Friday, July 07, 2017

Writing Retreat in Sri Lanka


I've been here a week now, and settled in nicely after a rocky start in which I almost died of thirst on my first night! I will be here for six weeks. I will be doing no sightseeing until my daughter arrives on the 6th August. I'm here to write; or rather, edit. The first draft of my next manusript is finished and I'm now going through the marked-up version supplied by my editor. Deadline: 10th July! Which means I have two more days, as of today, to finish.  After that there is a pause, and then proofreading. We hope to get the entire editing process over by the time I leave on 13th August.

But in a place like this, work seems almost like play. This is the garden of the villa I'm staying at:




And this is my "office", the dining table where I deposit myself with laptop every morning. I work until the battery is empty...



...after which I take a rest, in the red hammock. My room is that edifice on the right; it's separate from the main house, at the end of a wide L-shaped terrace, so it's a bit private, which I like.


This is the house as seen from the gate:


The garden is huge, and adjoins another huge property which is just a coconut field. This in the middle of the bustling city of Negombo.