eek!

So the strongman on the cover of Death-Defying Acts needed a name. Being a symbolic figure and not actually representative of any of the characters in the book, I was free to name him anything I wished. At Drew’s suggestion, meet Karnov.

This is the original Karnov, who bears quite a likeness to the block-cut silhouette on my cover, don’t you think?

You can play Karnov, if you like to kill time on the computer reliving your 8-bit youth.

Karnov knows no fear. Karnov crash open-bar parties at AWP!

Years after you give away most of your theater books because you need room on your shelves and how often do you consult those old texts, anyway? You will find yourself in a position, professionally and recreationally, to really want and need those old books.

Lesson learned the hard way: hoard your books, replacing them is a hassle.

I’ll be teaching a week-long cross-genre community writing workshop during the Spalding University MFA residency, May 22-29. Community Workshop students participate in an 8-day non-credit writing workshop led by me and are invited to attend all MFA Residency events, including lectures and panel discussions normally reserved exclusively for MFA students. Here’s more about me and my publication/teaching history.

Writers interested in attending the Community Workshop submit a 5- to 7-page writing sample in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, playwriting, or screenwriting. Email your writing sample as a DOC, RTF, or PDF file.

Learn more from Kathleen Driskell, the associate director of Spalding’s MFA program.

Applicants receive a $100 discount off the full price of $700 if they apply by April 8.

Want to hear from last year’s participants? Keep reading … Read the rest of this entry »

This winter has lasted far too long already, so to keep myself from taking to a hot bath and not emerging until April, I am making a list of things to look forward to when the sun comes out.

Swimming
Last summer, Drew took me to Buffalo Trace Park in southern Indiana. It’s gorgeous and well-maintained, and the swimming lake is calm and fairly clear. A picnic lunch followed by a lazy float in the water under the summer sun sounds like heaven right about now.

Picnics
I really love throwing a few things in a bag and eating outside. I keep a blanket in my trunk and I plan on getting lots of use out of the travel cheeseboard my aunties sent me for Christmas. Travel cheese board! They know me well.

The Drive-In
There’s no better way to watch a big silly summer movie than outside under the stars. Drew has those foldy chairs in his trunk and he rigs the radio so we don’t have to use the speakers. Also there is the wonderful gyro place down the road, or else an excuse to eat nachos from the snack hut. Snack hut!

Just walking in the neighborhood already
We walked to the theatre and to the pizza place yesterday, but it wasn’t fun. It was miserable. Please make the damp cold go away so I can enjoy being a pedestrian in my pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, please. Also it would be nice to see daylight over my lunch hour during the week, seriously.

Flowers!
I love it when the whole state is in bloom.

Sitting outside on the patio with friends enjoying a drink in the evening
I don’t think I need to elaborate here. I will be so much more social when the cold lifts.

Baseball
It’s right around the corner, but early April games are always so freezing. Come May, though, it’s on. I find baseball games so relaxing. It’s a meditative experience, like watching the orchestra or the ballet. My mind goes to another place and I feel so calm and still.

Big hats and sandals
I will get a pedicure. I will buy new sandals. I will replace the sun dresses that are three years old and fading. I will tie a scarf around my head when I drive with the top down. I will buy an even more ridiculous pair of sunglasses. I will investigate red lipstick. My freckles will emerge, blinking, from their long winter sleep.

It’s been about a year and a half since I started going to plays for professional rather than personal reasons. Today, I saw my first show at the local children’s theatre school. I don’t have many little rules, but I made this one when I started reviewing shows and I stick to it: I don’t review kids’ performances or children’s theatre. I don’t review kid shows because I have no idea what makes good theatre aimed at small children (that’s someone else’s beat at the paper, thankfully) and I don’t review kid troupes because they’re students, they’re still learning and developing and while I would never want to condescend to a young artist and give them a break because “oh, they’re just kids!” I also don’t get paid enough to make a teenage girl cry over a lukewarm review, if deserved. So there are my rules. And yes, in this case, the performances were uneven, some great and some not so, but since this isn’t a review I can say oh, they’re just kids! and be happy that they’re talented and working hard and going places for sure, hooray for the kids as they are all right.

They had snacks after, though, which was great. Did I need to eat two iced cookies for lunch? Like a hole in the head, but they were great.

It’s crazy busy review time here in Louisville because of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, so I can’t believe I actually went to a play during my off hours (the aforementioned show) just to check it out. Once I began reviewing plays, I started growing reluctant to see them if they weren’t on the review schedule. Which is not a good thing, not at all, but I was relieved to hear my friend, also a critic, admit to the same feelings. I am trying to pace myself in the evenings, because there are so many plays to see here, really, and I try to keep some balance in my social life and not be all stage/all the time. But then I feel guilty for neglecting this production or that company. And yet faced with an evening off, sometimes I want to go see a band, or have dinner with friends, or go to a reading, or just sit at home and play a silly Wii game and make faces at my cat. That last one, especially in the winter.

So there is another company’s production I would like to see next week, but I won’t make plans ahead of time. I had a very scheduled week just go by and it would be nice to feel less rigid about my time commitments next week. And yet it’s nice to see a play with no obligations other than to be entertained. No note taking, no analyzing during the show, just sit back and laugh or cry or don’t, depending.

We run these little argument pieces in the Friday features section, and one of mine about the state of the record store just popped up in a couple of tumblr posts. I feel slightly less dorky today.

I know you were on the edge of your seat.

Turns out dried cranberries don’t really like to be baked for half an hour. Perhaps the recipe said so, but did I really read the recipe? What do I look like, Julie Powell?

I guess I figured, hey, you bake raisins in all kinds of things, right, and what are raisins but dried grapes?

Just gotta watch the dental work or else soften up with milk and/or yogurt.

I will never be a food blogger. But my bread still tastes fine.

My whole wheat loaf bread turned out amazing. Not bad for my first time! I used the King Arthur Flour classic whole wheat recipe, which I loved before I even began for its short ingredient list, no-fuss mixing and amount (it only makes one loaf). We just enjoyed warm, oven-fresh slices with Laughing Cow garlic/herb cheese spread, one of my favorite low-impact indulgences. Today, easy whole wheat bread. Sometime after I acquire an enameled Dutch overn, rustic French boule!

The granola turned out decently, too. I wanted a granola that wasn’t overly sweet or fattening, so I cooked up some honey with the juice and zest of an orange, a little vanilla and cinnamon and tossed it with oats, flaxseed, walnuts, almonds and dried cranberries. I can’t wait to have it in my Fage in the morning.

While I was in the kitchen, I also whipped up my first batch of smashed hummus. I am a huge fan of the chunky hummus at Nancy’s Bagels here in Louisville, and while I don’t think I’ll nail their recipe any time soon, my attempt at chunky hummus worked just fine. Instead of food processing it, I used a potato masher on the chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice, then once I had the consistency I wanted, I folded in some garlic, chopped scallions and a bit of cayenne pepper. Easy clean-up and the hummus still has partial garbanzos intact.

We have a crazy busy week ahead with something fun happening every night this week, so I wanted to plan our dinners out a bit. I prepped a lentil soup to slow-cook while we’re at work tomorrow after I made this great little vegetable taco recipe I found in the charmingly misnamed “15-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet” cookbook. More like 30-minutes, truth be told, and the recipes aren’t exactly gourmet, but they are easy homecooked, healthful vegetarian meals that don’t rely on processed fake meats or a lot of cheese, so I need to remember to refer to it more often. The veggie tacos were quite delicious, and so easy I could make them around all my other projects.

It’s been a satisfying evening in the kitchen. I might make Sunday night my cooking and baking night from now on.

Just got back from a festival screening of “Blue King,” an independent movie conceived by the ill minds of the Bros. Flores (that’s David and Kevin to you). Surprisingly chaste for a movie about a porno auteur’s higher aspirations, “Blue King” is a sort of slacker improv ensemble piece that’s both strange and sweet. High points for me were a manic Tommy Lee Jones impression and the matter-of-fact characterization of a certain part of Jeffersonville, Indiana as “Crazy Town,” complete with random Rascal.

Watch the trailer, meet the characters, learn some regrettable new slang.