It's been a pretty crazy time since I last stopped in.

I'm working to deadline, revising my next novel ORDINARY BEAUTY due for release in June 2011, and while it isn't easy, I'm still really enjoying it. I'm fretting, but not in a bad way. I don't know what's up with this but even in the book's darkest moments, I'm eager to get inside, burrow to the core and run with them. This feels really, really good.

So anyway, this revision is the biggest part of why I haven't been here in a while.

Beyond that, it's been a stellar weekend. Here's Jacko, our new spooky buddy, carved by my bf:

 

and I received an actual pen-to-paper fan letter this weekend, from Maddy in Missouri. This one's a keeper, so thank you, Maddy!

Plus, and most fabulous, my family came up to visit and the house rang with talk and laughter, and much love. They brought me bagels, smoked whitefish salad (yum), organic blueberry iced tea (YUM) and the most delicious lobster sandwiches. I, in turn, fed them with a pot roast, potatoes and carrots, cavatelli with broccoli, noodles and cabbage, baked cod, corn, a peach-pecan-toffee cake and something called blueberry snow, which was really good. My family is generous, loud, loving, beautiful, supportive and wacky, and I always miss them dreadfully when they go.

So now it's back to work. And I believe I'll have my lobster sandwich and blueberry iced tea for lunch.