Blast from the Past

the first page

While wandering around the Spring Book Sale (central library) I came across a book that made me squeal. To be fair, a lot of books make me squeal. Books in general make me squeal. I’m almost as excitable as “WEEEEEEEEEEEE! Pig” of Geico commercial fame when it comes to....

I don't need to finish this sentence, do I?

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary was originally published in 1983. It won the Newbery Medal in 1984. I'm old(er) and wise(r) than I was when I first read it, I can also tell you that it is an epistolary narrative (fancy).

Leigh Botts (a boy) begins writing his favorite author (Mr. Henshaw) in second grade. I can point out at least four reasons WHY I loved this book from the very first entry (letter):

• a "typo" or licked instead of liked
• a "misspelling" or freind instead of friend
• and Leigh (my middle name)
• a book about a dog? I mean HELLO!

By the end of the book Leigh is writing in a journal (as suggested by his author friend).

Adult Janet (yes! a third person reference) has had the opportunity to befriend a few author friends of her own (prior to finishing her BA or starting her MFA):

Laura Zigman (circa 2007) and Gwendolen Gross (circa 2008)

After that I was being instructed by writers and such. It's really a small world and we're all connected (yeah, I know--everyone says that, but it's true). I'm one degree of separation away from so many authors, SO MANY AUTHORS!

Now I have my very own USED (hardcover library book) copy of this book. It's the circle of (writing) life!

~~J

Summer Reading List

(semi self imposed)

Collections/Story “Rings”:

1.      A Visit from the Goon Squad (Egan)

2.      Love Medicine (Erdrich)

3.      Bear Me Safely Over (Joseph)

4.      Ideas of Heaven (Silber)

Because:

5.      The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Bender)*

6.      The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner)

7.      The Leftovers (Perrotta)

*Already Started

Fall Classes:

8.      The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin)

9.      The Dream of a Common Language /1974-1977 (Rich)

10.  Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose / Norton Critical Edition (Rich)

~~J

Obviously...

From Etsy (click click)

I couldn't even follow my own "goals" or "plans" over the last five months. I do have the rest of the year to catch up, right? RIGHT?!


The last two weeks have been hectic enough (let alone the previous seventeen before that):

• Finishing my second semester (my first year) of teaching!
• Finishing my fourth semester (my second year) of my degree!
• Chronologically turning another year older (wiser)!
• Watching the class ahead of me graduate (on a lovely Friday night)!
• Listening to my current (now Master of Fine Arts) roommate packing :(
• Getting ready for my new roommate to move in :)

Look at all those...active verbs up there. You'd think I was building some sort of resume or better yet, a c.v. (curriculum vitae). Actually, I've been doing that--building my c.v. Wanna see a publication?

Introducing "Revelation" (flash fiction) in current issue of The Medulla Review (3.2)!

I was also a finalist (with a different story) for publication in The Masters Review. What's strange about this accomplishment is the differing opinions I have since received about my story. So another revision is in the works...oy vey!

Twelve months until graduation...classes (including four classes I'll be teaching) alongside another issue of the Flannery O'Connor Review and Arts & Letters. OH! And my thesis, the next great American collection of short stories (or "ring of stories" or "novel in stories").

I hope to do a better job of documentation.

~~J