Five For Friday (Including some random thoughts on Captain Ahab)

Well, my goal to post more each month got blown out of the water in June now, didn't it? That's what three road trips and a bunch of work and trying to finish a manuscript and remodel the bathroom and slog through 95 degree plus days all month long will do to a girl.

So back at it and here you go with a quick Friday Five of things that are making me happy even if the world seems a giant trash fire most days.

1. Had a great time last month at ABA Children's Institute! Learned a bunch. Caught up with some of my favorite publishing folks. Met some new fabulous folk. Got to speak on a panel. Ate a bunch of yummy New Orleans food, much of it provided by publisher dinners. (As a mid-list author I am not always on the publisher 'family dinner' invite list. As the children's buyer at an indie, I am sitting at the table while the waiter asks me filet or fish and I am beyond thankful to get to rub elbows and drink a bit o' wine.) Bonded with the Brazos gang as we drove through a torrential downpour most of the way from Houston to NOLA.

2. The bathroom remodel folks were able to put up the new recessed lighting I have wanted for like 10 years. Nothing else in there is done, but the lighting is kick ass!

3. The homemade hot chocolate and mini churros at Xochi in Houston. Do I even have to elaborate?

4. The new season of YOUNGER. If you are not watching, you need to be watching.

5. The sweet earnestness of THE BOLD TYPE.

Also, I am slogging through Moby Dick, a chapter or two a night. It's our store summer book club read and although I am not in charge and don't have to read, I thought I would attempt. It is different than I remembered when I didn't finish it the first time. It is still long-winded to the extreme. I am still skimming long passages and am none the worse for doing so. But Ishmael and Queegqueg are quite the buddies and some of it is really funny (although possibly not intentionally so) and so onward I go.  No clue when I'll finally meet Ahab. At this pace I'd imagine he doesn't appear until around page 150, but I could be wrong about that. I'll let you know.

Til next time.

Five for Friday

First Friday in February!
Here's five things on mind:

1. Just 3 months plus a few days until May 17th, pub day for IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS ! I am seriously so excited about this book. Because accidental immortality and murder mystery and star-crossed romance and a forever-seventeen-year-old girl named Emma who ends up a hard-boiled private eye but refuses to stop searching for the boy she loves. His name is Charlie. And oh my gosh, you guys, Emma and Charlie. Plus a down at the heels detective named Pete Mondragon. And did I say Emma and Charlie?? Please be on the lookout!

2. Obsessed with the musical HAMILTON. Have listened to the cast recording a zillion times. Have checked the bio it's based on from the library. I admit that I HAD NO IDEA. Because somewhere I was assigned the Federalist papers and I never could make my way through it. And now I just look at a ten dollar bill and I'm all gooey and teary-eyed because THIS STORY! Lin-Manuel Miranda is a freaking genius. Those tickets for the Broadway show are impossible to get for a reason. (seriously! Even my own sort of BIG CONNECTION,  the one who can get anything, really, even she couldn't promise me access to tickets for the next time I'm going to be in NYC. ) But HAMILTON. Listen to it!!

3. Have lots of things to say about the current presidential campaign but this is not the place to say them. At least not in this particular post.

4. Current TV obsessions: YOUNGER on TVLand, which is not a perfect show but definitely has a lot to say about the publishing world, some of which is occasionally right on the money. and a lot to say about what it means to be a middle-aged woman in this country even now in 2016 when we should know better but we really don't. Plus it stars Sutton Foster who is so talented and brilliant that I would watch her in pretty much anything, including the far-too-soon cancelled Boneheads of a few years back.  Still hanging in there with SUPERGIRL and trying to catch up with iZOMBIE. And if you read this blog, you know that's just some of it. And did I mention that season 2 of TRANSPARENT on Amazon Prime is absolutely perfect and moving and so utterly watchable??

5. Since the McAllen book festival in November, I've had this THING for enchiladas with mole sauce. Holy cow I love that stuff.

And okay, I have so much more to say about so very many things, but I need to write 1,000 words this morning.

Tim next time...