I have finished my chapter outline, hurrah!

It’s amazing what a difference having a writing coach is making…half of it is just knowing someone will be there reading what I write, but the other half is his gift for breaking things down into pieces. I keep getting intimidated by the sheer mass of the bloody thing–keeping track of all the anecdotes, imagery, photos, etc. is like trying to wrestle an octopus–but he keeps me focused by doing very specific, small writing assignments that, put together, lead up into something “real”. I like it.

(This is actually his online writing class, not coaching (yet). I recommend it highly–though, if you don’t have $400 to spare, you can get a lot out of reading the course description.)

Anyway, I have completed my (draft) chapter outline and have thought up a gimmick to tie the book together into one neat package–now it’s back to my notes, to see what elements I can put into which chapter.

The one downer is that my cat chewed through the cable on my mini-speakers (he’ll chew through any cord that’s not armor-plated), so I have to go out and get a new pair before I can start going through my (computerized) audio notes. Foo.

By the way, I got the 8″ suri alpaca and it is BEAUTIFUL!! I was expecting something long but coarse, like Lincoln or Coopworth, but it’s very fine, very soft, and oh-so-long-stapled! The only downer is that the color is more like a chocolate brown than an auburn–I had been hoping for auburn. It’s also a little tangled/felted–flicking it produces beautiful long fiber, but also takes out a good chunk of it, more than usual. But it is beautiful stuff. I just wish I had a use for it; I’m not planning to make a chocolate brown shawl anytime soon (read: “ever”), so that means I won’t be using it for anything soon. If anyone wants some beautiful suri and is willing to take it off my hands, it’s 10-11 oz of lovely brown suri for $20. (It may be slightly less than 11 oz now that I’ve washed all the dust out of it.) Gorgeous stuff, though. Send me an email if you’re interested–my email address is on the “About Me” page of my website, or you can just leave a comment. Wish I had a use for it!

Meanwhile, tomorrow I am dreading taking my cat in for her vaccinations, and I’m also planning to dye some silk for my mother and make some fudge. Lavender-Meyer lemon-white chocolate and maple walnut for sure, after that I might get exotic and try strawberry or something like that. I have a LOT of leftover preserves to use up. Raspberry fudge doesn’t sound too bad either…or maybe a rosewater-white-chocolate-cardamom fudge, a la the Afghan dessert called firnee (which is gelatin, milk, rosewater, cardamom, and maybe other spices, and is very yummy). Dunno exactly what else I’ll make–that’s what life is for, to experiment. 🙂