I’m shocked that it has been almost two weeks since my last posting. Shocked, but not surprised. My fingers have been tingling like crazy. Do you get that? That, oh-my-gosh-I-haven’t-been-writing feeling. So there it is. The admission. I haven’t been writing, when I was most charged up to do so. We have been on a long coastal journey which I will tell you more about in paragraph three, but it includes 1400 miles, a job interview, and matzah.
I have been drawing and revisioning my Roar, dummy…AGAIN. Actually I got a great brainstorm while on my recent journey. Another secondary character, a mouse, who watches the action unfolding. I’m excited to finish this up and get it to my agent. Secret agent man has given me permission to put aside the Ballet project for a while. He says that it is best not to put too much work into a non-fiction work lest it be changed by the publisher who is interested in the proposal and first chapter. Instead, Secret agent man has advised me to get to work on the novel that the editor at the conference wants to see. That is all good with me. The characters have been calling to me as I re-read Bird by Bird this week and I am eager to see what they have to say.
The journey started on Friday 18th when we drove from Maine to Pennsylvania to visit with my parents. We admired their forsythia bushes and awoke to lovely birdsong. On Saturday we had Passover Seder #1. It was very casual as we really made it our own, inviting comments and linking the traditional with current events and issues of the day. I love including everyone in the Seder, especially kids. I & E were great and had a lot of wise things to say. Passover Seder #2 was at my cousins’ home. Thanks Robin and Bob! A much bigger and more traditional event, it was great to see the whole fam damily.
Monday we drove to St. Mary’s county where Chris had an interview. Things went well and we are awaiting an offer from the company. Assuming this all goes well we will move from our wonderful home in Maine to a new adventure south of D.C. (Anne Marie are you out there?) I grew up in Northwest DC and I’m looking forward to being closer to my parents, cousins, sister and one of my brothers. It will be tough to leave our home that Chris built for us and our community of 14 years. However, we are planning on renting out our current home for a couple of years until things are clearer. The best thing about blogging is that I know that I will still be connected with all of my writer friends when and if we move. LiveJournal and writing are portable.
After the job interview and some real estate searching, we met up with Chris’s sisters and their children to go to Great Wolf Lodge. The lodge has a super indoor water park that kept all eight (yes: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,6, 7, and 9 years old) children and six adults entertained. We played all day Thursday and Friday morning then after sandwiches (you’re awesome Liz) we started the journey home. Can you say traffic? It took us forever to get from Williamsburg to Baltimore and a whole hour to get through the toll booth and over the George Washington bridge. It makes us want to stay in Maine.
Finally an aside. I was coming off the conference with a suitcase filled with business casual type of clothes and high heeled shoes. When it came time to re-pack for our family trip I, of course, focussed on doing laundry and packing for children, making sure they had all the various combinations on long sleeve and short sleeve shirts, with pants and shorts, for play and dinner out, all toiletries, bed time snuggle friends, pj’s, etc. When it came time for me to pack, I looked at my bag and thought, Basically, I’m packed, I’ll just put in a few extra t-shirts and shorts and I’ll be good. That was dumb. It was about 80 degrees in the mid-atlantic area. I ended up wearing the same shorts and t-shirt the entire time. Except in the evening when I wanted jeans, that I didn’t have, or at night when I wanted pj’s, which I also didn’t have.
Creative Chaos 