Bake, cook and ponder

After finishing Chapter 21 of Bewitched & Betrayed yesterday, I made a gargantuan pot of spaghetti sauce (a double batch to freeze some for the coming weeks of having one book come out while being on deadline for the next one). After Derek & I got the spaghetti going, I baked some banana nut bread (since I had three bananas left from last week's lunches). Hmmm, how is it I always seem to have three left over -- just the amount the recipe calls for. ; )

While the bread was baking and the sauce was simmering, so was my writing brain. I was also writing this blog (see photo above). Yes, that's Andy the Greyhound helping. And yes, I have short hair now. I call it my "summer puppy cut." ; ) I'm in my Sunday afternoon schlepping-around-the-house clothes, so click on the photo to make it bigger at your own risk.

The last chapters of my books tend to get complicated (as you all know), and I've finally admitted to myself that complicated needs some time to simmer to be at its best. Speed bake isn't the way to go. So on these last chapters, I'm giving myself permission to take a small breather between chapters (an evening off) to let what I've just written simmer and tell me what happens next.

And sometimes when my writing brain is on simmer, the rest of me takes a nap--and my husband sneaks up on me with the camera. Andy and Lucy are always happy to help me nap.