Greetings from Jentel

From my perch above Piney Creek, Wyo., July 3, 2006:

I've been occasionally posting to the blog from the Jentel Artist Residency Program along the Piney Creek Valley near Sheridan -- or Buffalo, depending on your county preference. I hadn't yet posted any photos so I thought I'd make up for that today, on Independence Day Eve.

Shown in the photo is the view from the Writer's Aerie on the escarpment in the Snake Hills above Jentel. It takes me about an hour every morning of some pretty heavy-duty climbing to get to my assigned writing spot. I carry my laptop with me along with the satellite dish I need for Internet access. I also have to pack in food and water. It's lucky I'm in shape because Jentel did not provide the Sherpa porter I specified in my application.

At various times during the day I hear the shake of a prairie rattler, warning me to get back to work and quit playing endless games of FreeCell. The past couple days have been stormy and I've had to seek shelter in a cave up here. I am surrounded by the bleached bones of the writers who came before me and didn't make it out alive.

I have to get back to work now. If I don't produce my ten daily pages of fiction, vultures will come down and pluck out my eyes.