Doldrums

Oh my. February was a long time ago. The intervening months have included a lot of distractions and a huge dip in my motivation. I keep plotting and re-plotting and finding new things to be dissatisfied with. I keep shuffling nodes around in Freemind, which is a balm to my guilty conscience, but doesn't result in any real work getting done.

For a while I even toyed with the idea of skipping the coming-of-age part of my story and moving straight into the more interesting sequel. I find myself constantly comparing my work to other books, and I get really hung up on trying to avoid stepping into what I see as other people's territory. A coming of age story involving magic? Watch out for Harry Potter cliches! A story where religious authority is the enemy of intellectual freedom? Don't rehash The Golden Compass! An urban setting peopled by decadent nobles? Watch out, you might write Sword's Point! And like a shadow over all hangs The Name of the Wind.

So I'm working through all that.

In personal news, this summer brings a change of setting. DM and I have abandoned Long Island for the moment, and are subletting an apartment in Berkeley until early August. It's so wonderful to be around our friends again, and to be able to eat the food we like! I've been taking pictures of the food, in fact. Here are some examples.

Pizza at the Cheeseboard!



Delicious fresh vegetables!



Mexican food at Cancun!!



Cupcakes at Love at First Bite!



Samosas at Vik's!



Mysterious candied fruit confection...at Vik's!



OK GO! at Maker Faire! (Ok, I know, this isn't food. But still!)



And this doesn't even include Gregoire, or when my mom took us to lunch at Chez Panisse. Oh dang. I love this place.

Cold White Blanket

It snowed here! This is my first snow since the year I lived in Yosemite. I like it, for now--I'm cozy and warm in my house, and everything is quiet and beautiful outside. I also spun and knitted myself a cowl.



The snow made for a good chance to see some pretty Christmas lights. One of the standard displays around here is this one. Instead of strings of lights, an electric candle is placed in each window. This looks great on old colonial-style houses with many small, uniform windows. The picture below shows a pretty one. There's also a guy in town who got some horrid dim bluish candles--the house looks more haunted than merry.



This is just a pretty one. Is it too arrogant of me to think this looks a bit like Magritte's Dominion of Light?





Or maybe it's just the lamppost.

Diversions

OK, so now that NaNoWriMo is over, you may be wondering how I pass the time.

Well, I've been going places:





Knitting stuff (mostly socks):





And cooking:



Soon I'll get back to writing, but for now I'm enjoying the break.

My blog needs a new name. Any suggestions?