Looking Ahead: AWP in DC

So Wordamour and husband are headed to DC this week for the Associated Writing Programs Conference with lots to look forward to.  So much, in fact, that we are going to have to pace ourselves.  And we’re at a hotel that’s a whole metro ride away from the conference so there will be very little going back to the room between events to de-stress by lying on a hotel bed staring at mindless tv (my de-stressing MO, if you haven’t guessed).

I’m on two panels which I’m very much looking forward to.  Fiction Writer’s Review gave me a shout out as a contributor when they listed contributor’s panels here.  I love Fiction Writer’s Review–if you’re at the Book Fair, check them out.  Better yet, subscribe to their blog.

Besides the panels:  Focus group on creative writing books for Bedford St. Martin’s with a free lunch and a stipend, dinner at Meskerem (a fondly remembered Ethiopian restaurant from my salad days in DC) with Anna Leahy and Cathy Day and friends, dinner with grad school pals Kelly Stern and Deb Moore, dinner with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in from Maryland one night as well.

A publication party for Erika Dreifus’ Quiet Americans, which my husband reviewed here.

A whole group of students is going from UCA this year (and I know they will behave themselves so others can follow in future years.  Right? Right.).  Colleagues Mark Spitzer and Garry Powell. Former student, current Roosevelt MFA Heather Cox.

The Toad Suck Review will make its debut!

Glimpses of my British friends, Graeme Harper and Paul Munden among them (and the annual payment of my NAWE dues).

And the bookfair.  And more panels.  And somewhere in there, my birthday!

Good Lord!

I’ll be blogging about it all!

Bye y’all!

SV

PS A shout out to my mother, who is making all this possible by staying with my kiddos!  Thanks, Mom!

Advertisement

A Quiet Moment

In which to reflect and blog. John and the boys are at a Yugioh sneak peak 45 minutes away. Someone had to stay home so the new puppy wouldn’t face hours in the crate. Since I had work to do (procrastination from yesterday) I made the ultimate sacrifice. Hmmm. Attending a Yugioh sneak peak vs. a quiet day reading (blogs and books), working and wrapping my soon to be 14 year old’s (tomorrow) birthday gifts with the loyalist of little dogs lying at my feet and keeping me company all the while (even waiting patiently for me to come out of the bathroom). Not much of a contest there.

What am I working on? Finishing the edits for Rethinking Creative Writing in Higher Ed, which I should have done yesterday but put off, as seems to be my practice these days. Overall, the editors liked what I sent, which was a huge relief, but they still have things they want me to change. Which is fine by me. Been working on it all week but I have a big revision on Chapter 3 to do today. The bigger the writing task, the more I procrastinate, it seems.

Keeping a list of what I’m working on. Three panels I’m on got accepted for AWP in DC this February ( I think that might be one more than officially allowed, but I’m not saying anything about it just yet) and one of them is called essentially, “What Do Writers Do All Day?” I decided to start keeping track so I can do some sort of data analysis and have something to say.

Also this summer: Wrote a conversational essay with poet Anna Leahy and fiction writer Cathy Day on teaching creative writing that was pure joy to write and, I think, will be fun to read wherever we can get it published. We’re shooting for AWP first.

Before I start the revision today (yes, more procrastination) I am going to fool around with a new course platform called Nixty, which I’m considering using in the fall. And, of course, I wrote this blog post. And did my weekly blog read (@ 250 posts).

Looking ahead: A 3 day trip to NWP Berkeley to start work on curating a new online project called Digital Is. Not completely sure what the work is going to be but I’m exited about it and will blog more when I know. Also, Friday, BargainsGaloreon64, Arkansas premiere yard saling event. Oh yeah, baby.

It’s been a rough couple weeks, house-selling, large check bouncing due to a technicality that sent our bank account into a tailspin that took over a week to work out, relentless 110 degree heat that engenders exhaustion in ways I never knew, and, worst of all, our brand new shelter puppy, Mario, was deathly ill (parvo–need I say more)and in puppy ICU which brought on 6 days of worry and hand-wringing.

So now, as I write this in the quiet of the afternoon with a sweet healed puppy at my side I am mostly just gratfeul.

It’s a wonderful feeling.

Bye, y’all
SV