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Separation Anxiety

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I’m going to the Highlights Summer Camp next week and I’m suffering from severe separation anxiety. Sorry husband, it’s not about you*

I’m suffering from separation anxiety, because part of the deal is once you turn in the first 20 pages of your manuscript (June 1), you’re supposed to put it away and not touch it until you get to camp. And my manuscript and I have been a thing since last year, and I miss it. I hope it doesn’t think I don’t care anymore.

So I’ve been filling the void by editing another novel. Writers, raise your hands if you think you can fill a void with editing. Anybody? Anybody?

*Not really sorry. It would be very neurotic to be anxious anytime I didn’t see my husband for 6 days, don’t you think?**

**That’s a rhetorical question. No need to ponder it.

Prepare to Cry

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If you will be in DC anytime between now and January, you must see the David Best installation at the Renwick. In fact, let me put it this way: you must come to DC or find another David Best’s Temple installations somewhere. Below you’ll see a very small portion (it fills an entire huge gallery) of the work with people writing memories of lost loved ones on pieces of balsa wood and on the work itself. They also leave photos. Prepare to cry.

Dear Young Woman

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It’s time for another installment of everybody’s favorite blog series*

Dear Young Woman in my coffee/writing place,

You just announced to your friend as she approached your table, “I don’t want you to get near me. I’m very sick.”

I believe”Why are you here” is one of life’s great philosophical questions. In this case, I mean it literally.

*everyone meaning me

How Do You Say “Laptop” in Castilian Spanish?

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I’m spending a week in Madrid this fall. I should be figuring out what to pack, who’s going to watch the house, and how to say a few essential phrases with a Castilian accent. But am I doing that? Of course not. Instead, I’m worrying if it would somehow be wrong to write every day when I’m visiting a place that was near the top of my Bucket List, and if it’s safe to bring my laptop.*

*No offense, Madrid. I worry about that everywhere, because my soul is lodged squarely between the space bar and the command key.

My Copious Spare Time

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Why only join one critique group when you can join two? Many reasons, like 130 pages a month of reading and making suggestions that are helpful, insightful, and complimentary, with an occasional dose of brutal.*

Some might say, “How are you going to manage 130 pages a month?”

*If you define ‘brutal’ as “I thought you might want to try something else here, but if you don’t it’s ok. It’s only my opinion and I could be wrong.”