The Calm Before the Storm, Fall Semester Edition

One week till the beginning of the semester meetings start, and I’m wearing pajamas that say “Pajamas All Day” on them. I think it’s a fitting tribute to the end of summer and the beginning of a busy fall semester.

To be honest, I worked on a class this morning. Honestly, I didn’t have to do the work until spring semester, but I worked on it. I am so ready for the semester to start that I have nothing left to do except maybe clean my office. Maybe.

I found two new coffee mugs for fall in my mailbox, and I think I know who got them for me (Shelly?) That was a pleasant surprise for beginning the semester.

I’m ahead for writing projects, having finished two books since March and gone through at least one editing pass on three. I have written three short stories over the summer. I’m looking for more inspiration for some stories that do not relate to the Hidden in Plain Sight universe. But today, I’m not looking too hard.

Day 2 moulage

Day 2 of moulage: I’m already tired, and I’ll be here till at least 9 PM.

This is such a great opportunity, though, because we’re under the supervision of Will Lanfear, who does moulage for a living (ok, among other things). We talk shop, and I learn all sorts of new things to try out at home.

The Hope exercises, of which there are currently three (Missouri, Florida, and New York), were created to train college students in emergency and disaster management majors to use their skills in as realistic learning environment as possible. The exercises aim for the optimal amount of stress for learning — too little, and it comes off as frivolous; too much and the learner shuts down. Now others take an opportunity to train, especially at Missouri Hope, where we have nurses, emergency personnel, and the National Guard both creating the learning opportunities and learning themselves.

This is where moulage comes in — we exist to make the disaster scenarios as realistic as possible. You saw a couple of our pieces yesterday. Moulage is 3/4 knowing your materials — skin and bone wax (theatrical products), gel blood and paste blood (not really blood, but theatrical products again), gelatin, latex, and greasepaint; and 1/4 looking at gory pictures and saying “I want to learn to do that!”

So that’s what I do, and that’s how I’m spending my last week of freedom before the fall semester starts.

Settling in

Second day of the semester, and I’m struggling to write.

It may be that I need to put away Whose Hearts are Mountains for another work, perhaps a new work, but I’m not inspired yet.

I’m not panicking yet, because I blame my lack of inspiration on the energy it takes to start a new school year. Once I get settled into the year, I’ll be inspired to do something — hopefully a totally new thing — when I have space in my head.

In the meantime, I’ll give myself time to do the blog almost every day, and sit for an hour with my computer screen,waiting for the ideas to come.

I’ll let you know when something happens.