It was a very good year.

All in all, 2011 turned out to be a pretty good year. It didn't begin with much promise. My agent had still not managed to sell my novel in stories, and I was struggling with the manuscript of a new novel, unsure of what would become of it. I was studying French (that was fun, at least), but was turned down for a residency in France. I was working hard, but nothing seemed to be going right.

But then . . .

The AWP conference was in March in DC. I was on two panels, saw a lot of friends, and spent a lot of time in the bookfair. I was energized, as I usually am, and full of ideas.

In May I attended the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program, and also participated in the alumni workshop in which the beginning of my novel was critiqued by peers and by an editor from a major publisher. That experience was encouraging--the feedback was quite positive--and I pushed ahead with the book.

In June I attended the Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop at Hollins College. I did it in part because several friends had plans to go to various workshops around the country and I suddenly felt left out, but also because Fred Leebron was teaching an advanced novel writing class and I felt that was what I needed. It was great. I got more good feedback and encouragement about the novel.

In July I went to Korea. This had been planned for some time. The government of South Korea has been sponsoring re-visits for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served there, organized by the RPCV group Friends of Korea. I hadn't managed to get one of the earlier trips, so this was my time. Plus, the novel I was working on was partly set in Korea, and it seemed a good opportunity to refresh my sense memory. It was a fun trip. I didn't get any writing done while I was there, but had a great time.

Around this time, I got some good publishing news. Although my agent had not been able to sell my novel in stories, I had submitted it to a few small presses on my own (with my agent's blessing), and finally got an offer to publish it. Since I knew the publisher--Press 53 also published my first book, In an Uncharted Country--I felt very good about that. In addition, a number of the stories from the novel in stories were accepted by good magazines, which made me very happy, too. The book, WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, will be published in September 2012.

And then I found out that I got the residency in France after all. So, in mid-August, I went to the South of France for three weeks, the first of which was being a tourist in Toulouse. During the last two weeks, spent at VCCA France in Auvillar, I completed the revisions on my novel. (I posted a lot of pictures from that trip, as well as the earlier Korea trip, here on Perpetual Folly.) Just before I began that trip, my agent and I parted ways, so I knew that I would be looking for a new agent when I got home in September.

In September, then, with a completed novel in hand, I began the search. Having done that three times before--without success for my MFA Thesis novel and also for my story collection, and then for my novel in stories--I knew what a hard and frustrating process that could be. But something was different this time. Lower expectations? Timing? A better query letter? A better novel? Whatever was different, by the end of the month I had signed with a new agent.

In October I worked at placing more of the stories from the WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW (there are only 3 left at this point) and also did research and outlining for a new novel.

In November I participated in Nanowrimo, simply as a way to get a lot of words for the new novel on paper, to see if the structure worked. But I also had a 2-week residency at VCCA in Amherst, Virginia, and so was able to get most of a first, very rough, pre-draft of the novel done.

And in December I continued work on that novel and some other projects, as well as finalizing Issue No. 17 of Prime Number Magzine (our 7th issue), which comes out in January. Also in December, a couple of stories appeared in some fine online magazines, and another story acceptance came in.

Which brings us to now, the New Year. I realize that 2011 was actually a very good year, and I'm grateful, but also looking forward to more good things in 2012.

Residency's End

It was a brief residency, and today's the day I leave. I've got a 5:30 pm train back to Toulouse and an early flight from there (to Frankfurt, then Dulles, then Shenandoah Valley) on Friday. I'm sorry to go, but looking forward to getting home, springing the dog from the kennel, sleeping in my own bed . . .

A few nights ago, after Craig and Sandell arrived and we were up to 4 artists in the house, all trying to share a kitchen, we agreed to rotate cooking duties. My turn was last night, and I think I produced a passable eggplant/tomato/chickpea dish along with a cauliflower salad. The night before that, though, we had a "fellows' dinner"--VCCA feeds us once a week--at Le Petit Palais (check out that website if only for the pictures of the village), in Auvillar.

On the way up the hill to dinner, I spotted the little fellow at left. Cheryl explained that there is an annual Marche des Potiers in Auvillar every year and one year there was a "pilgrim" theme (see earlier post on the pilgrims of St. Jacques de Compostelle). The village then bought several ceramic figurines and installed them around town. I'd photographed several on an earlier exploratory walk, but I'd missed this one.

Also yesterday, besides cooking dinner for the artists, I managed to finish my book. I'm still going to be fixing a couple of things next week, and there are two scenes that I have doubts about, but otherwise it is done. I arrived at that point late yesterday afternoon, so today I've been working on other things, and packing up, including straightening my studio. Here's all that's left at this point.

One of the things I'm missing by leaving now are some celebrations that will occur here in a couple of weeks in connection with a visit by several members of the VCCA Board, and as part of that Craig Pleasants, a sculptor and also director of Programs at VCCA, is here and he's working on an installation on the hill behind the studio building. There's Craig, picking the spot. I wish I were going to be here to see the thing come together!

And that's it. I'll be heading out soon. And I'll check in on the other side.

Auvillar Environs - Part II

We came back from the market this morning and I got some work done, but then I realized I'm leaving in a couple of days, so if I'm going to do any more exploring, I'd best get it done. So I took the afternoon off to WALK back to Valence d'Agen. It's about 3 miles each way, and it was not, but, hey, I needed the exercise. The pedestrian friendly route is past the golf course (!) and a series of poplar groves.

Other than that, there isn't much to see on the walk--good for thinking and planning, though--although there is a nice shot of the power plant on the bridge crossing the cooling canal.

There isn't much to see in Valence d'Agen, either, although it was funny to walk around the same streets where the market was--it looks completely different. I did spot some folks playing petanque in the Place Nationale, and also walked by this old washing station--the lavoir.

Then, on the way back, I caught these nice views of Auvillar:

Auvillar Environs

I've been here over a week now, and mostly I just work in my studio or eat/drink wine with the other fellows and the resident staff. Not too harsh. Other than the forays up the hill to the main village of Auvillar, I've taken a couple of walks. The first, on Sunday, was just across the river to the village of Espalais. There's not much going on there, but on one end of the village is a camp ground that welcomes pilgrims, because Auvillar is stop on the Pelerinage de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. There's a steady stream of people passing right by the studio building . . .

And right across the road is a sunflower field . . .

which look like this when they're being harvested.

Sunday is also the morning for the Auvillar market, which is pretty tiny compared to . . .

the one in Valence d'Agen, which the fellows go to on Tuesdays. We went today and I picked up some things because Wednesday will be my turn to cook.

But also, while walking around the market I saw this--the Valence d'Agen line dancers! I took a short video that I'll try to upload, too.

The Village of Auvillar

So, I'm supposed to be writing. What I'm doing, actually, is immersing myself in the novel that's already written, going through sentence by sentence, connecting some dots, filling in some blanks, you name your metaphor for the revision process. But I can only take so much of that in one sitting. So this afternoon I took a walk up the hill to the village proper. Our house and studio building actually sit in the "port" section of Auvillar, down by the Garonne River, but the town is up on a hill--fortified with walls, etc. It must have been a pretty tough little place back in the middle ages.

It's a beautiful village that seems pretty sleepy. There are several restaurants, but some of the shops--the bakery, the small grocer, a few others--are closed for the August vacation. It's a good thing I'm here to get work done!

And there's a cool old church, too, as there is most everywhere you look in France, it seems.

And here's a picture of the village Espalais across the river, seen from the park on the hill.

So, it's wonderfully idyllic, right? It sure seems that way, except for one little detail that I've failed to mention up to now. The plant pictured here is about 5 kilometers away.

I took lots more pictures, which I'll post on my Facebook album: Residency in Auvillar.

Residency in Auvillar

If you've been reading the blog posts lately, you know I'm in France. I arrived last Thursday, flying through Frankfurt to Toulouse, and spent a long weekend exploring the ancient city--the capital of the Visigoths!--about which I knew nothing. That was great, although the weather was very hot, but it was just a prelude to the real reason I came to Europe--my residency at VCCA France. So, on Monday morning, I trekked over to the train station in Toulouse, figured out the rail system (I'd already booked tickets but needed to deal with self-service kiosks to print them out), got on the train (very nice, even in 2nd Class), and got off in the town of Valence D'Agen, just about one hour from Toulouse. I was met there by someone from VCCA and then got settled into my room and studio. (That's a picture of my room, at left.)

I then spent some time getting my studio set up. Since the 4 studios have to work either as visual artist's or writer's studios, they're just big empty room with tables/desks, and blank walls. Which is fine. I needed to tack some outline material on the wall, but otherwise it's pretty plain. You'll note I've got big open windows and they look out on a hillside, although the first two days I kept the shutters closed because it was too hot. It's much nicer now, so they're wide open.

Here's what that space looks like from the outside, complete with grape arbor and patio. Those two windows on the second floor (or "first floor" in the French style) are my studio.

And here's a shot of the front of the studio building.

And a shot of the front of the house where we live. My room is the open window at upper left.

And a slightly wider angle on the house.

Because we cook for ourselves, it was great timing that I arrived on the day before the big weekly market in Valence D'Agen. We all went over there early to do our marketing. Lots of fun using my poor French to buy cheese, bread, eggs, yoghurt, vegetables, fruit . . .

Finally, here's a shot looking up the hill at the village of Auvillar. I've made one visit up there so far, but without my camera, so I'll post some pictures of the village another day.

Oh, yeah. The work. I've really only had one and a half days because of the marketing on Tuesday, but I got more into it today, especially because it was more comfortable, temperature-wise. I'm hoping for a good day tomorrow!