"We shall never again be as we were."
--Henry James

Tonight was my first Novel-Writing Workshop class. I had a fun time being back on campus this afternoon/evening. My class started at 4:10, so I left work at 2:30 to make sure I had enough time to find parking and take the Wolfline bus into campus and find the classroom; in my excitement, I forgot my info at home and had to go to the graduate office in the English department to find out what room I was in. Luckily, I ran into John Kessel and he pointed me in the right direction, as well as telling me about his recent vision problems, which led to surgery on both his eyes and being homebound for three months listening to books on tape since he couldn't read them. Eesh.

I found the room, and was about an hour early, so I took out the book I was reading (a compound novel / short story collection by Rhys Hughes) and read until the class started. Then at 4:10, I got up from the bench in the hall and went into the classroom. Prof. Barnhardt came in a minute or so later, and we started the class. He talked to us about the development of the novel as a literary form and talked about the importance of a good strong opening. Our assignment for next time is to bring in an influential book, a role model for our own writing styles. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to pick, since I have so many favorite novels, but right now I'm leaning toward The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. After that, our big assignment was to write an outline for our novels, which will be presented in twos starting the third week. Since I'm barely into my novel, I asked to be put near the end. I guess I'm going to have to plot out the novel now, but at least I have around six weeks to get it done.

We stopped at 5:30, and I caught the Wolfline back to the park-and-ride lot near the K-Mart where I'd left my car. I drove to the ATM for some quick bux, then headed back home. On the way, I remembered the weather report saying we're probably going to get snow Thursday night, so I went to the grocery store. Then I came home, put the groceries away, fixed some dinner, called Jamie, emailed Janet, and watched The West Wing.

Yay! It was a fun day.

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Now Reading:
Numbers in the Dark by Italo Calvino

Stories Out to Publishers:
11

Novel Word Count:
15,400