Jerome Travel Grant

I was notified last week that I have received a Jerome Travel Grant to research the last years of Camilla Hall, a Minnesota native who was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s. This research will take me to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she spent the last three years of her life before she was killed in a May 1974 shootout with police.

I plan to go out there for a couple of weeks in July.

Camilla was the subject of my master's thesis and I've always wanted to pursue it as a book project. Her story really is captivating. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and professor, she was active in anti-war protests in the 1960s and by the time she moved to California, she had come out as a lesbian. It appears she was "sucked into" the SLA through her lover, Patricia Soltysik. The dynamics of their relationship are still rather mysterious and likely will always have an air of mystery since Pat was killed in the shootout, too. Everyone who knew Camilla best is dead, which poses a challenge for me. But I'll see what I can find out in California.

Commuting by bicycle

Whoo-hoo! I commuted into Mankato by bicycle for the first time. I don't know what took me so long. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. It's only 12 miles to MSU; it took me about 50 minutes. By car it's at least 15 miles and takes me 20 minutes. When driving, from house to the moment I walk into my MSU office, it takes 30 minutes. By bike I can drive right to my building. So it's only taking me another 20 minutes to bike (but factor in 5-10 minutes to clean up, change clothes, etc.).

My goal is to do this at least once a week. I really want to continue it into the fall semester when I start teaching. It might get a little more complicated in taking a change of clothes, having papers/books, not wanting to look like crap, etc. But I think with some advanced planning I can do it.

So I saved 25 miles on my car today, 25 miles of gas. Yay!

Ace Frehley, baby!

Ace Frehley. First Ave. May 8. Flaming guitar and all. (photo not from First Ave show -- from May 2007, taken by Jerrod Vrazel of zrock.com).

I find it slightly disturbing that I've seen Ace perform more than I've seen Morrissey (six to four). If you would have told me this 15 years ago, I would have collapsed on the floor laughing. But the nice thing about being married to your opposite is that you're exposed to things you would never think of doing.

I also find it slightly disturbing that I knew the words to most of the songs.

But the show cements the fact that I really actually like Ace Frehley songs.

New issue of Brevity

The new issue of Brevity is available on the Web here. I'm such a fan. Short, sweet pieces that go down smoothly. Yet the satisfaction is inversely proportionate to their size.

Coming up for air

Whew -- my three online classes are finally finished! There were a couple of times in the past few weeks where I thought they'd sink me. I could not wait for the light at the end of the tunnel that was early May.

I have a couple of work projects going on, but the good news is that I should be able to dive into the revision process for the memoir.

I've been pecking away at it, a half-hour or an hour each morning for the past several weeks. Checking in with the other nonfiction writers from the Loft Mentorship program and my writing group has been a HUGE help. It's nice to know that I have to report to someone. It's not like there's a punishment if I don't write anything, but I like to be able to say I wrote 500 words or 800 words or worked on hour on revision.

So I think I have the first two chapters in place. Now I need to think about what chapter should be the logical next step.

Why?

Why does every famous person (or every person married to a famous person) think he/she is entitled to write a book? And why does everyone cater to these famous people? Bless the famous person who actually has literary talent -- I will not begrudge them that. But what is that -- one percent of the famous people population?

April Fool's Day

I thought what the people up in Ely did on April Fool's Day was a stroke of genius! That morning, I'm listening to 'CCO radio and hear an ad about how Canada is looking to buy Ely from Minnesota. Canada, it seems, wants the best of what Ely has to offer with tourism dollars and all. I knew full well what day it was (it would have been my dad's 64th birthday), so I figured it was a joke. But I went to the Web site the ad directed me to, www.ely.org. There it was, again, the full-blown press release about Canada wanting to acquire Ely. I could have even signed a petition to keep Ely in Minnesota.

On 'CCO again in the afternoon, Don Shelby was talking to a woman representing Ely and they had the conversation going on for about 10 minutes. Finally, at the end, Shelby announces, "April Fool's!"

This was a brilliant bit of marketing for Ely. Not only do they get the town's name out there, but if you signed the petition, it put you on a mailing list for Ely information. I bet the mailing list grew by 1,000% that day, easily!

Whoever thought of this should get a big raise.

It was the perfect April Fool's Day joke, because it was rather outlandish, yet not crazy enough to be discounted. Even though I knew what was going on, there was a tiny bit of me thinking, "Could this be for real?" They disguised it very well as a legitimate news story, with the radio ad, the Web site press release, and the Shelby interview.

Makes me want to move there even more if there's that much creativity flowing around up there! I'm thinking these are the type of people I want to surround myself with.