Really A Writer...

Wow, it's kind of crazy how things tend to cluster themselves sometimes into little packets of excitement. Or big packets, as the case may be... I returned yesterday afternoon from the writing residency in Oregon, which was absolutely glorious. Wonderful weather (mostly sunny, with a few days of snow that allowed me to curl up cozily beside my woodstove), gorgeous scenery (which I tried to get the most of through a variety of amazing hikes and runs in the area), inspiring fellow artists (two printmaker/sculptors, a filmmaker, and a writer, all brilliant!), idyllic solitude (in my own cute A-frame cabin by a gently flowing creek), and the time and freedom to research, write, reflect, read, and gather inspiration from a variety of sources. I ended up finishing a draft of my Confessions, and reading the first few sections aloud at an Artists Salon we held at the end of the week for about thirty or so people from town. It was such an amazing experience, and I feel incredibly blessed to have been given the opportunity.

And then I returned home to discover that my one-act play, "Questions, or, An Experiment in Destiny, or, An Exercise in Entropy, or, Whose Dream Is It, Anyway?, or, Stalemate" (known, with greater brevity, as either "Questions, etc." or "Five Titles"), which was written for and produced by the Town Crier Speaks Festival at UPS back in October 2003, has been accepted for presentation at the 15th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference Play Lab in Valdez, Alaska. Which was exciting, although I'm not sure whether I'll withdraw it, since it requires me to make my way up to Alaska to attend the conference...

But then I also learned that, coincidentally, the play had also been selected as one of three winners of American Theatre Coop's 2006 one-act playwrighting contest! And that is truly incredibly exciting, because it means the play will be distributed to a collection of theatres to be considered for production, among other possible excitements. It even has its own webpage that interested theatres can visit to request a script (http://www.americantheatrecoop.com/questions.html)

So, anyway, what with all that, I really do feel like an official, actual writer. Which is quite fun.

Other upcoming excitements: retreat this weekend with the College Age Fellowship from my church up here (lots of wonderful people, and a fun and restful couple of days on Whidbey Island), Senior Theatre Festival all this month (I just saw a performance of Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights, directed by the fabulous MaryAnn Valentine, which is an absolutely incredible show you should definitely go see this weekend if you are in the area), and, in two weeks, a regional LMDA conference, and a potential Apples to Apples game as part of the festivities celebrating the 25th birthday of the illustrious if somewhat elusive J. Moy (I have been so A2A deprived lately that this possibility leaves me almost shaking with excitement).

Basically, life is going incredibly well at the moment. As soon as I have tackled all the e-mail that piled up while I was in Mississippi and Oregon, I am going to start researching Anthropology grad programs, which should be fun and informative. And the novel is still in the works as well--I've been brainstorming deeper developmental background in preparation for tackling the next draft.With renewed energy, now that my status as a writer has received some uplifting external confirmations... :-)