Endings, beginnings

It’s my birthday-eve! 

Last night I finished my fourth UC Berkeley extension writing class. Four down and three more to go for the certificate in creative writing! I’m really excited to not have class after work anymore — but I also really liked this class and the group of students in it. I’m going to see if any of them want to keep things going and start a writing group, but so far only one person has taken me up on the idea… 

So, now that I have all this time back, what do I choose to do with it? Enroll in two more classes, of course! I decided to do my literature electives over the summer. I am taking “Mystery Fiction” as an online class. I have six months to finish it. I finished the first of eleven modules tonight. For this class I am going to read about four or five mystery novels, and a bunch more short stories. As far as online classes go, it is really well structured and I think I’m going to learn a lot about mystery fiction. I’m pretty excited about that because, even though I’m not an avid reader of detective stories, I do like a good mystery mixed into a plot… A couple of the stories I’m writing right now have mystery elements in them, so I’m interested to learn more about how mysteries work and more about the history of the genre. I mean, I get to read Sherlock Holmes for class! How can you not like that?

The other class I’m taking is called “Vampires and Steampunk” — it’s a new class offering and only 5 weeks instead of the usual 10 weeks. It’s taught by the same professor as the Mystery Fiction class, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting this class since I first saw it listed as “coming soon” on the course list. I’m not a big fan of vampires, and I’ve read almost no steampunk, but the blurb says the class will also focus on sci-fi and “urban fantasy” (aka dystopian fiction?). This is another one where I’m interested in a more in depth study of and discussion of a genre I am gravitating toward in my writing. 

And, of course, here I am biting off more side-projects when work is crazy busy, and I’m planning on taking a summer vacation. But we already know, I’m most productive (and happy) when I’m busy.

So, bring on year 36! Let’s do this! I mean, it is my year after all (year of the Snake!)…