Thanks to Claudia

House of Scorpio by Pat Wallace is a novel that has stayed with me for close to 50 years. I read the book for the first time when I was fourteen, and it became my second keeper (Mistress Devon by Virginia Coffman was my first.) It's a collection of six interlinked science fiction romances set on alternative world where zodiac signs are actual human races. Avon published this novel as a Gothic, believe it or not. It's also the book that taught me how to build a universe from scratch.

If you want to blame someone for the writer I became, Claudia Patrick Wallace Strother should be at the top of your list.

I loved this book because even to this day it is the most wildly inventive romance I've ever read. It swept me off to a completely alien world that I felt immediately comfortable with and understood right away (important world-building lesson #1.) It was a captivating story, told in six parts that all came together at the end beautifully. It was also a well-veiled attack on the sometimes hysterical racism in the 70's. For a kid who was dealing with desegregation at school and a panicking mother who was convinced I'd get my throat cut during homeroom, it was a blessing and a light during a very dark time.

No one will probably remember this novel in another fifty years. It will just be forgotten as more important, literary authors must always come first, and besides, romance has no real value, right? Unless you count me and all the novels I've written. The writer and the person I grew up to be is thanks to House of Scorpio. I will always remember this book.

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Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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