This is it!

The day that I've been waiting for for the past 6 months, really the past 2 years, is finally here.  Tomorrow morning I get on a train bound for Montpelier, Vermont to begin my MFA degree at Vermont College of Fine Arts.  I'll be on the train for 8 hours, ugh, and on Tuesday I'll meet up with other incoming students for lunch before we begin our official journey.  After only writing seriously for a little over a year, it really is a dream come true to be doing this.   Unfortunately I haven't had time to get excited about it because I've been too busy stressing over the little details of my being away for 2 weeks.  Making sure the house is fully stocked with food, all the laundry is done, my DH knows what to do with the kids to get them off to camp and home again each day.  I've discovered that I am completely obsessive about these little details--so much so that I seriously haven't thought much about going back to school at all.  I suppose once I get on the train tomorrow reality will suddenly hit me in the face and I'll realize I am actually doing this.  Then I can stress over that for awhile.

I will continue to keep you posted as much as I can throughout the residency.  If I can find time in the EXTREMELY BUSY schedule!

Decision time!

Well, after I heard from Lesley University, I decided it was time to make a choice.  (I still haven't heard from Hamline, but at this point I've decided I don't want to go out to Minnesota in the winter!)  So it comes down, for me, to Lesley and Vermont.  They are both excellent, well-respected programs.  Here are the main differences as I see them:

1.  Vermont is in Montpelier-a quintessential New England town; Lesley is in Cambridge-an amazing city, close to Boston, and surrounded by Harvard and Boston Art Institute.

2.  Vermont's mfa degree is in writing for children and young adults, which means that everyone there would be focused on writing children's books; Lesley has several genres in it's mfa in creative writing program (fiction, screenwriting, poetry, etc) where I could focus on writing for children, but I would be very exposed to other genres.

3.  Vermont uses the well-established program for it's mfa-one that most of the low-residency schools currently use; Lesley also uses a similar program, but add an independent study component on top of it.  

I have decided, based on these three differences, that the best school for me is Vermont College writing for children and young adults.

Now I just have to send them a check!

Please drop me a note if you currently, previously, or some day will, attend Vermont College!

SCBWI-New York

I spent the weekend in New York City at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators winter conference.  It was enlightening, inspiring, and otherwise exhausting.  I'm a little star struck with meeting such authors as Tomie DePaola, Susan Patron, and Carolyn Mackler.  It was an amazing weekend.  One of the big questions was:  is the picture book dead (or dying)?  The answer was a resounding NO.  But the picture book (particularly the rhyming picture book) is the most difficult to sell.  And it's one of the hardest things to write because every single word must be essential to the story.  The level of the reader must be considered with every word, and the patience of the parent to read the story (usually over and over) must also be considered.  So, the question becomes, why on earth would anyone choose to write a picture book, given all these strikes against it before it's even finished?  I believe the answer is simple.  The writer does not choose the story; the story chooses the writer.  And the writer must write the story that has chosen him.

Acceptances!

So far, I've been accepted to Spalding University, Pine Manor, and Vermont College.  I am still waiting, anxiously, to hear from Hamline University and Lesley University.  But I must say, at the moment I am leaning toward Vermont College.  I've heard Montpelier is a beautiful town, and the program is supposed to be phenomenal.   So now we wait.