Today was the final day with Pat, and I had my conference with her this afternoon. We talked about novel-writing, the many varieties of writer's block, and one of my submission stories, "Wake Up Call" (which is available on my website in excerpted form. Pat set a good tone for the rest of the workshop, establishing very early on a need to respect each other's work, even if it's not something we normally would read. And also how the critique should be about the story, not the one who tells it, and that we should try to find at least one good thing about every story, even if we hate it.

It feels strange not having to read stories for tomorrow, since tomorrow is Saturday. As I understand it, our weekends are pretty much free to do with as we please. I think most of us are going to be sleeping for much of it.

I need to start on a new story soon, or I'm going to feel like I'm wasting my time away. I'm not sure if it'll be the next story I write, but I'd like to do a retelling of the Welsh folk tale of Beddgelert, and combine it with a tale about Shauna, the half German Shepherd / half Great Dane that was my family dog when I was growing up.

I'm not sure what we're all doing tonight. Maybe Mafia, maybe going to see "Scooby Doo."

Note to self: when cafeteria lady says that the barbecue wings are not spicy, completely disregard her. This will save many occurrences of gastrointestinal distress.