1. As I’ve said above in my “About” section (#9 to be specific), I am generally a bad scrambled egg maker. As my husband likes to say, I tend to leave about whole egg stuck to the bottom of the skillet, and when I’m only cooking two eggs, that’s a problem.
Enter The Green Pan. It’s my new very good friend in the kitchen.

Here is my Green Pan after I scrambled two eggs.

Oh wait, you don’t see anything? That’s because there’s nothing there. The eggs slid out and the pan was clean as a whistle. I’ve also cooked meat and veggies in it and it works just as beautifully and cleans up super-easy. They come in a couple of sizes and you can find them at Target.

2.

Y’all. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you’ve never heard Josh Ritter‘s music, look him up and listen. If you’ve heard him but have never seen him live, he’s on tour across the south and other places right now and into the fall and I promise it will be worth it.

On second thought, maybe just skip the live shows. We love seeing him at small venues like WorkPlay, the now-closed Bottletree, and Saturn, this cool little coffee shop/bar/music venue where we saw him a few nights ago. If too many people find out about him, he may skip these small places and this man was born to play music in small crowded places like this. Saturn was packed with happy people because Josh is such a happy guy on stage. Seriously, my cheeks hurt at the end of the night. And he ended with Kathleen, which was perfect. And I got to video him singing Henrietta, Indiana and Getting Ready to Get Down (two of Kate and Sela’s favorite Josh Ritter songs).

3. Update on The Hideaway: We’re getting really close to a cover! I’m so excited because the one we (me, my editor, my agent, and others on the publisher’s marketing team) are all leaning towards is soooo pretty. It would make me pull the book off the shelf just by cover alone. That’s what I was hoping for. I wish I could show it to you now, but stay tuned…

We’re getting close to my new author website too! The talented Sara Beth Cobb of Nimblee is designing it. Everything she creates is beautiful, so I’m so excited to see what she comes up with. Again, stay tuned…

4. Update on book 2: I’m about 3/4 finished. I got really close to the end, then stopped because I have to go back and rework one of the three points of view. My goal is to  get through that one, then have all three of them join back up and come to a (hopefully satisfying) ending. I start back on my fiction workshop in July, so hopefully by then I’ll be almost finished. (I say that, but with Sela already out of school and only four more days of school left for Kate, it’ll take a lot of creativity and good time-management skills on my part!)

5. What I’m reading these days:

Having grown up in Mountain Brook, Katherine Clark writes very honestly about both the good and the bad associated with the beautiful, secluded suburb of Birmingham. She wrote this book about a larger-than-life (both physically and personality-wise) teacher/mentor she had at Altamont in the 80s. In the book, the school is called Brook-Haven and the teacher is Norman Laney. At first, I was unsure I’d be able to really get into it or connect with this character but I was pulled in immediately. Everyone should be so lucky to have had a teacher like this in your corner trying to push you to be your best, fullest self through education and “civilization,” as he calls it. And his insider view of the mannerisms and quirks of the Mountain Brook set (NO offense to friends who live there now!) is hilarious.

I’ve also just requested these two from the library.

I’ve been hearing about The Nightingale for months and it’s finally time to get my hands on a copy. I generally enjoy reading books about WWII, and I love that this one is about women in the war. The Kind Worth Killing isn’t a book I’d typically pick up, but after my friend Anna mentioned how good it was, I’ve been hearing about it all over the place. I’ve heard the ending comes out of now where and is a big surprise. I’m going to give it a try.

Have you read any of these or anything else good you’d like to share? I love recommendations!

Have a great weekend!