Red sky at night...

An intriguing sunset tonight, with streaks of red/plum clouds to the west. On the busy street just at the end of my small block a fire truck and an ambulance just raced northwards while a police car, lights & siren, crossed past them racing south. It's the last evening of my week-long vacation; tomorrow is back to work. Of course I haven't done nearly all I set out intending to do, and of course I'm feeling as though I've let myself down. Bah.

While perusing the Alliance of Artists Communities directory, I stumbled across a lovely retreat on the very south end of the Big Island of Hawai'i. Certainly something that bears thinking about. My writing has benefited, in the past, from stumbling into new landscapes -- Provincetown, Maui. I know I can't possibly afford a two-week Hawaiian retreat (even though they offer the space very inexpensively) and a Provincetown workshop next year; hell, the way my finances are going lately, I'm going to consider myself very fortunate if I can swing P-town even for a long weekend. I'm going to look into grants, although I have found out that the Indiana Arts Commission has yet to disburse funds promised for this year's individual artist grants, and under the current governor's administration I fully expect arts funding to be drastically cut. Sigh. Maybe I'll win the Powerball.

I will manage something next spring or summer, though -- some kind of a workshop or retreat. I can do the IU Writers' Conference relatively inexpensively, since it requires no travel and I don't end up eating too many meals out (lunch on campus, usually, and maybe dinner once with fellow conferees); alternatively, I could try to rent a cabin or stay at the inn in one of the state parks (I could camp, but my middle-aged back requires a proper bed), take my journal and my laptop and a pile of books and call it a writing retreat.

Unless, of course, I do win that Powerball, in which case my entire life will be a writing retreat. ;)