The bitch is back-again!
I suppose it's time I updated, since I haven't done so in waaaay too long. God, since January!!! Truth is, I've been so busy, I haven't really given much thought to LJ. So, what've I been up to in the last... er.... 7 months?
I've been working hard at my lecturer's job. I love it so much, and this is from a person who said she would never, ever teach. I'm so happy I was persuaded to change my mind, because it's given me so much confidence in myself, it's given me time to talk about my passion and get paid for it, and it's given me a fab social life. I doubt very much I'd have had any of those without it!
I'm on hiatus now, which is a pain, because I don't get paid thru the summer and haven't been able to find a temp job, but I have a job for September, and I hope that my boss will be able to get me a permanent contract. I've also managed to score some private tutoring work for GCSE and A-Level students which should also start in September. Just lately though, I've been wondering about setting up my own school for writers. My friend and I were talking about it today, because we're working with the local authorities to present a one day workshop in early September, with the view that, if it's successful, to have a residential writing course set up next summer. I love this idea so much and hope it works out. If I won the Lottery, I would be so tempted to buy a villa in Tuscany and run writing holidays. It's just the sort of thing I would've loved before I did my degree, and I reckon it'd be popular. But of course, I'd need money to do that. We'll have to wait and see.
As for my writing,I've been experimenting a lot with different styles and have produced some prose poetry type stuff that I'm really proud of. I'm currently working on a project that I started in 2002, but stopped because it was all too close to home, what with my ex's infidelity and other stuff it dredged up. Now I've moved on though I can deal with it. It's about post-partum psychosis and stillbirth and the effect it has on a marriage. I really wanted to explore the other side of motherhood. Women, I feel, are still expected to be maternal, to be 'perfect' mothers, if you will. But there's a darker side to motherhood that still isn't often acknowledged, and the two themes I've chosen to explore are facets of that darker side. After all, after a stillbirth, the woman is still a mother, but she's a mother without the physical presence of a child. Many women who experience such tragedy find acceptance of the child's death almost impossible, especially if the stillbirth was due to trauma during labour, and that's exactly what I'm writing about. And then of course, puerperal psychosis, with its hallucinatory nature, is another aspect that isn't often addressed, and yet although it's not that common, it's not that rare either. I often took Charlotte Perkins Gilmans' The Yellow Wallpaper to be a classic case of this. Just one reading of the text I know, but a valid one, I feel. Anyway, I decided to use this aspect as well, so the protagonist, Lucy, has a stillbirth but is convinced her child is still alive to the point of actually believing she can still hold him, breastfeed him etc etc. Contrasting to this, there is her husband, unable to cope with his sick wife, who embarks on an affair. Anyway, although it's dark, I'm enjoying writing it.
I'm having a pretty good summer despite not having much money. My lovely kat99999 and I spend most of our time together, and I want to say that I'm feeling so close to her now. My son le_god has a serious girlfriend now and spends much of his time with her, so we do't get to see much of him. I've visited the Tate Modern gallery in London, scarily, the day before the July 7th bombings. It's a fab place - I'd never been to a proper art gallery before - and I just loved it. We went in to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit, as Kahlo is one of my favourite artists. It was amazing to see the real thing, rather than prints in art books. I can't wait to go again when I can afford it.
Anyway, I've rambled enough.
Glad to have caught up!
I've been working hard at my lecturer's job. I love it so much, and this is from a person who said she would never, ever teach. I'm so happy I was persuaded to change my mind, because it's given me so much confidence in myself, it's given me time to talk about my passion and get paid for it, and it's given me a fab social life. I doubt very much I'd have had any of those without it!
I'm on hiatus now, which is a pain, because I don't get paid thru the summer and haven't been able to find a temp job, but I have a job for September, and I hope that my boss will be able to get me a permanent contract. I've also managed to score some private tutoring work for GCSE and A-Level students which should also start in September. Just lately though, I've been wondering about setting up my own school for writers. My friend and I were talking about it today, because we're working with the local authorities to present a one day workshop in early September, with the view that, if it's successful, to have a residential writing course set up next summer. I love this idea so much and hope it works out. If I won the Lottery, I would be so tempted to buy a villa in Tuscany and run writing holidays. It's just the sort of thing I would've loved before I did my degree, and I reckon it'd be popular. But of course, I'd need money to do that. We'll have to wait and see.
As for my writing,I've been experimenting a lot with different styles and have produced some prose poetry type stuff that I'm really proud of. I'm currently working on a project that I started in 2002, but stopped because it was all too close to home, what with my ex's infidelity and other stuff it dredged up. Now I've moved on though I can deal with it. It's about post-partum psychosis and stillbirth and the effect it has on a marriage. I really wanted to explore the other side of motherhood. Women, I feel, are still expected to be maternal, to be 'perfect' mothers, if you will. But there's a darker side to motherhood that still isn't often acknowledged, and the two themes I've chosen to explore are facets of that darker side. After all, after a stillbirth, the woman is still a mother, but she's a mother without the physical presence of a child. Many women who experience such tragedy find acceptance of the child's death almost impossible, especially if the stillbirth was due to trauma during labour, and that's exactly what I'm writing about. And then of course, puerperal psychosis, with its hallucinatory nature, is another aspect that isn't often addressed, and yet although it's not that common, it's not that rare either. I often took Charlotte Perkins Gilmans' The Yellow Wallpaper to be a classic case of this. Just one reading of the text I know, but a valid one, I feel. Anyway, I decided to use this aspect as well, so the protagonist, Lucy, has a stillbirth but is convinced her child is still alive to the point of actually believing she can still hold him, breastfeed him etc etc. Contrasting to this, there is her husband, unable to cope with his sick wife, who embarks on an affair. Anyway, although it's dark, I'm enjoying writing it.
I'm having a pretty good summer despite not having much money. My lovely kat99999 and I spend most of our time together, and I want to say that I'm feeling so close to her now. My son le_god has a serious girlfriend now and spends much of his time with her, so we do't get to see much of him. I've visited the Tate Modern gallery in London, scarily, the day before the July 7th bombings. It's a fab place - I'd never been to a proper art gallery before - and I just loved it. We went in to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit, as Kahlo is one of my favourite artists. It was amazing to see the real thing, rather than prints in art books. I can't wait to go again when I can afford it.
Anyway, I've rambled enough.
Glad to have caught up!