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:
Mike 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!
I have never in my life laughed so hard as the first time I played laser-pointer games with cats. The cats belonged to one of my step-sons & his wife, and I believe that I laughed until I wheezed. I also now know a dog (belonging to son & dtr-in-law) that chases a laser pointer, which I find strange since dogs don’t see color. Maybe Knoxie is chasing what appears to him to be a white spot. Or a black spot.