Do you know this sensation when you wake up on a Monday morning and you’re stoked about the week ahead? I know, it doesn’t happen that often, does it? This morning the sensation of excitement was exactly what woke me up.

I was excited about finishing my first draft of Road Trip by Friday – ambitious, but not unachievable. Then I remembered the reason I’m so keen to finish the first draft: next week the first part of my residency with the Fellowship of Australian Writers Western Australia (FAWWA) starts, hurray!

You may have a puzzled look on your face, similar to my mum when I said I had won a residency. “Residency? What’s that?” It’s a four-week retreat for writers during which they can exclusively focus on a piece.

At the beginning of this year I worked on a fiction novel and applied for a residency to continue working on it. Its first draft still slumbers in my drawer and next week I will dust it off and think about it again.

Well, I’m thinking already because, as it is with thoughts, once your mind wonders off  you  just have to  keep going… Anyway, back to the nuts and bolts of this residency. The first of my four-week stint will happen next week, the rest will follow in September.

As part of it I will be available for editing advice at Matti Furphy House. Other writers can pop in and we’ll talk about their work. Another part of the residency are the two workshops I will run in September. I’ll talk more about it later.