You know those days when you tell yourself you are going to do something, and it somehow gets pushed to the next day and then the next? That’s what this blog post has been for me and now the month of May has slipped right through my virtual fingers! And I thought May was going to be the month that I began to update the blog every day—ha!

It’s hard to believe that I have now completed one whole year of my MFA program at VCFA! The last week in Vermont was full of procrastinating from packing, procrastinating from packing, not packing, not-totally-sober tag on the Green, reading, watching The Lobster, a day trip to Bellow’s Falls (which is one of the few Vermontian locations in Atlas Obscura), and actually packing.

Now, I am back in Ann Arbor for a few months to see the beau, the ‘rents, and to work on my thesis novel/building my literary interview portfolio/continuing to manage Hunger Mountain! I also plan to start tap dancing again (because in another life, I want to be Sarah Reich and Michelle Dorrance someday). I’ve been taking lessons for the past 4 years, but you can really only progress so far with one hour of class per week.

Am still in the infancy of the novel — which means I’m still at that point where I have to steel myself with both ears constantly open, listening for my characters to share their secrets with me all day and all night. I’m reading everything I can get my hands on that shares a theme or interest to the novel, which is basically everything I am interested in at this exact moment. As Annie Dillard said in The Writing Life, don’t wait until the next book to write your obsession and interests; pull a Melville and write them now. Annie, I am taking that to heart, thank you very much.

I’m not usually an outlining type, but mapping out a general shape of this novel’s route has been very helpful for me so far.

There will be plenty more to write about, especially since I will attempt to get better at posting more frequently! I saw the documentary RGB today, which made me feel an enormous wave of appreciation for everything Ruth Bader Ginsburg has done for the betterment of women, and made me eager to do something to change the world NOW. Kombucha really does rock. As does Wilco, which I recently was introduced to — I know, I’m always late to the party.

So much to do, but it’s summertime, which is a weight off the shoulder in itself.