Good intentions and Bon Appetit

Well, I fully intended to write another four pages this afternoon or tonight, but two hours in the office this morning left me with more work to be done this afternoon and evening, plus I had to tie up some loose ends of my own business. And Christian and Jacob came for leftover sloppy Joe because Mommy is, as Christian says, "working on the beach at Playa del Carmen." She's on a fam trip--a trip to familiarize agents with the various hotels, etc, that they can recommend to clients. It's actually a lot of work, but it also has its benefits--I imagine she was sipping margaritas and eating fresh seafood tonight, while we ate leftover sloppy Joe and canned green beans. One of my less imaginative meals, except that my sloppy Joe is really good.
All evening I'd think I was going to get my desk cleared and go back to the novel, but it was 9:30 before I did that, and my creative juices have run low. I'm having a hard time naming the town where I want to set the mystery--I have a town in mind as a model, but I'm going to make it a little bigger, offering a few more comforts, so I don't want to use the name. Actually there's a cafe there that is also a model for the cafe in my story. Ooops, just gave that away, didn't I? Anyway, the town is not Ben Wheeler, which I've visited often, but a town near there, so I decided to just call it Wheeler. Then I talked to my friend Charles, who for years had a ranch at Ben Wheeler, and he tells me there is already a Wheeler, Texas. The trouble with Texas is that the state has already used all the good names--so many towns, so many names. Back to the drawing board, just when I was getting comfortable with Wheeler.
The real reason I'm not writing at 9:30, beside that I'm sleepy, is that a new copy of Bon Appetit arrived today and it is beckoning me with a cover blurb that promises the ultimate shepherd's pie. If there's anything I love that's it. But I am doing really well on Weight Watchers points this week-maybe if I keep it up, I can have a splurge. Meantime I'm going to read tht recipe and think about who I'd like to share it with.

British cozies, recipes, weightloss and a dictionary reader

I'm reading Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliett, winner of the Agatha Award for a first novel and a nominee for the McCavity and IPPY awards--all big deals among mystery writers. Amazon sales rank it as #6 in British detective mysteries and somewhere around 5,500 in overall sales listing--which is really high. Plus it's gotten great reviews from the major review sources plus a lot of mysteries writers. Praise includes such ideas as it is perfectly written in the Agatha Christie style and the British cozy is alive and well in this one, which is the traditional house party, mostly of unpleasant family members; someone is murdered and a Chief Detective Inspector or whatever the British term is comes riding in. Having heard this much hype about it, I ordered it for my Kindle and started it yesterday--only to be struck by the reason I really don't like British cozies. The language in this one is beautifully used, the wrting wry and full of wit, the characters almost unpleasant enough to be caricatures, and though I'm barely into it I can see the plot will develop well, with several suspects (we all know from the beginning who the victim is). So yes, I'm hooked enough that I'll continue reading. But the truth is I much prefer Cynthia Riggs' Martha's Vineyard series, with its 92-year-old protagonist, or J. A. Jance's two series, one with an Arizona lady sheriff and the other with a world-weary Seattle detective. Why? Because I don't identify with the stereotypical, upper class characters in the British mysteries. I don't understand their bizarre ways--from the daughter who is described as a stupid fat cow to the youngest son who is a failed actor and rapidly deteriorating sot to the oldest son who is cool, calculating and married to a lady with great societal pretensions. It's not my world, and I can't get into that kind of a story. That's why I'm trying to write mysteries about ordinary people in ordinary American cities (and incidentally wrote a difficult scene I'd been dreading last night). Note to self: stop buying British cozies. I have friends who love them, but I don't.
Last night, bored a bit with my reading and having written a thousand words and given out in imagintion, I went through the most recent issue of Bon Appetit, tearing out recipes I'd checked on my first quick run-through and giving others much more careful consideration before I threw the magazine away. I used to save stacks and stacks of them and finally had to bite the bullet and admit that I would never go back to old ones. But now I have this appalling collection of recipes that I've cut out, and I can tell my budget will go all to pot (no pun intended) because there are so many I want to cook and mostly they aren't the kind of thing one cooks for one, though I did find one I may try for myself. Steak with a blue cheese/horseradish sauce--think I could try that on a lamb chop and it would be delicious--and I often cook one loin lamb chop for myself for dinner. But tomato-cucumer gazpacho or creme fraiche (sorry I can't do the accent marks on this program) roasted salmon or asparagus vichyssoise with mint require an audience.
And speaking of food: the good news today is that I've lost 2.1 lbs. in the last week and 5 lbs. overall since I started Weight Watchers--lost for two weeks, gained one, and then lost this week. The hoot is I got an automatic message that I was losing weight too fast which could have disastrous results for my heart rate and all numbers of other things. All I can figure is they recommend you lose 2 lbs. a week, and I went over that and triggered the message. Doesn't seem to me 5 lbs. in four weeks is too fast. I know all too well weight lost quickly is soon regained. But I am laughing. I had lunch today with a friend who asked how you know how to assign points to a food, and I said you have to sort of eyeball how many cups, Tbsp., oz, whatever it is. "Well, what if I have a pastrami and cheese sandwich and assign it three points?" I explained you have to be honest or you're defeating yourself and wasting your money. I'm really trying on that score.
Finally, a tidbit I heard on the news today as I was pulling in the driveway. I have always been fascinated by the book Julie and Julia (of course now I can't find it in its usual place on one of my shelves to give the correct subtitle). It's about a young disenchanted, bored married girl in a tiny apt. with a tiny kitchen in New York who decides to give meaning to her life she'll cook all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering French Cooking in one year. It's funny and interesting--some of the recipes call for pretty bizarre ingredients--and I enjoyed it thoroughly except that Julie has a potty mouth. Now it's being made into a movie with some popular young actress playing Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia--one of the few movies (along with Marley and Me) that I want to see. But I digress: what I heard on NPR today is that they were about to interview a man who had in one year read through the entire Oxford English Dictionary--some 21,000 pages and I forget how many entries. An astounding feat--but to what purpose? Will he write a book about it? I'm still puzzled.

Stuff

When I email my kids, I often put "Stuff" in the subject line. It drives Jordan wild, because she doesn't like to deal with more than one topic at a time. But this post is about "stuff."

My friend Gayla was waxing eloquent the other day about her collie--a dog that needed rescuing and I found for her and she is now desperately attached to. When I first "interviewed" Eppi (her name as something else then), she had been shaved, and I couldn't tell for sure what she would look like. (Gayla had sent me to interview the dog, which was one of the funnier tasks I've been assigned.) But Gayla has let her coat grow out and she is a magnificent, regal mahoghany collie. I replied that majestic was a word we'd never apply to Scooby, but he looks so cute in his summer haircut (a long coat doesn't do for him what it does for Eppi--just makes him look shaggy in summer). So here's my best attempt to capture a picture of how cute Scooby is. Okay, one of us moved, and the picture is fuzzy, for which I apologize--but he really is a beautiful example of an Australian sheperd, and he lives up to the breed's reputation for energy. At nine, he thinks he's two.

I'm doing well on Weight Watchers (big deal--after three days), so it's kind of ironic to send folks to a site with a gravy recipe. But there is a champagne/mushroom gravy recipe on a blog I follow regularly that, even though I haven't tried it, sounds wonderful. If you're interested, google "The Diva Dishes." Krista Davis writes mysteries, and her first--The Diva Runs Out of Thyme--was a real treat. Her blog is full of helpful cooking hints, and I'm sure she'd welcome new readers. The gravy is on the post for Wednesday, April 22. Sounds like it would be wonderful on a roasted chicken breast. I always dislike dry chicken. Hmmm--wonder how many points that gravy adds. I was gratified today to learn that mushrooms, pickles, and sugar snap peas don't add points. I had leftover pork tenderloin (again!) for supper, with sauteed mushrooms and snap peas--and yes, I counted the Tbsp. of butter I used.

It was Texas summer hot today, or almost--in the mid-80s. Sue came over about seven-thirty tonight, and we chatted over wine on the porch. It's been too long since we've caught up with each other, but it was so lovely to sit on the porch, even with the wind blowing fairly strongly.

I've been consumed with office work this week and haven't gotten back to my manuscript. I feel as though I am always justifying why I haven't written, but it does occur to me that ideas percolate around in my brain. Today I was to have lunch with Fred and get his opinion on my latest plot twists, but he came up sick this morning. So I emailed him. I think, of course, that what would give me that final push is something positive about the first novel, which has now been with a publisher for 3-1/2 months. I would think that's a good sign. I find I do rejections quickly but true acquisitions take longer. And that's one of my problems at the office--I'm in the midst of presenting acquisitions to the board and finding really diverse reactions. But for my own manuscript, I'm afraid to be that optimistic. Writing is sure a lot more than putting words on paper.