currently reading...

by janette turner hospital. i worked in a roadhouse very close to where the opal mining fields are in australia. this is this kind of reading i wish i had when i worked in those outback bars, when i was bored out of my mind serving XXXX to drunk retired miners at 10 in the morning. also, she's head faculty at USC and is an aussie. if this book is any good, i'm going to set out to meet her and buy a shout.

t-minus one week until...

application season begins. DOOM.

i'm applying to 12 (maybe 13) schools and the amount of material to prepare is immense. i know i've got a leg up with my portfolio, recommenders, transcripts and GRE scores (those places willing to accept scores older than 5 years). those places that won't accept my score are the reasons i've invested in the princeton review crash course book. i figure i've taken it twice, so i should be a pro. wrong. this test is the devil, satan, lucifer, beelzebub, and whatever name there is for the darkest, most evil forces known in this universe.

so here's my list so far:

colorado-boulder

oregon

vanderbilt

miami

u of s. carolina

virginia tech

VCU

ODU

portland state

LSU

either USC or texas-austin. maybe both.

things will be getting real here soon. i have a reading at the boot in norfolk, va on sept 23rd and the conference where i'll pitch my book to an editor. criminy.

as far as my portfolio goes, i have one story workshopped and ready to go, one story almost done and one story/possible novelette that i'm currently editing. i have a couple story ideas which i plan on hashing out in september by committing to a word count and sticking to it.

mur lafferty's podcast "i should be writing" offers a ton of amazing advice for writer who needs to just let go and write. i've been listening to her and downloaded her podio book "heaven" and really liked it. recommend recommend it. although, my biggest problem with her "rules" is number 2: "you are allowed to suck." i refuse to suck if i can help it. i will not stand sucking. maybe you write something just to write it, just for the sake of writing. that's absolutely fine. but you have to make it better. soon. before someone else sees that it sucks. right? right. the sucking should be minimal.

that said, there's a program i'm thinking of trying out. write or die promises that it will make you write, or suffer the consequences. while this belligerent view of writing isn't exactly my style (i prefer to walk around my house in my robe until ideas hit me), it's not something i will rule out. i'll give a couple days of wandering around in my hideous red robe until i decide write or die is something i should try out.

it's almost done! so for my 28th birthday, i decided i'm getting the tattoo i've wanted for the past 4 years. vice the decemberists album title, the banner will present a yeats quote from my favorite poem.got one more session to go to finish this baby, but it's pretty neat! this is special because it is the last expensive thing i'm giving myself before i start writing full time and sending applications and workshopping hardcore, wherein i will cease to have an expendable budget. yay academic life.

moment of wow

rare color photos from the great depression

i'm not sure what the farm services administration actually worked on from 1939-1944, but they were pretty damn good photographers. i should go back to my u.s. history book to look them up. either way, thanks to the library of congress, all 1600 pictures are online. it's a fascinating site anyway and i'd go there now if i didn't have workshopping to do!

currently reading...

"what the thunder said" by janet peery

a friend referred me to "alligator dance" and i was absolutely in love. i'm only 59 pages into "thunder" and i'm hooked. i'm applying to ODU's MFA where peery is one of the faculty. hopefully one day i'll get to meet her.

i got a scholarship!

hampton roads writers

as my inaugural post, i'll announce that i'm attending the hampton roads writers conference this september. it was a bit accidental, but i'm excited! i also submitted a creative nonfiction short story into a contest the conference is hosting, as well.