Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Sky is NOT Falling
A great article/blog post by David Lynn, Editor of the Kenyon Review over on the KR Blog about the state of literature, writing literature and teaching it.
Unabashed passion. Can we all teach with it? Can we bring it to our work without cynicism and disdain. Is the "I'm too cool for school" attitude that many students bring with them to the classroom (even in college) tainting the instructors? I've seen it happen.
Judging from a very small pool of first year college instructors, the key to their success appears to be how much passion they let the students see. Most of them have the passion or they wouldn't be spending their time in grad school, but the ones who hid it, or cloaked it with a too-cool, laid back, I-know-you're-only-here-because-it's-required-so-I-won't-get-too-excited demeanor struggled the most in their classrooms.
Unabashed passion. Can we all teach with it? Can we bring it to our work without cynicism and disdain. Is the "I'm too cool for school" attitude that many students bring with them to the classroom (even in college) tainting the instructors? I've seen it happen.
Judging from a very small pool of first year college instructors, the key to their success appears to be how much passion they let the students see. Most of them have the passion or they wouldn't be spending their time in grad school, but the ones who hid it, or cloaked it with a too-cool, laid back, I-know-you're-only-here-because-it's-required-so-I-won't-get-too-excited demeanor struggled the most in their classrooms.
Monday, December 29, 2008
4 x 4
from Finicky and Aquarius
Instructions:
Instructions:
- Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
- Select the 4th picture in the folder
- Explain the picture
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Publication Argument
Over at the BookEnds blog, literary agent Jessica Faust is doing everyone a big fat Christmas favor: she's doing pitch critiques. Her office is closed and her holiday plans have been smashed by the weather related airline delays which is good for aspiring writers. Reading her lengthy blogs is insightful in terms of discovering what works and what doesn't within the tiny part of a query letter called a pitch.
The pitch isn't a tagline, isn't a query and isn't (quite) a summary of the novel. It's ... well, so many literary agents are out there trying to tell you just what it is that I'll let them explain further rather than try and butcher it here.
Anyway, Ms. Faust is randomly selecting pitches that readers have posted in comment to her blog (on the appropriate entry) and giving critiques. Which is fabulous because rarely do agents give anything but form letter rejections to query letters (which include pitches) so now we get to learn by doing and watching and reading, what goes wrong and what looks good and how to make the whole shebang better.
Now, before anyone gets overly excited: she's not requesting partial manuscripts from these pitches; she's just critiquing.
Still, I'm overly excited. God help us all, but I submitted a pitch even though it wasn't one paragraph and I really should have followed the rules. Meh. We'll see. Maybe I'll get to find out what's wrong and how I could make it better. It's a pitch for a comic novel just because writing the pitch for that story seemed easier to me than writing the pitch for something more serious.
But just when I was feeling all warm and Christmas-spirit-y, I go and read the MFAblog's post "MFAs and Publishing."
Buzzkill.
While that blog seemed incredibly important to me as I researched MFA programs and went about figuring things out, now it just seems like a place where I read other people bitch. This post was asking if MFAs don't focusing enough on getting the young writer's published. The bitching was focused primarily on people saying you shouldn't bother with MFA programs because they don't get you published and then that if you don't want to teach (and the posters were rather against writers teaching) that you should find a job that is not emotionally or creatively draining so that you can spend your free time writing.
As someone who has had many an emotionally and creatively non-draining job, I have to say that those jobs left me in a vegetative state after I left them. My brain was numb and didn't want to do anything other than sit in front of the TV like a veal. I have to find something to engage myself, and for me teaching is a great way to do that: I talk to people about writing -- what could be better?
But once we get past the whining the intriguing part was the contemplation about publication within MFA programs or immediately after MFA programs. WMU emails me dozens of calls for submissions and contest info that I would have never found on my own (and if I had I wouldn't have necessarily trusted it's legitimacy, but I do with the faculty's knowledge of the market), they're also helping me network (they're paying my registration fee for the AWP conference), and if nothing else, they provide me with faculty with industry experience, even if that industry experience is awkwardly conflicted.
What I've learned so far about publishing within my MFA
1. Do you put down on your query letter that you're an MFA candidate? I've been told that's up to the writer. Some editors consider MFA candidates as apprentice writers until they actually finish the degree. Literary agents say that MFAers write some of the worst query letters out there (try harder than you think you have to). So no definitive answer.
2. Should you only submit to markets that allow simultaneous submissions in order to increase your chances? What if there are prestigious markets you want to submit to that are closed to simultaneous submissions? Submit to them simultaneously anyway.
3. Can you get a teaching job without a published novel? Not really. A collection of short stories is okay, but a novel is better. A contract for a novel about to be published works as well. But there needs to be a book not a magazine with your name on it and it needs to be coming soon.
But then talking about publication got banned from my workshop because the instructor said we were too focused on publication and not focused enough on writing. Which leads me to
4. They believe if you write well enough, you will get published.
Of course this is both good writing and perseverance combined.
The pitch isn't a tagline, isn't a query and isn't (quite) a summary of the novel. It's ... well, so many literary agents are out there trying to tell you just what it is that I'll let them explain further rather than try and butcher it here.
Anyway, Ms. Faust is randomly selecting pitches that readers have posted in comment to her blog (on the appropriate entry) and giving critiques. Which is fabulous because rarely do agents give anything but form letter rejections to query letters (which include pitches) so now we get to learn by doing and watching and reading, what goes wrong and what looks good and how to make the whole shebang better.
Now, before anyone gets overly excited: she's not requesting partial manuscripts from these pitches; she's just critiquing.
Still, I'm overly excited. God help us all, but I submitted a pitch even though it wasn't one paragraph and I really should have followed the rules. Meh. We'll see. Maybe I'll get to find out what's wrong and how I could make it better. It's a pitch for a comic novel just because writing the pitch for that story seemed easier to me than writing the pitch for something more serious.
But just when I was feeling all warm and Christmas-spirit-y, I go and read the MFAblog's post "MFAs and Publishing."
Buzzkill.
While that blog seemed incredibly important to me as I researched MFA programs and went about figuring things out, now it just seems like a place where I read other people bitch. This post was asking if MFAs don't focusing enough on getting the young writer's published. The bitching was focused primarily on people saying you shouldn't bother with MFA programs because they don't get you published and then that if you don't want to teach (and the posters were rather against writers teaching) that you should find a job that is not emotionally or creatively draining so that you can spend your free time writing.
As someone who has had many an emotionally and creatively non-draining job, I have to say that those jobs left me in a vegetative state after I left them. My brain was numb and didn't want to do anything other than sit in front of the TV like a veal. I have to find something to engage myself, and for me teaching is a great way to do that: I talk to people about writing -- what could be better?
But once we get past the whining the intriguing part was the contemplation about publication within MFA programs or immediately after MFA programs. WMU emails me dozens of calls for submissions and contest info that I would have never found on my own (and if I had I wouldn't have necessarily trusted it's legitimacy, but I do with the faculty's knowledge of the market), they're also helping me network (they're paying my registration fee for the AWP conference), and if nothing else, they provide me with faculty with industry experience, even if that industry experience is awkwardly conflicted.
What I've learned so far about publishing within my MFA
1. Do you put down on your query letter that you're an MFA candidate? I've been told that's up to the writer. Some editors consider MFA candidates as apprentice writers until they actually finish the degree. Literary agents say that MFAers write some of the worst query letters out there (try harder than you think you have to). So no definitive answer.
2. Should you only submit to markets that allow simultaneous submissions in order to increase your chances? What if there are prestigious markets you want to submit to that are closed to simultaneous submissions? Submit to them simultaneously anyway.
3. Can you get a teaching job without a published novel? Not really. A collection of short stories is okay, but a novel is better. A contract for a novel about to be published works as well. But there needs to be a book not a magazine with your name on it and it needs to be coming soon.
But then talking about publication got banned from my workshop because the instructor said we were too focused on publication and not focused enough on writing. Which leads me to
4. They believe if you write well enough, you will get published.
Of course this is both good writing and perseverance combined.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
White Christmas
This may surprise you Southerners, you Hawaiians with your idyllic visions of a Midwestern winter, but rarely does southern Michigan get a white Christmas.
This year, by definition, is rare. And white.
Sadly, in the picture it had been raining for a couple of hours (a lovely snow/rain mix, yuck) and melted the snow off the tree branches. I sincerely doubt that it will take the snow off the ground any time soon however.
I'm spending my break writing a depressed character (bummer), reading short stories (usually downers as well) and skimming Oprah's "Live Your Best Life" issue of O Magazine. It's an interesting combination.
Oh, and Rosie figured out how to climb the tree. She's not doing it to get to the top, but to a kitten sized nook she found about three feet up. The two of them have also constructed a new tradition of taking ornaments off the lowest branches and depositing them on different floors of the house. While many get batted down the stairs to the basement, a lucky few have been carried upstairs.
This year, by definition, is rare. And white.
Sadly, in the picture it had been raining for a couple of hours (a lovely snow/rain mix, yuck) and melted the snow off the tree branches. I sincerely doubt that it will take the snow off the ground any time soon however.I'm spending my break writing a depressed character (bummer), reading short stories (usually downers as well) and skimming Oprah's "Live Your Best Life" issue of O Magazine. It's an interesting combination.
Oh, and Rosie figured out how to climb the tree. She's not doing it to get to the top, but to a kitten sized nook she found about three feet up. The two of them have also constructed a new tradition of taking ornaments off the lowest branches and depositing them on different floors of the house. While many get batted down the stairs to the basement, a lucky few have been carried upstairs.
Merry Christmas
and Happy Holidays
and Happy Holidays
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Snow
Man alive. We're officially in Winter now, however, around here it's felt like winter for the past month.
I got hit by that big snow storm that hit the Great Lakes area late last week. Kalamazoo got 8-10"; Ann Arbor 6-8". How was it getting through all that? I have no idea. I merely looked at it through my window. I'm on break here until the next semester starts in January so I went to the grocery store the night before and then just waited it out.
Visiting my family originally started as a week. It might now mean something like a week and a half on the road. Which is probably a good thing. Part of me wants this "off time" spent on me and my writing, but I used the first week simply to do grades and leisure activities like TV and teaching myself to sew apparel (which I find I'm quite good at).
I brought my kittens with me to stay at my father's house. The trip was easier for Rosie (the new girl) than it was for Ash. Rosie I just stuffed in the cat carrier and put in the backseat. She looked around, oh a cat carrier, and fell asleep. She meowed twice about 90 minutes into the drive then went back to sleep.
Ash, however, threw a hissy fit for the first half hour. She gets a harness and leash attached to the back seat so that she can roam around but not get under my feet. She wanted in my lap, out of my lap, up in the back window, sliding around trying to climb on the pillow and bag in the backseat. Finally she settled down in my lap and went to sleep. It was an easy ride from there.
Now the kittens are playing with each other. Or rather chashing each other. Unlike my apartment, my father's house has multiple floors. Kittens chasing after each other at top speed on the floor above sounds a lot like the pitter patter of small elephants.
I got hit by that big snow storm that hit the Great Lakes area late last week. Kalamazoo got 8-10"; Ann Arbor 6-8". How was it getting through all that? I have no idea. I merely looked at it through my window. I'm on break here until the next semester starts in January so I went to the grocery store the night before and then just waited it out.
Visiting my family originally started as a week. It might now mean something like a week and a half on the road. Which is probably a good thing. Part of me wants this "off time" spent on me and my writing, but I used the first week simply to do grades and leisure activities like TV and teaching myself to sew apparel (which I find I'm quite good at).
I brought my kittens with me to stay at my father's house. The trip was easier for Rosie (the new girl) than it was for Ash. Rosie I just stuffed in the cat carrier and put in the backseat. She looked around, oh a cat carrier, and fell asleep. She meowed twice about 90 minutes into the drive then went back to sleep.
Ash, however, threw a hissy fit for the first half hour. She gets a harness and leash attached to the back seat so that she can roam around but not get under my feet. She wanted in my lap, out of my lap, up in the back window, sliding around trying to climb on the pillow and bag in the backseat. Finally she settled down in my lap and went to sleep. It was an easy ride from there.
Now the kittens are playing with each other. Or rather chashing each other. Unlike my apartment, my father's house has multiple floors. Kittens chasing after each other at top speed on the floor above sounds a lot like the pitter patter of small elephants.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The iGeneration
Complete and total proof of the iGeneration, not the tech generation, the iGeneration -- we're not just big on technology, we use it to personalize our generic, consumer-driven lives:
http://www.bookbyyou.com/default.asp?id=Bs_B_Y-Google&source=google
http://www.bookbyyou.com/default.asp?id=Bs_B_Y-Google&source=google
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
It gets even better ...
I've stated before that this past semester's workshop has been a crash course in contradictions. If my first workshop wasn't proof that "you can't please everyone" (where I got comments back and two people had marked the same dozen lines in the story, one marking each as "love it" and the other person marking them "cut it"), then the final comments from the instructor should have been proof enough.
While I was at the Kenyon Review workshop working for a week focused wholly on openings, I brought in the first three pages of a short story called "Cake." I took almost all of the suggestions it improve the opening because that was undoubtedly the weakest part of it.
Among the other changes I had made was implementing a suggestion -- Brad Kessler's suggestion I believe -- to refer to an unnamed character as "the witch," not just once but throughout the story.
I reworked it over the past six months and as we only had two workshops per person this semester, our instructor wanted us to turn in either a rewrite of a workshop story or another story that we'd recently worked on. This story wouldn't be workshopped by the group but he would send up back comments. I sent in "Cake."
I have his comments back.
He stated that he liked the story, that it was my smoothest and strongest story that he's seen, but that the whole "witch" thing was just too corny.
*headdesk*
I need more readers to weigh in on the situation. The change is minor, cosmetic really, but it is now an annoyingly important detail.
While I was at the Kenyon Review workshop working for a week focused wholly on openings, I brought in the first three pages of a short story called "Cake." I took almost all of the suggestions it improve the opening because that was undoubtedly the weakest part of it.
Among the other changes I had made was implementing a suggestion -- Brad Kessler's suggestion I believe -- to refer to an unnamed character as "the witch," not just once but throughout the story.
I reworked it over the past six months and as we only had two workshops per person this semester, our instructor wanted us to turn in either a rewrite of a workshop story or another story that we'd recently worked on. This story wouldn't be workshopped by the group but he would send up back comments. I sent in "Cake."
I have his comments back.
He stated that he liked the story, that it was my smoothest and strongest story that he's seen, but that the whole "witch" thing was just too corny.
*headdesk*
I need more readers to weigh in on the situation. The change is minor, cosmetic really, but it is now an annoyingly important detail.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
What to Write, What to Read
Eileen: I'm thinking about attempting something "experimental" like the article I wrote for the writing text book. The "hybrid story" seems hot with publishers right now; it's what everyone says they want to publish, but no one can define.
El Johno: write whatever you'd like to read.
Eileen: that gets difficult when what you'd really like to read is your own name in print.
Don't we all! I very carefully read through the preface where they explain how they get the stories and then how they judge them -- when you set your sights on something you really should know how it works, right?
Margosita: Oh, I'd like to hear what you think of Best New American Voices. (Because how badly do I want to be one of them?!)
Last night I read the preface, introduction and the first story in the 2009 Best New American Voices -- BTW the first story in the 2008 edition, "Alice," by Tucker Capps, was amazing!. I sat in a Barnes & Noble reading that 30+ page story determined to finish it before they turned off the lights and kicked me out and made it by only the narrowest of margins. The opening story of the 2009 edition was good -- "Yellowstone" by Baird Harper -- with an awkward WTF-just-happened? ending, but wasn't as strong as "Alice" by any means.
The stories are nominated by the instructors of just about every MFA, MA and writing conference workshop in the USA. And from those nominations the finalists and eventually winners are chosen, so, for example, Bread Loaf Writer's Conference sends in entries as well as The Banff Center for the Arts Writing Studio (never heard of them), not just MFAs.
And I have no reservations stating that I do not think my performance this past semester will lead to any sort of nomination.
These are stories faculty have seen in workshop, in workshop! Needless to say my half-mended first draft that I turned in for my final workshop wasn't submitted with this anthology in mind. At the point where I turned that story in (with it's controversial "memoir" tone and description, ha) I just wanted some feedback to help me think about where I was going -- I really didn't even see it as a short story anymore but a nascent novel. If I want in this anthology I won't be able to do that anymore. Final draft only, thankyouverymuch.
But at the same time, I know that the workshop I just sat in would have destroyed "Yellowstone" had anyone brought it to class. I can even hear what they'd say in my head -- they're so predictable -- I didn't find the little girl and her mother, particularly her mother, believable; the dead girlfriend is really too much of a plot device, if she was in the story more that would be okay, but right now she's just a plot device to get the guy to this city; I don't like the ending, either we need to know what happens, you can't make those kinds of statements and then not tell us, then the instructor would state well, I think you can pretty much assume X, to which the first person would reply then the author needs to tell us X instead of forcing us to make those kinds of assumptions.
... can you see why this workshop made me want to drink? Subtlety was completely lost on some of the more vocal members. Unfortunately the more vocal members were among the most well read and possibly best classically educated in literature ... or they believed they were. However, I'm a firm believer that classical education "smarts" needs to be balanced with emotional "smarts" and common sense knowledge of how people work in the real world, which isn't logical at all.
For example I remember reading Aquarius' story of her ex "Rolex boyfriend" and his entire "Rolex family," and that she eventually realized she was probably only dating because she, too, owned a Rolex ... and I thought hmm, that might just make for an interesting story premise. My ex-workshop would have ridden it into the dust as contrived and so improbably it was impossible, and then called it a plot device. Well, at least I believed you, Aquarius! LOL.
I really need to stop ranting about this and just get over it ... but in all honestly that will probably take a few weeks.
Now I must go and work on first drafts so that I can bring something to workshop in the next semester/year that might just be nomination worthy!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tag You're It
(from Tanya)
What were you doing five years ago?
What were you doing five years ago?
1. Dating a nice guy even though I knew at this point that it wasn't going anywhere
2. Moving into the sorority for the first time
2. Moving into the sorority for the first time
3. Hating my job (IT)
4. Wondering about transferring back home to the UofM
5. Thinking I was, in general, the shit
What are five things on your list for today?
1. Get Christmas cards in the mail (seriously)
2. Do that pesky teaching/text book survey
3. Print out copies of short stories/novel before my printing money expires for the semester
4. Get more kitty litter
5. Read The List.
What are five snacks that I enjoy?
1. Hummus (always)
2. Pizza rolls
3. Does tea count as a snack if you have it five times a day?
4. Chocolate, in any form
5. Popcorn
What are five things that you'd do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off my debt
2. Live someplace nicer
3. Buy my parents houses
4. Donate to my alma mater, because there should be a building in my name, j/k
5. Travel
What are five jobs that you've had?
1. Writing Instructor
1. Writing Instructor
2. Substitute High School Secretary/book depository gate tender
3. Coffee Shop Barista
3. Coffee Shop Barista
4. Sales Associate @ Express
5. IT Associate at Alumni Relations
Who are five people that you want to tag?
1. Aquarius
2. Jud
2. Jud
3. El Johno
4. Paralith
5. Finicky (as Margosita already got tagged, it seems only fair)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Freedom!
The grading is finished -- finally! -- and now semester really is over.
Two and a half weeks left where I don't actually have to be anywhere. I'm going to waste this time, I just know it. But with good intentions I've checked out four anthologies of short stories from the library today as well as printed out several story manuscripts to edit over break.
The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2008
Best of Tin House
Futures from Nature
Best New American Voices, 2009
I'm hoping to better assess the market where it stands now.
Two and a half weeks left where I don't actually have to be anywhere. I'm going to waste this time, I just know it. But with good intentions I've checked out four anthologies of short stories from the library today as well as printed out several story manuscripts to edit over break.
The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2008
Best of Tin House
Futures from Nature
Best New American Voices, 2009
I'm hoping to better assess the market where it stands now.
Christmas Spirit
Every time I see a tree going home on top of a car it makes me smile. Without fail. Every time. It's like seeing a puppy get adopted. How can that not bring you joy?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Write What You Know, Write What You Don't Know
An awkward thing happened in workshop last Monday: I was accused of writing nonfiction and calling it fiction.
This was actually something I was afraid of, except not for the part I got called out on.
The statement was made because I used an essayistic tone and talked about regulations at a high school that really exists while I fictionalized my old high school. They elaborated on "essayistic tone" because the instructor -- thankfully -- wouldn't let them get away with just throwing that term around (by "they" I mean only three people, btw). They stated that they were referring to an abundance of mundane details but a lack of dwelling on detail and blowing it up to unrealistic proportions -- apparently non-fic glosses over details and fiction blows them out of proportion.
Which leads me to the question: why didn't they just tell me that I had a page ful of boring detail?
Next -- it gets better -- I was told that anything that's nonfiction shouldn't be fictionalized because non-fic is easier than lit fic to get published.
Yes, the setting is "non-fiction;" I have lived and worked where my character lives and works. But does that also mean that I can't set stories in Chicago? Indiana? The Midwest in general? Does that mean that the guy in my workshop who is recently discharged from the military needs to stop writing about young, male soldiers?
But the thing that makes my story hang together, the thing that makes it interesting (which these nay-sayers didn't seem as interested in) is the main character's relationship with her late sister.
And, I'm sorry, I don't have any dead sisters.
This gets more awkward because the things I dumped in because they were factual about Ann Arbor -- a city I used to live in and therefore thought was good for setting my story as I know the landscape -- got me "in trouble" for crossing genres. But the fact that I dumped in huge chunks of stories my family tells over the kitchen table were touted as enjoyable, good, great, I really liked those.
So now non-fiction's fiction and fictions non-fiction.
It's an interesting hypocrisy as to the "write what you know" mantra.
Perhaps I could have avoided this confusion if I gave them a more polished draft of the story. But I didn't. I couldn't. We were given the creative "charge" to write something "clockless" and occurring over more than just a day or two at the beginning of November and on December 1 -- less than 30 days later -- I had to send out my story to the class. I generated a lump sum of material, but it in a coherent order and even put a caveat in the email that it was very new and very rough.
Maybe instead of me being boggled at the fact that people jumped to "non-fiction" instead of "boring detail," I should be proud of the people who picked out the main conflict despite the fact that I accidentally buried it ten to fourteen pages deep by not having enough editing time to skim off the "front" end of the story. But this is a story that I've never seen as ending up as short fiction, I've only ever seen it as taking the shape of a novel eventually, so I'm not overly worried about where things are going right now.
Overall, this workshop has been more of a trial than a treat. Though I already knew that you can't please everyone this class has been fourteen weeks of proof for the theory.
This was actually something I was afraid of, except not for the part I got called out on.
The statement was made because I used an essayistic tone and talked about regulations at a high school that really exists while I fictionalized my old high school. They elaborated on "essayistic tone" because the instructor -- thankfully -- wouldn't let them get away with just throwing that term around (by "they" I mean only three people, btw). They stated that they were referring to an abundance of mundane details but a lack of dwelling on detail and blowing it up to unrealistic proportions -- apparently non-fic glosses over details and fiction blows them out of proportion.
Which leads me to the question: why didn't they just tell me that I had a page ful of boring detail?
Next -- it gets better -- I was told that anything that's nonfiction shouldn't be fictionalized because non-fic is easier than lit fic to get published.
Yes, the setting is "non-fiction;" I have lived and worked where my character lives and works. But does that also mean that I can't set stories in Chicago? Indiana? The Midwest in general? Does that mean that the guy in my workshop who is recently discharged from the military needs to stop writing about young, male soldiers?
But the thing that makes my story hang together, the thing that makes it interesting (which these nay-sayers didn't seem as interested in) is the main character's relationship with her late sister.
And, I'm sorry, I don't have any dead sisters.
This gets more awkward because the things I dumped in because they were factual about Ann Arbor -- a city I used to live in and therefore thought was good for setting my story as I know the landscape -- got me "in trouble" for crossing genres. But the fact that I dumped in huge chunks of stories my family tells over the kitchen table were touted as enjoyable, good, great, I really liked those.
So now non-fiction's fiction and fictions non-fiction.
It's an interesting hypocrisy as to the "write what you know" mantra.
Perhaps I could have avoided this confusion if I gave them a more polished draft of the story. But I didn't. I couldn't. We were given the creative "charge" to write something "clockless" and occurring over more than just a day or two at the beginning of November and on December 1 -- less than 30 days later -- I had to send out my story to the class. I generated a lump sum of material, but it in a coherent order and even put a caveat in the email that it was very new and very rough.
Maybe instead of me being boggled at the fact that people jumped to "non-fiction" instead of "boring detail," I should be proud of the people who picked out the main conflict despite the fact that I accidentally buried it ten to fourteen pages deep by not having enough editing time to skim off the "front" end of the story. But this is a story that I've never seen as ending up as short fiction, I've only ever seen it as taking the shape of a novel eventually, so I'm not overly worried about where things are going right now.
Overall, this workshop has been more of a trial than a treat. Though I already knew that you can't please everyone this class has been fourteen weeks of proof for the theory.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Double the Kitten
Ash is soooooo excited.First thing she did when the new kitten came out of the cat carrier was groom the new kitten. Someone was purring, don't know who. Ash wants to play constantly with the new kitten, but the new girl is feeling a little skittish and understandably so. Right now they're separated because when they're not Ash drives the new girl under the bed in her exuberance. And frankly, all that pouncing was making the new girl bitchy.
She's timid but sweet. She's a month younger than Ash and probably two pounds lighter, so I can't figure out if they're playing or battling for dominance. People tell me time will sort it out well they have until midnight when I go to bed.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Grading Hiatus
So I should be grading like mad. Instead I'm feeling under the weather. Yuck.
So instead of thinking about my grad class projects, I'm trying to plan my trip to the AWP conference in February. The first hotel's already sold out. I know people were talking about getting hotel rooms in "cheaper" areas, but, as someone who has lived not four blocks from the Hilton on Michigan Ave., I would like to caution everyone: February in Chicago is cold and dark and, while New York may be the city that never sleeps, Chicago has a strict bedtime. The Loop empties out by 7:oo or 8:00 pm on weekdays and in the winter the tourism isn't alive enough in the park district to make up for the businessmen leaving.
Yes, there will be young people on the L at night as they travel to bar hop and party, but the streets get fairly deserted save for the people who live on them. Places that are cheaper may be far away from public transportation stops or require transfers.
And people who think they'll just drive need to know that parking is at least $30 a day in the surface lots and that your hotel doesn't give free parking with your room; you need to buy that car a place to sleep too.
So instead of thinking about my grad class projects, I'm trying to plan my trip to the AWP conference in February. The first hotel's already sold out. I know people were talking about getting hotel rooms in "cheaper" areas, but, as someone who has lived not four blocks from the Hilton on Michigan Ave., I would like to caution everyone: February in Chicago is cold and dark and, while New York may be the city that never sleeps, Chicago has a strict bedtime. The Loop empties out by 7:oo or 8:00 pm on weekdays and in the winter the tourism isn't alive enough in the park district to make up for the businessmen leaving.
Yes, there will be young people on the L at night as they travel to bar hop and party, but the streets get fairly deserted save for the people who live on them. Places that are cheaper may be far away from public transportation stops or require transfers.
And people who think they'll just drive need to know that parking is at least $30 a day in the surface lots and that your hotel doesn't give free parking with your room; you need to buy that car a place to sleep too.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Hauling Ash -- The Market -- Career Outlook
Ash was a doll the entire weekend. Everyone's in love with her and she's single-handedly (pawedly?) generating new cat owners across the country.
On the way to my father's house she cried a little in the car. I had her in a harness and leashed to the back door handle of the car so that she couldn't get under foot. But once the crying finished she was fine. Just hunkered down and waited it out.
While I drove four hours north to visit family, the kitten went to stay with my father's fiance who was only an hour away. Both there and back, Ash just curled up in my lap and sat/slept the entire ride. On the way home Saturday she hardly moved from my lap she was so calm.
It was great! Only once she got back to the apartment she curled up on "her" chair and slept for four hours straight. Not catnap sleep but deep sleep. The kind where cats twist into funny positions and their whiskers twitch as they chase mice in their dreams.
I'm behind on everything.
Don't be like me kids; don't procrastinate. Just don't.
I'm keeping afloat just barely, but I'm not feeling well at all. Hopefully this will pass.
I'm sure many of you have seen this news at PW and other outlets last week: "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books."
Yikes.
I guess this is the first time the "good news" has been that I'm not ready to publish a novel length work. However, while I might not believe that trickle down tax cuts ever get to the "average joe" -- and no, Joe the Plumber never saw a dime of trickle down economics -- I do know that the big boys' cuts frequently affect smaller and smaller presses. Blah. These guys are 1.) making me glad I'm in school and 2.) making me want to stay in school through the Ph.D.
Thanksgiving was a time of friends/family asking about the Ph.D. My friend from high school wanted to know if that was still my plan, my father still thinks it's the best plan, and unless the economy rebounds in the next 20 months during which time I sign with an editor for publication of a novel, I think I'll be applying for that Ph.D. Meanwhile I need to talk with the advising-people in my program and see what the deal around here is for switching over from an MFA to a Ph.D. without earning the MFA. There are only about 20 (maybe 24) Ph.D in creative writing programs in the nation. They are, essentially, lit Ph.Ds with a creative thesis ... and there are mixed emotions about hiring Ph.Ds in writing over MFAs in writing. Some schools claim that in 15 years they'll hire only Ph.Ds for the spots they're now considering both; some schools are doing searches for faculty and viewing Ph.Ds with suspicion. These inconsistencies are to be expected in a subjective field but they make me want to scream get your shit together for crying out loud!
On the way to my father's house she cried a little in the car. I had her in a harness and leashed to the back door handle of the car so that she couldn't get under foot. But once the crying finished she was fine. Just hunkered down and waited it out.
While I drove four hours north to visit family, the kitten went to stay with my father's fiance who was only an hour away. Both there and back, Ash just curled up in my lap and sat/slept the entire ride. On the way home Saturday she hardly moved from my lap she was so calm.
It was great! Only once she got back to the apartment she curled up on "her" chair and slept for four hours straight. Not catnap sleep but deep sleep. The kind where cats twist into funny positions and their whiskers twitch as they chase mice in their dreams.
I'm behind on everything.
Don't be like me kids; don't procrastinate. Just don't.
I'm keeping afloat just barely, but I'm not feeling well at all. Hopefully this will pass.
I'm sure many of you have seen this news at PW and other outlets last week: "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books."
Yikes.
I guess this is the first time the "good news" has been that I'm not ready to publish a novel length work. However, while I might not believe that trickle down tax cuts ever get to the "average joe" -- and no, Joe the Plumber never saw a dime of trickle down economics -- I do know that the big boys' cuts frequently affect smaller and smaller presses. Blah. These guys are 1.) making me glad I'm in school and 2.) making me want to stay in school through the Ph.D.
Thanksgiving was a time of friends/family asking about the Ph.D. My friend from high school wanted to know if that was still my plan, my father still thinks it's the best plan, and unless the economy rebounds in the next 20 months during which time I sign with an editor for publication of a novel, I think I'll be applying for that Ph.D. Meanwhile I need to talk with the advising-people in my program and see what the deal around here is for switching over from an MFA to a Ph.D. without earning the MFA. There are only about 20 (maybe 24) Ph.D in creative writing programs in the nation. They are, essentially, lit Ph.Ds with a creative thesis ... and there are mixed emotions about hiring Ph.Ds in writing over MFAs in writing. Some schools claim that in 15 years they'll hire only Ph.Ds for the spots they're now considering both; some schools are doing searches for faculty and viewing Ph.Ds with suspicion. These inconsistencies are to be expected in a subjective field but they make me want to scream get your shit together for crying out loud!
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