Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Like usual, Ado and I set off for our morning walk. A bit later than usual since I slept right up until 7:45. Then I snuggled for another half hour against Ado. He's the best cuddle buddy ever. So when we finally started off, the sun was shining, warming the morning so nicely. While we walked I thought I'd cycle up to the farm to return the egg cartons that I'd been collecting over the last couple of months. I wasn't about to let this beautiful fall day get away from me without a cycling trip of some kind. Once Ado was settled in after we returned to the apartment and after I aired up the tires on Sweetness, I started out. Only to realize the wind had come up during the time I fixed Ado's breakfast, geared up, packed the egg cartons in the pannier, and stepped back outside. Not just a little wind, either. No. This wind, though I didn't know it until after I checked the weather once I got home, was blowing over 23 miles per hour, gusting up to 40 mph. There was...

My bum has been planted in this darn chair all day. And I wonder why my clothes are getting tighter! But, I'm nearly finished with putting my entire summer online classes in place, and once class begins on Monday, all I'll have to do is read the papers and blog posts once they start coming in. Fingers crossed the classes I've created are easy to navigate and clear about what is expected (who am I trying to kid? There'll be students who'll have issues -- there always is). Good news: one of my haiku was accepted by Haiku Journal . If you go to the journal online, Issue 58, you'll see my name listed with the other authors. Then just scroll down until you find my haiku. This particular haiku is my favorite of the group I created to submit to the contest sponsored at the site where I post my work for critique. This was also the favorite for my writer friend who offered feedback when my haiku went days without a critique on the very site that is designed to offer...

Now is crunch time for finishing grading and submitting final grade reports. I don't mind this time of the semester as I know I have to get grades in by a certain date, which means once I click the Submit button I'll be free. No more papers to read. No more slogging through essays that make me wonder what these students were doing during high school English classes. No more having to break the news to Susie that just because Mom thinks Susie's writing is awesome, this doesn't mean it actually is. The downside here is I'll only be free for about two weeks. Then summer session begins. I'm not looking forward to it, but I've decided since I have to teach I'm going to take the opportunity to try out some new ideas. This will entail taking a bit of a different approach, an approach that gets me excited when I think about the possibilities. It could be really, really fantastic. It could also end up being a crash and burn summer I'll want to forget as soo...

Last night, just as I was shutting things down to call it a day, I checked in at my email account to see if anything new came in. The only new item was from a poetry journal I had sent a couple of poems to. As is wont to happen these days, I felt that familiar sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I asked myself: do you really want to open that now? Self replied: well, no, but now or tomorrow, it's all the same.  I really didn't want to go to bed disappointed, but my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the email. The first thing I noticed was how long the email was compared to the previous rejection emails. So I started from the beginning, kept reading, and learned one of the poems had been selected for publication in this poetry journal. Then, I started crying. Yep. I cry over the Thanks but no thanks emails, and I cry over the Congratulations emails. I am that person. Funny Delightful Son came in as I was sitting at my desk, still basking in the feeling of ha...

I'm always surprised about how a visit to a doc and having some kind of procedure done can make a person feel like sleeping for the rest of the day. I had to return to the doc today for a very, very, very minor procedure on my cheek, related to that super freckle that had decided to go ballistic on my ass, getting almost cancerous and all, and afterward, all I wanted to do, actually still do, is sleep. I've already napped once, missing part of the Tour de France, and another nap is beginning to shape up. I think it's the stress of the doc not being happy with the way I'm healing and lecturing me about my diet being the culprit, though I thought everything was looking super and I do get more than enough protein thank you very much--just look at my daily food journal which calculates how much protein I'm taking in--and the freezing spray he used to numb the area. It was kind of hard not to breathe some of it in as he was spraying it and saying at the same time that br...

Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review No, today isn't one of my two blogging days for the week, but I wanted to share the link to Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review for those of you who would like to read the short story accepted for publication there. The story is under Fiction and is titled "The Garage Sale." And, those of you who do read the story, please let me know what you think, good, bad, or ugly. I'm in the process of putting a short story collection together, and I need as much feedback as possible to make the collection as strong as possible. In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Finally. An acceptance letter. And while the magazine is a small one, probably one most people haven't heard of, it's still a magazine, and my short story will be published in its January/February/March 2011 issue. This will be my first short story publication credit, my second publishing credit overall. It's a start. And good timing, too. This Thursday I'm participating in a faculty reading at my college. I had already decided to read this particular story, and now I can begin by saying the story has been accepted for publication. I've never been in this position before, being able to say something I'm sharing with the audience gathered for the reading will actually be offered to a wider audience in the not too distant future. I've been thinking for some time now that in order for me to have any credibility in the classroom, teaching writing, I need to write and publish. My thinking is now a reality. What a great feeling.