Monday, September 28, 2009

Winging it

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Skunked

I ran over a skunk last week and my truck seems to have avoided the inevitable odor but I wonder about the karmic payback for vehicular skunkicide. Poor little guy. They’re all over the place lately, dead and alive. I came across a young bald eagle devouring another roadkilled skunk. One skunk walked through our backyard a couple of weeks ago and in addition to its natural smell the critter seemed to have gotten into a bad bean burrito or something. Close the windows. I wonder if they’re looking for a place to hunker down for the winter. The geese have already been fleeing. Not a good sign.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Love

Just found out that my school’s literary journal, the Pitkin Review will publish one of my previous 3WW stories, "Death," in its Fall 2009 issue. Here's another story for Three Word Wednesday using the words eclipse, languish and velocity.


Their relationship progressed with the velocity of a rockslide and was just as destructive. They met like most do, unsuspecting, so it was easy to conclude that fate had joined them and then suddenly their everyday lives were eclipsed by their desire for each other. In the quiet times they feared the passion languished and one of them would invent a reason to accuse the other, loudly and punctuated by thrown objects, that their love had died. Such encounters guaranteed that nothing else would occupy their thoughts until the next time they came together, sorry.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

One more

Just because it's purdy.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Two thumbs up

My second reader (former adviser) also gave my thesis a thumbs up. So graduation in February is likely. There's a lot of work left to do on the manuscript but I am rather thrilled with how far it's come, and with the story itself.

Back to work.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Bounty

Our attempt at giant pumpkins failed this year but I think this tomato was trying to substitute. Note how it slops over the edge of the BLT.


Thursday, September 10, 2009

It's not the ocean, but...

Lake Michigan, a few weeks ago.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Giddy up

I got a thumbs up on my thesis from my adviser, who said the last 100 pages were the strongest. Oh, my God, I wrote them so fast.

Which says to me that thinking too much can be poison.

And that everything I’ve learned up to this point is manifesting in cool ways.

Wow.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Retreat



While I was scrambling to finish my thesis in August I took a retreat to a friend's house for some quiet space... she went on vacation so I took care of her cats, turtle, fish, wild birds and fed the horse (it's really the neighbor's horse but it still gets treats). Got a good chunk of work done there.

But happenings suggest her house may be haunted and it took me until the last night to watch "Ghost Hunters." In any case Mr. Spooky kept to himself. Still, it was disconcerting to head to bed at midnight and be greeted at the top of the stairs by an unhappy, hissing black cat in a supposedly haunted house. Also, my cell phone didn't work unless I walked out to the highway.

All fodder for more fiction.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Skip the soup

Friday, September 4, 2009

Processing

So, now that the thesis is somewhere off in the void, the next project is to complete the "process paper." This is a 10- to 20-page essay about my journey, influences and development as a writer both during and previous to my MFA experience.

Good God.

I've been stuck so far. For one thing, it feels too much like filling out a self-evaluation form. For another, how can my influences be quantified? Everything has been an influence.

Maybe I should just work my way backward and stop when I hit 20 pages.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Whew

The last month has been a blur of words, thoughts, imagination, pressure, doubt and let's-just-put-this-here-and-see-what-happens, but I got my 280-page thesis in the mail on time. It's the first draft and there's lots of work left, but my God, I finished a book.