Couples cooking

Ben got an extra special present for his birthday: a diagnosis of high blood pressure. So we're now cooking together everyday, preparing recipes from a special diet prescribed by his doctor.

Here are a few samples of what this process is like:

Ben: Okay! *claps hands* One t-s-p of black pepper.
Ben: *searches in cabinet for one full minute* Where's the black pepper? It's not in here.
Me: *glances at cabinet, points right in front of Ben*
***
Ben: Okay! Three cups of water.
Ben: *staring at water in pot* Do you think this pot is too big?
Me: Ben. You asked me how you could help, I asked you to make the rice. Handle it.
Ben: Don't judge me.
Me: Too late.
***
Ben: Okay! Four ounces of low sodium tomato sauce and four ounces of regular tomato sauce. I've got...two eight ounce cans here.
Ben: O.o
Ben: Okay! What am I going to use to measure out four ounces? *starts rooting through drawers*
Me: Ben. Half a can of each.
Ben: What? No.
Me: O.o
Ben: N-no. It must be exact!
Me: Ben! Halfacan! It's cooking! Not neuroscience!
Ben: *keens*
***
Ben: Okay! One and a half t-s-p of garlic. Let me just get a measuri--
Me: *dumps a spoonful of garlic into the sauce*
Ben: *shrieks*
Me: Oh, my god. It's garlic. You don't need to measure garlic.
***
Ben: Okay! Let simmer for twenty minutes. JESUS! Twenty minutes?!? Are you KIDDING? Do you always cook the rice that long? Oh my GOD, it's not going to be done for EVAR!
Me: *dies*
***

Either the diet will reduce his blood pressure or the stress of the cooking will kill him. Jury's still out.

Sorry to be such an absentee blogger lately but I've got some real life stuff going on that's had to take priority. I'll be away this weekend for a memorial service. Next week, I'm hoping to quietly sneak back into a regular routine. I've got a minor rewrite of BLOOD AND SACRIFICE to do and the unplotted abyss to venture into on Megan's story which I've decided to call THE LANGUAGE OF SILENCE as a working title.

Everyone, be good to each other out there. It matters, even when you think it doesn't and especially when you think you'll have more time to do better later.

In the zone

So far, I've been setting a loose 250 word per day goal on the new story, working with a heavier focus on quality than quantity. Some days, it's been a struggle to even meet that.

Today? 931 words.

I was in the zone, baby. I had several decent sized chunks of writing time when there were no other distractions--on the bus, before a doctor's appointment, while waiting for Indian food. And it helped that I was writing a scene that I've been looking forward to since I started the book. It's a pivotal scene for the early part of the book and one that I saw very clearly in my mind. *Love* those.

Incidentally, last night I wrapped up one of the scenes that made me choose this icon as one of the story icons. Poor Megan. She has issues.

4081 / 60000 words. 7% done!

Teaser Tuesday

A little something from the new project-o-mystery:

Ms. May leaned in, resting her elbows on her knees. “I am a very private woman, Megan—a quality it seems you should appreciate. I need to know that information about my life will not be traded on the black market for food or luxuries. So, let me ask you again: can you speak?”

I grabbed the paper, my heart pounding, and wrote in big letters: I will keep your secrets.

“Truth,” Constance pronounced.

Progress Report

Posting this for my own accountability as much as anything...

2108 / 60000 words. 4% done!

I'm writing at a snail's pace, but I'm choosing each word carefully and still getting the feel for my characters. I think it's okay, even though it feels weird. With BLOOD AND SACRIFICE I was writing 2K a day on weekends, nearly 1K a night on weeknights. I'm at about 250 words a day right now, pulling a 500 word coup today. Like I said, it's okay for now. I'm hoping to pick up the pace as I get a little further in and more comfortable with the characters.

i <3 my iPod nano

First, don't forget to check out the interview and contest for THE ETERNAL KISS!

I've spent most of the evening moving music from our home server to my iPod Nano.

(Ben has spent most of the evening yelling at a computer game. It's how he "relaxes.")

I got the 16GB (PRODUCT) Red version which is terribly exciting on three counts:
1. It helps fight AIDS in Africa (well, not my Nano per se, but $ from the purchase).
2. It's a great conversation starter: "How'd you decide which color to get?" "Well, the red one helps people with AIDS in Africa."
3. It's got twice as much room as my old MP3 player! (Here endeth the humanitarian portion of tonight's post.)

This is so exciting. I moved over every song I could possibly want to hear and still have over 4GB free for new music!! EEEEEE!!!!

I also made a new playlist for Megan's Story, which could warrant its own post. My last book was all angsty emo rock. This one wants scores and Enya. So weird.

I did manage to make my word goal for today, though:

1061 / 60000 words. 2% done!

Friday Five: Anticipation and Teaser Edition

Five things I'm highly anticipating:

1. My dinner. Ben's supposedly bringing Indian food home but I might die of hunger before he gets here. Srsly(tm). Teaser:
(Mmmm. Channa Masala and garlic naan.)

2. Monday's interview and contest for The Eternal Kiss! Here's a hint: My Logan (dog) is interviewing 's Karen Mahoney's Logan (cat). Teaser:
(There may have to be a Logan cute-off.)

3. Richelle Mead's THORN QUEEN, Book 2 in the Dark Swan series, which released this week. Teaser:
(Okay, it's not really a teaser, just the cover. But you can read the first chapter on Richelle's website.)

4. RITUAL, a brand new comic illustrated by a very talented friend of mine, Shawn McCauley. Shawn will also be stopping by for an interview soon. Teaser: You'll have to click on the RITUAL link to see the cover or Shawn's link to see other samples of art. Sorry! :)

5. The next 59,603 or so words in my book. *big grin*

Teaser: A rabbit hopped lazily into view, nibbling the sparse grass that was at eye-level with my basement window. Maybe that was the answer. Did rabbits ever want for grass to eat or water to drink? Did they ache when their mothers tumbled into the bellies of wolves?

397 / 60000 words. 1% done!

beginnings

I wrote the first paragraph of the new book tonight. It felt...amazing. Terrifying and rich and normal and extraordinary. And good. Really, really good. It's been a long time--too, too long--since I've written new words and even longer since I've been in a new world with new characters. This book is new and different for me in a lot of ways and it's definitely letting me know. *wry grin* Pretty much everything I thought I understood about the way I worked has been challenged so far with this story. (Plotting? Pffft. We don't want to wait for no stinking plotting! And so on...) It was really starting to freak me out and it was such a pleasant relief to find that the writing feels just the same.

This one really feels like I've just wandered into the labyrinth (as Marjorie Liu might say) and I'm loving it as much as it's scaring me. How do your beginnings make you feel?

I'm posting this ridiculous word meter because I'm so deliriously happy to have begun, even though I've made so little progress (numerically speaking) it doesn't even register.

115 / 60000 words. 0% done!


Oh, and be sure to check back here on Monday for a very special interview and a chance to win a copy of The Eternal Kiss!

Coaxing the story out

I've been struggling with a character detail for a few days now. She's an important secondary character, and this particular detail will be closely tied to the story's main plot. I thought, if I could just get her to tell me* this bit about herself, then the plotting would start to fall into place. But she wouldn't give it up. I'm very eager to start the actual storytelling for this new project, so today I decided I would just push ahead with the plotting and hope that this character detail would fall into place that way, instead.

Voila! Within (I'm not kidding) ten minutes of opening my mind to plot ideas, I had the character idea nailed down.

It's good to remember that stories are not formulas. They are living, breathing, fluid mysteries that need to be coaxed out of our minds and hearts and onto the page.

*I'd like to note, for the record, that I enjoy speaking about my process this way however what I really mean when I talk about things like negotiating with my characters for information is that I was wrestling with my own mind to produce an idea worthy of the story. That's just not as fun to say. But I do believe strongly that the writer is in the driver's seat of the story and the characters, however real they may seem and feel, are still fictional. I do not believe in The Muse. I do not believe in Writer's Block. I believe in the power and creativity of my own mind (and yours!) and I believe in my ability to make mistakes and plow ahead for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of words, ignoring said mistakes until I finally hit a wall and my mind refuses to produce anymore words until I fix the mess I made. 


8/4/2012 - Updated to disallow comments since this post seems to be a huge spam magnet.

What would you say? A new contest!

First, thanks so much to everyone who provided name suggestions. I decided on several names, each of which was THE NAME until the next one slid into my brain. :) I'm (mostly) certain the character's name is going to be Megan. So, thanks again on that. But! I need your help again! Only, this time, there will be a prize. :D

If you could never speak again (literally) and you could have ten cards with words or short phrases on them to assist you in communicating as you traveled through your life, what would your ten cards say?

This question is related to my New! Shiny! project (which, incidentally, is the Newest! Shiniest! Most Exciting! project ever) but I think it's a really interesting conversation piece and a neat way to get to know people. So, I'm genuinely curious to hear your answers as well as "research" for my new book. ;)

Leave a comment on this entry by midnight EST on Sunday, July 12th with what your cards would say and I'll pick one winner to receive a $10 iTunes gift certificate. Because, really, music is just one more way that we express ourselves and communicate with others*. This contest is open to anyone, anywhere. You don't have to list all ten words or phrases but you may not list more than ten. Please cross-post if you're so inclined.


*See what I did there? The post title is a song title that also speaks to the contest about words for which music is the prize. Heh? Heh? Get it?