I’m in the computer lab right now. I have about 10 minutes before I have to go to a reading (D I will call you when I get back to the hotel). The week has been hectic, overhwhelming, exhausting and illuminating. This progam, this residency has reinspired me to write more, write well, and to restart my novel. I fucked up, but my mentor understood and we hammered out a plan to restart my work. It’s going to be a hard road. I have a lot of serious deadlines to work with a so much work to do, but I know now that I can handle it. While others in my class are going on to finishing the first draft of their novels, I’m going to scrap the base story, recycle some of the characters and move on. Finally, the true conflict came to me. It’s time to write about the characters I really love, rather than trying to force this idea or ideal into the work. Brand new beginnings, they feel fine.

Reconnecting with my fellow students has been fun. My face hurts from laughing so hard. We had our wine social last night, and of course I had a few more than I should have. Hangovers suck at school. But I wasn’t the worst one, by far, and I would have been okay if I’d just gotten to bed at a decent hour. Instead my roommates and I sat up talking till way way late. Le sigh.

Tonight I’m going to bed early, at least that’s the plan. But there are so many conversations I want to have with people, and moments I don’t want to miss. I’ll see if my exhaustion wins out or not.

My camera battery died. I have to recharge it, but today was beautiful. It was 60 and sunny. The kind of day that writers love. It’s good to be here, but I miss home.