Year of Consistency – Week 3
Time for my weekly check-in! I wrote this up last night (Wed) but was having some website issues, so it’s a little late. BUT guess what? I finished reading a book AND had that super fun dinner with my friend tonight! Hooray!
Writing: I sent my revised pages for IVY to Agent Jim yesterday! Not Monday, but…Monday-adjacent? I now have six chapters that I’m really, really excited about. I talked about this on Twitter a bit, but it’s very strange after a whole trilogy and four years of writing in Cate’s voice to try to write in someone else’s. Ivy’s voice is part regional dialect (Eastern Shore of Maryland), part staccato bluntness because that’s how she rolls, and part pretty figurative language because she’s a big reader and – despite her attempts to be super sensible and practical – a very imaginative girl. And it’s contemporary, and she cusses kind of a lot. I feel like I know Cate (and her sisters and Finn and Sachi and Rory and Rilla) so well; I know what they’d do and what they’d say in lots of situations. It’s uncomfortable and sometimes frustrating not to know Ivy and Connor and Alex and Erica and Isobel and Granddad yet. But it’s also exciting. So, now I’m working on the synopsis. As someone who doesn’t outline, I loathe writing synopses with the fury of a thousand suns. But I’m trying.
Reading: Big fail on this front! I’ve been staying up late writing, which cancels out my typical before-bed reading time. I did start reading Laini Taylor’s novella NIGHT OF CAKE AND PUPPETS, which is lovely. And I read a bunch of poetry because one of my new characters has poem tattoos and I’m trying to figure out which poems! I’m going to do a post rounding up some of my favorite new poems soon.
Business: Eep. I think I’m slowly accepting that I will never be as caught up on email as I’d like to be. But teaching my class this semester is going really well! The mom of one of my students told me that they were going away to their cabin in WV for the three-day weekend and my little writer refused to leave until after class on Friday because she didn’t want to miss class. How cute is that?
Health: I walked for four hours last week! It’s a little short of my goal (five) but a huge improvement over the previous week. And I kept on track with counting points (I’m doing Weight Watchers). This is pretty awesome because one of the things I’m trying to be more conscious of is eating better while I’m on deadlines and not being such an emotional eater. I’m totally a person who gets all, I’m stressed! I’m having a bad day! I deserve a cookie. I would like to get out of the habit of using food as a reward or a comfort.
Cooking: I didn’t cook much last week outside of soup, but I made LOTS of soup. Last week’s was a gingery vegetable broth with soba noodles and bok choy. The recipe called for mushrooms, but I hate mushrooms so I substituted in broccoli and added carrots and onions for more vegetables, and it was good! Not crazy flavorful – I love ginger and would have liked more of it – but some sriracha sauce helped. I’d give it a 3/5 and The Playwright gave it a 4/5. I also made this week’s soup early. It’s kind of weird – more like a soupy casserole – layered rye bread, cabbage, and gruyere baked with veggie broth with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. It was actually too cheesy for me (and a billion points), so I gave it a 1.5, but The Playwright has promised to eat the rest and he gives it a 3.5.
Social/Other: Also a bit of a fail. Not my fault, though! The snow (we had 5″ here in DC yesterday) got in the way of my weekly dinner date with my BFF. But I’ve got plans with friends tomorrow and Friday! And The Playwright and I played a rousing game of Chrononauts on Friday night and watched the football playoffs together on Sunday.
Overall, I feel like this week was really good. I only wish I’d fit in more reading.
What about you? How did your week go?
Therein lies the trouble – the bedtime hours are the best for reading and for writing – it's tough to do both! I think I like Ivy already!
That's cute about the little girl not wanting to leave until after class! Mine is 7 and we're taking her out of school for a week to take her to disney soon because my husband is deployed and will be home super soon, and she's like "uhm, I'm going to miss school . . . " HA! She could be friends with your student 🙂
A mushroom hater! My best friend's whole family (she's one of 6 kids, one of whom is a trained CIA chef) hates mushrooms. Weirdos, all of you 😉
Four hours of walking is great! Here's one of my favorite soup recipes – http://www.isitvegan.com/2011/10/22/arabian-lenti… – the lemon is key, don't skimp on lemon. I usually up the coriander a tiny smidge too. And it's hard to be social when it's cold! Or hot. Hmmm… 🙂
My week got off track b/c my cold/flu/whatever came back and since I'm not breathing amazingly well I didn't get most of my workouts in, but my diet stayed on track pretty well. There are now girl scout cookies in the house and I haven't eaten any of them (sadly/happily we live in a part of the country where our regional baker has vegan thin mints, pb patties, thanks a lots, and lemonades). I find with eating I can't really give myself any leeway. Like, if I eat one cookie, why not 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever. Alas.
Oops, catching up on comments & just realized I never responded to this! Thanks for the lentil soup recipe! That sounds fantastic – I'll have to make it as a bonus soup sometime this winter! I totally know what you mean about not being able to just eat one or two cookies. I've never been able to either but now I'm really trying!
Is your husband home now? I hope you have a fabulous reunion & an awesome time at DisneyWorld!
He is home now! And thank you 🙂
That first soup sounds delicious! I've made many soups with ginger before.
I bet you're a great teacher!
Aw, thank you! I'm always trying to be a better teacher. Every week I feel like there was something I could have done better. But I hear that is typical!