O.k. now I am getting serious about my writing. I have been lagging for months and making up excuses but now it's time, finally. Writing is hard and scary. Hard because I think I tend to be so critical and hard on myself. Scary in that telling the truth and being really honest is always a difficult thing. I am really ready to dive in...actually I have been working on it for about six weeks now. I mean, seriously working on it. My laptop was about to die, of course, right when I decide to get serious. I freaked out and took it to Ray who is fixing it for me. I nearly had a panic attack when I thought I was going to have to buy a new one. Here is an interesting story about the way things work out. For those who don't know, this book I am working on is a travelogue about my time in South Africa. I have never written a travel anything, how I came up with the idea to do a travelogue is still a mystery to me...I was contemplating paying six hundred and thirty five dollars to go to a Travel Writers conference in Corte Madera. It looked like exactly what I need but the classes were only two or three hours long. Corte Madera is far and hard to get to so I would have had to stay in a hotel for three or four nights. Anyway, I couldn't decide whether or not I should go....I decided not to but wasn't sure I had made the right decision...I was like "hell, I have a two hundred and fifty page manuscript to work with, a two hour course won't even scratch the surface". So I decided not to go but the same day I decided not to go I got an email from my writing mentor/role model Evelyn C. White asking if I wanted to attend a writing retreat she's doing at Mills College in Oakland! I told her yes and she emailed me back that it will be free. So I held out and got something that was more along the lines of what I should be looking for...something small and that focuses on the writing, not a wine and cheese social event like what was going to be taking place in Corte Madera. If I wasn't planning to self publish my book maybe it would have been in my best interest to go to Book Passages Travel Writing Conference. I saw a testemonial from Elliott Hester on the site. He is a flight attendant turned travel writer who has a couple of books out. Check him out at www.elliotthester.com
So, anyway, wish me luck. I am about to really, for real, get busy on my book. I have a Sept. 15th deadline to have a first draft to a new editor whose book on Cuba I really, really loved. I will post more on her when I am sure we will be working together. I have been saving diligently for this book and it's going to be the BOMB-diggity!!!!!!! I am very excited about it. Ok, that's it for now.
