Oddly Productive (includes a snippet from the next book)

My snow day may have involved pajama pants, a fire in the fireplace and sleepy dogs...but believe it or not, it was pretty darn productive.

It started with finishing a real estate appraisal (my grown-up job) by lunchtime.

Then I progressed to putting some new items in my Etsy shop, like these fun squishy blocks from the sixties. 

At first I didn't know why this pig was eating a smoldering brain, but I looked closer and I think it's corn...which makes a lot more sense.

"L" is for I Love a snow day - but am starting to Look forward to spring.

Then I checked Etsy and discovered I had sold this orange mid century set that came out of my big bag of vintage dollhouse furniture. So I packed that up to be shipped out.

After dog walks in the snow, I settled down to a productive writing session. I finally worked out some wrinkles in my plot that have been bogging me down.

For the first time in a long while words flowed easier and I felt more excitement for where the story is going. So excited, in fact, that I wanted to share a snippet.

One of the reasons I decided to do a second book to follow Such Beautiful Deadly Things was because I enjoy the characters and particularly the dynamic between Carol Ann and her best friend Lucy. As best friends do, they love to tease each other, but ultimately have each others back. 

This second book will have long-time single C.A. struggling with where her relationship with Steven is heading. The following is from a chapter where Lucy finds out just how much her friend is clueless when it comes to matters of the heart...

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After her restless night, C.A. overslept. When she finally made her way downstairs to the shop, Lucy was already there whistling as she polished a mahogany table. “Good morning,” she said brightly as C.A. came through the door.

“Hmm.” C.A. went directly to the coffee pot in the back office and filled her mug to the rim. Returning to the counter, she blew on her coffee as she watched Lucy move from the table to an armoire with her polishing cloth. She was still whistling. “What are you so damn cheerful about this morning?”

Lucy, curls pulled back from her face in a red hairband, turned to look at her friend. “The baby finally slept through the night and I feel a little less sleep deprived than usual.” Noticing the puffiness under C.A.’s eyes and slight scowl to her expression, she said, “Can’t say the same about you though, huh?”

C.A. shrugged and took a sip of coffee.

Lucy walked to the counter and examined her friend more closely. “You had a date with Steven last night, didn’t you? You’re usually in a good mood after a date night. What’d he do? Keep you awake with his snoring or something?”

“Nope.”

“Hogged the covers?”

“Nope.”

“Used your toothbrush?”

“Nope.”

“De-alphabetized your CDs?”

“Nope.”

“OK. I see the mood you are in this morning and I am pretty sure I’m just going to keep guessing things to annoy you because you know how much I enjoy that. So, do you just want to tell me what bug crawled up your butt, or do you want me to keep guessing? Because I could go on all morning.”

Knowing the truth of her words, C.A blew out her breath. “He did not do any of those things because he decided not to stay over last night.”

“Ah.”

“It’s not a big deal.” C.A. shrugged. “He had to go to Lancaster early this morning.”

“Uh huh.”

“What? Don’t make something out of it.”

“I’m not. I didn’t say anything.”

“Exactly. If you didn’t think it was something, you would have made a joke.”

“I think you think it’s something.” Lucy moved towards a sofa table dabbing more wood polish on her cloth. “He probably did just want to get an early start. You didn’t have a fight or anything at dinner, did you?”

“…No.”

But there was a slight hesitation in C.A.’s voice and Lucy caught it. “Something happened. What did you do?”

“Hey! What makes you think I did something? He could have done something. But nobody did anything…I mean…said anything. Or should have said something, or not. Oh, I don’t know.”

“I think you do know. Now stop blathering and tell me what happened.”

Resting her elbows on the counter and her chin in her fist, C.A. said, “He may have said something about being in love with me, and I may have ignored it.  And maybe I always do, and maybe I have never said it back to him. And maybe he is starting to notice.”

“And maybe you’re a big idiot.”

C.A. said miserably, “Maybe.”

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I hope wherever you are you had a lovely day, snow or not, productive or lazy, and that you are even half as content as my dog in front of the fire.