Well, here I am. Alone in a dorm room. I can’t even say, like some here, that it takes me back to my college days. My son was born toward the end of my first quarter of college. In fact, I remember being bummed that I missed the last class of my Poetry Writing course because I was in the hospital giving birth. Not bummed in a strong sense. In most respects, I was so high on life, so overwhelmed with the joy of motherhood, but there was this little part of me that thought, darn, if he’d just waited two more days.
Though it is sort of strange…and well, amazingly quiet here in this room, I’m feeling at home already. It helped to spread my things all over the room right away. I plopped my yoga mat down between the two tiny twin beds (eeny, meeny…) and practiced a short sequence to relax. I mixed up some flow/breath moves with some staying with the pose right up to my own edge, and then just a little over. I brought a flat metal votive holder and a sage candle, which is now lit and burning next to me. I’m walking around barefoot.
There have certainly been some awkward, anxious moments in this day. I mean, wow, I’m so excited to begin, yet so blind as to what is about to unfold for me. It doesn’t matter how many pieces of paper I read detailing my daily schedule over the next eleven or so days, there are still questions, concerns, hopes, and fears rattling around in my brain. Not one person that I interacted with today after hugging my mother and thanking her for the lift, is someone that I knew prior to today. There’s just bound to be some awkwardness in that. The two hour dinner on the patio was wonderful, but we’re all still new, uncertain, warming up for what’s to come and I felt that.
I will be sharing in this blog the specifics of the work—and play—here in my first residency at the Rainier Writer’s Workshop, but today, I’d like to start broader, and dig down and ask myself WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE? It ‘s the sort of question that one must ask occasionally, so as not to wind up lost along the way.

1. I’m here to network. To meet other writers, make new friends, and build relationships that will support my writing life.

2. I’m here to be a better writer. In order to do this, I’ve got to listen, reflect, and practice.

3. I’m here to learn. Whatever I can. Writing specific or otherwise.

That sums it up pretty well. Stay tuned.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

Balancing the kind of work to devote time to as a writer is not such a delicate business.
Asanas that require good balance, require focus and attention to the the subtleties of body and mind to hold them steadily for several breaths. If you let your attention drift, or you forget about a limb or part, you’re likely to topple over. Finding balance in writing isn’t that challenging.
A couple of hours ago, I nearly worked myself into a panic, thinking OMG! I’ve hardly written anything new since school let out for summer. I mean, this is supposed to be the time when I write and all I’ve been doing is editing and organizing. I nearly toppled over, until I realized that I still had both feet on the ground.
It’s true, I’ve written hardly anything new for a couple months. However, here’s what I have done:
–organized poems into chapbooks for chapbook project
–finished 4th draft of novel
–wrote synopsis and query for novel
–finished compiling first draft of short story collection
–printed first draft of YA novel for edits
–made some improvements and updates to blog
–read material for Rainier Writer’s Workshop
–set up an online submissions tracker
–submitted some stories and sent out queries to agents for At The Pump

You see, I haven’t written anything new; however, I’m now poised at the starting line, ready to roll. Knowing that I would be starting on my MFA at the beginning of August, bumped getting organized to the top of my priority list. Now, I feel ready for school and ready to move onto the next project with the wonderful freedom of having cleared the path there.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

“I started out with nothing in the world but a kind of passion, a driving desire. I don’t know where it came from, and I do not know why-or why I have been so stubborn about it that nothing could deflect me. But this thing between me and my writing is the strongest bond I have ever had-stronger than any bond or any engagement with any human being or with any other work I’ve ever done.” –Katherine Anne Porter

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

I just printed an entire binder of material I’m supposed to read before the Rainier Writer’s Workshop (begins August 2). I think I’ll spend today getting a handle on that. Also, I came up with this idea (while running) the other morning of something that I can make and donate to the silent auction held during the RWW Residency. A “creative block”. Rather than try to explain…I ‘ll just post a photo when it’s done, but just know it’s going to be awesome!

I just got one of those calls where an automated message tries to put you on hold when you answer the phone. Whatever! It doesn’t get much ruder than that.

It’s the weekend, so if the writing happens, it happens. For the moment, I’m going to play WOW—just a little. Really. Kalikah is almost level 70.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

No one else is up yet. It’s just me and the dog. I have a fresh up of coffee and I’m sitting here ready to write. Hmm. Nothing but resistance. I think I’ll start with a free write to warm up, then see what I can do before this peace is interrupted. Winston’s friend is visiting from California and though they ignore me, I have a hard time not getting pulled out of whatever it is I’m doing to tune into them. Today, I’ll probably be driving them around Olympia anyway. At some point, maybe later this evening, I think I’ll sneak away to a cafe to write.
Writing goals for today:
1. Supposed last edits to At The Pump.
2. Finish getting poetry organized into chapbooks.
3. Research agents.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone