Thurber House: Day Twenty-One (Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen)

And so we come to the end.

Today was my last full day at Thurber House, the culmination of my month-long stint as their 2016 Children's Writer-in-Residence. Tomorrow, I get up at 5am and catch an early flight back to home and family.

I celebrated today by taking the last of my long walks around the city. I hit the historical town, Topiary Park, downtown, and then went to Wolf's Ridge Brewing for my last taste of Duck Confit Tacos, Habanero Cheesecake, and their amazing Dire Wolf stout (though they were out of the habanero spiced variety). My farewell meal from my favorite Columbus restaurant.

Then in the afternoon, I signed copies of my books for the last batch of campers. Afterwards, I got a lift to The Book Loft of German Village for another signing.

Then it was back here for dinner and packing.

I accomplished a lot done here in Columbus. I finished the second draft of a book I'd been working on since January. I did an enormous amount of research for my next project, part of which involved world-building two fantasy cities. I wrote a stand-alone short story. And I knocked out the first 10,645 words of the new book. And they're good words. (I have the best words!)

But equally or maybe more importantly was the time I've spent teaching children, from the six sessions of camp at the Thurber Center that I taught, to the workshop at Worthington Park Library, to a High School writing group, to trips to the Homeless Families Foundation's Dowd Education Center, the Gladden Community House (a United Way affiliated non-profit agency), and the John Burroughs Elementary School summer school camp (a grant-funded program to provide food and activities to students in a low-income area). All the kids were wonderful, and I've learned so much. Mostly I've learned that children, whatever their backgrounds or opportunities, are bright and polite and positive and hopeful and imaginative and fun-loving and kind. Some of the kids I spoke to have a leg-up on life. And some of the kids I spoke to are starting out several rungs down the ladder from the rest of us. And they were all the same kids. Everyone of them, as capable of anything as anyone of us. Anything that can be done to lift these kids up and let the seeds I saw in them flower is the lord's work, whatever lord you believe in (except maybe Lord Voldemort). I'm really grateful to have met them all in ways I'll never fully express.

And speaking of grateful....

I’m eternally grateful to Thurber House for this amazing opportunity. I’ve loved living in my words and worlds. The people who run Thurber House and make it work are marvelous, and I hope I stay in touch with them and they with me. More than just a place I visited or a vacation I took—I’ve been alone in the house, I’ve received mail to the house, I’ve had guests visit me in the house,  I’ve done multiple loads of laundry and cleaned the kitchen countless times, I’ve even answered the doorbell. And I’ve walked all over Columbus, taking 1.5 to 2 hour walks nearly every day I've been here. This isn’t a place I visited. In a subjective, but very real, sense, Columbus is a place I’ve lived, joining the other cities around the world that I count as places that made me who I am and form a part of my personal narrative. Am I sad to be leaving? I love my family, and miss them, so sad isn't the right word, but this feels like a move does. You know, when you leave a place that you really lived and you know you'll only ever come back as a tourist. Thurber House and Columbus will always be a part of me, and I’ll always be a part of it (unless they paint over my fat signature in the closet and they better not!) Thank you all very, very much! I'm outta here!
               
                                      — Lou Anders, 2016 Children’s Writer in Residence.

Thurber House: Day Twenty (PokemonGo, Camp, Bananas, and Farewells)

Last night I stayed up writing very late. But before I turned in... I gave in. I needed to know what unseen forces I might be unwittingly sharing Thurber House with. That's right. I downloaded Pokémon Go.

It turns out that Thurber House is a PokéSpot, as is the statue of Muggs in the garden outside (mislabel in the app as Snoopy!), as is the David Deming stainless steel and brass installation Terrestrial Gest in the park outside (mislabeled as the Donn Vickers Gazebo, which is nearby). With so much Pokémon activity, how could I not?

So, this morning, while I was trying to make my coffee, I found a Krabby loitering in my kitchen! Fortunately, I was able to catch him and continue with my caffeination. Though he did take a few swipes at me with those nasty claws!

In the afternoon, I wrote my first ever attempt at a romantic scene. The current project isn't a children's book like the one I just finished. Rather, it's a YA or adult novel staring an older version of a character who is an adolescent in the Thrones and Bones books. Maybe because the character was 12 when I created her, I found myself oddly protective and parental. I had to fight the urge to let her be herself with *gasp* a boy. I kept wanting to come in and chaperone. It was the strangest sensation, and one I never would have predicted. If I'm this protective of a fictional creation, boy am I going to be in for it when my children are a few years older!

After lunch, I taught my last two sessions of the Thurber summer camp. The kids at all of these workshops have been great, and this week's batch were no different. We had a great time learning about the basics of character creation and story construction.  Also learning how to say "Norrøngard" as the old Norse would have pronounced it. (Although it's not a land found on earth, my Norrønir pronounce the name of their land in the same fashion.)

When the workshops were over, as I'm on my penultimate full day here as Children's Writer-in-Residence, this was the day I got to sign the closet as well as sign my photo for the wall. I thought it was the downstairs closet in the room with James Thurber's typewriter that I was to sign, but that's apparently for famous folks and such who drop by the house or contribute in some way and not for author residents who live in the apartment upstairs. We get a closet on the third floor (where, I suppose, only we can see it!). But I signed it and drew a little Viking too.

Around four o'clock a bunch of the campers came to the house with their parents to pick up my books. Since I was downstairs (doing laundry!), I volunteered to go ahead and sign them so they wouldn't have to bring the books to camp with them tomorrow.

Sadly, the next thing I dd was to say my goodbye to Meg Brown, Director of Education. Meg has to go out of town this evening, so I won't see her again. It was Meg that first interviewed me on the phone when I applied for this residency and made it through the initial round of applicants. It was Meg who called to tell me I'd made it to the final three. It was Meg who called to tell me I'd won. And it was Meg who has chauffeured me around to all the workshops and classes and to and from the airport. She is an amazing Director of Education, and I've gotten to see first hand how hard she works for all the outreach that Thurber House does.

Afterwards, the plan was to return to Wolf's Ridge Brewing one last time, for a dinner and another taste of the amazing Dire Wolf Canis Mexicanus Russian Imperial Stout. But I was barely a block away when it started to pour down rain. In minutes I was drenched, my shirt soaking wet and water streaming off the brim of my baseball cap. So instead of dark beer and duck tacos, it was more laundry and a turkey sandwich. But I did try taco sauce on a banana, and, despite how it sounds, it wasn't too bad.

And on the bright side, I caught another Pokémon on the way home.

Tomorrow I'll have an afternoon signing for the campers and then I'm doing a signing at 6pm at The Book Loft of German Village. And that will be it for me and Columbus.

But now I'm going to spend the bulk of what's left of my evening finishing that romantic scene. I need to make sure my girl and her boy take their hands off each other. And I want to send him packing before it gets any later!

Thurber House: Day Eighteen (or maybe Twenty-Three)

I'm back!

Back you say? Where did you go?

Well, last Thursday, I flew home to Birmingham for the weekend for a family event, and I returned yesterday to Columbus to complete my last week as the Thurber House Children's Writer-in-Residence. So, if we're counting full days in the house, this is Day Eighteen. Or if we're counting days since I got here, this is Day Twenty-Three!

How to count? What to count?

I'm going to go with Eighteen, just like Steve Moffat says Matt Smith is Doctor Number Eleven, and we can just ignore John Hurt, that Doctor-Donna created from a disembodied hand, and my brief interlude away from Ohio.

But worth noting...while I was home, I got my authors copies of the Nightborn paperback edition! And you can all get yours later this month when it drops July 26th! Yay!

Meanwhile, today, for a complete change of pace, I wrote a short story. It just came to me, and I had to get it out. It's short. Something on the order of "Kori and the Troll," which was my story for Boy's Life. I think there are going to be more of these sort of things, including a follow up to "Kori and the Troll," because the wheels are spinning. They are spinning, yes.

Meanwhile, because I have plans tomorrow for a long lunch, two courses to teach Thursday afternoon, and two signings on Friday (including one at The Book Loft of German Village), today was my Long Walk. I may get another Long Walk in, but I wanted to get at least one more before my time here ends. (((Sob.)))

I did the same walk I'd done before--going downtown then taking the Scioto Mile around the river, then walking back. Only last time it took me two hours, but because I had to teach tonight, I did it in one hour thirty minutes. Which was some power walking!

Then it was back here to teach a workshop at 6:30 P.M. at the Young Writers’ Studio, which is Thurber House's high school writing group that meets every other week at the Thurber Center. The students were really great, and after my presentation, I sat in for the weekly critique of one of their fiction samples (which was quite lush and evocative in its description). Smart students. Great talk.

And now I'm back in my apartments, where I should be writing, but I'm thrilled to see that something I've been working on for a while has just become public, and that is the Young Adventurers programming track at the Alamo City Comic Con (held in San Antonio on October 28th-30th). What is Young Adventurers you say? Well, Friday it's a day long writing workshop featuring instruction from some cat named Lou Anders, along with such luminaries as Holly Black, Matthew Cody, Bruce Coville, Melissa Marr, and Obert Skye! Then Saturday and Sunday are two days of middle reader kid fic focused programing featuring the same stellar lineup! Tickets for the workshop aren't on sale yet, but tickets for ACCC are. This is something you are going to want to check out! And if you are a beginning or wannabe writer, don't miss the workshop! Yay!

Thurber House: Day Seventeen (John Burroughs Elementary and Robin Yocum)

Today started off with a trip to John Burroughs Elementary School to visit their summer school camp, a grant-funded program to provide food and activities to students in a low-income area. There were 40+ kids, and they were on average a few years younger than I have been speaking to thus far. But they (and I) had a blast. I talked to them for about 15 minutes about my books, and then we did a writing exercise where they were shown some of Andrew Bosley's great art for my series and asked to fill in facts about the characters. And boy did we get some good names. A turbaned Uskiri scholar, for instance, was actually "Donald Trump" whose major talent was "screaming" and who wanted to "blow up the world" but who desperately needed "a breath mint." (That's presented exactly as the child wrote it and offered without comment.)

The afternoon was somewhat lazy--I'm wiped out after working late again last night. But this evening, at the Thurber House literary picnic, Robin Yocum read to us from his coming of age mystery novel, A Brilliant Death, and told stories about its setting, the real life town of Brilliant, Ohio. Yocum spoke to a crowd of about two hundred folks. He talked of how long and difficult a road the writing life is, and I was happy to see he had a long line of people awaiting his signature on books when I retired upstairs for the night.

Meanwhile, this will be my last update until Monday. I'm actually flying home to Birmingham tomorrow for (completely positive) family reasons. I'll return to Thurber House on Monday and have one more week here. It's been an incredible experience thus far, and there's still more to come!

Thurber House: Day Sixteen (What's the Caloric Value of Human Blood?)

Last night I stayed up very late working out the specifics of the city that will form the primary location for the new project. I'm really proud of it, and it includes a very crude map. Generally,  I prefer to have a cartographer work on a map or maps while I'm writing, but this project is something new, and I want to make sure it doesn't change before committing to that. I started drawing on paper, but I'm hopeless at cartography. I'm not home, so I don't have any good art programs with me. Instead, I somehow managed to make a map good enough to help me visualize things just by drawing with shapes and colored text boxes in Pages. I wish I could show you, but that would be a huge spoiler. One day, when I have a professionally drawn map for the city I might do a side by side comparison.

The world building / research continued this morning with what became a really interesting discussion on Facebook. I had a question and it occurred to me the Hive Mind might be able to help. So, right before eating breakfast, and hoping to get at least an answer or two, I posted:

Lou Anders12 hrs · Has anyone every done a study of how large a population is needed to sustain one vampire? How often does a vampire need to feed? Does the victim have to die? I'm trying to come up with a metric that will tell me that a city of x size could sustain y number of vampires.

An hour later, I decide to see if anyone has answered. And wow have they! I get responses ranging from what the best ratio of victims to general population is necessary in order for a vampire to maintain secrecy, to discussion of the problem of the conservation of mass when shape-shifting, to thoughts on blood as a food source, to actual theoretical studies on the spread of a zombie contagion conducted by the CDC, to information on the caloric value of blood. That's 3,500 calories in 1.2 pounds of blood by the way, just in case you're curious. And did you know that vampire bats have a unique membrane lining their stomachs to prevent their digesting too much iron? Well, you do now. And so do I.

It was actually a really fascinating and informative discussion, and I'm grateful to everyone who took part. Though several people contacted me privately to ask just who my friends were that they were so informed about all this! But with some great input and some math, I have the answers and my project can roll along. (Also, the discussion won't die. We've passed 50 comments and still going. We need to drive a stake through its heart and kill it!)

But yeah, this is what a writer does. Last week it was researching medieval locks and their picking, and this week it's the caloric value of blood. Who knows what next week will bring?

Meanwhile, at the end of the afternoon I took my usual two hour walk around Columbus, where I was delighted to discover that The Book Loft has apparently sold out of all of the signed copies of Frostborn they put out this week. Never fear, however. They will have plenty more for my signing on the 15th though!

On the way back to Thurber House, I passed some weird faces on the wall in the private garden of some business or other. They reminded me of nothing so much as the hidden faces of David Bowie in Labyrinth. Inspiration for the book, perhaps? Time will tell.

Thurber House: Day Fifteen (4th of July Walkabout)

Happy 4th of July to those that celebrate it!

Today, I decided to mark the occasion by taking a super long walk around Columbus.

I walked from Thurber House to downtown with the intention of doing "the Scioto Mile" when I got there, and I did start down the path that parallels the river, but then the rain started in earnest. I walked in the rain for a bit, but decided that if it starting lightening (as predicted by my weather app) that being next to buildings one could duck into might be good.

So I came back from the river, where I paused to take a picture with a deer that was enjoying the view from a bridge.

Then I found some kids in bathing suits playing in a fountain in the rain!

I walked to Columbus' brewery district, though everything was closed.

And then I went to German Village, where I was delighted to see that the books I signed for The Book Loft are already selling down.

I found a tiny home belonging to a very patriotic fairy.

And had lunch at the original Max & Erma's.

Finally, I treated myself to a frappuccino at Starbucks and then I walked back to Thurber House.

All told, I was out and about for three hours, most of it moving.

Not a productive day, but a fun one. And I think that's okay! I'm going to spend the evening in, alternating between working and watching television. Hope you are all having a pleasant Independence Day!

Thurber House: Day Fourteen (It Takes a Long Time to Become Young)

Fourteen Days! I have been here fourteen full days (and fifteen nights)! Can you believe it?

I am 7,940 words into the new manuscript. My beta readers are starting to report back positively on the manuscript I completed last week. I've taught children at the Thurber Center and in community programs around Columbus. I have walked all over downtown. I have binge watched two seasons of Game of Thrones (and will watch the season six finale later tonight so I'll be caught up with the rest of you). I have eaten some tremendous food and drank some amazing beer. I have entertained houseguests.

And today, I went to the Columbus Museum of Art and saw the exhibit, Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change.

Oh, and I wore a funny hat and took my picture against a Cubist background.

"It takes a long time to become young." -- Pablo Picasso

Thurber House: Day Thirteen (A Tale of Two Jameses)

It's the start of a long weekend here at Thurber House, with none of the women who work here back
until Tuesday. Good writing time--I'm now 6,243 words and four chapters into the new project and loving it--but it's also a little isolated.

So I was thrilled when my friend and favorite author James Enge drove down to visit me with his wonderful wife  Diana DePasquale.

When I was an editor, a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I acquired and edited six fantastic books by James Enge, Blood of Ambrose, This Crooked Way, The Wolf Age and the three books of his "prequel trilogy" A Tournament of Shadows: A Guile of Dragons, Wrath-Bearing Tree, and The Wide World's End. These six novels chronicle a portion of the life of Morlock Ambrosius, a hunch-backed, alcoholic, exhale, a broken man who feels his world is done with him when it is only getting started. I grew up on classic swords & sorcery fiction--works by writers like Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock--some of which still holds up today but a lot of which, I'm sad to say, really doesn't work for contemporary audiences who didn't grow up with it (I'm sorry but that's true).

Enter James Enge.

At a time when fantasy was celebrating the New Weird moment, Enge was consciously Old Weird, unapologetic S&S fantasy that was nonetheless written with a modern, literary sensibility. Blood of Ambrose was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, after all. His books mixed humor and pathos in a way few authors can and in a style that reminds me of nothing so much as the music of Robyn Hitchcock, the writing of Terry Pratchett, and the best episodes of Doctor Who. Like putting old wine in new bottles, Enge was managing to take S&S with all of its tropes and reconstitute it as something that could stand as 21st century fantasy literature. I wasn't allowed to have favorites when I worked as an editor, but now that I'm just another full-time author, I can say honestly and openly that James Enge is one of my top five all time favorite fantasists. I'm an unapologetic fan.

But James is also a person I've come to love spending time with. We hung out on the convention circuit quite a few times, but I don't think I've seen him since I was Editor Guest of Honor at Convergence in 2013. Which is way way way too long. So I was deeply honored and deeply thrilled when James and Diana drove down for the afternoon and evening.

I gave them a tour of Thurber House when they arrived. We sat in the tea room on the first floor, which was weird because I tend to stick to the upstairs when I'm here along. And I took a photograph of James Enge the writer posing with James Thurber's typewriter. The Two Jamses! Afterwards, we went to Wolf's Ridge Brewing, for yet another fabulous meal (and great libations). I visited their Tap Room last time but we ate in the restaurant in front this time. Afterwards, we came back to my apartments here, where we drank tea and solved all the world's problems. And managed to set the burglar alarm off yet again. It was a lovely evening with lovely people.

Everybody, read James' books. You won't be sorry. And James, great to see you, my friend!

Thurber House: Day Twelve (Selling Out, Signings, and the Fire Alarm)

I am 4,687 words into the new project. I've reached Chapter Three, which is the chapter where our heroine discovers what she's going to have to do to survive this book. I'm very happy where things are going, although I haven't added very many new words today. That's because I'm still working out the specifics of what it is she's about to learn. When I know, she'll know!

But we had another book signing for this week's group of campers at the Thurber Center. This time I signed in the center, not the house, for the kids that I taught last Wednesday. And what a signing it was! The Thurber House bookstore has nearly sold through its entire stock of Frostborn (and the four remaining are spoken for), so they're going to have to reorder because I'm only halfway done with my Children's Writer-in-Residence stint. It was a great bunch of kids this week and I really enjoyed teaching them, as well as meeting some of the counselors.

Afterwards, I came back here, where I managed to set off the fire alarm not once but twice in the preparation of tonight's nachos! I started heating oil in a pan, only to realize I had an unused green pepper I should slice. I didn't realize how fast the smoke would start. The whole apartment filled up and I had to open as many windows as could be opened. But the nachos were worth it! Totally!

It's a long weekend, with no one who works at Thurber House coming in again until Tuesday. There's a fireworks display at the river around 9pm tonight, but I think I'm going to skip. I want to spend a good chunk of time tonight writing and that would fall right in the middle.

And tomorrow I've got company coming!

Thurber House: Day Eleven (...and sometimes you get the bear!)

Today I've spent the whole day working on my new project.

I'm 3,938 words in, near the end of chapter two, and really really proud of it.

Although there are connections with my other four books (the three Thrones & Bones novels and the just-completed secret manuscript), it's a departure from what I've done so far in other ways.  And I'm really thrilled by how it starts.

It's really an amazing opportunity to be able to concentrate so completely on my work, with the only interruptions being when I get to talk about my work. Wow.

Tomorrow I'll have another signing with the campers. And that's cool! But tonight, more words!

Thurber House: Day Ten

Today began with two back to back sessions of the writing camp at the Thurber Center next door. I taught two groups of approximately forty students total.

I created a special presentation when I got to Columbus that lasts an hour. The first fifteen minutes are about my Thrones & Bones books, then I spend forty-five minutes teaching a writing workshop. This is a super-condensed version of my ScripTips presentation, broken into three fifteen minute parts with a writing exercise in each one. I'd given it four times prior to today, and--if I may say so myself--it's really come together. Plus, today's campers really felt engaged and enthusiastic (though that's been true the entire time I've been here.) The trading cards remain a big hit, as ever.

When I got back to Thurber House I learned that the Book Loft has been getting requests for my books and wanted me to sign some copies of Frostborn and Nightborn for the store. So if you're in Columbus and you want signed copies, you might give them a holler.

Then it was such and back to working on the new project.

As per usual, I took an end of the afternoon walk to German Village and back. The evening was spent making nachos--I browned some turkey meat this time--and then returned to the work. I'm now 2,180 pages into the new project, closing in on the end of chapter one. I really like what I've done so far, though I am again writing without a detailed outline.

I spent some time looking for the right angle of approach for the initial pages, and as it does many times, humor came to my rescue. I didn't think this one was going to be a humorous story, and its certainly got the promise of some dark elements as it appears in my mind right now, but I'm glad that there's going to be lighter moments as well.

I also got word today that a dear friend maybe coming into town on Saturday. I'll save the details for the blog of the day of, but I'm excited to see him (and his wonderful wife). And that's it. I've left a thief trapped inside a mark's guarded estate and I really need to figure out how she's going to get out. So I'll leave you here and return to the world of Qualth.

Thurber House: Day Nine (Gladden and a River walk)

Today I went to the Gladden Community House, a United Way affiliated non-profit agency providing education and recreation programs, emergency assistance, and advocacy and support for individuals, families, and groups.

We set up in a recreation room and tapped into a wall-mounted television, where I gave a presentation to about twenty kids of varying ages on my Thrones & Bones series and my (abbreviated) ScripTips writing course. The kids were great--there was one boy in particular who really took to the material--and the Thrones & Bones trading cards that I gave out were a very big hit. As they always are.

Then it was back to Thurber House for the afternoon. I worked for a bit and then, at five, I went out for a two hour walk. I walked to the river, where there are really nice bike trails, then walked along one for 1.5 miles before crossing and coming back along the Scioto Trail. It's the furtherest I've walked since arriving here, the highlight of which was being hissed at by two geese.

Although I'm eating a lot of yogurt and fruit, I'm starting to feel vegetable-deficient, so tonight I sautéed broccoli and spinach leaves to go along with a ham, cheese, jalapeños and guacamole sandwich. Also had some very spicy pickles. Very.

I won't stay up quite as late tonight because I have to teach two hours back to back tomorrow at the Thurber Center from 9:30 to 11:30, but I've still got to accomplish more today before calling it a night.

Meanwhile, as a side effect of the long periods of isolation, I have started to talk out loud to myself. This is okay in the apartment, but I seem to be doing it outside during my walks as well. We'll see where this goes.

Thurber House: Day Eight (Sometimes the Bear Gets You)

I finished a manuscript last night, and today was the first day of working exclusively on something brand new. Or should have been. I spent some of the morning sending the previous book out to beta readers for feedback. (Very important.) And a lot of the day banging my head. (Necessary evil.) And some of it watching TV. (Refilling the well?)

I do have names for several key characters now and that's a big deal, because with the name comes the first suggestions of personality. The name makes them real. And I've got some idea of my starting location. It's a new city, and when I visit a location I tend to build it from the ground up first. So I've been working on its key features and peoples. Things are shaping up. But I need to know more about its history and how the MacGuffin connects to same.

And I should say a thank you to Pathfinder Tales author Dave Gross for pointing out how I name I almost went with could be misconstrued. Now that I know Dave has such a dirty mind I'll run more things by him for a vetting.

But other aspects of this tale haven't given up their secrets yet. I teach that the bad guy and the antagonist aren't necessarily the same thing, and that's the case with this story. So I've got my antagonist--and boy is she--but I'm still fleshing out my bad guy and what they're up to.

I took an hour and forty minute walk today hoping to clear my head. It didn't. What I did manage to do is to surreptitiously insert two Thrones & Bones trading cards into a copy of Frostborn at The Book Loft of German Village.  What I didn't managed to do is crack wide open the nut of inspiration and gulp down its wisdom. Still working on that.

But it's 10pm and I'm still staring at the screen, doing that which you do before the words flow.

Meanwhile, here's a unicorn munching on some roses, in the park across from Thurber House. It sprang from his mind and the story it comes from is on a plaque on the ground. The rest of the park is well-manicured but the unicorn gets a sort of flowery grove to himself.

More, I hope, tomorrow!

Thurber House: Day Seven, Week One & a Manuscript Complete!

Woohoo!

This evening marks a solid week I've lived in Thurber House as the 2016 Children's Writer-in-Residence.  I've spent the time working on a rewrite of a recently completed manuscript, and today, I knuckled down and wrote for the longest protracted session since I got here. I didn't even stop for lunch, just drank a protein shake at my desk.

I did take a break at 5pm, to take an hour walk around the city, during which I passed the spot of the original Wendy's hamburger restaurant. (It isn't there anymore, but a marker is).

Then I came back and wrote for another two hours and I finished! Draft two of the secret project is done, and it's already been sent to a few of my volunteer readers.

So this Herculean accomplishment must be celebrated in style, and it was--with a huge plate of nachos, Dragon's Milk, and catching up on episodes of Game of Thrones.  (I'm not to the finale yet, but I'm getting there. So far, though, I prefer season five to season six.)

Meanwhile, I've been making notes towards the next project all week, and tomorrow I start working on it in earnest. No other obligations tomorrow, just writing, so I have a good chunk of time to dive in on day one of project two. And three more weeks to go!

Thurber House: Day Six (Alone for the Weekend)

Thurber House is mine! All mine! Mwa-ha-ha!

Actually, I'm alone here today. The people who work here during the week are gone and I've the house to myself. Some volunteers come by in the afternoon to lead tours, but the house has been largely silent.

Oh, and the handyman came to fix the toilet! So, that's a little taste of real life.

But I  spent several hours of the morning researching the quality and type of medieval locks and the history of the looking glass. All work for the next project. And the bulk of the day was spent on polishing the previous one. I've reached chapter fourteen (of twenty one) in the rewrite. It's 9:41 pm here but I hope to get at least one more chapter polished before I head to bed.

Around four o'clock I set out on a two-ish hour jaunt around Columbus. This time I returned to German Village and The Book Loft, then had a Milk Chocolate Passion Fruit and a tea at Pistachio Vera. Although the sign pictured here is from Mikey's Late Night Slice.

Then it was back here to cook my own supper and more writing. And a phone call from a good friend in Los Angeles.

Uneventful days actually mean productive work, so I hope we'll have more of those.

Things I Miss Most About Home, Part Two:

1. My Dishwasher.
2. My Dishwasher.
3. My Dishwasher.
4. My Dishwasher.
5. Weight Lifting (but not as much as My Dishwasher).

Thurber House: Day Five (The Self-Guided Food and Drink Walking Tour)

I stayed up late last night and was woken early by a phone call, but despite that I still managed to get halfway through the rewrite of my first draft of the recent project. Which is pretty good progress here in week one of my  Thurber House Children's Writer-in-Residence stint. Then at 3:30 pm, the campers in the Thurber Center had a presentation for their parents, after which they brought their folks to Thurber House, gave them a tour of the first two floors, and best of all, has me sign copious copies of Frostborn and Nightborn. I was in the front parlor of the house, seated on a couch at a table that normally holds an historic tea set, mobbed by enthusiastic children. A wonderful afternoon!


Then, after a day of being inside, I decided to walk half an hour to North Market, where I sampled Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. The  Salted Caramel was good, but Brambleberry Crips was everything the stranger in line behind me said it would be!

After this, I walked fifteen minutes to Wolf's Ridge Brewing, with the best intentions to merely scope it out for later. But in their wonderful Tap Room Francis the very helpful bartender introduced me to one of the best beers I've had in ages, the Dire Wolf Canis Mexicanus, an imperial stout spiced with Mexican peppers. This had to paired with something, naturally, and so I dined on Duck Confit Tacos. But one glad of Canis Mexicanus is hardly sufficient, so the second glass was paired with Habanero Cheesecake.


Finally, I took a twenty minute walk in the still hot sun back to Thurber House, where I decided to take Friday night to finish watching Game of Thrones season five (wow).

Now that's a day!

Salud!

Thurber House: Day Four

I survived.

The storm was heavy rain and lightning, but the power stayed on, the winds weren't as hard as predicted, and I did not have to take shelter in the basement of a supposed-haunted house in the dark of night and that's a good thing.

However, I don't sleep during any storm, not after having had a tornado drop an enormous white oak on my rooftop some years back before touching down in the ravine next to my house and felling another twenty or so trees. Therefore, it was a late, slow, and slightly dim start this morning.

Breakfast, a pot of coffee, and Game of Thrones made it quite enjoyable (I'm still on season five). Then some real progress on the rewrite of the manuscript I finished last week. Lunch was a leftover boxed dinner from the previous night's literary picnic and then more revision.

Around 3:30 I decided I really should get out of the house once, so I took an hour and twenty minute walk. I headed East then South, and found myself in Corner Stone Craft Beer & Wine in Old Towne East. I took a walk through the historical district, passed many beautiful old homes, and then came upon The Topiary Park, which is beautiful.

I came back up through downtown, decided to head deeper into downtown, and then take 4th Street North until I hit Gay Street. There is a beautiful building on the corner of Young and Gay. I got back to Thurber House seconds after everyone there had locked up and were headed to their cars.

Before going inside, I took a moment to sit in the little garden area between Thurber House and Thurber Center, where I shot a photo of some of the statues of Muggs the dog.

Then it was more work, more Game of Thrones, more food, and now more writing. Later tonight, it will also be more Dragon's Milk.

As to the legends associated with this old house, the mirror did jump in its mounting on the wall twice while I was shaving, but I've chosen to view that as a quirk of the air conditioning cooling the glass on a hot day and not, say, a supernatural comment on my rendition of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)."

Sing it with me...

See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
Well it's been so long

And I've been putting out the fire with gasoline

Thurber House: Day Three

I saw two rabbits today.

As I left Thurber House to go next door where their Summer Camp programs are held, in the little garden outside, full of statues of James Thurber's dog Muggs, a rabbit ran right past me and into the bushes.

Then I taught two groups of campers back to back from 9:30 until 11:30. The kids were great and, to my tremendous relief, took to the material. Why is that a relief, you say? Well, it's like this. I have several presentations I usually give. One is an hour long presentation on the world of Thrones & Bones. One is a one or two hour presentation called ScripTips, which uses my particular take on cinematic story structure to teach plotting and outlining to would be novelists. And one, created recently, is an hour long workshop taking participants through exercises drawn from ScripTips lessons. Today, I combined all three of those presentations into one hour long performance. I felt a bit like the Doctor in that episode "Flatline" where he's stuck inside a shrunken TARDIS, everything compressed together tightly. But it went well, and now I have a new presentation I can do. And, as in each of these classes I've taught this week, while all the kids are bright, imaginative, and enthusiast, there's always a couple kids who really take to the material and set off writing their stories like wildfire. Which is always tremendous to see. (Future competition).

Next, I took off on a trip 30 minutes northish to teach a course at Worthington Park Library. Billed as "Description: Write On: A Creative Writing Workshop," I taught a group of about 9 kids (and one adult) a writing workshop, helping them construct the basics of a story. I'll have pictures from that tomorrow, but it was a very fun time in a cool library (in a strip mall!). Thanks to Ellie and Dustin for arranging and facilitating a great afternoon!

Then it was back here for a brief rest and then off to a "literary picnic" that Thurber House holds. Author Pauline A. Chen was in town to speak about her new novel, The Red Chamber. Based on the epic Dream of the Red Chamber—one of the most famous love stories in Chinese literature—Pauline described it as being, not so much retelling, as a work that sits in relationship to the original in the manor that Wicked aligns to The Wizard of Oz. The book sounds fascinating and Pauline certainly was. She also has degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. So there you go.

And during her talk, I looked out a window and saw yet another rabbit bounding around.

Now I'm back in my apartments awaiting a thunderstorm. Apparently between midnight and 3 am there's a real chance of dangerously high winds. So fingers crossed I don't end up crouched in the basement of a spooky old house, sitting in the dark with no power! But wouldn't that be a story!

Thurber House: Day Two

Today was day two as Children's Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House!

After working this morning, we set out again for the Homeless Families Foundation's Dowd Education Center, where I met with the same group of kids from the day before. This time, I lead them through a series of exercises utilizing what I'd taught them on Monday. The kids were great--some really bright, imaginative answers--and I was delighted that several students had considerably fleshed out plots by the end of the hour. This stuff took me decades to learn and they've absorbed it in days. No doubt I've created my future competition this week, and proud of it!

Returning to Thurber House, I tested out a new portable blender and made my usual lunch of yogurt and fruit protein shakes. New blender doesn't do frozen fruit well, so I ate that with a spoon but the rest was great. Then I walked 36 minutes to The Book Loft of German Village, which boasts 32 rooms of books. I was understandably lost inside for a bit, then I hoofed it back in time to get ready for the evenings reception (ahem, in my honor, ahem), the highlight of which was a performance by the Thurber Chamber Theater who did dramatic readings of short fiction by James Thurber. And there were cookies!

Afterward, Meg Brown, Director of Children's Education, gave me a tour of Columbus.

And now I'm back, feeling like I need to eat something vegetable, and settling in to do some work before a very busy day tomorrow.

Having a great, productive time immersed in my world, but here is list of...

Things I Miss Most About Home:

1) My wife and kids
2) My Japanese Toto toilet
3) My coffee machine
4) My Xbox One
5) Big Spoon Creamery

Thurber House: Day One

Today was my first full day as Children's Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House!

I got in around 5pm yesterday, where I was met at the airport by the very nice Meg Brown, Director of Children's Education. Meg took me to drop my bags off at the house before heading out to do the necessary grocery shopping in preparation for my living on my own for a month.

Now, let's pause here in the Adventures of Lou for a bit on the house itself,  a three-story historic building which served as the home of author, humorist, and New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber and his family from 1913 until 1917. Since 1984, (the year, not the book or the album by Van Halen), the house has served as a non-profit literary center and museum of Thurber materials. The first floor of the house has a bookstore, which currently has a very nice display of Frostborn and Nightborn titles, while the second floor is home to the Thurber Museum (the lights of which flickered when I came in, though not ominously). The third floor is more modern and has been converted into a small apartment for the writer-in-residence, in this case me. So...

After dropping off bags, we went to Kroger, where I was delighted to find I could get New Holland Brewing's Dragon's Milk, a bourbon-barrel aged stout that I love and cannot get in Alabama, as well as essentials like cereal, yogurt, jalapeños, pop tarts, stuffed mushrooms, the ingredients to make a killer ham sandwich, tea bags (iced and green), coffee, and a variety of microwavable frozen foods. Unfortunately, somewhere in that smorgasbord of easy to make necessities, I forgot toothpaste!

Then it was back to the house, where Meg gave me a quick tour, handed me the keys, and taught me the alarm code. Then I was alone in the house for the first time. Which is very alone, in a dark, old house with very little happening on the street outside. At this point it should be noted that Thurber House is very creaky. Every footstep I took last night didn't just cause the floorboards to squeak, but started a cascade of echoing creaks that rippled down through the house, so that it sounded like every step was followed by an answering step. Truthfully, it was a bit unnerving, but I found a solution: planting my butt in one spot and largely not moving! Also playing lots of David Bowie. And the aforementioned Dragon's Milk.

Still, I spent the evening working on an outline for the new project and dining on some sushi that I was somewhat strong-armed into buying at Kroger by a very persuasive and persistent chef (but it was very good). I ended up working quite productively until 2am, though I got hit once by a wave of intense missing-of-the-family. Then I woke up this morning, mastered the art of pouring milk over cereal, and met Meg downstairs for a visit to the Homeless Families Foundation's Dowd Education Center, where I gave my talk on understanding story construction using Hollywood blockbusters. The kids there were great, very enthusiastic, very cinema-knowledgable, and very smart. (I'll return tomorrow to take them through some writing exercises based on today's concepts.)

I returned to Thurber House where I met Erin Deel, General House Administrator and Barbie Tootle, Interim Executive Director, both very nice. Then lunch (pot pie), after which the aforementioned lack of toothpaste was just too much. Erin kindly took me back to Kroger, where I picked up everything I forgot to make yesterday. I walked around the house some more, reading the placards for the self-guided tour and looking at all the historical items. At five, everyone working at the house left, so I shut myself upstairs and continued working. Which is where I am now. Though I think I'm about to pause and begin the good work of catching up on Game of Thrones.

More tomorrow! Meanwhile, here is a picture of what I believe to be an ancient iPod: