near wild heaven

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

It's looking these days as though I can only blog every two weeks. That's my recent trend.

To be fair, I did begin my four-course teaching load at UW-RF. I find that it's not so bad, as far as workload, so long as I get enough sleep at night. Three composition courses--which are easy to teach, if not terribly exciting (but I do what I can to make it interesting, for myself at least)--and the literature class. We're knee-deep in The Odyssey right now, and it's going pretty well. Several of my students seem genuinely interested in the book, and I've structured classtime in such a way that those who are not terribly interested must still be responsible for part of the material, and I do this without nagging at them or positing myself as a traditional classroom authority figure. I've found that students who want to torment authority have difficulty doing so in a classroom that relies on group work and reportage rather than traditional teacher-standing, student-sitting lecturing. I always disliked courses like that, anyway.

Today is a Tuesday, which means I can sleep in until 7:30 and, after a few hours, begin the day's writing. I started a new novel a month or so back. Actually I was taking notes on the novel during the trip east from California. Some of these notes I scribbled while stoned, so now they are only good for humorous relief. Most of the others are, for the time being, keepers. Anyway, on Tuesday I looked at the first chapter I'd written last month, and I was relieved to see that I still liked it. The chapter was better than I had thought, so I spent about five hours rewriting it and making it still better, all the while reviving my hopes for the novel. This morning I began on chapter two, a draft of which I hope to complete before my students' papers arrive a week from tomorrow.

In general I'm feeling hopeful about my writing, and my approach to it, and how I see this year going. I have high hopes. The Knopf editor responded and does want to see the finished collection and fifty pages of the novel this spring. This does not necessarily mean a thing, other than I have a lead, a real one, that is worth pursuing, because you never know what might happen.

posted by: zithereen at September 16, 2004 13:28 | link | comments (3) |

Today I have the writing bug. I was in front of my computer around 9 this morning, as part of my new regiment to write in the morning, when I will have the time. I was working on a story that gradually bogged down as the session continued. Then, this afternoon, I worked out a path while reading Ken Kesey and ogling a young lady sunbathing in the park. Well, maybe ogling is too strong a word; I am too modest to ogle strangers (though I do enjoy ogling my best friends). She was a beauty, there is no doubt. I could tell that even from across the park. I suppose I "stole glances" at her. I'd hate to have anybody, even a stranger, think I was a dirty old man. I may be there some day, but I'm still young. But the beautiful young woman in the bikini also provided material for another story--sorry, kids, nothing            X-rated--which I first thought of yesterday while watching, ashamedly, Maury Povich. The working title for that story is: You Are The Father!

Maybe I'm hitting my stride after a two-day sabbatical imposed by a severe allergic reaction to the Midwestern air--one thing I did not miss at all when I lived in California--followed by a drug-induced day of sleep. Thanks, Zyrtec. That's a day I can never have back. Maybe I'm trying to produce what I can while all my time is still my own: school starts Friday. I'm eager to get up in front of a classroom again, ready for the next few months, but during that time I will need to be hawkish about my time to write. Like not taking phone calls and all the rest.

In other news, I sent a query to an editor at Knopf who expressed a desire to see a finished collection, once I have it ready. Knopf is the big time, baby, just what the new ambitious me is shooting for. So hopefully she'll still be interested, and come springtime I'll have a finished collection to send her. Ideally.

posted by: zithereen at September 01, 2004 15:31 | link | comments (1) |