some days I miss nyc

Some days I get a slight tingle in my gut and a twist in my heart and I start missing New York City. Some nights I have dreams that I still live there in my tiny, shoebox West Village apartment, and I wake up feeling confused and sad. Where are the taxis blowing their horns, the rumble of the subway under the streets, the cool breeze drifting off the Hudson River? The quiet of the museums and the serenity of Central Park? I miss those things some days. That's when I break out old photos and reminisce.

I found these photos in an old email from my dad, known as photo pops here. I used to work down the street from Bryant Park. In the summers I'd take my lunch and sit out at one of the tables - if I was lucky to find an empty table - and I'd read a book or write my book on the huge, 50 pound laptop that I used to lug to work every day. I never could get over the reflection coming off the glass building across the street from the park on 42nd Street. I mentioned it once to my dad who was visiting and he took a picture. Instantly it became a favorite.

bicycle mishap

Lately, I've been borrowing my sister's bike to ride to work, but on Sunday I discovered that riding a man's bike is not really working out for me. Newsflash: skirts + men's bike frame = predictable mishap.

I may have almost had my skirt wrapped over the bike seat whilst my leg was in the air which almost brought me and the bike down to the pavement in a slightly embarrassing tumble while tourists and other passerby were strolling down a busy street. I may have almost had that happen to me. So I've been shopping around for a proper ladies bike, if you will, which should help keep me from developing some sort of reputation around the small town where I live.

These are the bikes that I've got my eye on.

I must admit, this red bike is probably more my style. The handlebars look more comfortable and you can't really go wrong with red, right? Next up, I'll need to get me some lights and a fancy basket or two for carrying Sadie and perhaps some wine...who am I kidding... definitely some wine.

silence and chapter - ugh - one

Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins

It's happening again. I'm editing Chapter One of my book Trevelyn's Shimmer. Yes. I know, I know. I'm insane. But it had to happen! I changed the age of my main character, Marie. In one morning she graduated from fifth-grade to sixth and Landon, the curious/popular boy who occasionally makes fun of her but also sticks up for her at the same time, has moved from fifth to seventh-grade. Thanks writing buddy for your suggestions (FYI-she's as bad as me).

So that is what I have been working on. I finally got all the way to chapter fourteen with revisions, only to go back to the start - the dreaded chapter one. Since then it's been three weeks, three weeks of stop and go, stop and go, and too many cups of Trader Joe's Duchess Gray tea while I mold chapters one and two into something decent - hopefully decent.

Sadie and I have also moved again to a region known for producing wine, lots and lots of wine. And I've taken a job that involves pouring lots and lots of wine. I'm also involved with the general public in more ways than anyone ever really wants to be, but this has given me lots of material for characters and future books. Thank you general public for being so entertaining.

Nothing else of much interest has been going on except, oh, well except that I was excited to hear that J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit is going forward with production to be made into a movie. And, on an even more exciting note, I have taken to tweeting over on Twitter. Who knew a whole world of informative 150 word tweets could be so interesting and time-consuming? But they are, and that is just one more excuse for me not to have posted anything new on my blog for almost one month.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to go upstairs and chain myself to my desk so that I actually finish writing this darn book! Two months to go until the Delacorte writing contest people! Writing buddy and I promised each other that we'd make it happen. Finishing our manuscripts to enter that contest, that is, and maybe, just maybe...winning.