Five-hour naps to soothe the soul
Hello, friends!
A couple of letters ago, I wrote about creativity and walking and the dastardly hill that lays outside our front door. I’d like to say I’ve been battling the hill since that letter, but other than a few jaunts down to check out mailbox (which is, evilly, stationed at the bottom of the steepest segment of the hill, rather than at our driveway’s end), that’s just not true.
But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about writing. There’s a little Post-It at my desk that says:
- Move
- Write
- Repeat
(Because I’m enough of a lump that I need reminders like this.)
I have started incorporating walking into my morning routine, though, and so far, it’s stuck. There’s a paved trail close to our home that is much more inviting than our hill; by seven a.m. for the last week or so, I’ve been on that trail for a short walk. By seven-thirty or a little later I’m home again, where I’ll jot a few pages in my journal, have a little breakfast and read a book, and by eight, I’m in my study, working on The Dark Age before I report to work at nine.
It’s funny how a morning routine makes me a more pleasant person to be around. Well, it seems to, at least. When I’ve ticked a few boxes for myself, it makes the rest of the day a little easier to throw myself into.
The trail I walk each morning leads me past the runway of our local airport. I’ll often see a few planes take off, flying directly over my head. A little bit of research, perhaps, as one of my characters in The Dark Age spends a significant amount of time at her own regional airport. (Perhaps I’ll rewatch Wings for more gritty, realistic inspiration.) When I was a kid, my dad took flying lessons in Anchorage; he’s still pretty obsessed with airplanes now, and I think about him every time a little Cessna soars overhead.
Today—Sunday—the routine took a bit of a whack. After my walk, a little journaling, a little breakfast and reading (The Third Hotel, by Laura Van Den Berg), I felt myself crashing, so I went back to bed. Sleep’s been difficult in our house lately. Our chihuahua, Radar, is recovering from surgery, and perhaps as a result of his cone and several medications, he’s become the town crier at night, barking incessantly for hours as the rest of us are trying to bed down for the night. In any case, I went back to bed this morning, and when I opened my eyes again, five hours had passed.
But never fear: Here I am, writing!
Squish finished fourth grade last week, and on her first morning of summer break, she woke early. She and Felicia joined me on the trail that morning. Squish brought along a backpack of necessary supplies—a compass, wet wipes, some jerky, a Wings of Fire novel—and dashed ahead while Felicia and I followed. It was cute that they joined me for my novice trail walk; the two of them log miles and miles together every day while I’m working. I loved that they came with, though. Most of these walks I find I’m in my head, working out solutions to scene or structure problems, but that day it was nice to forget about writing for a few minutes and just be with them.
(Felicia and me! I look irrationally tall in that photo, but I promise I’m just normal-tall.)
In unrelated news, Felicia noticed that our local library’s book club is reading Eleanor this month. Such a nice surprise! Book clubs are just the best.
A few times in the last six months, I was contacted by book clubs, mostly in the UK, who were all reading Awake in the World. I joined a couple of them for a Zoom discussion when they were finished, and recorded some video Q&As for another. Such good fun. (I remember being invited to a Portland book club many years ago for the same reason; they’d just read one of my early novels, Greatfall, and peppered me with questions I just couldn’t answer, having forgotten almost everything about that book since writing it. The same is probably true of Eleanor by now. Fifteen years to write it, many fewer years to forget every word of it.)
Happy to report that the novel I’ve been ghostwriting has been handed in and accepted; there’s a possibility my name will end up on the book after all, as it turns out. More news there as it comes.
Meanwhile, I’m still cheerfully plugging away at The Dark Age, a little bit of progress every day. (Premium subscribers get to hear lots more about that project over here! If you aren’t a member, subscribe this week and I’ll send you a signed copy of the original Dark Age short story, too.)
✏️Happy walking & writing,
Jg
Thanks for subscribing to Letters from Hill House! You’re reading the free edition.
- If you’d like to also receive The Dark Age letters, here’s how to do so
- If you’re enjoying the newsletter and would like to buy me a coffee, here’s how to do that
- My web site has more writing, and info about my books
- If you just want to say hello, just click Reply, or email me
Note: This newsletter may contain affiliate links for which I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.