Today I spent some quality time with Cooper at Lake Temescal, playing foxtail ball (it's a ball with a long, multicolored tail attached to it). You throw the ball by swinging its tail around in a circle, then letting it fly off in a wide arc, like a mini kite headed for orbit. Or for an earthbound crash. It's a little hard to control, like trying to throw an orange stuck into a pantyhose leg. You're never sure exactly where it's going to land, making the chase all the more thrilling.
Afterward, we laid on our Mexican blanket and together found a two headed dragon floating in the sky. We watched while one of its heads fell off and disappeared into wispy embers and the other slowly dissolved into cloud flames. Cooper had brought the Fifth Grade Heritage Cookbook his school put together, with family recipes from all the students in his class. We browsed through it together, enjoying the diversity of ingredients. One recipe called for pork belly and pork cracklings. Because just one pork ingredient isn't enough. Cooper was disappointed we couldn't make it for dinner tonight. We settled on the intriguingly-named "Toad in a Hole," a sausage popover recipe I figured we could make with veggie sausage and serve with the Full Belly asparagus I have in the fridge. It's baking in the oven as I write this.
So how is the book, you might ask? Today I interviewed a new editor/writing coach who recommended I concentrate on the book proposal rather than revisions right now. She suggested, quite astutely, that if I let the book mature and ripen for a month, I'll have better perspective on it, and meanwhile have time to write a totally rocking-awesome book proposal. That's what I'll be manifesting for the month of May... a mouthwateringly delectable proposal that thrills the heart of every agent who gazes upon it. I'll let you know how the Toad in a Hole turns out.
