Waking up in the morning is hard work. Everyone had to take a restorative nap, heh.

The last couple of weeks were kind of odd schedule-wise. The surgery, the recovery, then we had an event on Wednesday. We met Jasmine Mas and her husband, who were both gracious and charming. We also managed to have a dinner with Jessie Mihalik and her husband. And I was gifted a gorgeous ARC of SILVER & BLOOD.

Luisa Preissler painted the cover. I love it so much, because it has that hint of a slightly retro feel but in a very current, cool way. It matches the book. If you want one, Jessie is running a giveaway on her blog.

Most writers have a routine. Mine is very straight forward. Get up, drink a cup of tea, work out, make a shake, catch up on emails, figure out the dinner and thaw the meat out, work with Gordon until 4:00 pm or so, make dinner, then eat and have off time. In a way, it’s life on rails, but when we are deep into the first draft, the less distractions the better. The next week we’ll lose at least a day of work for sure, so today I need to be productive.

I play this game, Grounded 2, where you are shrunk to a small size and end up in a park, fighting bugs. You can ride ants and spiders, and when your mount runs out of energy, my little avatar says, “Let’s reestablish homeostasis.” This is me right now, reestablishing a little bit.

We had a nice, relaxed Halloween. My one week eye appointment went well. The doctor is happy, and my right eye is scheduled for surgery this Tuesday. I’m looking forward to the surgery because my brain is so confused by different focus right now that it thinks there is an obstruction in my right eye.

My multifocal lens finally kicked in, and I can now read the text on my phone. I still bought a pair of reader glasses on Amazon and they work great for very close up stuff. I can probably cross-stitch again with these. Not that I have time.

By the way, I purchased 5 pairs of reader glasses. For $15. The frames are not only prettier than my very expensive prescription frames but they have the flexible joints and all the bells and whistles. ::side eyes the optometrist store:: Why did I pay 10 times as much for a pair of frames that rips out my hair?

I’m in a weird place, emotionally and creatively. It’s probably just the uncertainty of the upcoming release nipping at me. There is a point in every book’s journey when you have to let go. You’ve written the manuscript, you’ve edited it, and it is now out of your hands. It will do what it will do. But no matter how many books you’ve published, this feeling is always disconcerting. It’s this vague, anxious limbo, and you are floating in it not knowing if you’ve achieved what you’ve set out to do or if your work will fall flat on its face.

Tor has been an amazing publishing partner, and there is an entire team working very hard to bring this book to publication. This Kingdom is in excellent hands. But the self-imposed pressure and doubt are still there. I’ve made peace with it. It is just part of the process now.

My mission for today is to tweak the dialogue in a few pivotal scenes. We met our 10K for the week, but when this is a complex book, both politically and romantically, and we are getting it down in broad strokes, which then have to be fine-tuned. I imagine that’s how artists must feel when they go back to their painting to enhance contrast, deepening shadows and adding highlights. I’d snippet, but Tor asked us not to, so you will just have to w*it.

I will share more news when time comes. I wish you a happy, calm weekend.

The post Reestablishing Homeostasis first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

On the phone with Jeaniene Frost

Me: I haven’t done anything for a whole week.

J: I hear you. Dragoncon was a lot.

Me: I might take the next week off too.

J: This is so unlike you. I’m starting the new project next week.

Me: But why?

J: List of reasons that make sense.

Me: No, don’t work!

J: I need to start it so I at least have something…

Me: No, be lazy with me!

J: This is highly ironic coming from you.

Clearly I need more time off. My body and mind are not ready. Nope.

Also Satisfactory 1.0 hit, Gordon and I playing Wow – Dragonflight is pretty awesome, so we are starting there, and I have read 2 books last week. If I can gather together enough willpower, I will clean the kitchen. Or I might not. I might just be lazy.

I think I ran out of whatever it is that makes workaholics function. I seem to have misplaced it. Maybe it’s in my craft room, around the yarn stash somewhere. I should really go look there.

Look at this cute doggie!

I still have to make some kind of a dinner. What is your favorite lazy meal? Please share and save me from having to let go of my laziness.

Happy Friday, everyone. I wish you the best weekend.

The post The Irony first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I don’t care if it’s preorder or not. My husband can buy all the action figures he wants. In fact, I recently bought a new shelf for him so his collection can be better displayed. But for some reason he persists with the preorder label. It’s become a thing. When I bring his packages in, I announce it as “Honey, your preorders are here.”

I haven’t been buying yarn lately. First I’m 86% into cross stitching project, according to my app. Second, we were super busy trying to finish the “novella.” Third, I have reviewed the state of my craft room and had a serious talk with myself regarding the fact that I do truly have enough yarn.

However, as Magic Claims drew to a close, I kept seeing these beautiful yarn advertisements on Facebook, and I finally gave in and ordered some yarn from a shop I’ve never ordered anything from before called Yarn Love. I used my incognito work email for it. I have two work addresses, and they are the only email inboxes I check on regular basis because that’s my life. One address has all the bells and whistles, with a link back to website and #1 NYT Bestselling Author and all that. The address I used has nothing to indicate what we do, no links, no website mention. The signature just reads Ilona Andrews.

The yarn arrived today and none too soon. I had to go to the doctor last week for a minor medical thing and when they took my blood pressure, it was 130/90 which is a shocking number for me. We’ve been going there for years, and I’m never over 120/80. So I am under strict doctor orders to relax.

The state of our roof and our yard might be a contributing factor. Roofers are hammering, and every time they pound on the roof or walk by, the dogs go ballistic. And you can’t correct that behavior because we do want them to go ballistic if strange people start making loud noises. Also, Texas is so pretty right now and we are stuck inside because the back yard and the front yard are a war zone.

So my yarn arrives. I inform Gordon that it’s my preorder and open it up. It is gorgeous.

There is a card. How nice.

I flip it over.

You can find this yarn and many others at Yarn Love website.

The post Yarn Love: Expect the Unexpected first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

This weekend I bit the proverbial bullet and tackled my closet.

I hadn’t cleaned my closet in 5 years. It doesn’t seen to bad until you consider that when we moved, I simply transferred the hangers from one house to the other. Some of my clothes were so old, they could’ve gotten their own driver licenses. Over the years, my side of closet had become a bit postapocalyptic, with stacks of folded clothes forming small towers, sweatpants in random places, various size labels on the floor, and drawers stuffed with bras which I will never wear.

Finally the situation reached a critical point, so I got some large garbage bags for donated and thrown away clothes and went to work. The plan was that if it’s stained, too small, too ugly, or falling apart, it went into one of the bags. It took roughly 5 hours and now I have questions. So many questions.

Questions like what is this shirt? When did I buy this shirt? Was I suffering from an ocular migraine when I bought it because this has to be one of the ugliest shirts in existence?

This shirt is half as old as my children. How long was I planning on keeping it?

Why are so many of my shirts terracotta-colored? I hate terracotta.

Why do I have so many shirts with horizontal stripes? Not only they are not flattering, I don’t really care for stripes.

Why do I own two identical shirts with horizontal terracotta stripes? What is going on here?

How and where did I buy a sack-shaped, shimmering gold metallic shirt that is two sizes too big and has a collar encrusted with shiny rhinestones? I would never wear that in a million years. Did I just have a sudden, irresistible urge to impersonate a giant Ferrero Roche chocolate? Because with my figure, that’s exactly what I would look like. How did this get into my closet? How?

Why do I own so many long-sleeved shirts? I live in Texas. I get to wear long-sleeved shirts exactly 30 days out of a year, if that. Why do I have so many soft, warm sweatshirts? Did I forget that we have to run AC in winter? Maybe it’s just wishful thinking?

Why do I own a very thick, retina-burning shade of magenta, too-small sweatshirt that says Austin on it? Did I forget where I live? Perhaps I just thought it would be lovely to advertise Austin to my neighbors, all of whom react to the word “Austin” in exactly the same way, by wincing and going, “Ugh, traffic.”

Why do I own so many sweatpants? Did I expect a sweatpants shortage? Did I confuse sweatpants with flour during the pandemic? I love sweatpants, but this is wildly excessive.

Why do I own so many leggings and why do some of them look like they were designed by someone at the heights of their acid trip? I don’t like leggings. I wore leggings like twice in the last year. I will have to wear them more often now because I have them, so I should get my money’s worth.

Why is there a collector’s copy of Small Magics buried under the stack of T-shirts? Was I hiding it from the robbers? Also why is there a box of Sharpie fine tip markers in roughly the same vicinity? Was I planning to hold a signing session in our closet?

How many bras does one woman need? Let me rephrase that, how many bras that don’t fit does one woman need?

In conclusion, I have made several resolutions for myself.

One, I will never buy a T-shirt from Tee Fury no matter what kind of cuteness is printed on it. They are all too thick and the fit is not flattering on me. They all end up in the back of the closet never to be worn.

Two, buying cheap sweatpants is not a good way to deal with stress, no matter what life throws at you.

And three, I’m forbidden to purchase additional T-shirts unless I’m willing to surrender one of the T-shirts I already own. It has to be like an ancient sacrifice. I must ascend the ziggurat via a staircase flanked by burning torches, carrying the sacrificial T-shirt on my outstretched arms and ritualistically deposit it into the donate pile while a gaggle of priests chants to themselves, “Let it go, let it go, let it go…”

The post Closet Questions first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I should do that to myself. I haven’t worked out in 2 weeks. I haven’t walked either. It is super crappy. It’s like Portland, Oregon weather over here, grey and dull and depressing.

We mostly have two seasons: awful heat and gloom. We are in the gloom phase. At least when there is snow on the ground, it helps. There is no snow. There is no cold. We have windrows open and I’m wearing bike shorts.

Bleah.

However! Mod R sent me a holiday parcel and there was Fortnum and Mason Holiday Tea in it. I’m drinking it right now. Yes, I opened a Christmas present early. Leave me alone, it’s been a hard couple of weeks.

I am supposed to report on the condition of the stained cutting board.

You probably can’t see it in the pic, because the light isn’t great, but it’s still stained in the top right corner. After trying anything and everything, I was going to throw it away, but it’s my battle buddy. I kept it.

Somebody asked about the cranberry sauce recipe. It’s basic and no big whoop. 1 lb of cranberries, washed, 1/4 cup apple juice, 1/4 cup orange juice, grate a bit of zest in there, and add about 1/2 cup of sugar and a splash of honey. I’m trying to watch my sugar intake, so this sauce is a bit more sour. If you want to sweeten it, increase sugar to 1 cup. Bring everything except cranberries to boil, cook until stuff has dissolved and formed a uniform solution, add cranberries, turn the heat to low, simmer for 15 minutes. Don’t cook longer than that or it won’t gel.

Now for Christmas, I stick frozen cherries and blue berries in there, increase everything a little bit to account for additional berries, and serve that.

Well, I am going to vacate the premises, because Mod R has actual substantial post and updates to go. Also, I am supposed to remind you to please haunt the blog during the week of 16th, when the Innkeeper releases. We have stuff we want to show you, and we don’t want you to miss it. Stay tuned.

The post Tea and Hammering first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Notes:

• Thaw at least 3 days ahead in the refrigerator. It comes completely frozen, like a rock. I thawed it for 4 days just to be sure and the first two days it was still hard to the touch.
• Remove from packaging, place into roaster pan – preferably with a roaster rack – wrap in foil and cook at 300F for 90 minutes or until internal temperature rises to 150.
• Take the turkey out, Take off the foil, add a little bit of olive oil or sunflower oil, and rub it into the skin.
• Either bake for 15 minutes at 500F or broil it, eyeballing when the skin gets crispy. It burns quick.
• The turkey will give you about 2 cups of dripping. The drippings are spectacular. Amazing. They are not greasy at all, more like really delicious bone broth. I put some into my stuffing and some into my gravy.
• Let rest on the counter about 15 minutes.

Is the skin crispy, like roasted duck skin? No. Was it still worth it? Hell yes. It was eaten in great amounts. We have almost nothing left.

What do do with leftover turkey:

Simple quesadillas

• Large flower tortillas, burrito size
• Shredded cheese, preferably Mexican variety, Oaxaca, Manchego, but you can do simple Mexican blend of shredded mozzarella and cheddar.
• Taco sauce or your favorite hot sauce
• Shredded turkey
• Stuff that makes you happy: green onions, avocadoes, diced tomatoes, etc. If you are a fan of Taco Bell quesadillas, just used the first 4 ingredients

This works really well with a panini press, if you have one. I usually oil the tortillas lightly and press it on the highest temp, but if you don’t have the press, a large pan will do.

Lightly oil the pan and heat on medium heat. Put 1 tortilla in, spread cheese in a thin layer, spread shredded turkey, drip some sauce, lightly spread a bit more cheese. Once the tortilla forms little bubbles, either fold it in half or slap the second tortilla on top of it.

I usually go the second tortilla round. Once it sticks to the cheese, I flip the whole thing over with the spatula, which can be dicey. Which is why I prefer the panini press. You can also opt for smaller tortillas to make individual quesadillas, which will be easier to flip.

Cut with pizza cutter. Enjoy. Usually a big hit with small children, because they can grab the slices and hold them.

Here is a recipe with pictures.

The Thanksgiving was so nice. Kid 1 and Kid 2 precooked with me on Wednesday. Kid 1 knocked out the side dishes and Kid 2 made ridiculously pretty pies. It was low stress and low drama, a comfortable and warm family time.

All families have holiday stories, and we have a new one this year. I haven’t shared this on the blog, but in the week before the holidays, we had 3 outages. Texas grid – it’s not built for cold, it’s not built for heat, and apparently it’s not built for light rain either. The outages were longish, a couple of hours. One time it hit while I had milk bread in the oven, and I scooped up some coals from a fireplace on a baking tray and put it in the oven. The bread did bake.

The final outage happened Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, just as we finished clean up, with the pies cooling on the counters. Gordon had been making circles around the pies all day. He just sort of checked if the pies were there. However, the pies are not to be touched until Thanksgiving dinner.

The outage hits. The house is pitch black. I curse in two languages because I have had it.

The house is dark and quiet.

My husband sighs next to me and says, “Well, there is no helping it. Since the lights are out, we need to eat the pies.”

And that’s my Thanksgiving story.

The post Catching Up first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.