My evil plot unfolds. I have Burke addicted to my coffee already. He was actually waiting by my door when I got out of the shower, mug in hand. Paul Park even asked for a cup last night.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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On the other hand, I'm becoming addicted to hummus and gyros. That greek place is right on the way back to the dorm, and it's feeling awfully natural to veer in there after class.

And actually losing weight while here may not be so easy. Yes, there is tons of walking up and down those stupid wrinkles in the earth's crust. My calves are now hunks of granite strapped to the backs of my legs. Someday they'll stop hurting. At least I cling to that hope. But Chiara made cookies yesterday, huge heaping mounds of them, and of course, so as not to be rude and anti-social I simply had to eat great handfuls of them.

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Well, yesterday was the first real critique session, and yes, my story was one of the ones critiqued. It started out very slow, with all of us trying to feel out how much to say, and how nice to be and how mean to be. By the third story though we got more into the flow and picked up the pace, and actually started saying what was wrong with the stories. Mine was the third or fourth one done, so everyone was pretty comfortable with the process by that time. I was pretty pleased with how it went. Of course I got to hug the toad during my critique, which helps. The toad is a stuffed frog called "Versimilitoad" that one has the option of holding during one's critique. But anyway, I got a lot out of my critique. Most everyone pointed out the same flaws, some that I knew of, some that I hadn't. A couple of people made suggestions for changes that I intend to studiously ignore, but I figure even the suggestions were useful. I was able to mull over them, think on the ramifications of making such a change and then say, "Not no but hell no... that would make it a totally different story." And, I think in this case the original story is not so bad that it needs that sort of overhaul. I am however going to end up tearing the entire first half of that story apart. Not til after Clarion though.

I had my conference yesterday with Paul Park and that was one of the things he mentioned. We're all doing first drafts here, but with any luck we'll be able to leave here with a good half-dozen first drafts that are very workable and have the weak spots pinpointed. We also talked about my submission story a bit, and it was cool to hear him say he thought I'd done a good job with the emotional arc of it--especially after he'd sorta used that story as an example of a story that was lacking in basic world-building. We talked a bit about that whole thing, world-building, and I came away with some good feelings for how to create a strong framework for a story. Then he asked me what I was working on now, and for the next 15 minutes he helped me brainstorm the piece. That was very cool, and it reminded me of how a therapist works; not telling, but asking leading questions, and making me figure things out on my own.

But this story is going to end up long I think. I want to finish it today, but I only have 2000 words done on it, and I really think it needs about triple that. I think there's going to be another 6 stories to read today, so that will cut into writing time. I'm hoping the stories start spreading out some. 6 is a lot. 4 or 5 would be a bit easier.

Oh well. Who needs sleep?