Breaking bread

It's just possible that I like fall so much because there's so much baking to do. I'm trying this bread from Deb's site, which she managed to make even with one arm in a sling.

If I can make it with my wordcount in a sling, anyone can. I'll let you know tomorrow at noon, when C and I are tearing into it making animal sounds of pleasure. Hopefully.

In other news, when stuck on a first draft, add a child! One with a bad attitude but a good heart, like the teenaged kid in Little Miss Sunshine. I've given the witch a bratty kid sister with zero powers, who hangs around Demeter. Demeter, unaccountably, lets her--for one, it's free work, and for another, she's the only one who talks back to Demeter and gets away with it.

I've modeled this on the strange relationship between my stepfather in his younger, hoarier days and my ex-sister-in-law, who was the only one in our family who gave as good as she got, and who therefore earned his respect.

Demeter's spent her life around people who learned to walk on eggshells around her. Instead, this kid - Sarah (hi Sara! I am borrowing your name and some of the attitude you had in, oh, 1984) - smarts off to her routinely, and Demeter loves her for it. She'll end up as something of a short, scrawny unintentional mentor, and she may end up in mortal peril before the end of the book, depending.

Or not. I might kill her off if it's too gimmicky, but that's where I'm at with Demeter's arc right now. Hell, I'm just happy I'm in Act 2.