After a busy election week–with mostly favorable results, from my point of view–I have now retreated to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an arts colony near Amherst, Virginia. I have been here many times before, and it is always a wonderful experience.
There are about 25 artists in residence at the moment–writers, visual artists, and composers. On Friday night one of the writers read from her work-in-progress (we had a group of high school creative writers visiting for the evening) and last night a composer talked about his work and played a recording of two recent compositions. Whatever is happening in my own work, I find being surrounded by these other creative people to be inspiring.
I spent all day yesterday working on the update to my Perpetual Folly Literary Magazine Rankings, which will be published tomorrow. I don’t remember it being quite so much work in previous years, but I had to replace a lot of broken links, and that took time. I know people appreciate the lists (rankings in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), so I’m happy to do it.
Today, though, I’ll be able to open my novel file and get back to work on that–the real reason I’m here. Best of luck to me.
I know you’re having a great time. Enjoy the company, and I hope you make lots of progress on your novel.