Getting a Head Start on Procrastination
Today is the final day of my final class in grad school.
Well, technically, at least. I turned in my final portfolio last week and it was graded the next day. I passed. Pretty anti-climatic if you ask me. But hey, after 2.5 years of stress, it’s kind of nice to have a little blandness.
All that remains is for me to practice my thesis reading (it’s not so much a defense as a presentation) and go to residency in a few weeks. That’s where the big stuff happens. Looking forward to it.
Grad school is almost done. There are days when I feel like I should be wearing a sandwich board and walking around shouting “The end is nigh!” But honestly, mostly I just feel relief. A lot of pressure off my back.
What has grad school been like? Well, to be honest – busy. Time consuming. All encompassing. Let me break down how the program works:
Every student must write a thesis which is a novel. They must produce between 20-40 pages per month that they then submit to their mentors (you have two – one for the first two semesters, one for the final three) and 2 – 3 critique partners. You are also responsible for critiquing and providing feedback for your critique partners. You should have your thesis finished by your third semester so that you can go through revisions in the fourth and fifth semesters.
In addition, you are taking a class. For the first three semesters, those are Readings in Genre. I took Classic Fantasy, Noir Mystery, and Thrillers. The fourth semester is Teaching Popular Fiction which culminates in you actually teaching a class during residency. The fifth semester is Writing About Popular Fiction which encompasses a lot of stuff about readers, understanding the market, query letters, and so forth.
Twice a year (June and January), we go out to Seton Hill and have a week long residency. Lots of classes, lectures, and other stuff. If you are a graduating student, you get to present/defense your thesis. That’s what I am preparing to do now. Whole lotta speaking practice.
My entire brain has been wrapped up in this program. During the teaching semester, I actually used all of my vacation to take time off for studying (an hour per day spread out over the semester). All of this and I’m also working a 40+ hour/week job.
And it’s coming to an end. Cliche as it may be, there is a heavy weight lifting from my shoulders. Each week, it gets a little easier. What comes next? I’m not entirely sure. Another revision on my thesis and then send it out to market. I’ve had some short conversations with the college I work for about teaching classes and I might follow up on that. I don’t know just yet. Somewhere in there, we’re going to find time for a vacation. Steph and I haven’t been able to do more than a weekend away since the program started 2.5 years ago. I think we’ve both earned it.
A very long journey but one that I am happy to have made.
*hack cough hack*
Uh, pardon the dust. I’m in the process of transferring the blog over to WordPress.com and there a few customizations that have to be made. I hope to get this done over the next week or so.
So yeah … it’s been a while.
To be honest, I could have sworn that I’d posted since announcing my acceptance into Grad School. Seems I haven’t so let’s do a little recap of the past year or so.
Yes, I am still pursing my MFA. Seton Hill has been good to me. I was paired up with a New York Times best selling author who acted as a mentor for my first two semesters. Maria V Synder was and is great. Now that I’ve entered my third semester, I got a new mentor (this is according to plan and everyone does it) – Scott Johnson, a horror author out of Texas. He’s a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can learn from him. My thesis novel is about halfway complete and coming together nicely. 60,000+ words.
Class wise, I’ve taken two Reading in Genres (RiGs). Classic Fantasy was fine – a lot of stuff I’ve read before and long novels, which made for some tough weeks. I followed that up with Noir Mystery which I loved. Made me want to write a mystery sometime in the future. This semester is Thrillers. Too early to tell on that one. Each of the residencies have been enjoyable as well and I do look forward to traveling to Seton Hill and seeing my classmates.
Outside of school – work continues. Not much else to say there. No marathons in the planning for now as I decided to put that on hold until grad school was complete. Cats are all fine as is Steph.
So there is the recap of the past year or so. Hopefully I won’t be so absent in the future. Hahah…yeah, right.
So this happened …Yup – I’m going back to school. Specially, Seton Hill University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction.
A big change for a guy who graduated college 20 years ago but hey, why not? Getting a MFA will allow me to actually do something with that English major I picked up plus Seton Hill’s program has a lot of benefits.
First – It’s a low residency program. I only have to be on campus twice a year, each time for a week. Once in June and once in January. Everything else is done online, Skype, or via email. Which is pretty handy when you’re a person with a full time job.
Second – This MFA is about writing popular fiction. That’s science fiction, fantasy, horror, young adult, mysteries, or romance. Most MFAs are about classical literature or other subjects that to be honest, work for other people but not me. This one though? Tailored specifically for me.
The whole program should last about 2.5 years and by the end, not only will I have a masters but I’ll also have a completed book written (that’s actually a degree requirement).
So that’s what is happening. More info when I get it but right now, pretty excited and happy. 🙂
Yes, something good is coming. Details by the end of the week (hopefully).
It was an abnormally warm February day. The cats approved.
A lot later than I would have liked but Imgur was being a jerk. Finally I gave up and just linked things off of Dropbox.
The summary of our trip : We headed down South Kaibab Trail (~7 miles) to the Bright Angel Campground at the bottom. We spent two nights down there and used our ‘off’ day to hike north to Ribbon Falls (~12 mile round trip). Then we packed up early in the morning and headed out via the Bright Angel Trail (~9+ miles). A lot of hiking but a lot of very cool scenery.
I’ve put a few pictures below but here’s a complete gallery (180+ pictures) of the trip –Â Grand Canyon trip.
This was supposed to be a nice long post about our recent vacation to the Grand Canyon, complete with pictures and other neat stuff. Unfortunately, a major problem with our ISP has resulted in the speeds at home being so slow that it’s near impossible to upload the pictures. Thus, I got nothing. But once that gets fixed (today? tomorrow?), I’ll get them uploaded and follow with a full recap.
Here’s the short version – walked down a lot of steps, camped under a beautiful sky, went WTF America?, ate good camp food, and then hiked back up a whole lotta steps. Had a great time.
More to come. Honest.
When asked ‘How is the writing going?’, this has been the best response I’ve had so far:
Moose and Ink 