Weekly Craft Project: Round Up Part One

At the beginning of the year, I shared that one of my goals for this year was to do something crafty once a week whether it's a whole project or part of a project (like the merboy tail). I thought it would be fun (and easy blog post to write, to be totally honest with everyone) to share some of the projects I have completed during this, roughly, four and half months of the year.

In no particular order because I forgot to date my pictures when I saved them:

2018 Craft Projects from January 1-April 19:

Merboy tail: This crochet project was one of my time consuming projects. I got a little off the pattern but it still turned out great and the recipient loved it. I had made one before and used brighter colors but the 4 year old receiving this one had asked for "boy" aka darker blues than the light blue and green color yarn I used for sister's mermaid tale.













Being a scrapbooker, I have completed some layouts over the last few months. I've made about thirty and will show off some of my favorites:

The last project I completed was on Sunday and it was a tablecloth and towels for the buffet that we use as a bar. Next on my list is to complete a craft project using items I bought...oh about a year or so ago...and if I don't by July then into the sell box they go. I told myself this was a for doing, and if I'm not going to use an item it's time to let it go.

March is National Craft Month

In my plans was to create a fantastic blog post about National Craft Month but I'm finding today that the stuffiness in my head from a cold is affecting my brain. National Craft month was started in 1994 by the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) to encourage people to try their hand and crating and experience some of it's many benefits, including lowering stress levels.

Over the years, I've tried many types of crafts (in the early 90s: decorating teddy bears, cross stitching, latch hook, and later started card making, scrapbooking, sewing, paper/vinyl crafting, and crocheting). Some of the crafts I no longer do and wish I could find the pictures of my earlier creations so I can create a crafting through my life scrapbook.

Right now, my crafting time is taken with crocheting, scrapbooking and vinyl designs. Here are some pictures of a few of my recent projects:

A layout for the anniversary album using a Lilly Pad Pages layout kit.

Decorated my Cricut with vinyl

Merboy tail. I had a request from a little guy for a boy tail as I had made his sister one (of course that meant he needed one of his own).

I Love Yarn Day

October14, is I Love Yarn Day. Personally, I love yarn every day.

To me a ball of yarn is a ball of possibilities. It still amazes me to see how with the help of some tools, that nothing can turn into a blanket or a scarf.

With yarn I can turn waiting time into something three dimensional with a purpose. I keep two projects in a soft bag that I carry with me all the time. Both projects are easy and small. I took them on the plane when I came back from Chicago and now when I’m waiting for something. I’ve already finished one small dish cloth and working on another. The cowl from the pretty yarn I couldn’t resist at the Tuesday Morning store is really taking shape. And the bonus for me is that I am not bothered by waiting.

Working with yarn has another benefit. Some people drink wine or pop pills, I pull out a hook or some needles and some yarn. The rhythm is soothing and meditative. It is actually more relaxing when I pay attention to what I’m doing, rather than do something else at the same time. I met a woman once who told me she could read while she knitted. Not for me.

Yarn comes from all kinds of sources. There are places where you can take all the fur your dog or cat shed and have it spun into yarn. I saw a woman spinning yarn from soy milk fibers at the Los Angeles county fair. Talk about turning nothing into something. I tried spinning once - though it was with standard wool fibers and it’s addictively soothing. After just a few minutes I was thinking of getting my own wheel.

Yarn has paved the way for my dreams to come true. It was all about learning how to fashion yarn into granny squares that brought me to writing the Crochet Mystery series.

There is a social aspect about working with yarn. It is nice to crochet or knit with a group. Not only do they help each other with problems with their projects, but life ones as well. Check out a group of knitters and crocheters and nobody is working in silence. Their lives become as interwoven as the lapgahns and sweaters they create. It was thanks to the group I’m in that I thought of the Yarn Retreat series.

Writing the books and coming up with patterns has done something else for me. I started out by just following a pattern, one step at a time, not thinking of what I was really doing or the big picture of how it was going to work out. But eventually, I began to see it in my head and found I could think in crochet or knitting and figure out how to make something that I pictured. I remember marveling at some woman who grabbed a ball of yarn and a hook and began crocheting a scarf without seeming to have any plan. And then I found I could do it. I stay to the simple designs for several reasons. I like to include patterns that someone with basic skill can make and I like to let the beauty of the yarn carry the project rather than fancy stitch work.

Yarn has led to me meet all kinds of wonderful people. I’ve gone to the Knit and Crochet Show and made friends with yarn people from all over everywhere. I’ve meet wonderful people at the Vogue Show and Stitches Midwest. And most of all, there’s my regular group that meets at Joann’s.
Yup, yarn has enriched my life in so many ways. Who’d figure a ball of colorful fibers could so all that.

I do dearly love yarn. It has enriched my life in so many ways.

Five High Tech Ways to Enjoy Crafting

1. Classes -- I signed up for a Craftsy class called Mastering Foundation Stitches. Say what? you ask. You know how annoying it is to make a chain to start a crochet project? The loops have so little give. They twist as you go along. When you're done, they stick out funny. But this class promised a better, faster way to start your crochet projects without that bother.

I bought the class on sale for $10. Best ten bucks I've spend in a long, long time. The teacher was obviously skilled and, best of all, she's taught enough in real life that she anticipated the sorts of problems I would have. Here's a look at my first try.

I'm really eager to translate this to miniature projects. As you might imagine, the thread you use for a tiny afghan has no give at all, which means this should result in a much, much better product.

2. Customized fabric -- I wanted a way to take Jax, my Havanese pup, with me wherever I go. I'd seen dog pillows offered on Etsy, but the price was pretty steep. Instead, I cropped one of my favorite puppy photos of Jax, loaded it onto Spoonflower, and they printed it on fabric. You can have fabric made for as little as $20 a yard plus shipping and handling. https://www.spoonflower.com/

Gives a whole new meaning to "doggy bag" doesn't it?

3. Floss on demand -- I hate it when I go into a store for a specific DMC floss, only to discover they have every color under the sun but that one. I discovered this wonderful service from Heirlooms Forever. Using their website, I can go online and order each skein I need, by the color or the DMC code. The cost? Only 77 cents per skein plus shipping and handling. Here's their website http://www.sews.com/ and be sure to tell them I said, Hi.

4. Virtual cropping -- As Christina shared earlier, May 5 was National Scrapbook Day. A bunch of fun ladies in Collinsville, Illinois, asked if I'd like to be a part of their crop. It wasn't feasible for me to travel, so I did a remote event with them via Facetime on my iPhone.

5. Small inspirations -- I subscribe to the Alpha Stamps newsletter. I might need to give up eating, because every newsletter shares the coolest projects ever and I want everything they sell. In duplicate. There are tons of ideas here. Enough to keep my little fingers busy until the wee hours of the night. And what crafter doesn't need more stash? You have to see this little collector's room box-- http://www.alphastamps.com/blog/?p=16758C

Okay, have you tried any of this high tech ways to feel your low tech crafting addiction? Would you like to?

 Be sure to comment below and I'll choose one of you to receive a free copy of our newest anthology, Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime. I've partnered with ten other authors to bring you this fun anthology featuring crime and kitties. The release date is May 12, 2017, to make it easy for you to "gift" a copy to a friend for Mother's Day. Or to yourself. It's only 99 cents for the first two weeks, and then we'll hike the price, so you'll want to pre-order your copy here:  http://bit.ly/2HH5Purr

In fact, could you do me a favor? Could you share news of this anthology with your friends on Facebook? Here's some easy verbiage you can use:

Love cats and mysteries? You'll love Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime. Pre-order your copy today for only 99 cents. (May 12, 2017 release) http://bit.ly/2HH5Purr

Starting and Stopping

I am in a tunnel of writing right now. The deadline for HOOKING FOR TROUBLE is less than two weeks away. And each day I am caught with the same problem of starting and stopping.

I would like to just sit down at the computer and have my fingers start flying over the keys, but it never seems to work that way. First it seems I have to go online and pochtsky around for a while, flipping through the headlines on AOL. You notice I don’t call them news headlines. The headlines are definitely tabloid quality meant to titillate not inform. The stories are mostly incomplete so now when I’m stalling starting on my work, I don’t even click on the headlines.

Then I check the Doppler radar if there is a hint of rain. Finally, I go to my manuscript. If the first line of writing comes easily, the rest follows, but usually the first line stalls. There is much deleting and dealing words that don’t sound right. Also much panic as I think about the deadline and how far I am from the end.

Somewhere something clicks in and I finally get in the flow. Time goes by unnoticed other than when I look up at the window near me, I see the light change, then dim, then get dark.

The time comes to stop because I have to do other things, like eat or pay some bills. There is always one more thing I think of or a change I want to make. The story is rolling in my head and I make a note of what should happen next to make starting easier.

I leave the computer, but I am still somewhere else. It is hard to jump into other tasks because my mind is still in the story. I find myself thinking about an upcoming scene and writing notes on any paper I can find. It’s kind of a dreamy feeling. Gradually the real world comes back into focus. And I’m there until it is time to start again.

Now that I am back at my desktop and I can upload photos I have included the one I was going to put in last week. Seeing myself bundled up, ready to go out in the cold seems odd now that I am back in Southern California where after one day of rain and temperatures in the 60s it is going to get warm again. I made the hat on a flight to Chicago last year. It was very cool to be able to put it on when we landed.

Yarn to the Rescue

The other day I was feeling stressed and anxious. The reason doesn’t matter, not even that it was based on a real issue. I was doing that horrible circle thinking. Round and round the same negative thoughts. Get to the end and they began again. And I felt it physically as well in the form of what I call a nervous stomach. It was like my stomach was a clenched fist.

I tried various relaxation techniques I know like counting as you breath in and then doing the same as you breath out, trying to stretch both to higher numbers. It worked - but only as long as I did the breathing. As soon as I stopped, the loop of thoughts returned and my stomach got tense.

I did all kind of self talk, trying to convince myself that feeling this way was pointless. I agreed with myself, but it didn’t make the anxiety go away. If anything, it started to get worse. I was focusing on it too, much and it was beginning to feel like a fever dream or Mickey Mouse’s dealing with the ever increasing broomsticks in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

My sense of humor was gone and I couldn’t manage a laugh for a stupid sit-com. Several cups of tea didn’t make a dent either.

Then I picked up the shawl I’m making for the next Casey book, Silence of the Lamb's Wool. It is a very simple repetitive pattern. I looked down at the wavy lines of the stitches. The yarn is thick and thin in places because it is hand spun. I took a deep breath and began to work on the next row. It didn’t help my stomach at first, but the negative thoughts began to melt away and I came up with a solution to what was causing all the anxiety in the first place. As I continued on with the rows, I could feel my stomach begin to unclench and it was like a breeze of relaxation went through my body. I even began to laugh at the silly show I had on in the background.

When I stopped knitting, the anxiety did not return. I had successfully calmed myself, all by myself. What a great feeling. Though I happened to have picked up some knitting, crochet would have worked just as well.

I think working with yarn is so much about the journey rather than the scarf or shawl you end up with. The rhythmic movements sooth your mind and spirit.

A Winning Yarn

I like to wear something I’ve made when I go to a yarn event or book signing. I notice that I seem to gravitate toward a certain scarf. I always thought it was because I liked the shades of blue so much, but when I wore it to sign Yarn to Go at Stitches Midwest another reason occurred to me.

Everything I make has some kind of story. Where I bought the yarn, where I got the pattern and what it was like to make. I think it is the story connected with the scarf that makes it my first choice.

I bought the yarn on impulse. I was checking out at a Chicago yarn store and saw it in a bin by the door. I tossed it in with my other purchases because I loved the variations on blue and because there was a pattern for what looked like a simple scarf that appeared crocheted.

It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the receipt that I realized that the one skein of yarn cost $50! I had never spent anything close to that on yarn before. And then I noticed the pattern was for a knitted scarf. An uh oh went off in my head.

Even though I barely knew how to knit, the yarn was so pretty and so expensive, I decided to try. By the way, returning it wasn’t an option because the yarn had been in a hank at the store and they’d spun it into a ball for me and it became non returnable.

Along with being pretty, the silk yarn had all kinds of bumps in it which made it very hard to see the knitted stitches and pretty soon I discovered I was somehow adding stitches and the emerging scarf was all crooked. So I ripped it out and started again, and again, and again once more.

And then sitting with a pile of ripped out yarn, I decided to see if I could turn the pattern into crochet. Crochet takes more yarn than knitting and I worried there might not be enough to make a scarf. I gave knitting one more disastrous attempt and went for broke and started to crochet with it.

Crocheting was easier with the yarn, but the stitches were still hard to see, but I persevered and kept going with my fingers crossed that when I ran out of yarn the scarf wouldn’t end up a weird length. Even crochet was a struggle and I was relieved to be finally done. The length could have been longer and I was so tired of fighting with that yarn I thought I would throw the scarf in the closet with some of the other things I’d made that weren’t exactly stellar achievements. But a funny thing happened. I started to wear it and taking it with me on book related trips without ever thinking why.

Only recently did the reason occur to me. It isn’t the lovely color and the ease of wearing it that makes me choose it. That little scarf represents persistence to me. I tried and tried again, never admitting defeat, just taking a change in direction until I found a way that worked.

Isn’t that the way it works in life?

Getting Ready to Go

I am trying to get ready for my next trip, which is really a trip within a trip. I’m feeling a little distracted. There is the first trip to Chicago. I’m concerned with the weather which sounds uncomfortable to put it mildly, a malfunctioning air conditioner which thanks to the Internet I think I know how to fix, and some plumbing work being done to my place which will require holes in the wall and probably lots of banging.

Then there’s the trip within a trip. I’m going to Minneapolis for the Knit and Crochet Show. Thanks the a newbie list I’m on, I have gotten some idea of what to expect and what to wear, etc., but there are the two classes I signed up for and the supplies I need for them. I sort of know what roving is, but there’s no place around here to get it. Surely I can buy it there. Then I need to cancel one hotel reservation because the sold out host hotel suddenly had rooms. I need to bring bookmarks to give out, but how many?

The dog and cats are already giving me dirty looks because the suitcase is out.

In the midst of all this preparation, I got the first pass pages of Behind the Seams and You Better Knot Die from my editor to proof read, which they need back August 1 and August 3, respectively. Guess who will be lugging manuscripts and reading on the plane? And when all those holes are being made in the walls and the pipes being banged on, I’ll be sitting in front my hopefully working air conditioner, reading.

I hadn’t really thought about it until I read the messages on the newbie list for the Knit and Crochet Show, but apparently everybody wears some of their own creations. Uh oh. Most of the things I’ve made for myself are wooly and warm and not at all right for the weather in Minneapolis. I came up with a cool idea for an evening scarf. It’s light and airy and should look really pretty when I finish it, which I have to do before the first banquet. So, when I take a break from proof reading, it’ll be crochet time. I won’t even go into the hank of yarn I had to make into a ball so I can make a light weight cowl as well to wear during the show. It’s kind of double duty because the cowl pattern will be in the book I’m writing now - Knot What It Seams.

And to top all of it off, I am planning to work on Knot What It Seams, too. You can see why I might be a little distracted.

How do you center yourself when you feel pulled in a lot of directions?

Flash Trip

A week ago, I was busy fighting with Word 2010 and going over the copy edit of Behind the Seams. And then, a last minute business meeting came up for my husband and son in Las Vegas. Yay, for laptops. I packed mine up, along with some crochet stuff and Monday we were on our way. I'm never one to turn down the chance to go somewhere.

We have driven there lots of times, so I know the road almost by heart. Their meeting wasn't until Tuesday, so we took our time and stopped at the outlet mall in Primm, Nevada. It was nice to walk around after the being so long in the car. The Williams Sonoma store was fantastic and everything was at a discount. I got this interesting gadget that cores and peels apples at the same time and will come in handy as I make the recipe for Apple Bumble Crumble one more time before it goes into Behind the Seams.

We stopped for dinner on the way into town at a hotel called The M. The air was breezy and pleasantly warm as we walked in from the parking lot. This is about the best time of year for weather in Las Vegas. The buffet was amazing. I was happy to find vegetables in all different cuisines. For the rest of my meat eating family, there were plenty of choices, too. And the desserts - how about mini ecairs and cannolis, along with all different kinds of cakes, gelato and even espresso drinks.

The next day my husband and son went to their meeting and I set up my work in the hotel room. With an occasional glance out the window at the action on the strip, I went back to going through the copy edit. I just think it is so neat to be able to do my work anywhere.

Their meeting was a success and we celebrated with dinner at my favorite, the Grande Luxe Cafe.

I did some more work on my manuscript in the morning before check out time. Then it was off to my son's favorite restaurant Joe's and a brief stop at the Bellagio to check out the conservatory (they change the elaborate plantings every ten weeks) before heading back toward L.A.. I crocheted until it got too dark to see.

I feel like I'm just home for a pit stop before heading to Chicago for the Printers Row Fair. I'll have my trusty laptop with me and get back to writing my seventh book, Knot What It Seams. I love it. Have laptop, will travel.

BTW, anyone in the area, I'm going to be on a cozy panel, Saturday, at ten thirty, in the Harold Washington Library and I'll be in the Mystery Writers of American booth from noon until one thirty. I'll be in the Big Sleep booth from two until three.

Anybody else love to take off and go somewhere at the drop of a hat?

Yellow Pads and Bossy Characters

This week we’ve been writing about how we write our books.

I like to start with yellow legal pads. I buy them by the bunch at Costco and for some reason give me one of those, a nice pen, and a cup of coffee in the morning and the story seems to come to me.

The short coming is that I tend to keep starting new pads and although I try to date and make notes explaining what the stuff is, I sometimes get it all mixed up. There is also the issue of my handwriting. When I really get going, it’s hard for me to write fast enough and what I do write comes out as a mess.

But since I’ve already written something, it’s much easier to move to the computer and even if I can’t read every word, I usually remember the essence of what I wrote. Also as I put it in the computer I am already rewriting it.

Like Linda, I use index cards, but usually when I’m writing the synopsis. I like them because you can go back and add to a scene by adding another card, but not get the sequence of everything mixed up.

As for ideas - I have noticed that as I’m do the rewrite of one book, something of the next one shows up. It might be an opening scene, a piece of the story, or something about crochet. It’s nice to have something to start with because each time start a new book I feel a little panicky and wonder how I’m going to do it.

Sometimes, my characters take over and completely surprise me. I was totally shocked at the last line of You Better Knot Die, which comes out in November. It was Barry Greenberg’s idea, not mine.

Do any of you writers think your characters are trying to take over?

Keeping Up With the Whales

This week our topic is what we do to keep up with what’s happening in our craft. I read all the crochet magazines and belong to a group of knitters and crocheters. I also like to check out yarn stores wherever I go. So, when I was in Pacific Grove this week, I made sure to go into the Monarch Knitting and Quilting store. Even thought crochet isn’t in there name, there is a sign on the door saying they are crochet friendly.

Stores like Michael’s and Joann’s don’t sell the same kinds of yarn independent stores like Monarch does. Monach had beautiful handwoven yarns, and hand dyed yarns you would never find in one of the chain store. I could have dropped some heavy money if I hadn’t remembered that my stash has become ridiculous. I did buy some eyelash yarn to play with. I’ve never used it and wanted to see what it was like to crochet. Basically it is a thin strand with long fine multi colored pieces hanging off of it. I still have some things to try with it, but so far it has been difficult to keep track of the main strand.

It was the first time I’ve been back to Pacific Grove since A Stitch in Crime came out. The book takes place at the Asilomar Conference Center which is in Pacific Grove, so it was fun to go around the area and picture things that happened in the book.

It was more like stockpiling experiences which could come in handy in some future story than keeping up with crochet, but I went whale watching while I up there. I was a little nervous before we left. I worried about getting sea sick or getting scared. The boat wasn’t that big and you go out in the Monterey bay to an area where there is an underwater canyon so deep, the experts don’t even know how deep it is. And it’s supposed to be bigger than the grand canyon. But I also really wanted to see whales up close.

There was a bit of chop as the person steering the boat put it. We seemed to be going against the waves and when we hit them, the boat went up and then down. It was cloudy and chilly as I watched Monterey get smaller and smaller as the boat went further and further out.

Two young men started getting kind of green around the gills and eventually threw up over the side of the boat. Since things are supposed to travel in threes and they were right next to me, I got a little worried. I also got a little worried when we seemed to be way out and there weren’t any whales. Would we be the boat that didn’t get to see any?

Then the marine biologist who had the microphone and was on the top level of the boat saw a blue whale on one side of the boat. The side I wasn’t on. By the time I along with the other people on my side got to the other side, the blue whale had gone for a deep dive and she said probably wouldn’t come up for awhile.

The boat was really rocking now and we were repeatedly told to hold on to the rail. I would have done it even if no one told me.

And then two humpbacks showed themselves. They came up to breath, but also to to eat. They feed on krill, which are tiny sea creatures that particularly like the cold water of the deep canyon. The whales force the krill up and then open their mouths above the water to take them in. Then the whales go back underwater with a wave of their tails.

From no whales we went to being surrounded by them. Every few minutes another one or two would make an appearance. The humpbacks seemed to travel in pairs. The blue whales were more solitary. In the distance I saw water shooting up from other whale’s blow holes. Close by I heard the sound of one shooting the water out of its blowhole.

Our boat was 75 feet long. The blue whales are close to 100 feet long. Their tongues weigh in the tons. Their hearts are the size of a VW bug. Their arteries are big enough for a child to crawl through. It was weird to think that these creatures were bigger than the boat.

I was so busy going from one side of the boat to the other to see all the whales, I never had time to think about being scared. As for seasick. I guess things don’t always travel in threes. Not even a twinge.

And then it was time to go leave the whales. As we headed back I got a wonderful view of the Monterey Peninsula. When I was writing A Stitch in Crime I always thought about looking out at the water, never from the water. It was neat to see Asilomar, the beach, the Pacific Grove lighthouse and the 17-Mile drive through Pebble Beach from a different perspective.

Have you ever seen something familiar from another perspective, like recognized buildings when you were in a plane or looked down on your house from a hill?

Summer in SoCal

Even though I left a comment on Camille’s blog saying my favorite season was fall in Chicago, there are things about summer in Southern California I definitely like. As in getting produce from my garden. What could be nicer than making a salad with tomatoes I just picked. And even if the cucumbers look strange (they’re lemon cucumbers) and I thought the plant was supposed to give me cantaloupes, they taste great and are 100 percent organic pesticide free.

Walking Goldy is particularly nice now. We go out as the day is fading. There is no glaring sun, but it’s still light enough to see everything in color. The north mountains are purple brushed with gold. The burning heat has lifted and it is kind of gentle warm. I love to look at everybody’s yard. They are big around here, almost like a personal park. The silk trees have their fragrant pink fans, and the honeysuckle plant one neighbor smells so sweet, I often snatch a blossom and keep smelling it as we walk.

There’s some mystery, too. Something has changed at the remodeled house down the street. I watched the couple move in and redo the house. Months later, I saw them walking with a baby carriage and realized there was an addition to their family. Then there was another addition. I started seeing an older woman walking with them. It was easy to figure out she was the woman’s mother since she looked like an older version of her.

There was always a SUV in the driveway and the house was invitingly lit up at night. Lately the driveway has been empty. Just the other day, the woman was watering with a hose. Even though I don’t know her, I turned to smile as I passed. The look I got back was anything but friendly. Her eyes looked hollow and her face sagged with sadness. When Goldy and I passed the house on our way home, it was dark out. There was only a dim lonely looking light coming from somewhere in the back of the house. It occurred to me that I haven’t seen the man for a long time. Hmm.

I found the perfect sort of thing to crochet in the summer. The expensive, nightmare, silk yarn I wrote about awhile back turns out to be lovely to work with when it’s warm. And it’s not a nightmare anymore. Once I ripped my attempts at knitting with it for the zillionth time and started to crochet with it, everything changed. With the knitting, I kept getting extra stitches and the edges looked wobbly and awful, and it took a thousand hours or maybe it only seemed that way to knit one row. There have been no extra stitches since I started to crochet and no lost ones either. It still takes awhile to do a row because of all the little bumps in the yarn, but it’s definitely faster than knitting.

The one skein is supposed to make shawl, but that was with the knit pattern. Crochet tends to take more yarn, so the shawl might end up a scarf. Since it’s light as air, either way it will work for warm weather.

I like the pattern I made up so much I’m already planning to use it with the apricot colored cotton yarn I bought in Old Town Alexandria.

How do you feel about wearing a scarf in the summer?

STory Within a Story

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I find a show I like, I tend to buy the DVD of a season. I did it when I discovered Monk and again recently when I realized I liked Castle. In case anyone doesn’t know the story line of Castle. He’s a mystery writer who tags along with a female homicide detective and there’s an undercurrent of sparks between them.

It's like a treat to be able to watch an episode when I need a break. One of the things I like about getting DVD’s of TV shows is the bonus material. In Castle’s case there is a featurette of Nathan Fillion the actor who plays Castle tagging along with a real mystery writer. It was fantasy on top of fantasy compared to my life. The mystery writer he tagged along with was Stephen J. Cannell. Let’s say my working conditions are barely on the same planet as his. His spacious office and separate library made me drool.

One interesting note about Cannell that I got when I heard him speak at Left Coast last month is that he writes for five hours every day, seven days a week. He said it was a carry over from his old TV writing days when he had to churn out scripts. Of course, some of that five hours probably takes place on the private jet that was in the background of his photo in the Left Coast program.

The Castle character lives pretty well, too - in a gigantic fabulous apartment in New York. He never seems worried about deadlines or has writers block or for that matter seems to write very much. He’s too busy hanging out at murder scenes wearing his bullet proof vest emblazoned with WRITER across the back. Though his book mentioned on the show actually came out and lists the author as Richard Castle.

Castle often wears a scarf and I was thinking of a bizarre plot where my fictional sleuth Molly Pink is a big fan of the fictional mystery writer and sends him a crocheted scarf.

The one downside of being a mystery writer watching a show about a mystery writer is that I can usually pick out whodunnit when the character first appears in the show.

Who’s your favorite TV detective?

Simple Advice that Works

“Just remember to breathe and tell yourself you can do it.” That was the advice my cycling teacher said – well, shouted is more accurate, along with some yeehaws and whistles. It was toward the end of the class when everyone was close to losing steam.

For anyone who doesn’t know,indoor cycling or spinning is done on a stationery bicycle and is supposed to emulate bicycling outside. You can raise the tension which makes it like riding uphill. When there is less tension on the wheel, you make it hard by riding fast. You stand, you sit, you do jumps. It is a tough class and supposed to burn up to 600 calories in an hour. Toward the end of the class, you’re sweating, you’re tired and wondering if you’re going to make it to the end. I’ve been doing it for almost nine years and the ironic thing is I don’t know how to ride a real bike.

As I was listening to my cycling teacher’s words, it occurred to me, the same advice probably would be good for any challenge. When you’re tense, you hold your breath or breathe in a shallow manner. Either one doesn’t help your energy level or your anxiety level. My yoga teacher says the whole point of yoga is the breath. She always advises directing your breath to any tight spots in your body.

I have noticed that when I get stuck on something I’m writing, or am having trouble with something I’m crocheting, I barely breathe. That lack of breath only makes me feel more tense and anxious and convinced that whatever I’m working on isn’t going to turn out. Taking a deep breath helps break the pattern.

But then you have to use the second part of my cycling teacher’s advice. You have to change your self talk and tell yourself you can do it. So simple and yet so powerful.

It worked for cycling. Everyone finished the class.

Sleep Magic

I am in Chicago with the main plan of getting away from interruptions to write the synopsis for the sixth crochet mystery and to finish the proposal for another series. If only it was so easy.

I have been struggling with the synopsis. I knew the beginning and the end, but not the middle and what made it all hang together. Last night I worked on the synopsis with the Olympic events in the background. Like Camille, I’m not into watching sports, but I have to admit the snowboarding and skating got my attention. I was hoping the semi distraction would loosen up my mind and the story would flow from my fingers onto the yellow legal pad. Instead I just ended up with pages and pages of disjointed stuff.

Finally the skating and crocheting won out and I put down my writing.

Then just before I went to sleep, I told myself to work on it overnight. I went to sleep and dreamt of all kinds of stuff, but nothing about my story. I awoke with no feeling of eureka I have it, either.

Still hopeful, I took my coffee and yellow legal pad into the living room. I sat down and began to write and all of a sudden all of the disjointed pieces had fallen into place and an hour and a half later, I had the basic synopsis.

It reminds me of this yarn I’m working with now. It looks like a bunch of disjointed colors, but when you crochet it, it turns into stripes. The picture is the best I could do under the circumstances of it being night and I need it now. At least it gives an idea of what I’m talking about.

I think this working on a problem in your sleep thing works. Anybody else ever try it?

Better Knot Stop

I feel like a broken record. For the last few weeks all I seem to have been saying was that I was down to the wire with my manuscript. I really and truly am, this time. I got another week which is up on Tuesday and they will definitely have it by then. As I’m still finishing, my editor has already been having cover meetings and today I got all the cover copy

. They also decided on a title. What I’ve been calling Book 5 is now Better Knot Dye.

In the midst of my frantic rewriting I got an email from my Chicago downstairs neighbor, saying her bathroon ceiling was pealing and would I take care of the leak. To make a long story short, two days later I was on a plane. It might sound extreme to go 1740 miles to let the plumber in, but there was talk of hacking up floors, so I thought I ought to be there (here since that’s where I am).

Thanks heavens for laptops. I just took my work on the road. I have no problem with that.

My father was a writer and wrote a number of non fiction books. But he had a thing about needing a place to write. I have my laser printer on the wooden desk my mother set up for him in one of the bedrooms when we moved here. At last he was going to have the place to work he always said he needed. He never seemed to use it. I’m not sure what fault the spot had, but for whatever reason it didn’t work for him and he used it as a reason not to write anymore.

Maybe as a reaction to forever hearing about him needing a special place to write, I decided I would be able to write anywhere and everywhere. Before I even left for Chicago, I took my work on the road. My husband and son had a meeting in Santa Barbara and I went along for the ride. I set up my computer in an outer office while they did their meeting.

I have to admit it is easier to work here in Chicago than at home. No cat is jumping over the back of my chair and then digging his claws in my shoulders so he doesn’t fall. There is also no one coming up behind me telling me I need to do something. No laundry buzzer going off, meaning I have to hang the stuff outside. No one is saying what’s for dinner or can you fix this. My dog isn’t barking at me telling me its time for her walk.

The plumber came yesterday and spent three hours here hacking the floor and replacing the broken pipe. I worked through it all. And when I stopped with the manuscript, I worked on the crochet patterns I’m including.

This morning it was fall out of bed and go back to the computer until I took a break to take a walk. It gets dark so early here; it’s twilight at 4:30. When I got back I ate something quickly and went back to work.

Come to think of it. This surprise trip has turned into a retreat like Terri’s, but without the other people and the javelinas. Okay better get back to writing or Better Knot Dye won’t get done.

Book Covers

I wrote a few weeks ago that I had finished the first draft of Book 5 in the crochet mysteries. Now I'm rewriting and the days are flipping by in an alarmingly fast rate. I more or less figured how many pages a day I would have to rewrite to finish it by my December 1 deadline, but that was supposing nothing else interferred. Does that ever happen?

So, last week I got an email from my editor. She knew the manuscript wasn't due yet, but she'd just gotten word they wanted to have a cover meeting for it. Did I have any ideas for a cover and could I send fifty to seventy-fives pages of the manuscript so they could see the flow of the story.

I have loved all of my covers and the art people have really been able to create what I had pictured when I was writing, but they have always had the whole manuscript. I wanted to do whatever I could to help them with the cover for Book 5 which might be Hooked on the Holidays or A Holiday Yarn. In the past I have sent them pictures from books or magazines to give them an idea what some of the crocheted items in the books look like. This time the afghan that is a major clue only existed in my head. There was no time to make the whole thing, so I made up one square of it and sent them a photo.

Crocheted snowflakes are mentioned a lot, too. I am still in the process of creating the pattern for a snowflake that will be included in the book, but had the snowflake I put in my blog a while back. I sent a photo of it.

The other pattern in the book is going to be for a vampire scarf. The bookstore where Molly Pink works is hosting the midnight launch of the new book in a super popular series about a vampire who crochets (it's helped him deal with his lust for blood). One of the Tarzana Hookers comes up with the idea for the scarf. As she says, everything about it says vampire. It's black and white. The black is for the vampire's favorite color of clothes, the white for his pale skin. The half double crochet stitches look like fangs and the edging has a fang like look, too. And the scarlet tassel -- well, that's pretty obvious. A scarf winds around the neck and what body area is more appealing to a vampire? I sent a photo of it, too.

Even though it's doubtful, the vampire scarf will be on the cover of the book, my editor said she really likes it. I do, too.

AS my blog sisters have been mentioning, next week we're all writing on craft. Just to give a heads up, I'm going to be writing on setting.

Reaching the End

I just finished the draft of book 5. Hooky Holidays, Holiday Homicide, Dead the Halls, Hooked for the Holidays. Who knows what the title will be? My mind is numb. This is a big deal because the deadline I set for myself was Saturday and here it is Friday and I’m done – Temporarily anyway. I’m taking the weekend off before I start rewriting. That’s taking the weekend off working on Book 5. Next to me is are the first pass pages of A Stitch in Crime. I got them yesterday and they need them back by next Thursday. I’ll be spending the weekend with Book 4 and passing out candy to the 300 or so trick or treaters that show up at our house.

I’m taking the rest of the evening off. Just crocheting and a romantic comedy.

Notes from the Road

I’m writing this early and setting it up to post on my blog day. When it posts I'll be in Indianapolis at Bouchercon without my computer. It’s really Tuesday and I’m in Chicago. It’s amazing how the leaves have changed since I was here a month ago. The trees are still full, but the green is different. Some of the leaves are a bright yellow as if they have captured the sunlight. Sunlight from some other day since today is cold and gray. But then its cool and rainy in L.A.

Okay, this is just weird. I have the television on as I’m writing this. I don’t have cable or satellite here, so I end up watching mostly PBS. Nova just came on with a show about the mission to repair the Hubble telescope. I hear the name of one of the astronauts and it grabs my attention. I babysat for him. Immediately I have a memory of the first time. He was a year and a half old and in wet diapers. He’s changed a lot - obviously.

I ended up taking care of him and his sister for years until they moved to the suburbs. He wasn’t much of an eater and his parents were thrilled that I made smoothies for him with raw eggs in them. They weren’t called smoothies then and raw eggs weren’t viewed as salmonella carriers. The drinks made such a mark, they gave me a blender as a wedding present.

It’s making me claustrophobic just to look at the inside of the space shuttle. And watching them standing out in space trying to unscrew the old camera gives me the hebbie jebbies. I guess its lucky I didn’t want to be an astronaut because I’m sure I would have washed out.

I’m glad my only challenge tonight is to crochet a washcloth to use as a sample in my craft room demonstation.

Packing It All In

I have to set aside working on the next crochet mystery to get ready for Bouchercon. I love to travel, but hate to pack. This trip is more of a challenge to pack for. Beyond the usual clothes and incidentals, I need to bring along crochet samples, bookmarks, autographed by author stickers and the pens that write on glossy bookmarks.

This year at the big mystery convention in Indianapolis named for Anthony Boucher, there is going to be something new. Since there is a whole niche of cozy mysteries that revolve around different crafts, they are having a craft room. From Thursday through Saturday, different authors will have about an hour to lead an activity. My blog sisters Joanna, Camille and Monica are all taking part along with me and a whole list of other authors.

My project is a Molly Pink Dishcloth, which is pictured at the top. It’s easy to make and hopefully can be made quickly. I sent the directions a while back so they could be copies and the woman I’ve been in contact with assured me they are getting the supplies. Good. If I had to bring 30 balls of cotton yarn, it would either be a clunky suitcase or no room for clothes. Still I want to bring samples of completed dish clothes and one made just to the point of adding the edging.

Then there’s my book. I might have set it aside tonight to get my stuff together, but I will work on it while I’m gone. That means taking along my notes. Notes that hopefully are all together. Thank heavens for laptop computers and flash drives, even though I’ve been known to carry along a hard copy.

Picking my crochet projects to work on during the trip is easy. There is the neck piece I want to finish on the plane so I can wear it at the convention, and the vampire scarf I’m working on for my next book.

Clothes are just an afterthought.

By the way, there is still room (at least last time I looked) in all the craft room activities. So, if you’re going to Bouchercon go to http//www.bouchercon2009.com/specialevents.html to sign up for any of the craft activities. There’s no extra charge.