OK, so I should apologize

I have been neglecting you, all of you. (And I know it's thousands, millions of you, right?!?)

Anyway, I'm back from Southampton and the Squaw Valley Writers Conference, where it was weeks filled with booze, affairs and writing. (I didn't partake of affairs, but hey, others did!) I have to admit, though, even though I though it might be a huge waste of time, I found myself energized and even creative for up to two weeks afterwards. So, I will endorse both -- although for the money, I'm inclined to prefer the Squaw Valley Writers Conference.

Currently, I'm back on the academic track teaching English Comp., but now that I've left the vocational college, I'm finding my students entirely respectful and rather sweet.

So, life is rather good right now. Will attempt a couple of posts a week now.

It's July already?

Yes, it is...good news is that I'm heading to the Southampton Writers Conference! It's the first step of my Summer of Writing.

I figure now that I'm out of my MFA program, I need whatever excuses or support possible to keep me writing. Selfish? Perhaps.

I also was accepted into the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Summer Workshop! I'm very happy about that and will be going with a classmate. It should all be fun and strange, but so writerish! I hardly do anything so self-absorbed, so it's bound to be good for me.

Shoutouts to all my colleagues who went to VONA (especially the ones who partied with Junot Diaz, ZZ Packer and Ana Castillo) this year, I heard it was awesome and I hope to go next year. (After writing that, I realized the artwork from the Southampton Writers Conference at left, has both characters, muse and writer, as Aryan archetypes. Man as creator, woman as muse only, too....hmmmm.)

Moneywise, the Squaw Valley workshop is a good deal, especially if you're in California already. The Southampton Writers Conference has a ton of famous writers, editors, actors, directors and agents, but is a bit pricey (especially with plane tickets.) I will come back with my review.

Rainy May Day

I know it's really May 2, but it rained all of May 1, too....so the title still works, right?

I'm working on my thesis this weekend because it's due Monday. So I'm spending the weekend locked up in my "tower room" writing my last 20 pages and rewriting the other 65 pages. Throughout all this, I was reading Katherine Boo's "The Marriage Cure," which is amazingly, beautifully good. Although written in 2003, I think it still works today.


Many of the men she knew called their women "bitch" when their male friends came to visit, and they hit those women when the male friends went away. After sex, they wanted to leave, pretending not to hear when a girl offered to turn on the hot plate and make breakfast biscuits from scratch. "You know how they wrassle you down and it's wham wham wham, and then when they come they go, 'Say my name!?" she asked. "It's all about their egos, and that's all I ever knew. But the first time I slept with Derrick he asked, 'Is this O.K., does this feel right?' And, after, I just burst out crying. Because when he held me I felt, this is it -- this is something I've been missing my whole life."

The only good thing is that in workshop, they said my work was similar. Let's hope I could be this good. Read more about Katherine Boo here.

Still working

OK, remember how I have to have the book done by the end of the month? That's in three days, right? Yes. And I just spent how many hours watching bad Sunday cable TV? Yes, six hours. I'm a dead woman.

Working on the book . . .

Isn't it weird when you finally decide to write a book and you're more than half done? Now, it's as if every sentence is painstakingly pored over until I want to give up. Got my 8th chapter done, but can't come up with an ending that works (esp. since I'm trying to get this published before the book comes out.)

Pitched another two stories, one was rejected, the other is being mulled over. I guess you can't hope for better right now.

I am attempting to go to three writers workshops this summer, Stonecoast Writer's Conference, Tin House Summer Writers Workshops and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. I figure I'll need the comfort and support of writers as I wean myself off of my MFA program. And any input, networking and contacts, will help.