Well, I learned that school will open on October 27th. However, I do not know if my classes will have added minutes to them or not; I hope to learn that soon. Not sure how I feel about starting school again. People keep jokingly referring to our time away as VACATION, but I just can’t feel that because NOTHING of it was vacation-like. I’m SO tired from that whole shelter experience; it changed me, and it’s hard for me to explain to people who weren’t there JUST how changed I am. I need a vacation FROM that experience. Now, going back to a rebuilding school, to a changed class and class time and classroom and trying to get through this semester as best as I can…it seems like it will be an extremely hard task. You’ll get an EARFUL about just HOW hard it is.

Moving from that–I contacted one of my favorite authors, Bernice McFadden, and she has agreed to do an interview with me for ChickLitGurrl. I am BEYOND thrilled. I interviewed her for my magazine, The Nubian Chronicles several years ago, and I wrote about her debut novel, SUGAR, in a college paper about four, five years ago. She is one of the best writers out there in my opinion. She’s literary. She’s bold. She’s poignant. She’s heart-wrenching. She’s life. She’s real. She’s good. If you haven’t read her, PLEASE check out SUGAR. The first page alone just grabs you, body slams you, and forces you to continue reading it. It’ll be fun to get her into a new interview, especially since she has a new PSEUDONYM and a racier side with her latest novel. Be on the look out!

Another move–During my “time” in the shelter, I thought a lot about writing. I think one of my main reasons for being in a dry spell is because of my frustration for not getting published again. I first wondered if I just sucked individually and people only wanted to publish me if I worked with others. That’s not the case. In my heart, I feel that some day I will come out and people will love the work I do. It will take time and much more initiative on my part. The plethora of ideas that I have generated over the last year or so has been mind boggling. I came up with two while I was on my “hiatus”: one non-fiction and the other fiction. I have begun work on the non-fiction (with a friend — haha, maybe I do work better with partners), and I outlined the fiction while I sat in the coliseum, daily, at the shelter. I plan to start work on it soon.

I’ve learned so many things–both good and bad–since I was away, and one of the things is that the only way I can get what I want is to make it what I want and to make others believe that they must have it. It’s hard because I still, daily, second-by-second, get my thoughts of I can’t do it or I’m not good enough, but I just have to learn to combat them with things like I can do anything I put my mind to, or I am great, and soon everyone will know that.

Even through adversity, important lessons are learned, and I learned enough of them during my time in the shelter to write a book…(hmm)–*smirk*