Glad you asked! Right now, on this fifth of September 2013 at nine hours post-meridiem, I am in my hotel room in Lincoln, Nebraska.
What on earth are you going there? Don’t you live in Milwaukee or some place?
Well, until this morning, I did live in Milwaukee. I'm now in the process of moving to Davis, California, and Lincoln is the first stop on my itinerary. I'll be arriving in Davis on Sunday evening.
Why are you moving? Was it the weather? I bet it was the weather.
It was not the weather. I'm entering the Ph.D. in English Literature program at UC Davis. In the unlikely event that you know me personally and this is the first you're hearing of it...well, surprise!
Grad school, huh? What are your research interests?
Victorian literature (especially ghost stories and works with supernatural elements), Gothic literature, and Queer Theory.
Okay, that sounds cool, I guess. How's the writing going?
Much better than it was going last semester. I'm aiming to have five new stories in submission by the end of this quarter. At one time, that would have been a modest goal, but considering the approximately fifty thousand things that have complicated my life over the last year, it now seems positively ambitious.
Oh, and "Sister Philomela Heard the Voices of Angels" placed third in the short poem category in this year's Rhysling Awards, which was pretty cool. So writing is going well.
How's the editing?
Mirror Dance is going well - we just put out a new issue on Sunday. We also have Facebook Page now because all the cool kids are doing it. Watch for updates about Lacuna in early October. (Read: Lacuna is still in e-zine limbo.)
Hey, what did you do to your website?
Sorry, still playing with the formatting. I'm trying to find a template where the main column is wide enough to hold a full line of text in my bibliography, but not so wide that story excerpts become hard to read. I also realize that I never finished my biography page, so that should happen once I finish moving.
Anything else you should update us on?
I got nothing. But check out the the brilliant theme for an upcoming special issue of Lightspeed magazine!
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Dear Ms. Arkenberg
ReplyDeleteDude, nobody posts here. Where are your legions of rabid fans? Such injustice.
As a NorCal and Central valley native, welcome to the land of moderate weather. You'll laugh when the locals complain of the cold during the winter while wearing a sweater and a single pair of socks.
It really is a beautiful place. Not sure if you've been there before, but Tahoe is one of the most amazing places I've seen. Ditto for Yosemite, when the primal Ifrit isn't setting it ablaze with his 2-hour ability.
Congratulations on your continuing school and placing third in the Rhysling. Hope you brought your past trophy for all Cali to see. Keep them stories coming, please. School is important, blah, blah, but it's imperative you keep the fiction coming. I dig reading stories set in your Sci Fi worlds. Never miss a chance to do so.
Grats again. Enjoy Cali.