Let's see, in the past few days, I've prepared for the VC summer residency.
This included: compiling notes to explain third-semester requirements at orientation; creating an Intro to Crit Writing handout for a talk I'm doing with MDB (author interview); writing-practicing my lecture on reinventions, retellings, and I.P. considerations; putting together a support handout; checking the two previous with GLS for legal accuracy and clarity; keying up a new student reference sheet with my individual policies; making note of my fall schedule so I can establish packet due dates; selecting-practicing a reading from Tantalize (Candlewick, 07)--skipping the prologue for 20 minutes up to page 29; critiquing the workshop booklet, printing a bibliography of my recommended reading and craft resources for workshop participants; and identifying a pb to use as a model for one of the manuscripts.
Beyond that I also worked with the lovely LF of Hit Those Keys on a special site to promote Santa Knows (Dutton, 2006)(I'll let you know when it goes live) and finished my second pass pages on Tantalize.
The last read through of T made me a bit misty. I've been wanting to write a gothic fantasy novel since I first considered dedicating myself to fiction. Really, on a certain level, it's been ten years in the making. I didn't find much when I scoured through that last time. A missing close quotation mark that the copyeditor would've caught anyway. But wow.
Last night my crit group met at TC's log house in the Hill Country. It was a perfect way to say adios to Texas for a couple of weeks. He served beef and chicken fajitas and chicken enchiladas (whole wheat and flour tortillas) with rice, beans, and fruit for desert. We talked publishing and books and read manuscripts and watched the blazing red sun set behind Lake Travis.
Thanks, TC! Congratulations to AB (author interview) on finishing the draft of FG; can't wait to read it! And on a more personal note, bon voyage to SP! We'll look forward to seeing you again in the fall.
I still have to go to the post office (please don't snail me anything until early August!) to stop my mail and drop off a few letters. Then I'll come home and pack. GLS has promised to take me to Musashino for dinner. Must run!
But really quickly, my plane books are of the light-bite variety: A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands (Avon, 2006); Vamps in the City by Kerrelyn Sparks (Avon, 2006); and California Demon: The Secret Life of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner (Berkley, 2006). I'm planning to relax, enjoy, and for the first time check out Jet Blue.
Stay tuned--I'm be blogging next from Montpelier!
