I won't have a car. The hotel is right across from the campus and I'm trusting that I'll be able to find enough close by to be fine; and I don't need the extra expense right now.

So who is in the area? Who will be at the workshop? Any suggestions for meeting up for lunch, dinner or coffee - or something?

Along with the hotels (on the same side of the major road, that is) are several restaurants and shopping venues (including a Walmart).

The huge shopping district is further up the hill (and much more of a walk) and includes several blocks of stores and other businesses as well as a major shopping mall.

On a sideways note: You know how when we want to say something far out in the middle of nowhere, we say it's in Timbuktu? When I was in Ghana, their phrase was, "It's in Mississippi."

After having been to China, my boyfriend and I say, "It's in Zoige."

I don't mean to scare you. It's just that we're expecting some very warm days next week, and there's less atmosphere for the sun's rays to travel through in Utah than there is at sea level.

I'm not a sunworshipper though (actually prefer overcast and gloom--I get SADD on bright, sunny days), so you may not have a problem at all.

Edited to add: Great Salt Lake's "beach" is well over an hour away by car, and it's not nearly as nice as the Dead Sea in Israel.

I'm trying to remember if there is a hotel near Walmart, if there is that's probably the one your talking about. Then you have an Ihop, McDonalds and Subway down the way a little. And all sorts of stuff up the way.

If you're feeling adventuresome just up the Provo canyon there is a reservoir called Deer Creek (pronounced dir crik) that has some nice beacelike situations. Of course with Boot Camp I wouldn't expect much sight seeing time. If you have to look at water, the top floor of the Library offers a great view of Utah Lake.

I was just joking about the beach. Not that I don't love them, but I think I can go a week without. I agree, I don't think I'm going to have much time for sight-seeing.

I'm getting in pretty early in the day and the first thing I'll do is scout the area for essentials. Usually when I travel that is the closest source of bottled water and toilet paper and then the nearest bank/Forex. Here I think it will be the closest coffee bar and snack/grocery store.

Even though the first day is mostly a review of Characters and Viewpoint, there is a lot more information than just what is in the book. It is also great going through it with a room full of people who are contributing to the exercises. It creates a new dimension to the information. If you can ever make it to one of these workshops, it's well worth it.

I have one little victory to report. On one of our breaks we had to do a pov exercise where we had to describe an hour in our lives from the last week and tell it in third person past tense. We had twenty minutes. Well...I was the first person he chose to go up front and read my piece. I don't know if he chose me at random, or for some other reason. But after I finished he said I did a good job of keeping a proper pov and that I had also created a couple of likable characters. At one moment he lost track of the MC's name, but it wasn't too major of an issue. I know better than to think that they'll all go that well, but it's a good feeling to start with.

I have to get to tonight's assignment now. I'll post again when I can.

Thanks again for all of the support.

Today was part lecture and part workshopping a stack of ideas we came up with last night. After doing a few in class, we broke up into groups of five. It was very helpful and there were a lot of good ideas.

We also looked at the openings written by us BootCampers and critiqued those. He only got to the title of mine, then looked at the clock and said we needed to move on. I was relieved, but still a bit curious. I think I'll ask for his input when I get a chance.

Tomorrow is an off day so we can write this story and we'll have to read three others, the early finishers, tomorrow night. I'm just now taking a break because I've finished my outline and I'm thinking of outlining a different one to see which is more viable. I always have the problem of my things coming out longer than I intended and this first outline is looking that way. So I'm going to explore whether the simpler idea may actually work better for this purpose.

I want to say that OSC is great at critiquing. I have never once felt that he was treating anyone's work with anything but respect and kindness. He's honest but not damaging, IMO.

Well, I've got work to do.

In addition to that, I've critted four stories tonight and gotten caught dozing in the lobby by OSC himself. I was honestly only resting my eyes and had to laugh at his comment, "Sleeping Boot Camper", as he walked past.

Well, my story is printed and done and there's no going back now. But I'm going to have a room full of people trying to help me with improving the first draft of a story that I wrote in less than 24 hours. Where's the bad in that? We may get to it tomorrow, but not sure.

I took a risk and had a less than likable pov character. I seem to be trying things like that lately. I'll be curious to see how it goes over.

This is genevive42 from Boot Camp - signing off.

Oh wait - a funny thing. I was outside sitting at a table with an umbrella. There are two of them out there. A storm with strong wind kicked up suddenly. It whisked the other umbrella straight up into the sky, and then eventually came crashing back down on my umbrella which I was holding onto to keep it from doing the same thing. A nice gentleman from the hotel saw my dilemma and came out to help me. Nothing and nobody were harmed - it was just bizarre.

quote:

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Nothing and nobody were harmed - it was just bizarre.

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It's been windy there before, I bet. And so I assume the jumping table umbrellas aren't new for that place. Are you sure they weren't inside betting on range etc.? That they didn't remove the locking pins? Maybe hope for a smash YouTube?

I'm just taking a quick break. I have three more stories to read and crit tonight and while we're not starting until 10am, I don't want to wait 'til morning.

We went through six stories today, all very thoroughly of course. We had a twelve hour day. Mine was one of them. A lot of great suggestions were made as to how it could be better, which I expected. But a lot of the things would demand that it be a much longer story or a novel. As the short 'idea' story that it was, it was well received. I feel VERY good about what was said and that I'm headed in a good direction with my writing.