back to the grind.

Wow.

It has been some time since something significant has been written here. Significant things have happened, though. I graduated and now have a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. I cannot believe I successfully defended a collection of short stories. It makes me ridiculously happy. I have a couple of the stories floating around at various places in hopes of publication. In all honesty, I need to do another blitz and send out copies and copies of "Twilight Time," "Peas," "Crashing Against the Wood," "In the Terminal," and one of those other ones... But I'm not sure how much I want to focus on getting stories published, considering my goals have somewhat changed.

I've been thinking about what I want to write. I always knew I wanted to be a writer, but it never occurred to me that I had no earthly idea what it was I wanted to write. I never felt too comfortable in my literary sheep's suit, but I never really tried anything else. Literary was safe. It was the norm. Then it was brought to my attention by one of the members of my thesis committee that many of my stories--if tweaked a little--would fall into either the young adult or the "chick lit"* genre. I thought about it after graduating and decided I would take "Climbing Trees" and make it a YA book. Easy peasy, right? I proceeded to read a few novels by Sarah Dessen, who as far as I'm concerned is a leading voice in the YA world right now. I loved the stories and the characters. The books only reinforced my notion: yes, I can do this. I can rock the crap out of this.

Fast forward three months, and I still have about 5,000 words. Bummer. That doesn't include the original short story, so I guess that's the plus side of the 5,000 words situation.

I get very nervous starting new ventures, and I'm scared this will completely suck. I write bits and pieces down on paper and look at it a lot. But I'm too scared to open that blank document and give it a good old-fashioned try.

Point of the story: Writing Group starts up again tomorrow. We've lost a member--Lydia has decided not to rejoin in light of other opportunities/responsibilities in life--so it's just Pamela, Matt, Diego, and me. We tried to recruit other people but schedules conflicted. But I am pleased to say we inspired a second writing group; Jaclyn, who couldn't meet with us, decided to start her own group. I hope they have as much luck as we all have had with each other.

So Writing Group is back. I'm excited. I obviously still need that extra push to get my writing done. I don't like submitting less-than-stellar quality of work, and I just wrote about 3,000 words that will be turned in tomorrow. That brings the total up to 8,000. Yesss. I'll proof it one more time, try to ease out some of the kinks, and turn in something respectable. It is the first part of the first chapter of Climbing Trees (tentatively titled, my friends).

Writing Group also includes Book Club now. We're expanding. Our first read is Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, which, I'll be honest, I still have about eighty pages to finish before tomorrow night. So far, I really like it. I'm reading it rather critically--seeing how it won the Pulitzer and all--but it's interesting and engaging.

My plan is to post updates of my writing here. I think that was the plan all along. But now that I officially quit my adjunct position at UCF and I'm only tutoring part-time, I should have a good amount of time to write. Maybe I can write something substantial. It would be a change of pace, that's for sure ;)

*I am not offended by the "chick lit" brand, nor do I think anyone should be. Writing for women--usually by women--is just fine by me. I've read some really great "literary chick lit" lately, including Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch. Read it. It rocks.