Monday, July 18, 2011

That last day

We had no real lectures on our final day of Odyssey. Evil Overlord spent some time talking about our six weeks and went on to tell us that she is convinced each and every one of us has the abolity to become a published and professional author.

I can't get that into my head. Someone with that much experience from the publishing industry believes I could be published.

That evening we gave Overlord and the Commodore their presents. Overlord got a scepter, an evil claw-like thing topped with a crystal, that she can use to subjugate her minions next year. The Commodore got a gift certificate at a comic book store, and a small plush moose with a goat's head taped on to feed to her dragon.

Then there was a mixer with OdFellows of years past, who were participating in TNEO - The Neverending Odyssey, a one-week critique-intensive week open only to OdFellows). Lemonade, cookies and geeks galore. We all went around the room and let the others know our goals for the coming year.

My goals: polish and send out one short story per month. Start research for a novel. Write a short story over the next two weeks to send to some people in the class for crit.

As people started leaving, the tears came. I managed to avoid them, though it was hard, especially when saying goodbye to Evil Overlord.

Later, we ended up in Barbecue Man and Dundee's apartment. Out came the guitar and the beer and the smiles and the cherry bourbon and the laughs. Around 0100 we took a nightly walk, around the campus, to the graveyard, to the Giant Head, to the haunted house. It took an hour and a half, and I know we all dragged out feet because we didn't want the night to end. The whole walk had a surreal quality, almost dreamlike, and for a moment it did feel like the night would go on forever.

I went to sleep at 0330, after having spent 40 minutes writing. I got up at 0700 the next morning, to get ready to board the buss to Boston.

More on that and some other stuff some other time. Tomorrow I leave for Maine to hang out EGE for a few days, so if I don't post stuff don't freak out. It's perfectually natural.

No comments:

Post a Comment