Flexing new muscles...

You go out for all of 3 minutes without any bug spray on and..... ARGH!!!!! I am covered with bites from my legs to my arms! This sucks!! The bites are huge and HOT (not in a good way). Yet another reason why I'll be inside writing the book. It's gorgeous out, but nature is mean! By the way, I am so so so so close to polishing off a brand new first 50 pages of my novel. It's been really great to be totally in the writing zone. I'm finding new moments during this retreat that I know I wouldn't have found otherwise.

I am hoping that it's just the first 50 pages of a book that take this long. So much has to grab in those first few pages, as well as set up a good story. I still have so much work to do. My goal is a 200 page draft by the time I leave. Whoa whoa! It'll be the longest document I've ever written... that's for sure. A professional reader told me most publishable novels need to be least 250 pages. Oy, looks like I may have a novella on my hands. That's a lot of writing!

The nuts thing was that my "f" key on my laptop has stopped working last night. I could speculate on the many words I've used that caused the "f" key to go out. But I'm not ucked, I found a keyboard in the composer's cottage and attached it to my laptop which I am using now.

The whole "life minus the letter f" panic last night made me think of all the words I need that start with "f"

uck

ucking

ucked

ight

ly

ancy

amous

So, the G-H-O-S-T situation.... I think now that I am on a regular sorta sleep schedule, it has perhaps passed. Though I am pretty spooked by every creak and bug I see at night. And mind you, there are plenty. There are still odd bugs that make their way into the cottage. Last night I swear I saw a baby embryonic gecko running around.

It's odd to sleep with the Gulf just outside my window, because part of me hasn't still been able to stop thinking it's the sound of cars.

My sleep schedule is still odd though. I am awake and asleep, awake and asleep... writing inbetween.... at all hours. It's kind of nice to be this insane writer. I haven't been in this kind of writing groove since undergrad.

Also, ever since my roach videos, I have been getting messages from strangers that are like "Can you do more of those but wearing a heels and a short skirt?" Like really weird fetish requests.

I had no idea that roach killing videos were the new snuff.

People are sick.