I'm writing from Nebraska City - I'll be here 4 weeks, writing, editing, reading and engaged in thoughtful relaxation with a healthy mix of merrymaking. Oh, and I also receive a weekly stipend. My bedroom and office are perfect. I never want to leave.

Jenni and Pat, who take charge of this enterprise, are lovely women - there when you need and absent when you need the quiet for thought and creation.

My good friend Megan Kruse, a fine writer, was here just before me - we missed each other by three days. I arrived in a rain squall that still left clots of ice and snow. I am in her vacated space. She left me a bottle of red wine, chocolate with sea salt and pecans, a small tin engraving, notes, fortunes from cookies, I'm still finding clues to her stay here.

I'm coming up on the end of editing a novella and have started an essay. I'll be reading on March 1st. I am also ready to move on to a novel, exhausted as I am from treating mental patients and writing about it. When I return to Portland, I'll be in Tom Spanbauer's Dangerous Writers group. It's wonderful to look forward to, but for now, I am content here.