Ordered The Soup

What a gross day! 

It's rainy, it's cold, it's dark. 

All I've been able to do was reorganize the kitchen closet, do some dishes, clean the kitty litter (Naughty kitties), and read a book. Big shocker, huh? I read. 

So today while writing to you dear readers, I had the soup. Tomato and pasta soup. Must be that kind of day because at work in the cafe, the soup of the day was Tomato Basil which was just an ... eh ... kind of soup for me. I love the Tomato and pasta soup at ChocolaTea though. 

It's great to have something nice and cozy and warm to eat on cold days. Especially when NaNoWriMo is killing your spirit and your free time. 

Yep! As of right now ... my current standings are: 10,012 words. So I'm right on track at 1,667 words per day to hit 50,000! 

I'm sensing a WIN in my future! That would be awesome. 

Three cheers for me?

*looks around at any bystanders who might cheer* No? *puts arms down* Oh well. 

Anyway ... it's Wednesday!! 

Which usually means it's the Wednesday Writers Workshop 

But because it's NaNoWriMo, my topic for today is kind of muddled. 

What I wanted to share instead was just another portion of my novel for this year to prove to all my fellow writers that I'm just ... writing ... this month. So be prepared. 

Meanwhile, before we get to that, I have .... sitting next to me, a Gingerbread Chai tea. It's amazing and spicy and sweet all at the same time. And it gave me some very much needed energy to give you .... my book recommendation of the day! 

This time, I have a romance novel featured. 

Wicked Little Secrets by Susanna Ives. 

Now, before everyone goes running off to get this book, the version I read was the Advanced Readers Copy ... so it's not officially released yet. 

This book is about Vivienne Taylor. She's a bit of a wild child, but she did exactly what her parents wanted her to do. She's engaged to John Vandergrift and he's exactly who she's expected to be with. He's respectable and had a good reputation. 

But her neighbor and childhood friend Hadrian, Lord Dashiell, a notorious rake and womanizer ... has had his sights set on her since Vivienne grew up.
He sees his chance when a blackmail scandal threatens to overturn her entire family and even her engagement. 

Will Dashiell get his chance to be with the woman he has truly loved from afar? Or will family responsibilities and rumors about Dashiell's womanizing past keep them apart? Time can only tell in this hilarious and romantic book. 

So far, let me tell you ... I love Vivienne. She's so funny because she's so naive about the real England she lives in. And that makes for putting Dashiell in the best situations trying to keep her out of trouble. 

When this book is officially released, I highly recommend anyone to pick this up. Especially romance novel lovers will get a thrill from this. 

And now ... 

since the tea shop is closing ...

I leave you with my Wednesday Writers Workshop! 

Or should I say ... my extended preview of the 10,000 word novel I've written so far. Let me know what you think of my quality-lacking piece. 

“You always know just the right thing to say, Clarabelle.” Lily sighed and walked out the door to her apartment, locking it tight behind her. I think she forgot that I was there and wouldn’t actually let anyone take anything. Well, I wouldn’t let them take anything of mine. I’m a bit selfish. I admit it’s one of my many follies. Lily walked to the apartment across the hall and knocked on the door. An old woman answered, surrounded by five Yorkies all yapping at her feet. I really don’t like dogs.

                “Hello. My name is Lily,” she greeted. “I just moved into 7B across the hall and wanted to say hello and get to know my neighbors.” She kind of sputtered it out in a rush, a little nervous.

                “Why hello, dear!” the old woman replied. “I’m Miss Samantha Grey. You can call me Miss Sam. And these are my darlings, Reggie, Georgie, Fifi, Harvey, and Lottie. There was no way that Lily was going to memorize all their names that fast.  Lily put on a broad smile.

                “It’s very nice to meet you, Miss Sam. My name is Lily Patterson.” She knelt down near one of the Yorkies, catching a glimpse of the name on its tag. “And hi there, Fifi.” Lily pet the dog’s head and it shook its whole body happily. “I’m a big animal lover, so it’ll be nice to know that there are other pets in this building.”

                “Oh! You’ll have to come over for tea sometime then, Miss Lily. You seem like a real doll, huh?” Miss Sam replied happily. “It was very nice to meet you, dearie.”

                “Well I just wanted to say hi. I don’t want to keep you,” Lily said, trying to keep the conversation polite as her mother had always taught her. The two of them said their good-byes and Lily went down the hall a little further to her next neighbor’s door. She kind of felt like she was living in a dorm again. It was a time honored tradition to walk up and down the halls to get to know your neighbors or suite-mates since you had to live with them for a year, Lily had mused to herself. She knocked on the next door. The smell of patchouli and incense billowed out into the hallway as Lily was greeted by an impossibly tall woman with a hooked nose and nearly bird-like appearance. She was all skin and bones and she was wearing long robes that fell to the floor like an elegant ballgown turned bathrobe. However, it had a bold pink, orange, and lime green print with macaws covering it.

                “Can I help you?” the woman’s deep voice boomed out.

                “Um … my name is Lily and I … I moved into 7B. I just … wanted to get to know … my neighbors and such.” Lily was profoundly unnerved having never met a woman with that many colors before.

                “I am the Madame du Fleur” replied the bird like individual. She frowned. “You have a very particular aura I’d like to explore. Please, would you come in for a reading?” Madame du Fleur asked. Lily was about to decline when the door across from the woman’s opened and a young man peeked out.

                “Hey Flurry,” he said very casually. “Sorry, she can’t come in today. I told her to meet everyone on the floor, but she’s … busy. In fact … we were just on our way out.” The man gave her a very long look that said ‘go with it’ and Lily nodded her assent.

                “T-that’s right. I was just going. But it was very nice to meet you, Madame du-” But the door slammed shut before Lily could say anything else. She turned around. “Thanks. I think.”

                “Hey, if you go in there, you’ll never get out with your wallet. You HAVE to be from out of state. You don’t just walk up to people’s doors in New York. Are you nuts?” The man came across the hall and extended his hand. “I’m Ben. Ben Gable. You’re … Lily?” he asked.

                “Yeah,” Lily looked up at him. He had intense blue eyes and thick eyebrows that were pursed in concentration. She shook his hand and it was calloused. She guessed he was some kind of musician. I knew right from the beginning that this Ben guy was going to be awesome. Just saying. Anyway … Lily shook his hand back. “Well, I just … wanted to … you know,” she stuttered.

                “-Get to know the neighbors. I heard,” Ben said. “Well, have you met Miss Sam? She lives with only her dogs and occasionally will ask you to get her groceries and she’ll talk your ear off if you give her half a mind to. The quack psychic Madame du Fleur? Her real name is Matilda Franks and … she’ll con you out of every dollar you’ve got if you give her half a mind. You’ve met me. There. You know everyone on the floor now.”

                “I … I suppose so,” Lily said a little hesitantly.

                “Now … can you stop all the banging around so I can get back to work?” Ben asked. “All the knocking is taking away from my concentration.”

                “Oh. Right. Sorry.” Lily nodded. “See you around.”

                “I hope not. You’re noisy.” Ben turned around and went back into his apartment and closed the door with a loud CLICK. Lily returned to her own apartment and pushed the door shut, locking it again behind her. She looked at me and smiled sadly.

                “I think this is going to be a little different than living in a dorm room isn’t it, Clarabelle?”

                “I wouldn’t know,” I replied, blinking at her slowly.

                “Who really wanted to get to know the neighbors anyway?” Lily asked.

                “Technically, you did,” I said.

                “I know, I know. It was me. I can tell what you’re thinking,” she said to me.

                “You never listen to me,” I said. That much is true. No matter what I say or what I do, Lily rarely takes my advice. Most people would be offended by that. Not me. I’m used to it. We’re just roommates who live together and occasionally make conversation. I actually think that that is the reason why we ARE best friends. It’s because we don’t HAVE to fill the void with mindless chatter. Too bad that Lily doesn’t heed that part of our friendship with anyone else. Don’t tell her I told you this, but when she starts talking or working with a group of people for the first time … Lily never shuts up. When she first started to work at a coffee shop as a barista, her co-workers called her a Chatty Cathy. Not the most original nickname in the world, but it was just true. Lily was one of those people who could talk your ear off and about nothing in particular and about everything. It’s one of her endearing and annoying traits. On January 2^nd, she’d start her new job. Lily felt nervous. She changed outfit after outfit before finally laying down a pair of freshly ironed khaki pants and a light pink blouse.

Chapter Two

January 2^nd:

                Lily woke up the next morning with a fresh attitude and a piping hot cup of coffee. She went into the kitchen in her pajamas covered with tea cups, made some scrambled eggs with cheese and opened the front door to get her newspaper. A copy of the Brooklyn Times. Ben Gable was opening his door too at the same time. He got a good look at her jammies and snickered. Lily stuck her tongue out at him and slammed the door shut before he could say anything.

Let me know what you think of Ben Gable, her neighbor. I know I kind of just left you with a random beginning to chapter 2 but I loved how I ended it for you. 
Okay, I'm really going now. 

It's bedtime and I'm sure Polly wants me to leave her tea shop now. 

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself
Taryn