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets. So many. And then there’s the poem that comes back to me at 2AM when I’m walking Johnny in the balmy night of spring, or just having left Pat after a great day of food and thrifting, or stretching out at night after a good, good day with a sleeping puppy beside me: e.e.cummings, always right there:

e.e. cummings: i thank You God

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I may not be able to recite the whole thing without a mistake, but that first line, thanking the world for an amazing day, that’s going to stay with me forever. Poetry saves.

What made you amazingly happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday: The No Salt Edition

Thanks to my interesting April, I am now not allowed salt, which means I’ve been reading recipes for the past couple of weeks since everything packaged ready to eat has enough salt in it to kill a horse. I’ve also been reading about Andy Warhol for the first art crime book, which I sincerely hope we think of a title for soon because I’m really tired of writing “first art crime book.” And I’m re-reading Murderbot because there’s a TV show coming and the previews look really good. In other words, I haven’t read any new fiction which is upsetting but it’s been a rough month. No-salt chicken soup recipes are the best I can do.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday: The Pill and I

I’m finally back to working full speed thanks to pain pills, not opioids, I’m not nuts, but OTC stuff that helps enough to get my brain working again. Bob and I are a third of the way through the first draft of the first art crime book, which is a miracle considering all the stuff we’ve both been dealing with, but we’ve been good to each other, no pressure, so what we’ve got it looking good. It’s always so weird starting a new book/series because there’s so much I don’t know, but that’s part of the fun of it, discovering stuff as I write. It’s still like running on thin air, so I’m trying to design a new town–Bob keeps saying we don’t need it, but I need it–while he’s plotting crime and violence. I love the cast we’ve got, though, so that’s big. Nothing but good times. And I apologize for being MIA these past weeks. There was nothing in my brain atall, but now I’m back.

What did you work on this week?

Happiness is You

What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, Rough Week Edition

This week has been so awful I didn’t read at all, so I’ll have enjoy the page vicariously through you:

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday: Still No Title

But hey, we are working on the first book in the new trilogy, tentatively titled Book One. That lacks zing, but there’s still time.

What did you work on this week?

Argh Author: Deb Blake’s Wickedly Wishful

. Our own Deb Blake has a new Baba Yaga book out, Wickedly Wishful:

Known as the wicked witch of Russian fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not one woman, but rather a title carried by a chosen few. They keep the balance of nature and guard the borders of our world, but don’t make the mistake of crossing one of them…

Barbara Yager has mostly adjusted to her new life, which includes settling down in a rural farmhouse with her husband Liam and their adopted daughter Babs. She and Liam rescued Babs from captivity in the enchanted Otherworld a few years ago, and the young girl has had some adjusting of her own to do, although as a magical Baba Yaga in training, she was never going to be a completely normal child anyway. Barbara thinks that’s just fine.

But things get complicated when Babs asks a startling question at dinner one night, and then turns up with two unexpected companions who have the power to upset all their entire lives if the situation isn’t handled very, very carefully. With the help of her sister Baba Yagas and their three Chudo-Yudos (dragons disguised as two gigantic dogs and one huge cat), Barbara, Babs, and their extended family must venture into the Otherworld to find the answers they need.

Before the High Queen decides she will provide her own answers, which rarely works out well for anyone.

Buy Links:
B&N – Amazon – Kobo – Apple – Smashwords

Author Links:
Etsy: https://deborahblake.etsy.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deborahblake
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/debor...
Newsletter: http://dld.bz/dWEQs
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/deborahblake
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deborah.blake
Blog: http://deborahblake.blogspot.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborahblak...
Website: http://deborahblakeauthor.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Bio
Deborah Blake is the author of eighteen books on modern Witchcraft, including The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows, The Little Book of Cat Magic and Llewellyn’s Little Book of Spellcraft, as well as the acclaimed Everyday Witch Tarot and Oracle and Everyday Witch’s Familiars Oracle decks. She has also written three paranormal romance and urban fantasy series for Berkley, and as well as a cozy mystery series about a run-down pet rescue. Deborah lives in a 140 year old farmhouse in upstate New York with numerous cats who supervise all her activities, both magical and mundane. She can be found at http://deborahblakeauthor.com

Happiness is Spring

Honestly, that change of seasons from Winter to Spring (and Summer to Fall) is nothing but happiness. A break in the weather, the sense that something new is coming, a brand new start. The world run by people may be in nightmare territory, but Nature’s kicking winter ass just like she always does and that makes me happy.

What made you happy this week?

Admin: Argh Author

I’ve had several people ask for Argh Author posts in the last couple of months and I just didn’t have the time/energy/organization to follow through. So I am requesting that you submit your AA posts again, please. I am absolutely not going to get around to searching through my old e-mails for anything–I still don’t have my TAXES done–so I’ll need to be reminded. Send exactly what you want me to put in the post and the date you want it to go up (I know, last month).

Thank you. ARGH.