A Lovely Verse: So my workshop went really well. Part of it consisted of me trying not to laugh as my classmates picked at something I’d forgotten to change. In the original, Xavier was a young boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder (which I’ve personally been diagnosed with) and was nonverbal, and Eliza, his sister, never actually had the chance to be born. In the more recent version, Xavier is a teenager, verbal, but chooses not to speak. Eliza, rather than being a stillbirth, went missing years ago and is presumed dead. Anyways, workshop definitely gave me ideas for the rewrites, and Chapter 1 will be available on Patreon on March 15th.
“Order, Chaos, and Diaries”: So this workshop was hilarious. Everyone wanted more Tanner (my husband). I briefly mentioned him in the essay as part of the “order” in my “chaos” of OCD, but everyone saw that he was meant to play a larger role. So I gave them what they wanted in my revision. I ignored some of the stranger comments, like the ones concerning my title or whether or not I’d considered telling my dog “no” when she jumped into my lap (I likened that to an IT person asking me if I’d tried turning my computer off and on again). Yeah, not all workshop tips are the best.
Readings for class: Night to Dawn issue #35 (horror), That Which Grows Wild by Eric J. Guignard (horror), Boundary Waters by Paul Gruchow (nonfiction, nature)
Personal Readings: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (horror), The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin (horror, dystopian), Letters to a Young Madman by Paul Gruchow (nonfiction, mental health), Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (fantasy), and Submerge by K.Y. Robinson (poetry collection)
Finished: From the Mouths of Dogs by B.J. Hollars (nonfiction, essay collection), The Buying of Lot 37 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Welcome to Night Vale, horror, science fiction)
I will be writing a piece on From the Mouths of Dogs soon, so be on the lookout for that! Keep writing!
