I bought a cake pan this afternoon to replace the one that, sadly, perished with the chocolate chip cake. You know how the labels are usually a piece of card stock adhered to the pan with a piece of rubber cement or whatever that tacky stuff is called?
Okay–scenario: I took the piece of paper off the pan and put it on the counter, sticky side up. There was a good recipe on there I wanted to save for later (it’s a Wilton pan).
Made brownies. Went to friend’s for a movie night.
Came home. Put Thai and leftover brownies on the stove. Forgot to cover brownies and put Thai in fridge. Yes, cat magnet.
Tildrum gets up on the counter. I’m sitting in the living room and all I hear is CRASH!!
Then Tildrum’s racing around the living room, crazed, with the piece of paper stuck to his hind foot. (Oh, I feel for him, but I can’t help but laugh now at the sight! Stop. I shouldn’t laugh. Poor thing.) Not-quite-grown little black streak of a kitten, dashing hither and yon and taking everything down with him, from the living room through the dining room, back through th
e kitchen and back into the bedroom. Under the bed! Nope, won’t fit! Out from under the bed!
That’s where I finally caught him. Poor thing, that sticky stuff doesn’t come off fur as easily as it does non-stick pans and paper.
So he’s walking around tonight with a ball of sticky stuff still stuck to his foot. But at least he doesn’t have an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper stuck to it anymore.

Ever since I was an undergrad, I’ve been working intermittently on a book based on a Scottish fairy tale that I love. Other things are higher priority, and I’ve never really thought I’d get it published except as a “wouldn’t it be cool if someday” thing. Given that my day job involves working on other people’s writing, I rarely have the time or energy to devote to my own, which I usually consider that I’m doing mainly for fun, in hopes of one day actually finishing.
Last year I started a new version during Nanowrimo that completely turned the story I’d been writing around and gave it an edge that was completely me. I’ve only written about 12,000 words during that time, though–most of which was during Nanowrimo. Then I got sick in late Nov./early Dec. and it’s been all I could do to get to work and do that stuff, and coming home at night and writing really was out of the question.
But I don’t want to say “someday” anymore. I’ve actually outlined it this last week and know what I want to happen (which I’ve been stuck on). I wrote 2800 words today (whew! how’d that happen?
), and I think I can make a goal of finishing a first draft by the end of November. I think that’s doable, even if every day doesn’t produce the word count of a night like tonight. At 60,000-70,000 words finished (I think), I’m already 1/4 way there, right? 🙂
So I’ve decided to join in on JoNoWriMo, a private extension by author J.B. Knowles and her friends on NaNo. Most of the participants are writers working on existing projects, so they decided to get a month and a half head start on NaNo and accomplish whatever individual goal they set out to accomplish.
I freely admit it won’t be my top priority, or even second or third, but it’s good to have a goal to work toward, and it’ll get me doing *something*. I think it’ll be fun, and now that I’m starting to feel better at least some of the time, it’ll be a much more productive use of my evenings than watching Crossing Jordan reruns. (Much as I like how Crossing Jordan makes me nostalgic for Boston. 😉 )

Last night, I was all set to post about how powerful a girl with a drill can be, but then five minutes after taking my DVD player apart and cleaning the lens and getting it running again, it freezes up and refuses to work. I think it’s more to do with the motor than the lens–when the guts were still visible, I was playing with putting a DVD in, and the motor wouldn’t start until I tapped the magnet-thing that clamps the disk down. So something is wrong with the contacts or the motor or something.
And dang it, I paid a little more for this DVD player because I didn’t want it dying on me like my last one. That’s two DVD players in a year–the first one lasted about 4 months, and this one has been about 6 months along before dying. I think this one is the 2nd or 3rd up from the bottom rung cheapo $20 DVD players, but still! Still! It should last longer than six months. I bought my first DVD player in 2000 when they were still almost brand new, and it was still running strong when I sold it to my roommate in May 2005 when I left Boston. I can clearly see now that I should have brought it with me.
Yet on
e thing I know: I love my drill.
In other news, busy, busy, busy here with Dragonlance: The New Adventures books and with the first Hallowmere book in typesetting. We should be getting galleys back soon, and then after a few rounds of editing, off to have the ARC printed! We’re very excited about this. I’m very excited about this. And you should see the cover. Wow. I’ll post it when it’s finalized. By then, author Tiffany Trent () should have her website running, and she can share with you other goodies, too.

The inestimable Sindri Suncatcher, kender wizard extraordinaire, is the main character of The Wayward Wizard, book 1 in the Suncatcher Trilogy of Dragonlance: The New Adventures. It’s out this month, and you should read it! It does refer a bit to past history in the series, but readers new to the series can also pick it up right with The Wayward Wizard and enjoy. If you’re familiar with Dragonlance, you’ll know that kender (a race of small people with attention and pickpocketing problems) shouldn’t be able to do magic, so why can Sindri? Find out in the Suncatcher Trilogy. If you don’t, you may find a ninja peering into your window some evening.

Also on sale today, Time Spies! We’re very excited about this new series. It’s chapter book series by Candice Ransom. Here’s the cover copy:

A few months ago, Alex’s family moved to a creaky country inn. No soccer. No friends. Nothing to do.
Then, Alex discovers the old spyglass. In the blink of an eye, he and his two sisters find themselves on the inn’s doorstep . . . hundreds of years ago! Two American heroes race through the yard, with Redcoat soldiers hot on their trail. And suddenly life in the old inn isn’t so boring anymore . . .

Doesn’t that sound like fun? (And isn’t that a great cover!) In future books they’ll be visiting an archeological dig, among all sorts of other exciting places.

In October, fans of dragon stories should check out our Practical Guide to Dragons. Sindri, our above-mentioned kender wizard, tells all about the dragons of Krynn, including their life stages (those baby dragons are cute!–cuter than you might expect of baby dragons), their eating habits, their living arrangements, and all sorts of other interesting tidbits. Young k
ids will love this picture book and so will dragon fans of all ages.
You can get any of these books at your local bookstore–B&N, Borders, or your local independent merchant (this site can help you find an independent bookstore near you). Target will also be carrying the Practical Guide to Dragons, so keep an eye out for it. Or ask for it at your local library.

So sad. I made a chocolate chip cake the other day and took it to work today to share–because I wanted a piece (or two or three), not the whole cake.
I put what was left of it, about 3/4 of the cake, in the back of the car (back seat, but the seat is folded down because I had my bike in there earlier) with my tote bag and went over to the bank on my way home.
Opened the back door to get my tote bag out (can you see where I’m going with this?). Yeah. CRASH! And not only is the cake gone, so is the glass cake pan, which was my best pan. 🙁 I guess that’s my excuse for getting that silcone one I’ve been eyeing. So much for dessert this weekend.
I suppose I could go to the grocery store and get stuff for another one, but that would require leaving the house, and I just got home. (Whine whine.)
RIP, beautiful chocolate chip cake.
By the way, if you’re interested in trying it yourself, it’s my favorite cake of all time. It’s the traditional birthday cake in my family and it’s so easy to make–no bowls, just mix it in the pan. The trick is NOT to mix the chocolate chips in, or they sink. They’re supposed to be a topping. Also, it’s best eating it the day AFTER it’s baked. Here’s the recipe–try it!
Chocolate Chip Cake
1 package yellow cake mix
1 large package instant vanilla pudding
1/4 cup oil
1 1/4 water
2 eggs
12 oz package chocolate chips
In cake pan, mix oil, pudding mix, cake mix, and water with fork till moist. Smooth out cake surface, sprinkle chocolate chips over top (do NOT mix in with batter). Bake at 350 oven for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cake should be golden brown.
Yum!

Linked from my friend Erin Annie, an article about the writing life that really describes me to a T–and probably most literary-inclined people I know.
That article is so me. To the point. I even majored in animal science, pre-vet, my first year of college, intending to become an equine veterinarian, when I always got the worst grades in science and the best grades in English. Meaning, *cough* an A- in science and an A+ in English, with the English teacher submitting my poetry to the NCTE contest and ending up getting the English scholarship when I graduated. When you’re gunning for valedictorian, you pay attention even to the boring subjects. That’s right, I was bored stiff with science and I MAJORED in it my first year of college. Why? Because in my rural western Illinois hometown, you couldn’t make a living with a liberal arts education, and I was raised to make a better living than my failed-farmer/current-trucker dad did. Plus, we were indoctrinated from an early age that with the family farm dying, we farm kids needed to do something about that, and we’d be able to do that with an agriculture degree.
It took a good 8 years out of high school, until my last year of undergrad (I took my time), for me to figure out that the editing I was doing part-time to put myself through school could be combined with my love of books and my desire to help children (my B.S. is in marriage, family, and human development). Yeah, it took forever, but here I am and I’m glad I found my way.
But even now, I have a novella sitting on my computer in my Writing folder that I’ve been meaning to edit (for itself) and turn into a novel (for possible publication) that I just don’t have the time to work on. And when I have the time, I don’t have the creative energy–between my sinus problems and my work, working on my own stuff is hard to do.
I actually intend to work on it every day off I get, but daily life gets in the way. “One of these days…” I keep telling myself.
I’m happy being an editor. I may have been the kind of kid who always made up stories for myself (for example, I daydreamed that C.B. Barnes was in love with me–he was the kid who played in a mostly-forgotten TV version of Starman–and took me off to live happily ever after on tour with U2, and when I
was younger, I daydreamed that the Dukes of Hazzard were my real family), but I was also the kid who corrected everyone else’s grammar and wanted to be the smartest kid on the planet (I used to wonder why I wasn’t born Japanese, because they apparently had the best educational system in the world, according to the news).
Yes, I was that dorky, bespectacled kid who read the dictionary so she could win the spelling bee (only runner-up in my last year of eligibility, sadly, because I forgot the C in “acquaintance”). I decided in the 4th grade that being the smartest kid in the world meant I needed to read Shakespeare, too. So most of my 4th grade year you would have caught me either re-reading a volume of Trixie Belden or struggling through one of the Bard’s plays. To this day, Much Ado about Nothing is my favorite because it was the only one I understood. Well, the early-90s Kenneth Branaugh/Emma Thompson/Robert Sean Leonard version didn’t hurt the feeling, either.
I’m so glad I found my path. I might say “despite” my practical upbringing, but then again, I may have only found it because the practical farm girl in me had to have a job working her way through school, and by my third year of college, delivering sandwiches for Jimmy John’s or scooping dairy cow manure just wasn’t doing it for me. An office job sounded downright easy in comparison to the hard labor of a farm. And going to work at 9 a.m. was a dream of sleeping in late (at the dairy farm, I started work at 6 a.m.). So yeah. Thanks for the experience–there’s nothing like it. But I wouldn’t trade my job for a herd of Jerseys.

Publisher’s Weekly has a great article today on the occupational hazards of working in children’s books. Check it out–very funny, and very telling.
For example, Beverly Horowitz, of Bantam Delacorte Dell Books for Young Readers:

My mother was close with her brother. He’d been seriously ill and finally died. Everyone from our family, of course, was at the funeral. We went from the service to the cemetery, and when it was over and people were starting to head back to their cars, I was walking with my mother when a woman she knew came up. “I’m so sorry, I knew you were very close,” she said. Then she asked, “Is that your daughter, the one in publishing?” When my mother said yes, it was, she said, “I thought I’d see her here with you. That’s why I have with me the manuscript I have always wanted to give to her.” She took it out of her purse and handed it to me. I was totally taken aback. As she smiled at me I said,

Hope your day is full of happiness, !

Passing this on from . If you’re in grades 4-12, consider writing a letter to your favorite author, living or dead, about how their book changed your way of thinking about the world or themselves. According to The Center for the Book site, the book can be fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 – 12. Winners receive cash awards at the national and state levels. Find out more at the website linked above!

I’ve been meaning to show off my irresistable kittens (well, at 9 months and a year old, they’re really just barely full-grown cats, I suppose), but I didn’t know how to embed a picture. But now I know–yay! So, if you’re kitty-inclined, I introduce to you

Mogget

and
Tildrum

Mogget’s the laid-back yet ever-demanding type–he lets me pick him up and cuddle him, and needs lots of attention, but doesn’t run around a whole lot.
Tildrum, on the other hand, is the curious one. Always into everything. I have to hide my ponytail holders from him because if I leave them on the counter, he steals them! He likes to bat them around the kitchen and bathroom floor, and has lost at least a dozen to the underside of the refrigerator and washing machine. So I bought him his own to play fetch with. Yes, my cat plays fetch. I throw the ponytail holder, and he runs off and finds it (sometimes he’s not that quick, though, and thinks I’ve thrown it when I haven’t, or vice versa), then trots back to me holding it in his mouth, dropping it at my feet with an expectant look.
ETA: Oh, informal contest: a prize to anyone who knows where both their names come from. Well, the first person, we’ll say, but the rest of you will earn my respect. First person to identify both, I’ll send an ARC of In the Serpent’s Coils to, when they’re available, or one of the latest Dragonlance: The New Adventures books. Mirrorstone authors can guess, but most of you are getting an ARC anyway. 🙂 (And if you know me in person and I’ve told you, don’t give it away!)