Published x2

I just found out last night that two poems I wrote for class last fall will be featured in my school's literary publication! There is a LOT of competition, so I'm pretty proud to be included.

The funny thing is, I had submitted the poems in January 2010 and had forgotten about them. It was kind of like early Christmas to get the email that they had been accepted!

I'm pretty excited about this time in my writing life. I'm starting small but picking up speed. To date, this is 4 short pieces published between June 15 and October 15. I'd say that's pretty good.

Now, I'm off to work on my novel :)

the Bitter and the Sweet

Here's some writing for ya: A poem. A nasty, first drafty, off the cuff poem. And what better place to share it than a blog, right?

Preface: It's been a rough trip down memory lane today, and this is what resulted.

I had the pleasure of knowing you
We chased fireflies and boys
Shared snow cones and secrets
We didn’t always see eye to eye
But I loved calling you my friend

I had the pleasure of loving you
Sharing kisses in the moonlight
And secrets on the phone
Skin on skin, your warmth saved me
Your words soothed me
Your trust broke me
I swore I’d love you forever
Until forever came
But I’ll never forget loving you

I had the pleasure of being yours
I have your eyes, your chin,
Your nose
I hate my nose
But it’s a part of you I’ll always have
Something to carry on, make my own
We didn’t always see eye to eye
Too much silence, too little laughter
I turned when I should have forgiven
Left when I should have run into your arms
But I’ll take the bitter and the sweet,
Memories of joy and pain
Because together they make us
Me and you, father and daughter
And I will always be yours

End of October

Tomorrow is Halloween. For the first time in a lot of years, I don't really care. I'm not dressing up, not throwing a party for the kids, and don't have any one to bring trick-or-treating. What shall I do with myself?

Well, I'll probably work on homework, since I have a 4 page paper due next Wed that hasn't been started, a whole website that has barely been started, and 2 chapters in anatomy that need read. Blah. Oh, and then I'll be getting ready for NaNo, which starts at midnight on November 1st.

Mandy and I have a midnight NaNo date ☺ Of course, midnight for her is 1am for me. I'll still be there.

I'll also be worrying myself to a tizzy about graduate school. Just when I thought I had it all figured out (psycholinguistics at the University of Florida -- go Gators!!) it was brought to my attention that a theoretical/research degree is only really good for one thing -- research. Oh, and teaching. Which is fun, but not necessarily good for a lifetime career. Possibly, but not necessarily. So, I've been e-mailing some experts at the U of F to see if there is something better suited for me. So far, I have thought about:

cognitive psychology
speech-language pathology
psycholinguistics

None of them are 100% what I want. SLP is the closest to a practical solution as I can get, but I don't want to be JUST a speech-language pathologist. Actually, I don't really want to be one at all. I just want to know some of the stuff an SLP knows so I can use it for research. If I could get a clinical license with cognitive psych, I might go that route, but it's even more theory-based than psycholinguistics. Oh, psh. Just when I thought I was set.... plenty more to think about.

Then there's my NaNo novel. All I know so far is that my protag, Quinn, is a struggling full-time romance writer who gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend and high-tails it to the ocean for inspiration, where she somehow runs into the paranormal side of life. I think my mMC's name will be Joss. I even had a last name for Joss, but I have forgotten it.

Oh, in good news, I wrote a poem. And I won 3rd place in a poetry contest! Which entitles me to a $100 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble! Wooo!!!

Maybe I should by some books about choosing a grad program/career....