Here I am, happily meeting my goal on day four at Weymouth. This has been an absolutely amazing retreat and we have two and a half days left. I’ve written 13,160 words (approximately 53 pages). Granted, they are sloppy, disorganized pages, but I’m thrilled with them. My characters are surprising me at every turn.

The past few days have shown me what I can accomplish if I don’t let the laundry/dogs/cooking/and–most importantly, email–get in the way. (Blogging gets in the way, too, but I refuse to give that up). Once I get back to real life, I’m going to have to cut back my pace a bit, but I plan to do my best to keep rolling. It’s such a good feeling!

Tonight, Mary Kay is making dinner, and the aroma from her slow cooker pot roast has been filling the mansion all day long. One of us has cooked each night (Sarah=quiche; Margaret=veggie soup, Bren=cuban chicken with beans and rice). Tomorrow night (Friday) we go out to dinner, and Saturday, Katy and I plan to make a special Valentine’s Day meal. We’ve all agreed with our significant others to move Valentine’s Day to Sunday this year, so we can stay one more day at the mansion. We are very lucky to have understanding, indulgent families!

The room I’m working in (above) is the library. It’s definitely our favorite room here. It’s huge and the walls are lined with photographs of all the writers who’ve been inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame over the years. (Inducted in this very room, I might add). The table in the background is where we eat, even though it’s about a mile from the kitchen. It’s also where we play games at night (Taboo, Balderdash and Apples to Apples).

There are horses on the property and most of my fellow retreaters are horse people, so they’ve been going out to the paddock and stable to feed them each day. I don’t know a thing about horses except that they’re BIG, so tomorrow I’m going to be brave and join the horse people for a visit to the stable. If you don’t hear from me again, you’ll know it didn’t go well.

Right now, though, I’m going to see if I can make it an even 13,200.