Odds & Ends

Every ounce of my creative energy is being sucked into my new novel, which is probably the hardest thing I've ever written. New genre, multiple POV characters, major world-building....but great fun. So to keep from horribly neglecting the blog, I'll be featuring some fabulous weekly author interviews and giveaways over the next month with Dana Bate, Dina Silver, Brenda Janowitz, Samantha Stroh-Bailey, and more. Stay tuned, y'all!

What I'm reading:
Laurie Notaro's latest, The Potty Mouth at the Table.

What I'm watching:
We just saw World War Z, and I was pleasantly surprised! A smart take on the zombie genre.

What I'm listening to:
Anything and everything eighties on Spotify.

What I'm eating:
Yesterday I made a pan of homemade granola bars:  Melt 1/2 cup agave syrup that the elderly bagger made fun of me for buying, 1/4 cup brown rice syrup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup coconut oil in a small saucepan on the stove. Pour it over the following, which you've dumped in a large bowl: 2 cups oatmeal, 1 cup Rice Crispies, 1/3 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup coconut shreds, 1/3 cup dried cranberries, 1/3 cup pepitas, 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, 1/4 cup hulled hemp seed, and 1/4 cup chia seeds. Mix well. (It was kind of a hodgepodge of everything I had in the cupboard.) Press into a 9x12 greased Pyrex pan, bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and cut into bars when cool. Try not to inhale them all in one sitting.

Adorable things my two-year-old niece said recently:
"Come on guys, it's time o'clock!"

And, about Daisy: "Him so cute!"

Deceptively adorable.

The 2013 season of Monarch ranching is also underway:

See those teeny white specks on the flower buds and leaves? In four weeks, they'll be Monarch butterflies, with any luck. (It took me only five years, but I finally learned how to use the macro feature of my camera.)

We're also on Week Two of our CSA pick-ups--strawberries, kohlrabi, sugar snap peas, lettuce, asparagus, potatoes ... and I've got to cut this blog short because J wants to drag me down to South Park to a car show. Which, as you all know, I'm hugely into.