More Cookies and Dreams
Nov. 4th, 2019 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMy subconscious isn't the least bit subtle.
I had a dream last night about my new novel. Let me preface this with the fact that my editor/publisher Cheryl Morgan told me on Friday, I think, that Locus Magazine had picked up the press release regarding my new novel. This is definitely a 'yay' because I do worry that I've been so out of the publishing game that no one knows or cares about my work any more. Apparently, my subconscious has a different worry. See if you can guess what it is...
My dream last night went like this. I am at a science fiction convention where I'm doing some kind of volunteer thing (which may have involved taking a class on James Joyce, but that's not actually important.) When the con is over, I decide to be silly and make a chalk "thank you" poem that I write on the sidewalk outside of the convention center. The next day, above the fold, the Star Tribune (our local paper) writes a huge article critiquing how BAD my poetry is and what I stupid idea writing a thank you in chalk was to begin with, complete with quotes from everyone involved, including people I thought of as friends, basically saying that it's such a shame that a former science fiction writer has become such a weirdo.
Seriously, brain? ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO BE SUBTLE.
Clearly, I am terrified that the critics will hate the thing I am writing. I think it's a reasonable fear, so you don't need to comfort me and tell me I am awesome (I actually _do_ know this, but my subconscious is where the fears live, after all. My conscious brain is still mostly in charge, so no worries). I only share this with you all because it is truly hilarious to me the extent to which my dreams are so easily interpreted. Dr. Freud does not need to be paged. We got this one.
Otherwise, Sunday was lovely. We all slept in and then went out en masse to breakfast, my favorite meal. Mason had been agitating for a trip to Grandview Grill, so we went. It was crowded, but I had their delicious biscuits and gravy which pretty much sustained me until dinner time.
I also made some really good vegan sugar cookies, which, yes, I cut out in the shape of a turkey.
Picture: A muppet-y sort of shocked looking, turkey-shaped vegan cookie.
Very tasty, however. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, I guess? You can make amazing cookies with margarine and/or Crisco, so it stands to reason that the expensive version of those things would work just as well. This terrified turkey represents my biggest vegan success, so far. However, I have not yet tried out all the recipes that y'all have passed on. I am looking forward to those.
I do have to say that I appreciate the crowd over here on DW. I am _still_ getting advice on how to fix my vegan gravy, despite not asking for any. I do understand that my friends are literally just excited to help, but "cornstarch?" makes me laugh. Yes, my friends, I have heard of it, thank you for assuming I had _not._ This is literally the bonus of longer form, however. I guess I should just get in the habit on social media of writing a longer explanation, but, to me, that isn't how FB is supposed to be used.
Anyway, that was my weekend. My big plans today, besides continuing working on the novel (that the Star Tribune will apparently hate, in my dreams, at least,) I have to take Willow to the vet for some booster shots at 11 pm. I should probably dig the carrier out of the basement now, actually. Her BIG appointment is in a couple of weeks... sometime after my birthday (which is coming up! Nov. 18!)
Hope you all are well!
I had a dream last night about my new novel. Let me preface this with the fact that my editor/publisher Cheryl Morgan told me on Friday, I think, that Locus Magazine had picked up the press release regarding my new novel. This is definitely a 'yay' because I do worry that I've been so out of the publishing game that no one knows or cares about my work any more. Apparently, my subconscious has a different worry. See if you can guess what it is...
My dream last night went like this. I am at a science fiction convention where I'm doing some kind of volunteer thing (which may have involved taking a class on James Joyce, but that's not actually important.) When the con is over, I decide to be silly and make a chalk "thank you" poem that I write on the sidewalk outside of the convention center. The next day, above the fold, the Star Tribune (our local paper) writes a huge article critiquing how BAD my poetry is and what I stupid idea writing a thank you in chalk was to begin with, complete with quotes from everyone involved, including people I thought of as friends, basically saying that it's such a shame that a former science fiction writer has become such a weirdo.
Seriously, brain? ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO BE SUBTLE.
Clearly, I am terrified that the critics will hate the thing I am writing. I think it's a reasonable fear, so you don't need to comfort me and tell me I am awesome (I actually _do_ know this, but my subconscious is where the fears live, after all. My conscious brain is still mostly in charge, so no worries). I only share this with you all because it is truly hilarious to me the extent to which my dreams are so easily interpreted. Dr. Freud does not need to be paged. We got this one.
Otherwise, Sunday was lovely. We all slept in and then went out en masse to breakfast, my favorite meal. Mason had been agitating for a trip to Grandview Grill, so we went. It was crowded, but I had their delicious biscuits and gravy which pretty much sustained me until dinner time.
I also made some really good vegan sugar cookies, which, yes, I cut out in the shape of a turkey.
Picture: A muppet-y sort of shocked looking, turkey-shaped vegan cookie.
Very tasty, however. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, I guess? You can make amazing cookies with margarine and/or Crisco, so it stands to reason that the expensive version of those things would work just as well. This terrified turkey represents my biggest vegan success, so far. However, I have not yet tried out all the recipes that y'all have passed on. I am looking forward to those.
I do have to say that I appreciate the crowd over here on DW. I am _still_ getting advice on how to fix my vegan gravy, despite not asking for any. I do understand that my friends are literally just excited to help, but "cornstarch?" makes me laugh. Yes, my friends, I have heard of it, thank you for assuming I had _not._ This is literally the bonus of longer form, however. I guess I should just get in the habit on social media of writing a longer explanation, but, to me, that isn't how FB is supposed to be used.
Anyway, that was my weekend. My big plans today, besides continuing working on the novel (that the Star Tribune will apparently hate, in my dreams, at least,) I have to take Willow to the vet for some booster shots at 11 pm. I should probably dig the carrier out of the basement now, actually. Her BIG appointment is in a couple of weeks... sometime after my birthday (which is coming up! Nov. 18!)
Hope you all are well!
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Date: 2019-11-04 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-04 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-04 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-04 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-04 06:10 pm (UTC)Honestly, I love the idea of chalking a poem on the sidewalk under those circumstances, and FUCK the Star Tribune if they can't take a joke. Ahem. I apologize for over-investment in your dream.
The vegan cookie is impressive and also completely cracks me up, which I assume was the basic intention, other than to provide a proper holiday treat for vegan friends.
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Date: 2019-11-04 06:56 pm (UTC)And, yes, the point of the vegan cookie is for me to be able to hand one to each of them and say, "Ha! Here's your Thanksgiving TURKEY," because I'm like that.
Hopefully, they remember my sense of humor. I will admit that there have been times when the "the vegans are coming!" elicited a "Jesus wept" from me when thinking ahead to all the recipes I was going to have to alter. I mean, I got over it? Now, I'm taking it on with gusto? So, hopefully they will laugh at the terrified googly-eyed completely vegan and startlingly delicious turkeys. I made some leaves, too. So if they seriously can't ingest anything looking back at them balefully, they can have a leaf.
COOKIE, I should add. I will not make them eat actual leaves.
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Date: 2019-11-04 07:08 pm (UTC)Backup leaves are a good idea, though I personally would happily laugh at such a joke.
User minnehaha actually made me my own miniature vegan apple pie recently, and she cut the top crust into the shapes of little maple leaves, so it looked as if leaves had fallen down on the apples. It was delightful. And way beyond the call of a host's duty.
I sometimes utter the equivalent of "Jesus Wept" just about my own dietary requirements. It can be so much trouble and so frustrating.
I am resisting making a joke about how vegans subsist on leaves quite a bit, because it's being overtaken by a line from a Larry Niven novel, probably but not necessarily Ringworld, in which someone contemplating the culture of the vegetarian and apparently pacifist aliens called Puppeteers says dismissively, "How much intelligence can it take to sneak up on a leaf?"
P.