Marion Agnew

(It's the subtitle of The Hobbit .)  I'm back from vacation. I saw lots of beach and Atlantic Ocean. Waves. Piers. Sand. Also, horses. Since I've been home, I've Handled Many Time-Sensitive Things. Today has been more of a bust, both writing-wise and all-the-other things-wise.  And yet. I'm managing to do the next ONE thing. (Wash bedding.) And the next. (Respond to email.) And the next. (Check in here.) And the next. (Research next steps for a project--just google three ideas I had.) Which is also like writing and revising. (WHAT ISN'T?) You reread things, you fix something, that causes a cascading change that requires adjusting, which means an entire set of scenes can go.  But you don't have to do all that at once. Just the next thing.  And sometimes doing things is easier when you remember the colour and texture of the sand (how different from the sand here), and the wind off the water (more persistent and salty).  ...

I'm currently on a real vacation, somewhere else. Here's a picture of the surf I left behind. It's ramping up for autumn storms. I hope to spend time at a different beach while I'm gone. If I can't--they've had some storms of their own--that's OK too. I'll still have completely new experiences to refresh my outlook.  It's been an eventful spring and summer, so the timing of this break is perfect. Happy approaching autumn, everyone!

With a book coming out this fall (!!) and an almost-finished novel (meaning, maybe I'm almost finished with it!), I'm noodling with new work.  So far, it's been the writing version of what I do nearly every day: go to the beach and pick up things. Sometimes glass, sometimes other stuff I think is interesting. I bring it back to the house, take a picture, put it into a jar, look at it, think about it, take it out, look at it some more. Will this noodling turn into anything? In a few months, will I have anything other than a jar full of driftglass, another of interesting rocks, another of broken pottery?  Who knows. But for now, for me, writing is gathering.

Last week, I hinted that 2019 was the Summer of Baking. The main thing I learned about baking this summer is that many things are cake. Blueberry buckle? Cake in a square pan (when you make it in one). Johnnycake? Also cake in a square pan. (This one shouldn't have surprised me. It's right there in the name.) Banana bread? Cake in a long pan. Also applies to anything with "loaf" in the name. Muffins? Cake portions in a cup = cupcakes = cake. Blueberry cobbler? Arguably cake but also arguably breakfast (scones and fruit = breakfast). Blueberry pie? Not cake but really good. Something about the salty crust makes the blueberries taste sweeter. So there you have it--one thing I learned in the summer of baking: most things are cake (cake is sneaky that way). And here is where I sit on mornings when I am trying my darndest to pretend that summer isn't yet over. When the sun got higher in the sky, the chair started steaming from the heat. I love t...