Dear friends,

          So many of you have emailed, called or texted to ask how I am in the wake of Hurricane Helene and its devastating effects on my city of Asheville and the entire Western North Carolina region. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, care and concern. I am fine-- mercifully, I was out of town when the storm hit and was spared the trauma of having to go through such a scary event.

    For the past four weeks, I have been on a writing retreat (and 50th-birthday commemorative trip) in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. I am writing this newsletter to you from Guadalajara, where I'm awaiting a flight to New York.

      There is no electricity, running water, or reliable cell service in my neighborhood in Asheville yet. The Ballet Conservatory of Asheville, where I teach, is closed indefinitely. Classes won't resume until the situation is more stable in the city, but we have no idea just when that might be.

        I can't stop marveling at how lucky I am that my trip coincided with this storm. The house in which I live is unharmed, and all the friends I have heard from are also safe. Many friends and neighbors, as well as several of my students, have evacuated. I don't plan to return to Asheville until conditions have normalized. With any luck, that will be sooner rather than later, though the official bulletins from the city are that water restoration will take weeks.

          In the meantime, the silver linings are present. My time in Ajijic was immensely productive, I had some wonderful experiences (and some less-wonderful ones), stared at both mountains and water, ate a lot of shrimp tacos, learned that Mexico has an excellent, excellent cafe culture that we in the US could and should take a cue from, and I became adept at using Google Translate.

          I made significant progress on two major writing projects and am seeing the finish line on phase one of the manuscript that Gene and I have been working for nearly two years.

          That's all for this week. Please take good care of yourselves, and go check your emergency preparedness kit. Although I did not have to endure several days in darkness, without water or the ability to communicate, the knowledge that I avoided that by a random stroke of luck is enough to make me vow to have more water, flashlights, food and batteries stockpiled than ever before. 

           With love,

           Gavin