Tag: writing

Solo trips…Pros and Cons

I’ve given up on having someone to travel with,  so this writing retreat was my second solo trip…though this one wasn’t technically solo, since I brought my dog.

A lot of women have told me they’d never be “brave enough” to travel alone. I tell them to connect with their inner badass and give it a try!

The big plus to traveling solo is that I get to do exactly what I want, when I want. My schedule, my interests, all the time.

So for example, I loved this view and spent a good ten minutes just standing and staring at it. It’s not exciting and isn’t on any “must see” list. I just liked it.

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The big minuses to traveling solo are safety concerns.

Taking a road trip alone with a dog provides some logistical hurdles…like I had to leave her alone in the car while I ran into places to use the restroom.

Then there are just the safety issues of being a woman traveling alone.

But by far, the most frustrating problem I faced was on the hiking trails.  I like to go off the beaten path, but that’s not the smartest idea for ANYONE hiking alone.

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If you sprain an ankle or take a tumble when you’re alone, it’s a lot easier to get back to your car if you have the help of a hiking partner.

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Plus, if something did happen, no one would miss me for days. (Especially when you consider a lot of the time I didn’t have a cell signal.)

I didn’t let this stop me, but I did move slower and more deliberately.  (And I’ll be honest, things were more complicated with the dog. More than once I ended up in a stream because I lost my balance as she tugged on the leash.)

I avoided some spots altogether if I determined the footing looked too unsafe.

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Obviously I survived, and you can too!!

My writing retreat wasn’t perfect

Overall, I had a great time on my writing retreat.  I managed to relax AND get a lot  of writing done on not one, but two novels…and a screenplay.

I accomplished my major goals for the two-week period. I received some major signs and confirmations from the Universe.

I can’t wait to do it again.

BUT…it wasn’t perfect.

I’m not telling you this because I’m complaining. I’m sharing what went wrong because I hate when people only share the “positives”.  It paints an unrealistic picture that some people live perfect lives and I don’t want to do that.

I don’t love traveling by myself. I do it because I hate staying home even more, but in a “perfect” world, I’d have someone to go with; a significant other or a friend.  But that wasn’t to be. ((shrug))

For the Georgia part of my stay, the RV I was staying in wasn’t balanced correctly, so I battled motion sickness the whole time. (Luckily, because I tend to over-prepare, I’d brought Dramamine with me, but that makes me groggy.)

And I set off the carbon monoxide detector in the middle of the night because I’d turned off the roaring fan that was giving me a headache.

And there was a tornado watch.

For the most part it was windy, wet and gloomy while I was there.

As for my North Carolina stay in the tiny house….

The toilet didn’t flush on the day I arrived.

The woman who owned the place sent her adult son over to plunge it.  He complained that his girlfriend was sick. I took “sick” to mean “strung out” since he was pretty obviously needing a fix.

Yeah, that was kind of alarming.

He went to get a “better” plunger from a house fifty yards away and didn’t return for another two hours.  Even then it wasn’t fixed. I had to deal with two plumbers in the space the next day (remember it was a TINY house) but eventually it was fixed.

Also, the outdoor seating area was infested with carpenter bees.  I don’t have much fear of carpenter bees, but they’re big and loud and they scared the dog on a regular basis.

Then we had a couple days of torrential rainfall. (I heard locals say they’d never seen such heavy rain before.)  Not a big deal.

EXCEPT….there were only two places to sit in the tiny house, the wooden chair and the bed. Two days of shifting from one uncomfortable seat to another to write bothered my back.

Plus, the rain triggered an invasion of ants. Which in turn meant I had an exterminator in the space a couple of days later. No big deal, but a little annoying.

And then there was the incident with the bear.

I was out hiking with the dog, on a section of path with precarious footing, when all of the sudden this big ball of black fur came barreling toward us through the trees.

I pretty much had a heart attack.

Again, I don’t have a big fear of black bears, having encountered quite a few over the years when I lived in NJ. I know that normally making noise and waving my arms will keep them away. But since it was springtime, I was afraid it was a momma bear defending her cubs.  (Plus, my dog has never encountered a bear before and I wasn’t sure how she would behave.)

It wasn’t until it was just a few feet away that I realized it wasn’t a bear.  It was a Newfoundland dog.  Now, I love Newfies, but if you’ve never seen one, you have to understand that they’re BIG dogs. They’re about four feet tall and weigh at least 150 pounds. And when they’re running at you through thick vegetation, they totally pass for bears!

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So if you ever see me use one in the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN series, you’ll know that this scare was where I got the inspiration!

Like I said, overall I had a great time. A good part of that was due to my attitude. I was determined to make the best of it.  But that doesn’t mean it was perfect.

Art Break!

I had three things I was intent on doing during my writing retreat.

  1. Writing all the words — On any given day I worked on at least two, sometimes four, different projects
  2. Meditating — I’ve talked about it before, but meditation is a big part of my daily routine.
  3. Spending time in nature — The hiking trails around Asheville are amazing.

 

BUT….I did take a break on a couple of days to refill my creative well but visiting the Asheville Arts District.  So much fun (and dog friendly too, so I exposed Smudge to some culture…not that I think she appreciated it, lol).

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My favorite shop there was the GREAT COSMIC HAPPY ASS CARD COMPANY.

I mean who wouldn’t love a store with a name like that and products like these?!?!

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Ingredients for a Creative Refill

As a writer, I find inspiration in many things, but being out in helps to refill my creative well in a way nothing else does.

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I spent a lot of time on my writing retreat hiking trails in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I didn’t spend much time writing outside. I was too busy soaking up the beauty.

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The air was clean, the sky was clear, the water was cool.

(I know about the water because I MAY have slipped into a stream on more than occasion, lol.)

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Doing what you can’t do

As part of my writing retreat at the tiny house, I decided to stretch some other creative muscles. I started trying to learn to draw.

It’s a skill I’ve never had and I didn’t expect to become an artist, but maybe I’d be a passable Pictionary player.

So I got this book

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and got started

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I’ve been sharing my progress (or lack thereof) on Instagram.

If you follow me there, you’ll see that I drew and posted every day for thirty days.

It was an interesting exercise. I ended up learning more about myself than I expected.

But I still can’t draw, lol.

I’d better stick to writing.

The Hitwoman’s Juggling Act

So excited to share the cover and blurb of THE HITWOMAN’S JUGGLING ACT , the 20th story in the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN series.

 

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You know things are out of hand in Maggie Lee’s world when the least of her problems is tripping over a body.

Her family has lost their home.
Her friend, Armani, has lost her psychic mojo.
And Maggie’s in danger of losing custody of her niece.

Making matters even worse is she can’t refuse the latest job from her mobster boss. Not to mention she must team up with her murder mentor, Patrick Mulligan, and that’s….complicated.

Innocents are at risk, lives are in danger, and a family secret could change everything.

I walk alone

One of the reasons I chose to go to North Carolina in mid-April was that I miss Spring.

There are some really great things about living in southwestern Florida, but one of the negatives is that we don’t really have a a change of seasons. I wanted that, so I went out and found it for myself.

I spent a good deal of time on my writing retreat on hiking trails.

I realize that could sound counter-intuitive to getting writing done, but it’s actually a huge help. Being out in nature always fuels my creativity and helps me come up with new ideas.

The act of walking tends to help me sort through the jumble of ideas I’ve got tangled up in my head.

When I was walking with Donna of Girl Who Reads we came across this:

 

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I must admit that I didn’t follow its advice. I hiked for miles alone. (Well, the dog was with me, but she’s no Lassie….if I fell and needed help, she wasn’t going to go find Timmy for me.)

Because I’d seen that sign, I did find myself humming Green Day’s “I walk alone” on a pretty continuous loop.

So if you see a character named Greenday in one of my future works, you’ll know where it came from….  😉

Tiny house for a writing retreat

The day after my lovely visit with Donna of GIRL WHO READS I headed to outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

I rented a tiny house there.

How tiny, Jen?

So tiny that I could touch the kitchen sink, table and bed simultaneously (without stretching). It was so tiny there wasn’t space to lay out my yoga mat, lol.

I picked this place because it provided a cute little writing nook.

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The woman who owned this place is obviously obsessed with baskets. There were 16 scattered throughout the tiny house.

It was time to tap into my creativity and let the writing flow!