I have a writer friend who absolutely loves rewriting. And almost hates first draft. I have another friend who rarely rewrites, loves the 'rush' of the first draft and then just puts things away and starts a new piece.
Both of these have their drawbacks. The rewriting fiend can't send work out because it always needs one more rewrite. The first draft fiend sends things out occasionally and after one rejection, tosses it in the bottom drawer and moves on to the next story.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't enjoy fiddly rewrites, where I'm doing very little to the story, but I recognise they need to be done. It's where the sentences matter, where the language improves, where the characterisation deepens. But it can also be where I step too far back from the voice and the action and then I start to lose the depth of character. I try now in rewrites to imagine myself into the heart of the story and work from there. This is where the silent house is important. Nothing to distract me from the heart.
A few years ago, I listened to Adib Khan speak (he is an Australian literary author) and he says he does four drafts, but for the first three, he puts the previous draft aside, doesn't even look at it again and starts the new draft from scratch. Each new draft is like a distillation of the previous.
I have found this also to be useful. It helps to re-vision the story, rather than just fiddle around the edges.
But everyone is different. What to do with a new work that suddenly develops into something unexpected? That's where I am with a YA novel right now. I thought it might work based on emails, but the character has other ideas. This will be a novel where I do a lot of experimenting, on the basis that not all of it will work, and I might have to throw out lots of pages. But the central story and character excite me, so it will be fun. Even the rewrites sound promising already!

This is that time of the year when a great "tidy up" tends to happen in my chaotic office (i.e. the spare bedroom). By tidy up, I mean two things. The first is obvious and requires the use of a large rubbish bin.
The second is about following up on anything that has been bugging me or left hanging or just plain needs to be finished. Thus the tidy up list includes: copying all 58 poems in my verse novel into one computer file so it can have page numbers and a set order and be printed out properly (and sent to agent for reading); following up on manuscripts that have been sitting on someone's desk for way too long; following up an an advance that should have been paid to me a couple of months ago; updating industry news and networking stuff; sorting out what projects I have completed this year and where I am with the rest (kind of like a progressive goal setting thing I've started doing); having Xmas lunches and stuff with various writers and friends; buying books that I will devour over Xmas when there is nothing to do but relax; planning what writing I will work on while away with laptop; debating whether to buy a second laptop battery.
And making decisions about some important writing issues that have come up. Outcomes will be deliberated on in the New Year.
Have started reading "Best Australian Short Stories 2005" and got right back into short fiction all over again. Want to read more poetry. Am hoping that my copy of Meg Files' new anthology, published by Pima Press, will arrive very soon. It's a collection of poems on aging and the samples she sent were great.
Also I have been reading "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver and loving it. One of those books I plan to photocopy some pages from and analyse the writing. She is so good with setting and voice. But first to simply enjoy it.

It's a funny thing, being really tired and yet twitchy to write. The brain says, "No, no, sleep or veg out or something" but none of those things satisfies.
I'm end-of-year tired and grumpy, and wishing I was about to have 3 months off instead of 3 weeks (if I'm lucky). A country far far away sounds good right now but I might have to settle for Narnia.
Tried to be a vegetable last night and watch mind-numbing TV but it wasn't working. The twitching grew worse and in the end I had to rev up the laptop and write something - anything! Turned out that the beginning of a short story I wanted to add to had disappeared; thank goodness for hard copy and my need to print stuff out to "see" it. So I retyped it and made a few changes and seeing as how I had just that day made some notes on where I thought the story could go, I kept writing and have ended up with 2500 words. It's not finished yet but I'm happy.
It's a fantasy short story, not something I write often, but the Firebirds anthology has been inspiring so I thought I'd take another look at what I'd started.
I loved the story in Firebirds by Diana Wynne Jones - from a cat's point of view, which I have seen a few people do a miserable job on, but the story was great. An excellent example of how to have seven characters (cats) and keep them all clear and defined in the reader's mind. No confusion at all. I can't speak for dog lovers or cat haters, of course.
Miss Snark's blog continues to entertain. I even entered her 25 word competition and did about as well as I do in baked bean slogan competitions - zilch. But it was fun, and more fun to read the winning entries.
I also have read a children's classic - "The Midnight Fox" by Beverly Cleary. It felt old-fashioned but still very engaging. I think the old-fashioned feeling came more from the main character than anything - he was a funny sort of boy. But a lovely book.

Even though I didn't reach my 50,000 words for Nano, I seem to have inspired (for lack of a better word) a couple of others to try it in December as November just wasn't the right month for them. I really appreciated the Nano site with the graph on my page - there was something about seeing the graph go up that was encouraging. Maybe that's a bit sad, I know, but sometimes that outside "poke in the ribs" is just what you need. For one of my friends, I've created her own graph. Will it help?
In the past, when I've ground to a standstill for one reason or another, I've done various things to reignite me. One was to write a poem every day for a month. Sounds easy until you get to about Day 10 and end up writing a limerick about your bathroom! I've also used books like "Wild Mind" by Natalie Goldberg - very useful.
The Sue Miller book was "Lost in the Forest" - I think I gave the wrong title earlier. I enjoyed it - and envy her ability to get right inside her characters and make each one so interesting.
Currently reading "Firebirds" which is a fantasy short story anthology edited by Sharyn November. Most of the stories so far have ranged from pretty good up to great. Often with an anthology I hit a spot in the middle where I get a bunch of stories that just don't grab me and it takes a lot of perseverance to keep going (last year's Best American Short Stories did that - it's still sitting there half-finished).
I was asked recently to contribute to the Read Alert blog at the State Library - my favourite book for the year. That was a hard choice but I went for the Chris Crutcher book in the end (Whale Talk) - the voice of that character has just stayed with me for weeks.
After writing about 3000 words of a new YA novel at the end of Nano (and I had to stop because I had no idea where to go next) I am now ready to do some planning and exploring. I know the story I want to tell - the central one - but this novel needs much more than that. It's multi-layered and the other layers have to work too.
So the next couple of weeks will be thinking, writing, exploring, and then there's still rewriting on other projects to do.
Who has time for Christmas?

Today I did what any sensible writer does - I rewarded myself for writing. With a 45 minute Chinese massage. It was meant to be 20 minutes but the guy said my back was very stiff (it's called computer scrunch, a new medical term I invented) so I went for the extra 25 minutes. Floated home and promptly attacked a rewrite of 'The Littlest Pirate Number 3' which has been waiting for my scalpel for several weeks. I was hoping my brain had returned from the hidey-hole it had crawled into, but it only put in a pale appearance and then went again, so I struggled on by myself. I did manage to cut 400 words, only 100 short of what the editor asked for. And I left in most of the funny lines, I think. I hope.
On Friday I went to the Dromkeen lunch. For those of you not in Melbourne, Dromkeen is the homestead at Riddell's Creek, an hour from the city, which is a gallery and exhibition and workshop/school visit place that focuses on picture books. The lunch is an annual thing which honours librarians and has illustrators doing demonstrations. The guest during lunch was Marc McBride who does the Deltora covers and he created an airbrush painting of a dragon while we watched.
Every time I see what illustrators do, I go green with envy. They create such marvellous things. I did a little bit of video/filming for my teaching materials project at the university, but it was a horrible rainy day so not much scope.
Still reading the Sue Miller book.
Finally got around to copying some old files off my ancient computer in the office and now am not sure what to do with them. After having several floppy disks die on me recently, I'm loathe to leave the files on them. These file depositories in cyberspace sound interesting, but the mainfile at work might be more convenient. Ultimately I should print out hard copies too, but all that paper ... and as it is I have spent 3 hours today trying to tidy up the office. To add more seems self-defeating.
More rewrites coming up. I wish I could do both at the same time, i.e. alternate between first draft stuff on one book and rewriting on another, but this is one area where my brain seems to need to do one or the other, not both.

Nano sure does take up a lot of time! But it was inspiring and educational, if nothing else. It showed me I can write any time, any place (I have a photo of me with my laptop out in the woods, writing), and also fit in writing in the odd half hour if I really want to. It cured procrastination (not once did I have to use the alarm set up on my computer that is supposed to tell me to get writing or else!) and I got back into that old habit of continually keeping the novel in my head and thinking about what comes next so as soon as I sat down, I was ready to go.
All of that was very satisfying (but not always fun).
I also found that those people out in library research land are still being wonderful to me - hence an email to South Carolina resulted in an answer to a question that I had spent hours trying to find out via books and internet. Thank you!
On the down side, I am absolutely exhausted. As well as Nano, I had marking to do, then stuff started going wrong at work and things piled up at home, waiting for me to do them, and the pressure built. Mind you, chopping down a bouganvillea tree and feeding it into a mulcher did wonders for my aggro.
I did not reach 50,000 words. For one simple reason. I finished the novel I was working on. It came in at around 75,000 words (it was already started when I started Nano) and although I did start on a new novel the very next day and managed a couple of thousand words on it, I just couldn't continue. But I am very happy with my novel draft and looking forward to working on it more (probably cutting some of it for sure).
Now I am a vegetable, a reading vegetable, taking great pleasure in soaking up someone else's words. First up was Tess Gerritson's new book (yes NEW, unlike the last one) called "Vanished". That got four stars. Now I am reading Sue Miller's new book "A Walk in the Forest". Very different, not crime. And a weird point of view, as in many points of view. She changes from section to section, and you can't really call it omniscient POV because it's not distant. It's right inside each character's head and emotions. One to study.
Next on the pile is Marcus Zusak's new book "The Book Thief". Hope it's as good as everyone says it is.

Work stuff (that's the 9-5 thing I get regular money for) has obliterated my week. Here it is, Thursday, 24 days of Nano and I have only added 4000 words since last Saturday. So disappointing.
I think I'm also brain-dead, again work-related, and so I'm reading a lot of poetry right now to feed my creative brain rather than add more "work" to the mix.
No sense blogging though, when I could be Nano-ing!

After 18 days of Nano, I'm up to 25,000 words and still going. The novel I am working on has just hit 60,000 words, and my aim to complete it under 70,000 (because children's publishers don't like long novels unless you are JKR or writing fantasy) is looking possible. Even if I go over, I know I can still cut.
I have two manuscripts on my desk, waiting for editing and small rewrites to go back to an editor and I must start working on the first one ASAP. But it's so hard to stop Nano once you get into the swing of it. Any day that no writing is done feels like an empty day!
It has spin-offs too. I am writing poems at night, and rethinking a couple of half-finished short stories. But the novel is first.
Reading Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer" and enjoying it. It's that thing where you know you are in good (writer's) hands from the first few pages. Initially I was a bit worried that the main character was going to be unlikeable, but the author does that thing where you see other sides of him - in other words, complexity!! By the end of teaching and grading this year, I was becoming convinced that it was the key to the next level of improvement in so many novels I saw. Too many felt one-dimensional, focused only on the main character and even then his or her life and back story was so limited. No material for subplots or depth of feeling or motivation or any of those important things that draw the reader in.
As entertainment, I continue to read Miss Snark. There has been a bit of debate about whether she is really an agent but a lot of what she says sounds too industry-savvy and sensible to be a writers. On the other hand, another blog by someone called SammyK who says he is an agent is just too stupid and rude and obnoxious to be real.
Bought Rosalie Ham's new novel yesterday. Everyone I know to whom I have recommended her first book "The Dressmaker" has loved it. Fingers crossed this one is as good.
She writes adult fiction, by the way, and is Australian.

Grading is almost finished at last and NaNo is good! I passed 10,000 words on Wednesday, a miracle considering what else I have been doing. I'm amazed at how I really can find an hour to write at odd times, just because I have this target and don't want to fail by TOO much.
I am now a third of the way through "Icemark" and it still is a struggle. Having read lots of good reviews of it (and then reading the publisher's note which says that the author rang him up and pitched the story and it sounded so terrific that he just had to read the manuscript), I thought What am I missing here? What is the problem?
Maybe I'm just tired? But every time I think about it, it's that the main character is too flat. Yes, she's courageous and headstrong and brilliant at everything she does, but she doesn't feel real to me. And after about 80-90 pages, I think that is a problem. Other comments welcome!
I've bought four new books this week, as rewards for finishing all the school work. Started the Tess Gerritsen book and was very cross when I realised it wasn't new - it's a reprint of an old one with a new cover to match the others. I got sucked in by "branding"!! It's like Tami Hoag's early novels - way too much romance and not enough crime. Hoag changed the balance later in a big way, as did Gerritsen, but the soppy bits in this are too M&B for me.
Bought Marcus Zusak's new book "The Book Thief" and also Michael Connelly's new one. Ah... holiday reading. Nothing like it. Once work is finished I tend to read until my eyes fall out of my head.
But I will still be writing, never fear.

Student grading is nearly finished, and NaNoWriMo keeps going. I'm up to 4315 words, not keeping on target but good considering the workload of all those student novels to read and comment on. I can't see me hitting the 50,000 but I am writing every day, even if only for 30-45 minutes. That's all it takes!
Have started reading "The Cry of the Icemark" and so far it's not doing much for me. Maybe I'm a bit impatient with fantasy at the moment. Sometimes I just have to be in the right mood for it, which I guess says I'm not a dedicated fantasy reader. Well, I already knew that.
Two of my classes this week have focused on "The First Five Pages" - it's been a good exercise to briefly look at the main points from the book. Then I asked them to evaluate the first five pages of a fellow student's novel. I didn't read their comments, just told them to pretend they were overworked editors at publishing houses! It's always good for me to be reminded of that stuff too.
One of my other goals this week is to add some photos and other stuff to my website. I also have to alter the work website as our course is changing next year so a lot of the info has to be updated. I practice on the site at work, then I come home and feel more confident about altering my own!
As an aside, I'm wondering when Miss Snark might be inspired to write her own book?

My internet connection is being incredibly slow this morning, so things had better not disappear into black holes - mind you, there is an apartment building in Sydney at the moment that is doing exactly that. Disappearing into a hole, thanks to tunnel construction.
NaNoWriMo has started, and so have I. Tally so far - 500 words. Probably nothing today, although my writing group is having a writing session so if I carried my laptop inside from my writing hovel in the back yard... Yes, good thinking. I did have a short story I wanted to work on, but I guess it could wait.
Finished reading Doris's novel last night - "Forgotten Dreams". I kept thinking it was going to have romance in it, but of course it didn't. It was a good read, lots of twists and turns, and with the religious connections and mystery in it, it felt a little like Australia's answer to the da Vinci Code. Except Doris would probably bop me for saying that!
Student grading goes on, and on. I made the fatal mistake of doing all the good ones first, and so had to tightly rein in my impatience when I got to the not-so-good students and discovered there were still people not able to work out how to indent their paragraphs. How hard is it, for gosh sake??
Reading Miss Snark's blog daily at the moment - such a tonic!

I cannot believe I just finished typing this long entry and it has now disappeared somewhere, simply because I tried to Bold a word - and the whole thing vanished! Grrrrr. There are times I wonder if LiveJournal might be more cooperative.
So a quick reading summary: "Simon Says" Elaine Marie Alphin - very intense and dark.
"The First Five Pages" Noah Lukeman - reading again to present the main points to my novel writing students at the end of the semester (which is very soon - yaayyy!)
"From Where You Dream" Robert Olen Butler - also about writing, focus on literary fiction. Lots to take in. A slow read but very interesting.
"Forgotten Dreams" Doris Leadbetter - novel by my dear friend who died last December and never got to see her book in print. For all you procrastinators - write now! And submit when it's ready.
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo - write a novel in a month - November 1-30 to be exact. I am determined to get this historical novel finished (draft 6) and hope the November thing will get me moving. Never mind how much student writing I have to grade!
Now to post this before it vanishes again.

Having lugged home a box of books weighing about 26 pounds, plus another 8-10 pounds in my carry-on bag, I thought it was time I did a short round-up of what I have read so far.
"Catalyst" by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA fiction). I loved her first novel "Speak" and enjoyed this one almost as much. She has a wonderful way with voice, and with seeing right inside a teen character without making her sound whiny or immature. Recommended.
"Olive's Ocean" by Kevin Henkes (mg fiction). I did like this, but felt at times that the character and the story he was trying to tell was bigger than he could manage. Very occasionally it felt slight somehow, and I didn't feel that the whole thing about Olive dying and the ocean was as well handled as it could have been. But still a good book and very accessible to mg readers (who wouldn't be as critical as me!).
"Dead Run" by PJ Tracey (crime fiction) - excellent - up to their usual standard (it's a collaboration like Nicci French), with lots of twists and turns, and female characters who are very real and full of guts.
Two novels by John Harvey while I was away - both very good - that I passed on to a friend.
"Word Work" by Bruce Holland Rogers (writing book). Full of stuff about being a writer rather than writing craft and how-to. I really liked the bits about Pig Will and Pig Won't - did the exercises which was enlightening - and also about writing rituals. Later chapters on rejection and sticking at it also good value. This was a very intensive read, there was so much in it. Worth going back and re-reading bits for more thinking later.
As for writing, I did about 3 hours today (yaaaayyyy!). OK, it was rewriting but what is writing but making it better? This is draft No. 8 of my mg novel, and the ending needs more fixing. Obviously since I have spent a year working on my plotting and have improved on that, now I need to spend another year working on my endings! Thank goodness for honest writing friends who can critique fearlessly. Thanks, you lot.
I have downloaded an alarm clock for my computer which is designed to get me off the internet (my favorite procrastination tool). When the alarm goes off, a siren sounds and the words pop up on the screen, telling me it's time to WRITE!!!

The inclination is to say "Now I'm back in the real world' but of course Tucson and San Antonio were the real world too. It was just that it was a world with no bills, no teaching to prepare for, no student work to grade, no phone to answer, and lots of new things to see and do. It's kind of a jolt to come back to day-to-day living and realise how little time I have to write, how many small chores there are to do that fill up the hours in a flash, how I am going to have to get back to strong determination just to carve out time to write.
Stupidly, I had set all three classes an assignment due in this week. The advantage is, once they're done, it'll be another 3 weeks before the end of semester work piles up, waiting to be graded.
But then (I raise my head for a moment and gaze at the distant horizon where the word HOLIDAYS hovers) I really will have more time to write.
I collected my second film from the photo place today and gazed longingly at the photos, especially the one of the InTown Suites. A very boring building to look at, but that quiet room ...
OK, I'll stop complaining now. Besides, there is rugby on TV to watch, glass of wine in hand. The day is over.

Back in Australia. Weather brisk and sunny, not as cold as I feared. Either that or I am still retaining inner warmth from my trip. Bones not coping well with the long flight home. I began seizing up around Hour no. 5 and still feel like someone attacked my hips with a hammer. I know they say to get up and walk around in the plane, but that is easier said than done when the aisles are narrow and there is nowhere much to go except around and up and down, annoying people. I had an exit seat (which means the flight attendants ask you if you are willing to help people get out of the plane if it crashes - oh yes, of course, you say, while wondering how likely it is that you will still be alive yourself) so plenty of leg room for exercises. However, 13 hours of sitting in one place tends to make the body groan.
No movies worth watching again so I read and read and read, ending up with scratchy eyes but it passed the time. Also managed a bit of sleep. I seem to remember flying to the US a few years ago and being fed about 4 times until I thought I would explode (when bored, it is always a diversion to eat, even when not hungry). Now you get 2 meals, and a snack halfway through the night if you are desperate. I have never been served meatloaf on a plane before and never wish to again. But the breakfast pancakes were quite edible.
Kristi and I packed in more writing and talking about writing and critiquing and discussion and reading in 5 days than I've ever had. I think we both found it inspiring and I hope we can also use what we gained to help us into better writing "mindsets". We both experience the dilemma of teaching (as a regular income) and then finding that it drains us for writing. And also the dilemma of needing at times to sell work and trying to balance that with writing the "heart" books.
Publishing has changed in the past ten years. She has been publishing longer than me, and agrees that things are more difficult, especially the aspect of knowing where you are with a publisher. Often your editor leaves, or there are cutbacks, or a change of direction - no one tells you what is going on, or if they try, it may be inaccurate. So you are left hanging in the wind, waiting for a contract that may never come, even after having verbal offers made and dates set. It all can disappear in a week. At least I have not had the experience of having a book of mine published without my permission (or a contract).
These kinds of experiences for authors (effects of changes at publishers) seem to be such a common occurrence now. Witness the changes and upheaval at Simon & Schuster children's publishing over the past few months.
Enough of this philosophising! I have done a lot of clothes washing, half of my class preparation for this week, opened a foot-high pile of mail, caught up on most emails and restocked the cupboards with fresh food. Now if I could train my brain to stop waking up at 3am, thinking it's time to get up, I will be OK.

Sitting at LA airport, pounding away on a fold-down terminal. I have tried this before and I can tell you that: a) the keyboards always require concentrated pounding with much correcting, and b) the Control C function that usually allows you to copy in case your email goes to the great black hole does not work, so that any email carefully constructed will immediately disappear, leaving you to say a variety of words that would make hair curl. So. Whatever appears on this blog will be serendipity, and all spelling and spacing errors are to be ignored.
Kristi and I have spent 5 lovely days talking writing. We have managed some tourist excursions, a lot of eating, some visits to the gym (to counteract eating) and much talking. And some critiquing. All very good.
Now I am on the way home, inflatable pillow in hand (new because I can't find my other one) and books handy in case I can't sleep. Luggage includes box of books and a range of souvenirs. Snake photo will appear on website soon!

Monday - a quiet day, reading writing books and talking. I am reading '78 reasons why your book may never get published and 14 reasons why it just might' by Pat Walsh. Some great observations on the publishing industry. A few to depress you, a few to make you feel optimistic (if you are an optimist!). Went to the gym and worked off some sludgy couch-potato feelings and limbered up some muscles and sciatic nerves. We also did some stuff on close reading and talked about language and style a lot. Good things for writers to do!
Today Kristi and I went into the city on the bus and walked along the River Walk. It was created in 1941 but only made really beautiful and safe for the tourists in the last 15 years or so, I think. Before then it was a great place to get mugged, apparently. Now you walk down steps from the street to the river level and then walk along under bridges and through gardens etc. There is one place which is a theatre, with the stage on one side of the river and the amphitheatre on the other (the river is only about 20 feet wide, by the way). Looked in some shops in the little Mexican village behind the amphitheatre - there was a shop there called the Starving Artists' Gallery so of course we looked in that one too.
Did a little shopping in the River Centre - big shopping centre - and had lunch outside by the water, listening to a Mexican band, which was very relaxing. Then went to the Alamo. The buildings are made out of limestone, or at least the actual mission is, and you weren't allowed near the walls or to touch them. The guide showed us a doorway where the stone was dark and scuffed from people touching it. Saw a 15 minute movie about the battle, then went into the mission. No photos allowed inside, which was a pity as the postcard I got doesn't do it justice. Nothing like the one at San Xavier, which was all painted. This one is just the original walls - stark and full of a different kind of history.
Saw four squirrels in the gardens and spent some time in the gift shop getting little bits of stuff.
The museum part wasn't open unfortunately - being renovated.
Came home tired out from the walking and the heat and humidity - had to soak my feet in a tub for a while! Then we ordered in pizza and watched a video.

I obviously am time-zone addled, for several reasons as will become apparent. But I have just realised that my blog is using Australian time for posting, therefore my day out with tour guide Al was really Thursday, Arizona time.
Friday morning I spoke to a class of trainee teachers at the Pima College Desert Vista campus. They were a lovely group, and I focused more on children's books and publishing and school visit experiences. It was a shorter session that I expected, but good value. I gave the course teacher some of my books and she is going to pass them on to some of the schools she visits in the poorer areas of Tucson where they have few resources. I did think I would donate some to Hurricane Katrina library causes but they are all saying no more books, only money.
Lunchtime I went to the gym to iron out some aches and pains, then I gave my car back to the rental people. Meg and I went downtown, looking at Mexican furniture shops and then craft shops. We finally went to 4th Avenue, had dinner at a Guatemalan restaurant, then went to a poetry reading at Antigones book shop. A poet - Barrie Ryan - and a novelist. Very interesting readings. I like to hear people's different reading styles. Antigones is a feminist book shop, with some great Tshirts and gifts too. I particularly liked the huge coffee cup that read 'She Who Must Be Obeyed'. Managed to restrain myself from buying 3 books, including the new edition of Best American Short Stories. It will be 3 months before I can get it in Melbourne. Oh well.
We finished the night with a margarita, as you should do on your last night in Tucson! Early rising on Saturday to get to the airport. I had loaded most of my books into my carry-on bags, and then wished I had someone large and muscley to carry them for me. Meg waved me off and I was very sad to leave.
Had to travel via Denver, and that's where the problems occurred. After wasting $5 on an internet terminal that had a terrible keyboard which then deleted my 15 minutes worth of mad pounding on the keys, I thought - go and have a coffee and relax, so I did. I had a large coffee, I read my book, I wrote two poems, I relaxed.
Then I went to the toilet, then I wandered down to my departure lounge. On the way I double-checked the gate number and ... funny, I thought. My flight has disappeared off the screen. Then I checked the clock, to discover that there was one hour time difference in Denver from Tucson and my flight had gone without me.
Panic. Went straight to the service desk (which sounds like a simple walk except I am carrying about 20kilos of books in my two carry-on bags so it was more like a stagger) and luckily they got me on the next flight but I had another 2-1/2 hours to wait. As you can imagine, I stayed right by the gate for the whole time! After calling Kristi to tell her I was going to be arriving 3 hours late.
San Antonio is way greener than Tucson - trees, lawns and not a cactus in sight. But it is very muggy, like the difference between Melbourne and Sydney in the middle of summer. I don't do well in humidity but it is still 10 degrees F cooler than Tucson so I guess I will survive. There's always good old air conditioning for wimps like me.
Today Brian (who Kristi and I met at Chatauqua) came down from Austin to visit and we spent the whole day talking about writing and publishing. It was very entertaining but also instructive and inspiring - we shared publishing horror stories and talked about what we're writing and why. When we came back from having dinner down the road, there were two deer on the side road.
Brian told me his two daughters have pet snakes, but yes, their cat is quite interested in the snakes. They live in aquarium-type containers so it would be like having fish or frogs. But I still don't think I could feed a snake live mice. That seems too mean.
At some point this week we are going on the River Walk and to the Alamo. Am looking forward to it, and to finding out from the airline if I can pack my books into a box to go with my suitcase.

Touring day today. My special tour guide, Al, took me first up A Mountain, a small mountain (hill?) by Tucson that has a huge letter A on top of it. Symbol of the University of Arizona. Many stories about the painting of the A, and how each year newbies to UA have to climb up and repaint it. Great views of Tucson. And we also saw another road runner that stopped and posed so I could get a photo of it.
Then over Gates Pass. We diverted into the viewing area near the top, to interrupt half a dozen motor cycle police all neatly lined up with their shiny bikes having a photo taken. From the viewing point, we could see across to the mountains (including the observatory) and the water recharging area where they are taking water from the Colorado River and putting it back into the underground water table.
The mission of San Xavier was very old and beautiful. Many relics and icons and statues, as well as paintings on the walls. As it was a weekday, there weren't many tourists and it was very quiet and peaceful. Celebrations for St Francis of Assisi are coming up so the statue that they carry around was out of its resting place, ready for the ceremonies. They have candles that people light for blessings and prayers but you can only use the ones there which are specially developed so they don't make more soot and pollute the paintings. I only had my digital camera with flash inside so I hope the photos are light enough to see the details.
From there we drove to Tubac, which is a small town on the way to Nogales (Mexican border). Many craftspeople live and exhibit there - there are more than 20 shops selling everything from pots and garden ornaments to jewellery, Tshirts, paintings. sculptures, every kind of craft you can think of. Plus galleries showing artwork of all kinds. I saw many things that I would have loved to buy, especially some of the large pots and ceramics. There were also a lot of Indian crafts, including arrows, wall hangings and beadwork.
On the way back we were stopped by the Border Patrol for a check. A large sign by the road said they had apprehended over 9000 illegal immigrants - I presume they meant this year. And 2.2 kilos of cocaine.
Home again and a big thank you to Al. He was incredibly knowledgeable and I have a potted history of Arizona now, as well as a number of interesting facts and stories. I collected my photos (thankfully OK) and investigated posting some of my books and papers home - $46 minimum, from what I was told, so that isn't going to happen.
Have relaxed tonight, done some laundry (all currently hanging around the room as yet again I didn't have enough quarters for the dryer) and catching up now on emails.
Tomorrow I am off to speak to a class of trainee teachers, then have to return my car to the rental place and meet up with Meg for dinner and poetry reading.

Another busy day, although no classes today. I'm starting to lose track of the days but I think that's because I did the weekend workshop and those two days felt like a Monday and Tuesday. Hard to believe that I only have two full days left.
This morning I went to the Poetry Centre at the University of Arizona. The Centre has a huge library of poetry books and journals and magazines - I got to have a quick look at a few, including a few I have never heard of. They have poetry from all over the world - I saw books there by Les Murray and Alan Goudge, among others - and a lot of videos/DVDs and audio CDs of poets reading. They have a big program of visiting poets and many of their photos were on the walls.
I talked to Maurynne, who works with lots of kids, doing poetry classes with them, mainly out in the schools. She has just finished working on a book which is about "teaching" poetry to 4-6 year olds. It sounds really good so I have put in an order. Arizona has an artists' register so schools can contact artists to work with their students. It sounds a little like our Artists-in-Schools program.
I would love to see a poetry centre at Vic Uni, but don't know how much support I would get! Maurynne said there is a very active, enthusiastic poetry "network" in Tucson so lots of things happen.
Then I walked around the university - up the main boulevard under the palm trees, enjoying the sun for a little while before it got too hot. I had a salad in the caf and visited the bookshop (of course). Tonight is the memorial service for the young female basketballer who died the other day - she had a clot in her lung, apparently. Only twenty-two. Very sad. She was a popular, well-liked girl.
Then I drove to the biggest Borders in Tucson where I finally found a copy of the one writing book I had been after - "From Where You Dream" by Robert Olen Butler. Then I wasn't sure if I wanted it or not (hard cover - $24 - it was the weight more than the price!!) so sat and read bits for half an hour until I decided yes. I liked the bit in the introduction that talks about two different writers inside us - the one who wants to write and the one who doesn't. In order to write, you have to fool the one who doesn't.
Wandered around the shopping centre for about an hour, looking at clothes - didn't buy anything but saw some lovely things (in the really expensive shop of course). The shops here are a shopaholic's paradise. I could have gone to the third Bookman's but I was very stern with myself and went home instead.
Got home and there was a message from Meg - inviting me out to dinner with her husband and Robert, the journalism teacher. So we went to Li'l Abner's and the steaks were very very good. That's my iron for the week!
Tomorrow I am off touring with my tour guide again - the mission and a place called Tubac where there are a lot of crafts and some very old buildings. I put my first 35mm film in for developing tonight, with some trepidation. I've had two films damaged in processing recently, and I just hate to lose photos, but I decided if something happens, I would have time to take one or two replacement photos, whereas if the film gets damaged by security Xray on the way home, that would be it.
Am also taking digital photos but the SLR produces such quality landscape photos that I prefer it.