Catching up on emails Hawaiian style

what's it take to get a cuppa round here?

I can't believe we are in Kona, the place that grows the world's best coffee, and still can't get a decent cup anywhere.

Aloha Angel cafe had a broken down espresso machine. We stopped at the Royal Kona museum and gift shop (with Andi ready to give bean-by-bean instruction) but they said they couldn't make us an espresso because they didn't have the right milk.

There is hideous drip filter coffee EVERYWHERE that Americans inexplicably love, but I haven't had a good espresso for six weeks.

We're moving to Hawaii to teach Americans the proper way to drink coffee. Or at least Andi is. My mission is to communicate the notion of tea made with BOILING not BOILED water, as fellow tea drinker the late and wonderful Douglas Adams complained.

On to other non-beverage news, a gorgeous morning snorkelling in crystal clear water looking at coral, brilliant fish and green turtles, then walking around an ancient site where the royal class used to live, all white coral sand and coconut trees. Very nice thankyou.

Love Jesse

A week of gay Hawaii

Friday morning and our week at Kalani came to an end. It was really hard to leave that lovely place - the communal meals in the big open air lanai three times a day, playing volleyball with a bunch of great big strong queeny campy poofs, the outdoor hot tub (under stars or in the rain) and the gorgeous swimming pool, the roar of the ocean in the distance and the incredibly musical frogs that sang (I can't call it croaked) all night like bellbirds. We met some great people during the week (once we got through the first few days of spending all our time together) and are having some fantastic adventures.

Like the day we drove up to the Volcanoes national park, having not really figured out what we wanted to do up there. It was getting quite rainy and we were in the visitors centre, had just come out from watching a video about volcanoes and the woman at the desk announced in a loud voice that she had a couple of vacancies on a cave tour. We wandered over. Turned out it's an amazing trip into a secret and rare lava tunnel - it only runs once a week and usually books out ten minutes after they open for bookings. Someone had just cancelled. People come from all over the world to do it. It was amazing - the tunnel walls and stalectites are all metallic (for a complicated reason to do with their volcanic formation), so it's like going into a dwarf cave of treasures. Plus there's some incredible bacteria on the walls that looks promising as a cure for cancer. We had to take a vow of secrecy that we would never reveal its location because it is so fragile.

Beverly, one of the volunteers at Kalani (which has a residential volunteer and artist in residence program) took us to the secret beach by the fallen tree and we snorkelled in little tidal pools and looked at the fish.

On our second last day we finally found the black sand beach nearby. It's really hard to get into the ocean on the Puna coastline because it's all jagged black lava cliffs and strong currents. There's one very cool hippy/gay beach, nude, drumming circles on a sunday, dolphins come in, trees growing out of the black sand to sit under. Getting in and out of the water looked bloody scary - a tough shore break pounding on to black gravel and rocks - we braved it and leapt in, headed out and met up with a pod of spinner dolphins - so named because they throw themselves out of the water and spin in spirals. The water was very blue, I guess because of the black sand - no hint of green. There were about 6 or 8 people out there, most of the others had flippers and for an hour the dolphins cruised around with the swimmers and we would applaud and cheer when one did a spectacular spin.

Today we headed around via the volcanoes again to the west coast for a few days of beaching and snorkelling before we head home early next week. It's a bit strange arriving somewhere new - Dragonfly Ranch, a bed and breakfast that can accomodate up to 16 people (rather than the dozens at Kalani). But we're about to go up for a communal dinner and I'm sure we'll get used to it!

It's been yummy just hanging out together and really having a holiday.

Lots of love

Jesse xxxx

Aloha

From six layers of clothes to one (or none)... From seven degrees to 27 degrees... My skin colour in a swimsuit giving new meaning to the word 'glacial'...

I'm sitting in the open air cafe here at Kalani retreat centre. There's a sharing going on just nearby, the frogs are chirping like hundreds of birds, it's warm and steamy. We played volleyball in the tropical rain this evening then sat in the hot tub as darkness fell. Having eaten a massive lunch in the communal dining room, had to skip dinner.

Andi and I have met up - it's so lovely to see her - and we're enjoying a real life holiday - walks, swims, hot tub, lovely food and tropical warmth and rain. We've walked across the floor of a steaming volcano, stood on a black sand beach and seen so much lava that I'm starting to dream of it. Not the fresh orange stuff, but the hard black bitumen-type of lava. It's a full-on landscape, in which entire villages get wiped out from time to time from lava flows. The roads close, the signs change, life goes on.

Yesterday we went up 9000 feet (3000 metres) towards the summit of the dormant volcano on this island where the world's biggest and best (as the guide reminded us several times) observatories are located. Had to break out the warm clothes again as it was very chilly up so high, but beautiful landscape and brilliant stars.

I'm off for a bit more reading and relaxing. Plenty of time yet to worry about the great white shark attack in Byron Bay that I've just heard about (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22587290-2,00.html?from=mostpop) and the fact that my office has been flooded. Does anyone know that woman? She sounds like a powerhouse.

Love Jesse xxx

I wish I could say I saw a bear on the way home tonight, winding through the light rain up Sawmill Creek Road in the dark. But no...

I'm sad to leave. Last night was like reading to some old friends in a way - lots of familiar faces in the audience, people I have spent time with this month one way or another and as always, Sitkans were very generous, attentive and positive.

It's been wonderful - thanks everyone here in Sitka and all of you back home who've sent me messages of support and indulged my blog-writing (novel avoidance).

Jesse xxx

Sunset and last reading

Reeses peanut butter cups

I'm getting restless. Must be something to do with having finished the first draft. My creative subconscious was all prepared for that and now it's done, I don't quite know what to do with myself. I could embark on typing and editing, but I'm not quite ready.

The snow is creeping further down the mountains each day, it's getting pretty chilly and I'm starting to hanker for some warm weather. In preparation I'm warming up the blog colours.

My last reading is tonight at the library. On Saturday night I performed at a wonderful gig called the Monthly Grind, a very popular local talent show. Five bucks, refundable if you bring homemade dessert, for which there is a prize for the best. It runs in the off season so is very local and its +250 tickets sell out. I was a bit nervous reading in front of such a large crowd, but kicked it off with a very silly outfit (in line with the theme of tacky tourist - think disposable plastic poncho, cameras and bear repellent items) and a little skit about being Sitka's tacky-tourist-in-residence, which the audience very kindly laughed at. After that, reading was fine.

It hasn't rained for four days - which is probably the other reason I feel weird. I don't think there's been more than one full day without rain since I arrived. I can't get to sleep without the sound of it drumming on the roof.

I'm making a cup of American style drip filter coffee (Andi, forgive me) and about to eat it with a Reece's peanut butter cup, a particularly American delicacy for which I harbour a secret lust.

Well, the swashes are buckled, the bodices ripped, everyone who was going to be hung or beheaded has been despatched. All the last minute twists in the plot (which surprised me) have happened. I've started reading over the whole thing - it's a bit overwhelming, especially the first part of it which needs a great deal of work to make it match the second part. But such is the writer's lot.

Take care, thanks for reading my little raves from the other end of the world. Now that I'm in the habit I will send a few posts from Hawaii. In fact I might be addicted. It's the most wonderful avoidance method for whatever you don't want to do.

Love Jesse xxx

The End

By golly, I've done it. Can't quite believe it, but last night I finished the epic first draft of The Queen's Favourite. All 250,000 words of it. I can see a major editing job coming up.

Three days left to do some typing, relax and enjoy the start of the wintery weather. And let this sink in.

Here's me in a very natty Alaskan boating outfit. One small step for mankind...

Love Jesse xxxx

Heaven

What an exquisite couple of days out at the cabin on Middle Island. I was like a little hobbit, happy in my burrow, cooking meals, sitting in the rocking chair by the fuel burning heater, walking around the island, kayaking out on the water at every opportunity and writing like a demon.

Sitka laid on the most stunning weather on my second morning, so when I kayaked out on the water at dawn there were NO CLOUDS. Glassy water, snow-capped mountains, pink sky and sea otters popping up to see what I was doing. Bliss.

And for a special bonus, as Nels was dropping me back home via boat we detoured to watch a humpback whale in the eastern passage.

The Queen has been taken captive by the rebel lords and my heroine must flee Scotland - but can she leave before making peace with her father? (yes, she did survive falling in the river). And is the young woman in her company to be trusted?

Now that I'm back in the bright lights of my Sitka home, I have a busy schedule for my final week:

1. finish novel

2. haircut (badly needed)

3. go out to dinner Friday

4. run full day writing workshop on Saturday

5. perform at community talent night (The Monthly Grind) on Saturday night

6. give final reading Tuesday

7. FINISH NOVEL

8. fly to Hawaii next Thursday.

Hope it's a good week for all you too.

Sweet humpback whale dreams and Alaskan stars (for the first time) Jesse xxxx

Getting away from it all

It's all getting a bit much here in Sitka. You know, busy busy busy, the daily routine, no time for writing. I need to get away from it all. I obviously need a smaller island and a smaller place to live.

Nels and Liz have offered to take me out on their boat and drop me off on an island to have a day in their shack on my own. Off to stock up on freeze dried goods and chocolate. Can't wait - just me and a notebook (plus groceries and warm clothes). I might never want to come back.

Or once I'm away from central heating for a few hours I might be sending up emergency flares and calling for an airlift.

Oh yeah, and I'm accompanied by an entire army of characters who are galloping towards the end of their story. My main character has just been washed down the Blackadder River in the middle of the night while trying to escape from the Blackadder castle. Can she survive the cold?

Can I? The temperatures are definately dropping as autumn sets in over here. It's gone from highs of 13 degrees down to single figures. I was cold for the whole afternoon yesterday after my character was washed into the river....

Love Jesse xxx

The first dusting of winter snow on the top of the tallest mountains a few days ago...

Another weekend, another staggeringly good dinner. Friends of Carolyn and Dorik's fed me until I could barely walk last night. Home-smoked salmon and cheese, wine, some extraordinary black cod that tasted like manna from heaven, salad, steamed vegetables, more wine, fresh rhubarb and strawberry pie.

Tonight I'm holding my first Alaskan dinner party, but the standard is frighteningly high.

Where has the week gone? We had a very rainy stretch just after I last wrote, during which I holed up here with chocolate and decaf coffee (if you make it really really strong it almost tastes like coffee) and did some serious writing.

I'm well over the halfway mark in my time here now and suddenly it's a matter of counting the days and hoping that I will indeed finish my first draft. My characters are fleeing Edinburgh and roaming around the countryside to escape the coup (rapidly building to a civil war), but I have a bit of time for them to fill in before the actual events that form the climax of the story.

It's a fascinating process and I do love this bit of it. I start a scene without much idea of what's going to happen in it - often thinking 'what the hell are they doing going there?' And then it emerges they are doing something which I didn't even suspect. This morning a mysterious casket has come to light which contain letters that could change the course of the story... I wonder what's in them?

Nels took me for a great walk up the Indian River on Friday. We found fresh bear scat, which is about the closest I've come to wild bear so far. The river was rushing along, the water amazingly clear and blue/green, a few late salmon still swimming upstream. The kind of walk you could keep doing forever, just winding through the forest (trying to balance on the wet and slippery boardwalks). Near the end we ran into a couple of hunters and stopped for a chat. One of them looked at me and said "I know you - I saw you on TV". My appearance at the Rotary lunch has been televised. Great thing, local telly.

On Friday night I gave a talk for the Sitka Conservation Society about landcare in Australia and how it might apply to the US. There is an embryonic landcare movement in the states and perhaps folk in Sitka will consider getting in touch with US Landcare - there may be some ways to work together.

It's lovely getting to know a few people - it's a very friendly place. I was just strolling along the road the other day and a young woman came out of her front door on the other side of the road and catching sight of me she waved and called 'Hello'.

Great news this week that my writing group buddy Hayley has won her first short story competition plus been shortlisted for the ABC short story competition - good on you Hayley, I'm very proud of you. And my auntie Cas graduated with her PhD - something I am very sad to have missed.

Away I go to mash up some avocados....

Jesse xxxxxx

PS and here I am on a little bridge over the Indian River - and here's sunset one day last week.

PPS just went to put out the compost...bin has been pulled apart by something....

PPPS - due to computer hitches I'm putting this up after dinner....word is there's a bear in the area, someone saw it on the road yesterday nearby. I'll be keeping an ear out tonight.

bear play

Thanks to Chris who sent this through - follow this link to see a play session between a polar bear and some husky dogs. http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/audiogallery/soundseen.shtml

In a beautiful book called The Only Kayak - a journey into the heart of Alaska, the author Kim Heacox quotes his beloved friend Japanese photographer Michio Hoshino who says this about bears (more eloquently than I could ever say it):

'If there wasn't a single bear in all of Alaska, I could hike through the mountains with complete peace of mind. I could camp without worry. But what a dull place Alaska would be! Here people share the land with bears. There is a certain wariness between people and bears. And that wariness forces upon us a valuable sense of humility. People continue to tame and subjugate nature. But when we visit the few remaining scraps of wilderness where bears roam free, we can still feel an instinctive fear. How precious that feeling is. And how precious these places, and these bears, are.'

After finishing that book last night I turned off all the lights, opened the curtains and sat in the dark watching the moon come in and out of the clouds and the water turn silver and black. It could take lifetimes to get to know this place.

Jesse xxx

Precipitation

I remember that in Good Weekend recently, Dr Karl debunked the myth about there being 100 Eskimo words for snow. However I’d be surprised if there weren’t 100 expressions for rain in Sitka.

Pattering rain that falls on the roof in the morning and makes you stay in bed.
Atmospheric ain that falls when you put the garbage out in time for the morning pickup (can’t go out night before due to bears) that makes you want to go walking in it.
Soft mist that turns into rain as soon as you head out the door.
Driving rain that you’ll walk through for nearly two hours round trip for a piece of blueberry pie and a coffee at the Backdoor Café.
Rain that hassles you to get back inside and for God’s sake get on with that manuscript.
Rain that makes you check your email
Rain that makes you go looking for weird little blog animations on the web
Rain that makes you photograph how it falls on the water, as seen from the lounge room
Rain that makes you open a bottle of red wine
Rain that does, actually, help you write.

It’s rained a lot today. It’s been a good writing day.

Jesse xxx

Hunters and collectors

Greatings from the wild land

Thanks to 'Nels' I am now kitted out for my time in Alaska. Nels has leant me a very funky mountain bike (thanks to Liz his partner who owns it), a whistle on a lanyard to blow for bears and a can of capsicum spray should the worst come to the worst. I have an air horn on the bike and I reckon I am set.

Nels has also given me some cds of his radio programs on the natural world (some of which have aired in Australia on the ABC) and has promised that I can take out a kayak when I want - can't wait.

Humpback whales were slapping their pectorals out in the eastern passage, visible from the loungeroom, last week. Four sea lions swam past about 50 metres away the other day. The gulls keep up a constant music of cries because a small stream comes out just a little way from the house and they are feeding on the salmon eggs and dead salmon. This morning, while I was visiting the neighbours, a seal poked its head above the water just out the front.

It's been a busy few days. Cathy from the University of Alaska writing class works at the Alaska Raptor Centre, a place which cares for injured birds of prey and rehabilitates them when possible. She gave me a great behind-the-scenes tour on Saturday morning, feeding the permanent residents (owls, hawks, a raven and bald eagles) and some recovering birds (a very sweet screech owl recovering from an injury) and checking out the 'flight centre' a massive two story indoor habitat area where recovering birds regain their flying skills before being released.

Then, taking advantage of the sunshine, off with Carolyn for a walk up the mountain to the south of town. 2,300 feet above sea level (we drove a fair part of that) we dodged the mist and clouds to see glimpses of Sitka township and the beautiful islands and ocean that make up this part of the world. On the way down we picked a couple of bags of mountain blueberries and arrived home with very stained fingers (and tongues) from eating them along the way. (you can see a blueberry at the bottom right of the picture).

Dinner with Carolyn and Dorik's neighbours, who had spent the day out in their boat fishing and come home with a stack of huge crabs and a halibut. Just about everybody here hunts, fishes or gathers. Our dinner was started with cheeses and smoked salmon (smoked here of course), main course of fresh crab (till I could eat no more) with green salad and wild rice salad and topped off with blueberry and huckleberry 'cobber', which is kind of like a pie, made from the berries we picked in the day.

Waddled home swearing to have a fast today, but this morning was open house at my neighbour's place, so I fronted up expecting a coffee only to find they had snared some wild croissants, netted a few cinamon rolls and trapped some fresh blueberry pancakes. Also Holly and Rebus have an ESPRESSO machine. Bliss. Two big cafe lattes later I stumbled home and had to drag myself on to the mountain bike to get some exercise.

I set out on the same road I cycled last week, determined to go a bit further today. Being Sunday there were a lot more people around which gave me courage. It's a long ride so I still didn't make it to the end, but it was just beautiful cycling along the gravel in this big Alaskan landscape, the mountain rearing up on one side, the sea stretching out on the other, the forest all around me. Punctuated by 'road runner' moments when I meep-meeped my plastic air horn.

At the end of the ride I went by a new, tiny zoo that's just opened up - it has two bear cubs, the subject of some contoversy here in Sitka. The idea is that they are 'problem' bears who would not survive otherwise - these two were orphaned when their mother was shot for scavenging. They are being kept in a massive industrial concrete tank that has its own forest and pond inside. While the space seems adequate when they are cubs, it will be pretty small once they're full grown. No smaller than what they'd have at Taronga Zoo though. Issues aside, I climbed up to the viewing platform and looked in for my first sight of a bear.

Even looking down a long distance on a small bear cub, I had a very strong sense of what imposing creatures these are. The cub weighs about 85 pounds and will grow to weigh 600 or 700 pounds - but even at 85 pounds there is a real sense of massive size and strength, I sure wouldn't want to mess with him.

It's interesting thinking about this bear thing. It means whenever I step outside I have to be conscious and aware of my surroundings, even if that does mean feeling like an idiot at times. There's not an illusion (for me at least) of being the master of the natural world here. With intense weather and the bear population, survival is an issue that must be attended to. Safety isn't always guaranteed. I like that.

A tourist moment - on my new camera I took a little video clip of some spawning salmon. It will probably just look like indistinct brown wriggly things, but let me enjoy the novelty of attempting to put it up here.

Over and out for now. Oh yeah, probably time to do some writing.

Jesse xxxx

PS blogger tells me there was a problem uploading my video. The wiggly brown things will have to wait for another day...... Here's some pictures instead. You can see I'm going to become a wildlife photographer, can't you? Look closely for little fin things sticking out of the water.

Bambi stew

KABOOM! Killed the king today. But my two main characters are behaving badly. They both had the chance to walk away to freedom but both have chosen to step back into the chaos of the Queen's court. Why is that? I suppose if they just walked off there wouldn't be much of a story....

Carolyn just dropped me off home after a night in town - it's after 10pm and I told her I wanted to walk down the driveway through the forest in the rain. About halfway down I got a bit nervous and started whistling - just to alert bears and passing maniacs...

....great evening with an advanced writing class at the Sitka campus of Alaska University. About half the class was there in person and the rest attended by teleconference. You can adapt to having everyone in person or everyone on teleconference, but it's kind of odd having half and half and I'm full of admiration for Liz the teacher who takes many classes this way. In my effort to keep audience eye contact I found I spent quite a bit of time giving meaningful glances to the teleconference microphone. Very enjoyable discussion, it's lovely to meet a group of other writers and I'm hopeful I will get the chance to hear what they are working on in the next few weeks. Then one of the group told me that what they really love is my accent and I could be reading out the ingredients of colour crayons and they would still be spellbound. Hey, I will make the most of that.

Actually, I was genuinely surprised as I always think of the aussie accent as hideous, flat and nasal and not something anyone would want to listen to.

Carolyn took me home for venison stew with her and Dorik and we continued our conversations about community and living and working together, plus books we like.

You can learn a lot about a place from it's local paper. I wanted to share with you a couple of items from the Sitka's Sentinal today:

1. Women of the Moose will hold a business meeting at 7pm tonight. The group will also decorate for the luau. [Carolyn, who has lived here 20 years, is unable to enlighten me on the meaning of this notice and the purpose of 'women of the moose'. I forgot to ask her what a luau is].

2. The Alaska Day Festival Keystone Kops are recruiting new members. For an application form contact Joan at 4Js coffee.

3. In the log of phone calls received by Sitka Police: On September 20 at 12.05am a resident reported his daughter called him and was having trouble with her brother. Both brother and sister told police they would behave themselves for the evening. At 1.10am a resident complained about a neighbour who was talking loudly. Officers talked to the neighbour who said he would turn down the radio volume and close his window.

The weather remains rainy. Luckily the novelty of being in the rain in a cabin in the woods hasn't worn off yet.

Dreams of owls and bald headed eagles.

Jesse xxxx

There's a bear in there

Evening falls over Sitka, afro-pop on Raven Radio, mushroom soup and a reasonably decent stint of writing. The gunpowder plot to kill the king is only hours away - but at the last minute, William has received a message that he's about to be deceived by his own daughter...

...one good thing about doing this blog is hearing from friends I've been out of touch with for a while. Liz McLaughlin tells me she's six months pregnant - I had no idea. Kath Fisher says the fireflies are out at Bodhi Farm. Jan and Charlie have just reached Brisbane to spend some time with Jan's daughter in her late pregnancy. James Bennet-Levy is moving back to Australia from the UK in April. Kym Roylance and her girlfriend set a beach on fire during their family holiday and Alison Carmichael asks me not to go all Annie Proux: 'grey bleak and introspective under the leaden skies'.

More alarmingly, Bev my Canadian friend tells me that I really must watch out for bears and that she and her partner Linda were charged by a mother bear ten years ago and it was terrifying. Bev is pretty tough - I remember she was a long term member of Montreal's wolf pack, a group that ran every day up massive hills all year round. I don't reckon she'd be easily scared.

With this fresh in my mind I picked up my borrowed bike today and headed off in the direction of Green Lake. A lovely ride winding on a thin strip of road between towering mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. I remembered I didn't have a bell or whistle - the idea is to make a fairly consistent noise so you don't surprise bears. My host Carolyn tells me that she sings, but I wasn't quite up for that, so I cycled along whistling instead. I was very bad at it and after about 10 mins I was reduced to repeating the same military style riff over and over again. The forest towered overhead, the road (which is a dead end) dwindled to gravel and then I arrived at a gate and it changed to what could only be called a track, edged with thick forest at the base of the mountain.

Hmm. Am I being a complete wimp worrying about bears? Or would I be a complete idiot to continue down this fairly remote, nearly deserted track during salmon spawning season, knowing there are no houses and only a salmon hatchery (I think) about another 10km further on? My whistle was sounding a little strained, but I decided to continue a little longer.

I made it about 100 metres to where the first stream crossed under the road. One dead salmon lying in the middle of the track. Surely they can't jump that high? And then, when I looked down, a dead salmon lying on the bank with a whopping big chunk bitten out of it - the first time I've seen that.

OK, that's enough for me. With a nonchalent whistle I hopped back on the bike and headed home to the comforts of the internet. Now that I've looked up 'Bear safety in Alaska' I feel a bit more comfortable. And yes, Bev, I'm going to buy some bells tomorrow.

It's been a busy couple of days doing things in Sitka. An interview on Raven Radio, a reading last night and addressing the rotary luncheon today. People have been very friendly and welcoming and reading things from the manuscript is good for getting me into the rhythm of the story again. I'm enjoying the balance of solitude and meeting people.

Melissa Lucashenko picked up on my slightly hectic state of mind and suggested my writing would benefit more from plenty of time doing nothing while I'm here. Not something that comes easily to me, but I did spend a lot of time yesterday curled up in a chair watching the water. It was lovely and I can feel myself slowing down. Often I feel that I must be incredibly tough on myself to make sure the writing gets done. Maybe there is another way.

Love Jesse xxx

A thousand words

Not my word count for the day, but reference to some pictures. Weather is very grey today so not great for photos, but here's some shots of Dave and Marge's house where I'm lucky enough to be staying. Yes that large grey mass outside the window is the water. This morning there was a bald headed eagle sitting on the posts where the boat is moored.

Actually, I am getting in the writing groove again, thank goodness. Plans to assassinate the alcoholic sodomite king in a gunpowder plot proceed apace.

Jesse xxx

PS Sitka's weather webpage http://www.weather.com/weather/local/99835?GO=GO tells me that it's 13 degrees today, that it feels like 13 degrees today and that the sightseeing index is 1 which is 'very poor'. Tomorrow is predicted to be 5 which is 'fair'. I think I will have to develop a plot completion index...

The outer limits

I really know I'm in Alaska tonight. Switched on Sitka's local 'Raven Radio' to find that wonderful program Prairie Home Companion playing, which kept me giggling the whole way through cooking dinner. The waves are breaking softly on the shore about 10 feet below the house and there's a light rain falling that's been going about..oh...36 hours now. My little house in the forest is very warm and cosy - you drive down through a lord of the rings setting with big old pine-type trees and moss and at the bottom just by the water is this three story house looking out across the bay to rising mountains covered with forest.

After four months of dreaming of huskies, bears and snow, I'm here. A month in Sitka, Alaska as a writer in residence with the Island Institute, a small organisation interested in the big ideas of human experience and the written word. You can find out a bit more about them at http://home.gci.net/~island/. The Institute is kindly hosting my time here, with the explicit provision I can do whatever I like. It would probably be better if my very kind hosts Carolyn and Dorik stipulated a daily word count, to be submitted by 8pm each night. The prospect of doing whatever you want is a disaster for a writer.

S0 - there's no snow here just yet (except for a tiny bit on the top of the highest mountains), there's not too many huskies either and I haven't yet encountered a bear. I've been hot more than I've been cold. Don't you love travel?

This blog is primarily a novel-writing avoidance mechanism, so forgive me for raving and feel free to tune out. My novel doesn't have anything to do with Alaska, by the way, except that it's set in 15th century Scotland which is also cold but doesn't have central heating or double glazing. I've wrestled with one of my main characters this morning. He knows he's got to go and assassinate the King, but he just doesn't feel like it, so he's just sitting there not saying anything. Hence I have spent the rest of the day going for a walk with Carolyn up a mountain and practising driving on the right to drop her back into town afterwards.

Oh yeah, and I'm now replacing my body moisture with Alaskan beer. I have 'moisture wicking' garments that draw the sweat away from my body - socks, shoes, pants, thermal t-shirt. They have wicked so much moisture out of me today that I feel like a dried apricot.

The salmon are spawning. On my first walk into town I crossed Indian River wondering what the smell was. Hundreds - no, thousands of salmon swimming upstream. Then I found I was standing in a salmon graveyard. Turns out they swim all that way, do their spawning thing and then die at the water's edge. Seems a tragic end. But Dorik and Carolyn gave me smoked salmon before dinner and it was out of this world. Real smoked salmon in big chunks, not that flimsy sliced stuff we have at home. I'm getting a smoker when I get back.

The second day as I walked into town, cutting through the national park to Indian River again, I came across two women holding hands. Nice. I didn't think there'd be a lot of dykes in Sitka. I gave them a big smile. Further on there was a crowd on the bridge, gosh a lot of them looked pretty dykey too. By the time I got out of the park my face was tired from smiling. Eventually I saw the big cruise ship in the bay and it dawned on me. An Olivia cruise. Three thousand lesbians shuttling into Sitka on little motor boats. The end of my fantasy that a lesbian posse has followed me to Alaska...

I've got a new camera and I will get it out soon, I will. But today I just enjoyed walking, looking, concentrating on not slipping over and watching out for bears. Witness this promise - I will never again try to wind up international visitors about sharks. It's cruel and unnecessary. My karma is coming back to get me.

My global roaming thingy on my mobile doesn't seem to work, so I really must be at the outer edge of the world. Also, the words 'tea' and 'coffee' refer to completely different beverages here. I feel a bit like Arthur Dent in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy pleading with the computer to make him a cup of tea and repeatedly getting a drink of something almost, but not completely, unlike tea. It's the same even when I make it myself....

That's enough novel avoidance for tonight. Back to the swashbuckling 16th century, time I gave those characters a poke with the pointy end of the sword to get them going again. They were being so cooperative a few weeks ago when I was at Varuna Writers Centre. I think the problem is that I started to read my first draft manuscript on the plane and was rendered immobile by the sheer amount of work required to turn it into something readable.

Over and out, good night, sweet Alaskan dreams.