The seduction
I'm just back from the last session of my Advanced Short Story class, in which they discussed two of my stories. I had picked the last classto workshop two of the stories from my linked collection, "The Price of Silence."
One man said he was "entranced" by my character; two others said they were "blown away." The first story discussed was about abortion: it was interesting to me that the men liked it more than the women. Maybe the men feel intimidated talking about it and so can't criticize it as well? Anway, I have no idea how to fix the second story, which nobody liked as well, at this point, but I'm hoping their written comments will give me some direction.
I had planned to take all these stories and put them on a website, move on with my writing life, but this workshop seemed like a siren's call: oh, come on, you can get them published. Just try a little harder!
After sending out 70 submissions from this collection in 2005 and getting no publication offers, though, I'm not sure I want to go down that road again with. Maybe an unconventional approach will suit me better. In any case, it would be quicker than waiting for some graduate student at some literary magazine to read my stories.
I'm surrounded
Dinner is long over.
The football game plays downstairs.
My loyalties are mixed, with Denver (where I live) playing Kansas City (where I grew up). Luckily, I am not enough of a sports fan to exercise myself over it too much.
Today began with a long walk to Stearns Lake with my inlaws, made longer by stops for birding. We saw two red-tailed hawks perching in barren trees, rafts of ducks on the lake, and a variety of sparrows. Not bad for late November.
Our dinner was untraditional in that the meat was pork, but it did include butternut squash and potatoes, both native to the Americas. We had a lovely wine, half semillion and half viognier, from a vintner in the Grand Valley. Definitely will get that one again.
We did our best to get all the food and drink for our dinner from within 100 miles (
Treehugger's 100-Mile Thanksgiving Challenge). Right now we're in third place among all the entrants. We hope we stay there because then we'll get a $100 gift certificate as a prize.
Todd did the planning of the menu, and he did an excellent job.
I feel very peaceful. There was a hectic moment midday when we were making gravy and mashed potatoes and trying to determine what the hell was going on with the bread, but all in all the day was relaxing. That's the way holidays should be, I think. Not too much work on a meal that lasts only 45 minutes or so.
My blessings to all of you. The holiday season has begun. Enjoy the season of light.
All's right with the world
Rufus has just haired me up and jumped off my lap so he can lick himself.
I meant to blog about the election, but now it's almost 2 weeks later. Here's my summary: Goodbye Pombo! (the guy who wanted to gut the Endangered Species Act). Goodbye Santorum! (the senator who was, in short, something of a freak. But at least he does like Lord of the Rings...) And Senator Inhofe won't be chair of a committee anymore. He has been described as the stupidest member of Congress.
Hello, John Hall! (He wrote "Still the One," which was recorded by the Orleans and is one of my favorite songs.)
And, to keep it local, Hello Dianne Primavera! She's my state rep. Now if we could only get rid of Shawn Mitchell, my state senator...but that will have to wait another 2 years.
I'm performing my semi-regular ritual of getting rid of all the little yellow stickies that have accumulated on my desk. They've been consolidated into one. That's what I consider getting organized.
Of course, it would all be a lot easier if I hadn't had that martini. At least I convinced Todd to cut the recipe down from 8 shots to 4. Otherwise, I would have been toast.
Some friends of ours went out Friday night to celebrate one of their birthdays. We joined them for a while and then left to see a movie. It was probably best for all concerned, because my husband and I can't hold our liquor, and we can't hear anything anyone says at bars anyway. But unlike at concerts, we're expected to converse. It's not that we're antisocial...we like our friends; we like parties; we like music. But put them all together at a bar... Somehow I keep thinking that if I try hard enough, I will be entertaining at a bar. This has been going on since I was a teenager, you understand.
What would King Missile say?
