Reading dissertation + dissertation defense, then a bit of yard work (hard work but satisfying in gorgeous weather — wearing a t-shirt and shorts today!), then a brief exercise walk with Roshani, then came back and chilled while watching Moxie (cute movie, really aimed at teens, I think, Me-too for high school, but I enjoyed the small adult parts by Amy Poehler and other familiar faces), then settled down to do my NEA fellowship application in prose.
Which is turns out involves an annoying amount of technical difficulty, and I’m not quite sure how they expect most writers to be able to handle it, honestly — I can think of quite a few writers I know who would throw up their hands in despair at some of the elements that stymied me. (Most of which turned out not to be relevant to the individual application, but that was really not evident at first glance.)
All of the troubleshooting tech stuff probably ate an hour, and then it was mostly just angsting over which writing sample to give them. Minimum 20 pages, maximum 25, and I waffled for some time (with Jed’s input) on whether to give them the nonfiction memoir stuff (which is all still somewhat disorganized), one of the SF novels-in-progress, or two SF short stories.
I went with the latter option — I sent them “Webs” and “Plea,” and I honestly have no idea how the NEA will respond to this kind of science fiction, but I do honestly think this is some of my best current work, which is what they ask for, so there you are.
Mostly, I’m just glad I actually got the application in, and didn’t quail in the face of technical challenges or imposter syndrome. And I even got it in a whole day early. Yay, me.