In Which Many Things Happen All at Once
So, signing the new book contract with Kitsune, and signed on a final offer for a townhome near Glenn’s work within the same 24 hours. The place needs a little work, but is mostly in good shape. Hope the inspection and appraisal both go okay! Today I talk to my money person to see what stuff we need to get together and by when. It’s been a bizarre process shopping for a house during this so-called buyer’s market – because of the low prices, there’s been very little inventory, and so, very few houses to look at over the past four months that were even close to being okay to live in without needing, say, 75K worth of work. Two interesting web sites for those of you interested in Seattle real estate: the Seattle Bubble blog and The Mortgage Porter, both of which I’ve been reading religiously for about four months along with scouring real estate listing site Redfin. I’m glad I can finally stop reading them all ! This is the last time I want to move for a while.
Now, my National Advanced Poetry Class is starting up in a week or two, plus I’m putting together a proposal this month for a very exciting possible project that I can’t talk about yet but I will ask you guys to cross your fingers for me on…And writing a bunch of reviews. With the writing life, it’s so much about a life of months of waiting, followed by two weeks of hectic opportunities that must be accomplished all at once…
Amid all the excitement, I want to say I’m excited about the upcoming April 4 reading at Hugo House for the persona poetry anthology A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry
; I’ll be reading my own poem included in the anthology, “When Red Becomes the Wolf,” and also Charles Jensen’s “After Oz.” The other readers are all fantastic and I expect it to be a really fun happening.
Well, I guess it’s official, so I can finally tell you:
I’m going to be teaching a poetry seminar for National University’s no-residency, all-online MFA program starting in a week! I’m really excited and have been trying to teach myself the software and update my class content for the last two weeks. Incidentally, my mother, who is a PhD in Education with a specialty in educational technology, told me about National University’s cutting-edge program and educational software, and how they’re the ones being held up as an example of how online universities should work. They’re very strict about grading and their MFA program is criticism-heavy, although it only lasts a year and a half.
(A little bit of a stress factor: I thought the start date was October 6th, but it turns out it’s September 29th, the day we move in to the new apartment – eek!)
So wish me luck! I’m very excited about this foray into teaching, but nervous.
Also, Seattle-ites, tune in to KUOW today – I believe the show I’ll be on is called “Sound Focus” at 2 PM. I’ll be listening, as I missed the live show last time because I was out of town.
UPDATE: Here’s the link to the show!
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=15860
