near wild heaven

This is now, this is here, this is me, this is what I wanted you to see.

Not much time. And while I don't want this blog to descend into the mere news of my life, while I would like it to involve interesting bits of reflection and analysis, it's just not going to happen today. Looks like I got a teaching job, at a university. Don't pat me on the back: it's mainly composition, 100 students/semester. But there are fine features which allow some face to be saved. Like, for instance, the full health care. The three-day-per-week teaching schedule. The opportunity to teach a literature course. The way this job will allow for time pockets devoted only to novel writing, which is my current obsession. And to that end, I have been more aggressively writing, even as my computer fizzles (see earlier post). So often, chunks of language will bloom inside my head; in the past I would sometimes catch it before it wilted, sometimes not. Now I'm doing better, carrying a notebook, getting down those bits, pursuing them, seeing where they lead. All without that reflex to contextualize: how will this fit into the story, how won't it, and so on. No, James: just write. Let the writing lead the way. Relax and have fun. Remember that you enjoy this, that you have chosen it as much as it has chosen you.

Doing better, then. Will finish this novel. Will publish it. In the meantime, I will take my modest allotment of academia and run with it, and see where we go next.  

posted by: zithereen at July 20, 2004 12:21 | link | comments (3) |

Whoa, my, has it really been three-plus weeks? I suppose it has, although the time has seemed to have passed both very slowly and very quickly. Many, many adventures: the surprise visit from my mother, the visit from my father, our drive up PCH between San Luis Obispo and Monterey--frankly some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen with my own two, small eyes--the finish to girlfriend's visit, the completion of my MFA degree, a celebratory wedding of an MFAer only a few days before leaving, dancing and drinking, flirting it up, having some good clean fun, the arrival of venerable Michael to LAX, our mad dash to get the hell out of Long Beach (which cost more in time and money than one might think), our flat tire north of Santa Barbara, in the middle of nowhere, just a few feet east of the Pacific Ocean, two days in San Francisco, an evening in Reno (I highly suggesting seeing a casino at 2:30am while under the influence of some variety of altering substance), onward across northern Nevada, north through Utah into Idaho, then Wyoming, across Montana and a dip south into a dangerous little corner of Wyoming where there are no people and no lights, but plenty of deer that like to play dodgeball with cars, finally one more push across South Dakota and into the Twin Cities.

And that's just a summary. More soon, when I catch my breath some more.

posted by: zithereen at July 17, 2004 10:45 | link | comments (1) |