Whew. Thesis written, formatted, bibliographied.
I am going to go over to the print shop in a few moments to print up the requisite copies of my thesis and arrange the prepaid postal shenanigans necessary to get the both copies of the thesis to both of the two thesis readers, one in San Diego and one in Maine, to physically receive and (I hope) sign off on the thesii to fulfill graduation requirements for my MFA from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program. I didn't expect it to take this long to go from finishing the writing of the thing to the completed artifact. It was shocking to me how much effort was required over days and weeks to try and format the bloody thing, even with a template. I had to track down all the absurd blips and drabbles of information required for a bibliography of all the things I read in graduate school, and many of the things I read did not come to me with bibliographic information attached. I get so used to having a publisher fill in all those silly gaps and layout concerns for me. And, I have a new appreciation for them. (Once again, self-publishing seems like a terrible idea because I'd have to do all the layout myself! No thanks!)
After this, I have some clerical stuff to attend to, like filling out the form that officially requests graduation from the dean of zombies, or someone... I don't know. I have lots of forms. Some of the wedding forms are all mixed up in there, too. It's a pile of paperwork. Lots of paperwork.
Basically, what's left is flying to Maine to give a power-point presentation about mosaic texts, which will be more fun than anything, because power point is just the sort of silly thing I like, and blathering endlessly about stuff is something that you sort of have to convince me NOT to do.
So, I'm, like, about done. I'm so close to an MFA I almost have to do something crazy and illegal to fail at this point. Never say never, but one needs time to plan shenanigans, and I don't really have any!
To celebrate, I drank half a bottle of red wine, left a voicemail whilst slightly tipsy on my fiance's voicemail, and then I cooked up some celebratory artichokes in red wine and garlic, to be turned into a pasta sauce as soon as they cool enough to handle.
So, the job hunt will take up much of my attention, next. I'm more interested in teaching and freelance work than I am in moving boxes of widgets from a store to your automobile, but I do what I must to be the artiste I apparently can't help but being. I mean, why aren't I cranking out adventure fantasy with bright-eyed young heroes coming of age over ten long tomes of epic epicness? If I did that, I'd be bathing in cash. Seriously, and not to name names, but I've been to the bookshop and perused the shelves and found some positively odious things being sold there that are perfectly fine for other people to read but definitely not for me in the slightest. I simply must be an artiste with a distinctive aesthetic. I just cannot bring myself to rewrite Tolkein or Moorcock. (I would rather rewrite Vonnegut, anyway, if I was in the rewriting game. So it goes.)
Hm. Job hunting. Snipe hunting. Same thing, in this economy, I reckon.
If anyone around these parts is affiliated with a college or university in need of an author of literary fantasy to come be part of your teaching team in some capacity, let me know. For honorariums I could do a flyby lecture. For a monthly fee, I could even teach a whole class of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young writers all the way through a semester!
If one is interested in hiring a freelancer for something, for instance video game writing or editing manuscripts, do drop me a line. I know my way around in either capacity.
Other things I could do, too, but I think those are the big three: teaching, video game writing, and manuscript editing of the developmental variety.
I'm actually doing okay just writing books, so I have the luxury of being picky for at least a few months, still.
In the mean time, I've got these books to promote, and these books to write, and a deadline coming soon on the sequel that, (much of which, I just turned in as a thesis)! And, I've got a pile of books to read piling up since from when I was going to school full time and working full time and I had little time to spare to dig into the pile.
Also, I'm looking for a programmer of websites with some savvy. I've run into a wall in my dreamweaver capabilities on this side project (not my personal website, something game-related) and I need someone who can aid me with the technical side of a cool creative endeavor. So, if you know anybody, drop me a line.
And, I wonder if blogging will pick up around here, since I'm pretty much done with all the urgent, pressing things... Maybe. Who knows? Could there be a book review imminent of Phosphor in Dreamland by Rikki Ducornet? Could I be about to go on endlessly about the awesomeness of Spoon River Anthology and Winesburg, Ohio viewed side-by-side? Could I be about to make some lovely mead with my lovely soon-to-be-wife? Perhaps, my friends, perhaps.
Regardless, I know there will be some mention of one Jesse Bullington who sent me an interesting package the other day, whose books have been languishing far too long in my blob-like TBR pile... I should get to these sooner rather than later, I think.
Congrats on finishing the thesis! I honestly couldn't imagine. Maybe the best part about being an art student was that your thesis is something physical and tangible. I wrote about art and hated it, you always sound like a douche (or at least I always did, hm, sad).
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