Picking pears

I’ve been working hard on my non-fiction book about creating story bundles/collections, and it’s finally starting to feel like a book!

Up until yesterday I felt like I had a mental block or something. The book felt like a bunch of random bits of information all jammed together, but by the end of the day it had started to feel like an actual book. Hooray!

It may have felt odd initially because this is my first non-fiction book, and for a while it really was just a bunch of bits of information all jammed together. I’d be working on one section, then realize I should add something to a section elsewhere in a book, then remember something I should add to yet another part of the book…it felt very scattered. At this point, all of that seems perfectly logical – it just felt disorganized at the time. But the apparent lack of organization was because I was trying to get a bunch of information out of my head, and in a lot of cases what I wrote down involved things I normally think about or do when putting together a collection, but hadn’t consciously realized I think about or do.

I’m much happier with the manuscript now that it’s coalescing. And I think the next non-fiction book – because I’m sure there will be another, although I have no idea what it will be about – will be much easier after this one.

Here’s my update on new things I’ve learned and experienced in the past week!

Learnings

Pears! And peaches and squash.
I learned what it’s like to pick pears!

Apparently my parents have a very prolific pear tree – or at least it was quite prolific this year. 🙂 I am not sure I even knew they had a pear tree at all!

It turns out they did, and they also have a plum tree, and have – or had – a peach tree. Sadly, this was the first year that the peach tree made a full crop, and that appears to have been too much for it, as it collapsed. It was sad to see the poor, broken tree. But on the plus side, I brought home a bunch of scrumptious peaches!

I went over to my parents house on Saturday to help pick pears, and came home with quite a bounty. These are D’Anjou pears, and even though they’re not quite ripe, they’re still yummy.

My mom’s grandparents had a farm back in Pennsylvania, and she grew up helping them from time to time (or hindering…I’m not sure I have all the facts yet…). She wouldn’t let me use a ladder or a step stool, so we used rakes to pull the branches down toward us so we could reach the pears. The ones on the highest branches were left as a challenge for my sister and her family.

Now I need to figure out what to do with a bunch of pears that will probably all ripen around the same time. 🙂

Experiencings

So fluffy!!!
Rosie and Jasper had their first bath in about a year, and they’re SO FLUFFY!

We actually don’t remember when they last got a bath, which sounds pretty irresponsible… But in the winter they’re out in the snow, and in the summer (or at least the earlier part of the summer) they regularly jump in the nearby creeks. (They’re actually irrigation ditches, but they feel like creeks. And it’s much easier to tell your dog “go jump in the creek” than “go jump in the irrigation ditch.”)

Clean border collies are so cute and fun to pet!!! I keep wanting to pet them, and cuddle with them, and brush them. Neither Rosie nor Jasper are fans of the brushing idea, but I brush them nonetheless.

And yes, I am saving their fur. Someday I hope to have enough to make a scarf or something. 🙂

No, I don’t know how to turn dog fur into yarn. Well, I understand the concept, but am not sure I’d be good at it. But my good friend Kathryn, who does, has won awards for things she’s knitted out of her dogs’ fur – so I know it’s possible!

Kathryn has a herd of alpaca and a number of Tibetan Mastiffs who work as livestock guardians, and protect the alpaca. Her super awesome dogs were recently in a Dogumentary.

If Rosie and Jasper were ever in a Dogumentary, it would almost certainly include tennis balls, pine cones, and a lot of wrassling. 🙂

An extra-clean Jasper by the garden.

Rosie and Jasper won a prize!

Okay, Rosie and Jasper didn’t win a real prize, but the other day when we were hiking a guy ran past us and said they get the prize for being the best behaved dogs on the trail. 🙂 When people run by us, I tell the dogs to move to the side of the trail and wait. Being border collies, they wait obsessively – especially Rosie, who puts on her ‘work face’ and stares at me with a ridiculous amount of concentration. It helps that I’m usually holding a pine cone or two when this happens. The dogs aren’t perfectly behaved, but they are actually really, really good. We only have the occasional mishap, and those usually involve situations like where Jasper’s pine cone is on the ground next to him, and Rosie makes a dash to steal it.

I’ve been super busy, and haven’t gotten much writing done in the past few days between being out of town and prepping for a very fun party – but my next three evenings are free, and I have grand plans!

Here are my updates on new things I’ve learned and experienced in the past week. 🙂

Learnings

In doing research for an upcoming story, I learned that there’s a jet-powered hoverboard in existence! The Flyboard Air has six 250-horsepower turbo engines powered by jet fuel, which the rider carries in a backpack. And it really flies!!!

I personally wouldn’t be comfortable carrying a backpack filled with jet fuel, but I’d probably be terrible at controlling a hoverboard anyway. 🙂

I researched jet packs as well, and learned that they too exist – I just think the hoverboard idea looks more fun. I haven’t yet figured out exactly how all this will manifest in my story. I put together the outline, and will see what happens once I start writing.

Experiencings

I had some friends over for brunch on Sunday, and it was so wonderful to have a pretty backyard to entertain in!

I bought this house seventeen years ago, and while the yard was okay for most of those years, it was nowhere near as welcoming as it is now. Plus it was slowly degenerating over time. I got too busy to pull weeds in the garden…the sprinklers stopped working…patches of dirt appeared in the lawn because the sprinklers weren’t working in spots… It was a mess!

Here’s a photo of Rosie in the hole she and Jasper dug under our yew at the same party last summer. If you look closely you’ll see there’s no grass, just dirt. That’s because our entire yard was scraped last summer except for three trees. We have all new topsoil, grass, and of course all the bushes and flowers and the rest of the trees were planted either last September or this summer. Now it’s so pretty and cozy we’ve spent much more time than normal in our yard over the summer.

And yes, Rosie and Jasper continue to re-dig their hole – and we continue to fill it back in so they can dig it again. 🙂

No writing snippet this week because I haven’t worked on any stories recently. I did put together an outline for my next story, so I know what I’m going to write (unless the story changes once I start writing…which does happen…). I also just got an invitation this evening to participate in a new anthology, so I’ve added another story to my very long to-do list. 🙂

Jasper was tuckered after entertaining guests at our party!

Reading to the dogs

I was invited to join the Uncollected Anthology in the spring, and participated in their most recent anthology, Fairy Tales. The group currently puts out three anthologies each year, and there’s a quarterly conference call to talk about plans, marketing, etc. I volunteered to take over running these calls, and for our most recent meeting I put together the agenda and made sure we went through everything. I realize not everyone would enjoy doing that, but I actually like this kind of thing. And even better: it was a really fun meeting! We talked for a little over an hour, and after the call ended I felt energized and invigorated. It’s a wonderful group of people, and they’re all great writers. I still can’t believe they invited me to join them!

I’m continuing to work on my non-fiction book, and feel better about it after my editor took a quick look at it to help see if I’m on the right track. I thought I was, but sometimes it’s good to get a sanity check – and since this is the first non-fiction book I’ve ever written, I was feeling a little uncertain. She gave me some useful feedback, but overall she liked what I’ve done, so hooray!!!

I’m also finally getting close to publishing the next volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries. I sent out feedback to some of the authors, and have to review their revised manuscripts. Once that’s done I just need to stop fiddling with the cover 🙂 and put it all together.

The monster series I’m editing with DeAnna Knippling is in a similar state. We’re waiting to hear back from a few of the authors, and I still need to look at the latest version of DeAnna’s story (I had a few minor comments when I reviewed it), as well as look at the comments she made on my story. But we’re close!!!

And now, as promised, here’s an update on new things I’ve learned and experienced in the past week!

Learnings

My husband and I have made tentative plans to take a trip to Italy. I say ‘tentative’ because we don’t know exactly where we’ll go, nor when – but we are definitely going! I’m starting to brush up on my Italian, and have begun reading I 100 Luoghi del Mistero (100 mysterious places) to Rosie and Jasper at bedtime. They enjoy being read to, probably mostly because this also involves them getting petted. And this is a fun way for me to work on my speaking and comprehension skills, so it’s a win-win!

To be clear, I have never been fluent in Italian, so when I say “brush up my skills” I really mean “try to remember what little I know and learn a little more.” I’ll be happy if I can ask for directions to the restroom and understand the response. Last time I was in Italy I successfully asked this question, but got confused by the answer. Fortunately I managed to find the restroom nonetheless.

Experiencings

I’m at Devil’s Thumb Ranch right now! Here’s the view of the Indian Peaks Wilderness and the James Peak Wilderness, to the east of the ranch. My house is somewhere over that way. 🙂

This is a work trip, but it’s all fun and no work. Yes, I brought a computer – but it’s my personal computer, and I brought it so I can do some writing. I’ve never been here before, and this place is fantastic. The weather could be a little better – it’s cloudy right now, and rained an hour or so ago, but it was sunny for a good stretch after we got here. And it’s beautiful even with the clouds. The only negative is that I’m only here for one night. 🙂

No writing sample this week, since I’ve been focusing on the non-fiction book. My goal is to put together the outline of a new short story while I’m at the ranch and, if I have time, I’ll start on the manuscript. This story is due on September 15th, which seems like a long ways away, but I’ve learned I should never get complacent (although I sometimes do anyway…) because things always seem to take longer than expected, and unexpected things pretty much always come up. I will put my thinking cap on right after I finish this post – and maybe I’ll get some ideas from the book I’m reading to Rosie and Jasper. 🙂