Writer's diary #1. Getting ready

Laptop -
Backup flash drive -
Thesaurus -
Style guide -
Espresso maker -
Legal pad and pen -
Photos of granddaughters -

Early tomorrow I am driving to Arizona to spend a month by myself with my laptop. I'm giving myself the gift of quiet, of time to reflect and organize my thoughts, and ultimately time to get ideas out of my brain and into my computer to meet a deadline.

Reactions to my self-imposed writing retreat are mixed. My writing friends are green with envy. My family -- we're all a bunch of loners -- find the idea perfectly natural. My sweetie? He'll miss me a lot but he's used to my writing tangents, and besides he might come join me at the end. Everybody else?? They think I'm enormously self-indulgent, or conversely, enormously masochistic, to go off alone to the desert where it is 100 degrees before noon and I don't know a soul. Or just plain nuts.

But this is all precisely the point. When it is 100 degrees before noon, and I have nothing but my laptop and my thoughts, it's easy to focus, to follow a thought, and to craft a piece of writing. The subject of my writing project will remain a secret for the time being.

I thank my dear cousin Ellen, for making this happen. Ellen has offered me the use of her winter home near Tucson. I'll have a place to spread out, be comfortable, and focus.

Stay tuned for more to come.