Once in a Blue Moon...

books and posies
Thursday, May 31, 2007

You never know how much you rely on your printer until it stops working.

Ah, well.

More good news!

Finally, "A Necklace of Rubies" will see print as well as "Every Word I speak." The lady who is publishing them seems really excited about them...she called my writing almost hypnotic. :)

I am unbeleivably excited. It's wonderful to feel as if I'm moving forward, really moving forward. It looks as if they will be published under their own cover as an ebook, then, possibly, be published in an anthology with other stories, whether mine or other people's it's not yet determined.

With Blue Moon coming out in October, it's my year to prove that I am an actual author, not a secretary with a hobby.

By the way, tonight is a blue moon. Happy blue moon, everyone!

I've been reading the 6th Harry Potter book. After I'm done with it, I plan on getting out my copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, which i've had since December and not yet read. Neil Gaiman tends to put me in the short story writing mood, and I'd like to write some more. Read some fairy tales, get some inspiration.

So, I have time to talk about last night, where i stayed out quite late going to Gabriel Brothers (If you ever wondered where unwanted clothes went when the store gave up trying to sell them, the answer is Gabe's. It's a rather large store that gets in all the torn, miss-sewn, unwanted clothes from major manufacturers. A lot of it isn't damaged at all...the little black dress I'm wearing right now, for instance...but it's hard to wade through the huge amounts of damaged/way too small clothes without spending a lot of time. And one does get heart broken, when the huge rack of very lady like blue roses on white vitangy dresses are all 10's.) and to Lowe's and Wal Mart and Ollie's (another discount outlet where the unwanted things end up.)

I bought a lot of spearmint, peppermint, lavender and rosemary. Barely managed to keep myself from buying a rosebush called "Veteran's Honor", which sports these huge, deep red blossoms, barely managed from buying a peace rose...because i do not have rose luck. I love roses. Deeply. I stand there in the middle of the flats of roses, looking at the yellows and pinks and lavenders and get wistful. If i had my way i would have a huge garden of them.

The problem is that I like roses, but they don't like me. And I own more books on the subject than one would really consider possible to have found.

Ah, well. There are other things. The Iris are doing well and I intend to add more this fall. I bought more spearmint and peppermint to add to the peppermint I have, and lavender and rosemary. I have this small triangle of a space, where I am growing various herbs, mostly sage and mint, things that i think will come back. So far i've been useless at harvesting the crop...i tend not to, because it's so pretty on the plant. *rolls eyes* but I want to try this year. Also, the Dalia's and the gladiolas seem to be doing well right now.

I also found some awesome books. I found a copy of John Gallagher's Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance and Art. It's a really wonderful book because it has these sections of layered plastic pages. You look, and you see the maiko, dressed in her garb, then you turn the page, and you see her standing there without the outer robe, then you turn the page and she's in her under dress, all the way until she's standing there with only her underwear and no makeup. It's really quite neat. Ollie's in amazing, because I find a lot of really nifty books there.

Nonfiction is it's own country, for me, because...as a woman who has gone to ton and tons of library book sales, used book stores, etc., I can tell you that the same nonfiction titles turn up a lot less often than the same fiction. So, it's easy to find a copy of the latest Stuart Woods, but not so easy to find good nonfiction books. For me, for nonfiction, I am a lot less willing to make a leap of faith for nonfiction, I really like to see the book first.

I do make that leap, of course...I love good nonfiction books, and I can get them online a lot easier.

Oh. Lunch is over. Alrighty, then. :)

Labels: blue moon, books, gardens, plants, short stories

Permalink Cindy scribed this at 1:23 PM 0 comments

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I wonder what Snape Drinks his tea in?
Friday, April 20, 2007

First: Hello Donna, Sara and Cindy. :)

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but tea mugs make a huge difference. I have two mugs I use the most: A mug with all the presidents of the United States on it (a present from one of my faculty) and a glazed clay mug I bought at the pottery sale last year. The US mug is your common, white on the inside glazed porcelain, very nice. The clay doesn't really. It really changes the flavor, adding an earthiness or it or even softening the edges of the flavor. Sometimes I drink my Earl Grey from it and the tang is a lot gentler. There are some teas I prefer drinking from it...it makes Bigelow's Plantation Mint, always a huge favorite, and brings out the flavor of the mint even more, softening the black tea slightly. On the other hand, I don't like the Numi Jasmin from it as much, because the flavor is so delicate you don't want it to be softened or made earthy.

I do have a small collection of tea cups. I pick them up at yard sales on occasion, but I only rarely use them for tea. I use them for juice, mostly, or put them on the sink to use in the bathroom instead of disposable Dixie cups. I think they are really beautiful, I love the patterns, the shape.

Next Monday marks three weeks left of the semester. I only have a few things left on my list to do. The Honors Dinner Monday, the field trip...whatever odds and ends need to be done for the beginning of the summer semester. I am sad in some ways, because some people will be leaving, some faces i won't see for months on end. but i am also excited. There is something about this time of year that feels like the beginning of something nice, just like Fall does. It won't be, mostly, as teeth grittingly stressful as the last few weeks have been, and everyone is in a better mood. I want to see if i can't plan my summer so there is a balance between me doing all my work quickly and perfectly (which includes making sure everything is organized for Fall.) and finding ways to make it as fun as possible. I also want to walk more. Last summer i tended to just eat at my desk and write during lunch.

I started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone awhile back, and I didn't like it. I thought her writing was terrible, and all sorts of things. I started reading it again, and now I'm hooked. It really is good, isn't it? And now I've allowed myself not to think about it, and to remember that this is for kids, not adults, I've given myself permission to just plunge right into the wonder of it. Really good stuff. I bought Chamber of secrets, and if I keep reading, I might be able to be caught up by book 7.

Labels: books, maundering over happy thoughts of summer, tea, work

Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:41 PM 1 comments

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talking about mug and teas..make me miss www.teacuppa.com green tea.
I am travelling, can't wait to be home for my cuppa.

By Anonymous, at 1:43 AM