Never park for a weekend under a tree

 Beware of parking in the shade. two examples:

1- I went to a writer's retreat on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Decided to park in the shade of a tree. Looking forward to lots of walks by the water which were cancelled because it rained all weekend. Not to worry. Rain will wash my car. Well, maybe it did, and the sun came out the morning we were leaving. So I packed up and went to my car to discover it covered -- really covered -- with bird droppings. Guess who took shelter from the rain in that tree? I managed to scrape some of it off my windows so that I could drive to a gas station and wash my windows so that I could drive the 3 hours home.

2-- I went to another writer's retreat in Southern California. The sun is hot, hot, hot there and I didn't want to get into a hot hot car at the end of the weekend, so I parked under a tree, in the shade. WRoNG. When I came out that Sunday, I found my car covered with pollen. really, really yellow all over. Again had to clean off windows before I could drive home

The Week after Kindling Words West Writing Retreat

Now that I've finally gone to Kindling Words West and have experienced a week-long writer's retreat, (last week) I'm all enthused about my writing, again.

But Monday I couldn't write, because I was involved as the representative writer in my granddaughter's middle school career day.  (yes, I almost lost my voice, again)
And Tuesday I couldn't write, because that same 13-year-old had several asthma attacks and I had to take her to the Dr., get medicine, get her to take it, etc., etc., etc.

So today is Wednesday, and I'm realizing that I need to send several pieces of writing to Vermont College of Fine Arts for the writing workshop that happens every day there.  (Luckily, I've already chosen to send two half-done picture books, so they're ready -- I just have to reformat them and remember to send them.)

So,
Writing is on my mind and therefore I have a couple of more writer links for you who read my blog.

Firstly -- Do you outline before you write?  Or does the outline simply develop later? Carol Brendler discusses her own version of Outlining on the blog, Emu's Debuts.  She calls it, The Trouble with Outlines.

Secondly -- How about Trilogies?  Do you like them? (as a reader or a writer) How does a trilogy happen?  Janni Simner talks about her new trilogy and how it came to be on the blog, Through the Tollbooth.

Enjoy.

Writer's Retreat Weekend

If you need to get away, taking a writer's retreat is a nice way to get your writer's juices flowing.
This past weekend I attended one on the Eastern Shore of Delaware. Like the view? Well, remember, I saw none of this because it rained all Saturday.

I had intended to work on my Lance (the dog) stories. And maybe fiddle with one or two other things. However, you may have noticed that my Vermont College Advisor, Julie Larios, challenged me to turn a November Blog into a picture book. So that became the first order of the day.

My first attempt, not so good. I simply re-wrote the blog from the viewpoint of a child. hmmmmm.

My second attempt was better. But I realized that I would need the names of many more pies than just pumpkin pie -- delicious as pumpkin pie is. So I ran out of the "quiet" writer's room into the noisy one. Help! Help!

I wrote my plea for pie-help on the whiteboard. (In an attempt not to disturb those intent on their computers) But when I turned around, about seven writers had left their own writing and had crowded around the board. (Any excuse for a break from writing, right?) This pie. That pie. It wasn't but a few minutes until I had enough pies -- many of which I had not thought of before. Yea! I LOVE when the group mind goes to work.

I presented the resulting picture book during the evening reading session.

I'm definitely going to go to next year's writing retreat, even tho it's scheduled to be in West Virginia, which will probably be an even longer drive away.
-wendieO