hi. it’s me and i’m pooks and i spilled iced tea on my macBook Air yesterday and one shift key isn’t working right now. since this is a very bizzy day, i’m not going to fight it. So let’s turn this into a game.

Which shift key isn’t working?

okay, i didn’t say it was a hard game. or even a fun game. So, sue me.

Anyway, here’s the thing. i feel like a very unloyal fangirl. i discovered a new writer who writes urban fantasy set in london, and damn i love this stuff. Ben Aaronovich, author of Rivers of london aka midnight Riot in the us, and if you click here you will see where i complained about the us habit of changing covers and titles which is rarely for the good. Feel free to go look and compare and come back and let me know what you think. i’ll wait.

Back? Good. okay, so here is what makes me a bad fangirl.

• What are you currently reading?

i’m reading Fabric of Sin by phil Rickman. What makes me a bad fangirl? Well, after falling in love — in LOVE — with Ben Aaronovich and his fabulous world of river gods and goddesses in modern day london, after reading one single book in that universe, i meandered over to his blog and saw what he was currently reading at that time and went, huh, that sounds interesting. And that is how i discovered phil Rickman. And i am now reading the ninth book in his merrily Watkins series and haven’t made it to book two of Ben Aaronovich’s series.

ooops.

But. Aha. i have! i’m listening to it on audiobook. moon over Soho quickly caught me up into its web, and here i am nestled in all the glorious yumminess of two authors i love, two authors i admire, two authors whose twist of phrase and imagination dig deep into the corners of ‘what i love.’

They are a rare pair, in that i want to both listen to their books and read their books, and will eventually own all of their books in audio and on kindle both.

• What did you recently finish reading?

i finished our own Deborah j Ross’s new epic fantasy, The Seven-petaled Shield. it’s a wonderful epic fantasy, and her portrayal of the stories of a young queen and her young man son caught me up in it, ending on a note that left me longing for the next book in the series NOW.

I also read Sold for Endless Rue, by BVC’s madeleine E. Robins. This sounds like shameless plug o’ BVC time, but i can’t do anything but be honest, and these are the last two books i read, and i can happily recommend them both. Sold for Endless Rue is a story told in three parts, with three different points of view, that quite literally left me gasping at one point because i seriously Did not See That Coming. [This is because i hadn't read the synopsis on Amazon. Seriously, if you want the best reading experience for this book, don't read a word of that synopsis. just buy the damned book and read it. Such spoilers!]

• What do you think you’ll read next?

i’m doing something very hard. i’m reading an old book from my backlist, because it will be coming out later this summer and i’m doing edits on it. it’s so very hard to reread books i wrote many years ago because i keep seeing things that should have been done better, and it’s always a relief when somebody else has done the first read for me (thank you, jen stevenson) and reassured me that it’s not utter shite. Am i convincing you that you want to read it yet?

coming july 17 from BVC

Well, it has a pretty new cover, that’s for sure! Which raised the cover debate–do i get a cover that looks more like romance covers are supposed to look ‘today’ and romance heroines are supposed to look ‘today’ or do i choose one that speaks to my heart, instead? And my answer is… well, you tell me.

Also a shout out to mj Butler of Twisted mojo for the cover design. And if you want to watch some really funny stuff, his award-winning comedy The lonely Astronaut is a great place to start!

cross-posted at Book View Cafe’s blog.

Go to work on the edits that are due oh-sometime-soonish.

Fiddle more with CreateSpace for my first attempt at POD.

Write some on the not-a-prologue.

Fill a fountain pen with ink to be ready for all the work.

Amongst other things.

I spilled iced tea across my MacBook Air.

All hail the genius of solid state engineering and Apple! It dried out.

One of my shift keys isn’t working. So far, that’ the only prob and maybe it will start working soon.

So much for best laid plans. it’s time to leave Robbie Burns behind and follow the philosophy of Scarlett.

Tomorrow is another day.

(What? You thought I was going to say fiddledeedee?)

In the meantime, here is something pretty to look at.

Meet Cecil. Coming to Amazon and Book View Cafe July 17, 2013!

I think I just accidentally trashed the harvest monday report from 5-27. Ooops. Can’t find it now. If I do, I’ll add it back.

Did I say ooops?

Well, okay. Moving right along…

Yes, I have been gardening, even though I haven’t reported in.  For the record, this is a very small colander. See the size of the green beans? And they aren’t large ones. I am thrilled to have this one. It’s a great size for a lot of things. I’m also slowly getting rid of anything not metal. I don’t trust plastics and silicones, no matter how safe they supposedly are. Glass, stainless steel–those things I trust.

provider beans 5-29-2013
About half ended up sauteed for lunch Sunday, 6-2. Yum.

carrots 5-30-2013
The dragon carrots (red) are gorgeous! Small round-ish ones are Paris market. I can’t remember what the plain orange are.

second tomato–I don’t count them really because I bought this vine with green tomatoes already on it. seems like cheating. still tastes good!

Japanese eggplant 6-2-2013
marinated and grilled, but wasn’t too please with the results. anybody got a good recipe?

I’m particularly pleased with this female squash. Tiny, as you can tell, since this was the day it bloomed. but here’s the thing. it was the first bloom on this vine–female! fortunately I had a lot of males blooming on other plants so was able to fertilize it. I may pick it tomorrow. It’s also the only squash I have growing right now.

Great harvest already. Don’t expect any more beans for awhile, since I picked almost all of them and now I have to wait for more. But hopefully the squash will start coming, and more eggplant, tomatoes and… lots of stuff.

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