Nearing the end of my 3 weeks at this place -- the Atlantic Center for the Arts, for those of you coming in late -- I thought I'd lay out what goes on here. It's my first arts residency, artists' colony, whatever you call it, and I had no idea what to expect, so maybe some of you guys don't either.

Being a "Master Artist," which btw no one ever called me before and I betcha it'll be a cold day in hell before anyone ever does again, I have a "cottage" into which my NYC apt. would fit twice. It's simple: exposed wood construction, lots of glass, high ceilings, sleeping loft. White walls, no artwork of any kind, which is a knockout. And a great choice -- why compete with the jungle, which is all you can see outside? There are 3 Master Artists, each working with 8 Associate Artists. The Associates have rooms in two housing wings, with work areas and bathrooms. The cottages have kitchens; the rooms don't, but the Associates can cook in the Commons for the meals they don't feed us. They feed us lunch and dinner 5 days a week, and breakfast is there for the taking -- cereal, bagels -- or the making -- eggs and oatmeal.

I get up and run, or, a couple of times now, get up before dawn to watch the sunrise over the ocean (a short drive or bike ride away). The birds are amazing -- the egrets and plovers don't mind sharing the beach at that hour, or maybe they're just too hungry to care. And the pelicans! I saw four of them soaring just inside the curve of a wave this moring, like surfers without boards.

The rest of the morning I work in my cottage, on my new book. Lunch is at 12:30, and I make it a point to sit with the composers or visual artists, not the writers, for two reasons: I'm fascinated by their work and it's great to have such close access to them; and I'm about to spend close to 3 hours with the writers in a small room. After lunch we -- the writers -- retire to the writers' studio and workshop two people's stories. Then I meet one-on-one with whomever's scheduled that day. Then back to my cottage for an hour or so of reading or writing. Dinner's at 6; after that I read, write, or stick my nose into the artists' or composers' studios to see what people are working on. No one's thrown me out yet; I thought at the beginning I'd be disturbing people but now I can see they love to have the chance to show work and see fresh reactions.

That's weekdays; weekends we don't workshop, so I've been birdwatching, and working, to make up for the amount of work I'm not actually getting done that I thought I would. What's great is how much time everyone spends working, the Associates and the Masters both. The studios are available 24 hours a day, and I've never seen the place completely dark. Someone's always at work.

So that's what gives here. And I have to say, I'm sorry it's ending so soon.