First Snow of the Year

Even though the weather people had warned of us snow, I hadn't really expected we'd get so much. It's been snowing steady since 9 this morning and is finally letting up. It's early in the season for this much snow and we aren't as prepared as we'd like...and we're leaving for a long road trip tomorrow. Snow just never seems to come at the right time. Or at least for me. I like snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, once everyone is where they need/want to be for the holidays, and on days where we don't have to go anywhere...and have no plans to leave the following day.

It's supposed to clear up by tomorrow morning, and I hope it does, because I'd have for my husband to be disappointed by having to delay the trip. It's a special birthday trip for him and he's been looking forward to spending a long weekend with his family. 

GREAT MOMENTS IN WRITING

Last week I expressed a desire for snow. Someone, apparently, was listening, because we got over seven inches of the cold, wet stuff on Friday and Saturday. But I was right about my ragweed allergies; they have almost entirely vanished, thanks to the snowfall.

I’m coming down the home stretch and I can see the finish line right ahead – Go, Threadbare! I feels great to watch the end of a novel approach, almost as good as actually finishing it. There are, actually, a lot of great moments in writing. First, there’s getting the idea. It’s like picking up a pretty stone, one that, the more you look at it, the better it looks. Then there’s writing that opening scene. You write it and leave it alone for a day or two. When you come back and see it’s good, that’s another great moment. Then there’s the actual writing. There’s no great moment here, but there can be a whole lot of excitement and/or satisfaction. Watching a character come to life, showing some unexpected traits and sometimes taking the story in a new direction is interesting and exciting – although it can be not so good, if it really upsets the direction of the story as you plotted it. I won’t say you fall in love with the characters, but it’s kind of like that. You care about them, wish them well, think about them even when you’re not writing about them. If you’re writing a mystery, there may come a moment or two when you’re working on a plot twist, that you think about your reader, and how they’ll never see this one coming! Then there comes the moment when you realize that story is actually going to happen, that it’s a coherent, interesting, even exciting story and you are writing it very well. That’s a great moment. And then it’s done. The End. The great heaping, smoking pile of words is complete. You almost wish you smoked cigars, so you could sit back and look like a proud father. Instead you cook something special for dinner that night – or maybe even go out to dine, have a glass of wine, and smile, smile, smile. Of course, you let it sit for a week or longer, then go back in to read it and find it needs tweaking. But I’m not the only author who will tell you that tweaking is probably the most fun part of writing a novel. The story is there, all you’re doing is making it perfect.

I got an advance copy of Buttons and Bones the other day, and had another Great Moment: seeing the book as it will look in the bookstores and, if you’re prayers are answered, on people’s bookshelves. In this day of electronic writing, it may be the first time you’ve seen the book in print. There it is, your name, your title, your words. If you’re lucky, it’s got a great cover. (Buttons and Bones has a great cover. Look for it in your favorite bookstore December 7.)

Now all you have to do is, do it again.

On The Road - Again

We’re in Peoria, Illinois, on our way to Indianapolis for Bouchercon, the country’s biggest mystery convention. It’s a little late and I’m tired, but trying to compose my post for tomorrow – when you should be reading this. Somewhere a little west of Cedar Falls the “check engine soon” light came on. The car seems fine except for a very faint whirring or clickety sound, but we’ll have it checked in Peoria before continuing.

Our little GPS is working very well, warning us of upcoming exits and keeping us on track. We’re taking a fairly complicated route, coming down I-35, then onto Iowa 18 and 218, then I-80 and now I-74.

We left a city covered in snow – the second snowfall so far this October! The first one, on Saturday, was more a dusting, but this one left more than two inches on the ground. We often get a little snow towards the end of October up in the Twin Cities – one year we had a blizzard on Halloween, but that was a rare exception. Snow this early is not unheard of, but it’s rare. What made it odder this time is that a lot of trees not only still had their leaves, but they were still green.

This past weekend I was a guest at Gaylaxicon, a GLBT sci-fi convention. I write mysteries, so in that regard I was a little out of place. On the other hand, there’s Goddy. He’s a major running character in the Betsy Devonshire mysteries and he’s very, very gay. Plus the newest entry in the series features Leona Cunningham, who is a witch. She casts spells, uses charms and is suspected of using a curse to murder a man who has been making her life miserable. The book is called Blackwork and I think it’s pretty good.

The con itself was very like other sci-fi cons I’ve been to over the years. A high percentage of young computer and science geeks, who are by and large intelligent, educated people, made up the attendees. I sponsored a beer tasting seminar which was not as well attended as I’d hoped, and so our larder is now well-stocked with exotic beers. Raspberry limbec, anyone?

I think Bouchercon is going to be great fun. I’ve got a panel with fellow authors Juliet Blackwell, Maggie Sefton, Kate Collins, and Madelyn Alt. We’re going to talk about how we weave the problems and joys of owning a retail store into our mystery novels. And, I’m teaching a class on making a counted cross stitch bookmark. Plus my publisher is holding a reception for all Berkley authors in attendance. Look for a report about the con next Wednesday.

THINGS LOST - AND REGAINED

This is being written Tuesday afternoon, while the snow comes down so hard outside it’s like a fog. Perfect time to be indoors with a mug of cocoa and a warm computer.

Funny the things we miss once they are gone, sometimes even more than we thought we would. Every year I’d get out my Christmas tree ornaments and, as I put them on the tree, would get all nostalgic. I’m in my sixties now, and I’ve been gathering ornaments since I was in my twenties. Of course some have broken or been worn out or been lost along the way, but I still had a few from way back when. Note the word “had.” Some weeks before we moved, I took out more than half my ornaments and distributed them among my nieces and nephews, because from now on we’re having a little tree, not the big one our much bigger house allowed. But I saved my very favorites, many of which were like a toddler’s “bankie:” more precious than beautiful. But others were both precious and beautiful. We moved the last week in June, and only now did I go digging in our storage room for the box of ornaments. And found them gone. I looked in every box – twice. But no ornaments. I was deeply disheartened. How could that have happened? It was, of course, far too late to go have a word with our movers.

After a few days of mourning, I decided I must either cancel the tree or buy new ornaments. No tree? Unthinkable! But on my first trip down the Christmas aisles at Super Target my eye was repeatedly caught by ornaments almost, but not quite, like my old ones. In a few minutes I was near tears and had to go away.

Then I considered: What would I have rather lost than the ornaments? My favorite books? My good dishes? My computer? My boxes of photographs? Or, worst of all, my 200-piece Fontanini collection? (Go to e-Bay and type in Fontanini and you’ll see what I mean.) I have about 200 pieces if you count every sheep – and I have six or seven shepherds, so I need a LOT of sheep to make them not look ridiculous.

So I went back to Super Target, and then to the Mall of America and even Walgreen’s. This time I smiled as I found some really beautiful ornaments. And a friend from my water aerobics class brought me two hand-made wooden ornaments. Already I’m building happy new memories.

This past Saturday I had a special early book signing for Knitting Bones out in Excelsior, which is the little town this series is set in. Usually we get a good turnout, but this Saturday we also had our first serious snowstorm and only four people braved the slippery streets and icy wind. -- and one of them had no idea who I was or what I was doing there. Wednesday evening we will have the official “pub party” at Once Upon A Crime mystery bookstore in Minneapolis. The owners are paying for a half-sheet cake and I will make marzipan decorations shaped like knitting for the top of it. I’ve been practicing with Sculpy, my efforts at least suggest a knitted scarf and ball of yarn, perhaps mostly because there isn’t much else they could be. It’s snowing very hard right now, but it’s supposed to stop by nine this evening. This is Minnesota and very likely the streets will be clear by tomorrow evening.
Time to go play with the marzipan. Life is good.