Go West, Young Man

Tomorrow morning, at O-dark-30, I’m heading west!

Ok, the flight leaves at 0630, and it’s not dark at that time these days.  But the sentiment still fits.  This weekend is America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a 100 mile bicycle ride around Lake Tahoe that I’m participating in with the Team in Training.  I’ve been training for a few months, and I feel ready.  Except the ride goes from 6300 feet to 7100 feet in elevation.  And here in upstate NY we’re at about 300 feet elevation.  That’s quite a difference, and it’ll affect everything.  I’ll only have a day to get acclimated, so here’s hoping it’s not a problem.  Probably won’t be, but you never know.

In the writing domain, I’ll have many hours on the plane, with nothing to do but read and write.  Maybe I’ll actually finish the four short stories I’ve started and left languishing over the last month and a half.  Or finish the edits on Masters.  Jeroen wrote me Tuesday morning to tell me he’s started working on the cover art, so I guess I’ve screwed around long enough on the text.  I got a lot of good input from people, and haven’t done much with it yet.

It’s interesting.  I listened to Stephen King’s On Writing a couple months ago, and he said something I’ve heard from several others: after you’ve finished a book, leave it to the side for a few weeks before you come back to it.  At the time, I couldn’t figure how you could do that.  I mean, how do you just push it aside and do nothing with it.  But I’ve literally not looked at Masters for almost three weeks now, without even realizing it.  I’ve just had other things going on with family, work, and fun.  And I’ve started other writing projects.  So now I find myself having done what King said, without even intending to do it.  Interesting.

Ok, that’s enough for now.  This weekend should be fun.  Wish me luck!