Redacting Rosslyn v2.0

Thwumpf! That’s the sound of a decade being swallowed whole (like a tidy-but-tasty amuse-bouche) by Rosslyn. Or by entropy. Maybe both. Ten sprawling, glorious years after pushing a post entitled Redacting Rosslyn v1.0 out into the universe I’m back on track with Redacting Rosslyn v2.0.

Yes, that’s a fairly ridiculous incubation period. A half dozen years of enthusiastic belly button gazing followed by an ellipsis that lingered so long it almost vanished like an old sepia photograph too long exposed to sunshine. Only ghostly shadows and faint silhouettes remain on the curling yellow paper.

But this interstitial reprieve was fecund. An abundance of living and laughter, family and friends, dreams and memories germinated, blossomed, and fruited in Rosslyn’s nurturing embrace. So much life.

Evidently I needed this Rosslyn experience in its voluptuous complexity to begin to disentangle my story.

Interstitial Adventure

Renovating Rosslyn *was* an adventure. Writing and editing Rosslyn Redux *is* an adventure. And Redacting Rosslyn is an interstitial adventure tucked into the folds of both, at once familiar and unfamiliar. And it demands new methods and rhythms, new risks, new exploration. In storytelling and writing, silence and white space are as important as voice and words. (Source: Redacting Rosslyn v1.0)

That wordy bundle first wandered into the world in Redacting Rosslyn v1.0. Little did I understand at the time how clairvoyant those words would be. Nor these conclusions that I teased out of a hand-me-down from Irish writer Kieron Connolly via Avery Oslo.

Each new work is unique, and its creation may well require different routines, different methods and habits and rhythms than previous creations. This will to adapt the creative process per the needs of each new creation is not only more realistic than the systematic, procrustean assembly line model, it’s more exciting. Each new creative experience should be an adventure. A journey. An exploration. This is what makes creating and telling a story so damned interesting! (“The Need for Flexibility)

Connolly stressed the need for flexibility.

“There are many ways to get from start to finish.” — Kieron Connolly (Source: Kieron Connolly’s Newspaper Novel-Plotting Game)

In fact, that was one of the challenges for me. Relating Rosslyn’s rehabilitation story, intertwined with our own attempt at revitalization.

The key is to allow each project to be its own thing and deal with it in the way it ought to be dealt… (“The Need for Flexibility)

Sixteen years after plunging into renovating Rosslyn we are RE-renovating (house deck and the boathouse gangway and stairway) and finally tackling the looong postponed icehouse rehabilitation. Sweet sixteen. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Not because there’s a lot more building going on. But because there’s another significant transition in the offing, a transformation wrapped up inside this re-renovation and rehab. I’ll be opening up (hopefully with some thoughts from Susan) in the weeks and months ahead. It’s going to be a big year — no, potentially a few big years — for us. And Redacting Rosslyn v2.0 is in many respects possible because of (and inextricably tied to) our next new adventure. More on that anon, but for now allow me to say that it’s time for a fresh perspective, a new objective, and an urgency that didn’t exist in the early days of this adventure. And I’m confident that at long last I am moving forward again..