At the station we spoke a bit about the other “Musers” (people who stayed at La Muse). Kitty, in particular. She was negative. They don’t usually do the bookswap with 1-week stays. Even though I was the only 1-week stay. The other 4 who stayed there were 3-week stays. But the email she sent to the others were that people wanted to be productive and work in the morning, the morning of Lastours trip and Kerry and John weren’t available in the afternoon. But it was really because of Kitty. She complained everyday she was there. The other Musers couldn't stand her, they all avoided her. There was Anita from China, now in Australia, telling me one night that my footsteps were too loud and kept her up, which was why she didn’t go with us to Lastours. But some kid playing outside also disturbed her. It may have been Kitty’s negativity - Resistance, like Steven Pressfield called it - was the real reason. I remembered that Kitty did say one day that she was having a bad week. She wasn’t writing. She seemed a bit cranky but I liked her.
“In all 15 years of doing this we’ve never had a problem. So we know it’s not us,” John said.
Koty, from Michigan who sometimes lives in Brooklyn when her job requires it. Koty wrote like hell during her stay. She got tons of followers on her social media. Susanna mentioned to me that she looked Koty up and saw tons of blog posts all of which were posted during her stay. I looked her up and she DID write A LOT while there. Plus her novel.
John helped me exchange my ticket. It was no problem. I thought it would be because of the hassle I went through to get it printed. I don’t think I’d need to order tickets in advance as I did before. There are more trains available than what’s posted online in North America.
[Kerry had asked before I left La Muse if I wanted John to take me to Cite (Medieval City) in Carcassonne. But I said next time. I was itching to get back and finally relax and not worry about anything.]
We hugged and blew kisses in the air to each side of our cheer and said goodbye - the French goodbye.