Brainstorming

I've just about finished the brainstorming to figure out the final touches on book 4. We've been having lovely weather, so I've spent the last couple of afternoons sitting on the patio with my notebook, scribbling ideas as they come to me. Now I just need to take all these random thoughts, pick the ones I want to use, and figure out how they'll fit into the book itself.

There may be some inherent dangers to trying to brainstorm while also taking notes on a cooking show, though. I hope I didn't get my notebooks mixed up. Otherwise, I may find that one of the things I have planned for Owen to do in a major confrontation is mince and then saute three cloves of garlic (which, I guess, could be a good strategy against vampires). Even more dangerous would be if I try to make spaghetti and meatball soup and see that I'm supposed to turn my enemies into toads before increasing the heat and adding the meatballs.

Hmmm ... there seem to be a lot of mystery series that revolve around cooking. Has anyone ever done a culinary fantasy? I mean, other than Like Water for Chocolate (though I think that was technically considered magical realism). More fodder for the idea file.

Speaking of the idea file, my brain is being very annoying right now. It's got an idea that it really wants to play with, much more than it wants to actually work on book 4. Characters and bits of dialogue keep popping into my head, and I have to shove them aside because they have nothing to do with the book I'm supposed to be working on. I guess that means I should work on it and get it over with so I can move on to the next thing.

Finally, here's the cover of the Japanese edition of Enchanted, Inc., thanks to "Carla in Austin" who found it online for me: