Oh Divine Bullshiticus, Patron God of Grad Students, Lend Me Thy Bovine Effluence…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a finished dissertation is in want of a Viva. That Defense took place on the Second day of November, the year 2019, on a sunny afternoon in Southern California. The blessed event took place a mere four days after the sunny but windy afternoon in which that same woman wed a handsome sword-fighting naturalist (spoiler: not Stephen Maturin).
Having defended a thesis of some 300 pages (including illustrations and appendices), the couple then proceed to drive north from the desert and wander the great Redwoods before arriving at their place of origin to spend their honeymoon drinking cocktails and floating in the saltwater soaking pool of their nuptial venue, the McMenimen’s Edgefield Winery.
How fairs our wayward heroine now? She has returned to her husband’s cottage in far-flung Ireland and continues to look with melancholy upon the spiteful blank page. To pass the time she reads Margaret Atwood and struggles to make the perfect American-style biscuit.
Moving On
We are finally home after an intense autumn of ceremony, both matrimonial and academic. I went from Miss to Missus to Doctor in less than a week. I am delighted to announce that, while I may not be Ant Man, I at least get to call myself Dr. Pym. Well, I have yet to actually do so. Except on a hotel invoice. I’m thinking of framing it.
In the wake of all this bliss, I feel my muse gently beginning to stir, though he is still disinclined to commit his meanderings to the page. I have isolated two major reasons: a) I have been in grad school for the guts of a decade and therefore have evolved, as should have my writing, and thus trying to write what I was working on before is counterproductive; 2) contemporary world politics has rather surpassed the dystopian backdrop of any of my previous projects.
I have, however, slowly rediscovered a narrative voice. I’ll be blogging about what I’m thinking and reading over the next few months, particularly as the start of the year begins the 365 Writing Challenge.
Until then, dear reader, Happy Solstice.