SUMMER VOCATION

by Rob Lopresti

We are busy planning a vacation here and unlike last year we are staying fairly close to home. We are going to a music camp and it happens to be concerned with part of the scale that is of more interest to my wife than to me, so she will be the only one formally attending. In the name of marital harmony I am gallantly agreeing to hang around a resort town for a week with nothing to do but bask in the sunshine. I can hear you weeping for me from here.

Everyone who takes a vacation has certain plans to make. Who’ll bring in the mail? What clothes to bring? And so on.

But some of us have a whole set of questions that normal people don’t have. (I am defining “normal” as people who are not committed to writing fiction.) Because I see this as a week to pump out some words. So here are my special plans:

Make sure my netbook computer has current copies of all my works in progress.

Make sure I have printed copies to edit, since I won’t have a printer with me.

Make sure I have a flash drive to copy files from my netbook, in case I leave it on the roof of the car or experience some other tragedy.

Make sure I have something to work on with pen and paper, in case it’s too nice to be inside and too sunny to work outside on the computer.

Make sure (duh) I have pen and paper.

Make sure I have all the research materials I might need.

Speaking of research materials, the last time we went to this camp I had a brainstorm the day before we left and rushed madly through song books and websites looking for every Irish song and tune I could find with a place name in the title. The result was a piece called “The Only Town in Ireland that hasn’t got a Song.”

            There’s jigs for Killamallock, Cavan, Cork, and Killahane
            For Bainbridge, Ballingarry, Barronstown and Tralibane
            For Carrick, Kesh, and Kerry, Dublin town and Donnybrook
            But if they wrote a jig for us it didn’t make the book

Yes, they are all real tune titles, and I haven’t even mentioned the hornpipes, reels, airs, etc.

There’s another part of the planning to do, but it is one readers and writers share: which books to bring? In my case:

Short stories, gotta have short stories

Mystery novels

Some non-fiction to cleanse the palate.

And at least one of the above has to be small enough to fit in my pocket.

But enough about me. What mystery or writing related plans do you make for your vacation?