I can now say undergrad

 

I write this in the quiet following submitting the last assignment due for this first half of the first term of grad school. As the semester went on, I slowly developed systems for how I would go about managing my time and executing my work. Overall, it was not difficult, but I did have my struggles. One of the classes had at its final project the design and execution of a website. I decided to take the opportunity to challenge myself to update my online footprint. Someday, I hope this blog will link from my invention.

And I think that is a microcosm of how things have gone so far. I have experienced non trivial gratification with growing and learning and failing. It felt good to be in a classroom again, putting thoughts and words together and interacting with new content. The degree should give me the ability to teach in a college classroom, but also pursue private sector writing, and I even found a way to indulge in some creative writing as well. It will be years from now when I finish, but I thought it was important to mark the occasion of my taking my first steps.

There’s also this:

“I really like the overall design and visual presence of your website. The sky theme you chose for the background gives the site an appealing and inviting look. Your website is also nicely organized and very interactive, which makes it easy to navigate. I especially like that clicking on your name takes you back to the home page. Another feature I like is that the book links take visitors directly to Amazon, making it convenient for people to order your books.

“As an English 1102 instructor, I may consider using some of your short stories and poetry in my class next semester. If I decide to use them, I will be sure to leave feedback. Overall, I enjoyed exploring your website and learning more about your work.”

Always nice when the surprises are pleasant.

Lots of things are coinciding, and I can even imagine a world where they intertwine well. The audio production of book3 is coming along, albeit with some hurdles. I have maintained that I am more for quality than speed, and the hope is that the delays will result in a superior product. After that I have promised myself to begin a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the audio production of the rest of the books along with the final cover design (I have not ruled out future school work giving me ideas for that, either).



The final version for book 7 is also nearing completion. I just have to finish wrestling with the publishing interface. I just have to find the time to sit down to finish wrestling with the publishing interface. Building out the website required I make some determinations on what I call “works in progress” so that was nice to think about what I would finally be able to do next.

So I guess I’m looking forward to look forward. Hopefully the robot uprising is a few more decades out, yet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ricardo Montalban will beat you up

Two weeks ago, I was given a DVD to watch at the behest of my writer's group. I say it that way because it was less of an assignment, and more of a social obligation in that it was put into my hands along with the burden of their expectation that I would watch it then we could discuss it. So of course I didn't. When it came back around, an up and coming screen writer in the group somewhat excitedly said "I think one of us had a movie to watch," and I was given the terrible duty of disappointing all of them. However, that sick feeling in my stomach was just enough to get me to pop it into the player and view Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. There was only the one down side, where something like a scratch made the DVD slow, stop, and skip, forcing me to work my techno-craft and fix the problem. With only a ten-minute break in activities, I managed to watch the entire film. I say film because it was good. Shatner didn't sound (to me) like the Priceline guy; he sou...
Read more

The yolk of suppose

I've been on a bit of a break. Hiatus might be the better word. I imagined that fifty years ago, or a hundred fifty years ago, writing was different. Largely, writing was writing. Even if a poet wrote alone, just for herself, relatives who found her work later could rather easily publish those writings, and make livings off of posthumous efforts. Now, I have to acknowledge that in regards to being a writer, it doesn't quite do anymore to simply write. To say that I've been writing seems to count far less than successfully convincing others that I am a writer. It's an awful, tangled, convoluted mess. I was inspired by an acquaintance who made some progress with her own struggles. Through her I learned a lot about comic books and the process for making them. We had largely talked about fiction but I discovered one of her many passions was graphic novels. She went around to conventions in the region, shook hands, did research, smiled, proved herself driven, did the work...
Read more

Small. Journeys

Image
  For the past few years, summer work in education has not been anything like the benefit assumed by people who don’t work in the industry. “Getting summers off” is largely a K12 idea, and even then the season is made busy by other things, like material rushing into a vacuum. Time finds a way to spend itself. However, this week, today, I discovered a wellspring of time that I could reasonably project forward as lighter, open even. So, among other things, it felt appropriate to provide an update. I came back from my first official professional vacation with a lot of understanding for when I would hear other people “working themselves back” or “getting used to being in the office again.” I had work waiting for me, more than there would have been had I not taken the time off, but it was very easy to accept that such was the tradeoff. It was good to see friends, perhaps even better to be seen by friends. As the echoes of the train ride died down, I was able to separate the parts I en...
Read more