I just finished finals yesterday, and I'm already deep into a vortex of scheming for the summer. No rest for the academic, I guess.
I have been pawing at the idea of heading up to New York to participate in Columbia University's Creative Writing Master classes. They offer some really wicked courses, like "Writing Mean and Funny" and "Love Poetry as a Trojan Horse" and other provocative workshops, so that I'm positively drooling over the computer as I read.
But then I picked up the January issue of The Writer this week, and in those brilliantly tempting pages I found a creative writing summer program with West Michigan University... in PRAGUE. Titled "Scribbling on the Ether: The Changing Nature of Writing and Publication."
OH. MY. GOODNESS. I. WANT. IT!
Best yet? I found WMU offers a fellowship to this summer program that's tuition free. Housing, living, and travel not included of course, but anything to take a couple zeros off. I may have just landed a perfect and shiny job, but it's only minimum wage.
So I'm going to spend my vacation thinking and planning and scheming out the perfect application essay for this fellowship. It's pretty tough, actually, you have to get endorsed by a published author in your field. I'm not really sure who to approach on this one, but I hope I can figure something out before February.
Anyways, cross your fingers. Let's see if I can rock the world of some summer admission peoples.
Right now:
What I'm listening: "Fireflies" by Owl City
What I want most: That fellowship. And straight sailing (or flying) right into Prague.
I got The Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can see the final essay that I turned in over at my website, as well. It must be due to all your help that I got the job, so thank you everyone, for the support and the comments!
Right Now:
What I'm listening to: Simon and Garfunkel "Cloudy"
What I want most: Nothing. I got the job!
How does one, I wonder, achieve the cultural status of an author? I don't mean just my name listed on the NYT bestsellers list, although that would be an amazing achievement of its own. But how does one gain the reputation of being literary?
I am fascinated by the idea of the french salons, run by elegant ladies and populated with eccentric characters and brilliant thinkers. But these have passed away by several centuries.
I am fascinated by the idea of Bohemia, and the establishment of city quarters like Montparnasse, or Soho, or Greenwich Village. These all exist, but some of the "the glow and the glamour" has washed away with time. I read a very mournful elegy several years ago on the death of the American bohemian lifestyle, and I positively cried in sympathy.
I am fascinated by the idea of literary establishments- the clubs, and famous writer's groups that some authors establish, like ... well, see, even I can't even remember which ones I mean, and Google has no clue what I'm talking about.
So how does one recreate this sort of atmosphere in modern America? How does one achieve that sort of reputation beyond the words on a page and into the realm of personality? When writing is not an occupation or an obsession or a career or a hobby, but a lifestyle?
Well, I certainly don't have any answers from my two years of pondering, and I suspect that it will take me more than twenty to achieve anything definitive.
But, then, one never knows.
Right now:
What I'm listening to: n/a. The roomie, Long-Suffering One, is asleep. Shhhhhhhhh....
What I want most: To start Flesh Circus, the newest Lilith Saintcrow that I just bought
My pens are running out.
It's ridiculous really- most of these are very old (for pens, and ones belonging to a writer), and well past due for that running out point, but I feel that I am losing a few old and beloved friends. Especially during finals time, when the presence of a familiar object is comforting, I feel that trying to adjust to other pens is an effort, more than the excitement of new relationships that back-to-school shopping brings. At this point, there's no desire to branch out, no desire to experiment or have a fling, just for the heck of it. It's the continuity, the commitment that you look for to get you through these tough two weeks, and your most loyal friends are those favored pens.
But mine are dying out.
So goodbye, my beloved bright orange highlighter with the little flaggies. I will never forget our late nights with cultural anthropology.
And goodbye, loyal Z4+ roller-ball. I can truly say you made Life Writing bearable for me.
Farwell, sassy purple fountain pen. I did not know you long, but I can say that you had a lasting impression on my work.
And Mr. Yellow Brite highlighter-- you truly were my most efficient right hand man for all the various thing that I accomplish. I could not have checked them off my To-Do list without you.
You all will be very much missed!!!
(lolz)
Right now:
What I'm listening to: Pandora Radio- Christmas songs!
What I want most: Finals to be over, and replacement pens!
Wells, I submitted a piece into a flash fiction contest today. Or rather, about 2.5 seconds ago. I think that it was my first piece that I have submitted to a contest that was not 1) a vanity press that I got suckered into (see website for more details) or 2) a campus contest. I'm proud but also slightly astounded that it's taken me this long to get to that point in my career.
Anyways, not focusing on the negatives. Focusing on the fact that I had written a tight little flash fiction piece about a month ago that I could submit today, on the last day of the contest, in the midst of finals. That teaches me that preparedness is a GOOD. THING. TO. HAVE.
I think the results come out in February or sometime similar in spring and far away. Cross your fingers that I win so i can re-soup the reading fee. (Gag me. I have to PAY to write? Isn't that counter-intuitive. But that's another blog post.)
Also, Columbia released it's summer 2010 list of creative writing classes. Oh nom nom nom.
Right now:
What I'm listening to: Nada at cette moment. (Yes, that was a combination French and Spanish phrase. Get over it.
What I want most: More details on the Master Classes at Columbia. Whee!!!
Hello!
So the other day I opened up the blog to questions about me the author and my writing habits, etc. Not a lot of comments came in (sad face) but flightsofwhimsy (aka, MlleDiabolique) asked:
Do you base your characters off of people that you've met, television characters, other novel characters, somewhere else, or an amalgamation of these all? Do you find that you tend to be autobiographical in your fiction?
So my characters do tend to be an amalgamation of all sorts of inspiring quirks and personality traits from many many sources, but every once in a while there will be a specific person or literary character that I just have to play with. I mention this because right now there is a fellow student that I would love to base a character on, and I'm trying to pull off as much direct observation as I can without crossing into the land of creepy Stalker McStalkerpants. Television characters, not so much, but literary figures all the time (although usually it's along the lines of so-and-so does this, but what if they are actually X-Y-and-Z, what does that make them do now?)
I find that I am extremely autobiographical, in fiction, in poetry, in everything. I didn't realize how prevalent this was until this semester's creative writing course (Life Writing, which is based on all forms of autobipgraphical writing, from letters and journals to creative non-ficition and memoir and everything in between) and I found certain subjects creeping in where I had no intention of placing them.
There's also a quote that I really enjoy, and I cannot remember who said it, that "All writing, in some way, is emotionally autobiographical." I could not agree with this more. Distilled down, why would writers write, if not to express something that they feel important? That "something" will have a basis in some reality- and that is always autobiographical. The details don't matter. The actors and the setting and the period don't matter. All of those considerations can be changed without detracting from the essence, the truth of the occurance, and without detracting from the truth that it holds in writing.
Sometimes, I think we get too caught up in verifiable facts, and miss the point that the author is trying to make. It doens't matter if it IS true, but does it ACT true? Does it resonate within you, the reader, and does it pull at a little corner of your heart or whisper through your mind late at night? THAT is truth. Not something that can be listed on a Wikipedia bio page.
But that's another blog post.
Right Now:
What I want most: a nap, or leftovers? Decisions, decisions...
What I'm listening to: n/a
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I'm taking the day off to spend time with my family, so I think that you should also get off the computer and get into the living room or kitchen! No hiding away today- there's too much food to eat, at least.
There will still be a Wordsworth Station post today, if you NEED your writing fix, and my Tumblr post if you need something interesting. So enjoy!
And happy holidays!
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