13 March 2020

I’m holed up in a hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with a partial ocean view. I can see a sliver of the ocean from the corner of the room where I write, but it was a cheap hotel. I’ve stayed in worse, I’ve stayed in better – but for what it is, it’ll work. Between the ocean waves, the loud cars on the strip, and the drunken tourists, it’s everything I thought it would be.

I turned off the AC unit and opened the sliding glass door to my balcony and it’s made all the difference. Cityscape noise is a great background to writing for me.

My goodness, I need to be in Paris!

I almost cancelled this trip because of the coronaviruus. I had my cafes, restaurants, and bars planned out – but I scrapped all that for meals I can make in a microwave to avoid the public and a bottle of wine. Still, I don’t think anyone got the memo there is a pandemic of epic proportions underway.

I’m basically self-quarantining in a hotel, after wiping down every surface in here with bleach wipes.

I’m surprised there are so many people here. My favorite so far were the twenty year old couple from a college in Michigan who didn’t realize the hotel had age restrictions when booking for spring break. I think they got it all sorted out with the help of parents.

I received some unexpected good news my first night: my first ever book proposal was submitted to a publishing world person to read – and it came back to me copy edited! COPY EDITED! I thought I was going to get the “No publishing company would ever read this drivel” or “It’s okay for a start, but….” and instead it came back with copy edits. I want to cry I am so happy! I’m doing my best not to get a fat head over it.

Tonight was a warm up with some wine and light writing. Tomorrow the real stuff begins – writingthe first two chapters. I have all my pre-writing research done, it’s just a matter of spinning the words into chapters.

But I’ll do all that after coffee, breakfast, and a beach run.