Mod R is out today, so you are in my semi-capable hands. This is a slice of life post.
When I was a child, time seemed to move in a straight forward way, like floating down the stream of a slow, gentle river in a little boat. Then I became an adult, and the passage of time stopped being a steady ride. Sometimes it’s a rapid current, and I don’t know what’s going on, and the boat is falling apart. Sometimes the river turns into a swamp, and I’m going in circles, rowing as fast as I can and getting nowhere. Sometimes I just give up and drift. But then there are times when I open my eyes and notice that the sky is a beautiful blue, the water is clear, and the weeping willows are bending gracefully over the banks.
April had managed to pack all of those moments into 4 weeks. It’s always a very busy month for us. Gordon and both of our daughters were all born in April. This year, there was a book tour on top of it, followed by Gordon getting sick, and then a storm that ripped the decorative shutters off our house and damaged the stucco. Through all of it, we have been working on the book, which is a mammoth at 173,000 words and still isn’t done.
The river has been clogged with debris of Not Done for a while. Boxes of books haven’t been mailed, admin tasks haven’t been attended to, phone calls haven’t been returned, and important errands haven’t been run. I haven’t unpacked. I normally unpack within 24 hours of coming home.
::stares at the suitcases::
I swear I will unpack today.
We did accomplish some things. I have gone to my medical appointments. They had given me a heart monitor out of abundance of caution, and I am delighted to report that I am allergic to whatever kind of glue is on it. I broke out in hives, and the itching was ridiculous. The monitor fell off after 5 days and I actually did a little dance of happiness. I also dragged Gordon to have an eye exam, and his new glasses have arrived. I need to drag him out again to pick them up.
We went out for a dinner with friends and then again to celebrate the birthdays. We have left the house so many times in April, it has to be a record of some kind.
We signed and mailed off 2,600 bookplates for a special book box.
We heroically cut the grass in the backyard, because we finally got rain and in the true Texas fashion, the weeds had gotten thigh-high in a space of a week. Gordon ordered a dumpster for a spring cleaning, and I am ridiculously excited, because I can clean out the back yard. It accumulates old planters, random items like rusted thingie that was used at some point to turn the shutters, and other weird stuff, and I swear that refuse keeps reproducing somehow.
Someone emailed about the mammoth I made during the Q&A. Here she is.
I made her with Premier Parfait Plush for Kid 2. The pattern is available on Etsy from KnotsandSnuggles. Their mammoth has a wider head and less curly hair, but I really liked the curls. There is no trick – they happen naturally if you pull up a longer yarn loop.
I haven’t finished the Book Tour Shawl. I am saving it for the summer trip to Columbus Book Fair.
The next project is this shawl, Frühlingserwachen. I’d love to know what that translates to.
This is a very interesting pattern that looks deceptively complex, but is actually pretty straight forward. My issue right now is that I don’t quite have the right yarn for it.
I can hear you laughing, but hear me out.
This shawl takes at least 1,200 yards. I wanted to do one of Wendy Wonders gradients with it, but realized that what I have tops out at 800 and matching to it will be difficult. I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. Should I do each section in a different color? Do I want cotton or something like Blue Heron with lurex for this or do I want wool? Fingering or DK? Should I stick to the gradient but do the narrow cross sections in a different color or would that look ugly?
I am conflicted.
Well, I need to be at work in 8 minutes, so I have to end this lovely picnic and climb back into my metaphorical boat.
This is my reminder to myself and to anyone who needs it today: the book will get finished, the chores will get finished, the planet will keep spinning. In a rush to get everything done and to catch up, let’s not forget to enjoy the river.
I squeeed when I saw that Mammoth. It is absolutely adorable.
That shawl is stunning. Beyond stunning. You even being able to start to sort out what yarns to use where, much less cataloging what you already have and could use, while having any brain space left to write books, makes my brain gears spin. No connections, just wild spinning.
We ordered a full time dumpster here. There are only 3 of us normally, but we are renovating an old church camp into our residence plus Air BnBs along a river in Kentucky. And I have a big garden. And our children and grandchildren visit us a lot. The animals belonging to our disabled daughter also produce trash. I don’t see a smaller amount of trash being produced any time soon.
All of my moms mom’s grandchildren and most of her great grandchildren were born in March or April. Three of my 6 are April 20th, no twins.
Unless you have dirty laundry in that suitcase, it is a happy place. Don’t worry about it.
LOVE the mammoth! It’s truly adorable. Great reminder about taking a moment to appreciate the things that bring joy around us every day. With how hard life can be, it’s important to remember to do that. I re-read your books often because they bring me joy and have done so for close to 20 years. I want to thank you for that!
Cotton, blue ombré. Now I want one.
Dear community. This is off topic ( please excuse, reason to follow) but I have a question and don’t know who to ask or how to go about this.
Is there somewhere on this site we can post a ” thank you note?”
I’m rereading the Kate series and a scene in book 9 really really helped me grapple with some heavy mental health stuff.( Imagine your dad was a real life Nimrod…)
I just wish I could express my gratitude, but not sure how.
Hi Jeanne,
I’m so happy the books helped 🙂.
All emails and comments get read – if you want to drop a private note to the authors you can send it to modr@ilona-andrews.com and I will make sure they get it.
Hi,
It was only mentioned here before, but then seem to be skipped. Maybe someone
would be interested, so I leave it here:
https://sqn.pl/ksiazki/to-krolestwo-mnie-nie-zabije/
Official release date is 06.05, but I preorderd it at publisher store, and already got mine yesterday 😀 It is a beauty (not mentioned on publisher site, but it even has a ribbon bookmark sewn in), and nobody should keep such a rare beauty w*iting…
Sorry, I could not resist 😉
Thank you so much for linking the Polish edition of this This Kingdom again, it’s great to know that it can already be ordered. 🙂
Do not use DK! All that lovely airy lace will get hidden in a bulky mess! Don’t ask me how I know!! *sobs quietly* It’s fine.
Fingering. Like a 1 or 2. No higher. Trust me. Not DK or worsted. Just don’t.
Maggie 1 was such a good book. Normally, my husband is as eager as I am, but in a true BDH move he’s decided to boycott Maggie until there is an Inheritance sequel. Every time I give him House Andrews news, all he says in reponse is “Is it about an Inheritance sequel? No….then I don’t care.” In thirty years, I’ve never seen him be so enamored of a book before.
Thank you and yes it all gets done in the end.
My Grandfather used to say, “Don’t worry – if tomorrow comes, you’ll have time to finish. If it doesn’t, well…..it doesn’t matter anyway.” Then he’d wink.
I needed to hear that last bit. As ever, thank you
Maggie was my river this week. it’s been a rough spring and the break was nice. I’ve never switched between kindle, phone app kindle, audible, and hardcover for a book before. the variety added to the fun. thanks! Definitely worth the wait😀
The mammoth is adorableeeeee 😍
Gorgeous needlework!
I’m catching up on the blog, so this may have been covered already. I, too, had a serious allergic reaction to the large, big sticker heart monitor. Hopefully you already informed your doctor of the reaction. The heart monitor company will tell you that they will send you a different version with five small connector electrodes that use a more gentle adhesive. I still had minor reactions to them and had to move them around a good bit to get the data. (My skin took a bit to recover, but data is important.) In the end, I think they got significantly less than a month’s worth of data, but they got at least 20 days I think. I only have palpitations, yay! Good luck to you!
Also, adorable mammoth! I have got to take the time to learn to make my fox wooble!! The shawl looks difficult & beautiful!
That shawl is beautiful.
Does the yarn have to match?
There are enough varied patterns that the slight color difference may not catch the eye.
Looking forward to the picture of it completed.
Mammoth is AMAZING, shawl does look complex & I can’t wait to see what you choose to do for yours. Very excited, as always, to hear about the writing & the book(s)! 💙