Happy Thought: Big Sky Country

I'm visiting Montana right now - you know, the place where I lived when I wrote and revised the bulk of Always Neverland. This is one of my very favorite places to be.

It's shocking how pretty and photogenic it is. Brace yourselves for some gorgeous, non-Photoshopped pics, taken over the years:

Right there at the bottom, you can see me and my mom fishing.

Ignore the shot of my adorable brother (taken roughly 8 years ago).
Look at the landscape!

These next few show what a wintry Moonlight Basin looks like from their ski runs.

I kept annoying that adorable brother, because I stopped to take pics.

But I ask you: wouldn't you take pics if you saw this??

This is what it looks like from the top of the Big Sky/Moonlight Basin summit around New Year's, in case you're curious.

I took this with my phone camera while we were driving!!
Like I said, ridiculously photogenic.

In case you wondered what that shot might look like without snow.

This one, we took yesterday in Pray, MT.

The First Week

The bad news: in the six days since I've arrived, I've only left the cabin once. I know. It's shocking. Especially since I didn't actually count the days until a few sentences ago. :-/


In my defense, it's been ridiculously cold! The mountain temperature hasn't gotten up to zero in days. Yesterday, I brushed the snow off my car yesterday and drove down to the grocery store. The temperature read negative eight at the cabin. I lost feeling in my fingertips, even though I wore gloves and had the heat blasting. To make sure I kept all of them, I bought some handwarmers at the grocery store before driving up.


The good news: I've written 13.2K!! That another third - over another third. I think that's worth locking myself inside for a week.

I'm a couple chapters away from the climax. I'm crossing my fingers on being able to finish the first draft by the end of the month. That'll give me a few months to get some good revising done before my March deadline. Hurrah!

The First Day

Today is the first of a writing retreat up in Montana, and it has been devoted to altitude sickness.

Which basically means that I gave myself permission to be lazy on my first day up the mountain. And I kept a glass of water next to me at all times. I lost count of how many I drank.

I don't mean that I haven't done anything with my day. I unpacked. I typed up all the manuscript scribblings that I have. I added two new scenes. I did a little yoga. I called my sister twice, because it's her birthday. I received a bunch of calls - from my father, my uncle, my ex-roommate, and my mother - all of them worried that I might be lonely.

I wasn't lonely. It was just too quiet. Cars rarely travel this far up the mountain, and the snow muffles sound. Luckily, it's easy to fill up the silence. I watched two movies. While I unpacked, I turned up my iTunes and sang along as loud as possible.

This is where I'm hanging out.

My view. I know - it's a hard life.

My writing nest. Usually, the blanket goes over my lap.

The cold is a bit intense (see right).

But overall, I'm relieved to be here, where writing is the whole point. My dad called this the first day of my new life, and I think he's right. This is where I can get really serious about my writing career and put that seriousness into action.

That said, I have discovered that I am just over a third of the way through my manuscript. 11K words in a month may seem like a lot to some, but I started with 3K. And a few years ago, when I was a full-time student, I averaged about 24.7K a month. I feel woefully behind. Sigh.

On the bright side, I've gotten Ashley to the right spot, and it's basically all adventure and fun stuff for the next 20K. Woo-hoo!!