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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Christmas @adagioteas #teaadventcalendar #adventcalendar2021

Today’s tea from my Tea Advent Calendar is Christmas. That’s a nice flavor name!

The tea contains black tea, cinnamon, orange, natural spice flavor, cardamom, cloves, ginger, natural ginger flavor, and natural cinnamon flavor. When I opened the packet, I could smell the ginger and spices, but it didn’t smell like mulling spices. It was a slightly deeper flavor. This might be good with almond milk added to it.

I steeped it for 3 minutes in 8 ounces of 212ºF hot water.

I didn’t like the taste of the tea unsweetened at all—it was a like a melange of bitter spices—so I added almond milk and sugar. It tasted much better then—I could taste the ginger and cinnamon. It wasn’t quite a chai flavor, nor was it like mulling spices or pumpkin spices, but it was kind of a mix of all of them. It’s hard to describe, but it was a really nice, warm cup of black tea.
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