It's been a while since I've been here, I know. I tend to forget I even have a blog sometimes. Kinda felt like time to post something new here now that I'm thinking about this space again. Just a post devoted to various things going on in my life now, the good, the bad, and the creative. Let's start with the creative, which coincidentally is also the good: I've completed my memoir, which was my MFA manuscript. I've sent it to 3 different publishers as I work steadily on multiple other books of poetry. One is about 80% complete now and the other is coming along nicely. It will probably be a while until I hear back from the publishers on whether or not they'll accept it. By that time, the second book will probably be finished.
Another good thing to mention: I graduated with my MFA in Poetry in May of last year! I'm very proud of accomplishing this and how I've become a stronger writer and better person through my time at IAIA. It's incredibly validating to know that I've earned this and worked hard to achieve it. Now, the next phase is getting my work out into the world to share it with more people. Writing is everything to me. That's one of the reasons I keep waking up every day and dealing with the difficulties of my life. If I didn't have my writing, I don't know what I would do. I'll still try to post the occasional poem here, but a number of them I'm saving to try to get them published in various literary journals. If some of them get accepted, I'll let you know here where you can find them. I have one online now that I've just added to my third manuscript because I feel it's a good fit for it. That can be found here: https://tcjstudent.org/saturday-night-mania/
There's a little bad news to report in my life. We can see the wildfire smoke and smell the burning from my house. I'm scared of all that's going on and struggling to deal with that lately. My insomnia is worse lately because of it. Nothing I can really do but stay alert and try to get through this time until things are hopefully safe again. Some days I don't know how to cope with the fear, but I'm trying. I'm just trying to keep writing and sort myself out. I want to make progress and improve upon myself as a person these days. Taking it one step at a time until I get somewhere.
