German Chocolate Cake for My Sweetheart

Made my SO the “famous German chocolate cake.” The quotations have actually been added by my son. This was the cake my oldest son always requested for his birthdays, and the younger son even asked for it a time or two himself. It’s a great old three-layer recipe, a lot of bother with lots of egg yolks and whites beaten stiff then folded in. The frosting is cooked and stirred until your arm aches. But the trouble is worth it in the end, because the eaters usually brag and gorge on it once it’s served. It was a hit with the group once again. Even the SO’s granddaughter, who is a finicky eater, gushed, “That is sooooo good.”

We’re celebrating my SO’s birthday. It really isn’t until the 30th, but his son and daughter-in-law, and granddaughter are here this weekend. Everybody has big news. The son has been offered a promotion, however it means a move to New York City. A big change for them from Austin, but it’s evident that they’re proud to have this opportunity. The granddaughter, who lives with them and goes to junior college, will also have to make some changes. Everybody expects her to move in with her boyfriend down on the coast, and go to school somewhere down there. I had a talk with her last night, and told her not to give up on her education, no matter how “in love” she thinks she is. I felt I could speak from experience and maybe she would listen because of that. Don’t know if it registered. She doesn’t seem as focused on her education as I think she should be, but that’s easy enough for me to say from my vantage point in life. 

But I do enjoy having them, especially her, almost as much as my SO does. In fact, it’s me who often ends up sitting late with them, telling stories and laughing after he's gone off to bed. We will miss them once they move away. Seems there is less and less keeping us in this hot climate. I sure wish I could stop obsessing about New Mexico. It's a really poor time with this real estate market to try to sell this house. We've done so much to it, and really ought to get top dollar when we are finally ready to make the dash for the mountains. Of course, because of that same lousy real estate market, places are really cheap, cheap up there. Sigh! 

Until yesterday, I have kept up the work on the novel, and will take it back up today once our company leaves. I’m still pleasantly surprised at what all is in the pages, things I had totally forgotten about, and lots of stuff I can build on. I have said before, and will say again, writing a novel for me has more to do with architecture than with form. I generally start with the characters, and maybe a situation, and a vague notion of the ending, but everything else is just as much of an unknown for me in the beginning as it is -- hopefully -- for a reader. I've been marking up pages and plan to take the whole manuscript with us when we head up to Denver.

Sat outside this morning in the quiet sunrise with just the kitty and watched the hummingbirds fight over the feeders. I have them spaced so far apart this time, that it really keeps the dominant males busy trying to fend off the other birds. They are such a joy to watch, and their little cheeps filled the air, along with a cardinal's song, and a hawk or two that passed over screeing. Nice way to start a day. I know when the day comes, it will be hard to part with this place. I do love it so much. But I also know that in time it will be more than we want to keep up, and the summers have become so brutal, it's hard to watch all our efforts through the rest of the year, dry up without any rain in the forecast.

Onward ....

High on Writing!

This is been a productive week. I have been working on the endless novel. Actually, what I’ve done is printed it out and I have been rereading it. Every day this week, from just after noon until four, I’ve tucked myself away and have thrown myself at the manuscript. It’s been more than three years since I’ve looked at it, and this is my perception so far: 1) It’s pretty darn good. 2) I need a villain. 3) The main character is not as in-focus as the secondary characters. 4) I’m surprised at how much work I had already done, well over 300 pages. And 5) What do you know -- I can write! 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but after the first day, I was really high about it all. Guess I was afraid if I sat down to read it, I would find it was trite and unorganized, or that I would see all the holes in it. But there aren’t many, and I’m delighted to find it’s not at all bad, and can probably be finished in short order if I just put my mind to it, and continue to work faithfully on it. Of course, once it’s done there’s no guarantee anyone will want to publish it, but that’s something I’ll worry about later.

In addition to reading the novel, I’ve also done some other things for my “writing career.” After a few back and forth emails with another writer-friend, I got online and researched getting the two books I have the rights on formatted for electronic readers like Kindle. Since neither one of these books is in digital form, it’s not an easy matter. They would have to be scanned and then converted, so I researched some places where that can be done. It isn’t dirt cheap to do, but I sent an email to one of the places inquiring about total cost. Haven’t heard back yet.

There’s something that bothers me about all this, though. Shouldn’t they be paying me, instead of the other way around? I’ve been paid for every other subsidiary right that was  sold on any of my books. There’s something about this that smells of vanity publishing, and it just isn’t going down my gullet well. I would like to get the books back in print, or circulation, of course, but do I want to do it THIS way? I can’t make up my mind.

I also found my old agent-friend on Facebook. He was once in hot pursuit of me, read the endless novel in an earlier draft, and also a YA I have a few chapters of written. I sent him a little message, just asking if he was still in the business. Might not be the right way to approach this, and I’m so anti-agent right now after my last one, but I figured I have nothing to lose at this point. Another writer friend of mine makes a trip to New York to interview agents when he finds himself without one. I think he’s probably got the right idea about the whole thing. But I’ve never had quite that much self-confidence. Probably that’s the reason I ended up with a crappy agent the last time. There’s just so much ego tied up with this whole business of writing, and I would really like to learn to separate that part. I imagine this is something all writers struggle with, though.

On the home front, my SO’s birthday is coming on the 30th. His son and daughter-in-law will be here this weekend to help us celebrate. I’ve been trying to decide what cake to bake. Probably a German Chocolate. I used to do those pretty well. Don’t know about dinner. I have a special gift to give him, and I’m trying to decide if I should give it while the kids are here, or wait until his actual birthday on Monday. I had a flag flown over the United States Capitol in honor of his father. It was flown on July 6th, and a certificate came from our Congressman with all this stated. Now, that I’ve done it, I’m not sure it’s such a great gift, and will probably find some other something to give on Saturday at any rate. 

Hummingbirds are trickling back. I have four feeders up and I hear them buzzing about when I venture outside, which I do very sparingly. It’s been over 100 degrees all week long! Will this summer never end?

Onward ....