Update on the Novel 5, and More!

I have not one, not two, but three updates for all of you folks out there!

1.) I sent my novel out to my first readers on October 21st. That means I should get it back from them by December 3rd of this year. Once I receive their feedback, I will start writing the final draft of my novel.  You heard right.  After nine years of working on it off-and-on, the novel will soon be DONE!  Or, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, “This motherfucking novel will soon be DONE, motherfuckers!”  Thanks for the translation, Sam.

2.) Because I won’t be working on the novel for about six weeks, that means that I will have time to finally finish my updates from SIFF (two more to go), which has been stuck on half of Week Two since August.  Not only was that post put up two months ago, it was written more than two months after SIFF ended, so any movies I saw at the festival that would have come out in wide release by now (like Tabloid) have come and gone.

And don’t worry; I’ll provide links to the earlier and later entries, so that it will be easy to read them in chronological order.

3.) October 22nd marked two years since I arrived in Seattle. While not as momentous as my one-year anniversary (I celebrated by working, taking a nap, then meeting with my Chinese language exchange partners), every year I stay in Seattle means one more year that poverty hasn’t forced me back home, or into the streets. A small victory for the arts. 🙂

Bonus update! Since I will not be working on my novel for a month-and-a-half, I can finally catch up on my diary entries, post blog entries more regularly, and maybe scribble off some short stories and poetry — as well as revise what’s already written. In other words, I won’t be spending all this free time sitting around.  Well, actually, I will be sitting around, but it will be productive sitting around!  I also hope to become more serious about polishing up my French and Japanese language skills and actually studying what I learn from my Chinese language exchange partners. And, of course, there’s much work to be done on the job hunt front.

Here’s to a productive rest of the year!

Note: Both photos were taken in early November of last year.