Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head

It rained again today. Twice. I actually got trapped in the English building because it was coming down so hard. It rains in Roanoke every day during the summer. Big storms with lightning and thunder. Great writing weather.
Last night, for the first time in probably 7-8 years, I had a "sleepover." Robin's room seems to be a beacon for the creepy-crawlies (downside to having so much vegetation everywhere) so she inhabited my spare bed. We didn't stay up till 4AM and talk about boys or anything (we're married, after all), but it was another reminder of how we all regress a little while we're here. Thankfully I did not snore or maybe she just said that to be nice. Darn it, now I'll never know.

I met with Nancy Willard today about my work-in-progress. She thought it was funny. She laughed out loud at some parts! Nancy reminds me of Alice Walker--they have presence. She has been the Writer-in-Residence several times at Hollins because she is just an amazing mentor to aspiring writers. She had insightful suggestions, a great idea for beefing up one part of my story and even though my story is drastically removed from what she writes herself, she still enjoyed it. This semester was supposed to be my chance to see if I have the chops to really make a go of it in the creative side of writing, and I am starting to get excited about going home and really developing a writing schedule that will enable me to produce completed manuscripts. I also have a few friends that had talked about getting a writing group together, which would help tremendously because I really like getting other writers to critique my work.

So I guess I'm not a lost cause. What a relief. :-)

Of course, I'm only a third of the way through here and I have to write a picture book text and another two chapters of my novel by Tuesday. So yeah, not time to celebrate yet.

But (drum roll, please), this Saturday I get to see Bryan! We are reuniting at the lovely (cough, cough) Innkeeper in Danville, VA, for 24 hours of quality time. Thus, I will not update again until Sunday when I have returned from my sojourn. Valete!