Up and Running

I’m so glad to have OD back. Since I have very little to do during the day I spend plenty of time lurking around here.

Of course, it’s not that I do nothing. I’ve been keeping the house pretty damn clean. I haven’t been exercising as much as I should be, but I really am trying to get better about it. I’ve also been gearing up for NaNoWriMo. I’m usually not very good about writing when I have nothing to do but write, but I hope the fact that my parents will be here will provide enough pressure to actually get me to do something.

I’m pretty excited about my NaNoWriMo idea this year. It’s an alternate earth idea, where plate tectonics created a different continental layout. Essentially, Europe and North America are one continent. Christianity is in its infancy, but spreading quickly from Arabia. The center of trade and learning the Center Sea, what we know as the Mediterranean. The coastal cities are very modern, cosmopolitan, and diverse. Alina is a student healer who lives in just such a city on the eastern side of the Center Sea. Her parents are textile merchants and she falls in love with and marries one of the silk traders, Benhoud Farzeen. But shortly after they’re married, the Christian warriors invade from the East and take over the city. They declare any marriages made outside the Church to be invalid, so there’s a huge rush of marriages. Benhoud and Alina refuse to give up their religion. Benhoud is killed, Alina arrested as a whore and their daughter turned over to Alina’s parents, who joined the Church. They pay off an official to help her escape and she takes little Sara and runs to the West. She settles in a town on the edge of the desert, at the foot of a mountain range and sets up shop as a healer. The people in the frontier town are fairly suspicious of her, but come to rely on her for her knowledge of medicine and her ability to keep her own counsel. But the Christians are moving fast and the first missionaries arrive in a few short years. One of the missionaries is a priest who came from the same city as Alina. He is the youngest of three sons and had once wanted to marry Alina, then turned to the Church when it took over. He’s a very passionate man and the force of the Christian invasion appealed to him. His partner quickly begins converting the locals and turning them against Alina, whom he calls a witch. Nicholas, the priest, recognizes her and is torn between his new faith and his old love, but she doesn’t trust him. When illness comes to the town, the other priest blames Alina… until it strikes her home as well and she has to trust Nicholas to help her and her daughter.

It’s kind of an epic plot, now that I think about it, and could probably easily surpass the 50K mark. I least I hope it can. Then again, editing is what December is for.

Other than getting ready for my parents and NaNo, I’ve been going quite domestic and exploring some new recipes. I made Pumpkin Pasties that came out really delicious. I’d like to try it with some home-cooked pumpkin, rather than canned, but I did great with the pastry. I don’t have a lot of experience with pastry or bread, but I’ve been expanding my horizons on that front. Aside from the pasties, I made a really yummy challah braid. It’s definitely a bread I’ll make again… possibly this afternoon. It’s too delicious. I also made chicken broth yesterday from the leftovers from Sunday’s traditional roast chicken dinner, so that I didn’t have to buy it to make tonight’s dinner. Plus I had enough to freeze the leftovers for another recipe at a later date. Honestly, I don’t where I got this domestic streak. It certainly isn’t a learned behavior.

For now I’m off. There is bread to be made!

~Liz