Home Sweet Away-From-Home

We are safely ensconced in our lovely nest for the next two weeks!

We departed our home town with egg salad sandwiches and burritos in hand, Doritos and Dr. Peppers at the ready in the front seat. The Indigo Girls sang us south on 285, and then Loretta Lynn and Elton John kept us company the rest of the way. Letterlady, being the new bride that she is, was a wee bit melancholy at the prospect of not seeing her groom for two whole weeks. It was quite darling of her.

We had an extremely productive seven hour drive through the most beautiful parts of our fair state, stopping for bubble gum and gas, Mexican food and beach towels. (Did we mention that our retreat is walking distance to a hot springs?)

We spent much of the time in the car outlining the novel I am going to begin to write, playing with Greek myths and contemporary themes to weave a modern story of hubris and liberation. Letterlady was my muse and my scribe all wrapped up into one, and thanks to her, I have about ten pages of notes ready to begin shaping into chapters. When we weren't brainstorming and impressing ourselves with our cleverness, we were watching the beautiful ranches roll by and imagining what the people who live in the little towns do for a living.

When we reached our final destination, the sun was low in the west and the light was beginning to cast long shadows across the valley. Everything took on that golden hue that loves twilight and always makes me believe in the inherent goodness of all people. The smell of hot, sporadic rain on the highway finished the moment deliciously.

Upon arrival we were greeted by our generous hosts, Paul and Becky, who are also writers and live here operating the B&B. They welcomed us with wine and cheese and we sat around a lovely table sharing conversation about our respective projects. We drank a toast to the bun in Letterlady's oven and my week-old divorce, and felt right at home almost instantly. We are looking forward to sharing our work and reading some of theirs.

Right now, we are back in our suite, and Letterlady is playing online Scrabble with Letterhubby, who's back at home. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and more competitive, apparently. We are in a charming second floor abode with a full kitchen, living and sleeping area with a gracious balcony and all the amenities. On Monday, we move into The Cottage, where we will have a whole little house all to ourselves with a separate entrance, access to a garden, a writer's cottage, and balcony. The main house of the retreat has a book and video library and opens onto Main Street, so if this town sees any action, so will we.

As we were driving in, we set some goals for ourselves to try to accomplish so as not to waste a moment of this precious gift of time. Because we will write so much each day, we also intend to get at least an hour and a half of daily exercise, whether long walks, swimming laps at the local pool, or alpine hikes in the surrounding glory of the Rockies. We intend to eat at least one meal out each day. (There is a European bakery two blocks down, and anyone who knows me knows that I love breakfast...my favorite being fresh croissants and strawberry jam with cafe au lait. I'm starting to think that I may be in heaven right here on earth.) After dinner each evening, we will trade pages and read each other's work, making comments and suggestions. We will then post on this blog what we loved best about what the other wrote. We are of the mind that structure, accountability and encouragement are the three key ingredients to a successful writing life, and we intend to provide that for each other.

My personal goal is to reestablish my previous practice of writing at least one poem per day, and to focus on this prenatal novel. I'm going to have to figure out a way to think about it that isn't so BIG. Poems are so small.

Letterlady's goal is to work the 300+ pages she has written of her novel into a completely finished draft. Then she'll have the rest of the summer to research agents and start shopping it around. Just think, you'll be able to say you knew her when...

Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can figure out how to add photos to the blog. Don't you think it would be enhanced by some action shots of writers at work? Stay tuned!