YES: I Am Writing

After the writing exercise, I'd found my pace and flow. Ideas and words poured forth -- the natural result of all my preparation and effort, but still feeling miraculous. I've got a clear set of ideas to work with, and I know the structure I'm going to use now. It's exhilarating, but it's also the outgrowth of work, discipline, and persistence. Let's not forget that; it's all too easy to treat writing as a gift of the muse, as opposed to something I build with my hands and heart and guts.

Tonight I took my laptop to the pre-NaNoWrite-in at Dana Street Coffee Shop in Mountain View. There were at least 8 of us there -- a couple of new writers, plus five or six who were with us last year. And NaNovember hasn't even started yet.

Now, I'm disposed to like Dana St. Coffee Shop. I bought my laptop there (and in fact saw the seller tonight and thanked him again for such a wonderful machine). I also snagged a wide-lapped wooden chair to sit in.

However, we are not going back -- ever. They have free wireless Internet access, but no working electrical outlets. They turned them off, if you please, to chase people away; apparently some folks were staying too long and not buying anything. Have they never heard of just talking to the deadbeats?

There was also no food, no air-conditioning, and they closed early. I told the counter guy that they'd lost a stack of customers who would have been there weekly, buying coffee and food and tipping generously. Idiots.

I still got a lot of work done, but I came home relatively early.

Then Michele called. Our rector has just announced that she is retiring. Michele knows how I love Margaret. I was sad enough to cry at the news. I'll have to show her somehow what she has meant to me.

But I'm OK. And I'm still writing. That's what matters, after all.