Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.

I was taking the Wolfline home from my Narrative Analysis class tonight, and while I sat there waiting to get to my stop, thinking about the fiction of Zoran Zivkovic and Italo Calvino for some reason, a bolt of fiery blue inspiration lit my brain on fire. I got the ultimate motivation for one of the main characters of my novel, and from that, the rest of the plot unfolded like the finest Chinese wrapping paper. I discovered a way that I could use some cool postmodern metafictional techniques, as well as a way to include several other short stories I've written about these characters in the overall text. As Stephen King might say, my muse shat on my head. Big time. A big steaming pile of revelation.

And I'm now calling the novel BlueGreen Quietus, though this is subject to change later.

I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do a novel for my master's thesis, that I just wouldn't have the time, but this way, it looks a lot better. True, part of the novel will be an intratextual short story collection, also called BlueGreen Quietus, but I won't really consider this a fixup, since the shorter fiction will serve more as flashback or character illustration. When I got to the park-and-ride, I opened my notebook and pretty much outlined the rest of my novel right there, though part two was all clumped together; I'll parse out the different chapters later.

Woo! It's times like these I love being a writer. Now I just gotta write the thing.

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In other cool news, I got a job today! After one of the best job interviews of my life yesterday, I was offered the job as an assistant coordinator for the upcoming North Carolina Literary Festival, which will be held on the NCSU campus April 15-18. Just looking at the author line-up has me excited, and six of the guests will be skiffy pals: Dale Bailey, Richard Butner, Andy Duncan, Karen Joy Fowler, John Kessel, and Kelly Link. (Orson Scott Card will also be there, but I don't consider him a pal.) I'll have an office in D.H. Hill Library on campus, and if it's ready by Monday morning, I'll start then.

Yay!

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And Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

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Now Reading:
Shank's Mare by Ikku Jippensha

Stories Out to Publishers:
7

Books Read This Year:
2

Zines/Chapbooks/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
4