Autumn Updates and Winter Plans

The autumn is always a busy time, and this year's fall season is no exception. 

September was jam-packed

Annual Rib & Pie Fest

We hosted the annual shindig (12th one this year, not counting the skipped year) to fantastic weather and a host of new neighbors! It was probably our biggest block party yet, but they always seem like that. 

Jury duty

I participated in my first criminal trial jury duty in early September and hope to write about that experience in the coming months. It was an intense, enlightening, and overall positive experience. Spoiler alert: The dude was guilty. 

But let me say, I derived absolutely no pleasure from that outcome. It was a sad and sobering day when we arrived at that decision after almost two weeks in court. 

Hurricanes

Meanwhile, hurricane season hit with intensity and I was happy to do my small part to help deliver CPAP machines to people in need through the A.W.A.K.E. Angels effort launched by my peers at the American Sleep Apnea Association. 

Camping

Somehow, we also managed to sneak in some camping trips as well... In August, we visited the Washington coast right before the eclipse, kayaking in Willapa Bay and checking out Westport, and we also camped at Potlatch State Park, where we caught crab and ate our limit in fresh oysters. 

More recently, we camped at Dosewallips State Park on the Hood Canal, and more recently, to Potlatch on the Waterfront (also on Hood Canal). 

Other fun stuff

We attended the Port Townsend Film Festival, which was so much fun that we are already booked to go again next fall. The documentary film, "No Man's Land," is a must-see and may even be nominated for an Academy Award. It won the doc category at the PTFF. 

Coming back from that event, I attended the poetry reading of Gary Lilley and Tara Hardy at Eagle Harbor Books and was so glad I made it! Two fantastic writers and presenters!

Family news

During this time, we also moved both our daughters into new digs for the school year: one went from an apartment to a townhouse with twice the space and roommates, the other from temporary arrangements over the summer to a condo in the city with two roommates. 

We also bought our youngest her first car, a five-year-old Fiat that she's absolutely in love with. Check that one off the family milestone list!

Bye, Bob

My husband and I lost a good friend in September and said goodbye to Robert McNerney among friends from high school and college. 

Health updates

Folks are always sweet to ask about my MS. It has been very stable and we are even thinking about reducing my medication dosage (to give my liver a break). 

But probably most significant in the long term was my diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). How ironic that the girl writing for the American Sleep Apnea Association is diagnosed with the very condition she writes about? 

I started PAP therapy (using an AutoPAP device) on the day after my birthday in late September, and the experience has been very positive. 

This will turn into fresh content for my blog at SleepyHeadCENTRAL, to be sure, and I have some multimedia ideas to wrestle with over the next few months. 

And yes, I #amwriting

I get asked this one a lot. Folks, almost every single day! 

I have my paid efforts for the usual suspects (the ASAA, SHC, both the blog and the magazine for the American Association of Sleep Technologists, Health Union, BioNews Services, and a private sleep clinic client). 

As for my creative writing, there are small moments where I tinker with:

• my almost-complete abecedarian chapbook on my MS diagnosis
• the manuscript on sleep and dreams I jump-started last summer at Centrum, and 
• an outline has emerged for a collection of essays, also sleep related, that are part of a strategy for 2018 that, with any luck, will culminate in a book to pitch at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) conference next September. 

Meanwhile, I have been reading a lot. Most recently: 

• Seed by CS Patton (great concept, iffy writing)
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (must read!)
• Apocalypse Mom (not worth your time)

Stephen King's 11/22/63 is my current read. 

All of which to say that reading fiction again after a long stretch of nonfiction means that I can feel the coals to write short fiction stirring again. 

Goals for 2018 include reading more of my own writing friends' works and following a reading list I recently came upon this list by LitHub which cites 15 works of literary fiction they recommend for people who don't like horror. I actually like horror, but I also like literary writing and each of these titles seems super interesting to me (I have already read Kafka's The Trial—thanks, Mr. Shiflett!—and Atwood's The Handmade's Tale). 

Acceptances/publications for 2017

As for efforts to find publication, here's an update for folks who track such matters:

Poetry

"Racer's Edge" in Snapdragon: A Journal for Art & Healing (original from my current abecedarian chapbook draft)
"On the Day After Gary Ridgway's 48 Confessions" in The Broken City (reprint)

Essays

"Witches' Hearts" in NonBinary Review's Hans Christian Anderson tribute (original)

Submissions since Jan 1

Poetry - 37 poems submitted
Fiction - 6 story submissions
Nonfiction - 6 (4 essays, 2 flash nonfiction pieces) submitted

Submissions still under consideration

Poetry - 17 poems 
Fiction - 1 story 
Nonfiction - 0

More than half of these submission responses are due or past due, so I hope to have more good news about them shortly. 

Coming up

I cannot wait to attend the Autumn YAWP at Centrum in Port Townsend over Veteran's Day weekend. I will make one final trip in the RV to Fort Worden State Park before we pack the trailer up for the winter. 

At that time, I hope to finish the stragglers for my abecedarian chapbook on MS as well as make a few more submissions and start work on my essays for the book I hope to pitch at PNWA next fall. 

In January, I will also attend the very first Winter YAWP over the first full weekend in January, but will stay in the cozy cabins with my peers. You just never know what the ice and snow situation will be like, so I decided to skip the RV writing space as much as I love to work in it. 

That's it in a big, fat nutshell, the kind a squirrel dreams of. Thanks for your support as friends, readers, and peers!

~Tamara

Pre-Centrum Silent Writing Retreat: Photos

Guess where I am... 

It's not hard to guess. I'm in Port Townsend for my annual pilgrimage to the Port Townsend Writers Conference.

The official conference starts Sunday, but it's my habit to go up the Thursday before for a personal writing retreat, something I refer to as a silent retreat because I limit my interaction with other people during that time.

It's one way I unwind before the intensity of the writing conference hits. I think of it as doing yoga in order to achieve meditation. The former, after all, exists to prepare for the latter.

What's the plan?

My goals are fairly simple this year. I didn't sign up for a daily workshop this year, opting for the "residency" option instead.

I'll spend this weekend writing drafts to complete a poetry chapbook I'm working on (I've already written one poem, just this morning, and have six left, which my goal to complete all of them to draft level by Sunday night).

Once Monday morning hits, I will switch gears and launch into a project I started at last year's conference: generating new work toward a book of creative nonfiction, personal essays, and experimental forms addressing the topic of my dream life. My writing schedule will consume all of my mornings and a few of my afternoons. If I am an early riser, I might pop in for a few early AM free writes.

Meanwhile, I'm reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven and have other books on my Kindle that discuss the science of dreams that I can read for inspiration.

Where I'm staying

Those of you who follow me know that I normally take my 25-foot travel trailer up the conference and opt for a camping experience at Fort Worden rather than a dorm-life experience.

I love doing this because it affords me a nightly (and daily morning) campfire and the opportunity to cook for myself. I like being close to the beach and appreciate the fresh air and laid-back vibe of the campground.

However, this year I have split my 10 days into a 3-day silent retreat at a local Victorian hotel followed by 7 days in the Fort dorms (like everyone else).

Over the last year, Fort Worden switched their campground reservation system to the state parks utility. They did not open up reservations to the park until March, and by the time I was able to register, the entire campground was booked!

I'm a bit sad to miss out on my campfires and home-cooked meals, but much of what I value at the conference exists in the people I enter while I'm there: the hard-core regulars who have become a kind of second family to me, and the brand-new seekers who bring new ideas and energy to the event.

Even if I'm only attending as a resident (meaning, no morning classes), I will be taking 3 afternoon mini classes, attending the evening readings, the post-reading open mics at the 262, and will take all my meals at the Commons... all great opportunities to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The pictures above illustrate the magical place I'm inhabiting this weekend pre-conference.

Time to decompress!

The weather is perfect: 70s with a cool breeze, sunny, great for sleeping, walking, writing, and decompressing.

There will be a luxurious lavender bath salts soak tonight, home-cooked breakfast and lettuce wraps for dinner (I picked the kitchenette-equipped suite for this reason), a fresh pedicure, and a downtown walkabout so I can visit my favorite Port Townsend haunts. Usually the walkabout includes a trek through the bookstores, a couple of galleries I favor, the bead store, the candy and ice cream shops, and the general store, where I always find a great pair of new shoes.

I have reserved a week from today for a possible trek up to the Sequim Lavender Festival, should I feel like I've made the most productive use of my week. I'm also thinking about a Starlight Room reward for later next week, for the same reason.

But only as long as I don't miss the Whiskey and Pie Night next week, which has become a regular social feature of the conference, thanks to the clever creativity of organizer Sam Ligon and author Kate Lebo. Nor will I miss any wiffle ball pickup games with Jordan Hartt, Philip Shaw and the rest of the bleacher bums!

Before I go... my latest news 

I'm happy to report that The Broken City has accepted my poem, "On the Day After Gary Ridgway's 48 Confessions," for reprint in their upcoming "Death" themed issue.

I continue to write daily for 5 different publishers (SleepyHeadCENTRAL, the American Sleep Apnea Association, Health Union, BioNews Services, and the American Association of Sleep Technologists, and this makes me super happy.

I've also launched a literary series for SleepyHeadCENTRAL called "Vitamin Zzz" which focuses on sleep-related poetry and short prose which you might want to check out (here).

For now, it's sayonara. I've got some words to write and some time to fill with silence. Happy Summer!

~Tamara