Welcome to the first post of my irregular blog! Here, I will post about my writing life as it happens. The first post is to recount my writing trip to Iceland and, mainly, to share pictures of this unique island.

In June of 2021, I was a resident at Gullkistan Center for Creativity. Gullkistan hosts artists in every genre, including writers, filmmakers, visual artists, dancers, composers, and more. The center is in Laugarvatn, Iceland, a quiet and friendly little town in the southern part of the country. Gullkistan is near the Laugarvatn Lake and offers lots of opportunity for impromptu hiking and swimming (in the lake, at a local spa, or at a community pool; Icelanders are serious swimmers!).

Gullkistan residencies last generally for a month, but artists can request certain dates within reason. I was at there for about twenty-three days. I went with the lofty goal of writing 30,000 words, but was only able to complete about 20,000 words. Hopefully, a percentage of my work there will be usable! Mostly, I worked on a brand-new novel project, but I also wrote a few poems and started a short horror story.

While at Gullkistan, I did hike and went on a few sightseeing trips with fellow residents (there were two to six of us there during my stay, with artists coming and going). What follows are some of the pictures I took while in Iceland.

In Part 2, I’ll share some videos and some tales about writing and reading.