Social Networking, etc.

For the first time in a very long time (it feels like), I don't have to go anywhere today, and I have no pressing, specific deadlines. There are things that need to be done, but they don't absolutely have to be done today. And because of dropping back to two days a week for physical therapy, the same applies to tomorrow. Today's big plans involve cleaning my kitchen, since baking a peach cobbler managed to utterly destroy it. That includes cleaning the oven, since the cobbler boiled over. I thought I was being clever when I put the pan on a cookie sheet, but the cookie sheet is slightly warped, so all the sticky peach juice just rolled off the cookie sheet and onto the bottom of the oven, and that means I have to clean the oven and the cookie sheet. I need to get the kitchen back in order because I think tomorrow will be strawberry jam day, and making jam requires a lot of space.

But the cobbler was very, very good. This recipe is a lot of work, but it tastes so good. I'll be cutting the cobbler into pieces and freezing them to enjoy through the fall and winter. I've tried just freezing the peaches and then baking when the weather's cooler, but that doesn't work as well.

Meanwhile, the shoulder's as sore as I feared it would be, and I can't tell how much of the soreness is from the muscles and how much is from the scar tissue around the joint having been severely stretched. However, it feels a lot looser. I can move more and have less of a sense of resistance. That means I'm really close to being well. I want to get back to normal so I can do ballroom dancing, and I've found out about a circus school nearby that offers circus fitness classes, and I'd need to get that arm back to full strength in order to hang from a trapeze or silks. I won't be running off to join Cirque du Soleil, but since I find ordinary exercise boring, I have to find fun ways to trick myself into working out.

I had a big "aha!" moment on the project I'm currently developing yesterday, and now that means I've pretty much figured out what's going on with my main cast. This came while listening to possible soundtrack material, though, oddly, the song that triggered the revelation wouldn't go on the soundtrack. Of course, this new twist means a couple of other research avenues I'll need to explore. And I think I've created a character I will fall madly in love with, and I wasn't expecting this character to get that response. He was going to be the "other guy," and now already I'm in swoon mode. I love it when things like this happen.

Now, back to that poll/survey I posted last week. I really wasn't making a desperate plea for comments. I'm just a firm believer in market research, and I wanted to check in to see how I was doing. It looks like the mix of things I currently talk about is what people do want to talk about, so I won't be making any drastic changes. At this point, I'm not focusing too much on marketing because I'm mostly preaching to the choir. The results I'd get from a more intense marketing effort would probably be minimal, since the books aren't so widely available. What I need to focus on right now is writing to get something new on the market, and social networking is a huge time suck.

I do have a Facebook account, but I mostly use that for keeping in touch with real-life friends, not for book purposes. Perhaps I should create a fan page that I can use for book stuff and limit my personal page to people I actually know. I'm leery of too much Facebook activity because it's so intrusive. They push every little thing you do out to everyone. It's not like I have anything I want to hide, but I don't see why every one of my friends would care that I posted a comment on the page of someone they don't even know. I may eventually give in and do the Twitter thing, but I still haven't figured out what I'd say.

I do think it might be interesting to do a discussion on the Enchanted, Inc. books, maybe in the fall. Start thinking about questions you'd like me to address -- preferably things that require essay answers, and limit them to the books that have been published, not what might happen next.