So I'm not sure I made this clear in my facebook post, but I love, love, LOVE everything you sent me from Europe. It totally made the longing I feel to go back there even stronger. I definitely printed and framed the picture of the graffiti that says 'to always finding our way back.' That hit me so hard the day I saw it, that I almost cried. It means a lot of things to me, some of which there aren't words for, but most importantly it is a reminder to keep working at my goals and make it back to Europe. Soon.
I can't wait until we find a new apartment so I can frame and hang the art that you sent- and the postcards, at least until we have that bookstore and can put them up there. Here's the mask- back in one piece, although I haven't found time to grab paint. it's okay. I love it just the way it is, too.
I hope your thesis is almost done, since it's currently almost 4am on June 8th. Your time, anyway. It's not even 10pm on June 7th here. That never fails to amaze me. You're in a different day. At least, as far as our totally meaningless construct of time is concerned.
I'm having a terrible time with CampNaNo this time around. Hopefully August will be better. I have 517 words, and I believe I've reached the point of never catching up. I might set a new goal of 10,000 for myself, but the real goal is finding a new job. We're seriously considering Baltimore. There's a great Irish music scene there for Ben, along with his teacher Billy, and there's the University of Baltimore that I've been looking at. That's the place with the combination Creative Writing and Publishing Masters program. So it takes you from creating the book all the way up through publication. That would be handy. I'm also still thinking about PhDs and UMass and Cornell and lots of other things. I've got some time, as I don't need to apply until this fall for the next one, but I'm thinking at least.
I did get some good feedback about Letters last weekend. Overwhelmingly positive, which made me feel good about myself. Their idea was the make the "letters" and the scenes with dialogue separate, using italics or something, because they said they had a hard time reading it the way it is. They were in the mindset of letters, but then there was all this present tense stuff happening...it makes sense. I'll have to look into that.
They also said the things that allowed them to be okay with Ariah and Tristan's relationship was that a) there was no sex and b) Zach finds out at one point that SHE started it.
They also didn't have as much of a problem with Ariah's flatness of character as you and I did. They thought that if she was any less mature and kind of above the whole high school thing that her relationship with Tristan would be a lot less acceptable. I'd still like to develop her more though, because she bugs me a little. But I definitely don't want to make excuses for her relationship. So it's going to be hard.
There was also talk of getting a high school class to read it, to gauge their reactions. The book club ladies are all teachers, so I was really interested in their response, but the more I think about it, the more I'd be curious was juniors and seniors in high school thought of it too. I might email Ainsworth, my 12th grade english teacher, and be like "hey, want to help me out?" It's totally not what he teaches, but maybe he could get the AP class to read it, or the creative writing club. Actually, that last idea might be the best. There's all ages of high schoolers in the creative writing club.
Also, I might need to change Ariah's name. My friend Josh read it, and pointed out that there's apparently a show called Pretty Little Liars that has a girl named Aria having an affair with a teacher. I mean seriously, what are the freaking odds? And it's not one of the four shows I watch, so I had no idea.
Finally, just to have another picture (omg Spain is beautiful! I want to go to Candyland! And the beach...dying for sand and saltwater. So pretty. Oh, and the Holy Grail! LOL! "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!")
Anyway. Here's a picture of the baby sweater I'm working on. (For Mike, my boss, and Lauren, his wife. Not for me. Don't panic :) )
-Lizz
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