I’m here!

I spent Saturday night in Vermont (oh my, what a gorgeous state) and then arrived here on Sunday morning. The residence where we are staying is very nice, better than I expected. Essentially, it is a big house, much more welcoming than the ‘dorm’ experience I was expecting. The weather has been great as well, a little hot during the day but nice and cool at night. I’m told that that will change.

Obviously I am not supposed (nor would I have anyway) to talk about specifics of things that happen in the classroom or specifics about my fellow classmates. I will say though that they (and the Odyssey staff as well) have been incredibly friendly and helpful. There has been very little in the way of opening jitters.

So far, the thing that has struck me the most is the conversation. If you’ve read my bio, then you know I’m a software developer. An office full of engineers is where I spend most of my time around people who are not my family. A typical conversation there might go like this.

“So, you’re going on vacation for six weeks, huh? Where are you going?”

“To a writer’s workshop.”

At this point they stare at me as if a horn just sprouted from my forehead. “Ah, technical writing?”

“No, fiction.”

Now, they are starting to back away. “Really, what kind of fiction?”

“Speculative fiction.”

“What is that?”

“Science fiction, fantasy, and horror.”

At this point, the horns are popping out everywhere. “Oh, look at the time, I have to get my TPS report done.” And they move away as quickly as possible.

Here, not only do the conversations not happen that way, but instead of the typical introductory “Where are you from? What do you do?” the lead-in question tends to be “What do you write?” which is as refreshing as hell and brings a grin to my face every time I hear it.

Tonight was an easy night, I only spent about 6.5 hours on homework needed for tomorrow. I’ll post more as I can.

 

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