Have you seen my schedule? For the last year, I have been burning up the roadways and airways promoting Silver Sparrow. It has been an amazing experience, but I am tired, y’all. Tired. I am sure there must be a french word for when you are exhausted and delighted at the same time. I am basically done with the road in August and I need some Tayari Time.
There are two types of Tayari Time. The first will be an old fashioned vay-cay. I thought about checking myself into a fitness retreat where you work out, eat vegetables, and drink water– basically de-tox. No doubt such a regimen would do me good after eating nothing but room service for about three months straight. But for some reason, a brocoli kale smoothie experience seemed too much like work. So, as a gift to myself, I booked myself a week in Antigua where I will do nothing but lay up. I will not take my manuscript with me. I will not hit the gym while I am there. I am taking my big floppy hat and a dozen paperbacks. I will drink pina coladas at the swim-up bar.
But there is the other sort of Tayari Time and that involves my writing. I confess that I do hardly any writing on the road. I have tried. Other writers have given me helpful hints, but when I am on tour, I am bringng my A-game to my events and when I make it back to my hotel, I fall face-first into bed.
Luckily, I had a sabbatical in January and I am going to apply to various artists colonies for the months of February and March. I have been to a few colonies in the past and I find that I work really well in the peaceful settings provided by such retreats. I am going to apply to Ucross because I have heard such good things about it. And besides, I have never been to Wyoming. I’ll also apply to MacDowell because it’s my favorite.
Does anyone have any recommendations about where a writer can go to recharge?