Writer’s Journal: Notes from December

 

I don’t often make my own salad dressings, but when I stumbled across an intriguing avocado-citrus vinaigrette, I thought I’d give it a try. Avocado and citrus were paired with soy sauce and honey, like a Cali-Asian fusion. After lovingly prepping the ingredients, I added them to the blender. And that’s when things went wrong. Very, very wrong.

First, the orange juice bullied the other ingredients like a straight-up diva. The soy sauce was strangely shy standing next to it while the honey sat in the corner and sulked. Okay, I thought, I’ll try more soy sauce. Meh. More honey? Meh. The flavor balance wouldn’t—you know—balance.

Sooooo, I added miso. Because why-the-heck not? Maybe it would help????

Then blend. Blend, blend, blend. Until magic happened. Oh, yes. Magic happened. Just the wrong KIND of magic. Like Voldemort decided to produce a cooking show.

I ended up making mayonnaise. (Fun fact: miso is an emulsifier. Who knew?)

And it tasted truly terrible.

For a while, I pouted. I was too focused on the wasted time, the wasted ingredients, the FAILURE. Isn’t that what often happens when things go wrong? We focus on the wrong things, which keeps us from noticing the right things. Because guess what? I know how to make mayo now. Not THIS mayonnaise, of course. Never, never again THIS mayonnaise. But, now I understand the basic process and the food mechanics involved.

In my journal, when reflecting on the “mayonnaise fiasco of 2018,” I wrote the following conclusion:

“Everything is discovery.”

Bookshelf Notes:

In case it isn’t obvious by now, I have horribly missed my projected publishing date for the next book in my Compendium of Curious Collectibles series. Book three, The Glass of the Riddle Witch, IS coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a paperback version of the series companion novella, A Curious Christmas Carol. I thought the print proof approval would be a quick, uneventful affair.

The Life Miser had other plans for me.

Because there I was, reading one of the last chapters, only to discover that the Life Miser had snuck into a scene where he had no business being. Not only that, he had taken a peculiar interest in the Ragman’s mother. I don’t have the copy here to quote it exactly, but it basically says that the Life Miser went off by the window to look at pictures of the Ragman’s mum.

Even my more astute proof readers missed this typo in the digital copy released last year, so the Life Miser has been sitting there in the Packrat House’s living room ogling the Ragman’s mom this whole time. I’ll fix it, of course. But, fixing it will mean re-uploading a fresh copy to all the major online booksellers, never mind the delays it will cost me with the print proof.

After all the grief I put him through in the book, I guess the Life Miser couldn’t resist his revenge.

Until the next time, my friends, be well.

M.L.H.

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