Rent & Writing

Blue Goose

Heading Out to Sandpoint

All a Writer Needs

The Blue Goose roared to life, it's engine coaxed with needle-nose pliers instead of keys. Don't ask. Suffice to say, it has no ignition and I should get a lifetime achievement award for figuring out how to start it. Yes, Todd can get it going every time; Brianna, too, but I'm not so adept.

Today is November first. Rent is due and NaNoWriMo begins. Talk about feeling torn between two masters--the responsibility to get to town and the accountability to write at least 1,667 words. So I haul wood, which allows me to think.

When I told Todd that I'd take care of rent on Friday it was 2 a.m. He woke me up to something about forgetting to arrange our rent through our landlord's wife who works at our Sandpoint Credit Union, but Todd's paycheck goes into our Minnesota Credit Union. It was too much for my groggy mind to fathom so I volunteered to take a check into town.

And that meant hitchhiking or getting the Blue Goose running.

Not only did I pay rent, the dogs saw me with new eyes--I could take them for a ride in the truck. Not that I had much money left after rent, but I splurged on a big bottle of Peppermint Mocha creamer for my coffee. After all, I now had to go home and face the blank screen.

After three hours of researching I felt my novel doomed. There's so much for me to learn about the Inuit culture and the climate science of the region. But that's not the point of National Novel Writing Month. The point is to write. So I pulled my eyes away from Google and looked inward where the real story is waiting. I gleaned enough to come up with character names, but was surprised when four other (unnamed) characters walked onto the page tonight. I let them talk anyways.

Today, I feel accomplished along the shores of Elmira Pond. Rent and writing--done!