Ca' d'Zan

I am happy to report that I'm on to Chapter 21 of RUN, in which there will be a town meeting and the unpleasant person who recently arrived will be touted a hero - much to my main characters' dismay...

If anyone is remotely interested, the first chapter is available to read in my static pages beneath my header.

But I suspect that what you really want to hear about is Ca' d'Zan, which I mentioned on Friday as John and Mable Ringling's winter home. John Ringling, in case you forgot, was part of the Ringling Brothers Circus. He and his wife chose the site of their home because it reminded them of the lagoon of their favorite city. The name of the house is Venetian for House of John.

Inside looking out - God, don't you love the stained glass...

The ice box, I think.

The Range

I wouldn't mind this sink in my kitchen...

The servants' stairs

Sadly there was a chain preventing people from going down (we might be idiots and jump off and drown ourselves, after all), but this was the dock...ayay...

And that's me, enjoying a bit of sun on that fabulous patio.

Progress and The Ringling Museum

First off, in regards to my WIP, working title RUN, I've been fairly productive since I got back from my vacation. I finished up chapter 19, which I'd been stalled on, and wrote a whole new chapter. There's some fun stuff happening. The town got a delivery, someone unpleasant arrived with it, and my main characters have just learned that the power will be going out soon, leaving them all in the dark. Oh, and it's winter. Good times.

As for The John & Mable Ringling Museum, this was the other place we visited in Sarasota, and it was so huge we didn't have time to see everything. We focused our visit on the Circus Museum, and Ca' d'Zan, John and Mable's winter home. John Ringling, in case you didn't know, was part of the Ringling Brothers Circus, which by 1889 was large enough to need to travel by rail. There's a whole diorama of the trains and then the depot and then the circus spread out over a large area with tents for everything. It was so cool and I took lots of pics. Next week I'll show you Ca' d'Zan, but today, it's the Circus!

I'll leave you with this last pic of a monkey statue that there's no way I'd have in my house. He's wicked cool, but oh, so creepy...

Have an awesome weekend :)

What I did on my not-summer vacation

As some of you may recall, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend two whole weeks on Sanibel Island recently, a place I've been to twice before and wouldn't hesitate to go back. It's the perfect place to relax and just hang out at the beach, go shelling, take a few boat rides, or visit some cool places

Among the places I went to/things I did:

The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

The Bailey Tract

The Shell Museum

The Ringley Museum 

The Beach

And Two Boat Rides

I had a ton of fun and I can't wait to show/tell you more.