A completely narcissistic post about ME!

So, you bloggers out there probably know how this goes, when it's been soooooo long since you blogged, you just feel all voodoo about it. Like, I have to get something amazing up! I have to pre-write a bunch of posts and bank them! Really get back in the swing!

 How did it get to be TWO WEEKS since I blogged? Well, this is one of those posts where I just post any old thing to get back in the blogging swing. A life update!

The MOVE

The fabulous Mr. Crane in our not-yet-fabulous living room.

Part of my reason for not blogging: we moved across town. Exactly 2 weeks ago. Oh, what a trying two weeks. We're still partly in boxes, but mostly unpacked. As you see from this photo, we have kind of slopped our furniture in a circle while we put away other stuff. I guess the aesthetics will come last!

Before this, Mr. Crane and I were renting a lovely apartment in a kind of fabulous and fancy area of Minneapolis, and we just bought this condo in a less fancy area, but it is so much funner here! And we are living in almost half as much space, but it's ours, dammit! And we are really loving it. And there are awesome coffee shops and restaurants around here. Last night I said to Mr. Crane, we should go sit on our stoop and play Scrabble. That's not something we would have done in our old neighborhood. Our old neighborhood was mostly young upscale families; our new one has has people of all ages and backgrounds. The only downside is that it's not within walking distance of a supermarket.

Reading two wonderful books

 I'm reading two wonderful books right now: J.A. Saare's DEAD UNDEAD OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN and Meredith Duran's WRITTEN ON YOUR SKIN. Both delicious and excellent in their own ways. One of these days, I'll update my goodreads account with all the books I've been reading.

A good book of the kind I won't read again 

I recently finished a very gripping suspense book, I guess I'd call it romantic suspense, but edging on regular suspense. Kind of serial killer suspense by a well-known author everyone loves. I think I need to think hard about what kind of romantic suspense I read. This one was really dark, like the movie SEVEN. And, while I hugely admired how well paced and excellently written it was, and I was really compelled by it, looking forward to reading it--gripped by it, even--it nevertheless felt like a joyless, even soulless read. Have you ever had a read like that? Where you're consuming this dark content, and it's compelling, but not necessarily good for you?  

The stretch of days I was reading this one book, I felt uninspired at writing, and was in a kind of glum overall mood. It could have been the stress of moving, but part of me blames that book. It's funny, because there's romantic suspense I love, like Jill Sorenson's stuff, or Shiloh Walker's, which both tend to be more character focused. But this was too much, I think, for my temperament.  

I have these two grocery bags full of books I'm going to sell to the best used bookstore in all of the Twin Cities, the Paperback Exchange (and snap up every Anne Stuart and Laura Kinsale in the place!) and I put this book in, as well as the next book in her series, unread. Okay, now I'm rethinking it. It was a really compelling book...but I think it's better this way. 

WTF! I'm talking to YOU, CDs!
So, I unearthed a good deal of forgotten items during the move, including cassette tapes from the pre-CD  Pleistocene erae. One of them was this Leonard Cohen tape I hadn't played in years, with The Only Ones on the other side. I'd probably played it thousands of times, and I played it three times more and it still sounded fabulous. Lord forbid I try to play an old CD. Half my CDs have gone to hell from overplay, but that has NEVER happened to a cassette. Who of you are old enough to remember thinking CDs were a big scam? Guess what: they WERE!

Weather

This is the worst winter and spring in Minnesota  ever. Horribly cold, followed by horribly gray and rainy and cold with a dollop of tornadoey. I had the space heater on this morning! Back when we were renters, we would be like, let's move away to California, dammit! But now that we have a condo, we can't play that game. 

This is what I wish I'd had for dinner instead of a salad.
Three bags of popchips, or else a pizza.  

Carolyn so crabbins
I spent the winter eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and now I'm all complainy...I'm sure you can guess why. Tonight I really wanted to eat pizza, or else popchips, but instead I had a salad for dinner. I am very unsatisfied. Sometimes it's a good idea to ignore those cravings, but tonight, I should've given in. I feel like my dinner was cold and wet, and I wanted needed some form of hot /crunchy/salty.

As long as I'm going down this more shallow subject area road, I will say that the lighting in our new bathroom is NOT flattering. I was thinking the other day, well, maybe that's what I really look like, and my old bathroom lighting was falsely flattering. But, I think I want to get back falsely flattering lighting. Because...why the hell not?

Writing
I am polishing up the still unnamed book #3, which I am really excited about. I have come to think of this book as a combination of Robin Hood and Sleeping Beauty. But with lots of sex, violence, and paranormal goings-on.

I have two new series in the wings, and I am having a hard time deciding which to work on next, because I want to write both of them immediately. Wild & Steamy, the anthology I'm doing a disillusionists novella for, which also features Meljean Brook and Jill Myles, will likely be coming out early July instead of June now. I'm really looking forward to that. And I also have crazy-exciting-to-me news that might not be anything and I can't talk about it yet!

Whew! Look! This is a MAJOR blog entry! I have broken the no-blogging spell! Thank you dear readers, for bearing with me!

I hope you all have a fabulous and safe Memorial Day. XXOO Carolyn