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.

An Amish Epiphany

Okay. Spot the bad hair day. What? You can't??

Got my hair cut today. I have the cut that most of our mothers had when they got married. (This was not intentional). The spirit of Farrah is alive and well. (No offense to our mothers, who should remember they don't have that haircut anymore either).

So I'm going back tomorrow morning (willingly, at 8:45, and for anyone who knows me, the 8:45 part is impressive). And I'm working on my book. My book about the Amish. And I got to thinking, Amish women have a leg up on us.

They don't have bad haircuts. None of them. Granted, this is because they don't cut their hair, but it's possible they're on to something.

Can you tell the book is slow going? I feel perpetually stuck, although my husband's suggestion of a snowstorm lifted my spirits.

And when my hair is cut again tomorrow, my spirits will be further lifted. Possibly because they're not weighed down by the perfect feathered flip.

Writing and Scones

Simply Sara is going well, but I have to admit that a part of me sees clever writing as an un-renewable resource.

Whenever I start a new project, I fear that this is the one where I realize I’ve used all the good words, the best jokes, the vivid characters, and there’s nothing left…

…until I come up with a really good idea, followed by another idea, and oh, wasn’t that a funny line? And I’m back to normal. The best part is, writers like Anne Lamott feel the same way (I found her Bird By Bird to be very reassuring). We’re all a little odd, a little fearful. I suppose that’s what happens when your job is to write down the voices in your head.

In other, less philosophical news, I made really yummy scones yesterday.

We went blackberry picking weekend before last. Danny’s the best person to pick with because he’s even taller than I am, has very long arms, and doesn’t like blackberries, so he’s not eating and picking at the same time. We gathered about 10 cups of berries.

After two batches of cobbler, I decided to get a little creative. I used this recipe and altered it for my purposes. I omitted about 1/4 c. sugar and the raisins (blech!) and added the zest of 2 1/2 lemons (basically, the amount of lemons I had on hand), 1 c. blackberries. When they cooled, I gave them a thin coat of lemony icing, using fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar (no particular amounts here, just start with the sugar and add lemon juice until it’s where you want it).

I worried about the dough because you’re not supposed to over-handle it, but it was so loosey-goosey I kind of had to manhandle it into submission, and getting the blackberries in took some work. I worried I’d made them too tough, but they came out perfectly. One note - I froze my blackberries so they’d keep their shape when I worked with them. Realize you’ll have to bake scones longer if you insert frozen berries into them (I didn’t, and had to keep putting them back in the oven).

If you live in a part of the country that’s lousy with raspberries, they would certainly work well too. Blueberries would be fine, but blackberries and raspberries are a bit juicier for this sort of thing.

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think!

When you just don't remember

I started reading Gabrielle Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. I thought I was doing so off of a recommendation from Meg Cabot's blog, but after searching her blog for the post I guess maybe I didn't.

So I have no idea how I heard about it.

Just kidding. It was Michelle's blog. I remembered.

Anyway, it's an enjoyable read so far, but it also got me thinking. There's a lot of amnesia fiction and film out there, which is kinda funny considering how rare amnesia really is.

You've got the Bourne movies/books, showing how awkward it is to be with the CIA/contracted by the CIA (I don't remember how it actually went down. Ironically.) and lose your memory.

There's Garry Marshall's happily dippy Overboard, which shows that you do not want to tick off your contractor before losing your memory.

I would be remiss in not mentioning While You Were Sleeping, which has allegations of amnesia, if not the real thing.

In books, Sophie Kinsella's second-to-latest release involved amnesia, as well as Caprice Crane's Forget About it, in which the character fakes amnesia before hitting her head (again) and really complicating matters.

When I was in high school and reading a LOT of Christian fiction, there was Gilbert Morris's Through a Glass Darkly and Lorena McCourtney's Forgotten. Dee Henderson put a twist on standard amnesia using PTSD-related memory loss in Danger in the Shadows.

Releasing September 1st is my friend Christina Berry's first novel, The Familiar Stranger, which (I'm gathering from the synopsis, haven't actually read it yet) shows how memory issues can help you work through marital issues.

And on TV there was Samantha Who?, at least until ABC sadly pulled it.

So no matter where you looked, someone forgot something.

I think the appeal of amnesia is the idea of a fresh start. No memories clogging your perception of who you've become, but a clear path to be the person you should be. That person is usually more likeable than the person we heard about before the blow to the head/car accident/gunshot wound/explosion.

(Ironically, as Robert H. Schmerling, M.D, points out, if you have amnesia, you probably have a brain injury such as bleeding or swelling, so really the memory loss is the least of your worries.)

While on one hand the idea of blanking out on parts of middle school and high school hold a certain appeal, aren't they a part of what makes us who we are? There's a self-loathing streak to amnesia stories - in Bourne especially.

Either way, I do enjoy amnesia-fiction. I suppose the lesson is to try to make good choices the first time - before the blow to the head.

Real live website

That's right. I now officially own hillarymantonlodge.com. Not only that, but we have an (extremely) basic bit o' stuff on it

Basically, it says a bit about the book and sends you to either here or amazon. But considering that the book's not released yet, it works for me.

Danny set it up. Well, I made up the little page in photoshop, but he got it all posted and stuff. My word of advice for unmarried women - marry someone useful. Marry handy. Make sure he can fix something - anything. The more he can fix, the more cost-effective he is.

In other news: I finished the first chapter of Simply Sara. Not only that, but my editor liked it (it's going in the back of Plain Jayne - she doesn't normally read as I go). And not only that, but I've started and made impressive progress on chapter two.

If you're not impressed, remind yourself it's Monday. See? Impressive? I thought so. Mondays are tough days not only because they're the first day of the week, but because there isn't much springboard text yet during chapter writing. You can go back to the previous chapter, sure, but subsequent chapters usually exist in a different timeframe, so you're still kinda starting from scratch. I get a lot more writing done on Thursdays and Fridays because of the momentum. Getting just over a page done on a Monday (granted, a Monday with a single, rather than double chapter goal) is a happy happy thing. And did I mention that I wrote most of it during the day?

(It should also be noted that I'm writing about shopping. I could write a doctoral thesis about shopping.)

Starting Over

I know I said I started Simply Sara. I didn't lie. I did start. But it wasn't the kind of start that began with several paragraphs and stayed several paragraphs for a while.

Then I got all frustrated with not writing and wrote a few more paragraphs, landing me in solid 1 1/2-page territory.

Though it seemed like much more in my head.

Through all of this, people asked me if I was hard at work on my next book yet. Seriously, that's like asking a woman with a two-month-old if she's working on getting pregnant again. You've just killed yourself getting out the last one - making another doesn't sound like fun yet.

But Plain Jayne is coming out and my editor suggested that we put the first chapter of Simply Sara into the back. And I'm all for that - sample chapters are one of the few marketing techniques that actually works on me as a book buyer. So the chapter has to be done. Today.

Now I'm remembering exactly how talented at procrastination I am, as I try to write and my mind whirs and I find myself thinking of the laundry I could do or the things to look for at the library, and when is the new Swell Season CD coming out, and has my JCrew sweater shipping status indicated that it's left Salt Lake City?

But I am enjoying Simply Sara, the more I get into it. This is the book that spends time in a bookstore and art school with a character who loves clothes and another named William Blythe, named after Shakespeare and Anne's Gilbert. Throw in a Godfather-quoting bookstore employee, and I'm feeling pretty good about things.

All I have left to do is write the rest of the book.