Countdown

On Thursday, June 21st, I will fly across the country to begin my first semester of grad school.

Many years ago, in the throes of a bout of writing, I told a friend that I was going to become a writer (as in a writer by vocation, not by avocation). His response?

"There's a five percent chance you'll become a writer."

I tried to ignore his words, but I admit that they stuck in my head. And while I kept writing, doubts sprang up like weeds in my subconscious. I started to think that I really wasn't much good at it. I didn't try to get published any more.

Then I got married and all bets were off. If, as Mary Ellen Lebert told me when I went to summer school in Monterey, "a relationship is 13 credits," marriage is full-time, full out, law school.

Still, once you've been doing it for a few years, you become a pro at it and can focus at least some of your attention on something else. So about a year ago, I decided to get more serious about my writing. Exactly how does one get serious about writing?

Well, you do it more, for one thing. That's how it started. I went back to writing regularly. I started a story blog. I joined a writing group. And I started thinking about what it would be like if writing were my job. What if I woke up every morning, made coffee, and sat down at my computer to type out the day's pages? What if I wrote a book and got it published? And what if I did that over and over again?

Then I decided to go back to school to get an MFA. I spent months working on the applications and got accepted to two out of the three places I applied.

So now, this has all culminated in my going away to school in less than a week. I'm excited and a little, um, TERRIFIED. But I do think I will love it once I get there.

So this blog really is just a way to keep my peeps posted on what is going on with my school work, my trip, my book.

I'll try to put up some pictures, too.

In the end, one of the things I will accomplish is to be able to say (albeit out of his hearing), "In your face, Steve. Five percent chance my ass."