One thing that has been clear in all this is that some of my staff is burning out. We're going to be looking for a fiction intern for Clean Sheets, who will probably do a lot of grunt work at first, but eventually would be doing interesting stuff, and might be promoted into fiction editor if they're interested. If you're interested, a more formal call will be posted to the CS newsletter list when we figure out the details. A similar post may open up in poetry.
The rest of yesterday was actually really lovely. The weather has turned so beautiful -- clear and sunny and 70 degrees. As I walked to work yesterday morning, I developed what I think will be the next two(!) stories in the Sri Lankan cycle. I had thought they would be just one, but I realized that I really need two stories, 'cause there are two serious events that need to be explored. The first one is almost entirely plotted; it draws on events from the troubles in '83 (that's what they're called -- 'troubles'. Never mind that thousands of civilians died....) and I need to call Roshani and get some more details out of her; she lived through it. The second is much vaguer right now...
Last classes went well, and now we start final grading. I need to be done by Thursday, since I'll be in the Bay Area from 5/4 - 5/14. I don't think it'll take that much time, though...I'm not really planning any crash days of grading right now, though next Wednesday might turn out to be one. :-) I'm going to miss some of my students -- I had some really great ones this semester. Hopefully they'll show up in some of my later classes. I'm teaching only two classes this summer, of business/tech writing. It's going to be very odd being done for the day at 9:30 a.m.
And yesterday evening, we had a really wonderful dinner party. Alex couldn't come (work stuff), so I invited over Pam and Samantha (to join Marcia, Kevin, Paul and me). Everyone had a great time, I think -- the food was good, the company was lively, the wine flowed freely but not overly so. :-) Samantha's really funny -- I'll have to invite her to more of these. It was a good crowd; Kevin was a bit quiet for much of it, but he's been deep in math head, and by the end, he was laughing as hard as the rest of us. I now have many many dishes to do (they offered to help, but I hate having guests deal with that, and I don't have to go anywhere today), but it was well worth it.
Today I catch up on various and sundry tasks, but before I go, I want to point you to a really interesting article on the homoerotics of Picard and Q, but quite long and academic; I must admit that I only read as far as paragraph 8 (out of 35). Still glad I read that far, though, so I recommend it unto you. It'll also give those of you who aren't familiar with academia an idea of the sort of thing I'll be writing in grad school.
Have a good day, my dears. I hope the weather's as beautiful there as it is here...