Sunday in Vermont

Why has there been no blogging this week?
I've been immersed in an intense writing program at the Vermont College Master of Fine Arts in Children's picturebooks.

What is it like?
Remember when you were in school -- from 9am to 3pm
Or in college where you had a course in the morning, maybe two courses in the afternoon and a few more the next day.

No, it's not like that.
This is a low residency program. Which means I'll spend 10 days here at the college and 10 more days here in January. All the rest of the work will be done on my own during the Fall.

Today the lectures began at 8:15 am (breakfast at 7:30) and the last Reading session will end about 9:30 pm. In between are various lectures by faculty and graduating students about the art of writing. Not all are required, so eventually your body rebels and you collapse and take a nap, only to get up to attend another lecture.

And then there are the workshops -- where everyone in your group discusses the manuscripts you have submitted, giving advice and hopefully pointing out where you went astray in your writing.

On Saturday, the two of us who were "workshopped" found ourselves left with only the title -- of what we had thought were completed manuscripts that only needed a few tweeks. Ha! Were we surprised.

Also on Saturday, we had the great pleasure to have Janet Stevens and her sister Susan Stevens Crummel show us how they worked together. Then they had a panel discussion with their editor. Great stuff.

Even though it is a low residency program, it's real college. I get a full semester's college credit for this work.
-wendieO