incipit vita nova

Whidbey Island Writers Refuge: Cottage Comes With Cat

My beautiful niece Debbie is getting married (today!) on Whidbey Island. I am not just glad that I was able to share this day with her, I'm glad that I found the Whidbey Island Writers Refuge also.  If it were not for this fortunate sequence of events, I wouldn't have found the best place for writers in the world ever!

I am staying in the Sandpiper Cottage, and this is the view. Today, a bit grayer, because it is raining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a fantastic deck all to myself, right outside the bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went as many outdoor places as I could yesterday evening before returning to write.  This is Ebey's Prairie, a part of Whidbey Island that is being kept as an historical preserve. This view hasn't changed for over 150 years, they say.

 

 

 

 

 

As I was writing last night, I heard a purring noise on the deck. An attractive, active Siamese-mix cat came sauntering in. He sniffed at my hands, and deciding I was okay, wouldn't leave my side until I put him out half an hour later. 

It's raining right now and he's peering in at me from outside - a little bit wet for the wear.

 

Back From Nebulas and New BVC Release: Light Errant by Chaz Brenchley

I suppose I feel pretty awesome this a.m. considering the amount of miles I logged on my Skechers in Washington, DC.  I am heartbroken I missed Bibi touring the monuments!  I would have been so thrilled to see him in person.

We have a new release from Book View Cafe today! 

Ben's back—and this time he means business. Family business...

Benedict Macallan, wonder-worker malgré lui, has travelled the length and breadth of Europe since the events of Dead of Light, and still discovered no family like his own. Maybe Macallan blood really is a biological sport, a freak of evolution.

What Ben does discover is that he can't escape his birthright. He can run to the sun and hide among strangers, but he can't hide his powers from himself. When a friend asks for help, he has to use them. With blood on his hands once more, it's farewell la dolce vita; he gets on his bike and goes home.

Home is no sweeter than it was before, but it has changed. His gangster relatives have lost control somehow, of themselves and their city. More than one evil is at work here now, and even Ben's unique talents may not be enough to save the one he loves.

If he can only work out who that is...

Light Errant (Urban Fantasy)
Chaz Brenchley
May 24, 2011      $4.99 ebook
ISBN:  978 1 61138 064 4

Beautiful Lynchburg!

From Nashville, I flew to Richmond, VA, and then Meredith and Anthony picked me up and we drove to Lynchburg.  I have to be back at work tomorrow, so didn't have a whole lot of time with them, but I did have the opportunity to see some of the downtown area and the James River, meet Anthony's sister Megan and brother Travis and their significant others, and of course, visit one of the two awesome local Super WalMarts.

Here is Meredith and Anthony's small house in Lynchburg.  Cute, huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Civil War battle memorial on the James River in downtown Lynchburg.  There was no longer any snow on the ground in Lynchburg but some icicles around the memorial structure that is out in the river.

 

 

 

 

This is a very old bridge that's now part of the riverside park and other public buildings by the James riverside in Lynchburg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the old train depot in Lynchburg, which has a restaurant that doesn't have such good reviews on Yelp and Yahoo, so we didn't eat there.  However, I like this picture because it shows other parts of Lynchburg beyond the depot, and a sense of the curve of the train tracks by the river.

 

 

We did go to WalMart and I have some amateur Cake Wreck pictures for tomorrow.  This is a great town and area so I saw no people/creatures of WalMart, except the cakes.