As of this afternoon, I leave for weeks and weeks of artist’s retreat in Iceland. I have been pretty demoralized by my job this year, and I’m hoping this gives me some clarity to decide what to do about that. More important, I am deeply excited to have days and days and days to do my real work: I have the sphinx story and American Tour to revise, and notes to take for the next novella, “Sweet’s Heptad.”
Also, you know, Iceland! The last time I went was my last real trip before the pandemic, Christmas of 2019. I am joining Elizabeth at Gullkistan. Alongside the writing, I expect to see a lot of ice, rain, and snow, some northern lights, various rocks, a grocery store a few times, a bunch of mountains, and moss. I have my boosters, my negative test, my passport, my luggage, my power cords, and my credit cards. What have I forgotten? There will be something, I know it.
I have house sitters who will keep my girl and my squirrels happy, and friends I won’t get to see at Christmastime because of this. But I will be thinking of you! I plan a pretty stringent internet fast, so I may not be reading emails much and I will certainly not be following social media at all. Unless you embed your good news in an article about French names for colors (to give a single example of the exception to my no-internet rule: research dives), I may not know what’s going on until January 19, when I return to the United States.
If you are following the American Tour scenes on Patreon, those will still be dropping weekly! And I have prerecorded a few little posts for here, as well.
Have a lovely time in Iceland; may you find some renewal and clarity there! Thanks for thinking of us ahead with your weekly drops! Looking forward to them