My New Project

This month, I'm focused on two things: remodeling my sad little kitchen on a shoestring budget, and re-reading/revising my novel manuscript that was completed last month.  It might be a little too soon to be revising the manuscript, so hot on the heels of first-draft completion, but home improvement chores have a way of clearing my head and allowing creativity to germinate. 

So, here's a link to some book reviews on Goodreads:
http://m.www.goodreads.com/book/show/7255179-song-of-the-orange-moons

(Please feel free to add your review on Goodreads, too.)

And here are some pics of my sad little kitchen (decked out for a chef, but falling apart at the seams):

Yes, there are no cabinet doors, and yes, that's roux (and other souls of sauces) splashed on the wall

 

The double oven will be on Craigslist soon.  Replacing with stainless steel. Anyone want a cheap oven? And yes, that's a piece of wood propping up the sinking counter top above the dishwasher.

Picture taken yesterday.  You won't believe how much cooking stuff we've packed into the shelves.

Cute little distressed white table/chairs from World Market that I'll also have to sell to make room for an island table. Any takers?

How about that classy light bulb? And the adhesive stained glass?  High class stuff there.

View from the dining room.  I already replaced all the interior doors in the house, which is why there's some artsy white wall joint leftovers to the right of the door. I'm thinking a light sage-y green for the kitchen.  The new floor will be beautiful.

Now that the pics are up, it's time to get back to the kitchen.  Today, I finish packing the pots and pans, and then I pull off all the chair molding and the cheap boarding below it. I hope I don't discover anything too scary. 

Emerging from the Coma

(Common Use from Flikr)

Yes, that's what it feels like. A food coma.  I finished the last half of my third novel in November during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and I haven't been able to write anything for a week.  Not even a blog post.  On December 1, I felt like I had ingested a twenty-pound turkey, and I've been at the mercy of a tryptophan overdose ever since.  Until today.

The first draft of a novel always needs recovery time, much like we all do after gorging ourselves on Thanksgiving dinner.  (And besides, I had college papers to grade all week; I still take pride in reading my students' essays carefully.)  I haven't even looked once at that finished novel draft, and certainly didn't want to until just a few minutes ago.  I'm beginning to get curious about what I actually wrote during my occasionally delusional writing mania.  Moments of brilliance?  Pages of utter failure?  Tomorrow I will find out. Tomorrow, I will open that file and read.  But first, I'll have a glass of Malbec in hand.

It took a blog post from a great YA writer on the cusp of real fame, people--Amy Plum--to spur me on to blog writing again.  I've already pre-ordered her book, Die For Me (and you should, too).  She was one of only two personal "writing buddies" for NaNo, and kept me on my toes with the daily word count.  Once you've been writing a while, you get to that place (an illusion, really) where you think I don't need writing buddies!  I've taught fiction-writing classes!  I'm not a grad student anymore!

But, whoa Nelly, I've made a delightful discovery that merely maintaining an online network--small or large--of "writerly relationships" can truly influence one's creative muse.

December for Amy will be a month of immersing herself into her YA field.  December mornings for me will be revision time for the novel, and during the rest of the day...kitchen remodeling.  That's right.  I'm tearing up my kitchen and remodeling it myself.  My companion is the love of my life, but he ain't no home-fixer.  He is my everything-else.  I will post pictures of disasters and successes. I understand the chaos my life (and my family's lives) will be under during these next two months, but I can't help but feel the excitement of having cabinet doors that stay on the hinges and counter tops that are actually still attached to the walls!  I feel like superwoman in an orange apron.  Wish me luck!


Oh, and the jury is still out on Spellweger.  (See the previous posts, if you need the whole story again.)  We may know something in January.