Norman Mailer Writers Colony

Last month after I learned I wasn’t accepted for the Sewanee Writer’s Conference (see blog post, “Disappointed, Not Discouraged – March 14, 2010”) I looked for alternative conferences to attend.

Reading through Poets & Writers magazine I saw an ad for the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. I checked out their website and it really seemed too good to be true:

• great location in Provincetown, Massachusetts (Cape Cod area)

• small group setting – only seven attendees per workshop;

• great rooms - everyone stays at Mailer’s Provincetown estate

• no tuition or board if you’re accepted;

The last part was hard to believe. Most of the conferences cost over two grand. It cost $20 to apply, so I figured it was like buying a lottery ticket for a chance to win a really cool summer vacation.

I filled out the application, sent them my writing sample, and forgot about it. Yesterday I got an email telling me I had been awarded a scholarship to attend the weeklong seminar I had applied for, Fiction: The Protagonists, which will be hosted by Marita Golden who has written the memoir “Affairs of the Heart” and whose novel “AFTER” received the Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

I will be attending from August 8 to August 15. It should be fun.

Riding a Greyhound Bus into the New World

I noticed a couple of days ago that the link to my short story, "Riding a Greyhound Bus into the New World" did not contain the entire story. I also realized that some of the links are not to the story, but to the publisher's website. Over the next few weeks, to break up the excitement of my training logs, I am going to post those stories here on the blog. 

I decided as an experiment to try and video me reading a story, using my never-before-used webcam.  After attempting this for over an hour, I have a much much greater appreciation for those folks who read stuff in front of camera. Very difficult. You can't go back and correct mistakes like we can do in the writing world. I gave up after six takes.

I made the font on the story really large so I could read it without my glasses, and I tried to look into the camera but I kept losing my place. Also I don't think my nose is as big or my eyebrows as browy as they appear in this video. I blame the camera. And I don't like how that arrow is pasted over my mouth:

Training Update

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It has been two weeks since the Lake Havasu Race.  My next race is the Wisconsin Half-Marathon on May 1. This is a run, not a triathlon and it will be the first time I've attempted that distance. The last two Sundays I've run 10 miles at a pace around nine minutes per mile. I'm hoping  I can run closer to an 8 minute pace for the race. 

Weather is turning warm in Chicago so it should be easier to complete the planned activities like bike rides. Last two Saturdays, I've cut my ride short - two weeks ago because it was 40 degrees out and my hands started to ache, and yesterday an hour into the ride it started to rain and the temperature had dropped from 70 to 50. I guess Phoenix has spoiled me.

Week Ending:           3/21/2010          3/28/2010         4/4/2010


Weight                       185.5                 188.0                186.6

HOURS
Swim                             1.0                    1.0                   3.2
Bike                               2.0                    2.5                   2.4
Run                                1.0                    3.3                    4.0
Strength                          1.0                   1.0                    1.0
Basketball                                               2.0                                   
Massage
Race                              3.0

Total Hours                     7.0                  9.8                    10.6