Right now I am working on my final project in my Craft of Fiction class.  I have a lot to do for it yet, but it’s fun to work on, provides a review of everything we’ve studied this semester, and will produce a document that should continue to be useful for quite some time: an annotated glossary of literary tools, compiled by the class from our readings and discussions.  It also isn’t due for another two weeks or so.

Oh, yes, and I have to, in the process, prepare for my oral exam.  It’s funny, but since this is a low-residency program, and since my Craft professor is currently also teaching in Budapest on a Fulbright Scholarship, I came into this semester not expecting that I might have to take an oral exam.  Such is the power of the internet.

Note to self, install Skype this week and learn to use it.  No pressure.  The exam is Saturday morning.

Of course, to be fair, I have known about this exam all semester, so I could have installed Skype beforehand, and the reason I’m taking it this Saturday comes back to what I’ve said before about schedule.  I could have taken the exam anytime next week, but then I would have to fit it in around work, Capoeira, and preparations for the D&D game I’ll be running on the 15^th.  Add to this that my professor, of course, has his own life with its attendant commitments and that he is in a time zone nine hours ahead of mine: this Saturday was the easiest solution.

The final project for my Fiction Workshop class is straightforward: revise a piece I submitted for critique this semester, taking into consideration the comments of the class.  That’s not for another two weeks.  In the interim I have submissions from my classmates to review.

So, in the midst of this I plan for next semester.  Whidbey emphasizes cross-genre study, and I am taking immediate advantage of this.  Next semester I have signed up for the craft and workshop classes in nonfiction, and for my first directed reading.  Directed readings, as I understand them at this point, are about what they sound like: a large amount of reading according to a theme, with attendant discussion and related writing.  This one is about fantasy as a genre, and should make for interesting study.  I can’t wait to see the booklist.  Technically this is not an offering in my major; it is being offered as a Children and Young Adult course, which may influence the text selection.  I guess that makes it my first elective, since the nonfiction classes, while outside my Fiction major, qualify as my required study outside the genre.  I may still see if I can get Fiction credit for it, though, to increase my options later.

Submissions Update:  I did not win the Glimmer Train contest.  This week I am submitting work to The Los Angeles Review.  I may submit a short short piece to Glimmer Train.  I don’t know yet.  I also want to submit to at least one other place this month, but I will wait until after the semester to do that.  I am busy enough for the time being.

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