Cupcake of my dreams

I don't really like cake, candies or cookies (though I adore chocolate in bar form), but I admit to being a cupcake-aholic. Recently opened two blocks away is Sweet, this incredible store that makes these gorgeous little cupcakes like the red velvet beauty pictured here. Yes, they are pricey, but they are so gorgeous and they are a fantastic reward after a day of writing. And the place makes them in mini-versions so you don't feel too guilty about wolfing one down.

Plus, I just bought one of those new vibration exercisers (a steal on Amazon Prime with free shipping) so don't I deserve a little sugar? I'm thin and pretty healthy, but I want to stay healthy and strong. The research on these machines is fascinating, by the way. Built to build bone and prime muscles for astronauts who couldn't exercise, they're now finding that these machines can reverse osteoporosis (it did for my friend, Barb), tone muscles, help with MS, tinnitus, hormone imbalances and any number of things. Yes, I know it sounds vaguely snake oilish, but the research is sound. Plus, they really give you a workout. I have no idea what it is actually going to FEEL like, but it should be arriving for its place in my crowded office any second. (And I'm just waiting on one more check to go get my Mac!)

On the writing front, I wanted to comment on a Youtube video interview by Alice Hoffman about the writing process which helped me enormously. Alice talks about how she outlines and then throws the outlines away and then remakes them and then tosses them again. She talks about how important it is to forget any future audience and simply be in the zone and write the book you need to write, the book that obsesses you, which is something I tell my students--and believe myself.