Greetings from Kelleys Island, Ohio. I've been here since Sunday with the Blue Heaven writing workshop, and though I've had plenty of opportunities to report, I have somehow found other things to do instead.

But now that we have something of a lull, and no alcoholic beverages at hand to distract ourselves with, I will mention some excitement from this morning's critique session. (And no, I'm not talking about the deer that wandered past.) So we're sitting on the patio behind a bed and breakfast in the woods not far from a giant limestone quarry. At about 11:45 two long siren blasts came from the direction of the quarry. There was idle speculation that this was a warning preceding an explosion.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the ground rumbled beneath us with a deep whump! That was exciting enough, with our ribs vibrating, but a second or two later followed the sound of an immense explosion that was loud enough to make everyone jump in their seats a little. It was so loud I expected to see a debris cloud lift over the trees, or rock fragments to come sailing toward us, but nothing of the sort happened.

Gee, that was kind of a boring explosion.