The Friday Five!

Man, we were crazy in the eighties.

1. So we’re ten days into November, and I feel like my world has narrowed ONLY to working on this book. Each day, I wake up thinking about it. At the end of the day, I collapse into bed with it still on my mind. In between, there is school drop off and pickup, feeding dogs and filling bird feeders, coming up with what to have for dinner (again). I’m now on a year plus of just writing, without any of the other stuff my job used to involve, like editing or doing events and festivals. Plus this week, our road has been undergoing roadwork, so I haven’t been leaving the house much. The upshot is it’s getting a LITTLE bit like the Shining around here. I know this will work out, somehow, hopefully without me going full-out rage on my family and dying (or not) in the snow. But I really need a Target run or something this weekend.

2. When writing is like this—-an endless, unfinished slog, day in, day out—-I find myself drawn to things I can finish. Organizing drawers. Taking stuff to Goodwill. I get very focused on manageable beginnings, middle and ends. Lately, my minis have been serving this purpose, giving me a certain solace and closure. I I may not be able to say if I’ll ever sell this book or (oh dear God) publish again. But I can sort little tiny food into categories and give myself the comfort of completion. Thank goodness.

3. One of the few places I have been this week is my local indie, Flyleaf Books, where I grabbed the latest Ann Patchett (barely begun, already incredible) and signed a special order for a customer. They are used to seeing all kinds of requests come in, but this one got their attention as the requested inscription had the F word, and they weren’t sure I’d be comfortable with it. Turns out it was a quote from Just Listen, about Owen’s rings: one says Go F—- Yourself, and the other Or, not. “It’s nice to have options,” he says. They asked for that, too. It is so funny that over fourteen books and almost thirty years (!) I continue to be surprised and flattered by what resonates with people. Even if it does involve a curse word. If you are interested in a personalized copy of any of my books—-for the holidays, or any other time—-you can get info on ordering from Flyleaf here.

4. As mentioned above, I’ve been really into birds lately. This started when I was working on the previous book, in which they were big thematically and featured in the title. OH I love this book so much. I was so hoping right now I’d be deep in editing it with someone awesome, dreaming of covers and pub dates. Alas, no. But still, is like my thirteenth floor. Even if no one ever sees it, I know it’s there, and I am reminded each time I see birds. Especially amazing ones like this.

5. Finally, this morning I stood and watched as my daughter, now 16, backed my car out of the garage and drove down the driveway, with my husband riding beside her. She went slowly and carefully, and yet still, my stomach was in knots. And this is from the breezeway! I don’t know why this freaks me out so much, especially considering how we came up with our licenses. A semester of Driver’s Ed. A few hours with instruction with Coach Young which basically entailed taking him to get coffee, his mail, and run other errands). Then, the minute you turned sixteen, if you passed the tests you got a license. I knew people who wrecked the FIRST day, you guys. Now, it’s a graduated thing, with levels and hours and so much more. I was so different from my daughter, hanging out with people much older than me, seeing things I shouldn’t. A lot of danger, much of which seemed like fun at the time. Dear God, we were so young and unsupervised. Hopefully I will get to a point where seeing my kid behind the wheel won’t make me think of all this. Ideally, before I am the one riding shotgun. Fingers crossed.

Have a good day, everyone!

ps. I must share that I at first I could not remember the name of my Driver’s Ed teacher. That led me to pulling out my sophomore yearbook to look for him, which sent me down an entire rabbit hole of classmates who have passed and how we could SMOKE CIGARETTES AT SCHOOL, among other things. I got so wrought up I had to go outside and look at trees. Writing this blog is always a surprise!