This post is all about twos:

• This is my second attempt at blogging more.
• At this rate, I will have managed two blog posts this month.
• This is twice the number I managed in the previous month.
• This afternoon I have had two attempts at getting my Persian cardamom-pistachio butter fudge to set but have probably boiled it for too long or too little, at too high or too low a heat, and it is taking too much time to set. I will probably nevertheless eat it too quickly with a spoon from the pan because though soft, it is too delicious to waste.
• This endeavour has been my main effort to procrastinate from working on book 2, of which I am currently convinced I am plagued by the infamous second album curse because it is Just. Not. Happening.
• In response to aforementioned frustration at being cursed, I read this article on Brain Pickings because I thought it would make me feel better. It didn’t. I don’t know why I thought reading something Hemingway-related would leave me feeling better. Because I thought I might have missed something, I read it a second time, and finished even more certain that book 2 will turn me into a version of Salieri in this scene.
• Here is what is happening with book 2:
  • My Brain: Ok, so this character is going to make this grand entrance and immediately steal the show.
  • What Gets Typed: Barry walked into the room and sat in the chair.
  • MB: Hmm, not exactly what I hoped for. Let’s try for improvements.
  • WGT: Barry walked slowly into the room and sat in the empty chair.
  • MB: Is it not implied that the chair is empty? Is Barry the kind of character that would sit down in an occupied chair? Is Barry a lap sitter?
  • WGT: Barry walked slowly and purposefully into the empty room and sat in the chair. Alone. Barry was all alone. Like Hemingway.
  • MB: … we’re cutting Barry.
• Now I am going to continue my procrastination by tending to the Abgoosht I am cooking – the second Iranian dish I have made in my procrastination pursuits today.

Is this a possible sneak preview of what’s to come? Could my second book feature one or more Iranian characters? Find out more in the next or subsequent blog posts… duh duh duuuuuuuh!