Hey, lovely readers.
I'm going on a little blog vacation. I'm a couple of weeks late to be French and take a full August off, but I'm borrowing that spirit and disappearing until September 10th, when I'll be back to my regular weekly schedule.
I love the discipline of these weekly posts, by the way. No matter how I feel about any particular post, there's satisfaction in showing up when I said I would with the best thing I could give you that week. So I'm going to keep going with it after this break. It's good vitamins and I love it.
One of the things I'll be doing while I'm gone is working on my application for Hedgebrook, which is a writer's retreat/residency for women near here on Whidbey Island. (I already wanted to go, but then I saw an episode of a great local TV show called Art Zone which was all about Hedgebrook, and I boo-hoo'd all the way through it, I wanted it so much.) I started to apply last year but I chickened out because I wasn't really ready; I couldn't articulate the answers to half of the questions on the application. This year, though, I am ready, and coming here and talking to you each week has contributed to that in a big way.
(I don't tell you enough how much your presence here means to me, you readers, because I get bashful, but you fuel my engine so very much. When it's 3:00 am on a Wednesday morning and I have a couple more hours of writing to go to have a post ready for you, the knowledge that you're out there and you care gives me the burst of energy I need to finish. Thank you, you guys, for showing up here on the regular, and for commenting. Never fails to make my day.)
I've noticed, too, that my posts used to naturally form themselves to somewhere in between 1000-1500 words, but lately they're stretching out nearly twice as long, which development has me curious. It seems like I'm trying to cram some thinking into this blog that would live more happily/comfortably in the book, and I keep staying up destructively late to finish these posts, so that ain't what. Time to readjust and go give that project my love and attention for a minute, and then we'll see if the blog springs back into a less unwieldy shape.
Wish me luck with Hedgebrook! (Or not. You don't have to.) The idea of spending time in a cabin with nothing to do but write and think makes me weak in the knees. I need to get my game on to convince them to let me come.
So, off I go to a mental seaside resort in the meantime. Meet me back here in September, yes?
Love,
Tina
16 comments:
I'm a lazy commenter but I do read, every week. I've been very impressed by how you've managed to keep up with those weekly posts, and (more importantly) impressed, and moved, by the posts themselves.
So best of luck with your application - I can't think of a more deserving person for that kind of retreat.
Annette
Good luck with Hedgebrook and enjoy your break.
Wishing you all the luck, confidence and anything else you need to make this happen.
You're a wonderful writer. I will miss your weekly posts, but understand your need for a break to focus on this next project. Wishing you peace and happiness during the process.
Blessings - JD
I guess I can bear to part with your weekly posts seeing as your absence may inspire some new and improved reading material.
I love how when I am reading your blog I find myself thinking about what kind of mother, wife, and daughter I am and the things that have influenced the person I have become. So go forth. Be fearless!
I know nothing of this Hedgebrook, but I feel like I can say with some certainty that they'd be complete dingdongs to pass on your application. Your writing is stunning, and I so look forward to the gut-punch (in a good way!) it delivers every single week. Best of luck to you, and enjoy your vacation.
You GO Tina. My big sis lives on Whidby - it is lovely. Anything I can do as a reader or comment-er to help pay off the huge debt of gratitude that I owe to you I will do. Need me to write them a semi-literate, somewhat spacey recommendation? No? Kick some butt? Maybe? You make Wednesdays shine, sparkle and glow.
Let us know where to send the glowing letters of reference. We are prepared to gush.
Good luck! You'll do great
Yoda says, Do it, you can. T says, Please come back! In the meantime, I will miss your weekly heart stirrings, humor and brilliant life commentary.
I will wish Hedgebrook luck, which is what they'll have if they snag you as a student.
Enjoy!
Your blog is the 1st thing I check each Wednesday. It usually makes me laugh, sometimes cringe, often laugh and ALWAYS makes me pause and consider. I will miss it! But wish you luck on the application. You deserve it!
I almost never post on blogs I love because I feel like I should have something VERY important to say first but I think it's very important to say that I completely adore your blog and have taken to posting it every week on Facebook so that all my friends and all their friends (etc) will come find it.
I weep outright nearly every week from some tidbit you've written that lazers into my soul and I shall be anxiously awaiting more in September. Have a fabulous "holiday" and best of luck on the retreat application!
Go - you will be missed - but we can no more confine your talent to ourselves here than tell the sun to keep low so no one else can enjoy it. Light expands beautifully.
Whidbey Island sounds like a lovely place and I hope you get to reside there for a while. Your writing always cheers me up and I can't wait to read a whole book of it.
I looked at the application and am trying to figure out the same sort of what genre/what project questions for a series of writer lectures at our local library. Really? It has to belong to a genre? I'm not even sure stuff is going to happen in it yet. It might be an interesting person who only THINKS she has problems without ever being confronted by aliens, cowboys, or murderous detectives.
But however things turn out I hope you have the time and focus to continue figuring things out at 1,000 or 2,000 or 30,000 words.
Oh boo, I was writing my own little posts about the Emmys red carpet and I kept thinking, "What am I even doing? I need to see what Tina thinks of Kerry and Julia and oh good grief Lena" and now i see you didn't see it. Sigh. Hope you have the best time writing though.
Best wishes on your holiday! I'm also a lazy commenter, but I'm here a lot, so I thought I'd say something. I really enjoy your posts, and while I don't always get to them as soon as they're posted, I find the right time to sit down and enjoy each one and give it the attention it deserves. I love your writing and look forward to the time I spend on your site.
Post a Comment