Memories of the Road

Last Monday I officially became un-homeless.  Though it's only today (in theory) that I'm moving in.  Anyway, that means Grumpy Bulldog Does America is officially over.  I hadn't really been doing much of America the last three months, just going back and forth from Metro Detroit to Saginaw and back again.  It was kind of frustrating those months because society is basically set up so that if you don't have a job and you don't have a home then you should live on the street because with credit checks and such you can't get a home if you don't have a job, even if you have the money to pay for an apartment or something.  Unless maybe you could buy a house for cash or something, but if you don't have that much money then you're pretty screwed.

When I was reading the Transformed Collection with the first 22 books I wrote for that series, it made me think of where I had written some of the stories.

• The first 11 volumes I wrote in Metro Detroit.
• Volume 12 I started in Port Huron, MI at a Panera Bread.  The first story I think I was still working on all the way in Mitchell, SD.
• I finished Volume 12 between Rapid City, SD and Spokane, WA
• Volume 13 I started at a Starbucks in Spokane
• I finished Volume 13 at another Starbucks in Metro Seattle.  
• It gets a little hazy then.  I must have done Volume 14 between Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT.
• I wrote Transformed for Halloween in my first stint in Scottsdale, AZ at a Starbucks across from my motel
• I probably did the first half of Volume 15 between Phoenix and Albuquerque, NM.
• I started the second half of Volume 15 at a Starbucks in Santa Fe, NM that was weird in that it only had outdoor seating.  I didn't like their seats so I used my own lawn chair.
• I started Volume 16 at an Arby's in Roswell, NM
• The rest of Volume 16 and then Volumes 17-20 plus Transformed for Christmas I wrote in my second stint in Scottsdale, mostly either at the Starbucks or in my room, using the ironing board for a desk.
• I did start Volume 18 at an Arby's in Scottsdale but got interrupted by a stupid temp agency interview request that was a big waste of time of course.
• In Kalamazoo, MI I wrote The Lipstick Lesbian Elixir and My Rommate Changed Me Into a Goth Girl! Mostly at an Arby's nearby where they started to recognize me when I came in.
• Everything after that I wrote bouncing from Detroit and Saginaw.

Now I'll be based in New Hudson, MI, which is on the western fringe of the Detroit area.  There's a park I really like going to there, so maybe I'll do some new writing there on those rare days the weather doesn't suck.  If not there's the Arby's, a Starbucks, and a Biggby Coffee in town, so there you go.