Averil Dean's Blog, page 28

Bacon

Yesterday we had a big dinner. I won’t say Thanksgiving since we missed both the day and every traditional dish that’s meant to go along with it, but I did spend the afternoon in the kitchen as per usual. My older son is vegan now and I’m a lapsed vegetarian trying to get back on track, so I made things like spicy stuffed dates and walnut-mushroom paté (which are delicious but bear an unfortunate resemblance to stuffed cockroach carcasses and poo in a pot, respectively—a fact which thrilled t...

Velma 2.0

The verdict is in. My background has passed muster and I start my new job on Monday. After picking through my dismal wardrobe, I decided a trip or three to the secondhand stores was in order. My first go-round netted me a black corduroy skirt and two sweaters, but damned if it didn’t also require glancing into a full-length mirror. Awful at my age, let me tell you. I am seriously rocking a Velma hairdo, and in the corduroy skirt, tortoiseshell glasses and turtleneck, the resemblance is startl...

Sharpie

This week I hope to start a new job. (I say I hope because the offer is pending a background check, and though I consider myself blameless in the grand scheme of things, who the fuck knows? Melissa McCarthy may be across the country racking up my credit cards while I’m over here feeling cocky about my chances.) It’s a receptionist gig at a medical facility, so basically I will smile a lot and keep my eyebrows plucked and try to remember who’s on line three. I’m looking forward to the work, ac...

Velma and Daphne

It’s 7am. We’re headed down to Portland for the day, after which I’ll be putting my mom and daughter on a southbound plane and settling back into the quiet. I haven’t done much about the job hunt over the past week, though I did have a second interview yesterday which seemed to go pretty well. It’s a wildly competitive job market out there, so I bought a new outfit for the occasion and wore my glasses the whole time in an effort to appear more Velma than Daphne to the powers that be. We’ll se...

Vapor

I’m out for a walk this morning with my little dog. The air is cold and sharp in my throat, a bank of fog over the lake like plumes of smoke from an underwater gathering of mermen. A clutch of black-and-white ducks flies past, so close to the water that their wings leave a vapor trail along the surface. I can hear their feathers the air, a brushing wing-beat, that quiet, powerful sound with all their muscle and bone and instinct contained within it. Push push push, their necks arrowed forward...

Peeps

Last night I drove down to Portland alone and came home with two of my most beloved peeps: my mom and my daughter, who are here for a week. We’re on our way out to downtown Olympia (hello, Orca Books!) but I wanted to pause and mention that ALICE is up on Harlequin’s Facebook page, and I have a new author page at Facebook as well. It’s completely barren and friendless at this point but hey, you have to start somewhere.

Wanna be friends? Photo by Ellen Von Unwerth

Canners

Yesterday I heard back from speedy Mr. Kleinman, who’s read the new manuscript and gave it a round of enthusiastic praise. He totally dug the backward-moving timeline—which was a scary, ambitious risk for all of us—and said the narrative pace ticked along at just the right clip. There are a few confusing details to clear up, and some more substantial areas where I need to add material, but other than that the book’s in pretty good shape.

On the other hand, the job hunt is starting to freak me...

Book-Chat

What’s been your favorite book of the year? What did you love about it?
Post a favorite snippet from the above, if you like.
What are you reading now?
One unforgettable fictional character.
What book has taken you by surprise–either because you expected to like it and didn’t, or because of a dastardly plot twist, or for some other reason.

Photo by Bruce Weber

Mine:

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. The story world absolutely captivated me, and I loved the constant low-level foreshadowing...

Marshmallows

Yesterday I started a fire in my writing room for the first time since we moved here. I’m a desert rat with little experience in firestarting (which in Vegas usually means flipping a switch on the wall), so I forgot to open the flue. Cue the smoke detectors! Cue the howling dog! And the fits of coughing, and the windows open letting all the heat out. Once everything had settled down and the smoke was drifting sweetly up the chimney, I sat at my desk, gathered up my pages and set them in the b...

Grub

Welcome to my house, land of the great unwashed. Or, the un-blowdried at least. I’ve barely left the house in over a week. Haven’t run the vacuum cleaner or a dust cloth over the furniture, I forgot to take out the trash, and my hair has begun to resemble a small shrub. I’m on the home stretch with the Blackbird draft and the living is greasy. I’m wearing my husband’s shirts, and boxers, and I may have mistakenly swiped his deodorant because I keep catching whiffs of Icy Blue. I’m a mess, no...