Hurray for Fall!

 

I love September. I love summer and fall, but September is the best of both worlds.

It's still warm, but not too much so. There's more yardwork to do, but because it's cooler, it's easier to do. Don't get me wrong, I love yardwork, but those plus 30 Celsius temperatures can really sap a person's energy. It's time to harvest and reap the rewards of all that spring and summer work. 

I've stopped raking my yard in the fall. Or at least I don't rake too much of them. Someone pointed out how a yard full of leaves is bad for your grass and attracts pests and snow mold. It's true, but I'm not talking about that kind of thing. Mine never gets that bad. 

My neighbor across the street gets the carpet of leaves. They're the people who clear my sidewalks and driveway in the winter. So I rake their tiny lawn clean and put the leaves in my compost. Win/win, and it's the least we can do for them.  

I do my fall cleaning. Like I said, it's a lot cooler outside, but I can still keep my windows open to air things out. Perfect.

Then there's the harvesting and canning. I've already done a batch of canned tomatos and a batch of freezer pickles. The pears are plump this year, and that means I'll spend my evenings making pear bread. It's also a lot of work, but the results are so rewarding. When last I visited my friend Tracey, his mom gave me QUALITY vanilla--the kind you get from Mexico--and I'm excited to try it out. 

Melaida's new business is off to a good start. She'd given me a stack of flyers to put out when she started the business, and today I got them all out. She's got new ones coming soon, and I've already figured out new neighborhoods to hand them out. There's entire blocks in my own region I haven't even been to, not even in my garage sale days. I'm finding that those long walks around the neighborhoods are a lot more pleasant this month.

I'm excited and proud of her, but I just realized I haven't done anything to promote my own work lately. I was thinking I should publish an excerpt of Chasing Monsters for Halloween. Then later, one for Elaina's Fate. maybe a contest. With all the aggravation that went into publishing Elaina's Fate, and the length of time it took to finish it, I stepped back from it, and never really came back. I didn't even hold a contest for it. 

I intend to fix that...soon. There's still a lot going on. I finished the first draft for HER TRUE NAME: VOLUME THREE, but I'm taking a short break on that before I edit. I'll start in October. There's also the anthology that has new stories to add, and truthfully, I need to get all of it organized. At least get all the stories on a single USB key. ( Yeep!) I finished a short story named 'Bad Clown'but it needs work. 

I've got a new short called 'Darkness Encroaches' but I don't like the title. Yet another piece that needs a lot of work.  

I've started work on a eulogy for a friend that has signed up for the MAID program, but that's the only new thing right now, and as you can imagine, it's not fun. 

So, yeah...I'm still hard at work. You can probably expect something new from me next year. Hopefully. We'll see. At least two new books are on their way. 

For the Love of Pears!

It was a cold and rainy summer. Somehow, the pear tree that grows next to me--the one my neighbor has almost decided is mine produced a scary abundance this year. It's good that I wasn't working.
I have no idea how many I picked. I gave away seven bags to friends. I canned, and gave away countless more.

Pinterest was my precious tool...until the end of pear season when I discovered EVEN MORE pear recipes I really could have used. At least I'm fully armed for next year. And I'll be calling Fruit by Sherbrooke as soon as they start dropping.

That's less than half of it.

I got off easier when I found this canning recipe: The Easy Way to Can pears  But I also made my famous Pear Liqueur:http://DIY Pear Liqueur But do you think I could find real vanilla bean anywhere? I used cinnamon sticks until that ran out. Then I went to my local Halal store and purchased real cinnamon, which I can't find now. The universe is telling me to 'Stahp!'.

Not all of it. Just the cool bottles.

I made four of these: Pear Custard Pie and my husband was addicted, until he wasn't anymore. STAHP. And I literally made ten loaves of this: Pear Loaf and a few Pear Dump Cakes, which is a layer of pears with a pre-boxed cake batter and some cinnamon thrown in.

And There's still a third of them lying on the ground, too abused to use because it was also windy this year and they hit the sidewalk and other various concrete garden fixtures with ferocious velocity.

I'm glad it's over before I started dreaming about them. It's true that the last few days have seemed strange because I have not done any pear related chores. Now I can go back to editing.

Oh RIGHT!!   I almost forgot! I can now go back to writing and writing related things that don't involve pears! Enjoy the recipes. I for one don't want to see another pear until next year.

Official Announcement About 'Chasing Monsters'

I rewarded myself with this bead. It looks like Nequam.

At the actual time of this writing, it's Tuesday. I've just finished the first draft of my third novel, CHASING MONSTERS. I'm hyper and I'm wiped. I'm ecstatic and relieved. I wasn't sure if I could do it.

Note to self: Never write characters based on your friends, or your current obligations. It's not polite to make poetic writer's license for people you like. If you've read this blog long enough, you know I was a paranormal investigator for a time. My main character's name is Noelle, and SHE is a paranormal investigator. For the record, I did not become a paranormal investigator just for the novel. I was invited, and I jumped at the chance because I REALLY wanted the experience. It was so cool, and taught me so much! To Edmonton Paranormal's credit, they asked me to be Client Care Consultant even though they knew I was writing the novel.  They thought I would be approachable and nice. (My reaction was something akin to "Have you even MET me?!") They'll be in the acknowledgments.

A lot of things happened from the beginning of this novel to its conclusion. Some things exciting, some things uncomfortable. One of our team members, who asked if he could be in my novel, passed away two months after I said yes and it hurts to know that he'll never see how heroic I made him look. Or how I tried to show the world the interesting little Dane he was. Well...he was special to us. We all loved him. CHASING MONSTERS will be dedicated to the memory of Gary Larsen, and those of you who knew him might just recognize him in the book. I hope. He's not around to give me any feedback to his character.

This is Gary Larsen. RIP, Sweetie <3

This is the plan. I'm taking a week away from CHASING MONSTERS. I want to come in with fresh eyes when I edit the crap out of that manuscript. I intend to be finished all three, four or five of those revamps by Christmas before I hand it over to Staccato Publishing. No, it's not because it NEEDS changing. It's because the book has evolved considerably, for the better, and the entire work needs to make sense.

In the meantime, I won't be idle. I have a lot of research to do--starting with Egypt, and I need to establish a timeline for a new novella series. Wish me luck.

I'm also going to take the time to enjoy one of my hobbies: canning. I'm also going to harvest my garden and clean up my poor, neglected yard. It looks abandoned, with weeds past my waist. I wish I were exaggerating. I'm 5 foot four and a half.

So don't be surprised if I'm not here next Thursday. And don't be surprised if this blog isn't about writing if I am. Don't worry...I got it ;) I just have some work to do.