Wildacres Residency

I received some good news I've been hoping for.  I was awarded one of the 25 slots for the Wildacres Residency Program. Wildacres is a 1600-acres compound near the Blue Ridge Parkway that hosts different groups throughout the year for creativity (writers workshops, pottery/painting seminars) and business retreats. They also have a small cabin (see photo) on the compound that they award free one-week residencies to writers, artists, and musicians. The cabin has no phone, radio, TV or alarm clock, but does have wood burning indoor and outdoor fireplaces and its own tiny kitchen (meals are served at the main lodge). There is also (gulp) no Internet access except at two public telephones where you can connect your laptop.

The point of the residency is to focus exclusively on your project with no distractions.  No spouses, friends, pets are allowed. The artist in residence is allowed to join group activities scheduled at the main lodge, however.

I've tentatively been assigned a week in September.  I was a little disappointed, as I was hoping to go earlier, but the more I think about it the better I like the time frame. We leave in May for England/Scotland and I'll need most of June to catch up on assignments and get back on track.  The cabin isn't air-conditioned so I have no desire to visit in July or August so there you have it: September will be here before I know it. 

There is an immense appeal in going away to write.  No distractions, no "have to's," no "when I can find the time." When I mentioned last month to Blair I was applying his response was if that's what I wanted why didn't I just take a week or a month or whatever and go to a hotel or B&B somewhere and write?

Logical question that I don't have a logical answer for.  My answer is because. Because if I went to a hotel, every day I'm thinking that my being there is costing money--room, meals, etc. And it seems so self-indulgent--being able to work from home isn't enough, now I have to have turn-down service too?

But being given a free week of board with free meals and being acknowledged as a writer having earned my place there feels different.  I recognize it's all mental, but I just feel like I'll put more into this residency than I would if I just went and stayed at a random hotel for a week.

I want it to be a week of discovery. Will I stay up and write late into the night since I won't have to be up early for yoga or networking sessions? Will I spend my time in the cabin or seek the company of others at the lodge? Will I write longhand or shorthand? How many hours a day will I spend writing? How many hours a day can I spend writing? At home, there's always a phone call or an errand or an assignment or dinner or something that comes along to chop up the day.  Here, it will be my time to do with whatever I please. 

Fingers crossed I don't blow it.  That would be depressing to go and waste a week and be bored.  I don't think that will happen though.  I'm too anal-retentive to allow it.  However, I am taking NOTHING up there except my Millicent story.  No other projects, no itty-bitty assignments, no columns or query letters to be worked on.  The only "to do" is to work on my novel.

I can't wait.

The Tape Recorder That Didn't Take

Observe me sitting here, calmly avoiding having a massive panic attack.  Why so calm? I think I've panicked myself into a stupor.

I conducted an hour-long phone interview Tuesday with a nationally acclaimed and VERY BUSY expert.  Got great information and sat down this morning to transcribe the interview and write the piece up.  Guess what? The cord that connects the tape recorder to the phone was only 1/2 plugged in.  So as I played the tape this morning, I found I had an hour-long tape of me saying "Uh-huh" and "okay" and complete static where there should have been the voice of the expert.

Thank you doctor.  I'm ready for my medication now.

I really don't know what I'm going to do. Try to piece together from memory the best I can and then probably have to reconduct parts of the interview. 

I read about things like this happening in books on writing. There are horror stories and warnings to test your equipment and make sure you have back-up batteries, etc.  So I always test my equipment and I always have back-up batteries on hand.  I tested my recorder right before I called and it worked fine. I must have pulled the phone and disconnected the cord while dialing and just not have noticed it.

So. I'll just sit here.  NOT panicking.  Nope.  Very calm. Actually sort of funny.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Heated Eyelash Curler

Now I know the world has a screw loose.  Were any of you aware there was even such a product as an electric eyelash curler available on the market? Does not the general concept lend itself to a "Hmmm.  Maybe we should think about this..." approach?

In my writer's critique group this evening, we were discussing a scene in my middle grade novel where a bunch of 11 and 12 year old girls are in a cabin at camp. I was trying to convey that my main character, in comparison to the girls around her, is something of a tomboy with no interest in boys or curling irons or the perfect tan.  I missed on my description and someone suggested showing how the other girls acted by having them pull out their curling irons or eyelash curlers.

At the mention of eyelash curlers, one woman in our group volunteered that her mom had bought her an electric eyelash curler when she was a teen.

 None of us had ever heard of such a thing and burst out laughing. I told her I wasn't sure such an item existed and I was going to Google it when I arrived home. Sure enough, it's a real product.  Check out a sample by clicking here.

I don't know why I'm surprised.  Even the standard eyelash curlers look like some kind of medieval torture devices. Blair can't stand to watch me use one. Freaks him out.  I'm so glad I go that extra step to look pretty for him.

And, it turns out the joke is on me.  As I was searching sites to find links to post for this blog entry, I came across several descriptions on how to use a standard eyelash curler. The instructions state to hold a blow dryer on the curler for "no more than 5 seconds." Then you need to "test it with your hand to make sure it's not too hot" because you don't want to "burn your eye."

Who comes UP with these ideas???

Dinner with Writer Friends

I had such the lovely evening last night. I went to dinner at the house of a writer friend of mine. The reason for the dinner is that a writer friend of his was in town, a woman I had worked with a bit via e-mail but hadn't had the chance to meet. We clicked immediately and the three of us spent 4 hours discussing life, writing, travel, research, and a plethora of other topics. It was one of the those wonderful evenings where the conversation never wavered as we jumped from discussing the male/female ratio aspects of the brain to Myers-Briggs testing to how we'd all like to participate in an archeological dig. 

This woman writer is co-writing a novel that spans 7 million years.  It's historical fiction but her aim is to be so well-researched that even historians have a hard time telling where truth leaves off and fiction begins. She's travelled to Italy four times on research trips, examined 1,000 year old books, stood in 500,000 year old caves, and had astronomers realign the stars for her so she could see what the constellations in the heavens looked like  2million years ago.  I told her if she's ever in the market for a research assistant, I'm her gal....

Today is another one of those non-stop days.  I just got out of my 7:15 meeting and now have a 9-11:30, 12-1, 1:30-3, 3:30-4:30, dinner with friends at 5:30, then 7-10pm meetings.  I enjoy it though.  I like all my meetings and the people in them and the day really does fly by. 

Right now I'm sitting in The Green Bean, a local fair trade coffee house, getting ready to put in a few hours of work on Millicent, my middle-grade novel.  I have coffee (decaf!) and a muffin and I'm good to go.  Happy Wednesday.