First Semester Down!

So that's the first semester of grad school done! My "barndominium" now has fully functioning electricity (had to dig a trench over spring break for the wires), air conditioning, and internet. I even have a working television with more channels than anyone really knows what to do with, let alone me. We have some long horn cows who had a couple of calves while I was up here, added a couple of horses to the mix, and my dog Oberon is finally learning to mind and not go tearing off after the much larger animals. To quote Ferrol Sams, "He's a good boy, he minds well. I just can't think of enough things to tell him not to do." Two of the horses are paints, already mentioned the cows were longhorns, and Oberon...we know he's half Rhodesian ridgeback and now strongly suspect the other half is Newfoundland. 

And it turns out what I thought was easing myself into the program was actually taking double the average workload of my peers, so OOPS! That was a wake up call. A few big things happened this semester....

We had the National Book Awards on campus and I was privileged to meet Tea Obreht and Gene Yang, authors of the novel "The Tiger's Wife" and graphic novels "Boxers" and "Saints," respectively. 

Tea gave a speech about her writing process and was absolutely hilarious in person, I half suspect she was as nervous about us as we were of meeting her. Gene was incredibly cool, we talked everything from Avatar to Star Wars, and I purchased a boxed set of his graphic novels. He was kind enough to autograph both of them. 

I tell you that story to tell you this one. While attending the National Book Awards, I met the terrific individuals hosting the event, all members of Sigma Tau Delta, AKA the International English Honors Society. Guess who's now technically a frat boy? I've even talked to our professorial sponsor and she's asked me to come on as an officer in autumn. 

 

My other piece of big news has very little to do with school. I attended this year's Houston Writers Guild's annual conference. I met so many wonderful people, both new friends and old. Pamela Fagan Hutchins is doing an absolutely AMAZING job with the organization. I attended several great workshops and met with three agents. One of whom has said the work I presented him with failed to resonate with him, the other I have yet to hear back from, but the third...The third I sent the first 25 pages of two separate manuscripts to, then after speaking on the phone for around three hours one afternoon was asked to send in both complete manuscripts and three synopsis for other books. At the risk of being a cliche, I cannot put into words how thrilled I am! I'm only hoping I got them to her soon enough--finals hit me almost as soon as we got off the phone and I now know exactly why my fellow grad students take half as many hours as I did. 

So say a prayer, wish me luck, do whatever superstitious thing you do! As my sports buddies say, it's only weird if it doesn't work. 

And in still other news, this summer semester I'll be working as a TA and come autumn I'll be a tutor at the campus Writing Center! I'll have gainful employment! Am I using to many exclamation points!? Yeah, cutting that out now, but still, very exciting. 

I'm also in the process of revising a novella I wrote for Nanowrimo (arguably a short novel at 50K words) and am about half way through its sequel. The intention is to self-publish the first this summer and the second soon thereafter. Maybe come autumn? I guess it's going to depend on how my submissions go over with Jessica Kirkland, the incredibly nice--insert list of positive actives here--literary agent I met through the HWG. 

Very exciting times right now. It's hard to believe how things have changed from this time last year. 

Frozen Farm

So maybe I jumped the gun a bit when I said I was ready to be posting regularly again.

I feel I’ve got a good handle on my classes, now it’s just my living situation I need to figure out. I’m in the process of moving into the converted barn on the ranch and spending several days a week at it. It’s absolutely gorgeous and something of an adventure, but half the things that make it the latter are causing me no few problems.

There’s limited electricity from the barn itself. What little there is fluctuates so that the lights flicker and dim constantly. We’ve jury rigged an extension cord from the house the main house, where the lady we just closed the deal with is still living, and that works beautifully, but only for so many items. At night I have to pick between having light or charging my computer.

But the biggest issue is the heat. The warmest it’s been since I’ve come up here is maybe fifty, but spends most of its time fluctuating from upper thirties to lower forties. Which wouldn’t be so bad if the barn didn’t somehow manage to get colder than the outside. Stone floors, uninsulated metal roof, fire-stove that can’t properly expel the smoke up through the flu pipe, and a heater that blows out the electricity all combine to keep the interior five degrees colder than outside at any given time. And it rained all day yesterday so no opening windows.

I’m loving it.

Half the time I can’t feel my fingers, which makes writing a huge challenge, but I’m adjusting. As I said earlier this is an adventure and an absolutely gorgeous one at that. Let me walk you through my morning.

• Got up, took the dog for a long walk through the pastures.
• Got back to the barn, ate breakfast, read, planned a little for the day and talked to a friend of mine about a problem they’ve had with their writing.
• Went back out in the pastures, explored, found a log to sit on and wrote in a notebook
• Found the horses and fed them carrots
• Came home, showered, ate lunch, and now on to school work, blogging and more writing.

Life is cold but life is good.