Amber Marshall Blogs - Issue 9

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It’s been, uh, almost a month? But I’ve been writing! Not Obscura, but any writing is a victory. But before we get into that:

Sale Alert!

You can get Negatives in eBook for the low, low price of $2.99 during the Smash words End of Year Sale!

Writing

After reading a Meg Oolders age-gap romance, I was inspired to write one of my own. It’s fun and a little guilty and sweet and I think it’s going to be a little more explicitly spicy than hers but ‘tis the season for spice so hopefully people will like it. Here’s a sample (shitty first draft disclaimers apply):

What unsettled her as much as thrilled her was that the dream took place at work. She had been in the walk-in, looking for something, when Alex came in and put his arms around her. She could feel the beat of his heart against her back and his breath against her hair as he nuzzled the top of her head. She had turned and put her arms around that slim waist and clung to his warmth in the cool of the refrigerated room, her ear against his chest.

And then her alarm had gone off and yanked her to wakefulness. Emma squeezed her eyes shut and tried to grasp back the feeling of the dream, but it was gone.

That day at work she was abuzz like she’d drunk two cups of coffee, her stomach woozy. She stared at his slim, long fingers as he carefully arranged frosted cookies into white cardboard boxes and tied them with ribbons. She watched the flex of his biceps as he hauled clean stacks of baking sheets back from the dishwasher. She stared at his back as he cinched the strings of his apron tight around that slim waist.

“Are you all right?” he asked as she worked away and daydreamed with shaking hands. She almost jumped out of her skin. “You look flushed.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m just feeling a little off today. Maybe I need something to eat.”

“You look like you’re going to pass out.” He came around her bench and pressed a cold hand to the back of her neck. Her heart thumped double-time.

And I haven’t even gotten to the juicy parts yet. With everything going on lately in holiday prep, I’ve been daydreaming all the details but being unable to take the time to write them down very often. We call that tantric writing (no we don’t) and it’s as delicious torture as a slow-burn romance (love to hate and hate to love that).

Reading

I finished The Time of the Dark which was a Humble Bundle nab several years ago. It was good, the writing is lush, but I need it to be a little more character based and less plot based to really hook me, so I won’t be continuing the series.

I also finished reading the Arcane art book, and it was all right. I’ve enjoyed other behind-the-design-scenes books a little more.

Currently in the eBook app on my phone is 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose (yoinked from Project Gutenberg), brought to my attention by Words Unravelled on YouTube. It’s interesting to see several words and expressions that we still use today, like “bamboozle” or “back biter.”

Next up in physical media is The Expanse #7 Persepolis Rising. I can’t wait.

Playing

I’ve been whittling away at LocoMotive some more.

Hubs and I like escape room games, and the other night we completed Palindrome Syndrome.

My sister gave us a couple of Hunt a Killer games last Christmas and man are they fun! It is so much fun to pick through pieces of evidence and solve a murder, and the nice thing is that you don’t have to mess with any of the items in a way that ruins it for passing it along to someone else (looking at you, Exit games, which we literally have to throw out (okay, recycle) after we’re done).

I’ve also been playing Candy Land, Go Fish, and Guess Who with my son on occasion.

Baking

Out of Thanksgiving leftovers I made a double batch of butternut squash scones, turkey noodle soup, and some stuffing-and-mashed potato patties that I love better than either of those things on their own.

I’ve been baking loaves in the bread machine, but we have the habit of eating half of it the day it’s baked and then forgetting about the other half until it’s stale. I can only make so much French Toast.

I’m trying to be smarter about Christmas treat box baking this year and mix up dough ahead of time and freeze it so my weekend-before baking blitz is just the baking part, but I haven’t actually started yet. I’m planning on stollen, gingerbread scones, mini rum bundts, Christmas crack (which I’ve never made but sounds delicious), and raspberry linzer cookies.

Crafting

Those little knit mice? Of course I’m not going to get them done in time for Christmas this year. But knitting tiny animals did make it easier to knit fingers for the yellow gloves my son requested:

I am also thinking of doing some pyrography on these pine slice ornaments I think I bought last year and never did anything with. I haven’t used my wood-burning pen in several years so we’ll see if I make a hash out of it.

Image of the Week

The cactus I inherited from my Oma is sprouting a bebby:

So wee yet so prickly!

Question for the Audience

Is your holiday shopping done yet? I still have a few things to fill out, mostly for my husband and my niece, plus stocking stuffer type things for my coworkers because we do a mini stocking thing every year. Oh, and a Yankee Swap. I’m planning on heading to World Market sometime…

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Thanks, as always, for reading, and if I don’t write another entry before then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and don’t forget that the eBook of Negatives is a last-minute gift you can literally gift at the last minute.