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I've been meaning to post something on here about how amazing the MFA workshop was in LA, but in addition to feeling like I hadn't yet found the right words, time is also something that's been a bit lacking lately. Therefore, I've decided to post my favorite quotes from the lectures. Some of the best scenes are silent. - Jane Anderson  Conflict is not inherently dramatic – a tennis match is a conflict. You have to care for there to be drama. – Paul Gulino Writing is telling lies that speak the truth. – Deborah Starr Seibel If the story doesn’t end when a character gets what they want/need, then the story wasn’t ever about them. – Jon Vandergriff Get yourself in the room – invite yourself to the meeting. - Laura Brennan (good advice for life in general!) Happy to help, not eager to please. - Alex Fernandez We need to push ourselves to show our vulnerability to the point of writing something that makes us want to puke. - Meg Lefauve.

Without Lying Down: Screenwriter Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp My rating: 5 of 5 stars Deeply engaging and very well-written book about Frances Marion (and some other fascinating women in her circle of friends) who blazed an impressive trail in screenwriting in fledgling Hollywood. It's a literal crying shame that more isn't known of these women, their interesting lives, and their brilliant contributions to storytelling and film. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in early Hollywood history, filmmaking, screenwriting, women writers, working women in the early 20th century, etc., etc. My major takeaways from the book are: writing may be a solitary endeavor, but creating a community of artists and uplifting other women aren't; the boldness of claiming your own worth, and expecting others to respect that, can change your life; and above all - writers save your papers! Apparently, the little which is known of France

You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book was more focused on my emotional relationship to money than I expected. There were some assumptions about those attitudes which I didn’t feel applied, so I didn’t feel as connected to this book as the previous Badass. But there were still some really good points and strong takeaways. It reminded me to own what I want. View all my reviews

WORK FROM HOME WHILE YOU ROAM: The Ultimate Guide to Jobs That Can Be Done From Anywhere by Robin Barrett My rating: 4 of 5 stars Excellent resource! I found out about this book by stumbling onto Robin Barrett’s YouTube channel. I saw a video in which she listed some interesting work from home options and decided the book was worth a try. It most definitely was. Despite doing my homework in looking for a new income stream there were still resources listed here that I didn’t already know about - and the explanations of the application processes and the payment methods saved me a lot of time in narrowing down the list to things I will actually pursue. There is a lot of repetition in the book - as there are sites which fall under more than one of the categories into which the book is organized. I read the entire book, but I would recommend that if other readers know which category they are most interested in, they just skip straight to that chapter to avoid the cross posting (for lack

So, I attempted the MA in English Lit program at my beloved NAU this past semester, and it is not for me. I want to create things and teach, but not critique everything to the point of hating reading and literature.  Don't get me wrong I learned some fascinating stuff from my textbooks this semester. But if I ever see anything to do with Alice, Wonderland, or Lewis Carrol again I might have a stroke (never liked them before and now they are on my list of triggers).  This semester has even managed to put a dent in my admiration of Mrs. Dalloway , if you can believe it (but I'm sure after a break, we'll make up). No shade on anyone who does want/pursue an MA in English Lit, but it's just not my calling in life.  I honestly have no idea how I managed to get good grades in this program since I spent most of my time feeling stressed/confused/stupid/full of BS.  Therefore, I'm switching to the MFA in TV and Screenwriting program from Stephens College that my heart wanted

  Original title of the paper: Post Colonialism in Wonderland               When analyzing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland using a post-colonialism approach, Alice herself can be viewed as a colonizer, perhaps even representing the British Empire of the nineteenth century. While literature is not “a passive reflection of history”, literature and history do feed off one another and each influence the other. (Parker 286). Whether Carroll intended to portray Alice as a representation of the British Empire, which ruled “roughly one quarter of the earth’s land and population” at one time (Parker 298), is unknowable (unless one wishes to be bogged down in trying to sort out the author’s intention). However, when applying the postcolonialism theory to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Alice does exhibit traits that are considered typical of a colonizer. She invades a space which is foreign to her, attempts to impose her own cultural norms on the society she finds there, and eventually en

  Original title of the paper: Gender, Feminism, and Marrying the Hangman             In Atwood’s Marrying the Hangman the reader finds a tale, based on a true story, in which a woman found guilty of stealing pretty clothes, must then beguile a man, sight unseen, in order to avoid being executed. And while she is written as a victim of patriarchal circumstance, she does, in the end create her own salvation via this beguiled man. Both the antique protagonist, and the poem’s modern “friends” with their “horror stories” all showcase the gender role these women are assigned and expected/allowed to live within, the lack of sisterly bonding between women, and how survival often requires a certain amount of what society might have judged as ‘unfeminine’ selfishness.             Gender is a “social class” (Cudd & Anderson 158) constructed by other people’s “cultural responses to the body” (Cudd & Anderson 166) which, in turn, positions that body (and whomever inhabits it) “with