Work-in-Progress Wednesday #018

This past week I haven't gotten much writing done because I've been on vacation! We (my husband and our friend from CA) left Friday night and made it out of Ohio to stay in London, KY. But, before we got to Kentucky, we stopped in West Chester, OH, to return a coffee table to IKEA. I had tried building it, but the legs needed to face a certain way to attach the lower shelf, and both my husband and I couldn't tighten the legs and put them in the right position. And, the table was smaller than I wanted it to be, after I got it in the room. Anyway, I tried to return it, and the woman would not let me! Their return policy says if you're not completely satisfied and you have the receipt and original packaging, you can return an item, but the customer service woman said I had already built it (not true), and then she took it in the back room and forced the legs on the table, and then there were scuff marks on it (obviously they used some kind of wrench or vice), and she said it was built, so she wouldn't accept the return. I said I couldn't fit it in the car that way, because we were on vacation and driving through (I live 2 hours from IKEA), and I said I didn't want it, and I wouldn't be able to put it back together on my own, and it was scuffed now, and I wasn't completely satisfied so they had to honor the return, and she said no, no, no. I said I have spent thousands of dollars at IKEA and she was going to lose a customer, and she didn't care. So I left the table there and walked away. I was so mad! I love IKEA! At least, I used to. Now I don't feel comfortable buying furniture from them anymore, and I'm certainly angry at that store's customer service. So, I'm going to call my credit card company and dispute the charge, and I'm going to email corporate.

Anyway, but the rest of the trip has been good. We saw the location of the first-ever Kentucky Fried Chicken. We hiked a bit on the Cumberland Gap. Then we drove into Gatlinburg and went to a Mirror Maze and the Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not Musemu, and then the next day.... I met Kate! I knew she lived in Knoxville, and I had messaged her and said I was going to be nearby, so we met at a Starbucks and chatted for an hour or so. It was really great to meet a blogger I've been following, and she is super nice! Here we are outside the Starbucks.Kate is on the left in the white shirt, and I'm the one in sunglasses. Yay! Thank goodness for summer and road trips and meeting friends from the Internet!

As I said last week, because I've been driving around Appalachia, I've been keeping my imagination open for my novel-in-progress Outlaw Song. I think I have maybe, finally, figured out a time and place for the novel, and I also think I've worked out some major plot points in my mind.

In the last day and a half we've also driven along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and it has been very rainy and foggy and lonely and isolated, and I've been thinking of a bunch of creepy scenarios, and I've been writing down horror/paranormal ideas for new stories. So, I haven't been writing a lot, but I've been brainstorming and taking notes.


See? Kind of dark and misty and eerie. I keep expecting to be run off the road by a deranged murderer or attacked by radioactive black bears. Or, what if the car breaks down and we get out of the car and, for some reason, all walk in separate directions, and after 50 feet, we're lost in the fog and never see each other again? See? Lots of story ideas on this trip.

How about you? Have you been inspired by anything in the last week?