Life and lessons...

Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean I'm inactive. I've been dealing with taxes, loss of our beloved Blackitty, repairs to the house, and a full e-mail Inbox demanding attention. I wrote a guest blog on Persistence that turned into a nostalgia trip into my past. I also write something on my work in progress (Troubadour's Quest) every day, even if it's only for 10 minutes, and I'm polishing an Ancient World story I wrote many years ago about one of my favorite characters, Karie, the last true High Priestess. I hope to publish that as a stand-alone. Every month I get out the Monterey Bay Fiction Writers newsletter.

~*~

My favorite sweater is falling apart. The design came to me in a meditation during a journal retreat in the early '90s. Using a basic cardigan pattern, I put the design onto graph paper, one square per stitch, and selected the yarns from a lovely knitting shop that has since gone out of business. They had most of the yarns in stock but the basic color, an aqua blue, came from an Italian company. The shop owner ordered it from the U. S. distributor but when the order didn't come for over a month she followed up--many times. After 3-4 months we gave up, I got different yarn and knit a different sweater. Six months later the shop owner had to phone the distributor about another matter and, out of curiosity, asked what happened with that order. Turns out that the manufacturer had gone out of business and mine was the last lot produced. The distributor checked around and found my yarn--in the desk drawer of an employee who "no longer works for us." So I got the yarn and knit the sweater.
       I had to re-knit the sleeves 10 years ago when some helpful person put that "dirty sweater" in the washing machine (never, ever ever put a hand-knit sweater of different wools in a washing machine!!) and I used blue acrylic for the elbows. Now the front bands are unraveled, there are holes around the leaves on the front, the neck is stretched out of shape... Even so I wear it all the time, it's perfect over my shoulders on a cool morning or under a light jacket.
      While researching what fabrics and fibers my priestess heroine would wear in a high mountain religious community I came across Alpaca. It sounded wonderful--soft, lightweight, durable, warm. Fearing I'd have to go to Peru or Ecuador to get some, I rolled into a knit shop and asked the owner: "Do you happen to have Alpaca?" She pointed to the wall behind me--full of the most luscious, yummy colors. Very hard to choose. It's designed for large needles so I can have my new sweater faster.

Waylaid by Pandora

    Last week I planned to get lots of writing done--like on to the next section of the WIP. Normally I write to Early Music (pre-1500s), instrumental or a language I don't understand.

   Then I found Pandora links to 60s songs in my in-box. I succumbed and clicked on Pandora's box.
   And no writing. For a whole day I am back in L.A., smelling the smog, dancing around my living room to the Beatles (thank God I'm alive at a time when I can hear them!)-- at an Alumni Club dance to Creedence in a big Downtown hotel-- August '63 driving through the dawn with 4 strangers, NY to Washington for the March to "Blowing in the Wind" and "If I had a Hammer"-- The Mamas & Papas singing outside the UCLA Student Union-- Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changing" -- a whiff of pot on a summer afternoon ...
   I just now opened Pandora's box again and was lost in the 60s for another hour.

Troubadours in Life and Literature: My First Guest Blog Post

Today my very first guest blog went live on Anne E. Johnson’s blog -

 http://anneejohnson.blogspot.com/2014/06/historical-fiction-from-christie-maurer.html  

     Anne is a historical and science fiction writer who majored in Medieval Music and was attracted to my announcement of “The Whitewood Kitarra” on Broad Universe. 

It was fun putting together this post on how troubadour songs inspired my writing. 

     Do stop by if you get a chance, and I hope you enjoy it. 

I won NaNoWriMo!

I won NaNoWriMo--along with thousands and thousands of other people. It's still a thrill. Three days from the end I was hugely behind, thanks to "life," and I thought, "what the heck," and I sat down and pushed, and by golly, I did it--50,503 words and with hours to spare.


City of Gold contains X-rated scenes and drek I didn't think I could write. It's illogical with over-the-top melodrama--and some dead-on plot lines and scenes that are pure gold. I love my opening hook:

"You! I thought you were dead!" 

Tora opened her eyes and looked up at moist, round, rosy cheeks, set off by blowsy blonde curls straggling from an unkempt bun. "I am dead, and don't you dare tell anyone otherwise, Lady Catina Dalmar."  

It will require very substantial rewrites before I dare show it even to my best friend.