Whirlwind time again

Well, I’m off this weekend for another 10-day jaunt! Or thereabouts. I mentioned earlier that I’d be one of the mentors/coaches at the Hemingway Writer’s Retreat at the Hemingway Pfeiffer Museum and Education Center in Piggott, Arkansas, and I’m very excited about that. I mean, how cool is that?

Essentially, what HPMEC does is cater to a group of writers for an entire week. That’s right, writers come to the workshop and…well, write. The only responsibility they have for the week is focusing on the craft of writing. They’ll have the opportunity to get feedback and to share their work with other writers. Mostly, they’ll be writing. I will have internet connection, but my online time will likely be limited (I have Monday’s scheduled already!). I hope to be able to write some about the retreat next week—maybe even include a photo of the goings-on.

So the Retreat is over on Friday, the 20^th. On Saturday, the very next day, I’m scheduled to spend the entire day at the Southern Christian Writers Conference in Tuscaloosa, Ala., about 300 miles away. I haven’t decided exactly what I’ll do just yet, but the plan is to leave immediately after the Retreat is over in Arkansas—oh, and I forgot to mention that my truck will be full with a “load” from our storage (Hi Mom and Dad!).

You may be wondering why on earth do that? Well, Brett will be going to Arkansas with me, so I have to swing back by Oxford before going to Alabama anyway, so we just figured I’ll pick up some oddball sized stuff, stuff that doesn’t fit very well in a U-haul truck. Things like our bicycles and garbage cans (which actually have some of my tools in them while in storage). It’s hard to “pack” 4 bicycles in a U-haul.

So, I’ll swing by Oxford, drop off Brett and whatever things I’ve managed to stuff in the back of the truck, and then truck-it down to Tuscaloosa. I’ll grab a room for the night there so that I won’t have to get up so early and do a 3 hour drive for the conference.

THEN—you thought it was over, didn’t you—then, we’re expecting the carpet to have been put down in our house by then, so the next Monday I’ll return to Arkansas and pick up a U-haul truck, spend a day loading it, drive to Oxford and spend that day Unloading it. And finally, move into our house that we’ve been working on for a month now! We will try to get some pictures of THAT, too.

Whew!