Connections

I’m in my favorite place–the library coffee bar. “Coffee bar” is a little bit of an overstatement: it’s a table on the uncarpeted part of the floor with a thermos of coffee on the counter nearby. But the coffee is free, and there’s a place to plug in one’s laptop.

It’s right in front of the double emergency doors, so I have a great view of the corner. There goes Butchie Stilger with his guitar, coming from Cafe on the Square, the town’s new coffee shop. He plays classical guitar there sometimes on Friday or Saturday evening. He used to own Pythias Gallery coffee shop, which burned down a few years ago. I’ve written a story about that for the Southern Indiana Writers’ ghost story anthology, Spirits (or Ghosts–we haven’t decided) On The Square–And Elsewhere, due out in October. A friend of Butchie’s (and of my youngest daughter’s), Tom Schickel, died in the fire, and I was a little wary of writing about it, but my daughter and Butchie read the story and approved it.

I love sitting here, watching the cars and people while I work. One of the great things about living in a small town or identifying with a neighborhood in a big city is the feeling of interconnectedness.

Oh, there’s a truck full of chickens going to the Tyson’s plant. It reminds me of the time one of the cages came open and a chicken fell out in front of the library. Our oldest daughter caught it and took it to our #2 daughter, who had just moved with her husband to a house with lots of land just outside of town. Our #2 daughter, her husband and my husband built a deluxe chicken coop for the hen, who was named Libby in honor of the library, and three other hens were rescued from another bad situation to keep her company. They didn’t live long, but they lived happy.

My mother is at the dentist, and will walk the block to the library to meet me. If we lived in town instead of out in the country, we wouldn’t even need a car. I love that, too. I love our place in the country too much to pine for life in town, though, except when it snows and we can’t get out of our 1000-foot driveway!

 

Long Time No Post

I am so darned lazy, it’s pitiful. I haven’t been entirely indolent, though–I’ve been working on a ghost story for the Southern Indiana Writers’ anthology we’re doing for Corydon’s 200th birthday. It’s called SPIRITS ON THE SQUARE–AND ELSEWHERE, and features ghost stories set at local landmarks around the town square and, as the name implies, other places in town and in Harrison County (Indiana). It’s been very hard to write this story, because it’s written around a fire that only happened in 2000, in which a friend of my youngest daughter died. She tells me her understanding of the man would be that he would like having a story written about him, but it’s very hard. It’s one of those stories I feel called to write, though. I don’t have many of them, but this is one.

The weather has been weird around here. It’s been cooler than usual and wetter than usual. It’s been like an English spring. Not even terribly humid, most days. The flowers have been spectacular.

This is growing up my mother’s porch. It’s been like living in an arboretum! We’re starting to get cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden, and the herbs are delivering like crazy. I’ll be processing pesto for the winter before I know it!

 

Field Trips

I had a great time last week, on what I hope will be the first of many Sequential Writer Conventions. I had several fellow writers I wanted to visit with in a nearby town, but we each wanted to visit by twos or threes, or couldn’t get our schedules together. Rather than spend a billion bucks in gas making multiple trips, I scheduled myself around everybody else’s doings and made a two-day loop. Went Wednesday and met with friend A, then spent the night with my daughter (also a writer). The next day, my daughter and I met with writer B, then daughter and I and her husband (ALSO a writer) visited for a while, then I met writer C for coffee and came home. It took very little more gas than it would have taken to drive to my daughter’s and back. Cool!

Saturday, most of the Southern Indiana Writers Group carpooled to Nashville, Indiana, to have our pictures taken at Yesteryear Tintypes. Our 2008 anthology is called MOST WANTED, about crimes and desires, and we had our pictures taken looking like a bunch of wild west hard types. What a blast!

There’s nothing like spending time with fellow enthusiasts, no matter what your enthusiasm might happen to be. It’s even headier when your enthusiasm is as solitary an enterprise as writing is. Sometimes you just really need to get with other writers and talk story or exchange challenges and triumphs or give and get pointers. Even a short visit can be refreshing and recharging.