In strategy video games, the kind where you build a base and then send your scouts out to find more resources, most of the map is covered by the fog of war, a dense cloud-like blanket that recedes as the scouts explore the map. I have sent all my mental scouts out and the fog
Continue Reading
Happy New Year
It is 2023, the year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar, which will officially begin on January 22. Rabbits jump high so our highs will be very high and our lows will be very low. Never mind all that. I wish you a boring year. May you have as few up and downs as
Continue Reading
Monday After Christmas
We had a very nice Christmas. We had 9 people staying over, which was a bit more than usual, but we got through it without any fights or problems. We ended up doing our usual surf and turf Christmas dinner, and I didn’t overcook or undercook the prime rib, which was a miracle. I had
Continue Reading
Monday Before Christmas
It’s Monday before Christmas for us, and the house is a swirl of pre-holiday chaos. Presents have been arriving via mail, and small towers of randomly sized boxes are leaning precariously in the corners. The gift wrapping station has taken over the dining room table, the quilting cutting mat barely fitting among the bows and
Continue Reading
Tea and Hammering
::taking a figurative hammer and hitting the holiday project:: Get! Into! Shape! I should do that to myself. I haven’t worked out in 2 weeks. I haven’t walked either. It is super crappy. It’s like Portland, Oregon weather over here, grey and dull and depressing. We mostly have two seasons: awful heat and gloom. We
Continue Reading
Catching Up
Popeyes turkey, a quick recipe, and a funny story.
Is it the season?
Hi everyone, Mod R here. All the Things Ilona Andrews are still happening in the background, soon to be unveiled. Several of you wanted to know if we’ll get the reveal for the Guess the World post and we are *so*, so close you could smell the house fire…oh, oops, is that too much of
Continue Reading
Life Salad
I made it to H-mart. It was glorious. I bought a duck. I bought frozen shucked oysters. I bought mushrooms. Best of all I bought banchan, the Korean vegetable side dishes. They had a tray with like 9 of them on it. I should’ve bought more. Our local Korean place doesn’t offer them, and I
Continue Reading
Conversations at Chateau Andrews
Gordon: Tuna has something. I spin toward Tuna who is crouched in a hunting position by the raised dog water dish. Me: What do you have? Is it a scorpion? Please don’t be a scorpion. Gordon: It’s probably a lizard again. Kid 1: What’s going on? Me: Tuna has something! Kid 1: Not again. Gordon,
Continue Reading
Brainless but alive
The first pass edit on Sweep of the Heart is finished. Finally. This was a bear of an edit, for various reasons, but mostly because very little time passed between finishing the manuscript and editing it. A bit of time and distance helps, but we very much wanted to make sure the audio was available
Continue Reading
Tired
The manuscript is currently at 101, 152 words. It is still not over. Very tired now. Brain is also tired. Coincidentally Kid 2 is finishing her project, so right now our mother-daughters interaction consists of whining to each other through text, “Why won’t it end?” and then staring at it blankly because there isn’t enough
Continue Reading
The Snowdrifts.
It’s Tuesday, the beginning of what needs to be an intense work week, and I have treated myself to a cup of Jasmine Pearl tea instead of my usual oolong. We have plotted the finale of the Sweep of the Heart. Now all that remains is to download it from out brains onto the page,
Continue Reading
