What Does Time Feel Like

It feels like a toddler mangling pronunciations and jumping over sticks. 

It feels like an ending of a relationship. 

It feels like seeds germinating, growing, climbing a trellis, producing flowers, attracting bees, and handing out ripe pea pods for picking. 

It feels like the thunder and the wind preceding a summer storm. 

It feels like old posts removed, and new ones to come. 

It feels like moving on. 

Time is an accumulation of growth, decay, and regrowth. Time is not numbers. Time is a current. Time is a  place/space/stretch of dirt road.

I lost myself for a time. I had to pull myself out of the waters and onto the shore. 

This post marks a new start for this blog. I hope once again to devote my time to crafting posts about books, writing, and the intersections of life. 

Coming up...

A Reintroduction

An Introduction

What's Happened Since Starting an MFA Program

As always, until next time...

Mastering the Fine Arts

Hello blogland! Honestly, it has been way too long. I wish I had some really convincing reasons for being absent, but alas, I do not. I let myself get consumed by my instructor internship the past two years and now that has nearly come to a close.

You know what that means. That's right. I have the graduate school bug once again. So, I sent my writing samples out to two schools I thought were pretty cool and it turns out that they think I'm cool too. Yay!

I've been pre-approved for admission to two really great MFA in Creative Writing programs and now I am simply waiting on the results from the graduate schools in both places. I will finally be able to assume my alter ego of ImagiGirl.

ImagiGirl: creating worlds, characters, and intriguing plots to save society from boredom and bad literature!

This is all really good news. I love sharing good news. It's...good.

😣

But life isn't about always having good news. My husband will be gone for about a year starting in August, right about the time I'd be beginning my new graduate program.

His unit is shipping out to the Middle East (I don't know where) and they will be ping-ponged around the countryside taking down American military bases, building roads, and sundry other horizontal engineering unit duties. It's safe to assume nothing vertical will be built by his unit. (LOL)

I've been putting off coming to terms with his absence. As a military wife, I know deployments are inevitable. I've been lucky that my first two years of marriage have been relatively absence free. A few training sessions here, a long weekend away there, nothing I can't manage. I'm fine with being alone.

Or so I thought. I think I mostly tell myself I'm okay with solitude because to admit--even to myself--that I need someone around me, even if they aren't constantly with me, seems like a weakness. I'm a strong, independent woman, but I need my man. Even writing this seems like a betrayal of the sisterhood.

So, to help myself cope with all of this, I intend to write a poem every week he is gone. Then, when he finally does come home, I will have something to give him to show him how much he means to me and my family.

I may periodically post a poem on here, just to get feedback from you wonderful blog friends.

Until next time...

News and Such Things

Dear Blog Friends,

I know I've been rather sparse lately in the whole posting-stuff-region, but I have a good reason. I've been really busy. Like, super crazy busy even for me. That paltry excuse said, I do have some good news to share.

I'm engaged! *cue cheering* 

The Boyfriend finally proposed and we're very happy. He has now been renamed The Fiancé. Hope I did that accento mark right....

Anyway, that's not the only news! I'm currently working as an Editorial Intern (which is a confusing title because technically I'm not getting paid, hence Intern, but I'm getting all of the credit of an Editor) at a local independent called Negative Capability Press, located here in Mobile, AL. My mentor is the great poet (and former Poet Laureate of Alabama) Dr. Sue Brannan Walker. I'm learning so much about publishing that I can barely hold all of this new information, and the great thing is, I'm doing a directed studies class titled Publishing and Editing with her in the Fall so the fun will just continue. In addition to that, she is also my creative thesis mentor, so that means I'll be spending more time with her in the next year working on my, you guessed it, creative thesis!

Due to my current sharing mood, here is the premise:

 Found wandering the Grymm Forest at age five and raised by a roving band of gypsies, Eurydice and her chatty sidekick Harly—a scholar turned mule—navigate the criminal underbelly of the Twin Kingdom as assassins for justice. Now seventeen, Eury’s loyalty to justice is tested when she comes face to face with an enemy that she never imagined: her past. Not knowing whom to trust, other than Harly, Eury must discover her origins, save a vagabond prince from almost certain death, and prevent a terrible curse from spreading beyond the Grymm Forest—a place she never anticipated returning, much less remembers having left. Magic, murder, and mayhem abound in this tale about identity and crafting the perfect arrow for every occasion. May the Grymm Fighter watch over us all. 

By Spring this will be a full-fledged (haha it's punny because the title is Fledgling) novel and I have plans for a trilogy. I'm so excited!  

In order to keep the good news train rolling, here is my final bit of fun! My good friend Kelsey Sutton (whom I've posted about several times) has just won a Gold IPPY for her debut novel Some Quiet Place! More cheers! And Stephen Colbert dancing!

Well, that's all folks! Just look at him dance. Go Stephen, go Stephen, go Stephen!

Until next time...

Trains, planes, and newspaper articles

Hello blogosphere! I'm so happy to post once again. I know it's been for-freaking-ever since my last post, but lots of Things have been happening.

First, the Boyfriend came home, and then left again a few days later to visit his family. He's currently stuck in Boston after taking a train and a bus to that airport because he couldn't get a flight from the Providence airport. It's been a long day for him. Poor thing. Hopefully he'll get a seat on a flight in Boston that will take him somewhere not...in Boston. Preferably somewhere closer to Mobile. Like Mobile.

In addition to the Boyfriend stuff, I have moved into a new apartment and spent the past week getting settled in. The settling has gone nicely. Here's a picture of my living/dining area. I eat where I watch TV. Like a boss. (Also like a college student.)

I've also dropped the education major and now I'm simply an English major. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and that weight would be the unnatural bulk of my Honor's thesis as it used to be. It has since been scheduled for weight-loss surgery, which is sometime this week. Wish it luck.

So that's what's been happening in my neck of the woods. Classes are about to resume and with it my two jobs. I'm no longer the Life Editor at The Vanguard, but have taken over as the Copy Editor, and I've been editing up a storm the past few days. It's been nice. I love editing.

I'm actually at the office right now waiting to get more articles to edit. I hope all of my bloggy friends are doing well.

Until next time...