I am back again from Creative Pulse in Missoula MT.
Even with 4 days traveling on road the transition has been disorienting.

I am just beginning to figure out what to do with myself. all last week I wandered around house trying to figure out what I am doing there. Logically my mind was operating but functionally I had a hard time doing anything but rest, eat, and read.
I guess my mind thought it needed to be thinking hard and studying - so I read two “large” as Ken observed books in two days. Hey - we had been putting away 10-40+ pages of “thick” reading a day. Of course you could barely digest it all. Part of the unwritten curriculum of program is to restudy all the material once you get home - I think.

Books I read:

The Royal Whore
by Allen Andrews
Chilton Book Co 1970
the story of Barbara Villiers Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, paramour of Charles II.

Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century
by Katie Hickman
HarperCollins Publishers 2004
interesting point Hickman makes is most of courtesans she profiles speak of the desire for autonomy and independence in a time where women had next to no options for either unless they were born wealthy.

Next book to read is one on Veronica Franco - as she is from period of incepton of Commedia Dell’Arte - interesting comment as she is referred to in her book description as “onesto” - or an honest courtesan !
The Honest Courtesan : Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice
by Margaret Rosenthal 1993

another one:
My Lady Scandalous : The Amazing Life And Adventurous Times Of Grace Dalrymple Elliot, Royal Courtesan
by Jo Manning 2005