Simply Sara at a (temporary) close

It's been a long road. It's been a tough road. But that road is coming to a close, because I finished writing Simply Sara on Saturday the 24th, sometime in the early evening, while sitting with Danny at Starbucks.

Granted...the work is not done. I've been working on some of the editing this week, before turning in the manuscript on Friday. And after that, my editors, bless them both, will come back with more edits. And after that, my publicist will give me things to do.

If you're looking for a sense of completion, do not go into publishing.

But I'm excited. SS goes into print in July, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the final product. I'm pretty proud of having published a book. But Jayne's lonely. She needs a friend on the shelf. And she'll have that friend come September.

What can I tell you about it? Not much, aside from the fact that I'm pleased with how it came out, and the ending TOTALLY took me by surprise. Sent me into a panic, actually. But it's good stuff.

In other news:

1.) My basil plant died. I honestly think it had a disease or something.

2.) Make sure you enter the Simply Sara contest! Details are here.

3.) Danny and I are going away this weekend! No computers, no book, no school, no work - I'm just a little crazy excited. I am, however, taking my camera, since we'll be going to the Oregon Garden, which is one of my favorite places in the state.

4.) Isn't this cute? I'm thinking 4th of July picnic with a basket of daisies or something.

5.) Watched The Young Victoria. Loved it! Thoughtful and lovely and observant. Totally recommend.

That's all for now - I made dinner last night, and should repeat the experience tonight (shocker!). But it's lunch time now, and for once, it's not ravioli.

Random Observations

My head’s so deep in the book I’m having a hard time piecing thoughts together to create one cohesive blog on one topic. This is not to say I haven’t had random thoughts in my head, looking for an outlet.
So here goes.

1. I really hate the whole shorts with tights, boots/heals, and sweater/jacket look. I’m not sure how this evolved as a serious look, because to me, it says, “Hey mom, I dressed myself.” And not in a good way. What I love most is the fact that this look was thrown around back in December.

I don’t care if there are tights involved. Shorts are shorts are shorts. And December is cold. And shorts and tights look stupid. I don't care if it's one of "Jenna's Picks." Jenna needs to wise up.

I feel better having said this.

2. Starbucks has caught onto the “natural” trend by over hauling their baked goods. This means that my mom’s favorite cookie bar, the Toffee Almond Bar (her Starbucks Raison D’etre) is MIA.

The molasses cookie, a longtime favorite of mine, tastes…worse. If the molasses flavor is so week that you can contemplate what kind of flour was used (white vs. wheat), the molasses wasn’t strong enough. If an artificial ingredient (and the meaning of “artificial” is up for debate), I would kindly like it returned.

3. And the chocolate chunk cookie needs salt.


4. If you’re not from these parts, you may not know that while the rest of the country has been buried in thirty feet of snow, Oregon has experienced its lightest winter in recent memory. A lot of analysts told us, within the last few weeks, about how unlikely it would be for the rainfall to pick back up.

Well, time has passed. Rain has fallen. I don’t know what the analysts were smoking. This is Oregon. You can count on unpredictable warmth and the fact that it will always end in much water falling from the sky.

Like it’s falling right now. You’d think they’d learn. You’d think they’d have gotten the memo by now, taken the hint.

You know, gotten rained on.

Oh well. There’s always next year.

5. I bought a new basil plant!!! It's probably a little silly how much this has filled me with joy. But I've MISSED having fresh basil! Eating a lot of ravioli and tortellini these days (tortellini with roasted veggies, tossed w/ olive oil, a splash of pasta water, and Romano cheese is yummy! And easy when you're writing a book.) and it's nice to have basil to snip over the top to make it special. I will try to keep this one alive. I will not leave it in the car on a 102 degree day. I will take it to Gram's if it needs a spa weekend (the snippet she took from my last plant is still alive on her window ledge). I will not over-water. I will not under-water.

6. Simply Sara is nearing completion. At this stage, I kind of have to get out of the apartment to write otherwise almost nothing gets written. Starbucks and I are quite close these days. Hence the cookie observations. Anyway, as the last 20% gets written, I need to make up some new happy plot cards to get me through to the end. I want to be sure nothing gets left out!

That's it for now...on to the note cards!

Research and Weekend Plans

I'm behind. I'm a week behind on the book, and probably two weeks behind on blog posting. Won't even talk about my laundry, but the kitchen is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.

Such an odd phrase - skin of its teeth. Especially since teeth don't have skin.

I'm a little loopy. Frankly, I'd love nothing better than a nap but I'm fighting those instincts and trying to get things done. Like blog.

I called the Art Institute of Portland today to see if I could schedule a tour of the campus. I came clean about being a writer - having a phone conversation as your character is exhausting enough, trying to be them in person seems daunting. While I half expected the admissions office to blow me off so they'd have time for real students, the office was very helpful, even directed me to their PR person.

We get to do that Saturday. Also on tap Saturday, earlier that day, is a meeting with my web designer. We've kind of tried to put things together over the phone - not something I'd recommend. It's like giving advice about a painting over the phone. So we're getting together, hopefully over cupcakes. We'll also take some additional author shots for the website; the kind of shots we get and what I wear will decide the color palate for the site. There are decisions to be made. I kind of suck at decisions. For a while I was thinking, two days, I'll only pack for two days. That's not much! But now I'm realizing I'll need to bring clothing options and books for props...this is all practical, mind you. None of my over-packing tendencies are coming into play here.

Cupcakes, on the other hand - I'm great with cupcakes.

After the tour and after the web meeting, we'll most likely be heading down to Powell's to look at their rare books. More and more of Simply Sara seems to revolve around rare manuscripts, and I've really enjoyed the research. Finally found this site for terminology, so I finally know what it means when pages are "foxed."

I had intended to head to the U of O's Knight Library to look at their collection, but I couldn't come up with the energy. The books aren't going anywhere, and when I'm spending this much time stressing over the book, it's nice to have another afternoon at home to work.

Tonight we're helping my brother and his wife move into their new apartment, which brings back memories of moving into ours. I remember waking up in the morning, stumbling into the living room, and sorting through the boxes of belongings and wedding gifts.

An update on the basil: it is still alive. However, it's been fairly unhappy with me since I left it for a short period of time in a hot car on a 100+ degree day (I don't usually take it for drives; the reason it was in the car was that I had to take it to my grandmother's before the Canada trip, and thought it would be prudent to run errands before hand. Little did I know).

These days, it gets a little wiggy if it gets too much sun. I'm hoping to keep it alive through the winter, though, so here's hoping.

Random on a Sunday

A few things...

I'm sorry to my subscription readers who received a short email post last night. There's some odd combination of keystrokes that makes a post publish, and when it publishes, it sends out automatically.

Those people already know some of the following information: the basil is still alive. It was the tiniest bit droopy when we got home last night, but after a watering it perked back up. Also found a tiny slug in the gerbera daisy pot. Probably the grossest thing I'll deal with for the rest of the month.

I spent Friday and Saturday at a marketing conference. We spent a lot of time talking about "brand." Thing is, the books I've got coming out in the near future are not the books I'll be writing in the slightly later future. We've decided not to worry about my brand until I've had a few books released and we get an idea of how things are working. I'm good with that.

Tomorrow morning, I get to sit down with my editor and edit through Plain Jayne. That's one of the happy things about living in the same city as your editor - you get to do these things in person! And while the drive time to her office is tax deductible, I don't know that I'll take it. It's just under a mile.

On tonight's schedule: going to my parents' house for dinner, Danny getting a haircut, and going to bed early! We're both still wiped after this weekend. We had to get up early. I hate getting up early. I became a writer so I wouldn't have to get up early.

Make sure to keep checking my posting places on AmishReader.com and Burnside Writers' Blog. There are new posts showing up from time to time!

Basil in Danger

I bought a basil plant yesterday. I've wanted one for several months, but it wasn't until Trader Joe's had plants all but lining their store yesterday, for the happy happy price of $2.99, that I finally got to bring a plant home.

My history with living plants is...checkered. As a kid I brought potted violets back from my grandma's. I'd kill them, then she'd bring them back to life. My grandmother is a plant whisperer. That particular gene skipped my generation.

In college I had a little potted palm tree. It stayed alive for almost two years. Might have lasted longer if it were nearer to a.) a water source and b.) a waterer. When I left to housesit, it was never quite the same.

I want things to be different this time. To ensure the basil's survival, I also bought a small potted gerbera daisy. The daisy is the canary, the rose plant at the end of the grapevine. If it dies, it serves as a warning. I hope it doesn't come to that. It's cute and the blooms are red.

One of my favorite things to do with basil is to stack it with a roma tomato, fresh mozzarella, and a baguette slice. Basil goes on top - drizzle with olive oil. Perfect for a summer day.

...at least, as long as the basil plant is still alive...