Wow, it’s been a whole semester. Well, give or take a few weeks. Sorry about that. The Fall semester in the MFA program started out kind of steady but then it got really intense this last month. I honestly think it was just how my assignment due dates ended up falling on the calendar across my two graduate courses. I’ll take some time here to just do some basic updates, if only because I have a website that I pay for and I might as well use it for something. I will have a little bit of downtime in a few more weeks, so maybe I can post a little more before the Spring semester starts. Maybe the due dates for assignments will just magically work out more convenient for me during the Spring semester. Maybe it will be worse. I don’t know. If it does, I suppose I’ll just have to do this again.
Fiction
So, this semester, I decided to do something that I don’t normally do when I study fiction academically–I wrote and workshopped sections of a novel I started. I’ve probably written about this before, but novels are… well, novels are hard. Short stories are hard to, and you can certainly take your sweet time with them if you want to (I’ve been known to rewrite short stories at least ten times, in new documents from start to finish), but it’s also possible to get what you want out of a short story in a few drafts and be done with it. Novels though… I don’t know because I’ve never finished one. I finished a novelette once. It sucked. I still have it somewhere. I wrote it while listening to “I Will Always Love You” (the Dolly Parton version) over and over again for about two weeks.
Anyway, I still have to do a revision of one of the chapters I wrote this semester, then try to get through the rest of the draft of the novel before too far into Spring because I want to write something else for my thesis, and I think I’m going to have to figure out what that will be super soon if I’m going to stay a full-time student.
The Firm
I still work full-time at the law firm. I work in IT, so I’m not a lawyer. I coordinate video conferences, webinars, and support for IT equipment throughout our 13 offices in 8 states. It’s been busy. I think it’s a slower time of year, but there’s still a lot of stuff going on. I can’t talk about work much. You know, confidentiality and all of that. Add me on LinkedIn I guess? But I can’t talk about it there, either.
The Literary Magazine
I’m doing some stuff with a literary magazine. I don’t know what I can say or can’t say right now, so I’ll just leave it at that. I do love editing and working with others on literary adventures. I’m sure I’ll be able to talk about it soon. When Likely Red Press shuttered during the pandemic, a little piece of me fell off and died somewhere. It’s probably still at my old apartment.
Working The Polls In November
On November 8th, I worked the polls here in Louisville. It wasn’t crazy busy in my opinion, but we’re never sure exactly how many people voted absentee while we’re working at the polling location on election day. Working the polls is an experience, one that I would love to talk about sometime. But, I’ll have to gather my thoughts about it first. I think it’s one of those things that’s easier to talk about if asked questions directly. Feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best.
Certs
Even though I’ve been really busy with classes, I had a little time recently to think about something new. Or, maybe I just needed for force myself to add something else to my plate once I got in too much of a circadian rhythm with the flow of coursework. Either way, I am now the holder of a Workplace and Personal Wellness Foundations Certificate from the University of South Florida. I was interested in wellness in the workplace from an administrative angle. It was a unique certificate program. I’m upset that my middle name didn’t get put into the certificate. It was my own fault. I should have double checked before sending off the application. It’s fine. Still waiting for the credly badge.
Next, I’d like to look into a project management certificate program, then maybe perhaps look into steps for a PMP certification. But, you know, after the MFA. I could do the certificate program whenever though, I guess. Anyone know of any good ones? Post them in the comments if you do.
My TIkTok
I think that’s all I’ve managed to squeeze in this season. I didn’t do much for Halloween. I’m still so single that I’m talking about History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund in letters to my straight high school best friend who I had a crush on and who is in prison. I did start posting about how I’ve been closing my Apple Watch rings everyday on TikTok, though. You can follow me on TikTok if you’re into that. I can’t promise how long I’ll keep managing to close the rings, though. It’s getting colder and I don’t like that.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to post the next one sooner.
