conned out

Back from Bubonicon, a fun weekend. Two cons almost back to back and I'm pretty pooped. At Bubonicon, I had drinks with Debbie Lynn Smith and her husband, Paul. She and I agreed that sf cons are an interesting phenomenon from the writer's point of view. Most writers (not all, but most) are introverts, but for a convention, a whole bunch of them come together and pretend to be extroverts for several days. By the end of it, we're pretty much fried and have to crawl back to our garrets and hide for a while.

That's about where I am at the moment. Good weekend, not enough sleep, and I need some alone time.

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Summer Doldrums

The slow days of summer are here. Fellow writers are grumbling about the lack of activity in the mailbox. Editors and writers are attending conventions, and not much is going on between.

For me, it's been a busy year so far and I'm actually enjoying the chance to catch up a bit. I have notes from my editor on fantasy novel #2, so I'm not lacking for work. I'm starting to put together some promotional efforts in support of fantasy novel #1, which has been scheduled for release in March 2009, right around the equinox.

To get a break from the summer heat, my spouse and I drove up to Telluride recently. Wow, what an incredibly beautiful place! Everywhere you turn in this tiny mountain town there are spectacular views. This one is of Bridal Veil Falls, visible from pretty much anywhere in Telluride. Just stunning. I love the mountains and this was a nice shot of inspiration for me for the settings of my ælven fantasy world. (My characters are mountain folk. Fancy that.)

Another thing that's kept me busy this summer is work on the Novelists, Inc. website. I (foolishly) volunteered to help with redesigning and reorganizing the site. It's actually been a lot of fun, though also a lot of work. Not much of it can be seen yet as the webmaster currently is at work converting the site to the new design, but the new Ninc Blog is off to a great start. Check it out!

Tomorrow I'm off to Worldcon. If you're going to be there, stop by my signing Thursday afternoon and pick up an ælven bookmark.

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Musings on Chevre and a Summer Canape recipe

I'm in love with chevre (soft goat cheese). I fell in love after tasting fresh chevre from a local goat dairy. It's divine just spread on a whole grain cracker. Great in salads, too.

Only trouble is, after it's been in the fridge for a while it gets very crumbly -- falls apart when you try to spread it, goes all over the place. Well, I recently discovered a solution: nuke it in the microwave for about ten seconds. Not long enough to get hot, but enough to give it a smooth, creamy texture and make it easy to spread.

Here's one of my favorite ways to eat chevre:

EASY SUMMER CANAPE

chevre
whole-grain crackers
sun-dried tomatoes
capers (optional)

Microwave chevre for ten seconds. If tomatoes are dried, put in a dish with a teaspoon or so of water and microwave for 15-30 seconds.

Spread chevre on crackers, top with tomatoes. Garnish with capers if desired.

Enjoy!

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Rain!

Much rejoicing! We had some rain yesterday, and today it has been almost non-stop. This is a huge blessing, since we hadn't had any rain in at least a month and my water barrels were getting empty. Now they are full! Yay!

I planned to plant flowers and herbs today. (I bought a lunar gardening calendar -- much fun!) Looks like the rain has paused so I'm off to do it now.

Then back to the copyedits that arrived earlier this week.

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News Flash! Hummingbird Sighted

Was just out potting three more pines and had a visit from a hummingbird! First one I've seen this year. Sugar water is on the stove. Now to dig out the feeders.

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A quick look at the garden...
originally posted: April 27, 2008

The aspens leafed out this week. Even a lot of the babies planted in previous seasons are waking up. Some of them haven't made it, which is why I put in three older saplings last year. But several of the babies are hanging in there!

I want to sow radishes today. Been looking at a lunar gardening book a friend gave me a while back. Root crops are supposed to go in during the waning moon. So I'm going to dash out and throw some radish seeds around before I get back to revising the WIP.

The raised bed that is my tiny veggie patch is looking good. I haven't planted anything there yet, but the chives are fixing to bloom and the parsley wintered over and is a large, enthusiastic, vibrant green clump!

After May Day I will plant nasturtiums. Looking forward to them - I so enjoyed them last year!

In the meantime, I am still putting ponderosa seedlings into pots. These are from the same source where I got the baby aspens, the New Mexico Forestry Division. If you own 2 acres of land you can get seedlings very inexpensively. The catch is you have to buy them in lots, so I've got twenty pine trees to plant. Most are going into big pots until I can get to them on a less urgent schedule. Even just getting them into pots is a good deal of work, though. I had Chris drill holes in the bottoms of a bunch of old cat litter buckets. Not pretty, but a good size, and the price is right.

Last night we froze so I sent poor Chris out in his pjs (cause that's more than I had on) to fetch in the bucket of seedlings that haven't yet been planted. I should put them outside again, now.

OK, back to work!

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April Showers - Snow Version
originally posted: April 10, 2008

I love the mountains in spring. Weather so unpredictable. A snowstorm came through last night and left us with a couple of inches. It will be gone by noon, but in the meantime I'm grateful. We need the moisture. This will stave off fire season for a little longer.

And I always welcome an excuse to build a fire in the wood stove.

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Pati Nagle writes fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery, and anything else that takes her fancy. Her work has appeared in professional publications since 1994.
http://patinagle.com