Week 10 Spring Break: Reflections as Writer-in-Residence
The short version is this: 4 rejections in 1 week. Waitlisted at Anderson Center. No from Ox-Bow for the summer fellowships (but still under consideration for fall). No from Webb School (but a personal letter and email from the Director inviting me to apply next year). No from Doris Betts Fiction Prize.
Reaction: Overeating, followed immediately by an entire afternoon spent playing hooky from responsibilities, followed by one insanely long evening (lasting into the wee hours of the morning) spent grilling steaks and veggies in 20 degree weather while blasting Curtis Mayfield across campus and drinking too much Guiness.
Re-action: Writing 18 pages of fiction in three days.
Re-envision: Place calls and send emails to Alaska contacts. Study finances. Stare for long moments at the “2010-2012” banner and accompanying lobster claw attached to the roof of my car. Contemplate. Submit to The Normal School. Call Vermont Studio Center. Call Gershwin Hotel. Pay 35-effing-% of my monthly income (yes) toward student loans. Go to extra karate classes in town all week long. Read Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea. Read Robert Olen Butler’s Tablid Dreams.
Wake up. Repeat.
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cant say i am unaccustomed to having some serious sequential disappointments, followed by a propensity to consume a few cocktails and then procrastination of expected tasks…
not a bad thing, just wipe the olive oil off the saddle and jump back on!
a box of girl scout cookies (samosas of course) also helps