I've abandoned this place for almost a year now, and have decided it's time to have another crack at blogging. Having finished up the first year of the PhD program here in RI, turned in the book copy, and let go of other commitments -- oh, fall is stretching out ahead with freedom all over it! No classes! Just READING! Sure, there's a test at the end of all that reading (errr, two tests), but that's just fine. I also get to teach LIT -- glorious LIT! -- and am excited about my plan for the semester -- a lot of art, film, and short stories by writers who are going to be visiting my classes -- oh, la la, good times abound. My sister Becky http://iusemarkers.com/ deserves lots of credit for her film and art suggestions for me this semester. She's a talented artist and illustrator, and always points me towards artists I love.

This summer was full of travels and the chance to quilt, quilt, and quilt some more. Finishing Mike and Ellen's quilt after two years of sewing was pretty exciting.

I may prefer the back to the front, because of the quilting and the loud-orange-splash on one side. But the front is all shot cottons, and so soft. I hope they like it -- and use it, use it, use it -- take it on picnics, eat breakfast in bed under it, etc..

I'm now finishing up an all-by-hand quilt, which will be shipped off to its home soon. It's so nice to have my hands on fabric again, playing with color.

One of my many goals for fall is one short assignment (for myself) a week, inspired again by Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, which has fed me for...oh, decades...on and off.

"'E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."

I like it.