Organizing your writing life

GOING FOR BROKE: I bought my plane ticket to the UK yesterday. Spent $550, which is cheap compared to some of the other rates I've seen. It was a special I found out about and I immediately jumped on it. This is the first time I've found a roundtrip to London for less than $700 during my travel dates in the fall. Since fuel charges have increased, the days of cheap deals to Europe are over. Your ticket might be $350 bucks, but they tack on several hundred dollars more. It's insane. Remember when you could fly to Europe for $200 or $300 bucks in the off season? Damn...I miss that.

The picture at right is Keepers Cottage in Haworth, Yorkshire where I'll be spending the first part of my trip. This is the "Wuthering Hike," where some of us will be climbing Top Withens, the supposed location of Wuthering Heights. I'll be sharing the cottage (located on Bronte Street, natch) with six friends, plus many others who will be staying nearby. If the weather is terrible (and it usually is), we'll probably spend most of the weekend down the pub. Then I'll come back to London for a week and another weekend. I'm hoping to have two readings set up by then. It's in the works, but I can't give details yet. Needless to say, I'm thrilled about the idea of giving my first international readings.

This is going to be an expensive trip, and since I'm not made of money and my credit cards are nearly maxed, I'm going to be searching for other cash options. Maybe more freelancing for mags, editing, selling my body on street corners, etc. If anyone has some leads do pass them along. You have to pay for your thrills...and my thrills are expensive.