Settling into Life in Richmond

Cool Blue Evenings at the Edge of November

Leaves are falling here in Richmond and the cooler temperatures make for nice walking weather. I’ve taken to riding my bike around the neighborhood, picking up a soda from the 7-11 on the loop back home and I find that I’m beginning to enjoy life here. I have a full library of new books, a warm bed and tomato soup and grilled cheese when I come home from a long day at the Writing Center. It’s quiet where I live and so I get my work done, read in my big comfy chair and sit out on the back stoop to eat dinner and watch the neighbor’s cat stalking finches in the high grass.

While I mourn the loss of Boston from the World series, life has taken an upswing in the past few days, for a few reasons. I got a new computer and I dropped the evil composition class that was bringing down my self esteem and my grades. I picked up the perfect eight-hour-battery-life computer and NaNoWriMo starts in just a few weeks. I'll be running through it with my friend, Kathy from Travel Well, Leave None Behind. I’m preparing myself to pick up North of the Line once more. This story has followed me for most of my adolescent life and has surfaced once again in graduate school.

The Great Story

I think, and please don’t judge me for this, that each author has that one great epic story they want to tell. That story will haunt each of us until we write it and define our writing life when we do. Maybe some of you don’t believe in this, but I do. North of the Line has been that story. I have figured out quite a few things about myself in writing this story and I love it for its sudden complexities and its characters, each of whom embody specifics of my own life. The story has also matured as I have come up through college and I am pleased at the changes it has endured in the past few years. While grad school has become the bane of my existence for the moment, this story has become a way for me to escape and enjoy writing again.

Holding the Line.
Bri