Starting a day in the back of my kitchen before heading to the office in Chester.
It’s been a heck of a busy summer, and next week I’ll be taking some time off with my daughters and husband. Then from September 1-11 I’ll be on a writing retreat in northern New Hampshire. But I won’t be out of touch.
In these last busy days before vacation, I’ve been:
* Revising the proposal for my book about Laura Ingalls Wilder. I published a feature in the Ideas section of the Boston Globe about the roots of the Libertarian party as found in Wilder’s “Little House” books—with the encouragement and help of my colleagues in Mark Kramer’s writing workshop, particularly Farah Stockman.
* Reviewing the manuscript of Appalachia journal’s winter/spring 2014 issue. I’m gathering the last photos for that issue, which includes four features about escaping to wild lands.
* Editing Connecticut Woodlands magazine’s fall issue, which goes into production next week. It will explore the world of inventor Curtis Veeder, who gave Connecticut its Penwood State Park in Bloomfield, through which winds part of the Metacomet portion of the New England Trail—one of my favorite places to hike.
* Researching and interviewing an article for Wrack Lines, the magazine published by Connecticut Sea Grant, on how the coastal towns are dealing with the here-and-now realities of faster sea-level rise and more frequent storms. Would you believe that the conservation director in Greenwich has an expanded job description? She works at the emergency operations center during big storms, directing emergency crews onto streets that won’t flood. She knows which ones now lie too low.
I love all this and would love to hear from anyone with story ideas or comments.
