Inspiration in a...

cornfield.

Yep, that's right. A cornfield. Hey, it's Sunday. A holiday weekend--one of the last weekends of summer and I just don't feel like working. I'm having too much fun spending time with family and friends, enjoying the last warm breezes and taking time to smell the cornstalks. That's right, I'm spending lots of time in the garden these days. Everything is ripe and I just can't pick the crops quickly enough. We're bringing zucchini, tomatoes, squash, peppers and loads of other stuff in by bushels. Most of it we're canning or freezing for winter use, but we're eating tons of veggies now.

Getting real creative about how I'm cooking the neverending harvest. Finding inspiration, you might say.

Anyhow, I'm making corn chowder this week. Thought you might want to, too.

Simple Corn Chowder

2 T. butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
4 ears of sweet corn, kernels removed from the cobs
1 bay leaf
4 cups milk
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
1 t. thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot and saute until carrots are tender and onion is translucent. Lower heat, then add milk, bay leaf, potatoes, pepper and spices. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Add corn. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer again. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper as necessary.

Egads! What a way to start a month!...

...With a smile on my face!

I just took a peek at the Whiskey Creek website and perused the new selections offered. A number of books that look really interesting there--I may just have to find some time to sit down and read a few, if not all, of them. (As if I could help induging in my passionate obsession--reading! Ha!)

While I was there I checked out the Top Sellers for August. You know, the little swirling banner thingy beneath the number one book at the top center of the page? Right, that twirling thingy. So anyway, I clicked on, curious to see who'd done particularly well last month and--I have to say this--I jumped up and down, screeching like a banshee!!

Snowdance is NUMBER THREE on the August Bestseller List!

Oh yeah, I'm smiling. My heart is pounding and I'm absolutely flabbergasted. I had no idea my book was selling so well.

But honestly? I'm tickled! Who wouldn't be?!

Speeding August

I can hardly believe it's the last day of the month. August 1st, the day Snowdance released, seems just minutes ago. A month? Hardly believable! Yet, the calendar says it's so.

Just took a peek at the Whiskey Creek Press site. Snowdance is still Number 1 on the 'Hot Titles' list! What a rush that is!

A snippet from the latest review, from Annick at Euro-Reviews...

"...While reading Snowdance, I often found myself to be smiling. This book made me relax. Elinor is a woman that I would have loved to meet in real life, she is very nice and the sort of woman I admire. Sarita Leone knows how to write, she touches you straight in the heart with this story." - Rating- 4 1/2 out of 5

Hope you all have a wonderful, safe holiday weekend. We're spending it with family and friends. Then, next week I'll have to get back to work.

Really.

Um, probably. :)

Lists

Do you make lists? I do, lots of 'em. Lists to remind me to buy ketchup or cereal, lists to prompt me to stop at the bank, library or card store, looong lists designed to keep correspondence under control and dog-eared lists reminding me of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. The point is, I think I'd flounder without an array of lists. How on earth would I know what to do next? Where to go? What to buy? I can see myself just stolling aimlessly through the grocery store, my cart empty and a puzzled expression on my face. Not a pretty sight.

So, I make lists. They keep me on track--mostly.

As the month ends, I'm struggling to cross off the items left on my August to-do list. The blasted thing seems to have grown--either that, or I'm getting senile. Who put all this stuff on my list? Canning tomatoes, rewrites, new book, birthdays...hmm...do you think anyone would notice if I started deleting list items? :)

Tell me, do you have a list? Or are you one of those winging-it folks?

And if you're a winger, could you teach me how to do that, too?!

King's Bluntness

"Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Reading is the creative center of a writer's life."~Stephen King

Need I say more? I'm grinning as I write this. Leave it to Stephen King to cut right to the heart of it.

Oh? What am I reading? Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett. It is a gift from my godmother and, as usual, she's sent a winner. I love historical fiction, and this book is outstanding.

Woefully Website-less

Ack. That's it, just ack. The sound catching in my throat like a hairball as I contemplate the necessity of manufacturing a website. Yes, manufacturing, because really, it's not like I can whip one up as easily as I do a loaf of bread or a tray of lasagna. This whole website dilemma makes me sweat, I tell you. I've put it off for a long, long time, this author's site, but I know the time has come to finally take the plunge.

No. I really don't want to do it. I know it's going to be a royal pain in the posterior. HTMLs...codes...rolling text...scrolling..uploading..positioning...deleting...adding--ACK!

Why'd I ever agree to this writing gig? If I'd have known it involved an author website I may have kept my pen in my pocket.

Deep breathing, that's the ticket. Right? Lots of deep, soothing breaths. I've got the url, have had it for eons now. (Makes me want to hurl, the whole idea of it.) The url? Oh, it's www.saritaleone.com, of course. But don't bother clicking that, it won't take you anywhere except to an "Under Construction" sign. Under construction! Ha! The only construction going on with this dotcom thingy is the massive wall of "Oh no!"-edness growing in my mind.

Hmm? Why not hire someone to do this, the way normal, rational people do?

Stubborness. Pure and simple. I'm too stubborn to hire someone to manufacture, construct, build--or whatever else you want to call it--my website.

Someday soon, I'll have to do it. I know that. Soon...

But right now, I think I have a lasagna to construct. Maybe a cake to manufacture. Then, who knows? I may just have to build a cup or two of cappucino.

Websites will wait. Foam on dark coffee, however, isn't all that patient.

Mega Madness

The Mega Lotto pool is in excess of $250 million dollars right now. Give or take a few mil, I guess.

The last drawing was on Friday night, with the pool around $201 million. I took a chance. Hey, I had a dollar and a dream, just like the next Hopeful Harriet in line. So yeah, I put my greenback down and smiled when the machine spit out a little ticket. Saturday, I checked my numbers. I didn't win.

Tonight the pool is, as I said above, ridiculous. Will I take a chance? Probably. Do I expect to win? Um, do I need to answer that? Of course I don't expect to win! I think the whole buying-a-ticket-and-checking-the-numbers gig is more a game than anything else. It's fun, pure and simple. A mini adreneline rush. But do I expect to win? Egads, no! Never, not me. Uh uh. Well...

You never know, do you?

The point is, the whole mega bucks lotto week has spawned conversations that I'm sure are taking place everywhere there's hope of holding the one Willy Wonka type winning ticket. You know the conversation, don't you? The "What would you do if you win?" musing?

So many choices with unlimited funds...so many treats...temptations...dreams to be fulfilled, bills to be paid, desires to be quenched.

Me? I'm no fool. I'd travel. Invest most of it. Pay bills. Maybe buy a house at the beach. Nothing fancy, just a place where sand meets surf and lying in a hammock gives a bird's-eye view of the whole shebang.

But really, the things I truly yearn for can't be bought. So how much would the mega winnings change my life? I'd like to think things would change very little.

How about you? What would you do if you won? Would your life change, or are you content enough to want things to stay basically as they are? Think about it for a bit. I think you may be surprised by your honest, don't-tell-anyone answers.

Oh, tonight's drawing? Sure, I'll buy a ticket. One ticket. I'll grin, feel an extra bump of my heart as I clutch the tiny scrap of paper.

Expect to win? Nope. I'll leave that for someone else. Me, I've got all I need, thanks. :)

Confession

Ah, that got your atttention, didn't it? You're reading quickly, wondering what sort of sordid details I'm going to divulge, aren't you? I wonder...are you hoping I've got a terrible, ugly secret to confess? Or are you fearful that's exactly the case? Hmm...

I hope I don't disappoint, but actually, my confession is quite tame. Okay, I'm taking a deep, steadying breath. Here goes, the big unveil...

I read blogs. Really, I do. I know that probably seems silly given the fact that you're doing exactly the same thing right this very minute, but for me it's a guilty little pleasure I indulge in when I should be working. Yep, I'm slacking off while I peruse author blogs in the dead of night. Or the early morning hours--do they count as "nocturnal deadness"? And really, what exactly is the "dead" of night, anyway? Does anyone know?

OH! Oops! One of those tangent moments again...

Sorry.

Back to my confession. Typically, I rise early and work. Recently, though, I've been squeezing in a chunk of time nearly every morning to read author's blogs. Debbie Macomber, Alison Kent, a bunch of others. They're interesting. They're often funny. And I'm addicted, I think. I love reading about what they're doing. New releases, reviews, works in progress. Ordinary stuff, too. Photos of grandbabies, tales of sick dogs, baseball games watched and hot dogs eaten. Really, those are recent posts I've read--and loved.

I don't know if I'll be able to quell this recent addiction. The lure of peeking into others' lives is too great. Too entertaining. Too much a wonderful reminder that even gifted writers like Debbie Macomber and Alison Kent do "normal" things like the rest of us.

Hmm..I wonder if either of them has a good recipe for zucchini bread? God knows we're overrun by them. Maybe Stephen King's got one...he looks like he'd be a kitchen whiz...

Happy Friday

Hi all. Just enjoying life here. :)

I've got to admit I'm still jazzed about the first review for Snowdance. I feel like I'm walking on a little cloud. The past few weeks have been amazing. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that my book is still number one on the "Hot Titles" list. I never, ever, ever expected it to be so well received. To all of you who have sent emails, letters, cards, notes, called or done any of the other wonderful things you've done (you know who you are!) --thank you very much. This experience has been incredibly positive and I'm thrilled you're all sharing it with me.

Soon, though, I'm going to have to get back to writing.

But for now, I'm just enjoying life. I hope you are, as well.

Have a great weekend!
-Sarita

Snowdance review

Recently I saw this review for Snowdance. A bit for you to see if you don't want to read the whole review:

"From the very first chapter of this book, there is a distinct nostalgia that crooks a finger at the reader and beckons them to indulge. The descriptions of the central character’s home and the storm that rages outside are simple yet evocative, painting pictures with words that put me in the middle of that house, in the middle of that storm, watching and wondering over each individual pattern of snowflake falling outside the window. This isn’t a book to read when you’re looking for an adrenaline rush. The heroine is nearly a hundred years old, and the pace of the entire novel reflects both her experience and the simple, unadorned lifestyle she has had her entire life. But it still sucked me in, wrapping me up and making me smile, even when I wasn’t in the mood for it....I fell for this simple story head over heels. It’s more than a romance. It’s a story of a life. And how love shapes and forms everything that we are." - Book Utopia

Yes, this review made my day!

"Writers write."

Over and over, time and again, until the words are etched onto the inside of a beginning writer's skull, the mantra is repeated.

"Writers write."

A basic truth designed to get those with a desire to write to actually sit down and put words to paper. In a lot of cases, it works. For some, though, no measure of admonition or encoragement will bring forth a writer where there isn't one or where the commitment required to write simply doesn't exist.

I read this article this morning. It's not as if I needed to be reminded she's a real writer, it's just that I'm loving it that even the brilliant, world-famous writers do what we beginners strive to do. And it all goes back to those two words. Writers write.

Works for J.K. Rowling, doesn't it?

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what she does with crime!

Now, back to writing...

Still grinning...

...as I look at that big ole box of books sitting on our coffee table...

What a rush! :)

Have a great Sunday!!