Writing: Aargh! Snow and more snow.

This is the first day of February, and snow’s burying us in a serious storm. We did what everyone in the entire city did and stocked up with the important things for Super Bowl Sunday–guacamole, chips, and salsa. I bought an extra bottle of wine. My husband bought two steaks (in case of trouble, that’s his first defense–I married a carnivore). We bought deli ham for sandwiches. In dire emergencies, we could probably live out of our freezer and cupboards for a long time. And most importantly, I bought two new books to read, and John hit the library. It looks like we might hibernate for a while.

I was supposed to spend Sunday afternoon with my sister. She’s my “little” sister–12 years younger than I am–and every year, since she was a teenager, we’ve watched Miss Universe together. Okay, my friends laugh at me when I tell them that, but Mary and I have a great time trying to choose the winner before the top 15 contestants are announced. We gossip and snack. We vote on evening gowns, and we wince at the answers the top 5 give to weighty questions. Really. Most of the time, the answers are pretty bad. Anyway, forewarned about the snowstorm, we did that on Saturday afternoon (it was DVR’d), so that we could stay inside today and wait for snow plows to clear roads. I feel sorry for anyone who has to drive in this mess. My daughter’s a nurse. She’ll have to fight her way to work tonight. But John’s retired, and we don’t have to clear our driveway until we feel like it. So today, we’re cocooning. And I have plenty of time to write and work on my blog.

I’ve made it past the halfway point in the book I’m working on. Always a good feeling. I have the rest of the book plotted out, but just like in the last few stories I’ve written, my characters follow the dots, but they do it their way. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been working on series, so I’ve lived with my characters longer, but they’ve definitely gotten more opinionated. If I say they have to fight a battle in chapter 12, they’ll fight it, but the young vampires Reece and Damian are protecting might jump in front of someone to protect them and then get stunned when they weren’t supposed to. What can I say? They keep surprising me, and I like it.

The middles of books aren’t very exciting to talk about, though, so I thought I’d shift gears and offer you a short-short romance on my webpage instead, something to put you in the mood for Valentine’s Day. My agent swears that she’ll be finished with my romance manuscript in another week (New York time doesn’t always agree with Indiana time, though), so someday, my Mill Pond romance might actually be ready to be sent out into the cold, cruel world. Until then, I hope you enjoy a short story set there: Stranded in Mill Pond. It’s on my webpage: http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/