I’ve been working on this enormous genre post for you, where we interviewed all sorts of people and we have all but one person in, so it will go up soon. Phew.
A word about fictional marriages in our work. The general rule of thumb is, if there is more than a ten year difference and when the two characters first met, one of them was a child, it’s a no. Grooming is an ugly thing.
So no, Arabella – Cornelius/Lenora/Augustine will never happen. We consider that creepy. Derek and Julie had only 6 years and we are making them jump through all sorts of hoops just to have their first kiss. If that happens. #CasuallyEvilWriter, #HowToMessWith Fandom.
If the two characters met as adults and they have a significant age difference but decide to be together, it’s not a problem. A large age gap may add additional difficulties to a marriage, but may is the key word here. There are plenty of real world couples with significant age difference that made it work. That’s what being an adult means – you are able to make decisions regarding who you would like to spend your time with. 🙂
Also, just because a character is unattached doesn’t mean he will be attached. This is not the Bachelor. For that you would have to wait until we… oops, just almost said too much. So um, Bachelor. Interesting show. ::whistles:: Kid 1 made us watch the latest season.
One time Gordon’s aunt didn’t like the direction the conversation was going and so she said, out of nowhere, “One time I was frying cubed steak and a big gob of grease flew up and landed on me.”
Look at that big gob of grease flying. Wooo!
In completely unrelated subjects, during the pandemic I have been forced to attend to my own personal grooming needs, and I broke down and bought a wax station like you see in salons. I love it with unholy love. Apparently, I have zero problems ripping hair out of my face by myself.
So for our discussion today, what did you start doing during the pandemic that you plan on keep doing after restrictions and lockdowns are over?
Fostering Boston terriers. We were planning to do start fostering once we retired in a few years but since we were stuck at home and the rescue we got our dogs from desperately needed foster homes, we decided to take the plunge.
Curbside pickups, grocery delivery, and outdoor movie nights with a projector! Nothing beats convenience and allowing me to continue being anti-social. ????
Oddly enough… I may keep doing my own trims if I keep growing my hair out. It falls to mid-butt now. I found a tutorial where you essentially make a pony tail at your forehead, flatten the hair out vertically like a fin and cut it at an angle. Simple and uncomplicated.
1. Cutting mine and my whole family’s hair.
2. Grocery pick up. With 4 little kiddos grocery pickup is soooo nice.
Let my hair grow out for the first time since the kiddos were born. Plan to keep it around chest length.
*in Oliver Twist voice* please sir, I want some Derek-Julie kissy face
Fyi,
Derick and Julie already have had their first kiss. Derick just doesn’t know it.
In Magic Stars, she kissed him when he was passed out.
“She’d cried and then kissed his lips gently, because he was asleep and he would never know.”
It’s not a first kiss if it’s not shared.
Agreed!
I started making my own lotions, chapstick, face serums. I did a ton of research because the last thing I needed was to make something that would blow up a petri dish. And I am too lazy to pull my lotion out of a refrigerator several times a day. Meaning there are preservatives in there.
I have very fine straight hair. I decided to perm it. I have been wanting beach waves for a while but finding someone who perms hair has been difficult. I researched the heck out of that too. I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s. Spent years getting the spiral perm; plenty of hours in the chair. I knew the basics. I found this stuff called olaplex, and put that in the perm. Between that and only using 20 rods, my hair survived it. I figured being stuck in the house was a perfect time to try it.
I am going to keep up with the chapstick, lotions, and serums. My face has never looked better. I have eczema and the ingredients I have added are helping keep that at bay. If you all are ever interested, there is a channel on YouTube from the Soap Queen. Instead of water, I use aloe vera water as my base. The lotion is a bit more expensive than the lotions at the store (aloe vera water isn’t cheap), but it is amazing on my skin. Living in Colorado, one needs moisturizer (and chapstick).
Thanks for the youtube rec.. atopic dermatitis all my life and i’ve been thinking of dabbling
Because of how “country” we live, nothing really changed with covid. I still work as an ICU nurse, my husband still works from home. I still stop every 2 weeks for groceries but still hoard TP, paper towels, canned goods, and vinegar for cleaning…We watch movies or TV series on blu ray, sit by the fire, do yard work and take care of the chickens..all which is the same…. I still Skype farther away family and friends from Dunkin Donut parking lot using their wifi cause ours via satelliteis spotty at best.
I have though watched covid kill more patients of mine, slowly and horribly, in the last year than in the 30 years previous work life. It was more than enough for me to take the last month off from work, and still have 2 more yet to go before I contemplate going back.
Thank you for all you do. I hope your time off is wonderful.
What I’ll keep doing : Not helping people when they are moving in to somewhere. I got tendonitis in my shoulder in November last year when I helped my grandma, and it still hurt occasionally :/ heavy lifting is definitely not for me????
I wonder why all protagonist have to find someone (tall, strong, reliable, with dry humour, alpha type….) I would be fine with Arabella being single ???? But I totally want to see how she interacts with the aquakinetic who plays in her favourite drama ????
During the pandemic I started doing my own nails (dipping) and got pretty good at it except I had a heavy hand with the drill and seriously damaged my own nail beds, so rather than going back to the salon (nails have grown out now and are healthy) I’m going to do the glue on nails…it works for me and I’m not drilling into my nails as I obviously can’t be trusted with a drill…..=)
However, I did have my first pedicure in 2 yrs…..my toes needed professional help!
So for self grooming, I stopped dying my hair, so I am sporting very glowing white hair right now. My Dad was glowing white at 40, but said his three heathen kids caused it. I also started walking ( no gym time)about 5 miles a day, I love it. I love when you tease ???? us with hints, evilly good!!
I have a wax station too, but I bought mine before the pandemic, because I am furry. ???? I love it! Pulling out those hairs and seeing them in the wax is a most satisfying thing.
Donating blood. Sadly I haven’t been as good about walking regularly and I need to pick that up again…
My favorite salon professional came to my home to trim my hair. I will continue as long as she is willing. A bit more money, worth it.
Decided yo retire because even during lockdowns i have had to go into work.
Personal services reopened a couple weeks ago here after 1.5 year of them being closed.
I got my eyebrows threaded. They look so good! I forgot that it hurts but it’s rather quick and it was worth it.
Walking or hiking every day, unless the weather is truly hideous or I’m deathly ill or injured. I miss very few days, but those days I really miss it.
Also, I learned to Zoom, and I can do it if absolutely necessary. I don’t miss Zoom when it doesn’t happen.
As for the rest of the post – lol!
And the vegetable garden. That’s new. I really like growing our own food.
LOVE the hints. Can’t wait for future posts.
I already made bread, but I jumped onto the sourdough wagon – but most SPECIFICALLY for pancakes. O.M.G. do soudough pancakes beat the HECK out of regular pancakes. I’m still working on a decent sourdough loaf – but it’s worth keeping the starter going JUST for the pancakes.
I started eating more vegetables. I thought I was eating “enough” before, but when I started to add more to my meals, I found that I was losing weight. So I kept eating more veggies and now I’m down 20 lbs. Veggies and morning walks are my jam now.
It would be nice to see Agustine end up with someone, but not Arabella. Someone his own age. He has younger siblings, though…
Rolling out of bed and commuting 20 feet to my office and working in my jammies with a pupper keeping my toes warm. Best working situation ever. Now I know why so many authors have dogs.
I started using Libby to check out books and audiobooks. That is how I found the Innkeeper series! I will continue using Libby and reading your books. ????
I got a Vitamix for my 60th birthday. I have acquired a fondness for smoothies and hummus. The hummus is amazing.
What did I start doing during the pandemic… well, due to being essential government, I worked while everyone except my coworkers stayed at home so that the meat industry would be able to feed everyone. I stopped being able to shop locally, because the stores closed way way early so I was forced to shop online for nearly everything because I was working multiple shifts each day. I’m still working multiple shifts while people are still at home. I’m still not able to shop after I get off work…
I’m still tired, stressed, and I passed crabby a year ago… currently, I am working multiple shifts at multiple locations! I walked in my door from work twenty minutes ago and Alexa started my reminder to go to bed so that I can get 8 hours of sleep (usually) but I have to go in 2 hours earlier than usual tomorrow…
When urban fantasy started to hit big one of my favorite authors that had a 19-yr old get together with a 400-500yr old supernatural, I thought it worked. I was about 25 then.
Well into my 30s and after hearing about all these child abuse cases, 19 all of the sudden seemed so young, and just couldn’t return to those books. “Grooming”, at least to make the 19yr old a more efficient killer (and better lover) started to be very uncomfortable. So…no.
To answer the question: Online grocery shopping. Being an actual millennial, one would think I would have jumped on that bandwagon sooner, but there you go.
Thanks for the snippet. Can’t wait for the book.
I started to make my own yoghurt; so much better than store bought. I made bread for the first time – no knead bread. Will continue to make it intermittently only as it is so addictive.
I have learned so much by listening to Chef Aj’s daily YouTube interviews and love Rich Roll too.
Julie kissed Derek in Magic Stars when he was unconscious. Wonder if he ever had an inkling about that. ????
Do not wax your bikini line by yourself. Yes there is a story and lets just say thank goodness my roommate was a nurse and home at the time.????
NOTHING!!! When this whole ugly thing is over I’m going to stop cutting hair (my own, my husband’s, the dog’s…) I’m going to stop doing my own pedicures. I’m going to stop forcing others to pick out my groceries. I’m going to stop waiting for routine medical care because I’m afraid of medical offices.
I can’t think of a single thing that I’m going to continue doing.
Pandemic activity: cocktails! I have learned so much about the construction of a good cocktail and the types of spirits that I like and don’t, I will have a hard time ordering a cocktail at a bar because of this.
My husband is 12 years younger than I am. What can I say, he’s my soulmate.
Mine is 6 years younger than me, and we met when he was 20 and we were both at university. He makes me laugh so much. We’ve been together 24 years and he still makes me laugh every day.
Not much changed in my life during the pandemic. I always preferred cooking at home to going out, and a perfect day is spent reading. I plan to keep telling people to get out of my personal space, though….
Making sushi. It was a special treat before the pandemic, but I can make it at home for much cheaper. My quality may not be the best, but I enjoy it and love the art and cutesy things you can do with the presentation.
Okay, I am SO CURIOUS about The Bachelor references. Is this inspiration going to appear in HL? Or something else? If anyone on this planet can make me interested in something Bachelor-esque, it’s going to be you guys!
I see a distinct lack of Stephen in that post, but that might be wishful thinking on my part 🙂
I have actually loved zooming with my parents. They live very far away and the pandemic convinced them to adopt the tech. Additionally, since I’ve been fortunate to be able to do my job from home, I’ve had a lot more practice time on my harp. I make a point to lean a new piece once a week.
What am I going to keep doing? I’m going to continue to pay attention to my porch plants. I wondered why I couldn’t keep a tomato plant for more than a couple of months. It’s because I always burst out the door like a nervous racehorse to run to work and came back after it was dark. Watering was erratic, to say the least. This year I had a tomato plant last and bear fruit until November. Amazing things can happen when you pay attention to your plants and, I don’t know, water them every day?
Arabella – Cornelius/Lenora/Augustine
There are people that ship this?????? My mind is just saying YUCK on repeat…
Also– To answer the question, baking! I started doing it as a hobby with a lack of better things to do being stuck at home all the time and absolutely not wanting to spend another minute in front of the computer.
I’ve had to dial back a bit in the spirit of not getting diabetes, but its been a fun process and I plan on continuing to bake for family and friends.
There are more ships in the BDH than are dreamt of in any philosophy :D.
I must admit my favourite was the presumed conjugal visits Grandma Frieda has with Adam Pierce bwahahaha.
Whaaaaat? ???? Good ol’, everybody loves her, Grandma Frida and nasty punk-*** Adam Pierce? I think she would tan his hide and then anyone else’s who thought that! ????
…now I’m imagining Grandma Frieda topping Adam Pierce, and I need brain bleach.
BWAH HAHAHA! I wish I was the one to think of it! What an awesome idea ????
During the pandemic, I started painting my own nails using dip powder. I love it! I never used to get my nails done and hated going to nail salons because they would always comment on how short my nails were. The amount of dip powder I now own is embarrassing, but I change my nails every week and it’s fun! ????????
We do family game night once a month. California, Texas and Pennsylvania.
I love staying more in touch and playing board games over zoom with my overseas friends and family! That’s going to stay.
What did I do during the pandemic and will not stop doing? Strength training using a resistance band, and stretching after that. Cardio doesn’t do a lot for me. I have a lot of muscle build up, and my abdominal area, in places, are finally getting flatter and stronger. ????
I still go grocery shopping. To me it’s fun.
I still work from home. I worked from home long before the pandemic hit, so that was nothing new.
Still coming out here to read all the interesting posts and comments. ????
Menopause struck and after 3 months of hot flashes (I had a hand held fan in every room) I decided to up my soy intake and go back a few decades and make my own soy milk and tofu again. Abracadabra presto hot flashes problem solved. So every two weeks I have a kitchen day to stock up on things. I make soy milk, tofu, vegan soy yogurt, muffins and a crock pot soup / stew meal. From the soy pulp (okara) I make vegan okara “meatballs”, okara gnocchi, okara granola and okara brownies / cookies. I hardly go to the grocery store anymore except to buy the basics and I get my veggies from the outdoor fruit stand. That’ll stay around ????. I got rid of 23 lbs too. I don’t say lost as it implies I want to find it again ????
Hi Simone
That’s amazing. Do you have a tofu recipe you could share?
I just spent three days putting away 50 lbs of free peaches. Peaches in light syrup, peach applesauce, peach jam (ultra smooth), peach ginger jam, peach ginger orange jam and dried peaches. I had forgotten how much work but also how much fun it is. Note to self – yes, the chinois is as much of an upperbody workout as I remeber it being. However, thank goodness I have all the tools. Best of all, peaches for the winter.
I may get back to small batch canning. Nothing this big, but man, I had forgotten how nice it is to put stuff away for yourself.
So that’s where Kate got her “peachy” comment when someone asked how she was doing. ????????
I started using nail wraps. They’re cheaper than going to the salon, so I’m sticking with them. With the Salon/Spa being closed and my stylist of over 20 years leaving said Salon (I cried), I decided to use Overtone Blue for Brown Hair. I had to do something…so it’s very blue and I get a lot of compliments. My daughter keeps saying…but it’s NOT a Natural color…how about Blonde???? Maybe Blonde with a layer of Fuschias pink underneath. Grins…I finally have hit a point where I don’t feel like I have to conform:)
Thank you Ilona Andrews for the post.
Using MyChart app to talk with mother’s doctors. Also I have white coat hypertension so the streamlined Covid protocols helped me a lot with this. I actually only had a slightly elevated blood pressure by end of my physical visit whereas before I would be in stroke territory.
On personal side I started cutting my own hair. Mother informed me I looked like a shaggy unkept dog when it got shoulder length and I had pulled back in ponytail. ????. So I cut my hair all over 2 inch length. (Because less than 1.5 inches, hair stands straight up. The farm animals don’t care and it had grown out before my next Mother interaction. Whew. ). Now she says I look bald. ????. Since I hate going to beauty salons and I like my look…. ????
I’m going to continue the exercising I started. I’m tired of my firstborn explaining to me that I’m old. I’d like to get back into contra dancing, but I don’t know anybody who’d want to go with me, and going by myself wasn’t at all fun when I tried it a few years back.
I’ll be old when I’m 80, and probably still in pretty good shape physically as well. Any mental issues are unlikely to hit till I’m well into my 90s at the very least.
I love contra dancing! Would love to find a contra community in my area. If I were in your area I would definitely go with you. ♥️
Baking and home haircuts seem to be a common theme here. I do have a twist on both, though.
Not only have I been cutting my husband’s hair, he’s been cutting _my_ curly shoulder-length hair successfully.
I was already baking bread and pizza dough, but the pandemic has led to multiple joint baking projects. Last week we made cinnamon rolls from scratch that turned out really well. (I think that’s the first time I’ve had cream cheese frosting that I liked.) We’ll see how well some of them taste after a week in the freezer.
What brand of wax station. Also, definitely evil. But we love it.
The Covid appliance, a rice cooker. Love using it. It has three components that need to be cleaned after each use, I do not love that, but the rice is superb.
Did anyone else squeal out loud at work at the thought of Derek and Julie’s first kiss?? only me? okies.
Retired during the Pandemic – plan to stay that way
Thank you for the Arabella comment. Also the “not everyone needs to hook up” comment. 54 yr old lifelong bachelor here. ???? Not against it, just managed to avoid what would have been a couple (no pun intended) bad choices.
My new thing: drinking better wine on more than just special occasions without making myself somehow “earn” it. Cheers!