Writing retreat

I got up this morning and drove four hours north to Fort Bragg, a small town on the California coast, a little north of Mendocino. Eventually I arrived at this lovely little place:

It’s just gorgeous, and was quite inexpensive, too. AirBNB for the win!

I’ve already set up my laptop, printer, and second monitor (the printer doubles as a laptop stand):

I also brought along some 40 x 60 sheets of foam board. The intent is to use them as a kind of whiteboard, using Post-Its and taped up book excerpts to physically outline the book. That will enable me to get the “whole picture” in a way that you really can’t do on a monitor.

Here are my foam board sheets, ready to go. (The photo is deceptive. They are huge.)

Because I can’t possibly write all day long for nine days straight, I also brought an inkle loom, a card weaving loom, and an embarrassing amount of yarn:

Despite their pleas, I did not bring either cat. In fact, brutish thug that I am, I even stole both suitcases from Fritz this morning:

B. will be feeding and entertaining Fritz and Tigress while I’m gone. We bought a laser pointer recently, and they are super excited about that, so with enough laser pointer games, they may not even notice that I’m gone!