A lazy week at the church, doing puzzles, watching The Chosen, reading Ann Patchett, and taking long walks. My friend Sheri, whom I've known since kindergarten (we had chicken pox together at age 5), is visiting, as she does almost every year. We've wandered the ReStore and dollar store, poked around Peavey's (so sorry to see it closing! Now where will I daydream of being a beekeeper?), and hopefully today we're going to see a friend's newly-hatched chicks. Sheri's taken on the task of feeding me all week, teaching me to make some new low-carb dishes, including a cauliflower-crust pizza last night with caramelized onions, arugula, mushrooms, and cheese. I've also been basically sugar-free all week. The trick will be to continue this trend when I go back home, where there are men to feed who expect pasta and potatoes.
I turned in another manuscript last week to the publisher, and now I'm in that delicious period between books, when ideas percolate and I sort out what I want to write next. This has been the perfect space and pace to consider it. I have an inkling of what's coming, and I do know the main character will have a Snack Box, in which she puts all the treats and chocolate she wants. She allows herself one piece, and then she locks the box and mails herself the key. It takes a week for it to arrive via snail mail. When it does, she unlocks the box, allows herself one more piece, relocks it, and mails herself the key again. Thus she maintains her diet.
