Archives for October 2009

How To Win A Love Song ARC

October 18, 2009

I FINALLY HAVE A MAILING LIST!

You would think it would be easy, wouldn't it? I think people hire other people to set this kind of thing up. And I could have. But I'm stubborn and I like to do things on my own. Gets me in trouble sometimes. But now I have total control over that mailing list and you know what that means?

Next week I'm giving away a copy of HOW TO KNIT A LOVE SONG (in galley form).

Your chance to read it, far in advance of all your friends who sadly (VERY SADLY) have to wait till March 23rd. All you have to do to be in the drawing is sign up for my mailing list! You may have already received an email from me (in which case just click on that link in the email and you're all set — Oh! and check your spam filter if you think you should have got one — it might gone there) or if not, JUST CLICK HERE to sign yourself up.

BONUS: Every month I'll be giving away a little something, randomly, to someone on my list. Just for fun. Because, no lie, I love my readers. You already know that.

Not to get even more sappy, but I gotta tell you this. So this last week I've been making this email list. I didn't have a good method for keeping track of people last October, when I announced I'd made the sale to HarperCollins, so when people told me they wanted to be on my mailing list, I'd just label them in my gmail account with the label WRITINGLIST. Highly technical, I know.

A solid year later, I've been copying and pasting each and every email address into an Excel spreadsheet. As I've been doing that, I've been rereading each email. Oh, my goodness. You all made me cry again. I'd almost (but not quite) forgotten that giddy head-over-heels complete sense of disbelief I'd had when I'd made the sale. The lifelong dream coming true. Published. A real author.

You all made me realize that all over again. Some of you have been with me since the very beginning of this knitblogging journey and some of you are relatively new (hi! I'm nice! I like salt a lot and I'm not good at sleeping although I'm getting better!). But you're why I come back to this space, again and again, and I thank you. I adore you.

So once a month, I'm gonna put something in the mail to someone. It might be you. In fact, I hope it is. (Sign up! I won't sell or share your email, ever, I promise.)

I'll draw a winner next week, on Monday, October 26th. Yay!

CLICK HERE to sign up (or put in your name and email and hit JOIN again if you're unsure if you're subscribed — it'll confirm it for you — I'm the kind of person who likes a little extra assurance.)

Cravings

October 16, 2009

I have such cravings this morning:

for sushi.
for pot roast.
for spinning something soft.
for a ride on a vaporetto in the fog.
for sleep.
for writing.
for more coffee (I can fix that one!).
for scrambled eggs (that too!).
for ice cream (chocolate, with caramel sauce).
for sitting on a foggy beach.
for an early night and sweet dreams.
for popcorn and a movie.

Oh, that list just made me happy. What are you craving right now?

The last of the tomatoes and a very, very funny carrot.

Balance Ain’t For Wimps

October 12, 2009

I'm working this month (okay, let's make it this year) on balance.

I'm not the best at balance. You may have heard.

I have a slight tendency to work too much. I overdo things.

Wait a minute. I just had a thought. Why don't I overdo fun? Why isn't that true of relaxing? Why can't it be that I say that about relaxing? God, that is SO NOT TRUE. I'm the queen of flipping on the television, watching seven minutes of something, then pausing it in order to go do something (vacuuming, or brushing the dog, or checking email). Then I come back and watch four more minutes before I stop to do something else.

I exaggerate a lot — I do it often, and I do it well. But that, up there, is not an exaggeration. TiVo tells me exactly where I pause, and it sometimes astonishes me to find that after I feel like I've been watching TV for an hour that it's been literally seven minutes.

I put OFF relaxing. I find every single thing that has to be done and I do it. Therefore, the relaxing is often the thing that doesn't get done.

And I'm trying to get better at it. I have friends who cock their heads to the side and say with kindness on their faces, "Oh, Rachael. You have to stop." They're right.

Even now I'm postponing pleasure. I know I have an Amazing Race episode just sitting on my TiVo, calling my name, and I'm loving putting it off (but that counts, doesn't it? As pleasure? That delicious sense of anticipation? I always save the good stuff for last. Always have).

But hell. I'm gonna go watch it right NOW.

Balance. Work. And fun. In the right proportion. (Like roast chicken and potatoes and brussels sprouts! In the oven right now! Making the house smell delicious! Lala isn't happy about the b. sprouts, but she is just wrong. They are so good. And I will eat them all. Oh, happy night. And the rain is coming. Knitting. With a storm outside. While I'm on the couch. See? That's some relaxation, right there. Woot!)

EDITED TO ADD: It is exactly two hours later. I am NINE minutes into The Amazing Race. We have had dinner.. Lala ate a brussels sprout and did not die. She cut up the chicken, which she is a champion at, and at which I royally suck. I have had one glass of wine. There has been no knitting, but I've done a load of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, done the dishes, changed my Twitter picture and made my Twitter background page WAY busier than is good for anyone, and scrubbed the toilet. Headed back in to Relaxation Station. I mean it. Here I go.

Fall Roomba

October 8, 2009

Oh, god, this is the best time of year, isn't it? I can smell leaf-smoke right now, as a matter of fact, and I'm drinking it in. (Okay, it might actually be barbecue smoke, which is kind of more likely. But I'm telling myself it's leaf smoke, and I'm sticking to it.)

Just last week we had that first perfect day where the air never really got warm, and the wind kicked up, and the leaves blew in eddies on the ground. Now, I know I live in Northern California, and there are some that would argue that I can't lay claim to any kind of real seasons because of that, but I would argue this: I think that makes us better at season detection. We have to be. No great clues tip us off — we just get the slightest temperature dips, and small color changes to tell us that changes are afoot.

And fall — I MIGHT HAVE MENTIONED THIS — is my favorite. How can it not be everyone's? That smell, the sound of the wind, the early nights, the look of houses in early evening with their lights on, people moving around inside (yes, I'm a peeping Tom, but not in the creepy way), the preparation for winter to come, the thoughts of sweaters to be made, the laying in of wool…

I seriously can't wait. Every year I feel like I want to dig my fingers into this time, to hold on tight, to not let it slip past without noticing every second. (It strikes me that that's part of fall knitting, isn't it? The urge to grasp and hold that feeling. Which is why we DON'T do it so much in the summer, I suppose. I'm trying not to hold anything in summer at all, except ice cubes and drinks made with gin.)

Makes me want to squeeze a Digit who might be getting a belly:

And in other not-important-to-anyone-but-me news I got my Roomba back! Life is so much better again! Mr. Roomba had broken for the umpteeth time, and for the umpteenth time, I'd taken it back to Costco to exchange him. God bless the Costco exchange policy, because as much as I love that machine, it's a badly made piece of equipment that fails often.

However, one day, Costco DIDN'T carry it. They gave me my cash and said goodbye. I almost cried. Tumbleweeds started to blow through the house again, even with the frequent aid of the Dyson.

(One favorite moment from when Cari was visiting last weekend — they'd entered the house to raucous animal activity, and Thumper looked at the animals which were bouncing in their hordes as they do, and his eyes widened and he said, "It's CRAZY in here." Yes, child. Yes, it is.)

Then, one day, not only was the Roomba available online at Costco, but it was a hundred dollars OFF! AND, when it was delivered, they sent it with four extra brushes (the piece that always broke that necessitated the return). My theory is that they have my name flagged at Roomba HQ — they saw it come across their desks and said HEY! She's back! For the love of god, throw in those brushes! It'll slow her down! (Really, though — if you clean it out everyday when you get home, and speak nicely to it, it'll make you very, very happy. Even though it tends to shake itself apart every four or five months. I love it.)

Bonus Venetian gondolier hat shot!

Hat actually purchased in Venice! I'm sure it's totally authentic.

Not Very Graceful

October 6, 2009

Oh, gah. I hate the new Typepad, for so many reasons. Have I mentioned that? They let me keep the old one for a long time, but it looks like they've finally made me make the move, and in protest, come visit me over at the PensFatales! (We're on a schedule over there, have you noticed? I get every other Tuesday. Keeps me honest. Today's word is Grace. It was a tough one, and I got it there, but I'm not feeling it here.)

Seriously, Typepad. I'm about to break up with you.

What scared me when I woke this morning

October 1, 2009

Willie, sleeping on one of Clara's squirrel toys.

No, really, that would make you jump, too.

Happy October, everyone. You know what that means. Time to start thinking about Nanowrimo! Skedaddle over there now and get signed up, and then start plotting! You can think about your ideas all you want, just don't start the actual writing until November 1st. (Confession: I went to their headquarters the other day and dropped off an ARC of How to Knit a Love Song for Chris Baty, because I lurve him and I wanted to show him his name in the acknowledgments and I got a hug and told him how much he and Nanowrimo as a whole mean to a whole lot of people. I had a Moment. He was very aw-shucks about it. I was a goose. It was teh awesome. I shall now go follow him on Twitter because I realize I never have.)

(I have something that I'm DYING to write about during Nano, but I'm not sure about writing two different books at once. I'm kind of interested to see if I can do it. I'll keep you posted.)

Edited to add: I think I could do it. Write two books at the same time, I mean. (Lala, at this point, is panicking. She's thinking about what I'm like normally and she's REALLY hoping I don't take on this challenge, I bet. BUT I LOVE A CHALLENGE.) But think about it. I only write in the mornings. I am NOT a night writer. I'm dumb at night. I don't even usually write in the afternoons. Too stupid, too brain-dead. So what if I *did* use that time? To write the Nano? I'd use my normal writing time, my smart time, to write the contracted (oh, sweet contract) book. I'm well into that one, and it's going well. But at night? To screw around, writing Nano, which is just for fun, anyway? Doesn't that sound like the equivalent of writing candy? SO ATTRACTED to this crazy idea.