Long Time Gone

The Spring semester ate up all my writing energy, so this is the first post in months! I had two great classes online, got a lot of work done and took refuge from the big bad world, so no regrets. Now there is good reason for me to visit the Beachglass house again: Monsoon Voices will be in session this Friday.
Traci and Patrick have kindly asked me to read, so I'm spending this week reading and practicing and probably getting sick to death of my essay 'Mosquitoes'. But before that I'm enjoying frissons of anticipation for the other readers: Catania Larson and Susan Vespoli, who I have not heard before, and Maryann McCullough, who I have and who is terrific, and then Betsy McPhee. I've read Betsy's work and can't wait to meet her, because I've taken an online class from her and she's a great teacher!
One of the quirky aspects of online classes is getting to know people through their work and comments, sharing learning but never actually meeting them. Later on you run into them at a reading, in another class or even on campus, and it's joyous and scary as you run through your mental file cabinet pulling out memory files so you can speak to them halfway intelligently. I'm particularly bad at this. I've embarrassed myself horribly by pouring out my admiration about pieces to a writer only to discover that while she admired the work as well, she was not the author. My facial-recognition skills leave much to be desired. I'm thinking about asking online classmates to post photos to help me out!
Save money and have fun this Friday by coming out to Unlimited Coffee for Monsoon Voices. There'll be laughter and noise and soul-comforting literature, and the Unlimited folks will sell you tummy-cheering drinks and gelato. You can't go wrong!
Monsoon Voices (a live literary magazine)
at Unlimited Coffee
741 E. Glendale Ave, East of 7th Street on the south side of Glendale
7:30 p.m.

Traci and Patrick Moore host this great event, and you can visit their blog by clicking on the link at the left. Hope I get to meet you there!