Lots of goings-on this month. Random, and yet not.
I’ve moved nineteen times in my adult life. It’s one of the curses of being born with insatiable wanderlust, I suppose. Nineteen changes of address in eleven different cities, five counties, two states. Packing, cleaning, movers who don’t show up, mountains of boxes to stumble over. And books–may I point out–are goddamn heavy! So we just done it again. Twenty times now, and no longer counting. Packed up the cat and moved to Des Moines, half an hour south of Seattle. And in Washington, the “s” in Des Moines is sounded. Just the second one though, not the first. Des Moinez, with an emphasis on the z. I have no idea why.
My proposal for a fiction writing practicum has been approved by Tacoma Community College’s continuing education program. (Much closer to Des Moines than our old place in Lake Forest Park. That’s a win for the commute!) We will be offering the class in the spring quarter and again this fall, potentially at the Gig Harbor campus, too. I will be teaching as well as writing the curriculum based on the “Out of My Head” posts here. Go Titans.
“Cold Ink” sold to Beneath Ceaseless Skies this week, the seventh of my Clockwork Millennials cycle to be published. This one has lived in my head for a long time–like, a really long time. Thirty-plus years maybe. The narrative trappings and plot points varied over the years but the story itself–the core of it–and the girl at its center, always remained the same. I’m glad to finally send her out into the world.
I’ve been listening to the Pippin soundtrack lately. I always wanted to play Pippin. I still feel like him (there’s that pesky wanderlust again) but the reality of the calendar says I’m just seven years shy of his grandmother’s age. No idea how that happened. Plenty of time for reflection later, though. I just moved and have to unpack all these goddamn heavy books.
Dean Wells 