Day Thirty-Nine: Packing, Portia, and Giving Up on No Sleep

(To the left:) our neighborhood in a week./ (In the center:) me packing./ (To the right:) the moment I realized that Paris was going to force me to kick my pop habit.

 So after fighting my little battle against forthcoming jet lag, one of my Ireland professors finally spoke up on Facebook and clued me in that what I was doing was not worth it.

I immediately went to bed and felt a billion times better.

The rest of the day was listening to music, planning the next scene in my book, and packing packing packing. I couldn't believe it was becoming real. I've got less than 48 hours and I'm on a plane to Ireland. Wow.

I decided to pull out those travel books I collected when I was a kid, and got excited about how close everything was. How beautiful Dingle is.

I then got to sit down with a full brain and write the first scene with Portia. Oh Portia. It was so much fun.

Kaitlin reminded me the other day that even though it's a dark story, there are going to be moments that will stick out to readers: the moments where characters connect with the readers. And I think that's helped me in this chapter that I wrote tonight. I remembered to have fun, to reach out and make the reader enjoy their time in this hellish landscape.

So thanks, Kate. You're a rock star.

Also, this is the most amazing musical ever, and I may or may not have been listening to it way too much: