Summer Begins

I’ve had two media-intensive weeks, whereby I committed to listen to Morning Edition and Democracy Now each day, catch up on my New York Review of Books, and continue reading The Week. (Latest US drone attack killed 91 people in Pakistan.) My mind is racing from the immersion but I feel more whole, like I’m taking a step in the direction of somewhat engaged citizenship again. Knowing is half the battle, right?

I also promised myself I’d listen to a recording of one Pacific University craft talk or reading from the January 2009 residency each night, every night, for two weeks. These are talks that I would have heard if I hadn’t graduated…Many of my friends were there and I knew most of the faculty on the recording. Following each listening session, I then wrote a short short or revised a story-in-progress.

During this two weeks I read Nancy Lord’s Green Alaska, Tobias Wolff’s The Barracks Thief, Brevity issue 30, Memoir (and) v.1 issue 5, finished Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days, and started two other books. I read 10 manuscripts for Main Street Rag and 1 straggler for Silk Road. I also read about 80 pages of Alaska history in encyclopedias and travel guides from the library.

Immersion indeed…and just in time. Tomorrow I officially being my “summer jobs” as nanny for a 9-month-old and music teacher for an Episcopal church. It will be back to the balance of non-writing work and writing-work again, something I haven’t faced in six months.

I dive into my writing heart-first. But to keep up some level of immersion and balance these jobs, I’m going to have to go head-first into summer. Here goes!