Internet-less Interlude

Hello everyone!

Our DSL was down from Fri through this morning (Monday), which was interesting... on one hand, it was liberating, and made me really productive-- revising more of The Jade Notebook, playing more with Lil Dude, cleaning my fridge, scrubbing the floors, organizing our basement... Periodically, I thought, hmmm, if we had Internet access at the moment, I wouldn't be doing any of this stuff-- I'd be twiddling my time away online instead.  And mentally, I felt calmer, more focused-- just a relaxed state of mind.

On the other hand, our Internet-less state was pretty darn inconvenient-- I was clueless about event schedules, like the Day of the Dead festivities and movies and things like that.  But overall, it was a good thing. Ian and I decided to do more Internet fasts... maybe even every weekend (which is, I admit, a little scary to me!) 

On a different note, here's a pic of me and my welcoming crew for the Telluride visit I did a couple weeks ago.  These super-sweet girls made me feel very, very welcome!  Thank you!


I'm guessing some of you are doing NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month), which began today.  I'm doing my own version of it, as a matter of fact.  I'm on a strict schedule of revising The Jade Notebook-- a chapter a day-- so I can get it critiqued by my writers group and Mom in December, and have it in reasonably decent shape (*hope hope hope*) by early January, when it's due to my editor.  So far, so good-- got my chapter done! 

For you Fort Collinites, I'm doing a signing/workshop in celebration of NaNoWriMo -- Ten Novel-Writing Tips.  (I need to learn to come up with snazzier workshop titles, don't I?)  Anyway, it's Sunday, Nov 14 at 2 pm at the Barnes and Noble on College Ave.  It's the NaNoWriMo midway point, and hopefully it'll give you a nice little burst of energy to keep you going...

Hope your Halloween was spookily amusing.  Ours was... Lil Dude was a cuddly, fuzzy dragon and I was a dead Victorian lady (my old standby).  And today is Day of the Dead--  I didn't make an altar this year, but I saw some gorgeous ones at the library's Dia de los Muertos festivities.  Lil Dude and I stuffed ourselves with sugary pan de muertos and tamales, listened to calavera (skeleton) tales, heard our friend Gloria Garcia sing and read poetry, and walked in a fun parade, complete with a guitarist and giant puppets.... all in perfectly glorious sunny fall weather.

Have a happy week,
Laura