I haven’t meant to neglect you. I’m sorry if you’ve felt lonely, recipe-less, missing that thing, that thing that Rainy Day Gal gives you? (Click the link. Watch the video. And if you haven’t seen Beautiful Girls, you’re missing one of the greatest films ever.)

The thing is, I’ve been lost. Not physically. I’m still in Seattle, still in my kitchen, at my laptop which is still perpetually covered in flour and butter and the occasional spill of finger paint. But I’ve gotten lost in a book.

I began writing a novel when I was in graduate school in 2007 or 2008, exactly when I can’t recall. I wrote about 12 pages, naively pitched it around to a few agents (why, when it wasn’t fully formed and not even close to finished, did I shop it around I have no stinkin clue–when I get an idea I tend to go full speed ahead, come hell or high water). I got rejection letters or silence. I don’t know which is worse.

My husband (then boyfriend) read it and loved it. My friends (still friends) read it and loved it. But the letters and the silence and the getting married and the having a baby and then another baby caused me to put it aside. But a few months ago, when my old laptop crashed (probably from the flour and the butter and the finger paint), I had to choose which files to transfer over. There was the book, all twelve pages of it. I decided to keep it, and from much poking and prodding from my husband and my friends, I began writing it again (okay, they didn’t have to poke and prod me too sharply; the story was still haunting me years later, like a crack in the wall you have yet to spackle).

I started a few sentences at a time. When the girls were napping, or after they’d gone to bed for the evening, I’d pick it up and type a few words. The characters began to flesh themselves out, the plot wove in and out and around them and all of a sudden I was whipping through pages. I still am.

I don’t want to give too much away since the book is still unfinished and if it ever does (fingers crossed) get published, I’d like you to read it without spoilers. But I will say that it’s a young adult novel (think Hunger Games-type audience), with a sixteen-year old girl as the main character. It’s not paranormal, there are no vampires or werewolves or fights to the death in a man-made sci-fi arena. It’s set in the late 1950′s, and let’s just say that there is enough abnormal stuff going on to keep things interesting. There is a love story, (because who doesn’t like a little romance?), and a lot of dark and devious happenings, and I hope that when you meet the characters you will love and hate them and cheer for them and want to punch them just as much as I do.

At this very moment I’m sitting in a large leather chair in a borrowed beach cabin, the view from which is pictured above. The sea is crashing outside and I have a fire crackling away beside me. I’m alone, working hard on the book, which I hope to have completed by mid-summer. If there are any new developments I’ll keep you updated.

As for this writing space, Rainy Day Gal, I’m looking at a site redesign (if you know anyone affordable, please email me), and probably won’t be cooking my own recipes as much as those from other sites or cookbooks. Recipe development takes an enormous amount of time, and I won’t put anything here that I haven’t tested. I’m trying to find the balance between mother and writer and cook and blogger. But I will be back, with food, because I know that food is (mostly) what you’re here for. But I hope you’ll also stick around for funny stories about naked children, my lists of favorite things, and maybe even some short pieces of fiction if the mood strikes.

Have a great weekend. Cook a lot. Read a lot. And watch Beautiful Girls. You won’t regret it.