Turning Leaves, Lit Crawl Seattle, Bainbridge Visits, and Balancing Introvert/Extrovert Time
- At October 20, 2015
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
Can’t believe it’s already late October, with the leaves changing and the days growing darker and shorter as we slip towards winter. (Above is a shot of the Japanese gardens a few days ago…)
Got back yesterday late from a visit to my former home island, Bainbridge Island, for a visit to a book club to discuss Unexplained Fevers – proof that you just have to be up for discussing all your books all the time! Ha! Anyway, it was a little drizzly, but we did get a beautiful view of the sunset over the water, and then the Seattle skyline on the way home.
- Bremerton ferry at sunset from BI
- Seattle nighttime skyline
In two days Seattle’s Lit Crawl is coming up, and I’m reading at 7 PM at Capitol Cider with LA Review! There’s an after party at Fred Wildlife Refuge starting at 9 PM where they’re having a mini bookfair – and I hope I’ll see you there! I’m also hoping to meet in person old blog friend Neil Aitken who is reading for Kundiman. It’s so fun to see people you’ve been internet-friends with for years! This is the kind of thing that makes you feel lucky to live in such a cool literary town.
- Aw, Glenn and I at the Japanese gardens
- Me with red Japanese maple
Here’s a few more pictures from fall in the Japanese gardens in Seattle. We took a trip to Open Books and Bulldog newsstand too, which made it an almost-perfect fall day. We’ve been running around a lot, and for me, as a writer, it’s tough to keep up the balance between extroversion and introversion – fall usually makes me crave more alone time with my books and magazines, time to write and sip hot chocolate (or in my case, a cold-curing concoction of honey, cranberry and pomegranate juice.) I’ve been struggling with staying “up” for events and still having energy to do my writing stuff – I got a rejection from a state grant yesterday, which was rough, I’ve been sick and not sleeping well, and I’m still sending out the fifth manuscript hoping for good news there. The antidote for lots of writer events is downtime, and doing things that feed the writer spirit – art, coffee shops, reading, and solitude. It’s hard to have the perfect balance of the writing life – and October ended up being a lot busier than I planned – so I’m going to try to take a little more off time in November…