And for my next trick, I will disappear.

Just kidding, already did that. Sorry to be off the blogosphere so long. Since returning from New York, I've been completely swamped with dog show and manual labor of the gardening variety.

Speaking of the Big Apple, it was amazing. We had a bit of a whirlwind trip, but managed to see Agent M, the Delightful Editor, my brother and sister-in-law and the new baby nephew (who is constructed entirely out of marshmallows), and a dear old friend from high school. We also ate some sinfully delicious food and once again navigated the subway system like a couple of professionals (except that one time...).

It was wonderful to see the Delightful Editor face-to-face, after working with her for nearly a year. We met up twice--once to get a weensy bit of work done, and once to relax and get acquainted. She brought with her the... I can't remember exactly what they're called... the interiors? the guts? of the book--all printed up on 11"x17" paper and typeset and everything. The chapter breaks are these beautiful little graphics that tie into the cover and I'm in luv.

Agent M was great as usual. We talked about American Idol, which for the record is not a show I would have ever pegged him for. But we got all the way up to, "You won't believe who got voted off!" and then somehow the conversation veered away, and only lying in bed late that night staring up at the ceiling did I realize that I still didn't know who it was.

Thursday, the husb and I went to Borders to see Eileen Cook and Lisa Daily (Lisa's link plays music, for those of you surfing on the job) at their book signing. I already owned Eileen's book, Unpredictable, on my Amazon Kindle, but since I didn't think the folks at Borders would appreciate me bringing it in and explaining in the middle of their store how fun and kewl it is, I went ahead and procured a hard copy of the book. Both of the books, in fact--Lisa's book, Fifteen Minutes of Shame, looks hilarious and I will break it open soon.

We had a good laugh over potential inscriptions. A lot of people get books signed generically and then sell them on eBay, did you know that? So I was saying, "Sign it, 'To Grandma.'" Oh ho ho. We authors are a riotous lot!

And Eileen and I posed for a photo together, so here's a look at us (I'm the sweaty one on the left... is it bad form to show up at a book signing all huffy and puffy?)... click the image for a larger photo:



It was a great weekend, and the flights were great because we flew Virgin America, which is really fun and cool. You can order food on your little tv-screen thing and they bring it right to you! Although the ticket agent committed (to me) the unforgivable sin of letting us get all excited about an exit row without bothering to mention that the seats didn't recline. Usually they bring that up. Oh well.

So work has been nuts, but good, and our backyard construction is almost finished, so soon I'll post about my adventures in the rustic life. As it is, I think this post is going to be quite long, so I'll break it off now.

Happy Monday!

Tagged by Tom...

Tom has tagged me with a meme to blog about blogs I enjoy reading. To begin with, why don't you hop on over to see him? He posts very interesting things along with occasional links to quizzes that teach you strange things about yourself.

I'm going to change things up and spotlight one blog from each "category". (Yes, I have my RSS feeds all divided up into categories.)

From the category "Crafty"...
Laura of Sew at Sea has been cracking me up lately. I'd say the blog is part sewing, part hilarious self-deprecating humor. And dear Hans puts up with all of it.

From the category "Blogpeeps"...
Maggie of Maggsbunny has a lot going on right now, from being involved in medical trials (with good results, so far!) to getting her (dun dun DUN) driver's license. She lives in South Africa, so she may prefer the spelling "licence", but I'm not sure. I do know 100% that people in South Africa have to wear gravity shoes to keep from falling off the planet, seeing as how they're upside down and all. Maggie has yet to blog about her gravity shoes.

From the category "Pub"...
The Debutante Ball is a website for debut authors. That's where I met many of the wonderful women on my blogroll--women like Eileen Cook.

From the category "Writers"...
Therese of Making it up
I think I met Therese because Miss Snark linked to her at some point...? Anyway, her blog is always fun and interesting and full of great info for writers. Unlike my advice, which mostly concerns which color of shoes to wear so as not to clash with your MacBook Air, Therese dispenses useful and interesting advice about words and story.

So, there you go. TAG! Actually, I can't really tag a group blog like The Debutant Ball, but at least they'll feel the love.

In other news... If you're looking for spring (okay, late winter) reading material, might I suggest the debut novels of aforementioned authors Therese and Eileen... (These images conveniently link to Amazon.com for you.)

The ski report.

I have been a busy bee this week! It just figures that things calm down Monday morning... just in time to start up a brand new work week.

Skiing was fun, although we didn't do a ton of skiing, owing to the crowds on Saturday and the weather on Sunday. Friday was great, though--we got up early, rented our equipment, and I reported to Ski School to take the Just For Women ski class. It was divided up by skill level, and I was with only one other person, with an instructor all to ourselves. In this class, I was told, we approach problems of skiing from a woman's POV. For instance, instead of saying, "You're a terrible skier and you should just go home," the other girl at my beginner level said, "I think I'd better go join the intermediate class."

I knew I was in trouble when, after being instructed to meet outside so we could do some stretches, I got outside the little cable car building (we call it the "Funitel", for some reason) and couldn't find anyone I recognized. Finally, I saw the group of them across the hill, warming up. At this point there was just one little problem: I couldn't even figure out how to get my skis on. And just supposing I managed to figure that out, there remained the very terrifying idea of actually moving around on skis in the snow.

Because skis--you'll never believe this--are slippery! And when combined with snow and a hill, they have the disturbing quality of actually moving one down the hill. At which time one is forced to plummet over into the snow and start crying and saying that one wants to go back to the Irish pub and drown one's sorrows with a pint of cider.

So picture: me, marooned, waving my arms around, trying to get someone's attention. Finally, one of the instructors saw me, and all of the instructors powwowed, and you just know all the other women were thinking enlightened and supportive thoughts about me at this point. Especially the instructor who had to ski back uphill to fetch me. "You go, girl!" was clearly written all over her face as she huffed and puffed and did the little sideways stair-climb thing among the crowds of out-of-control skiers on the beginner hill.

Skis on, I slowly went across the hill, which was terrifying, to meet my instructor and my fellow beginner. Her issue, it turned out, was that when she lived in a ski cabin last winter? And went skiing every day? She would start going fast and get scared. As you can imagine, she just loved being saddled with me. It took about four minutes of me snowplowing miserably around trees trying to get to a ski lift for her to decide that she was ready to push herself to the next level.

So that left me and my instructor, all alone together. We'll call her Patty, because that's actually her name and frankly I don't see how it could come back to haunt her. Patty is a great teacher. I learned a lot from Patty about flexing the ankles and digging in and all that. Patty was also immensely supportive in a way that began to feel a little like I was being put on. I mean, I'm no slouch, but I don't think snowplowing horizontally across a beginner slope qualifies as a "gift". Bless her heart, though, because she was as patient as a saint.

After a morning of private instruction, we went to lunch and watched videos of ourselves skiing. I got to go first, because we got there first. I shall try to paint a picture with words:

Off in the distance is a small gray figure. Now it begins to move. No, wait--it's not moving--oh, wait, yes it is. It's moving in a perfect horizontal line. See the mastery of technique here--those shoulders hunched all the way up to the ears. The hands and ski poles held forward as if the figure is trying to grab a very small person by the lapels. The skis achieving a flawless pizza-shaped wedge.

Is the figure really moving? Ah yes. There it is. It's just that it's going so slowly that any hint of movement strikes one as an optical illusion. Slowly, slowly, making decisive horizontal slashes across the nearly slopeless hill, the figure draws nearer. Each crosswise motion is punctuated by a panicked turn, like the bounce of a double-hinged kitchen door, as the figure realizes that it has run out of sideways terrain.

Forty-five minutes later, the cameragirl has fallen asleep and the gray figure putters to a stop near the SLOW sign.

"Oh, WOW! You have a GIFT!" the instructor cries, delighted.

...to be continued...

PS - I will answer all comments soon, I swear!

PPS - In book news, The Girl Least Likely, which is getting a new title, has gone into copyedits. Hurrah!

PPPS - My Amazon Kindle is set to arrive tomorrow, and the first book I want to buy for it is Eileen Cook's Unpredictable. Eileen is hilarious and she posted the opening of the book on her blog a while back and it was hilarious. Also, this cover is sure to make my "Favorite Covers of 2008" list, due out in January 2009. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. I feel a kinship with Eileen because we both had our pub dates pushed back into the next year.

A strange combination of slacking and not slacking.

I hesitate to apologize for my scarceness, because I don't know if anyone has really felt my absence very keenly (except my lovely mother).

It's the kind of thing I guess you don't announce in advance on your blog, but we went to Seattle last weekend (Bainbridge Island, to be exact) for a family wedding. It was really sweet, and it was really something for me to be someplace where everyone dresses in the soothing colors of the forest. I wore a yellow shirt one day and felt like the Easter Bunny.

(Speaking of maritime Washington, I've just finished Pat Wood's Lottery, and I highly enjoyed it. Speaking of fellow blogger books I've read, last weekend in Washington I scooped up Robin Brande's Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature and also highly enjoyed it. It's been a great week for blogger books!)

Since we got back, I have been dealing with Winston's mysterious bowel ailment (I will mercifully omit any details), which means being up 4-5 times a night to take him outside and then getting to the vet in the morning. Fortunately, the diagnosis has been made and the treatment is helping and last night he slept the WHOLE night, which felt like a blanket of blessings to me. Today may be the first day I'm not completely dazed.

I'm on hiatus now, which is fantastic and wonderful, even though we're pretty busy on the weekends. I am devoting much time to revising my book and to sewing. I've found that traditional slacker activities, like zoning out in front of the tv, don't hold much appeal. Oddly, the only show I can bring myself to watch is America's Next Top Model. This has always been my laundry-folding show, and luckily I had so much laundry and organizing to do yesterday that I was able to get through most of the marathon I found. I feel weird about being so susceptible to that particular show, but what can you do?

I'm still making my way around the blogosphere, but I'm slower than usual (although as Gram says in Lottery, there's nothing wrong with being slow). The first bit of hiatus is always spent in a kind of whole-body, whole-mind exhale, and I guess that's what I'm doing.

Happy Sunday!

Fellow blogger book release! Pat Wood's LOTTERY...

Congratulations to my sister blogger Patricia "Pat" Wood on the much-trumpeted and eagerly awaited release of her debut novel, LOTTERY.

Perry's IQ is only 76, but he's not stupid. His grandmother taught him everything he needs to know to survive: She taught him to write things down so he won't forget them. She taught him to play the lottery every week. And, most important, she taught him whom to trust. When Gram dies, Perry is left orphaned and bereft at the age of thirty-one. Then his weekly Washington State Lottery ticket wins him 12 million dollars, and he finds he has more family than he knows what to do with. Peopled with characters both wicked and heroic who leap off the pages, Lottery is a deeply satisfying, gorgeously rendered novel about trust, loyalty, and what distinguishes us as capable.

I pre-ordered mine and anticipate its arrival any minute now. If this book is written with anything approaching the humor, humility, and subtlety of Pat's blog, it's sure to be a bestseller. Although it's pretty much sure to be a bestseller anyway. Everyone and his brother is behind this book. Tremendous publisher support and lots of attention from the news media. Why, Pat even had to buy a phone to do radio interviews from the laundry room at her Oahu... uh... place where she parks her yacht. Like a trailer park for people with yachts, I suppose. And a crazy woman holed up in the laundry room doing radio interviews.

So order one (the picture above links to Amazon) or, better yet, go into your local bookstore and grab one before they're all snatched up. Or demand that they order one for you if they're already all snatched up.

The only other thing I have to say is, if you see one flea on your dog, that means there are approximately 4 million other fleas on your dog. And you should probably just make the appointment for the flea bath and then let him sleep in the bed anyway, because then the fleas will bite him, not hop inside your clothing and blanket you with flea bites.

I can't stop scratching myself. I look like a monkey.

Happy Thursday!