Sulfur Kick-off

True to my word, I have posted the first chapter of Sulfur for everyone to check out. I'll try to make the updates a weekly event, I'm really looking forward to receiving your feedback.

Click here to read Chapter One

Now, I'm posting this from my vacation hide-a-hole. I'm going to get off quick and try to enjoy the sunshine and the coffee!

Until next week!

Love,

Arreana

Vacation is a Comin'

Wow, I haven't posted anything in... too long. I've been so absorbed in Sulfur I guess I've let myself fall off the map. I've been working extra hours the last couple months and that, coupled with a mid-July sinus infection and getting myself enrolled for Fall Quarter, have compounded to make me something like a zombie. I mumble to myself a lot more, and I sit doing nothing a lot more. What I call, "thinking," my husband calls, "freaking me out."

Good news? Writing's going great. I've gotten to what I think will be my favorite part of this story, and writing it, though emotionally difficult , has been incredibly rewarding. I have approximately eight more chapters to go; I could be done in the next couple weeks! Phew!

I will be posting the first chapter -- fingers crossed -- on July 29th, the first day of my vacation.

Ah, vacation. When I get myself a week of work off to flee my house. Where am I going? My grandparents, which may astonish some of you but not me. To me it's the best sort of vacation anyone can have. They have a wonderful house full of memories, a fragrant garden, coffee in the morning, and an altogether awesome appreciation for ethnic food. It means naps in the afternoon and talking politics in the evening. It's relaxing, which is more than I can say for some other vacations, and an annual tradition.

I'll keep writing even while my husband and I are staying there. After all, I need no vacation from writing, as it in itself is a stress-relieving escape!

I hope all of you are having a similarly wonderful summer. I hope you're finding ways to keep cool. Moment of bragging: I live in the PNW and it's been raining here every other day or so, I call that a good thing!

See you again on July 29th!

Half Way Mark

So how did I end up sitting here in the middle of the night, red as a lobster and manically exhausted?

First last night I got too little sleep. Three hours. I went to bed late only to wake early and go crabbing with my Troll Dad out on the Sound. I was excited, it's opening weekend and it was supposed to be a gorgeous day.

Gorgeous day. One of the first we've had in the Seattle area in a while, and the first over 80 degree day we've had in a dog's age. For a pale-fleshed Washingtonian with little tolerance for anything that isn't rain, flannel, and mold, this was a disaster.

Double disaster: I was wearing a grungy t-shirt, and now not only are my arms burnt, it's a farmer's tan burn. It's not even either. I have these splotchy pale spots where I'd obviously touched my arms with my sun-screened fingers. (Yes, despite stupidly forgetting to lather my arms, I had coated my face, thank the Gods!) I look like a spotted monster, and after getting home, cleaning the crab, cooking the crab, and showering, I was ready to nap. I laid down, fully ready to embrace my pillowing exhaustion, only to find that my body, first burnt and tired, was now feverish. I couldn't get myself warm. It was eighty-something degrees outside and I was shivering. Some nap that was.

Now I think, "Fine, be that way, Lobster Arms, I'll just go to bed early tonight."

To which Lobster Arms reply, "Nope. You will toss and turn and ache and writhe until you can't take it anymore."

Well fine, Lobster Arms. FINE. If I can't sleep then I shall stay awake and write. Misery loves company after all, and I have characters enough to torture.

So tonight, as Sulfur approaches its final climax, I charge ahead smelling of aloe-vera lotion and coffee! Today I have finished the estimated first half of Sulfur. Huzzah!

(Today I also caught my limit of crab. Come the Fourth of July I shall eat it with a vengeance.)