I am a day late in blogging because yesterday, in honor of the fifth Valentine book being finished (don’t get excited, it’s just the rough draft) I played hooky.

The Selkie and I went one a long road trip, out to Cannon Beach, Seaside, Ecola State Park, the wreck of the Peter Iredale, and finished up at the abandoned battery out at Fort Stevens. In short, it was a day to feed the Muse, and she hungrily gulped down all we could offer. Pictures are forthcoming, of course, I took over 300 and some of them even turned out, miraculously.

My thought for this week is: be kind to yourself. Writing is a hard job, and an occasional reward is the spoonful of sugar that helps medicine go down in a most delightful way. Playing a bit of hooky and taking some snaps is a cheap way to keep the Muse happy and fill up that well of images, sights, and sounds that fuels a writer’s work.

It’s all about keeping the Muse happy and the writer sane. So. I hereby declare this weekend National Muse-Feeding Weekend. (It will last through Tuesday, for those who may need a little more time. Aw, hell, maybe it’ll last all year. *grin*) Go and find something cool–doesn’t have to be expensive–that makes you go “ooooh.” Your Muse will thank you.

And maybe she won’t be such a slave driver. Well-fed, portly Muses are a little slower to crack the whip.

Or so I’ve heard…