Category: Lucky typewriter ribbon

Thank you everyone for the good wishes and for your condolences about my aunt. 
My return to Albuquerque was wonderful.  I spent most of the time working hard, but I managed to eat two breakfast burritos with green chile, an order of huevos ranchos, frog-eye salad, and a Roswell beer.  Even better, I got to visit my girl Dana (pregnant with twins and looking fabu!), her lovely friends Caroline and Claudia, lots of my UNM pals, and Scout and Mona.

I’m pretty happy with how my defense went.  I felt capable, even when I had to think fast to form answers that would sound intelligent.  I came away with some good ideas about what to do next to make my novella work better, and I think I have some good writing goals set for the next nine months.

All that stands between me and my degree now is an annotated bibliography and 15-page paper on the Wife of Bath, and a Chaucer final.  Hot dog!

Yesterday in the shower, where all my best ideas are born, I thought about my writing goals for the summer.  Most involve revision:  I plan to revise my dissertation per my committee’s comments so I can start shopping it around.  I also want to revise my long-neglected second-draft novel.  I credit The Artist’s Way and NaNoWriMo for that novel.  The first for giving me the clarity to realize I needed to write it, and the second for providing a challenge that gave me a deadline.  While I wrote it over a ten week period and in the spring and early summer of 2002, NaNo provided the structural inspiration I needed.  I decided to go to graduate school when I realized that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing in terms of storytelling and revision.  Now that I’m nearly done with school, it’s time to return to that big mess of a novel and coax it into something I can sell. I have a number of stories to revise as well, and some non-fiction work that I want to develop.

I’m fortunate in that I have writing friends.  They’d be my friends anyway, but it’s our writing that bonds us together.  I thought about how many writers (and aspiring writers) don’t have that community, though, and I want to do something about it.

So, this whole thing is still percolating in my head, but I wanted to see if there is any interest.  My writing readers most likely have checked out my Treadmill Journal, and some have even started their own, which makes my heart sing.  What you don’t see on the Treadmill is how I handle deadlines that I don’t want to deal with.  Usually I call my girl Dana and tell her I’m going to do X by a certain date.  Then I usually threaten myself with something.  Last summer, it was giving away my yarn stash.  At other times, I’ve told Dana I can’t call her until I’ve finished what I set out to do…and we LOVE to talk, so that’s a serious consequence for me.

As the water poured over me, I got to thinking about a different sort of swap.  Not even a swap, really, but a matchmaking service.  I have this vision that I would have a number of writers sign up and fill out a questionnaire.  Based on what they’re working on and other interests, I’d match them up with a writing partner.  Partners would promise to check in on each other once a week throughout the summer, and maybe there could be a reward sent if the partner reaches her goal, or at least makes good progress toward it.  There would be no pressure to exchange, read, or critique material, unless the partners agreed to do so.  I’m imagining a blog set up where everyone can post triumphs and tribulations, and we can have a writing community that is based on encouragement and cooperation. 

Those of you who write fiction, non-fiction, children’s stories, poetry, whatever you write, and are serious about your writing–or are struggling to make it a truly important and regular part of your life–will you tell me if this appeals to you?  Would you want to participate?  What else would you want to see happening?

If at least ten people are interested, I’ll work on getting this together during May so we can get busy starting in June.

And if you’re wanting a yarn-related swap?  Well, I’ve got some ideas cooking for that, too.  Yes, it may be time to Kit again soon!

My dissertation is wending its way to Albuquerque as I type.  It was a nail-biting day at times, especially when Maddie ran away (yet again) while Neal raked the yard and I proofread.  We had her back in less than an hour, luckily.

This new (well six-month-old), still-unnamed computer has Vista on it.  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out some of the formatting crap I needed to, but I have time before I need to print off my final copy to shelve.

It’s exciting to see fewer and fewer hurdles in front of me.  I have my defense in two weeks, and a few smaller projects for my Chaucer class.  That’s it.  I’ll be done.  I love this feeling, this sense that it’s really going to happen (knock wood). 

Neal stopped at a packie for me on the way home so I could get what I crave most right now.  I’ll sip away as I work on my Shetland Lace Triangle.  Probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, drink and knit, but I’ve earned the right to play dumb for a while!

Share my happiness by telling me what’s making you feel good right now (keep it clean, you!).

First day of spring, and life is good again.  It’s a great time to adjust my attitude and let go of the balled up fists that the icy end of winter cause.

Getting back the rest of my manuscript with comments helps with my renewed optimism.  I’ve got less than a week to get through my revision, but today?  Anything seems possible.

There are even tender green day lilies pushing through the brown, muddy earth.  What’s more optimistic than that?

Hmmm…after I finished grading last night, I wrote a post about the highlights of my Spring Break.  Said post has vanished.  Unlike other disappearing posts, I won’t claim that this one was brilliant.  Really, it was just a list; no point recreating it.

Saturday night I got the word from my dissertation chair that I’m good to go for a defense in April.  What a relief!  I had gotten my second story back from her, and it needed so much work that I couldn’t help but fear that the novella would be deemed to be in bad shape, too.  I was certain that I would be told that I wasn’t ready to defend this semester.  Neal helped me to see the bright sides associated with this possibility, but the truth is that I want to be done with this degree.  Instead, I was pleased to learn that my chair is happy about the work I did on the novella.  It’s in three parts, and she had gotten through the first part and made a number of specific comments about what is working.  Relief, relief, relief.  I think the second part is in good shape, too, which means that the crux of my focus will be on the third (and shortest) part. 

As soon as I have my date booked with the English dept. and the other members of my committee, I’ll be looking for good airfares to NM and getting in touch with my girlies there to see when we might be able to get together. 

Getting this news was the biggest highlight of my spring break.  The rest of the list was icing, as they say.  It’s so comforting to know that I just have one big push left in my academic career.  Doesn’t graduate school feel that way?  Like one big push, a lull, then another big push?  I’m ready for a nice, long lull!

I passed my Comprehensive Exam! 

For the MFA program at UNM, candidates write an essay about their craft.  On the surface this seemed like it would be easier than my MA Comp Exam was; that one was more typical, with a series of essay questions based on the coursework I’d taken during the program.  This exam, though, seemed cursed.  First my move back east and the stress of working a whole lot more than I had been delayed my finalizing a draft of the essay by one semester.  Then I faced a slow revision process, with the essay finally approved by my advisor in early June, too late for me to get credit for spring ’07 semester.  After it was passed by two members of my committee, the third member took a bit of time to get to it; he’s a busy person; I certainly understand.  His comments hit me hard, though, and I doubted my abilities as a writer.  I cried as I have only cried over the loss of a loved one. 

Tonight, though, I checked my e-mail as I got ready to go to bed, and there was a lovely congratulatory note.  The attention that this professor gave to my essay truly improved it, although it was painful to have my writing critiqued when I was impatient to move on in my degree.

I’m so relieved.  I told Neal yesterday how happy I’ve been, and how few worries I’ve had:  my sister’s cancer, my dog running into the road, my comps.  Those were my worries.  Now there is one less on that list.  I’m even happier than I was yesterday. 

I might just take some pins out of that voodoo doll.  Maybe.

Oh, ye of little faith, take it easy.  It’s not the whole stash I’m giving away, just a few nice bits of it.

It’s not an "I’m a loser" give-away going on here; it’s a celebratory one.

I finished my draft.  That’s right.  I finished one entire, complete draft of my dissertation.  That’s a novella and three short stories.  And I’m finished.  Woo-effing-hoo!  I may graduate from this program before I turn 40 after all!

Since I’m so freaking happy about this, I’m going stash diving later today, and I’ll find three fantastic skeins to share with my lovely, encouraging readers.  How to choose, how to choose?

Here’s how.  Tell me what your dream is.  The one you could see yourself achieving, but just haven’t been able to start.  Believe me, I know about not being able to start on dreams; it took me about ten years to get up the courage to apply to MFA programs, and I’m so grateful I got the nudge I needed to do so.  Here’s another option.  Did you get a nudge that worked?  Are you heading confidently towards your dream?  Tell me about that.

I’ll select three stories and award them with skeins of yarn from my stash.  It won’t be the cashmere from Rome, but I promise it will be good.

I’m on my chair, the one I bought seven years ago and only love more each time I sit in it.  Maddie is curled up next to me, her nose against my thigh, her breathing heavy as she settles into her mid-morning nap.  Tilly is snoozing on the footstool; the occasional sigh lets me know she’s not quite asleep.  Laundry is spinning in the basement, and the hum of the dryer masks the sound of most of the traffic outside. 

It’s too hot already for outside play, and I’ve got writing to do anyhow.  I’m just about finished with the second part (of three) of my dissertation novella.   Neal helped me figure out a problem I had with this section, and I had a great writing day because of it yesterday.  Today I’m going to have to make my protagonist do something really awful, and I dread it.  When I teach, I fall a little bit in love with my students; it’s the only way I can describe the way I feel towards them.  When I write, I get that feeling for my characters, but it does them no good to shelter them, so I must let Clare be awful.  She’ll be a better person for it in the end, I hope.

Today is my big trip to the dentist for my first filling.  I’m a wee bit nervous, but I’ll bring Chickami to occupy my hands, and that should help me to keep calm.  I can always think back to this sweet moment with the pups if knitting doesn’t do the trick.   

My desk had become a stacking place, and last week I finally cleaned it off so I could work at it.  There in the right corner is my printer that doesn’t want to work anymore (which I discovered after shelling out the money for a new ink cartridge).  Neal’s antique lamp brightens things for me when I write in the evening–there’s an ashtray built into the base!  Pens are in the blue mug with my scissors, and pencils are in my Oxford mug.  I keep paintbrushes on the desk even though I haven’t water colored in quite some time, and under the desk is my sewing machine.  Behind her is a metal file box that I want to decoupage. 

Before I cleaned my desk, I worked here.  Miss Tilly enjoys keeping me company while I write.  I think she likes to hear me read stuff out loud to her, but she doesn’t give me much feedback.

Monday is Errand Day for me, so after I shower (yes, I write in my pjs) it’s off to the grocery store, post office, library, and video store.  I’ve planned a week of nice meals, and I can’t wait to try this recipe.  I’ll also be making Scout’s baked ziti with meat substitute, BLTs with real bacon for Neal, and fakin for me, and this cold soup.  Since we’re in for a heat wave, I’m looking for more hot weather vegetarian recipes.  Have any you’d like to share?