My Year With The Mouse

Well I’ll tell you! MYWTM has been a little neglected lately but I promise I have a good excuse…

I wrote a master’s thesis!

That’s a good excuse, right?

For the last two years I’ve been working on an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. VCFA is a low-residency program in which I traveled to Montpelier, VT twice a year, July and January–yes, January…

Dude, I live in CALIFORNIA!

…for a 10-day intensive residency, and in between residencies I’ve worked individually with a faculty advisor. The semester consisted of 5 “packets,” each due about 4 weeks apart, with each packet containing at least 40 pages of creative work, critical essays, and an annotated bibliography of 8-10 books. Every month. The work load was…more than I expected. My third semester I wrote a critical thesis, and this semester, my final, I wrote a creative thesis.

Which I turned in yesterday.

It’s 90 pages of a young adult novel. Holy smokes, mouse fans! Oh, and looking at my program bibliography, I read approximately 224 books over the last two years.

Oh, and I also wrote a 50-minute lecture on a writing topic that I will deliver in July.

My creative thesis is in the hands of my advisor. All that’s left to do is to make those final changes she notes, then format everything properly (and anyone who’s ever written a thesis or dissertation can tell you that will take hours and hours) and turn it all in. I have one final residency in July *sniff* at the end of which, I will graduate!!!!!

I also have a 3-year-old, who takes up a little bit of time. 😉

So, my friends, it’s been a busy couple of years for me, and a busy last few weeks for sure, but I’m very proud to say that I made it!

New Disney content coming tomorrow–little brain dead right now ;).