A whole day spent reading

Sophie at her leisure

This pose always cracks me up, 

but it means that she' feels perfectly safe and relaxed

It’s not quite as decadent as the header sounds. I was not reading Silver Screen and eating bonbons—references that may be too old for many of you but always signified the useless, idle life to me. I was reading a novel, one of four books on my desk to be read for a competition by July 15. I was slow getting started on them, picked up one and couldn’t get into it, feeling daunted by the idea of four books. So I chose a different starting point.

A third of the way in, it dawned on my I’m reading a romance—me, who’s used to the tensions of mysteries. Granted, this is a romance set against WWII in England and could stand more tension, but it’s about people and their feelings and eventually I was hooked. So now I’m avidly reading. Since the contest is involved, I consider this work. Soothes my Puritanical conscience to look at it that way.

I did take one giant leap forward on my own work this morning. Formatted, to the best of my pitiful ability, the manuscript for Contract for Chaos, the next Kelly O’Connell Mystery due out September 20, this year. Submitted it to CreateSpace for publication on Amazon and am awaiting their always helpful critique and suggestions. I think by now I’m an old pro at submissions, but it took me four or five tries before I got the details right. And I don’t even know if I did then.

Also, and this is a biggie, I took my car for the final repair today—gluing the back window to the canvas convertible top. They tell me it probably won’t last. They have to do it on a hot day and stretch the canvas. In winter, when things shrink with the cold, it will pop loose. But I figure by then I’ll know how much I drive and whether or not it’s worth popping for a whole new top. Jordan went with me this morning, because she still doesn’t want me driving alone. The driving part is okay, but the business of getting out of the cottage with walker, to the car, folding the walker, and getting settled to drive still needs practice and work. Baby steps. I’ll get there.

Naughty Sophie! Tonight, I put a piece of good sourdough out to thaw, so I could toast it for my dinner. I made a large batch of salmon dip for two parties over the weekend and was going to have leftovers on toast with asparagus on top. But when I went to fix my supper, the bread was gone. I looked in the toaster oven—no, I hadn’t put it there. Finally, it dawned on me the only possible answer was that I left it too close to the edge of my butcher block, and she got it. She did not have the grace to look one bit guilty.

Going back to my book. ‘Night all.