Summer

Along with the usual agonizing search for a job (how come so many other people manage to get summer jobs and I'm never one of them?), I have a long list of more pleasant and interesting things to do this summer.

I find myself at the inevitable point in my life when most of my childhood friends are off having adventures of their own and do not return like homing pigeons to their parents during the summer months. This is the third Saturday I have been home and I have not interacted with anyone other than my family and the strangers I meet at the library and the bank. It's a little odd. I miss my friends, but I am a big girls, so I can handle it. I have no idea who reads this blog anymore. But if you are in town, don't forget to say hi.

Through that magic substitute for real human interactions known as the internet, I am keeping in touch with most of my friends, old and new. One of my summer goals is to finally read Harry Potter. A handful of people from my school are reading with me. I set up a blog for us all to geek out, rip to shreds, and otherwise enjoy each other's company while he get through these cultural icons. It's kind of a fun group. Some of us have never read them before, some grew up with them. I am interested in looking at how Rowling plays with fantasy conventions and traditions. When does she use traditional symbolism to her advantage and when does she turn it on it's head for her own purposes, and when does she simply throw it out. And since I am a writing geek, on top of the fantasy obsession, I like to critique her writing strategies, and mentally edit and rewrite the book in my head. I swear this is not a sign of contempt on my part. I do this with all the books I read lately. In any case, you can read our collective Potter ramblings Here

My other major summer project includes rewriting a short novel that I have been working on since I was twelve. I officially finished it a year or two ago. And when I say I'm rewriting it, I don't mean editing or revising, but literally sitting down at a blank Word document and starting from the beginning. This allows me to fix problems that bugged me but I was too focused on finishing the silly thing to solve. While I'm at it, I've changed the sex of the two main characters. This is REALLY interesting. They were two boys, and they did all the sorts of things that boys in fantasy novels for kids do. They ran around with swords and fought dragons and that kind of thing. But there are a grand total of three girls in this story. So, being the rabid feminist that I am, I decided it would be worth it to rewriting the whole thing with girls. It really changes things... a lot.

I'm rewriting the story for my own enjoyment, but also because come fall I will be doing an independent study in Fiction writing with an English faculty member. I'll be applying to grad schools this year, so I need some writing samples to send out. Twenty to thirty pages of exemplary work. Yikes. So I have also been doing the old college search again. I really enjoy researching schools. I hope to have a short list of three or four schools to send my twenty pages of nonsense to, plus a short essay saying "I write good, le'me in."

With all this writing I have to do, it is perhaps a blessing that I didn't bring home any art supplies. But I have a sketch pad and a pencil so that's enough. I am listening to some books on tape and drawing. Right now I'm in the middle of Children of Hurin. So I'm drawing portraits of the Valar. Because I'm a geek.

That's the update. And now I don't have to feel guilty because I haven't posted since February. Now I'm going to go watch Tangled with my siblings.