Sunday Salon at last!

I've been wanting to get back to Sunday Salon posts for months, but my Sundays have been busy, the format has changed a bit since I was last involved and it's taken me a while to get into the swing of things. I hope to become a regular again.

And the kitties wonder: Why is this thing?

What I'm doing today: Last week my younger son and I built the bookcase that our family bought at Ikea in . .  2010? It's been gathering dust in its box in the garage all this time, It was actually very quick to put together, if you don't count the 3 years languishing in a sea of procrastination. I have a couple of pictures of the process on my Instagram page. Today I hope to post a photo of the shelves full of books and the little nook that's beginning to take shape in our living room. Another goal today, but not as photo-worthy, is to get the tax info ready to send off.

Also having tea with a friend this afternoon and it's gorgeous outside today so maybe I'll get out and take some pictures! Me and photography is not a friendship I ever would have predicted. We bought Evan a good digital camera for his 11th birthday and it's transformed me. (Luckily he is happy to share). I was always the girl who either forgot the camera or walked around (Through Europe! And my honeymoon!) with it tucked safely away in the backpack. Now I'm the one who drags people along on photo walks. Many of my photos aren't very good.
OK, most of them.
(...are terrible).
But, if I take enough of them, I generally come up with a few that make me happy. These days I seem to be blogging more photos than book reviews. Crazy!

What I'm reading: In the early stages of research for a novel I'm contemplating, I brought several books home from the library yesterday and couldn't help diving into Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle, and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children," edited by Rachel Pepper. Oh, my gosh. The no-matter-what love that shines through each of these mother's stories is palpable, like a weighted bookmark, holding down every page. A powerful message for every parent. No--for every human being.

What I'm writing: Finishing up edits on novel #2 before submitting it. My writing group is amazing. After reading a chapter every two weeks, they're four chapters from the end and I'm really excited about the changes they're requesting in this version of the ending. (They never read the first ending--I had already scrapped it and started over before they got that far. Thank goodness! It was terrible.)

I also wrote one chapter of the novel that's going to be my next project. Evan read it and said it was good--a little weird, but a good start for a book. It's not intended for 12 year olds, so I guess I'll take "good but a little weird" as a compliment?

The Sunday Salon is on Facebook at Sunday Salon.