Bragging on Barbara

Laced with Magic by our own wonderful Barbara Bretton is one of the Top Ten Romances for 2009 on Booklist, which reviews for the American Library Association. The Booklist blurb says: Chloe, owner of a popular knitting shop and mayor of the supernatural village of Sugar Maple, Vermont, continues to battle evil forces in Bretton’s poignant and magical story of love and sacrifice.

Not that I'm surprised because it's a fabulous book, but "Wahoooooooooo, Barbara!"

Butt Ugly Socks

I knitted the ugliest pair of socks on the planet last week. I don't know if you remember but I cast on for a pair of Regia Silks a few months ago and kind of let them drop. A normal run-of-the-mill pair of cuff downs in my basic boring pattern. Plain stockinette. Gusset heel. Round toe. I wanted soft, comfortable, and functional.

What I got was butt ugly. So ugly that I don't want to show them to you. But the damn things are so comfortable that I'm wearing them right this second. They look like deflated pink footballs. The Regia Silk has no spring-back. You stretch these puppies and they stay stretched until their next go-round in the washer/dryer. They look limp, exhausted, baggy, saggy, sad and lonely and middle-aged. (Which, come to think of it, describes me right this second.)

But I love them. I can't believe I'm typing those words but it's true. I love them. They don't itch. They don't pinch. They're heaven on the feet even if I'd rather die than show them to you.

It's almost time for CASTING SPELLS to be released into the wilds of bookseller land and I am quite honestly freaking out. I looked around for a more elegant way to put it but freaking out describes my state of mind best. I'm pushing toward the end of the sequel which is helping to take my mind off the fact that after what seems like forever it's time to loosen my stranglehold on the book and set it free. I don't do that very well. I try but it's hard to admit that this whole post-writing process is completely out of my control.

So far things are looking good. I'm doing an interview with DallasBookDiva on October 20th. PW gave the book a terrific review; RT Book Club named it a Top Pick; a starred review from Booklist. CASTING SPELLS will be a "Fifty Books You Need to Know About" pick for November at Barnes & Noble. And other interviews, etc., are in the works. All good, right? So why does my stomach hurt so much that I can't sleep nights? I wake up literally in a cold sweat around three a.m., thinking of all the ways in which I could have done a better job. I want to pull the book back and rewrite it, make changes, hang on to it a little longer.

But I can't which is why I've been a knittin' fool these past few weeks. What have you been up to?