Lauren Wood has Some Tips for You

My pal Eileen Cook is brilliant. Apparently, she figured out how to bring one of her characters to life: Lauren Wood, from Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood, out in paperback THIS WEEK.

Lauren is offering popularity tips on YouTube:



I also have a tip for you: go buy this book! You will love it, because Eileen is a damn fine writer.

In other news, I am so tired of living in limbo I could projectile vomit. What limbo? First, waiting to get an offer on our house. We just dropped the price, and it's a STEAL. Seriously. It's Detroit-cheap. Do you have two decent cars in your driveway? My house is probably priced less than both of their original costs, combined.

Second, waiting to hear whether my new editor (or the former one, now at a new pub house) would like to publish either of my recently-completed book proposals. This is a special, stomach-twisting kind of purgatory, and there are only so many episodes of Wipeout you can watch as distraction.

Luckily, I am back to work next week and there are Things To Do, Big Time. I also found a new band to love: Dawes: have you heard of them? They're like a cross between Crosby, Stills and Nash and Wilco. (Thank you, final credits of Hung, for the tip!)

And! I've been baking wild things, including Smitten Kitchen's rosemary/Concord grape foccacia bread. It was a tad sour, and I preferred the more traditional tomato/basil/garlic foccacia I also made.

Fall is officially here, so there will be more baking to come. Today? Chocolate-chip banana cake. There is coconut milk in the ingredient list. I can't wait.

Manic Distractions

We had our first open house this past Sunday, and I'm still exhausted from the cleaning and decluttering. We hauled 5 bags to Goodwill and threw out another 5 jumbo contractor-sized bags worth of crap, and I feel like we're just getting started. The idea of packing and moving FOR REAL Y'ALL is kind of freaking me out.

The good news is we had about 10 families come through--and on one of the nicest, sunniest days this month, right before a Packer game. I made cookies, burned scented wax tarts (apple crisp) from my favorite candle company Pure Integrity, and later, J and I binged on ALL of the leftover cookies and felt generally miserable and bloaty. At least I did. Maybe he felt great!

I've been on an online shopping binge lately: tops from modcloth, wild salmon from Vital Choice, vitamins and sundry from VitaCost (did you know you can get MARITAL AIDS along with your Glucosamine supplements? How convenient is that?!), books on amazon (of course), adorable handmade, vintage Halloween decor on Etsy, posters from Zazzle, more candles, and so on.

This is all my futile attempt to distract myself from worrying about the fates of the two book proposals I've recently completed. It's actually a good thing I'm heading back to the office next week. New things to mentally gnaw on!

In the meantime, I'm also trying to convince my husband we need to go see Louis CK at the Pabst Theater this Saturday.