I'm coming to the end of another course through Athabasca University, a literature course, and I just finished reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. It seems like a perfect example of how some people love a book and others want to toss it into a rubbish heap for werewolves and vampires and wee folk to dismantle. I'm in the former group, although the latter would make an interesting addition to the urban fantasy wave.

Hemingway's writing is spare, it's true, but the more I read, the more I felt I was partying alongside Jake in Paris, enjoying the simple, yet profound rituals of fishing with Bill, and marveling at Romero's passion. Something about this story sucked me in and made me feel. Reading about these expatriates who aren't terribly moral but awfully entertaining inspired me, both as a writer and as a person. I'm not saying I want to emulate them, far from it, but there was just something about it, about them ... and it reminds me of when agents and editors say that something beyond good writing, good plot, good characterisation makes them take a novel on, but they can't name it, they just know it when they see it.

If I were an agent, and Hemingway had queried me for The Sun Also Rises, I would have snapped it up and fought for it, hard.

What about you? What classics would you fight for?

Gosh golly gee, where have I been?

Crawling out from under the stack of papers and books and paper clips that made up my course, that's where!

Well, consider me sufficiently emerged, for I have finished the essays (82 and 87 percent respectively), written the exam, and I am done done done.

w00t!

I've taken to calling myself a Lady of Leisure, because I'm taking the month of May to butter myself up: read, write, cook, bake, watch movies ... and let me tell you, it is a delightful state to be in.

First things first: drop by on May 5 for an interview with Sarah Dessen, author of fabulous YA books like This Lullaby and The Truth About Forever.

Speaking of books, ( what have I been reading lately? )

(And did I mention that I made muffins? Cranberry orange muffins?)

Oh, you guys, I've MISSED you!

I'm sitting here tonight, making flashcards to study for my exam, and the one I just finished was labelled "defeat of the Spanish armada". Smiling a little to myself, I thought, Go England, and then I realised something as I looked back at one of the points on my card:

"less than half of the Spanish ships made it home"

It didn't strike me until I reread it, but that's not just a victory for the English or a setback for the Spanish: it was a tragedy. It wasn't just ships that didn't make it back but the people on them. Lives lost, families hearing that their loved ones perished ...

This is why, I think, I appreciate history so much: discovering the humanity hidden amongst dates and places and massive events.

It makes me feel very small, and yet ...

There I was, getting ready to send my first essay off to my tutor, when I realized the pages were loose. Did I staple them together? Scrounge for a paperclip? Tape them?

I looked at my jar of neon paperclips. Canary yellow? Lime? Violet?



A myriad of tiny voices emerged from the jar:

"Take your time."

"Don't rush it."

"Maybe you should see us all at once?"

What's a girl to do?

( Have a fashion show, of course. )

Keeping the Thirty Years' War, the Habsburg-Valois wars, and the War of the Three Henrys straight is annoying. One might find herself mixing up which came first, the chicken or the egg. One might wonder why they couldn't all just get along. One might think, Gee, I love reading about the strategy of the wars, but did they all have to happen so darn close together?



Seriously, guys. Take a chill pill.

Thought of the day: Rooney rocks. It helps that the geeky guy from Princess Diaries is the lead singer.

Ciao.

p.s. Dialogue that just occurred ...

Mum: Do you want your morning coffee now?
Tori: *perk*
Mum: Okay. *goes into the kitchen* So you don't mind getting it?
Tori: *pulls earbuds from ear* Pardon me?
Mum: *giggles* Nothing.

The votes are in, and I didn't get the position of the YABC 2008 Demi-Goddess. I wallowed for a few minutes, baked some snappin' fine scones, and then ... well, you know how when you get a rejection on a query, you send another one right back out? In the past couple of days, not only have I posted one of my book reviews on Amazon, but I invited (successfully) another guest to my blog. My lips are sealed. For now.

I had a lot of fun interviewing Kate Messner, and next month I get to welcome not one, but two wonderful authors to my blog: Christine Norris will be back for an encore interview, and Carrie Jones will drop by at the end of February. Exact dates to follow.

Last night, I wrote down a task list of what remains to be done of my course, HIST 215, and made a week-by-week schedule from now to the end of February. Today, I got some weighty tomes out of the library for my next essay, on Elizabeth I (still finishing up the one on Utopia), and ordered even more from my university's library. I couldn't help but peek at the beginning of David Starkey's biography, and I'm already enthralled. This essay is going to be so much fun: Tudor England is my baby.

It's a gloomy day here, perfect for watching lectures and finishing a draft of an essay. What about your day?

I just finished watching a "lecture" by the name of Condottieri Exposé. Lecture is in quotes because it was actually a student-made film, set during the Renaissance. The condottieri were mercenaries employed by Italians to protect the people who wanted to get on with money making and ruling (that is an extremely simplified explanation, so no history buffs get annoyed with me!). People couldn't agree on whether the condottieri were effective or not. Sometimes the condottieri captains got caught in a Catch-22: they did their job so well that they were seen as a threat, and so were persecuted for doing their job. Yikes.

So, basically, it was the coolest lecture I've had by far.

And it doesn't hurt that the main actor kinda looked like Orlando Bloom. I think I found his headshot ... clickie!

Worst part of HIST 215: Europe, Medieval to Modern -- learning about agriculture through the ages

Best part of HIST 215: Europe, Medieval to Modern -- everything else:

- the harsh conditions that Beowulf was written in
- Christianity and all its controversy
- the power most people don't know medieval women had
- how church cemeteries were used for some ... ahem ... scandalous activities
- the development of the windmill

And that's just the past chapter or two. Who knows what lies ahead!

Okay. Can I just say right now that I LOVE UNIVERSITY!

Where else does a married couple from the Middle Ages burst in, mid-lecture?

(No joke. I nearly fell off the couch when it happened on the video.)

My lecturer is clear and personable, and so I have time to write down what I need to and somehow I knew when it was time to put the pen down and just listen.

First day of class: Success.

Item #2: I have been having so much fun making icons for the characters of my newest WIP.

I had some work to do this morning but now it's time to get to my first day of school. Since my classroom is my apartment, it is impossible to get lost. My lecture is on video so, if I miss something, I can rewind. Of course, as soon as I start to look around, I see all sorts of little things that need doing. Dead kleenex here, dirty dishes there, misplaced music CDs everywhere ... Okay. Deep breaths. I can do this.

Oh, look! A sock.

Quotes, drawings, and inspirational photos gather on my inspiration board. The idea is that eventually it will be fabric overtop of cork board, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Right now my inspiration board for Good Night, Odile is fabric on the wall:



Above the navy "board" is my spreadsheet with agent information.

I enjoy gathering quotes about writing in general and that pertain to my WIP, as well as photos to do with various hobbies or traits from the story. For example, ballet is important to Gina, so I found some awesome photos of ballerinas (Gillian Murphy and Polina Semionova, to name a couple pictured here):



What I find just as much fun, if not more, is "casting" my book (based on looks and demeanour, not acting ability):



You may recognize a face or two. :)

Thank you, by the way, for all your encouraging comments to my last post! I figured it was a temporary thing but felt like post-venting ... and I'm feeling so much better now. So much so, in fact, that I finally collaged the front of my HIST 215 binder:

( My binder )

Who would play your main characters if your book were made into a movie?

Four days until I begin university.

Technically.

Labour Day isn't until the 3rd. I plan to begin my studies on that day. It's all marked out in my agenda and everything. However, my local library has The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd, which I plan to begin reading over the weekend in preparation for my first essay:

Explain how Thomas More thought he could reconcile the principles of government, social justice, and law outlined in 'Utopia' with his career as "the King's good servant." Did he eventually change his mind?

I'm looking forward to this course so much. Mum is delighted. My BFF envies me. My Aussie penpal smooths my awry feathers, reassuring me that I'll like uni.

Why, then, am I SO FREAKED OUT?

It doesn't help that I think I'm sick. Bleh.

I have access to Athabasca's online library now. Oh, the information that is at my fingertips ...

*reads article called 'The Nobility in the European Middle Ages'*

I have been obsessively checking MyAU (a student portion of the Athabasca University website) for any sign that my course materials had shipped. Earlier this morning, it still said, "Pending." I figured it would be that way for a few days yet.

We just came home from meeting our old French teacher, who has since moved back to Belgium, and had a lovely time catching up and enjoying each other's company. I forgot to check MyAU. We put the laundry in. I forgot again. We put the laundry in the dryer. I did not forget to check.

It says, "Shipped."

MY MATERIALS ARE COMING! They're on their way!! As Tigger would say (or Tiggewr, as I accidentally typed in Google -- no, Google, I did NOT mean tyogawear) WOOHOOOOOOO!

So, I haven't graduated yet. (Sorry, laurenem6!) A couple of more weeks still.

But.

(Don't you love the dramatic tension?)

That didn't stop me from fulfilling a desire.

Checking off a goal.

A goal that is totally freaky and yet totally exciting.

I am ...

...

... an undergraduate student at Athabasca University. I take my first course (distance-ed) starting in September. The course is called "Europe: Medieval to Modern".

This is going to be fun, because I LOVE EUROPEAN HISTORY!

So, what's up?