Beans! About a pound of them. Fresh, green, crisp and delicious, straight from our garden to the table. What an amazing feeling of accomplishment it is to find the garden you dug and planted is now turning out fabulous-tasting morsels of freshness.

Even more exciting, the pound we picked the other day represents just a portion of the beans that were hanging on the plants. I had been worried that we'd have to pick some of the smaller, younger ones to round out the meal but I was pleasantly surprised to find there were quite enough full-sized beans to satisfy our hunger. And they were so good. Much better than the pathetic, thin-skinned things you find at the grocery store.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, I have also been making excellent progress again on The Silent Goodbye. I wrote an entire section the other day, as much as 3,500 words in one sitting. I have further developed and deepened the relationship between Gold and Constable McLean and I think I have done a decent job of providing some of the backstory from previous (unpublished) novels without dragging things out.

So far, so good. I have one more major scene to write before Gold starts the trial. That's going to be fun to write. I'm calling on my sister and brother-in-law, both legal professionals, to help me make sure I get points of procedure right.

I know, stop writing about writing it and get back to writing it.

Tags: Phillip Gold