ROW80, A Completed Project, and The Enchanted April

ere's another knitting project I've completed!

Besides the one or two projects that have sat on needles for too long now, and have no hope of ever being completed, this means I haven't any knitting in progress at the moment. I'd like to knit some mittens for winter, and start a great big ambitious Fairisle project, but we shall see.

(Thank you to Magali for the drop cap!)


Besides, that wasn't part of my original ROW80 goals! Here's sort of how I phrased my September goals on thelitforum:

Things I think about:

Knitting -- I have ideas for two new projects, and one project that's almost completed. No pressure on this goal [g]
Editing -- two novels (The Handful of Time, Captive of the Sea) still need to be worked on. Plus there's that short story anthology idea... Not a priority right now!
Writing -- I should still be plotting Amelie's story in preparation for NaNoWriMo, but all I'm really doing is writing the new novella, tentatively entitled Summer Blaze.
Blogging -- I need to blog in advance to cover the months of October to December. I really need to catch up on comments!
School -- I'm still registered in the Master's programme, but have arranged not to have any courses this semester. First course for this year coming up in January!

Actual goals:

Keep up with blog posts and edit the novella to the point where it's ready for beta readers.

There it is. I've got about five previous blog posts that have collected comments -- I'm coming around to all of you, I swear!


In the meantime, I had reason to look up this blog post just now, and I really feel like rereading this book. So I'm reposting the post! From the 2012 Blogging from A to Z Challenge:

nchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim.

"Eager to escape the dreary February rains of 1920s London, four women agree to rent the small medieval castle of San Salvatore for a much-needed vacation on the Italian Riviera, and each in turn is seduced and changed by the special place."

Sounds like such a simple premise... I've just discovered that The Enchanted April is available on Gutenberg! No need for me to tell you any more about it, you can read the lovely sweet story for yourself.

I was in my teens when I first read this book, and I've stayed in love with it all these years all for this paragraph:

"Rose clasped her hands tight round her knees. How passionately she longed to be important to somebody again--not important on platforms, not important as an asset in an organization, but privately important, just to one other person, quite privately, nobody else to know or notice. It didn't seem much to ask in a world so crowded with people, just to have one of them, only one out of all the millions, to oneself. Somebody who needed one, who thought of one, who was eager to come to one--oh, oh how dreadfully one wanted to be precious!

All the morning she sat beneath the pine-tree by the sea. Nobody came near her. The great hours passed slowly; they seemed enormous. But she wouldn't go up before lunch, she would give the telegram time to arrive..."

Actually, I think that this quote is the reason I love to write romance.

Are you writing during NaNoWriMo this year?
Which books have stuck with you over the years?