Answer for Walt: Yes, I would recommend Mary Stewart to teenagers, assuming they have a tolerance for careful and deliberate scene-setting. As I mentioned in my previous post, Ms. Stewart keeps everything very tasteful. But thrilling. Tasteful but thrilling. I was a teenager myself when I started reading them.

Sunday night I watched Made of Honor with my husband. I think he thought the flick was a little too heavy on the chicky side, but I enjoyed it. On a Sunday night I don’t like to have to think too much about or get too stressed with the movie selection. And this one was the perfect little bit of fluff.

After it was over it had me feeling a little nostalgic for my recently completed novel. The final parts of the movie (and the big, dramatic romantic scene) take place in Scotland, just as they do in my book, and I couldn’t help feeling a little bit excited all over again about the way I’d chosen to end my novel. It’s been months–MONTHS–since I looked at it–months since the agent hunt began, and while I’ve had responses from a few agents (basically telling me that chick-lit is a hard sell right now and I’d need to be a little quirkier), I’ve still not heard from quite a few. But with the gloom-and-doom predictions facing the publishing world, I’m no longer holding my breath. I’m thinking that if I want to get this book out there, I’m going to have to put it out there myself.

Which means one final round of tweaks and edits, a cover design, review submissions, pre-publication hype, etc, etc. Suddenly I’m so very tired. This blog could go crazy in the coming weeks.

It’s that time of year again…I headed off Friday morning after getting my kids to school for the Houston International Quilt Festival. Half market, half show, it fills up the George R. Brown Convention Center and is really an all-day affair. As usual, it was packed, filled to bursting with ladies in matching shirts palling around for a day out on town with their quilting buddies. A new twist this year was the addition of Halloween accessories, mostly on the heads of attendees. I saw witches’ hats and tinsel-y antenna headbands adored with black cats… I too got into the Halloween spirit with my orange pumpkin t-shirt from Old Navy. Suffice it to say, it was a zoo, filled with some kooky characters, and I have it to do all over again (sorta) in two weeks when I’ll brave the annual Houston Nutcracker Market benefiting the Houston Ballet.

And as you might expect, I did snap some photos of some of the quilts that caught my eye:

Best in Show:

What I believe to be the World of Beauty Award winner:
(The three women represented in the quilt and standing in front of it are sisters, living thousands of miles apart. Somehow they planned this quilt online.) This one fascinated me.

The Pioneer Woman Quilt:

The Wild & Crazy Quilt:

And what I like to call the Wishful Thinking Quilt:

A good show, all in all.

Is it just me, or is Target just a black hole with a bulls-eye? I can’t seem to step into that store without spending a hour there. Today I went in for printer ink, gloves, and multiplication flashcards, thinking it’ll take me, twenty minutes tops. I trailed out of there after AN HOUR with things I had no intention of even looking at, let alone buying. I breezed through the Dollar Spot (and picked up some Christmas wrapping paper for…$1), I browsed through the books (I’m sorry, but I can’t not), and as ridiculous as it seems, two days from Halloween, I even stopped and admired some of the Christmas decorations that the employees are so efficiently setting out on display. Oh, and I played with the Sony Reader they had out on display: very nice. I ended up with a lip gloss and a box of cotton candy push-up pops, and an hour gone from my life. (I did also manage to score one Christmas gift). But I enjoyed every minute.

So while it’s a colossal time waster, Target just makes me happy: the red and white, and that little bull terrier….awesome. Today was a good day.