I've been here six months. Or maybe it's been ten years. I know it can't be just two and a half weeks. I don't believe the people who say that it's been such a short time. None of us do. We also scoff at the rumors of a Real World beyond the existence we have carved for ourselves here. How could anything real exist beyond Our Gestalt Mind? It's a vicious rumor, and must be eliminated.

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Chiara made Snickerdoodles yesterday. I ate many.

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I realized yesterday that, somewhat unintentionally, I've been doing something different with each of my stories. My first story was fantasy, second was cyberpunk, third was plain SF, fourth was comedy, the one I'm doing now is sort of magic realism, and the one I'm planning to do next is metaphysical. I hadn't even planned it that way, but it's working out pretty well.

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I had my conference with Connie yesterday. My opinion of her as a writer and as a teacher keeps climbing. She talked a lot about how to structure your life as a writer, and then she helped me work on figuring out ways to fix a story that I'd finished earlier. She also had some very encouraging things to say about the comedy piece I'd done earlier, and my writing in general. All in all I came out of it feeling much better about my writing and my hopes for a career as a writer. She's very logical and analytical, and she's able to articulate exactly what she means when she talks about Plot and Story and Structure. Of course it may take me years to absorb all of this.