Greetings from Seattle. Took two flights, a layover and 300 plus pages of The Book Thief (which I finished), but I arrived safely Saturday night. Did the requisite tour of Seattle yesterday before meeting K and J at the airport. We walked the downtown, toured Pier 52 and the famous fish market, ate seafood marinara at a place called the Crab Pot, strolled by the original Starbucks, drove past the houseboats and the Space Needle, and last, but not least, visited Seattle's largest independent bookstore, The Elliott Bay Book Company. What a glorious place! Located in Seattle's famous Pioneer Square, the bookstore boasts 150,000 new and used titles. Books, books everywhere. My kind of heaven.
Today, M drives K, J and I to the ferry where we'll travel north along the sound to Vancouver Island. C's to meet us in Sidney, just outside of Victoria, after the three-hour ride. From there, she'll drive us to her parent's place where we'll await the arrival of other former classmates. Then the fun begins. I'm unsure how connected I'll be on the island but will try to check in as the retreat progresses.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
I Need a Clone: Writerly To-Do List and Retreat Prep
Aaack! My to-do list includes so many Post-Its I need a list for all my lists.
Here are just a few of the tasks I must check off before leaving Saturday for the first leg of my journey to C's First Annual Vancouver Island Writer's Retreat:
1. Put out signs and sandwich boards for this weekend's church resale. Price and sort last-minute donations. Bake cake this am with a handful of other volunteers for the church's chicken ala king dinner this weekend. (This Canal Days tradition benefits church missions).
2. Finalize and submit critique group crits. (Judging by the growing length of my to-do list, I might end up doing these on the plane.)
3. Proof my Edge of the Forest articles before the June/July issue hits the cyber newsstands.
4. Decide on retreat workshop piece, make appropriate number of copies, and select potential projects to work on during the week.
5. Back-up my PC before traveling with it.
6. Print out boarding pass for the flight to Seattle where I'll spend the weekend with M, K and J before taking the ferry to Vancouver Island on Monday.
7. Pack enough clothes for nine days, raincoat and umbrella for the three-hour ferry ride, camera for whale sightings along the way, birth certificate for traveling across the border, notebooks and voice recorder for journaling and brainstorming, backpack for day hikes, pleasure books (including my current read, The Book Thief) and craft books (including Natalie Goldberg's The Essential Writer's Notebook and Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens.)
8. Create a detailed schedule for P so he knows where each of the girls needs to be while I'm away.
Here are just a few of the tasks I must check off before leaving Saturday for the first leg of my journey to C's First Annual Vancouver Island Writer's Retreat:
1. Put out signs and sandwich boards for this weekend's church resale. Price and sort last-minute donations. Bake cake this am with a handful of other volunteers for the church's chicken ala king dinner this weekend. (This Canal Days tradition benefits church missions).
2. Finalize and submit critique group crits. (Judging by the growing length of my to-do list, I might end up doing these on the plane.)
3. Proof my Edge of the Forest articles before the June/July issue hits the cyber newsstands.
4. Decide on retreat workshop piece, make appropriate number of copies, and select potential projects to work on during the week.
5. Back-up my PC before traveling with it.
6. Print out boarding pass for the flight to Seattle where I'll spend the weekend with M, K and J before taking the ferry to Vancouver Island on Monday.
7. Pack enough clothes for nine days, raincoat and umbrella for the three-hour ferry ride, camera for whale sightings along the way, birth certificate for traveling across the border, notebooks and voice recorder for journaling and brainstorming, backpack for day hikes, pleasure books (including my current read, The Book Thief) and craft books (including Natalie Goldberg's The Essential Writer's Notebook and Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens.)
8. Create a detailed schedule for P so he knows where each of the girls needs to be while I'm away.
Jewel Report: Good News
Tuesday's walk-through of the school with Jewel and E went much better than expected. Instead of another barrage of questions about Jewel's potential to disrupt others, and appropriateness at school, discussion centered around how Jewel will be integrated into every aspect of E's school day.
Encouraging turn around, and such a relief. Gives me hope that the needs of the few (so often devalued by the majority) will be protected in this case, after all.
Encouraging turn around, and such a relief. Gives me hope that the needs of the few (so often devalued by the majority) will be protected in this case, after all.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
E earns an A+
E, Jewel and I visited the lead neurosurgeon today for a follow-up to E's post-operative visit the end of February. Bottom line: E's doing so well after her aneurysm surgery that Dr. B gave her an A+, and cleared her for normal activities. Woo-hoo!
Edited to add: I forgot to mention Dr. B's other good news. She doesn't have to see E for another follow-up until this time next year. (Doing the happy dance.)
Edited to add: I forgot to mention Dr. B's other good news. She doesn't have to see E for another follow-up until this time next year. (Doing the happy dance.)
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Kat's Eye Writing Warm-Up
Looking for a creative way to exercise your gray matter before butt-in-chair time? Consider the following:
Select one of the items listed below (by the way, I discovered them all during last night's church rummage sale set-up):
1. Cast-iron stove, the perfect size for a doll house.
2. Area 51 sign, complete with warning that deadly force has been authorized for use against trespassers.
3. Off-white antique soup tureen and matching ladle, hand-painted with wildflowers.
4. Old white porch swing, rusty chains included.
After choosing your item, write its story for 10 uninterrupted minutes. Set a timer if you have to. Do not lift pen from paper or fingers from keyboard for the duration of the exercise. (Doing so will encourage your inner editor to second-guess what you've written. )
If you're stuck on how to begin, start the exercise with the sentence: "I remember when..." then insert the item in the opening sentence. If you're looking for a further challenge, write an additional 10 minutes, this time telling the item's story from your MC's perspective. (Even if your MC would never interact with the item on the actual stage of your story, you might be surprised by what you learn by placing it next to him or her during the exercise. I know I was.)
Why 10 minutes? In yoga class, J allows us at least that long to shed ourselves of the outside world before moving into the more rigorous asanas. Each breath, each movement during those beginning minutes brings us deeper inside ourselves, until our cares drop away, and all that matters is entering the pose to the best of our ability, and becoming one with it.
The focus I find during yoga feels very similar to the focus I achieve on good days with my story. Through experience, I've learned that by allowing myself a warm-up, I can ease into the flow of a piece more readily, my inner critic loses its power, and all that matters is the story.
Select one of the items listed below (by the way, I discovered them all during last night's church rummage sale set-up):
1. Cast-iron stove, the perfect size for a doll house.
2. Area 51 sign, complete with warning that deadly force has been authorized for use against trespassers.
3. Off-white antique soup tureen and matching ladle, hand-painted with wildflowers.
4. Old white porch swing, rusty chains included.
After choosing your item, write its story for 10 uninterrupted minutes. Set a timer if you have to. Do not lift pen from paper or fingers from keyboard for the duration of the exercise. (Doing so will encourage your inner editor to second-guess what you've written. )
If you're stuck on how to begin, start the exercise with the sentence: "I remember when..." then insert the item in the opening sentence. If you're looking for a further challenge, write an additional 10 minutes, this time telling the item's story from your MC's perspective. (Even if your MC would never interact with the item on the actual stage of your story, you might be surprised by what you learn by placing it next to him or her during the exercise. I know I was.)
Why 10 minutes? In yoga class, J allows us at least that long to shed ourselves of the outside world before moving into the more rigorous asanas. Each breath, each movement during those beginning minutes brings us deeper inside ourselves, until our cares drop away, and all that matters is entering the pose to the best of our ability, and becoming one with it.
The focus I find during yoga feels very similar to the focus I achieve on good days with my story. Through experience, I've learned that by allowing myself a warm-up, I can ease into the flow of a piece more readily, my inner critic loses its power, and all that matters is the story.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Resale Frenzy, Retreat Prep, and Play
Wow. Summer's supposed to be a break from the frenzy of the school year, isn't it? Instead, I seem to be even busier now. On tap this week (and I know I'm forgetting something):
1. Continued recovery/clean-up from Saturday's grad bash for my oldest, E. I still can't believe she's leaving for Marquette in a couple months.
2. Prep for our church youth group's annual rummage sale, held this coming weekend during Lockport's Canal Days celebration. The resale requires a week's worth of sorting and pricing, but the work doesn't go unrewarded. Inevitably, the sale's arrival forces us to sort through yet another basement room for boxes of someone else's treasure, and on average, the group raises $1,000 or more to put toward its biennial trip to work at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky.
3. Service Dog Walk-Through -- scheduled for 1 p.m. today at E's school. On the agenda: recreating E's day--from arrival on the bus to lunch to classroom, brainstorming about how Jewel will be used in each activity, and discussing basics like where the dog will be able to take a much needed break midday (and who will clean it up?) In May, the school administration came to the table believing the dog a liability instead of an opportunity. P and I are hoping that the resource packet we sent to the superintendent's attention on E's last day enlightened everyone. My thanks to the Delta Society here for its excellent website on the benefits and whys of service animals. My fingers and toes are crossed that the school has come to its senses.
4. C's First Annual Writer's Retreat. This week I'm frantically paying bills, writing up schedules, packing, and planning for a reunion and writer's retreat with eight former classmates from Vermont College. The retreat will be held in Victoria, British Columbia. Former classmate C is graciously hosting and planning the affair which will include time for writing, workshops, discussion of craft, and more. The week's theme: Play.
5. Critique Group Submission. Due yesterday. Sent very rough copy for a new project--a contemporary novel told from the point of view of the young girl who stepped forward the other day. Curious that this story is finally ready to be told.
1. Continued recovery/clean-up from Saturday's grad bash for my oldest, E. I still can't believe she's leaving for Marquette in a couple months.
2. Prep for our church youth group's annual rummage sale, held this coming weekend during Lockport's Canal Days celebration. The resale requires a week's worth of sorting and pricing, but the work doesn't go unrewarded. Inevitably, the sale's arrival forces us to sort through yet another basement room for boxes of someone else's treasure, and on average, the group raises $1,000 or more to put toward its biennial trip to work at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky.
3. Service Dog Walk-Through -- scheduled for 1 p.m. today at E's school. On the agenda: recreating E's day--from arrival on the bus to lunch to classroom, brainstorming about how Jewel will be used in each activity, and discussing basics like where the dog will be able to take a much needed break midday (and who will clean it up?) In May, the school administration came to the table believing the dog a liability instead of an opportunity. P and I are hoping that the resource packet we sent to the superintendent's attention on E's last day enlightened everyone. My thanks to the Delta Society here for its excellent website on the benefits and whys of service animals. My fingers and toes are crossed that the school has come to its senses.
4. C's First Annual Writer's Retreat. This week I'm frantically paying bills, writing up schedules, packing, and planning for a reunion and writer's retreat with eight former classmates from Vermont College. The retreat will be held in Victoria, British Columbia. Former classmate C is graciously hosting and planning the affair which will include time for writing, workshops, discussion of craft, and more. The week's theme: Play.
5. Critique Group Submission. Due yesterday. Sent very rough copy for a new project--a contemporary novel told from the point of view of the young girl who stepped forward the other day. Curious that this story is finally ready to be told.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Birthdays and Wishes
My youngest turns 10 today. She's absolutely giddy. And why not? After day camp, E met her at the door with a balloon bouquet and a sweet white Beanie Baby kitten. She's double digits for the first time in her life. A handful of friends will arrive in a ten minutes time for cake and merriment. And chocolate chip cookie cake is cooling on the counter.
Last year at this time, I spent nearly every waking minute fingers to keyboard finishing up my creative thesis so I could graduate in time. Though we managed to host the requisite birthday parties and whatnots, most everything felt so rushed I vowed to find a happy medium between my family and writing life after graduation.
Unfortunately, my plan fell flat within weeks, after learning about E's aneurysm, and we embarked on what ended up a six-month odyssey of tests, physicians, follow-ups, false hopes, and, finally, surgery.
As S blows out her candles today, I'll be making a wish of my own: that with E finally in such a good place, and S coming into her own, they be graced with the time to enjoy it.
Last year at this time, I spent nearly every waking minute fingers to keyboard finishing up my creative thesis so I could graduate in time. Though we managed to host the requisite birthday parties and whatnots, most everything felt so rushed I vowed to find a happy medium between my family and writing life after graduation.
Unfortunately, my plan fell flat within weeks, after learning about E's aneurysm, and we embarked on what ended up a six-month odyssey of tests, physicians, follow-ups, false hopes, and, finally, surgery.
As S blows out her candles today, I'll be making a wish of my own: that with E finally in such a good place, and S coming into her own, they be graced with the time to enjoy it.
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