Nature's Reset Button
And now I head home, with hopes that I can keep some of this lodged in my forebrain for a while.
Labels: nature, personal news, writing, writing retreats
(and other metaphors for life)
Labels: nature, personal news, writing, writing retreats
The New England Young Writers Conference at Bread Loaf was a tremendous success. It always is, but I'd been away from it for five years, and felt pretty rusty going in. Though I arrived frazzled, and was exhausted most of the time (we had a very busy workshop schedule), it was an enormously rewarding experience. This conference selects over two hundred talented and motivated high school-aged writers, and they were a wonderful bunch of kids. One of my students came all the way from Paris for the workshop—a half-French girl with an Aussie accent and a great sense of humor. Another turned out to be the son of a horror writer I once did a bunch of book signings with. As always in the past, I enjoyed getting to know the other writer-teachers (there were about twenty of us), who were of all stripes and genres, but all very friendly. And my reading of an excerpt from Neptune Crossing to the whole conference was very well received.
Allysen, meanwhile, put her foot down and said she wasn't letting me come home until I'd taken a few days for myself. Thanks to her diligent research, I am now holed up at an inn near Woodstock, Vermont and Quechee Gorge. First goal, to rest and decompress. Second goal: start wrapping my head around The Reefs of Time again, and start finishing that sucker.
Labels: personal news, teaching, writing, writing retreats
I'm leaving shortly for Vermont and the New England Young Writers Conference, where I'll be one of a couple dozen writers of all types and genres working with high-school student writers. I'm returning after a five-year hiatus, and I'm hoping for it to be a good time.
We finished moving everything out of Allysen's mother's condo this week, and the closing for the sale went off yesterday. So that big job is behind us. Fay herself will arrive while I'm at the conference, and should be moved into her new place at the retirement village by the time I'm back.
See you next week!
Labels: personal news, teaching, writing
With a new Star Trek movie about to open, why not sharpen our critical faculties with a look back at the last movie, in Everything Wrong With Star Trek (2009) In 5 Minutes Or Less:
Labels: quirky, science fiction, videos
This came to my attention from SyFy's Blastr site.
A new car ad from Audi features dueling Spock actors. Zachary Quinto (new Spock) challenges Leonard Nimoy (old Spock) to a little competition in "The Challenge":
Labels: quirky, science fiction, videos
Lots of interesting stuff has passed across my desktop since I got back from P.R., but the contrast of these stories really struck me:
Labels: technology
Actually, I've been back for about a week—from Puerto Rico, that is. I flew down a few weeks ago (my last post was actually from P.R.) to help Allysen's mom with the final packing, and—I thought—her move up to her new place here in Massachusetts. Well, the schedule was optimistic, so I returned, not with my mother-in-law, but with my dog-in-law, Diego. (Seen here meeting a Roomba for the first time.)
Diego and Captain Jack don't get along too well (both see themselves very much as alpha dogs), but they've settled into an uneasy truce. Diego's ward Fay now plans to move up in another week or so, which is how much longer Diego and Jack must get along. Meanwhile, Fay's little condo here in Arlington sold quickly, so a more or less essential piece of this move has fallen into place. And we and the Landshark have been kept very busy moving stuff!
Labels: personal news