Thanks (or "no thanks") to covid, I am not gong to Raleigh this year to spend a week with Sarah and her family.
I also won't be seeing my parents, who live near her and are in their mid-80s.
So I'm off to Munsonville instead, which exists nowhere except in my mind and in the mind of anyone who's read my books, and in this beautiful piece of art at the bottom of this blog.
Translation: I'm taking an at-home writing retreat.
I have an ambitious list and don't intend to waste the time or the coffee.
Having taken a similar retreat a couple of these two years ago when airfare was prohibitive, I know how the progression works.
The first few days feel awesome, like a kid on summer vacation. My schedule and my routine is gone, and the alarm clock is silenced. No deadlines! No homework! Just "play" writing! Yay!!!
But the feeling is a lie. Because I have a self-made list of goals and deadlines sitting at my left. I can't miss it anytime I glance down. And if I'm sipping coffee, i'm glancing down a lot.
And like any summer vacation, the at-home writing retreat will get stale, usually by Tuesday afternoon. You know that feeling when all you eat is confectionery? Yeah, it's like that. The first few bites of a dark chocolate bar are amazing. But try working your way through a three-pound bar, ugh.
By Wednesday, I'm still waking up early and immediately staggering to the computer. By now I'm cranky and sick of everything: sick of writing, computers, coffee (hard to believe, but true), my BryonySeries, walking, music, the current project - all of it.
By Thursday afternoon, the pressure returns. My list of uncrossed items stares me in the face as I write, reminding me the list was way to prolific and that I won't get it done.
By Friday, I'm wondering where the week went and where I lost the time.
And by Saturday, even though it's a weekend, my mind is straying back to work and preparing itself for Monday.
So what's on the list?
All the even chapters of The Phoenix or fifteen chapters. This is first and foremost. And I started on it yesterday afternoon and wrote until my brain shut off at 9:30 p.m. (but I did have an extremely short night of sleep Thursday into Friday).
Finish formatting Lycanthropic Summer. Since I want to release it by October 1, this is important
Finish the last two chapters of Cornell Dyer and the Old Folks Home and copy edit it. My goal is three books a year. I'm just on the first one. So I'm way behind.
Finish formatting WriteOn Joliet's fourth anthology. This is even more first and foremost than The Phoenix.
Get the content Rebekah needs for a new website. Can't move forward without this. Better make it a priority.
Get Rebekah the photos she needs for the new Bertrand book. The goal is three a year. We released one last year. Again, way behind.
Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.
(First side note: Why do I do this? Especially since, you know, I'm a local self-published author with a handful of readers. Well, I do it for the readers. This is paramount, and I'm very serious. If just one person wants to read it, I want to write it. Second, it develops me as a writer, which is useful for my work writing, the most important writing I will ever write. Third, it develops my imagination, which I think keeps me creative and mentally young. Both are traits for a good life, I think).
(Second side note: An interview with this very talented artist of the illustration will be coming the week after the retreat. And she, along with my other artists, are available for hire).
(Third note: Please excuse any typos, please and thank you).
I also won't be seeing my parents, who live near her and are in their mid-80s.
So I'm off to Munsonville instead, which exists nowhere except in my mind and in the mind of anyone who's read my books, and in this beautiful piece of art at the bottom of this blog.
Translation: I'm taking an at-home writing retreat.
I have an ambitious list and don't intend to waste the time or the coffee.
Having taken a similar retreat a couple of these two years ago when airfare was prohibitive, I know how the progression works.
The first few days feel awesome, like a kid on summer vacation. My schedule and my routine is gone, and the alarm clock is silenced. No deadlines! No homework! Just "play" writing! Yay!!!
But the feeling is a lie. Because I have a self-made list of goals and deadlines sitting at my left. I can't miss it anytime I glance down. And if I'm sipping coffee, i'm glancing down a lot.
And like any summer vacation, the at-home writing retreat will get stale, usually by Tuesday afternoon. You know that feeling when all you eat is confectionery? Yeah, it's like that. The first few bites of a dark chocolate bar are amazing. But try working your way through a three-pound bar, ugh.
By Wednesday, I'm still waking up early and immediately staggering to the computer. By now I'm cranky and sick of everything: sick of writing, computers, coffee (hard to believe, but true), my BryonySeries, walking, music, the current project - all of it.
By Thursday afternoon, the pressure returns. My list of uncrossed items stares me in the face as I write, reminding me the list was way to prolific and that I won't get it done.
By Friday, I'm wondering where the week went and where I lost the time.
And by Saturday, even though it's a weekend, my mind is straying back to work and preparing itself for Monday.
So what's on the list?
All the even chapters of The Phoenix or fifteen chapters. This is first and foremost. And I started on it yesterday afternoon and wrote until my brain shut off at 9:30 p.m. (but I did have an extremely short night of sleep Thursday into Friday).
Finish formatting Lycanthropic Summer. Since I want to release it by October 1, this is important
Finish the last two chapters of Cornell Dyer and the Old Folks Home and copy edit it. My goal is three books a year. I'm just on the first one. So I'm way behind.
Finish formatting WriteOn Joliet's fourth anthology. This is even more first and foremost than The Phoenix.
Get the content Rebekah needs for a new website. Can't move forward without this. Better make it a priority.
Get Rebekah the photos she needs for the new Bertrand book. The goal is three a year. We released one last year. Again, way behind.
Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.
(First side note: Why do I do this? Especially since, you know, I'm a local self-published author with a handful of readers. Well, I do it for the readers. This is paramount, and I'm very serious. If just one person wants to read it, I want to write it. Second, it develops me as a writer, which is useful for my work writing, the most important writing I will ever write. Third, it develops my imagination, which I think keeps me creative and mentally young. Both are traits for a good life, I think).
(Second side note: An interview with this very talented artist of the illustration will be coming the week after the retreat. And she, along with my other artists, are available for hire).
(Third note: Please excuse any typos, please and thank you).
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