A Blog Is Born

I can think of no better seminal event for a new writing venture than a workshop at the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival (ISWF). Iowa's MFA program in Creative Writing is the oldest in the country and has long been regarded as the best. The workshop method is, in fact, thought to have started at Iowa. So I had great expectations as I flew over the cornfields at the beginning of my week in Iowa City, the final one of the twenty-first annual ISWF.

I joined eleven other writers, all working on novels, memoirs, or other long manuscripts, in learning techniques to help us survive the arduous and sometimes emotional process of revision. Through daily assignments, class critiques and discussion, and talking over morning coffee or long into the night over a "bambino" gelato or a cocktail, we not only found new ways of seeing our work and making it crackle, but also discovered personal connections that enriched our experience far beyond the catalog description.

After a week of immersion in writing, books, future dreams, and some incredible and fascinating new friends, I left Iowa City, reluctant to return to responsibilities and routine but full of hope and new expectations. This novella, whether it blossoms into a novel or is pruned down to a long short story - or remains a novella, publishing be damned - will get finished.

Oh, and about my blog: the title refers to the three main elements of my identity. "Murasaki" is Japanese for "purple." Now you have it.