In two days I leave for my final MFA residency.  Beyond the normal fun, craziness, and learning, this residency will include a couple of special events:

1. Graduation.  By the end of the residency, I will have a graduate degree, and a terminal degree at that (the only Fine Arts doctorate is an honorary degree – MFA is as far as the discipline goes).

   Three years ago I stared at a rejection letter from an agent and realized I didn’t have enough knowledge of the craft to make a serious bid for a career in writing.  Going for an MFA was a gamble – I had and have heard mixed stories about different programs, and what the degree has meant for other people.  But I think it’s a question of what the student needs and what program the student chooses.  I came to the right place for me – the right faculty, the right curriculum, and the right student body.

   I’ve come a long way in those three years.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.

2. Not one, not two, but three readings over the space of eight days.  It’s kind of like a book tour, except that no one knows who I am and I won’t be expected to sign anything.  Then again, from what I hear, maybe that’s exactly like a book tour.

   Seriously though, I’ll be doing two readings of an essay I got published in Cirque (“Engineering Coincidence”) and, for the first time, reading from the novel I’m trying to sell.  It’s the latter one that makes me nervous.  I’ve done readings before, for published and unpublished works, but always short pieces.  In those cases I could read half or all of the text.  But in this case, I’ll be reading perhaps one-point-two-five percent of the whole work.  That means I need a scene – one scene – that stands on its own, needs little to no introduction, and ends at a point to leave the audience wanting more.

   No pressure.

   I may just read from the beginning – assuming there’s a good stopping point in the right number of words.  Crap.

   Why yes, I am going to go practice as soon as I’ve posted this.  How did you know?

The Department of Amusing Timing would also like me to point out that I will be taking an intensive course in querying and pitching at this residency, two weeks after I was at a conference pitching the novel.  Ah, well.  There will be other opportunities (and I might have done all right at that conference, but only time will tell).

As usual, I will not be posting to this blog while I’m at the residency.  After I come back, I’ll take a couple of posts to wrap up the MFA experience, and then reveal the new direction this blog will be taking.

More on all this when I get back.

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