The Reading Hour(s)

With the semester over (first year of grad school DONE!), I can move into the "traditional" Summer phase of life.

You know, a "vacation/break" phase.

Since my seventeenth year, I have had a full-time job.

Not a summer job, but a every season/month/week of the year, filled with life/death responsibility job.

This summer is a bit different.

I'm still working on the (very academic) Flannery O'Connor Review for the next few weeks, but the hours are flexible. It just HAS to get done. I'm not confined to a singular location for nine hour stretches. I can "move" around and create/schedule as I go.

Basically, I need to take advantage of this time as much as possible.

Last night began the "reading hour." But really HOURS--where I "just" read/completed a "short novel" of my OWN choosing. It wasn't assigned--it was what I wanted to read.

Despite being free from academic parameters, I realize now that I read as a "writer" or as a "professor" (both books by Francine Prose). I can't get away from that part of me now, which is nothing to really complain about (yet).

So I read the "short novel" Rare & Endangered Species by Richard Bausch...which "demonstrates how a wife and mother's suicide reverberates in the small community where she lived, and affects the lives of people who don't even know her."

(so says the blurb on the back of Wives & Lovers, the collection it appears in and which won the PEN/Malamud Award)

So there are people who "don't even know her" in the story (they are closely connected), but the story really focuses on Andrea's two adult children (James and Maizie) shortly after she commits suicide. Because she didn't leave a note, they are both left to wonder WHY and do whatever they can to comfort their grieving father.

It is divided into sections: Single/Patiently/Penance/Desire/Good-Byes/Diurnal and reads as a "classic" American short story. Nothing fancy per se, but the families aren't fancy. They're everyday people dealing with the loss in their own way. Honest.

I calculated that I read at a rate of 56 pages per hour. (Is that fast? Is that slow?) In other words, it took me about 3 hours to finish it. Tonight I am going to tackle another "short" novel or novella, the relatively famous Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

~~J

Janet (tries) to Read.

Once upon a time, I started a reading project.

It didn't last.

Nevertheless, I've tried to modify it.

Ironically, the reason things went array, has given me a chance to finish reading an author's complete volume of work.

Thanks, graduate school!

I realize Flannery O'Connor was "only" able to finish two novels and 32 short stories before she died from complications of lupus. But I'm still determined to read all the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (my original attempt).

EDIT: I have read all of Laura Zigman's novels (that should count for something because they're fabulous).

And I've even added a more contemporary writer on my list: Richard Bausch. The picture only shows nine books/collections--he has twenty. I've received another since this photograph was taken, which means I now have ten.

It is easy to be inspired to read (and write) when you're surrounded by others who do both.

Case in point, last month my MFA program hosted Julie Marie Wade. She won the 2010 Arts & Letters/Susan Atefat Prize in Creative Nonfiction. Not only did she read her winning essay, she also participated in an enlightening Q&A session.

I was lucky enough to spend a decent amount of time with her (dinners, coffee, and ghost hunting). What do writers talk about when they get together? Sometimes writing, learning, reading, teaching...

And I didn't feel like an Über Nerd. In fact, I felt quite the opposite.
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NOW (today) I can say that I've finished her book--Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures as well as one by Bausch These Extremes. They were both so wonderful! It's just slow-going when you're writing scholarly papers and trying to write your own work as well (excuses, excuses).
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~~J

D.C. Revisited

(Honest Abe posing for the Camera, 2/5/2011)

It was a crazy time. So crazy I still haven't had a change to really write about it...but now that I have a lot of school work to finish I've found a few lines.

Being surrounded by 10,000 people who are just as strange and awkward as you are is overwhelming (to say the least).

Finding panels you want to attend is easy, getting to them in time is another story. But I was able to see a few awesome authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Junot Diaz, and Mr. Richard Bausch (who has a new website).

I learned the ends and outs of riding/taking the Metro. I wish I would've taken a photo of an escalator "ride" at Dupont Circle. Talk about VERTIGO!

But as you "leave" the darkness and enter the light via the escalator (north entrance) you're greeted by Walt Whitman lines:

Thus in silence in dreams' projections,

Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;

The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,

I sit by the restless all the dark night - some are so young;

Some suffer so much - I recall the experience sweet and sad,...

By the end of the trip, we realized that four people in one Taxi was similar in price...plus the "cabbies" were 100% awesome, knowledgeable, and friendly!

Apparently we (as a group) crave Mediterranean food, because that's what we always wanted to eat--not only delicious, but affordable.

Wearing "new" shoes and walking all over the city then all over the conference hotel does still equal the largest, most painful blisters. You're lucky I didn't take any pictures of them.

The only day we had time to sight see, it was misty. I couldn't even get a picture of the top of the Washington Monument. The dampness and starkness made the D.C. seem ghostly, which is very appropriate.

Despite the rain, we were able to find and sample six different cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcake. They are heavenly. No, really. I'm not kidding or JUST saying that. My personal favorite? Coconut was to die for...

Oh yeah, and all of the people who have said I would love D.C. were right. It's my favorite "district" in the entire country!

~~J

2.0.1.1

It's taken two weeks, coupled with a sudden cold (that just won't quit) to drive me back between the pages of a book.

Of course, it's something I didn't expect to read over break--nor is it very long (less than 200 pgs), but you have to start somewhere.

As someone without ambitions to write a novel (just yet), I'm happy to find a shorter novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.

With "new year" reading begun, I am also happy to announce some writing too. The previously mentioned four days spent knocking on death's door may mean that what I've managed to get down may not be too thrilling.

But words are words are words.

Both (reading and writing) are "resolutions" I plan to keep. I want to read a certain number (25 books in 52 weeks) as well as finishing ten pages per week (or 520 pages for the year).

NEW pages? I haven't decided whether or not to include "edited pages" in that number or not. But I don't need to over think it. I got that number from my "old" professor Richard Bausch (thank goodness for Facebook):

If you can craft two pages a day, two pages, and keep to the daily schedule--averaging two a day, so if you miss Sunday and Monday, you write four on Tuesday and Four on Wednesday. If you can keep to it, put your ass in the chair and keep to it--that's 730 pages in a year.

Lastly, from a classmate--check out this link Readers by Authors by Lauren Leto. It had me laughing so hard snot was running out of my nose. Great image, right?

~~J

The Passion

Over the weekend--
While in the throngs of passion*

*I use the word “passion” in place of “working on my presentation covering ten books about composition theory” because “passion” just sounds SO MUCH better and it’s both my blog and my story so why can’t I tell it how I want to?

I KNEW I was finally going to HAVE TO go to the grocery store…

It wasn’t because I had been out of milk (light vanilla soy) for a couple days.

It wasn’t because I had used my last slices of wheat bread…or package of frozen vegetables…

I KNEW I was finally going to have to leave my apartment to go to the grocery store when I finished off my jar of Nutella (with a spoon, remember—no bread) sometime late Saturday night.

I literally had the spoon in my mouth when I said, “Oh crap, I guess this means I gotta get some food.”

Why am I telling you this? It was funny—it was so funny I burst into wild laughter. Nutella? You’re telling me Nutella was the straw that broke the camel’s back?

(Don’t judge me, have you had the stuff?)

Needless to say, on Sunday afternoon I finally made it to the store. And I did NOT buy another jar of magical goodness--it is a "treat," a "delicacy"....something that is almost dangerous to have on hand because it can disappear--

There are just a few more things looming over my head before the semester is over. And aside from assignments (papers, revisions, portfolios) I can even see a few more "cool" things coming up:

• Richard Bausch at Emory University
• A baby shower for a classmate
• Fall Brawl (a "competition" comprised of many games among classmates--we have teams, we have costumes, we have "music)

I can seem December looming in the distance...and boy does it look _____________ (I can't even think of a word to express my excitement)!!!!

~~J

Close to the Edge!

Sure, I have another large paper/project to complete.

And there might be half a dozen mini-abnormal psych assignments and two finals to go—BUT there is no more classroom time standing between me and my degree.

AMAZING!

Today was my last class day and I admit—it was a bit difficult to LEAVE the English building.

I took my time, waited around for a friend, bought another bottle of water, read the campus paper, went to the bathroom, watched the head of the department leave...

then it was time.

As I was rushing down the back steps, I accidentally took a picture with my phone.

No, really. It was an accident--

BoysenBerry has side buttons and one is programmed to activate the camera...

I heard a *click*...then I smiled and realized it would be an interesting photo to have...I guess.

It's a bit blurry, but you can probably figure it out. Don't look too hard, because it kinda makes you dizzy (or at least it does me).

The last fiction workshop was filled with a lot of advice from Papa Bausch--I gotta share these with ya...(and I'm sure I'll be coming back to read and reread these pearls myself):

"Robert Frost gave himself twenty years to become a published poet. It took him ten and his first book was a best seller--but he gave himself twenty years..."
(if at first you don't succeed--try, try again!)

"Stories are never complete, they are just abandoned."
(stop revising and submit the thing!)

"You will spend your life proving your talent to people that have no talent."
(rejection letter after rejection letter)

"If you believe in your story--give it every single chance."
(resubmit, resubmit, resubmit)

"It's all about the life on the page..."
(of course it is!)

"Don't worry yourself into silence, keep the pot boiling!"
(keep on writing and writing and writing)

"What you're doing is important, don't let anyone tell you differently."
(amen!)

~~J

p.s. for those of you who REALLY know me--if you caught IT up there: yes he is, and no that's not why it was time to go. my phone just happened to be out, he went out the other way.

I'll Admit I'm a Fool for You:

It's been a monumental "school" week...one I shall never forget.

I met with the three (yes, I gained one) former/current professor(s) writing letters on my behalf (recommending me to various MFA programs).

One had me in tears.
One had me laughing.
One had me breathing a big sigh of relief.

I have two authors (! one of which has taught at three of the schools I am applying to) alongside one professor of literature--I feel like the most invincible student in the world! Almost as if I have an army of intelligence behind me.

Then I remember that--

• 90% of my possible acceptable relies on my own short fiction.
• it just takes one person on a committee to put Me in the "discard" pile.
• the average acceptance rate seems to teeter around 10%.
• I am applying to ten schools.
• I do have a back-up plan.

With all of that in mind, I feel a little more "sure" as opposed to "unsure" about the whole process. But then again, I still have to write that letter of intent/statement of purpose. Everyone knows the easiest question to answer is: WHO AM I? *guffaw* This is why YOU want ME!

In other news: I have an idea as to WHAT I will be doing for my big, huge project/paper for one class. I still don't know what I am doing for the big, huge project/paper for another class.

Because you're mine, I walk the line.
Every step is good bad, yes no, here we go!

~~J

Friday Wrap-Up:

It has been a "Marathon" week already, but today is only my "Pharmacy Monday." *insert a lot of sad faces here*

I have a full page filled with random comments and notes from my Workshop with Bausch on Wednesday.

We talked about clever bumper stickers: "Save the Whales" + "No Nukes" = Nuke the Whales

Then it became a 1970s adventure as he told us about how "I found it" turned into "I fondled it"and his favorite Nixon-era "Impeach the Cox-Sacker" (I really like that one too!)

He read the "Invalid's Story" by Mark Twain. There was snickering around the room throughout--what a hilarious tale!

(Which led into a conversation about the "Jumping Frog" story--as I called it. No one else knew it--kids today!)

Guess who has read The Great Gatsby 36 times?

I nearly fell out of my chair! I told him about reading it for the first time over the summer and my extreme love for F. Scott and how I have been collecting used copies even though Tender is the Night is my favorite...at least somebody gets me!

He suggested that we write a story from the point of view of someone 25 years older than we actually are AND the opposite gender. I'll have to try that.

Inspirational Quote of the Class:

"Write like all Hell! I mean, Why not?"

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Weekly Yoga Class Observations:

Shavasana music is my favorite

(Wide) Downward Dog is my friend

Plank was relatively easy last night

Best Triangle Pose ever

Not so good Upright Crescent Moon

I haven't been able to hold Half Moon since Day 1

If someone has "poppy" knees, mine do the same

Looking at the ankles in front of me, helps me balance
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• I've jumped back into writing poetry. They are short, they are quick--but they are happening (in the middle of the night, no less)
• I finally slept for eight hours last night (it was Benadryl-induced)
• I switched from grapefruit lemongrass to cucumber green tea...we'll see if anyone can smell the difference. I LOVE IT!

/randomness.

~~J

Bausch Blog (by request):

He reads to us, Bausch does and I really like it.

His voice is seeping with wisdom and inflection. He seems to know exactly what the characters are talking about or feeling as he goes along. My ears have to strain, I'm on the edge of my seat. It's a wonderful sensation.

Who knew that my college experience would be so enriched by the simplest thing as being read to? Last semester it was bits from Beloved and T. S. Eliot that had my heart strumming along.

Now it is Bausch reading & telling stories:
"Indian Camp" (Hemingway)
my own story somewhere here***
"In Another Country" (Hemingway again)

Did you hear the one about Eudora Welty at the party? Her wine glass not filled with red, but with bourbon instead...pushing back a haughty lady in white until she was against a wall?

or Jill McCorkle accidentally taking her dog's heartworm medication while on the phone with Alice Hoffman? Jill promptly called poison control and learned that they didn't have much of a sense of humor when she told them she wanted to scratch her ear with her foot.

***And then my own story prompted the telling of another interesting relationship in which two friends were having dinner with a man--they found out he was seeing both of them and for about four seconds the man thought the greatest thing was about to happen...it did not.

Then he talked us down from ledges and window sills. He talked us out of over-thinking and the fear of never finding the right title. He told us the importance of reading the ones that came before us and the ones writing now.

"The magic moves from the spirit...it's from the aspect of your experience. Write it like you're the only one who could've written it."--Bausch

~~J

p.s. During break he and I had a little poetry pow-wow about this little gem.