SOAPSTONE RESIDENCY

Soapstone is a splendid writers residency retreat for two women at a time. Each has her own cabin and studio space, heated with wood stove. Photos from my 2006 residency are on Flickr.

I'm delighted to report that I'll be on residency at Soapstone, this time in the Wind Studio. Living quarters and writing studio are stacked on top of each other in the cube pictured here. There's no cell reception and I'm not bringing a computer. Yay! Just ink bottles, fountain pens, and loads of paper.

I've gotten a few emails: am I really writing a book called "Eat, Pray, Kill"? Uh, well, sort of. I'm really writing a book, and given its subject matter—a woman getting through a tough life experience, traveling, having a spiritual crisis, and all that good stuff—taking the working title off "Eat, Pray, Love" cracked me up. It's unlikely to be the final title, and so far, the book is taking its time to reveal its shape.

EAT, PRAY, KILL: WRITING IN NANOWRIMO

This is my first year attempting NaNoWriMo, an annual event in which thousands of people jam out a novel in 30 days. Mine's a "true life novel," memoirish sort of thing.

"Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives."
—from the NaNoWriMo FAQ, 2009

"Draw, Antonio, draw!'
—Michelangelo's late-in-life advice to his assistant

"Spew, Tiffany, spew!"
—my advice to myself, to get the raw materials of this book out of me and onto the page, however nonlinear, unstructured, and unedited those raw materials might be...