Greens as of 5/13/12

I told you'd I'd planted a lot of peas. This is part of one of the three beds. They're starting to bloom!

What a weekend! I feel so content now. A good chunk of writing done on the rewrite of Knowing the Ropes–I was hoping to get it done this weekend, but at least I’m much closer. (Lori Perkins, if you’re reading this, it will be heading your way shortly. Turned out I had a bit more that needed rewriting than I remembered.) And the garden…ah, the garden.

I still have two dozen tomatoes, some eggplant, and a few random tomatilloes to plant–and I’m not sure where they’re all going to go, honestly. But I made so much progress this weekend that I can stop having Garden Panic Attacks. (Anyone else get those? They’re not as  bad as Writing Panic Attacks, but sometimes I do lie awake thinking about the baby plants in my keeping and what I have to do to keep them healthy and happy. There’s a reason I never had children, people. I’m way too neurotic to cope.)

So what all did I do in the garden? Here’s the update:

Plant Something: Tomatoes (transplanted); potatoes; black Tuscon kale; bush Blue Lake, Romano, and Rattlesnake beans;  mizuna; cucumbers; lettuce. I also planted totally unanticipated zucchini and yellow squash. I was gifted with a few seedlings that I had no room for in the main garden. But they were so big and healthy, and as mentioned before I’m neurotic about my plant babies. They’re now ensconced in a pile of dirt left over from filling the raised beds, over on the edge of the yard. I’m not sure how they’ll do, but at least they have a chance now.

Harvest Something: Lettuce; kale; mizuna; tatsoi; bok choi; cutting celery; pea tendrils; Chinese kale-broccoli; lemon thyme; flowers; lamb’s quarters (edible weed); dandelions (another edible weed)

Preserve Something: Dried cutting celery

Eat the Food: white beans with home-canned tomatoes, kale, dandelions, and lamb’s quarters (“eat your weedies”); stir fries with Asian greens; braised greens; salads. Still eating the food from last year as well: peppers and Thai basil in the stir-fries, canned tomatoes, homemade stock, pumpkin pie, and more

Waste Not: Had a yard sale last weekend and will donate most of what didn’t sell. Collecting compostables from the woods behind the house. All the usual. Made a batch of stock.

Want Not: Nothing unusual.

Support Local Food Systems: Gave seeds to a friend and got plants from her. Looking forward to seeing what the CSA provides. It starts the week of May 23.

Skill Up: Really working on the composting.

My last Independence Days update was April 7. Where have I been? A lot can happen in a garden during the month of April, so I should have a great deal to report–and even though I’ve been busy with many things other than gardening, I do. This is a condensed version.

Plant something: Transplanted a few tomatoes outdoors; direct-seeded more lettuce, arugula, spinach, mustard spinach and Osaka purple mustard to fill in gaps.

Harvest something: Kale, lettuce, pea shoots, bok choi, arugula, and some thinned mustard greens. And flowers. Lots of flowers

Preserve something: Kale. I’ll probably freeze some more cutting celery this weekend. I’m not sure how long it will hold out and the celery seedlings I’d been nurturing since February…well, they and some chard seedlings were outside on the back steps hardening off one day last week–and the flats literally blew away. I found the remains of the chard, too late to save the babies, but the celery flat is still missing.

Waste not: The usual composting and eating of leftovers We’re having a yard sale this weekend, which must count for something

Want not: Nothing unusual.

Eat the food: lots of salads and braised greens. Tonight’s dinner included kale and home-canned tomatoes

Support local food systems: Joined a CSA, because our mammoth garden isn’t mammoth enough. When we went out for my fancy-schmancy birthday dinner, it was to a restaurant that buys from local, sustainable suppliers; we were amused to realize we knew their lamb-provider.

Skill up: Attended a writers’ conference, which has nothing to with the overall theme of the Independence Days challenge, but is good for me. Next area of focus on the home front: soil amending. Some of my raised beds have been gardened so intensively for the past few years that the soil is in rather sad shape, especially the small bed that, through poor planning on my part, became the year-round bed for two years running. I noticed the spinach I planted there looks rather smaller than the spinach in the other bed. Time to figure out how to make happier dirt there pronto!

Carnal Machines, a delightfully deviant anthology of steampunk erotica that contains my story “Human Powered”, just won a gold medal in the erotica category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Congratulations to editor DL King and all my fellow authors who are sharing this thrill tonight.

Congratulations as well to Rachel Kramer Bussel, who won not one, but two awards for her savvy editing. I wasn’t in either book, but I know a lot of the great writers are, and I’ve worked with Rachel on many occasions.

From www.icanhazburger.com, although it's been all over the web

Last night, I finished and sent out my second short story of the week. When I was writing closer to full time, that wouldn’t have seemed like such a big deal. But considering I wrote only eight short stories in 2011 (and a book!), I’m delighted that with today’s submission, I’m up to five (and two books, although one wasn’t accepted) finished and submitted to date in 2012. Now to finish Shamans’ Seduction (or is it Shaman’s Sanctuary? The original working title was Cougar’s Collective-Noun, but I didn’t want people to think it was an older-woman/younger man story when it’s a paranormal with feline shape-shifters. Puma’s Passion, maybe?)

This weekend, I’m off to the New England Chapter Romance Writers of America Conference. I’ll be signing books on Saturday–Lion’s Pride only this time. Of course, they left out the Noelle on the flyer, so I’m my mundane self, the one who works at a firm in Boston with a name I’ve promised never to reveal in conjunction with my writing. With luck, people will figure it out!

Bound by Lust is available for pre-order from Amazon at a great discount price. Buy it now, and next month, you’ll come home one day and find a delicious, romantic, kinky collection waiting for you.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find, from my story “Whippoorwill,”

A whippoorwill shattered my attempt to sleep, calling out over the lake with a startlingly loud demand that someone beat him. I sprang bolt upright in the narrow camp bed. “I’m going to kill that fucking bird!”

Ben, who’d had the fun of a four-hour drive on top of our shared end-of-the-first-year-of-law-school exhaustion, had slept through the whippoorwill and the other weird unexpected woodsy night sounds that kept me from sleeping. Hell, he’d even ignored the lumpy mattress that was just as vintage as the rest of the furnishings in our borrowed cabin. But my burst of temper woke him.

“It’s nature, Cathy. It’s supposed to be relaxing,” he murmured, nuzzling at the small of my back. “So relax.”

Normally Ben’s lips tracing my tailbone and working up my spine would have set me shivering so much that I wouldn’t care I was desperately underslept. Sex had gotten us through our first year at Yale Law. Granted, most of it had been rushed, without the energy for bondage, beatings, or any of our shared kinks. Sometimes we’d fall asleep part-way through and wake stuck together like dogs.

This week, at his uncle’s cabin on a secluded New Hampshire lake, was supposed to recharge us so we had the energy for properly improper sex. But how was I supposed to recharge if I couldn’t sleep? I hadn’t brought ear plugs. I hadn’t thought I’d need them way out here. “Who knew peace and quiet would be so damn loud?” I growsed, sliding out of Ben’s arms and out of bed.

“You can sleep through car alarms, sirens, and screaming drunks, but not a bird?”

“Those are normal, constant city noises. I can ignore them. But first this place seems spooky quiet and then…” The bird call jarred through the air again. “Some kinky bird starts screaming for kinky love—in the third person, no less. Why doesn’t his damn top show up and give poor Will his beating so we can get some sleep?”

I stomped to the kitchen and poured Cabernet into a Looney Toons juice glass. Wine might help me sleep, or at least relax me enough that I wouldn’t be Grumpy McGrumpypants at Ben.

As I poured, I looked out the picture window. The lake was moon-illuminated, and the sky was domed with more stars than I’d ever seen outside a planetarium. I couldn’t see lights from any of the other cabins on the lake.

Okay, there was something to be said for the boonies.

And here, I had a chance for a pleasure a city girl rarely experiences—sipping wine outside stark naked on a lovely night.

Glass in hand, I wandered onto the deck overlooking the lake.

The whippoorwill was still begging for a beating, but under the stars, it sounded more lovelorn than annoying. A light, pine-scented breeze cut the humidity and caressed my bare skin, perking up my nipples and reminding my pussy that I’d left a handsome, naked man alone in bed.

A poor choice, that. A few more sips of wine and I’d rectify that mistake. If nothing else, we could smooch and cuddle and maybe I could drift off to sleep in his arms.

Before I could, though—before I could even have that next sip—a strong hand plucked the glass from my hand, then bent me forward over the railing.

My ass cocked back in response. I knew that position. I liked that position.

“How long has it been, Cathy?” Ben’s voice was full of silken menace. “How long since I’ve beaten you?”

I shivered and clenched at the memory of pleasures long neglected. “So long we didn’t even bother packing toys. Damn it.”

“I still have my hands, Cathy. Do you want a spanking?”

The wave of lust that crashed over me suggested I’d been mad at the poor bird because I was jealous “Will” might be getting something I wanted.

The first hard thwack sent fire through my out-of-practice butt. I was still considering whether to submit or squirm away when Ben struck three times in rapid succession.

Submit, definitely submit. I needed that hurt to releases the stresses of the last few months, and Ben needed to give it. My ass throbbed already, but the throbbing started a matching rhythm in my pussy. “More,” I begged. “Please.”

Whoo! Just got my author’s copy of Across My Knee, the Mischief anthology that contains my story “Retro.” Its official release date is April 19. Birthday spankings for me! But you can pre-order it now and it will magically appear on your e-reader on April 19.

A teasing little excerpt (don’t ask me why I’m keeping the excerpt clean when the cover’s NSFW)

Can you imagine being disappointed that a sexy, smart guy who shared your interests wasn’t gay? I know it sounds odd, but a case of the hopeless hots for someone I could never get would be easier to handle than one for someone who was theoretically attainable, just a bad idea.

Darren was gorgeous but that was only the start of why I lusted after him. The way he could guide me about a dance floor, controlling my movements with the lightest, most sensitive touch, as if we shared one mind – or as if I’d surrendered my will over to him and all I had to do was follow his lead – was meltingly sexy and made me want to surrender myself to him, right there as we danced. I didn’t just want to fuck him, or even simply date him. I wanted to be his happy submissive, following his will in the bedroom and out as I did on the dance floor, getting spanked when I was bad and spanked with a different attitude when I was good. I was an old-fashioned girl at heart, albeit an old-fashioned girl with a few twists, and I wanted a man who’d be in charge in the relationship: not just kinky sex, but actual domination and submission and the occasional domestic discipline. As I’d gotten to know Darren better, I realised I wanted him to be that man.

The problem was, I suspected that if I made that particular offer, Darren would run in horror.

*

In other news, Bound by Lust releases tomorrow–but again, you can pre-order it now. I’ll be posting a bit more about this one tomorrow.

I just sent out the story I finished over the weekend–it needed remarkably little in the way of revision.

Also over the weekend, an editor requested a story for an anthology I’d planned to skip. But once she asked me, well of course I had to say yes! I started that one on the train today, but I’m thinking that my decision to write from the male character’s point of view may have been a mistake–not because I can’t write a male POV, but because one of his character traits is that he’s eccentric and a bit flaky. His voice, as it turns out, is one that’s prone to digressions and distractions and asides, which could be funny in a full-length piece, but isn’t working in a short story, especially one that’s supposed to be sexy-kinky and, while not deathly serious, certainly not comic.

And for a closing sigh that I’m sure many of you will find familiar, I want more time: more time for writing, more time for home projects, more time to garden, more time to get back in shape, more time for my friends. Since I get the same number of hours in the day as everyone else does, I guess that means I have to make better use of those hours.

I’d mutter something about wanting to give up sleep, but I know better. One of my friends, due to a medical problem, almost lost the ability to sleep for a while. It was not pretty at all. Did you know that prolonged sleep deprivation can eventually drive you insane or even kill you? Luckily it didn’t happen to him, but as a writer I already talk to imaginary people. I don’t want to start thinking they exist anywhere outside my brain and my stories.

I just barreled my way through a short story today and I’m currently low on words, so I thought I’d share a few evocative images.

One of the pictures from today’s walk in the woods. I love knot-holes and gnarled old trees.

This is from the last trip to Maine…sand like silk.

This is from a hike in February at the same park we visited today.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I think I went a little crazy planting peas this year. In the past, I’ve done about a third to half of a 16-foot bed in snap peas a year, which is never quite enough for us to truly revel in peas, but in our limited space, it seemed like all I could manage. I haven’t grown normal peas, the kind with inedible pods, because they didn’t seem like the best use of space. This year, though, I bought some “Little Marvel” shelling peas, because I heard you could grow them in containers, and since I’ve become fond of adding pea tendrils to salads and braises, I figured I’d get dual use out of the plants even if they didn’t produce more than a few tasty meals of peas.

Several weeks ago, at pea planting time, I got a bad case of planting fever, and without thinking, pre-soaked the entire packet of Little Marvels and treated them with legume inoculant. (For the non-gardeners, that’s beneficial bacteria that helps peas, beans and other legumes “fix” nitrogen into the soil, helping both the legumes and the crop you plant there grow better.) And once I’d pre-soaked them, I had to plant them. Oops!

Now I have a half-bed of snap peas, a half bed of regular peas, and two big containers of regular peas. They’re looking good and we will feast upon peas late this spring, which is a wondrous notion. On the other hand, I’m not sure where I’m going to put my chard and kale, since I need to allow room to start beans in early May, and chard and kale–unlike the spinach and arugula I planted in some of the “bean” area–stay in place for a good long time.

Well, we’d wanted to expand our container garden, and I think chard and black dinosaur kale should look quite dramatic in pots (and perhaps out of reach of the rabbits that ate all the dinosaur kale last year) . Hope the friends getting married in the yard this summer don’t mind a backdrop of vegetables!

On to the update…

Plant something: Direct-seeded arugula, Osaka red mustard, mustard spinach, several varieties of lettuce, tatsoi. Transplanted Chinese kale, mizuna, and tatsoi. I’m a bit obsessed with Asian greens, but as an obsession, it could be worse.

Harvest something: Kale, lettuce (overwintered lettuce–I’m not that magical), overwintered cutting celery; pea shoots

Preserve something: Cutting celery

Waste not: Cut up old PJs for dusters. Saved bones for stock. Unfortunately there’s been a bit of food waste this week–discovered some moldy soft goat cheese and some scary chili.

Want not: Nothing unusual.

Eat the food: Made bread for the first time in ages, and it felt great. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it. Usually Himself is the bread-baker, but he says that right now it feels like a chore rather than fun, so I’m trying to fill in. Eating our greens and our happy-hen eggs. Made a “basil limeade” base by making a strong basil sun tea.

Support local food systems: Farmer’s market this week, buying still more greens and — oh my heavens – locally made, fair trade, organic chocolate. Obviously not locally raised but it was delicious and we got to support a small local business. Still enjoying eggs from the egg lady.

Skill up: Nothing new.

Himself and I spent a long weekend at my mom’s. It was an extremely quiet time. Mom is about to turn 79–we’ll be heading out there again in a few weeks to celebrate that day. Mom’s been dealing with chronic health problems since childhood, and at this point is fairly frail and can’t get around much. Part of the reason for that, ironically, is the stuff she needs to take to stay semi-functional–the pain meds for the crippling arthritis, the asthma inhalers, etc.–leave her drowsy enough she loses . She’s trying to switch around the timing on some of the medications so the worst of the fatigue will hit her at night. Himself and I are trying to come up with various ways to help her–for instance, we left her 6 or 8 wholesome pre-made dinners in the freezer, since she admitted she’d been eating TV dinners or cereal a lot because cooking was too much trouble some nights. She lives a 6-hour drive away, and there are good reasons for her not to move to Massachusetts and for us not to move to central New York, so there’s only so much we can do.

I try not to worry about her too much. If any of you are in a similar situation with aging parents, though, you know that I do.

Because of the trip, and a cool, damp, rainy week, I have little to report for the Independence Days challenge.

Plant something: nothing

Harvest something: Kale, cutting celery

Preserve something: Nada

Waste not: Not even all the usual stuff, since Mom doesn’t compost. We did make sure to recycle, which she usually doesn’t.

Want not: Nothing

Eat the food: Used cutting celery, home-canned tomatoes, and beef from a previous stock-up in the food we left for Mom. Dried apples for road snacks.

Support local food systems: Bought a half-gallon of maple syrup direct from a producer near Mom’s.

Skill up: Nothing.

In other news, Blood and Lotuses was rejected by Samhain. It was one of the most positive, upbeat rejections I’ve received in a long time–very clear that the editor thought it was a good book, but not right for the line. (I hadn’t been sure about that myself; it’s a very dark fantasy and while there’s a strong romantic element that’s central to the plot, the icky factor is rather high–everything from bloody sacrifices to pedophiles.) Now I have to decide whether to try self-publishing or send it elsewhere.