Last weekend’s book festival was, well, slow. Not a whole lot of people. I think the children’s book authors did the best. I sold less than a handful of books. Another author friend didn’t sell any. Another sold ten. Two years ago I sold twelve books at the same event. I get it; fewer people = fewer potential sales.
One thing I did determine is I really need to finish book 2. I need something new to add to my display. It seems, however, my focus has been scattered among the weeds: homework(!)–we’re doing a group project now, work, what to do with so many tomatoes (but hubs made bacon, so BLTs!!), morning or evening runs/walks, Sisters in Crime stuff, writing, critiques, my daughter’s choices, cleaning…
It’s like my brain is some sort of air popper and I can’t catch and hold onto anything. Focus is an elusive creature these days, and it frustrates me. When I started my new job and shifted my working hours closer to business hours (7:30a to 4:30p as opposed to 4am to noon), my plan was to use those hours before work in the morning to write, and maybe catch up on stuff like that email account I haven’t gone into for weeks.
What happened? The biggest thing is I’m not getting up at 3:30am like I had been. When I do get up (usually around 5-5:30a), I’m the only one awake, and I find I just want to enjoy the quiet. I also find that when I hit snags in my revision I tend to do a lot of staring at the page. Staring is not writing.
NaNoWriMo is three weeks away. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to work on, but I’m looking forward to the reinforcement for rebuilding my writing habits. I’m even thinking of trying the Pomodoro technique: focus on nothing but writing for 20 minutes, take a five minute break, then another 20 minute session, rinse and repeat.
Hope you all are enjoying the great fall weather we’re having. I know here in MN it’s unseasonably warm, ten degrees warmer than usual. It’s great for being outside. As someone said, we are getting a nice fall this year as opposed to a sudden shift from summer to winter.
My Muse is giving me the stink-eye. I’d better get back to finding my focus.
Well, gang, I’m off to the Deep Valley Book Festival for the day. My second (and last?) in-person event for the year. Crossing my fingers it’ll be a good day. There will be 5 or 6 other authors from our Sisters in Crime chapter there as well, so our genre will be well-represented 🙂
Enjoy the first weekend of October (damn, I can’t believe it’s OCTOBER already!) It’s been warm this fall, like, in the 80s last week. Normally this time of year the temps are closer to the high 60s. Not complaining (much 😀 ), but the skeeters are still hunting anything with warm blood. Ugh!
Keep on Writing!
You can never have enough cat toys. Tibbers at his photogenic best!
It’s the same struggle every year: what to do with WAAAAY more veggies than I anticipated. One of the best parts about a veggie garden is that very bounty, if you have something to do with all those veggies. I’ve convinced my daughter to bring some of them to her work to share.
There’s something about home-grown tomatoes … I think there are a lot of people that only grow tomatoes because of the taste. Store-bought tomatoes can’t compete with the flavor of a sun-warmed, fresh-picked, red-ripe (or yellow or pink or whatever other color you have) tomato.
This is about the same time the pepper plants are starting to split and fall over because of the sheer weight of the peppers. And we won’t talk about the four (!!) jalapeno plants I have. I don’t know what I was thinking, except those were the plants that came up when I started the seeds this spring. A person doesn’t need more than one jalapeno plant unless they go all out making poppers. Sheesh!
We plant enough onions to last at least halfway through the winter (we use a LOT of onions), though this year when I planted my onion seeds (I’ve been starting my own onions in the house in, like, March), not as many of them came up as in years past, so I had to get sets from the local greenhouse. Those onions had a tendency to form multiple bulbs, almost like huge garlic. Which might have been okay if I’d pulled them before we got two inches of rain that collected in the pockets of those multibulb onions. So many started to rot! Sigh. We rescued what we could, but next year I’m thinking I’ll order onion plants again. At least I’ll get the variety we like, instead of generic “white” onion sets.
Have you ever heard someone say you only have to plant dill once? That’s because it reseeds like crazy, and you’ll get volunteers coming up for years. Cilantro is kinda the same way, though it works better if you plant some every couple of weeks so you always have some that isn’t going to seed.
Every year when I have an abundance of tomatoes, I make pico de gallo. The first time I had it was when hubs and I were in Mexico with his sister. It was soooo good! And so simple. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro, and a splash of lime juice.
My daughter will eat pico de gallo with tortilla chips and call that a meal. So, in case you are interested, here’s the “recipe”. It’s like when you ask your grandma for just about any recipe that isn’t a dessert: no exact measures. It’s all to taste:
Fresh tomatoes: enough so that when they are diced, you end up with maybe 3 to 4 cups.
Fresh sweet peppers: enough so that when they are chopped, they are about a third to a half of the volume of the tomatoes (so 4 c of diced tomatoes would need about 1 1/2 cup or so of peppers)
Fresh onions: again, enough so that when chopped they are about a third of the volume of the tomatoes. To taste, though, and depends on how strong your onions are (and some of ours are so strong they can make your eyes water from halfway across the kitchen).
Fresh jalapeno peppers: to taste, and it depends on how spicy the peppers are and how spicy you like it. We’ve had jalapenos that were OMG hot, and some that were meh. I’ve been using about three without the seeds and ribs (which is where most of the heat is).
Fresh cilantro: finely chopped, to taste. Some people think cilantro tastes like soap, I think it tastes great. I add about 1/4 c or so, again depending on volume of tomatoes.
This is my method. No, I haven’t combed through Pintrest or Allrecipes.com to find a recipe. It works, it’s unstructured (read: rebellious), and makes me feel good because everything is from the garden (except the lime juice).
Dice the tomatoes and put them in a strainer to drain (I put the strainer over a bowl to catch the juice, which Hubs uses to make soup or whatever (hey, he loves to cook!)). Trust me, there’s a lot of juice in them tomatoes. Stir in a bunch of salt, start with about 1 teaspoon for sure if you have about 3-4 cups of tomatoes (yes, THAT much, and no, I never measure 🙂 ). Mix it into the tomatoes. let them drain. The salt will pull more liquid from the tomatoes.
Chop the rest of the veggies and stir them into the tomatoes in the strainer. It’ll keep draining. Taste it now to make sure you have enough salt. Don’t be afraid to add more; it’s surprising how much it can take. Make sure the flavors balance and adjust as needed (that is, add more tomatoes or onions or whatever until it tastes good).
Put the salsa into the container you will serve or store it in, then add a splash of lime juice (try a capful if you need a measure). Mix well, taste again, add more juice if you think it needs it. And that’s it.
Note that after you put it in the fridge the flavors get muted; that’s the tomato, I think. Tomatoes always lose some flavor once they’re refrigerated.
Damn, now I’ve got the munchies. I’ll get back to my writing after a little snack 😀
Enjoy your weekend! Keep on Writing!
Nyx, Tibbers, and my son’s girlfriend’s cat, Stella
I open the door to my writing office, juggling a bowl of cherry tomatoes and a glass of water. Feels like it’s been ages since …
“About fecking time you came back.”
“Damn it!” I chase two tomatoes across the floor while trying not to spill any water. “What the hell?”
My Muse scoops up a third wayward tomato. “That was my next question, love.”
I set my snacks on the desk and reach out for the captured tomato. “Either eat it or give it back.”
He pops it into his mouth and bites down. I imagine the tomato innards squirting into his mouth, and grab one of my own. Man, I love garden tomatoes. Cherry ones are so convenient, like Whoppers only squishier and not chocolate.
Mmm, chocolate. I wonder if I still have any chocolate left from the reunion.
My Muse finishes chewing and takes a swig of my water. He’s wearing his worn-well jeans and burgundy Henley with the sleeves shoved to his elbows. He plants hands on hips, stretching his shirt tight across his broad chest. Did that shirt shrink a little?
“Hey,” he snaps his fingers, “pay attention, love.”
Fine. “What?”
“Just when were you planning on coming back here?”
I raise my arms, encompassing the office. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“No, when are you coming back here?” He reaches over and taps my head. “You have a revision to finish so you can send it to beta readers.”
“I was working on it earlier this week. I think. Oh hell, I don’t even know what day it is anymore.”
“It’s ‘butt in chair, hands on keyboard’ day,” he says, pointing to the recliners in the alcove.
“Hey, I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs, you know. I finished a beta read for another author, I’m working on a critique due in a couple days, I had a hella amount of instructional videos to watch and take notes on for my class–which reminds me, I have homework to do, and I should probably pay my tuition. I have another writer’s pages to read and critique. And, oh, I do have a full-time job, not to mention the real life family stuff, like helping my husband.”
“Yes, and your point?” He leans toward me and taps my head again. “This is where you need to be.” He points to the recliners again. “I want to see you spend at least an hour a day there. Not checking email …”
“Like I’ve been checking my email,” I mutter under my breath. I’m afraid to check one of my accounts–the number of new emails is probably racing toward a thousand.
My Muse gives me the stink-eye. “Not checking Facebook, not reading all the random articles that pop up on your home page …”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Some of that stuff still needs to be done, you know. Facebook is where our Sisters in Crime chapter communicates with the members. And where I need to share my upcoming book festival.” Speaking of, I’ll probably have to spend a day working on my website with customer service since my design software broke, or redesigning it without the cool software. Ugh. If it comes to that, there goes another day.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have Book 2 to sell at a book festival?” He grips my shoulder and nails me with stern blue eyes. A shiver runs down my spine. “I’m going to be a hard-ass until you get your writing back into your routine. You’re adjusted to your new work schedule and the garden is almost done. Take your daily walk, run, whatever, but I want no excuses. Got it?”
“Yes, I got it.”
“Good. Grab your computer, sit your ass down, and get to work.”
Now’s probably not the time to tell him about the new idea my writing teacher gave me. He’d have another excuse to be overbearing and grumpy.
Happy upcoming Autumn Equinox! Man, it’s fall already. Take some time to enjoy it before the snow flies (or the rainy season starts. Whatever is the thing in your region).
It’s that time of year, when everything seems to ripen at the same time. And you realize just how many green beans you can get from a mere seven plants. Uff-da!
I forget every year just how many beans one plant can produce. This year was odd anyway. I always get a particular variety, Kentucky Blue Wonder bush bean. They are good beans, no strings like the old-fashioned string beans have.
So I had to replant a few times this year, and got more seeds from our local greenhouse, which gets them in bulk and lets you scoop out what you need. Of course, you never know what you’ll get until they come up.
I ended up with two bush string bean plants, three of the bush beans I expected to come up, and two of a variety that I totally wasn’t expecting and have never seen: pole beans with flat pods. BTW, pole beans grow into a big tangled bale if they don’t have anything to climb. I haven’t looked in my old seed catalogs to identify the variety. Last year I ended up with one string bean plant with my Kentucky Blue Wonders. I think next year I might order through the mail instead of getting them at the local greenhouse.
I have one cherry tomato plant, and that’s plenty. I can keep up with them (since I’m the only one who eats them, apparently). They are good, and ripen at a slow enough rate that I can use/eat all the ones I’ve picked before picking again. I usually don’t plant cherry tomatoes because some varieties have so many tomatoes that unless the whole family eats them, you get to a point where you don’t pick them anymore or they go bad and get tossed to the chickens.
That is one thing I really miss about not going into the office: no one to pawn off the extra harvest. I used to bring gallon Ziplock bags of green beans and cherry tomatoes (when I had them) to the office. One of my former co-workers even told me he misses my cucumbers that I would bring in. Now that I’m working from home for good, I’ll have to be careful how much I plant, or check if the local food bank takes fresh produce.
This year I’ve had more cucumber beetles than I’ve ever seen. I had no idea they liked green beans until I saw the laced leaves (they eat between the veins of the leaves so the leaves look like lace). And the poor cucumber! I’m getting some cukes, but the plant is dying. That’s the bad thing with pests like that, they will transmit diseases to the plant that kills the plant long after the bugs have, for the most part, disappeared.
Poor cucumber
The peppers are going gangbusters! Stupid me, planting four(!) jalepeno plants. What was I thinking?! One jalapeno is more than enough for a year’s worth of salsa, chili, and whatever else most people use them for. Ugh. The sweet bell peppers are doing really well, too. I thought the variety was smaller, but no, the peppers are just as big as the usual California Bell.
cukes on the left, peppers on the right, cheeseweed in the middle 🙂
I didn’t plant dill this year, but you’d never know it from the sheer number of volunteer dill plants that came up. The pumpkin is waning as usual about now.
dill on the left, pumpkin on the right
I grew them for my sister-in-law, who wants them for decoration, I think. When she gave me the seeds, I wonder if she realized how big the pumpkins were going to be. Variety? Jack-O’Lantern. Pumpkins twice as big as a basketball? Yep. And not just one or two. Try a dozen plus.
The beets are huge, the kale is recovering from cabbage worm attacks, and the tomatoes are coming in. I’ll be making another batch of pico de gallo today. Yum!
The last bit of color in the garden is blooming. I don’t particularly like how marigolds smell, but they are kinda pretty.
Enjoy the upcoming autumn season. Apple cider, fall colors, pumpkins and the goodies that come with them. Cooler weather and fewer bugs!
