No, wait. Are you kidding me? It’s Thursday? Time to write the blog again? Where did the week go?
I’ll tell you where it went–to driving–1,785 miles worth of driving to be exact–with stops in Sedona, Bakersfield, Ashland, and finally home to Bellevue, WA. Tired? You betcha? After two weeks in a self-imposed pressure cooker of a writing workshop and four days of driving, I’m beyond tired, but very, very grateful to be out of the car. Bella and Bill are glad to be out of the car, too.
This morning we’re sipping our coffee on a different patio. Instead of watching the birds duke it out on the bird block, I’m on the look out for the heron. (Just because I feed doves, quail and sparrows, doesn’t mean I’m willing to feed herons! Instead of dodging the sun as it rises over the palm trees and filters through the magnolia trees to turn the Tucson patio into an oven by ten AM, we’re sitting here with the over-head infrared heater keeping our bare toes toasty. Yes, bare feet on both ends of the journey are key to my well-being.
The day after we left town, the temperature in Tucson was predicted to hit 108. I’m saying we left just in time, but by the time we got out of the car for a quick pitstop in Sutherlin, Oregon, yesterday, both Bella and I thought the breeze accompanied by 68 degree temperatures was a bit too chilly for our very thin Tucson blood.
Leading the writing workshop, sponsored and hosted by the University of Arizona Library’s Special Collections, was tough on me because I was tough on the students. By the end of the two week period, most of my hard-working attendees had completed 13,000 to 15,000 word novellas! I spent my mornings, noons, afternoons, and nighttimes editing same. I did not have time to do any of my own writing because I was too busy editing theirs.
Graduates are telling me in their written evaluations that I was a tough, demanding taskmaster. I put a lot of pressure on them to produce, and it turns out, most of them surprised themselves by delivering. The idea of having a deadline made them work harder than they thought possible. As I learned in writing my very first book, there’s something magic about having and meeting a deadline–even a self-imposed one.
But now I need to make that magic work for me, too. I have a deadline–a serious deadline on Ali # 10 which now has a name–Cold Betrayal.
That being said, it’s time to go fill my coffee cup and go to work.
Later, Gator. (Comma after Later–direct address.) Oh, wait. (Sentence Fragment) I guess I can stop putting those in now. (Those what? Faulty pronoun reference.)
The workshop is over.
Welcome back to Bellevue which has a seven mile unguarded border with the “friendliest city in the United States” (according to Forbes Mag.). Sammamish is the city of 50,000 happy campers which hasn’t had a murder in the history of the city (in spite of a well intended author trying to do the dastardly deed in Second Watch).
Since you have “been there, done that” in regard to Southern Arizona’s June heat wave, I will forgive you for heading to cooler climes. Enjoy your summer and we will welcome you back next winter.
You’re an amazing woman JA! Thank you 🙂
I think I missed something. Why don’t you fly? Easier on the body. Glad you are home, sorry to hear you can’t rest a little while. Hopefully, we’ll see some future results of your workshop. Looking forward to the next book!!!!
Glad you had such a successful trip. Sounds like the students benefited from your knowledge and talent…otherwise they wouldn’t have given you such a solid review as a tough taskmaster. To me that is a compliment, because it says you drove them to meet their expectations.
Enjoy the great Pacific Northwest and it’s beautiful summer.
Happy Friday,
CJ Vermote
I feel your exhaustion! You left the sizzling heat just in time. Maybe a motor home would be an option for future events to keep you more comfortable during travel.
As an educator, I appreciate and admire your diligence and perseverance with holding your students to mastering writing accountability with deadlines. They will appreciate all you have taught them for many years to come.
Unlike you, I barely remember any of my high school teachers. However, the one I will never forget just happens to have been Mrs. Specht, my English teacher, the ‘drill instructor’. I never appreciated her greatness until many years later. To this day, I still do not use any form of the word ‘get’. She would turn over in her grave today if she knew about all the acceptable words that were once considered slang, gangster, urban.
Enjoy your time back home in the cool weather! I am looking forward to Cold Betrayal.
How strange that I can reply to your blog by iPhone but not by computer. I had to write to say the workshop may have ended, but it isn’t over. Currently on draft four and nearly finished, I’m gaining new insight daily into my thought process and how to apply it. That pressure cooker steamed my little grey cells, not to mention the 104F outside the day I left, and it was all for the better. I will be forever grateful for your help.
I echo Ricardo’s comment. Thanks, J.A.
Welcome back to WA, Judy. I have also just returned from Tucson and had a bit of an adjustment to the temperature. But we both know that there is nothing like summer in Washington State. Enjoy!
Hello
Do you ever go on a cruise with readers? I think it would fun, well fun for me. I met you at SPSCC college a few months back.
Take care
Nancy Murphy