The last few nights I've been eating snickerdoodles for dessert. Stefan made them from a Gale Gand recipe (yes, I do have a husband who spontaneously bakes cookies, which is pretty awesome). We didn't have corn syrup so I suggested that he use molasses instead, which added a lovely deep flavor. The brand of molasses we use is called Brer Rabbit, which I buy partly because I like the old-fashioned label and partly because I have an unexplained fascination with folklore (if you're unfamiliar with the tales, Brer Rabbit is a "trickster who succeeds by his wits rather than by brawn," as Wikipedia puts it). I've even been so into folklore lately that I'm attempting to weave it into my novel in some form.
And while I'm on the subject of the novel, I'm happy to report that it's still going well. Not perfectly, but well. If you read it right now, you'd probably say, "I'm sorry, Rachel, but a lot of this doesn't make any sense. There's a million plot holes here." But it will work itself out in time. Last time I blogged about it, I had just completed my first yellow legal pad. A few days ago I finished my second one, and now I'm making progress on the third. This physical accumulation is what I like most about writing by hand. I can literally hold my work in my hands, and every once in a while a word will smear off onto my palm as I'm writing. There is, I'm convinced, nothing quite like it.
