In this photo: Jim Kelly, Asher Ellis , Anne Witty, Jenn Brissett, Gail Hovey, Patricia Barletta, Sarah Liddle-C. Dicken, Annie Deppe, Shanna Miller McNair, Ted Deppe
In this photo: Jim Kelly, Asher Ellis , Anne Witty, Jenn Brissett, Gail Hovey, Patricia Barletta, Sarah Liddle-C. Dicken, Annie Deppe, Shanna Miller McNair, Ted Deppe
I was in Ireland last week for my summer Stonecoast Residency and gave my first public reading. I read a flash fiction piece that I wrote in Jim Kelly’s workshop called “Ashes.” I think it’s pretty good and my reading went over well. We all did well!!
I got back from Maine on Monday. I can’t believe how tired I am. I slept for most of the day on Tuesday. Last night I had to struggle to get to the KGB Bar Reading. I didn’t want to miss it because David Anthony Durham was reading. I planned to be there anyway but it was extra special because he is my Stonecoast mentor for this semester. Stonecoast has been such an amazing part of my life. I can’t say enough about the program. I really feel like I’m becoming a writer. More than that, I feel like I have become a part of a community of writers.
Well, now that I am back I have a lot of work to do. I’ve begun a short story (the one that has been floating in my head for two weeks) and I have to revise “Into the Blue” and “The Golden Chrysalis” both of which I workshopped at Stonecoast. They need some tweaking here and there. I hope that I can sell them. I think that they are both worthy. They just need to find the right homes.
Yesterday I sent in my first packet to Jim Kelly. I have to admit that I was quite nervous about it. My back and neck were all strained and tight the night before. I handed it in a day early just so I stop being in pain. I think I did an okay job. I handed in my story “The Golden Chrysalis” and annotations on stories by Jorge Luis Borges and Isaac Bashevis Singer. I learned a lot from reading their work. Now I’m reading some work by Minister Faust. To quote Nalo Hopkinson, the stuff is “off the hook!” I’m really enjoying the book so far. I’m also been working on a new story for the past few weeks. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. That and waiting for responses to my story submissions. Waiting and waiting and waiting…
I made a mistake in reading the instructions for preparing my MSS for my Summer residency at Stonecoast. I thought that I only needed one story for my residency when I need two. I thought of submitting “The Searchers” but I just don’t feel comfortable with the story. So I wrote a new one yesterday. It’s called “Brothers.” I burned through all day to get eight pages written. I spent a good part of today working on it, too. I just don’t know, though. Is it is too lite? Too expected? I like it, but will that mean that others will? I wanted to write something a little funny to complement the other story that I will submit which is kind of heavy. I’ve been writing a lot of heavy stuff lately. A lot of stuff about death. It makes me uneasy.