Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 44
March 24, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 8
Sun! Sky! Palms! Cactuses! Waking up to this made me jump out of bed and hit my head on the bed above. So don't get too excited when you're on the train.
I was wired all day, thrilled to finally arrive in LA and see my daughter. Adventures started at breakfast. I sat with Jud and Ruth who are both almost 70 years old, both have Parkinson's and have just met. During breakfast they told me how horrible it is to be afflicted with this disease when your brain feels perfectly fine but your body st...
March 22, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 7
Today was peaceful and beautiful. It started out with the sun shining on my face, and it ended with the sun shining on my face.
We have been trundling along Texas, and upon waking today in the first twenty minutes of staring out the window I saw deer, and donkeys (or maybe those were mules), and squirrels, and turkey vultures, and clumps of cactuses that grow everywhere like weed and that brought me to some kind of an extatic excitement as I've never seen them grow like that.
Perhaps because...
March 21, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 6
"Always look on the bright side of life." Ta-dam. Ta-dam, ta-dam, ta-dam. This Monty Python song percolates around in my head because it's been over 5 hours that we've been standing in Fort Worth, Texas, waiting to be rerouted. Ahead of us a train carrying methanol (nasty stuff) has derailed. 12 cars overturned. Chemicals spilled everywhere. 10 houses evacuated. Don't worry, nobody was injured!
But, I'm jumping ahead. Let me start this day's adventures from the beginning.
Red.
Red is the fir...
March 20, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 5
The morning was crazy, and lovely, and crazy again. I don't remember how I fell asleep (face-first into THE EXORCIST on the Kindle, probably) but I do remember how I woke up. From a dog lick in the face and a frantic escape of paws scraping on the wooden floor. Then more dogs arrived. It was the dog-sitting day at my darling hosts' house, and they were: Piper, a chocolate lab (at least I think it's lab, I'm most likely wrong); Fuzz, a tawny hairy poodle; Leo, a terrier (I think); and the lad...
March 19, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 4
First I thought my feet were stuck in the mouth of a snow monster. Yes, I know, don't ask. Then I thought I somehow managed to stick a foot out of the train window, and the horror of this idea is what woke me up. No, my feet were okay, there were just very cold. I'm staying in an old haunted (it totally is haunted, just look at it) rowhouse, and the insulation is something that is of short supply here. I sat up, reeling. Then I thought, no, I'm not reeling, it's mybrain. It's sloshing around...
March 18, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 3
Sleep and trains just don't belong. Maybe they do, if you're on a trip for leisure. But if you're a writer running on adrenaline fumes, it's impossible to close your eyes. So many things are happening, so many sights are passing the windows, I kept my eyes peeled until I couldn't keep them peeled anymore. Not to mention, I was reading THE EXORCIST again, and, naturally, that only added to the excitement. This day though, upon waking, I was startled by the color.
Everything was beige. Yesterda...
Amtrak Residency, Day 2
I could live on a train. The constant swaying and creaking and vibrating and ta-tam-ta-tam staccato of the wheels have gotten under my skin. At one stop, when I got out, I missed it and started swinging involuntarily. I'm not kidding.
The first night I slept in fits, waking up at 4 a.m., then at 5:30 a.m., and at 6 a.m. Finally at 7 a.m. I gave up and started staring out the window. Snow. Miles of snow. Flat expanses of ground and rocky screes and then knolls and hills and mountains and flats...
March 17, 2015
Amtrak Residency, Day 1
Adventure! Adventure! I’m going on an adventure! I was so excited to leave on my Amtrak Residency trip that instead of taking ample time to sleep in (and that is after to weeks of running on no sleep to finish a book), I woke up at 6 a.m. I hugged the pillow for another hour and a half and then finally gave up. Sleep truly is something that may perhaps grace me with its presence when I’m dead. Anyway. The adventure started close to 9 a.m.You see, my train was not to leave till 4:40 p.m.,but...
March 14, 2015
My Amtrak Residency starts this Monday!
It's here! It's here! Can you believe it?? Pinch me. This Monday I'm hopping on the train and heading to Chicago, then to LA via Texas and all the way back to Seattle again, spending a total of 2 weeks in my own private roomette writing my sorry ass off and staring out the window. Well, I hope more writing will happenthan staring, as my goal is to start and compete the 1st draft of Tubeby the time I'm back.
Here is what to expect.
TONS OF PICTURES.
I will be taking tons...
Final draft of THE BADLINGS is done!!! 1st chapter for you.
As per my tradition, of course, I am posting here the first chapter of my 6th (!!!) book. Crazy. Can you believe it? And on Monday I'm starting my 7th. This one was a fun one. It turned out better than I thought it would. Because of the copyright issues I almostscrapped it, but then didn't. Because I'm not a quitter. Enjoy! (Oh, and here is the link to the final draft).
THE BADLINGSA novel by Ksenia Anske, Draft 4
Chapter 1. The Duck Pond
What if you found a book stu...
