I recently wrote about the upcoming writing retreat.

Unfortunately, it was canceled yesterday. (My friend has a minor-ish medical thing going on.)

He will be all right, but…he’s been told to not stray too far from an emergency room. A scheduled procedure in April should go as as planned, but in the event a large kidney stone decides to beat the doctor’s in a race, being deep in the woods of East Texas is not the place to be.

The good thing is this will soon be a thing of the past — and it’s not like Texas state parks are going anywhere.

Change of Plans

While I won’t be heading into the Piney Woods this weekend, I’m keeping my days off and turning it into a retreat at home.

I will get up early and write. If trails dry out, my wife and I will hike; if not, our canoe handles wet weather rather well. Instead of sitting around the campfire talking about writing and other things, I’ll work on songs on my new mandolin with my wife in the evenings.

The weekend will still be great…and sometime later this spring, summer, or maybe even autumn, my friend and I will spend a long weekend in the Piney Woods of East Texas for our sixth year of the writing retreat.

 

The second day of spring has me thinking about this day in two weeks.

On this day in two weeks, the annual writing retreat I do with a friend will be over.

It might be strange to write about that rather than the excitement of an upcoming thing I look forward to. Why not write about all I’ll do in that long weekend in an East Texas cabin?

Each Spring…

I’ve written before about how September is my writing new year. While that’s true, the annual writing retreat is a reminder of how much (or how little) I’ve done since the last one.

This year finds me close to a readable draft of the novel I’ve been working on for too long.

I’m not one to kick myself — life often gets in the way of things, and when an illness or need to put more into the day job rolls around, those are the things you deal with before writing. (Not that the writing ever stops entirely, though.)

I look forward to this writing retreat being behind me because it will be the last retreat that sees me working on finishing this particular book!

Two Weeks From Today

I’ve run one 5K in my life — with one of my best friends. There was a point on a hill when I thought about scrapping my plan to run the entire way and walk…but my friend chatted as we climbed the hill and took my mind off thinking about slowing down.

The finish line was shortly after the other side of the hill. As we neared the finish, my friend said something to the effect of, “Okay, let’s pick it up so we cross the finish line strong.”

I will soon be in a cabin in East Texas with another great friend…and when that weekend is over, it will be time to pick up the pace and finish another thing strong…