I’ve had a lot of “hermit weekends” in a row (also known as “going into the writing cave” or “disappearing from society for a few days”) while I scramble to meet various deadlines.

Fall hermit weekends, though, I have to admit, are my favorite: The weather is beautiful; the light is gorgeous; the house is quiet (because everyone is in school, at least on Fridays and Mondays); and I can fuel my day with pumpkin spice Starbucks drinks.

Here’s how the last few hermit weekends have looked:

My writing uniform – flip-flops, cargo pants, tank top, jean jacket:

Here is my town and my morning view as I head out to the supermarket for “writing supplies.” I love my town. It always feels a little like a resort town to me, and everything’s within walking distance. Most weekends I never even get in my car:

At the supermarket, I grab “hermit writing supplies”: iced tea, cottage cheese, and crackers/cheese for about four days! (My staples.) I always love the fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving displays at the supermarket, though. It’s my favorite time to go to the store:

Then I treat myself to either a pumpkin spice latte or a pumpkin spice frappucino (depending on how hot it is that day) and walk home:

Here is the pretty autumn-morning light coming through the trees on my street. These are the trees that are also visible through my den window. I love these trees. I’ve watched them grow from saplings:

Then I sit down to work and hardly leave my desk chair. This particular hermit weekend was spent looking over copyedits for Ten Good Reasons before it went off to final publication. The copyeditors send us notes like, “Did you mean forty-five here? Later you said fifty,” or other amazing things they catch. We look over the notes and say “okay” or “stet,” plus add any changes we may have found since we turned the manuscript in:

Here’s me at my computer in my usually-messy-but-much-beloved den alcove. It’s much-beloved because there’s lots of light, I have a great window in front of me, and I’m right off the living room and near the front door so I always know what’s going on in the house. (But dang, I really need to clean up those bookshelves, huh?):

So that’s what a “hermit weekend” looks like. I do step outside the door! However, only in the morning. The rest of the day is usually hands-on-keyboard, hopefully knocking out thousands of good words per day!