How I spent my summer vacation...
Aug. 25th, 2014 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfAll 2 days or so of it. :-)
We're trying something new this year. For the last few years, Jana has been taking a book-binding vacation - she goes and spends a week with a binder friend in Chicago and they bind books and chat about the field and meet other artists and generally have a grand time. I was completely okay with this until Hurricane Mom struck last year. It's been a year since we moved my mother out here (as of next week) and it has been mostly fraught and emotionally difficult and financially stressful and often pretty sucky on multiple levels, not to sugarcoat the situation any. It hasn't been the only thing adding stress to my life by any means, but it has definitely not helped. The end result was that I realized that I was getting stupidly resentful of Jana's time away. The simple solution: I get some time of my own to write and relax.
So with that in mind, I booked a room in a B&B in Reads Landing, a small town about 2 hours south of the Cities. I picked a place that advertised as queer-friendly and greenish (not always easy to find in small towns south of here), which had a restaurant within in walking distance but nothing else I was likely to find very distracting. What I got was a very nice suite in someone's home with a fabulous balcony and view of Lake Pepin. Plus a small hot tub. :-) And unbargained for freight trains rather closer than I liked, but I slept through those much better on the second night.
I landed there after a a sidetrip to LARK Toys, because that is required if one is down that way. There I acquired several toys (for others and self), some munchies and several books, including the collected Sherlock Holmes stories, which I needed for research (new project). The nearby restaurant turned out to be a microbrewery with pretty good food (I cannot vouch for the beer); I recommend it heartily if you happen to live in the area or are tooling down Highway 61 in SE MN. There seemed to be lots of bike trails and kayaking in the vicinity as well.
I settled in, did some revising, took a hot bath and plunged into Tanya Huff's The Silvered (which I'm loving so hard at the moment), as well as some Arthur Conan Doyle. By the time I left, I had enjoyed several very nice breakfasts, met and enjoyed the company of the other guests, done more reading, had another bath and got through about 65% of the full revisions on this particular book. All I hoped for? Well, no. But it never is. I am feeling generally saner and ready to focus on things so hopefully that will help a lot. I'm also realizing that switching from pantser to plotter on this book mean that in some respects, I wasn't particularly fond of the first full draft. I am liking the second one much better and can see some additional fixes for a third. I also think I may have found an editor for it as well, so yay all around, especially if we can work things out. :-)
After I checked out yesterday, I went down to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, where I got to take in an eagle-feeding, which was quite interesting. The Center has several birds with miscellaneous permanent flight/sight issues, including one eagle who is 33 years old (pretty remarkable in eagle terms). At any rate, they do good workshops and have some excellent exhibits so it's definitely worth a trip. I grabbed lunch at a local place, then hit the road for Lake City where I picked up lots of fresh apples and sundries. Next stop was Red Wing to check out a new bookstore (used and new), Fair Trade Books. The owner is looking to do a lot more by way of events so if you're a local author or musician or equivalent or all of the above, stop by and chat with him about options. I thought the selection was small but decent (but freely admit that I'm still mourning the loss of Best of Times Bookstore, which was an excellent general interest store, so that may have colored my perception). After that I wandered back home to deal with home stuff and, of course, kitties, who had missed me in a way best expressed by intense biting and licking. Apparently, I taste good to small predators. :-)
Now back to wrestling with the To-Do Lists of Doom, which are broken down as: Writing, Mom, House, Press and Stuff. Full steam ahead!
We're trying something new this year. For the last few years, Jana has been taking a book-binding vacation - she goes and spends a week with a binder friend in Chicago and they bind books and chat about the field and meet other artists and generally have a grand time. I was completely okay with this until Hurricane Mom struck last year. It's been a year since we moved my mother out here (as of next week) and it has been mostly fraught and emotionally difficult and financially stressful and often pretty sucky on multiple levels, not to sugarcoat the situation any. It hasn't been the only thing adding stress to my life by any means, but it has definitely not helped. The end result was that I realized that I was getting stupidly resentful of Jana's time away. The simple solution: I get some time of my own to write and relax.
So with that in mind, I booked a room in a B&B in Reads Landing, a small town about 2 hours south of the Cities. I picked a place that advertised as queer-friendly and greenish (not always easy to find in small towns south of here), which had a restaurant within in walking distance but nothing else I was likely to find very distracting. What I got was a very nice suite in someone's home with a fabulous balcony and view of Lake Pepin. Plus a small hot tub. :-) And unbargained for freight trains rather closer than I liked, but I slept through those much better on the second night.
I landed there after a a sidetrip to LARK Toys, because that is required if one is down that way. There I acquired several toys (for others and self), some munchies and several books, including the collected Sherlock Holmes stories, which I needed for research (new project). The nearby restaurant turned out to be a microbrewery with pretty good food (I cannot vouch for the beer); I recommend it heartily if you happen to live in the area or are tooling down Highway 61 in SE MN. There seemed to be lots of bike trails and kayaking in the vicinity as well.
I settled in, did some revising, took a hot bath and plunged into Tanya Huff's The Silvered (which I'm loving so hard at the moment), as well as some Arthur Conan Doyle. By the time I left, I had enjoyed several very nice breakfasts, met and enjoyed the company of the other guests, done more reading, had another bath and got through about 65% of the full revisions on this particular book. All I hoped for? Well, no. But it never is. I am feeling generally saner and ready to focus on things so hopefully that will help a lot. I'm also realizing that switching from pantser to plotter on this book mean that in some respects, I wasn't particularly fond of the first full draft. I am liking the second one much better and can see some additional fixes for a third. I also think I may have found an editor for it as well, so yay all around, especially if we can work things out. :-)
After I checked out yesterday, I went down to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, where I got to take in an eagle-feeding, which was quite interesting. The Center has several birds with miscellaneous permanent flight/sight issues, including one eagle who is 33 years old (pretty remarkable in eagle terms). At any rate, they do good workshops and have some excellent exhibits so it's definitely worth a trip. I grabbed lunch at a local place, then hit the road for Lake City where I picked up lots of fresh apples and sundries. Next stop was Red Wing to check out a new bookstore (used and new), Fair Trade Books. The owner is looking to do a lot more by way of events so if you're a local author or musician or equivalent or all of the above, stop by and chat with him about options. I thought the selection was small but decent (but freely admit that I'm still mourning the loss of Best of Times Bookstore, which was an excellent general interest store, so that may have colored my perception). After that I wandered back home to deal with home stuff and, of course, kitties, who had missed me in a way best expressed by intense biting and licking. Apparently, I taste good to small predators. :-)
Now back to wrestling with the To-Do Lists of Doom, which are broken down as: Writing, Mom, House, Press and Stuff. Full steam ahead!