And so the first week ends.

We had our last class with Paul Park yesterday. Odd how it feels as if it's been far more than just 5 days in a classroom. He read to us one last time, a story by Salinger. He has a wonderful reading voice, and he really enjoys reading aloud. In class he would often start class by reading a story or three to us, I think in an attempt to expose us to different forms of the short story. And very few were actually sf/f. He read to us from P.G. Wodehouse, Italo Calvino, Grace Paley, Kate Chopin and even Kafka.

And I definitely learned from him. Some stuff I can quantify, and much I can't. And there is much I learned that I can not yet apply, but at least I feel now that I have conscious awareness of it. One thing was that worldbuilding is the framework for your story. Doesn't matter whether your "world" is a bedroom in New York, or a baseball field in Chicago, or the kingdom of Antioch, it has to be conveyed in a way that the reader can understand it, feel it, and then get into the story. I also realized that using language to evoke imagery is not simply describing what things look like. It's using words to convey impressions and emotions, how things are and how other things react to that. Difficult to quantify that one, and another thing that I'm not sure I have a grasp of how to do. But the other I learned (that I can convey is words) is the "third alternative." Basically, it's how a story turns out. In many stories you come to the end and there're two things that can happen, e.g. he gets the girl, or he doesn't get the girl. What I got out of this week was the existence and use of the third alternative. Do something else, something unexpected. Again, I'm not sure I know how to do that yet, but it's a lot easier to work toward a goal when you know what the goal is.

So yes, I really enjoyed having him as an instructor. We had the send-off party last night, at a house in north Seattle. That was very fun, and I got to meet several writers from the Seattle area, including Vonda McIntyre (who told me that she reads this journal too! [wave]). But I wish I'd stayed later. My ride wanted to leave a bit after 11, and it had looked to me that things were winding down. But later I found out that I'd somehow managed to miss meeting Lucius Shepard. So, Tamela and I decided that at future parties we'll just share a cab home if we want to stay later.

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Let's see, I could digress a moment here and go off on a rant about my stupid place of employment and how they fucked up my paycheck even though I'd checked with them seventeen times before I left and how when I called to ask why they had paid me the wrong pay rate I was told that I had not turned my uniforms in even though I most certainly did turn every speck of uniformage in but I of course should have known that they would find every way possible to screw things up because after all it is the Copa and they do so have their collective heads up their collective asses.

But I won't.

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I keep getting mail! I love it! Hi to Jenn and Robert! Thanks, Lisa and Cathy for the cards! Thanks, mom and yes it has magnets in its widdle paws.