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Posts Tagged ‘Wassamki Springs’

Maine Moose and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 25, 2011| 6 Comments »

 “Write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” – Agatha Christie

 

The view out my RV window at Wassamki Springs in Maine. I wanna go back. -- Photo by Pat Bean

NaNoWriMo Update … 40,035 words

First Maggie got the doggie runs. She needed to go out every hour on the hour for the entire night. The consequences of not crawling down from my bed over the cab of my small RV was enough to make sure I kept getting up hour after hour.

So I awoke with very little sleep, and so my writing suffered. My best writing occurs when I am in bed by 10 p.m. and get up and get in front of my computer by 5 or 6 a.m.

Second it was Thanksgiving, and there was family around that needed my attention, or I needed theirs, or whatever. And calls from family far away, and too much eating going on, followed by several games of Settlers, none of which I won.

And so my writing suffered.

Today, with the end of NaNo only five days away, it was back to the keyboard. My decision to demand everyone leave me alone, however, has probably earned me a few black marks in my ledger. It’s the big Christmas decorating-day here at my son’s house in Harker Heights.

My daughter-in-law looked shocked when I refused the call to arms.

The upside, however, is that today I got past the 40,000 word mark. if I write 2,000 words a day for the next five days, I will meet the 50,000-word goal.

What I have going for me is that I think I’ve figured things out in my head on how my story is going to end. And that in my 37 years as a journalist I never missed a deadline.

I’m also thinking that my conclusion might not take the book all the way to 50,000 words, but I’m hoping that’s the case. I have lots of extra scenes in mind to flesh out what is already written. The trick will be to add these scenes without deleting all the unnecessary and redundant words that go into all my first drafts.

It takes much longer to write short than it does long.

So now if you’ll excuse me, I still have writing I can do today. I don’t want to push that deadline beyond my capability.


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When a Log is Not a Log

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on November 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Travels With Maggie

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” — Aristotle 

The floating log that first I saw morphed into a magnificent moose. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Wassamki Springs, Scarborough, Maine 

A revolving scenic landscape as a front yard is one of the best things about living in a home on wheels. Between lakes, mountains, red rocks, forests, wildflowers and visiting wildlife, it would be hard to pick one of nature’s gardens as my favorite view. But the one that riveted my attention at Wasssamki Springs Campground in Scarborough, Maine, on a September morning is certainly one I will never forget. 

 At first I thought it was just a log floating in the misty lake beside which my RV was parked. But as the object came closer it grew antlers, large ones that spread out across the top of its head. The huge moose ended its swim on a spit of sand just about 30 yards away from my front door. 

Then, casually, ignoring several of us campers who had stepped out of our motorhomes for a better look, it lumbered through the campground and then into the forest behind us. 

Maggie’s preference for sleeping in caused her miss the event. She only woke as I returned inside. She wagged her tail at the smile on my face, then clearly informed me she was ready for her morning walk now.

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