Hiking in the Neighborhood

The days have not yet turned cool. It is often in the 80s by 9 in the morning. We like to walk early to beat the sun. Mornings this week have been foggy and quite lovely. We have a convenient path that is about 2.5 miles in length. It takes us from our house east along a grassy route between the road into our neighborhood and a county park, then south along a power line cut that is maintained by Gainesville Regional Utilities as a wildlife area. From there we turn back to the west and cut through the park we walked next to on the first leg of the route. Finally we come north through a neighborhood and get to see who has planted new flowers and who has good looking figs, oranges, grapefruits, and pomegranates in their yards. The photos are taken this week along the power line cut.

Anhinga Writers Studio

As you know, we returned from the Camino in June...physically.But the trek was so wonderful this year that it took us most of the summer to get back to normal.

The Anhinga Writers Studio helped pull us toward reality. In July, a few hundred writers gathered here in Gainesville for four days of workshops. We followed tracks on writing…Mystery, Romance, Travel, Poetry, Nonfiction, General Fiction. There were topics such as, “Stumbling Over Dead Bodies in Search of Enlightenment” and “The Female Protagonist Post ‘Buffy’ and ‘Alias.’” Who would have guessed that if you don’t have a dead body by chapter 3, you haven’t written a Mystery? Or, that if your heroine isn’t a virgin, you haven’t written a Romance? The Plenary sessions introduced business topics, such as promoting yourself and your work, finding and working with an agent, the business of writing professionally. Two of the instructors reviewed parts of manuscripts for us, leading to fruitful revisions.






In August, we took off again for Star Lake. Jake, the whimpy wonder dog, still refused to swim but really liked the lower than 50-degree mornings in our unheated camp. We visited with friends at the Clifton-Fine Reunion and met new people at the 87th and Final Sloper Family Reunion. We went to the Canton Farmers Market and visited our favorite cheesemakers, Don and Shirley Hitchman. We kayaked on the lake, swam in the lake, and walked around the lake. We walked to Save Our Schoolhouse. We partied with Pam, James, Cousin Charlene, Pat, Mary, Roy, Linda, Lenny, Gary, Lori, Tracy and Aaron. We wrote. A good month. Here are some highlights: