TweetEver since we were little, my sister and brother (both younger) have taunted me on occasion with one word: “Zooooona!” Pronounced like Sona, but with a Z, and elongated, of course, for dramatic effect.
The word defined those moments when I would just completely space, drift off, staring at a wall or a book or nothing at all really. Where did I go in those moments? They couldn’t comprehend.
For the longest time, though, I thought it was just me. Just one of those weird little quirks that define a person. That …

TweetYou can worry about something all you want, but in the end it’s going to turn out how it’s going to turn out. Especially when there’s a two-year-old involved.
I’d been stressing about tonight’s MFA thesis reading for the past few days, because I’ve never read in front of a big group of people before — and especially not my own work. I shouldn’t have worried at all, really, because our class is super-tight and super-supportive, and so of course we’d be cheering each other on, loudly and often.
Still, I stressed. …

TweetA few days ago, I posted an article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed to one of my Pinterest pages, and it was repinned seven times — a lot for me! The article discussed the sheer number of graduates from creative writing MFA programs, and the fact that a large majority of these  recent grads don’t end up publishing anything after earning the terminal degree.
The stats are daunting. According to the article, University of Iowa — the reputed cream of the crop — sees only about three-quarters of their MFA …

TweetIt’s funny, over the course of two years, we’ve had tears in class several times. Critique can be rough — you’re close to the material, you’re close to your classmates, feedback might be harsher than you were expecting. It’s hard not to take it personally.
So I was pleased that I’d managed to avoid the tears myself. That is, until that first diversity in YA workshop last week. I’d prided myself on being the consummate professional, but when trying to explain to the awesome Andrea Davis Pinkney of Scholastic exactly why …

TweetHow do you find a balance between work-work and your life’s work? My scale is always weighed down on one side or the other. Occasionally both. The last few weeks have been crazy hectic because it’s been thesis crunch time, and now graduation, which means readings and book parties and last hurrahs.
So naturally, this is when a new project lands in my lap, I get offered a summer gig and I’m trying to keep up with my regular workload, to boot. Sadly, I don’t have the luxury of letting work …

TweetPart of our graduation requirements is to read a short piece from our thesis aloud to an audience of our classmates and MFA cohorts — some 100-plus people, all told. To which I say: eeeps!
I’ve been writing forever and I’m pretty comfortable with people one-on-one, given the fact that I’ve been interviewing people for more than a decade now. But I’ve never liked public speaking. Back in my senior year of high school, I took a class on the subject, which helped me shake the absolute horror of the idea …

TweetSo technically we’re not graduated yet.
But today I attended what will be my last workshop as a grad student. It was a Weekend Workshop Dhonielle and I requested from the department and even got to help put together. It was on Diversity in Children’s and YA Literature, run by the awesome Andrea Davis Pinkney of Scholastic. She was so open and candid and enlightening, and the hands-on components of the workshop, via writing prompts, were quite intriguing. I usually hate writing prompts — but at 7 a.m. this morning, I …

TweetToday I printed out my thesis, tomorrow I turn it into the Writing office at the New School. After months of hard work, it’s done, it’s finished. It’s weird holding the printed, bound copy in my hands. It feels so final, like the end of an era, but it’s only a quarter of the book, so it’s really just the beginning. In fact, over on our class blog, we’ve been having a debate about MFA programs and the fact that most grads, this one included, don’t come out of the …

TweetMy plan this summer is to get things done, specifically when it comes to writing fiction. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m all about keeping up the momentum. But I’m nothing if not indecisive — which happens to be a very typical Libra trait.
Sigh. Today I spent the afternoon tallying up word counts — for three different works-in-progress. I’m having trouble deciding which one to plow ahead on first — and these aren’t even the only ones I have brewing. They’re just the only ones I have word counts on already.
It …

TweetThere are only two weeks left of school, and for my thesis (which is done and approved — yay!) I had to push myself to write 90 pages in just two months. I’m used to deadlines when it comes to journalism, but not so much in my creative endeavors, and so this was a really intense time.
Having accomplished that thesis mission, I’ve sort of taken a moment to just sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. But I’m quickly realizing that I can’t let myself get too comfortable. Everyone, …