I'm having a terrible time concentrating on my current work-in-progress, and it's my own fault. I've set my story in one of the most stunning locations on Earth - the Central Coast area of California, specifically Big Sur.

I'm a very visual writer, so my stories unfold in my head like movies. I'm currently working on a scene in which the heroine is reunited with her sisters and aunt at the family restaurant after an absence of nearly five years. The restaurant, as I've pictured it, hugs a rocky hillside above the crashing surf in Big Sur.

The image is so vivid in my mind and so beautiful, it's distracting me from my work. I'm there, so I can't be here (in the cold fog in Minnesota). Fortunately, I'll be back in Carmel in a little over a month. I wonder if the pace of my writing will pick up when I'm physically in the setting.