January 5, 2009
Tuesday

Posted, with only a little comment and explanation, my fiction writing goals for 2010:

1. By March 1 I will have revised the manuscript I presented in workshop at Bread Loaf 2009 and revised the story I completed in a burst of focus and inspiration in October 2009. Together those manuscripts will constitute my application for a scholarship to Bread Loaf 2010. I will also make a separate general application to Bread Loaf 2010, probably using the same new story. (The scholarship application calls for the presentation of revisions to what one presented at the previous conference. The general application does not.)

2. I will gallivant to Yale the first week in March to attend a reading and lecture by a Bread Loaf friend and to reacquaint myself with my 19th century work. (A local figure I study is a graduate of Yale, and some of his papers are held there.)

3. From March 7 until August 7 I will work on my novel, Perpetual Light, exclusively. In those five months I will add 80,000 words to the 20,000 words I have for a first draft of 100,000 words. I will also, between March 1 and May 25th or so, worry about the decisions on my Bread Loaf applications.

4. On August 8, I will go to Vermont. If I am admitted to Bread Loaf, then I will participate in the conference fully. If I am not admitted, then I will use the time to read and regroup. I will do no new creative work unless called for in a Bread Loaf class.

5. From August 29 until October 23 I will take up Perpetual Light again. I will review what I have, maybe do some second draft work, and then I will put the thing away until March 2011.

6. On October 23 I will go to the Vermont Studio Center for a month-long residency. I will take the 6000 word beginning of a new novel that I wrote in the spring of 2009 and spend four weeks developing the idea.

7. On November 20, I will come back home, survey what I’ve done, say it was good, and start drinking Nissley’s Holiday White again.

Unless . . .

  *************

From the Archives
 January 5, 2005 — Faithful Leaves Unchanging: When I was growing up we always had a real tree, at least until I was sixteen and we lived in a new house with thick carpet and flocked wallpaper that my mother said would get ruined if it got sap on it. We had a big box of ornaments in the basement, balls in all colors and sizes, lights that flashed and bubbled, and a glorious angel for the top. The figure’s gown was a cylinder that fit over the central branch. Her arms were outspread and held a banner that read Gloria in excelsis Deo. I envied the silvery hair that framed her face like a halo and cascaded down her back. But my sister and I were never allowed to touch her. My father said her hair was made of spun glass and would scratch us.

Love it? Hate it? Just want to say hi?
To comment or to be included on the notify list, e-mail me:
margaretdeangelis [at] gmail[dot] com (replace the bracketed parts with @ and a period) OR
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/silkentent