“Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact.” — Willa Cather

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

— J.K. Rowling, “King’s Cross,” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

“Words are loaded pistols.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

Hey, you kids, yeah, you over in the corner there.

I’m still having nightmares about pulling cafeteria duty. Thanks a lot for the damage, just fyi. Be good! Don’t just try, do it! happy spring. please don’t drive your cars too fast, these kind of things can go bad really quickly. I know.

love,

me

ps last night I hit 70,000 words in my novel. You know what that means? I have a book, my friends. Here are 21 Tips for Writers in 21 Days from the Attic Institute and Biff Zine (thanks, Anne T.!) and… Open Library! (thank you, Terri!) OK, back to writing.

Maggie Mashia for School Board, yes. If you are a Portland, Ore. resident, please give her your vote at election time.

When I find a good recipe, I cut it out, put it in the drawer, and then I can’t find it when I look for it.

Generally, I should say, that’s what I do.

Some are clipped and stuck on the fridge with a magnet, some go straight into a scrapbook/cookbook I made, and lots go here under the Recipe Club category.

Last week, FoodDay ran a story called The Pantry Principle, ie use what ya got. (Recipes are linked at bottom of the article.) We (and by that I mean, Steve) made the vegetable bouillion, and tonight he made the garbonzo/pasta soup. So good! I promised my sister I’d link — there you go. As someone recently told her, “Have fun with your husband who cooks!” hahaha. Yeah, thank God for husbands who cook. Lot going on over here with my retirement. How will cooking fit in? Oh my.

bon appetit, y’all.

— wm

“He said that, by god, D.H. Lawrence was right when he had said there must be a dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension between a man and a woman, and how else could this be achieved save in the long monotony of marriage.” — “Cold Comfort Farm,” Stella Gibbons

Reading this week:

Boy, oh boy, it’s been awhile since I made up a reading list, hasn’t it? Know why? Because all I do is read. And write. A lot of writing going on over here. It’s getting tedious, but I’m through the ugly sections of the book now, thank God. Nothing like staying too long with a gnarly character you’re ready to have leave your headspace and go to Jupiter or anywhere, really, just not my mind, anymore, thank you.

Now, here is a reading list my former boss put together, of her favorites from last summer. And I keep misplacing it. In my purse. Ha. Ha. Yeah. It’s a big purse, get up off my back, would ya? No wonder my arm is killing me, lugging that thing around. Also, may I pause her to say how refreshing it was to have a boss who loved to read? My bosses have never been big readers, not even the ones who edited the books section of the newspaper. Ha! Except for a couple of you, and you know who you are. The End.

(That’s how they say it in the novels.)

So she and I would talk books all the time, and it made me happy. But then one day I realized, my arm was killing me (and of course the tendonitis is in my right arm, which I use all the time, as I am right-handed), and… I realized another thing. Instead of talking books, and checking out books, and shelving, repairing, discarding and ordering books, I wanted to get back to writing books.

So I put in my notice and quit and now we’re all happier. Except for my students, they’re a little irate, but they’ll be fine. I promised I’d send them copies of my books, see? There ya go. One of them wrote me a note that said, “I, too, write books!” and I thought, A kindred spirit, go, go, go authors!

Anyway, back to those titles… If I put it here, it doesn’t matter if I lose it, see? I’ve downloaded “Life of Pi” onto my Kindle, and yes, I did start it, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

I’m reading all these classics for my book group is why. (“Rebecca,” “Cold Comfort Farm,” “Heart of Darkness.” Am brainiac. But you already knew that.)

Happy reading!!!

— wm

“Dog House: A Love Story” (Carol Prisant)
“Life is So Good” (Richard Glaubman & George Dawson)
“Letter to My Daughter” (Maya Angelo)
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire” & “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” (Stieg Larsson)
“Little Bee” (Chris Cleave)
“Life of Pi” (Yann Martel)

“Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” — Stephen King, “On Writing”

My husband and daughter, playing a duet.

“Men ever had, and ever will have leave, / To coin new words well suited to the age, / Words are like leaves, some wither every year, / And every year a younger race succeeds.” — Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE)