I woke up really nervous on Sunday morning—and it wasn’t because I was supposed to give the prayer at graduation. Change makes me nervous, and all graduation is, when you really think about it, is a major change. When I graduated undergrad, I had this Masters program to look forward to—yes, a change, but also a knowing what would happen next. Now, having already started a new job, finaled in the ACFW Genesis contest, and possibly finding a new church home all before final residency began, what did I have to look forward to? I’ve been attending school part-time since 1999! I vaguely remember the few years (1993-1999) when I was working full time without going to school—and what I remember of them is rather “blah.” No real purpose. Nothing to fill my time or my mind—well nothing “structured” anyway. Even with as independent-minded as I am, I know that if I don’t have some kind of structure imposed on me from outside, I start to cycle into depression and isolation. Before, I filled my “spare” time with (probably too many) church groups, committees, choirs, classes (teaching), and activities. As with anything that one pours oneself into without seeing any to much fruit in return, I burned out (which is one of the reasons I’ve been out of church for nearly two years). Sure, graduating means more time to read again, as the only reading I’ve done in the last few years—with the exception of the Harry Potter books—has been only for school. Sure, it means more time to write, but now I don’t have critique partners any more, nor do I have writing term contracts and deadlines.

Anyway, These were just some of my ruminations as I dressed in my black skirt and tank (as I’d been told I wouldn’t have time to change before graduation) and then headed for campus one final time as a student, my freshly ironed graduation robe hanging in the back seat, mortarboard and tassel in my bag.

One final workshop, “Teaching Writing/Popular Fiction” (or How to Become a Writer Who Teaches), lay between me and being finished. Lawrence Connelly, who taught this session, was fabulous and gave us a lot to think about and a lot of options.

After workshop, while all the other students went to the cafeteria, we graduates went down to the second floor for a “fancy” lunch (nice salad bar) with faculty, staff, and alumni, where we got the pitch from the Alumni Association.

As soon as lunch was over, Dr. Terrance DePasquale (Assoc. Dean for Graduate Studies) walked us through “graduation rehearsal.” When I got down front, there was a notebook on my chair which had the entire ceremony scripted out so that I would know when to go up to give the prayer—and to my horror discovered a canned prayer in the script. When the call had gone out for a volunteer to “read” the prayer, I volunteered, then spent quite a while researching commencement prayers and writing one appropriate for an interfaith group as well as reflective of the program and my own personal faith (see the text of my prayer here). I was so disappointed, because I was really pleased with it. After the walk-through, we had about an hour and a half to kill. I called Jill Henry to let her know I’d thought of her when they’d tried to teach us the alma mater which includes the phrase “hoary halls.”

After bouncing off the walls for a while, I went into the computer lab to read several days’ worth of e-mails and kill the rest of the time until it was time to go downstairs and put on our Hogwarts robes.

Once we started lining up, I decided to find out for sure about the prayer-thing. So I asked Mike Arnzen and he told me that I could read the one I’d written, so I skipped back into the room where we’d prepared and grabbed the copy of the prayer I’d been carrying around with me all week.

As I followed David Corwell down the aisle into the un-air conditioned Cecilian Hall, I couldn’t hold back a huge smile as I saw so many friendly faces in the audience, all cheering for us, and remembering sitting there in times-past cheering on those who went before me. I knew these were people whose influence had shaped my life and whose friendships I hope to cultivate and maintain for the rest of my life.

When time came to give the prayer, I mounted the stage with confidence—yet when I took my place at the lectern, I found, as had happened at my thesis presentation, that I couldn’t catch my breath! Finally, after a few lines, I took what seemed like a huge pause to take a deep breath before continuing. After the Amen, I introduced Diana Botsford, our commencement speaker, and returned to my seat.

Once again, as Diana began speaking, God’s hand became apparent. Dr. Al’s theme for the week had been critiquing—but more so about being a supportive community of writers. In my prayer—written weeks before arriving—I thanked God for the paths He’d led us all on to intersect our lives and to also to use our writing to help build community. Diana’s speech—also written weeks before residency—was about being a community, learning from each other, and continuing to support each other even as we graduate and go out into our separate worlds. If we’d tried to all work with one theme, we couldn’t have meshed it so well.

After the ceremony, we processed out to melt—I mean to be greeted and congratulated by all of our well-wishers. I had the honor of being able to give our class gift to Wendy privately and finally made it into the reception room about half an hour later, parched and in search of something to drink.

After nearly everyone had gone, Melissa, Analisa, and I went back to the hotel to change clothes and put our feet up for a while before picking up Aubrey Curry (a One and new “Chick” inductee) and meeting Susan Isola at Texas Roadhouse for a celebratory dinner (I had prime rib which was FAB).

After dinner, we took Aubrey back to our room and Melanie came down to hang out for a while. I spent the time while we were talking and laughing to pack. At 10:00, when we were all ready to crash, Analisa and I loaded up all of our remaining food, dropped Aubrey off at her hotel, then drove back up to campus to try to find Teffany to give her the food, since she was staying until Tuesday and the cafeteria wouldn’t be open. We figured we’d just go up to the dorm and hope we could find her—or leave the food where she might find it. Guess who happened to be out for a late stroll when we drove up. Yet another “God Thing.” We went back to the hotel after talking with Teffany for a few minutes, and spent the drive revisiting the many instances of “God Things” that had happened through the week and called it a night as soon as we got back to the room.

Monday morning, we got up, loaded everything into the car, and met Melanie at Denny’s for a big breakfast before she took off for Harrisburg to the east and we pointed the car northwest for Pittsburgh and points beyond.

I would say “for the last time,” but as I plan to return to SHU next June for the Alumni Retreat, I know I’ll be back, just in a different capacity. Then if/when I get published, I may get to go back in another capacity—as an instructor/mentor!

If I were still employed at The Tennessean, Saturday, June 24, 2006, would have been my 10 year anniversary. But I’m not, so it wasn’t (yea!).

We woke up Saturday morning feeling weird that it was the last full day of residency. Of course, it felt like we’d been there a month or two, and like the time had just flown. Of course, by the fourth day, fatigue is beginning to settle in—especially for me this time, since Wednesday and Thursday were such adrenaline-high days because of my thesis presentation and teaching sessions.

I had my final workshop critique session that morning—David Corwell (graduating) and three newbies: Monica Spence, Stephanie Pfeiffer, and Moira Richardson. I saved my in-depth critiques/comments for the newbies, as there wasn’t much that I found to say on David’s anyway. Even still, with four to critique in three hours with twelve people in the room, Leslie did have to cut me off at least once to keep us on track.

At lunch, all of the Women’s Fiction/Romance students sat together, which was a lot of fun!

The afternoon sessions were the visiting editors/agents blind-critiquing the pages submitted by Ones, Twos, Threes, and Fours who didn’t have completed manuscripts, followed by one-on-one pitch sessions for the other Fours and all Fives/graduating students. I’d originally thought graduating students wouldn’t have to go to the critique sessions until Mike Mullig told me Dr. Al had “strongly suggested” we attend.

Since I was walking with Vanessa Giunta when I left the cafeteria, I just stayed with her and ended up going to the Agent’s first session, which turned out to be very interesting—and I sat beside Melissa (completely a “God Thing,” as I’d put my stuff down in the very back of the room, then gone upstairs to check the room number for my pitch session later).

At 2:00, I went with Melissa to Kate Seaver’s second session. The first mss up for critique was Melissa’s, which Kate said she really liked and wanted to see more. Then, when the second submission went up on the overhead, a collective gasp swept through the Chicks sitting together in the back of the room—I was our absent Chick Jill Henry’s story . . . the one which her mentor had failed, said wasn’t publishable, and said there was no market for. Kate Seaver, Senior Editor for Berkley, LOVED IT and wanted to see more of it! Analisa surreptitiously text messaged Jillicious while the session continued, and I started concocting a plan. . . .

At 3:00, I sat down with Kate Seaver and pitched my book (read my one page synopsis). She said that is sounded like a book she would personally enjoy reading, however . . .

“I know,” I filled in the silence. “You don’t publish inspirational romance.”

So, we chatted for a few minutes about the program. When the clock showed I had about two minutes remaining, I decided to put my plan into action.

“Would it be okay if I did something a little out of the ordinary for a pitch session like this?” I asked her.

“Sure.”

“You remember the second manuscript you critique in your last session, the one about wanting a sperm-donor, not a relationship? You said you’d like to see more of it.”

“Oh, yes.” Her eyes lit up.

“Well, that was written by a friend of mine who couldn’t be here this week. Would it be all right if I told her to go ahead and submit it to you?”

“Definitely! Have her send a five-page synopsis and first three chapters, and have her put in the query letter that I read it here and asked for the submission.”

I was as elated as I would have been if she’d asked me to submit mine! Of course, I immediately had to call Jill and tell her the news so she could start working on putting her submission together.

This situation was just one more example of how God had His hand very visibly involved in everything going on at residency—I’d been required to pitch, even though neither of the editors nor the agent buy/represent my genre. I hadn’t planned to attend the critique sessions, but heard at the last minute that I “should.” I went to the 2nd Kate Seaver Session because I sat beside Melissa in the first session and learned Melissa was being critiqued and wanted to hear it and be there to support her. If God hadn’t brought about that series of events, I never would have had the opportunity to take a situation that was of no benefit to me and turn it into something potentially beneficial for a friend.

We sat outside the room cheering on each person before she went in to pitch. Although Melissa hadn’t been allowed to request a pitch session, we waited until everyone else was finished and then she slipped in to talk to Kate Seaver about her critique and secured an invitation to submit.

After pitch sessions were over, Lainey, Penny Dawn, Analisa, Melissa, and I drove about an hour east of Greensburg to the United Flight 93 memorial. (Melissa and I had a wonderful discussion on the ride over about being salt and light as Christians.) This is the site where the plane crashed on September 11, 2001, after the passengers tried to overcome the terrorists. While they sacrificed their lives, they saved the lives of countless others. Right now, the memorial is “temporary”—an enormous chain link fence holds the tributes left behind by visitors, along with memorials placed by many different groups. Then, about 300 yards away, a large American flag is framed up just over the top of the waving grasses, marking the place where the plane crashed.

Even with as many people as were there, and in spite of the groups of motorcyclists coming and going, the solitude and reverence of the place is moving. And the tributes left on the wall, along with the messages on the memorials, are enough to break even the most hardened of hearts.

I’m so glad I got to see it while it’s still “temporary”—I believe it’s more touching than some fancy, designed memorial will ever be.

Analisa and I headed back to Greensburg together, as we weren’t going to attend the editors/agent’s session or the reception. We did have two invites for afterward, though, but one ended up falling through.

Analisa and I went to Chili’s for dinner, still caught up in some pretty deep emotional conversation, which eventually lightened up.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed while waiting for the other gals to call us when they were finished at the reception and let us know where they were going.

We all ended up at the club/bar at the Sheraton—mostly Threes, Fours, and Fives, which was great, because I knew almost everyone. I had a chance to sit and catch up with Mike and Lee, both of whom I’d hardly seen all residency, and then just enjoyed kicking back with others I might never see again. Lee treated several of us to celebratory shots to toast graduation and then we all just had a good time—although one drink isn’t enough to get me out on the dance floor!

I took a shower when we got back to the hotel while Melissa crashed and Analisa critiqued. Analisa and I then looked at her digital photos from the days before and we finally crashed around 2 a.m.

Finally, a “normal” school day for me!  My chapter was being critiqued in workshop that morning, but since it was the “romance” genre workshop, with only six other students and Barb, I knew we’d have a ball—and we did, especially since we got to critique Kim Metzgar’s West Virginia Space Odyssey piece . . . then got to hear stories of when she had the UFO/Bigfoot beat for the newspaper where she used to work.  

We finished about 45 minutes early and went on down to the cafeteria, since we’d been warned the cafeteria would be full because of Freshman Orientation going on that day.  And it was a good thing we had gotten there early!  That was the lunch period set aside for continuing students to meet with their critique partners and most of them had to do it huddled around the corner of a table.  And those unfortunate enough to get there after the orientation crowd never even had a chance to get anything to eat.  In fact, the students in Mike Arnzen’s ARS (Advanced Reading Seminar) ended up ordering pizza, since most of them hadn’t been able to get lunch in the cafeteria.

I was in “The Info Dump & How to Manage It” that afternoon and had a lot of fun writing a Tom Clancy-esque piece about an experimental submarine—I do have a tendency to “dump” info on my reader in a first draft, just to get it all in there—then pare it down later.

After class, I drove Analisa down to Baskin Robbins for ice cream, then dropped her off at school for Kathryn Lambrecht’s thesis presentation while I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a few items like batteries for my MP3 player and an umbrella for Analisa.

I stopped at Starbucks for a grande Toffee Nut Latte with whipped cream, then went back to school for Kim Metzgar’s thesis presentation, which was, of course, funny and entertaining.  Afterward, Analisa, Melissa, and I went to Red Robin for burgers, and Lainey Ervin met us there (oh, and our waiter looked just like Elijah Wood!).

On our way back to the Comfort Inn, we stopped at Barnes & Noble and caught the tail end of the book signing, then went back to the room.  Melanie came down and showed us the stuff she’d found at Victoria’s Secret and Spencer’s to go in our care package to Jill Henry and then we all crashed for the night.

Although I wasn’t nervous about teaching, I was still in somewhat of a tizzy when I woke up Thursday morning, worrying about whether or not the computer/projector in the assigned classroom would work, as my entire lesson relied upon the PowerPoint presentation—again, worrying about something totally out of my control, so I just left it in God’s hands and trusted He would take care of making sure everything worked. After all, I’d already been seeing His hand through so much of what had happened the previous 48 hours.

We left the hotel early so I would have time to set up my presentation. Thankfully, Chun Lee and Dr. Al were already there and the computer and projector were both up and running. Kim Metzgar came in shortly thereafter, so all three of us were set up with plenty of time to spare before class started at 9:00 a.m.

Even though I would have chosen quite a different combination of people for the class from just looking at the list—because I would have been more comfortable with having more people that I know well in there—my session went even better than I’d hoped with lots of participation from the class and lots of feedback and questions afterward. The evaluator (one of the profs from the department of Education) told me I need to “take this show on the road,” and gave me nothing but extremely positive feedback. Since I taught first, I was able to sit back and relax—and enjoy Kim’s and Chun’s sessions.

Either Wednesday or Thursday before lunch (I can’t really remember which day), Penny Dawn and I walked over to the bookstore to get our accoutrements for graduation—cap & gown, tassel, and HOOD.

After lunch, I went into a session entitled “Accuracy in Mystery & Suspense.” When I signed up for it, I thought it would be more about working with adding mystery or suspense accurately into your writing, but it turned out to be the “Guns and Knives” class—so while there was some good information, I didn’t get much out of it.

The instructor let us out early, so I ran out to the car and retrieved my two “precious babies”—the printed copies of my thesis—and took them to the library along with the required approval and permission forms to leave for binding.

When I’d printed them at home several weeks before, I’d noticed after starting the second copy that the first box of paper, although the exact same brand and type, wasn’t marked “acid free,” so only the last 2/3 of the second copy was printed on paper I knew for sure was acid free. I’d called the library afterward—after much online discussion amongst my fellow graduates about what they would accept and what they wouldn’t, but the person in the library could only tell me that they tested the paper when it was turned in.

So, praying the whole time that I wouldn’t have to go purchase more paper if mine didn’t “pass the test,” I handed my copies over and watched as he flipped over the “official” copy—the second one I’d printed—and tested it with a special archivists’ pen. It passed the test, and I walked out with Analisa a few minutes later feeling a sense of relief—and of a bit of loss . . . after all, having turned that in meant I was really good and truly finished. Except for a few classes and workshops to attend the next few days, my time at SHU was over.

Analisa and I went back to the hotel while Melissa stayed on campus for her 6:00 mentor meeting (Analisa’s mentor was out of the country). At the hotel, we just kicked back and relaxed—watching a rerun episode of Charmed, which had an actor in it who is a template for one of my major secondary characters in HEI (Forbes).

We swung by the Sheraton and picked up Penny Dawn before heading back to school to get Melissa for dinner. We stayed and chatted with Dr. Al and Dr. Mike Arnzen for about 15-20 minutes, reminding them how much they were going to miss Penny Dawn and me after we graduated. Then we four Chicks went to TGIFridays for dinner before heading over to the Hampton Inn for the traditional “Wine Social.”

When we go there at 9:00 p.m., almost everyone was out behind the building at the “sword demonstration,” so it was pretty quiet inside and we had a chance to catch up with a few alumni as well as get to know a few newbies as well. Others slowly trickled in until we finally had a swinging party going (enough so that one of the hotel staff had to come tell us to keep the noise down).

We said our goodbyes around 11 p.m., dropped Penny Dawn off at the Sheraton (laughing and giggling all the way), then went back to the gold ol’ Comfort Inn to crash for the night.

One thing I forgot to mention about Tuesday is that when we got back to the hotel that night, I had the daunting task of deciding what I wanted to read at my thesis reading/defense the following evening. I finally settled on two of my favorite scenes from about 2/3 of the way through – my “That’s Amore” scene where Anne and George kiss for the first time and the scene where Anne finds out the identity of the mysterious man she’s been planning this wedding for. I had to write a brief intro to it so everyone would be up to par on the story.

Amazingly, even with the nervousness of this still hanging over my head, I slept well and awoke refreshed Wednesday morning.

We got to campus a few minutes early so I could print my selected scenes and have time throughout the day to read through them several times (and edit as necessary).

First session of the day was our mixed “book discussion” class where we discussed the two communal books everyone was required to read. We had a wonderful thought/debate provoking discussion of Click, Clack, Moo and Holes – actually wish the session could have been longer!

I sat beside David Corwell in this session—David and I were to go head-to-head later in the day for our thesis readings at 5:00. Well, neither of us missed the fact that the clock in this classroom was stopped on 4:55! As if we really needed the reminder.

After Book Discussion, they broke us out into “graded” sessions – all the Ones together learning about the program and expectations, Twos & Threes together learning about the genres in popular fiction, Fours and non-graduating Fives together to hear from Dr. Al everything they will need to do this semester to get ready to graduate in January, and all of the graduating students together for a session on the publishing process with Barb Miller. I’m sorry to say that I spent most of this hour and a half reading through my scenes for later in the day.

After lunch with the “Chicks” (our self-proclaimed/invented “sorority” for current students and alumnae of the romance/women’s fiction genre), we all split up into our chosen workshops, several of us in “Emotional Filters and Crossing Genres.” While it was a wonderful class, I probably didn’t get as much out of it as I could, because as time crept away, I got more and more nervous about my thesis presentation.

When class ended at 4:00, everyone else went away—either back to their dorm/hotel rooms, down to the cafeteria for “dinner” or somewhere else. I don’t know—all I know is that it worked perfectly for me as I had the whole 4th floor to myself, which kept me from feeling quite so frazzled. I wanted to talk a little about the Christian Fiction market and realized I didn’t have a copy of my thesis—hard or electronic—so spent a few minutes looking up some stats (growth and sales figures). I called Mom and tried to walk her through downloading something from audible.com, text-messaged with Jill Henry and Lainey Ervin, and then watched in awe as at least 40 people crammed into the small classroom I’d been assigned. It was literally standing-room-only. God is so good—I’d been worried that only my closest friends would be there, and He provided an audience beyond anything I’d hoped or prayed for!

Barb Miller gave me a glowing introduction and then I took my place at the front of this “full house.”

I talked for about five minutes about my genre and then started my reading. I was on about the third or fourth page (of about 20) when I finally relaxed enough to not feel like I was about to hyperventilate—good thing I left out the part about George’s being British, as there was no way I could have done a British accent!

Right at the 20 minute mark (and at a critical hook in the scene), I stopped and looked up at the audience and my mentors. Hoping I already knew the answer, I asked, “Shall I stop or do you want me to keep reading?” I read another couple of pages, then spent the next fifteen minutes talking about how I came up with the idea, the Real World Templates for my characters, how I came up with the multiple conflicts for my characters, and how I incorporate my Christian Worldview into my writing.

In the few minutes between my presentation and Michael Mullig’s, Barb and Leslie signed my thesis approval forms—in a whirlwind of people coming and going, receiving and giving gifts, and thanking people for their very kind comments.

Since the room I was in had filled up for Michael’s thesis reading, I ended up going down the hall to Lee Howard’s dark/supernatural suspense thesis reading. As soon as it got started, I realized I’d walked out WITHOUT MY THESIS APPROVAL FORM! So I missed the first part of Lee’s introduction worrying about that—but his reading from the prologue of his novel caught and kept my attention (and I don’t think I’ll ever eat marshmallows again).

After his presentation, I rushed back to the other room. Barb searched through her papers, but couldn’t find my forms—and then I saw some papers on the front table which looked familiar . . . my notes and excerpt. My thesis approval forms were right there, sitting Michael’s which he had left behind, too.

Then for the next hour, I was able to sit and enjoy listening to Penny Dawn read from her (already published) thesis—erotic romance—so our audience (most of whom had come to mine and come back for hers) was treated to the full 180-degree spectrum of the romance genre in the course of the evening.

As soon as we could get away, Melissa, Analisa, and I went back to the hotel so I could change clothes before we met all the other girls at Olive Garden for dinner and a celebratory drink. It was a good thing we did go back to the hotel first, as “Jillicious In A Box” had arrived that afternoon. Jill Henry, who because of a grievous error on someone else’s part wasn’t able to come for this residency, had sent us a “care package,” which we took with us to dinner and laughed ourselves silly over the funny, silly, and down-right naughty gifts she sent us—and made the day of our two waitresses who told us they’d had a horrible night until we got there.

After dinner, Melanie Schaeffer came down to our room and I practiced my teaching session for the next day by going through it on the laptop getting feedback from Melanie and Melissa. Students cannot choose which of the graduating students’ teaching sessions they get to attend, so the only Chick in my session was Danielle Hinesley. But it worked out well—I got to practice my session and get feedback with people who wouldn’t hear it again the next day!

What a wonderful Wednesday!

The cab picked me up at 5:30 a.m. along with my extremely heavy suitcases and my carry-on bag which contained a copy of my thesis novel printed on 361 pages of acid-free, watermarked paper.

I used the self-check-in at the airport. It offered me an “earlier” departure flight, but when I pulled it up to look at, it left only 10 minutes earlier, connected in Atlanta (instead of Cincinnati) and arrived in Pittsburgh 10 minutes later–all for an additional charge of $25. No thank you! But then, when I went to the counter to check my suitcases, the attendant told me they were expecting severe weather in Cinci and there was a chance my connection to Pitt could be delayed a few hours, possibly canceled. Not wanting that, I agreed to re-route (at no additional charge) through Atlanta, remembering that my friend Analisa Oviedo was flying the same airline through ATL and arriving around the time they were telling me this flight got in. After everything was settled, I text-messaged her to let her know I would be there so we could hook up, then let Delta take me to Atlanta instead of Cincinnati while I continued reading HOLES (Louis Sachar — what a fun read!) for school.

In ATL, I met up with Analisa and we had a nice visit while waiting on our Pitt flight. While waiting, we learned from a couple of people sitting near us that they’d been scheduled to fly to Pitt earlier that morning, but their flight had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. They were stand-by for our flight at 10:00 and for another one at 3:00 that afternoon. I hope they finally got there!

We arrived safely in Pitt at 11:45 a.m. I was once again impressed by how clean, modern, and easy to navigate that airport is.

At baggage claim, we found Melissa Doll, our “third party” this trip. Because I had been rerouted, I was concerned about my stuff — okay, I admit, I worry about it every time I fly because it’s my stuff and it’s not under my control. But almost as soon as I walked up, I saw both suitcases. Analisa’s seemed to be taking longer, so Melissa and I went over to get the rental car, where I had to wait in line quite a while (I don’t wait well). I was surprised Analisa hadn’t shown up after about 10-15 minutes, but thought maybe she’d run into someone else from school and was waiting with him/her.

As I was signing the car rental agreement, Analisa called to say her suitcase hadn’t arrived and she was still over in baggage claim, so we rejoined her there. Come to find out, the flight from ATL was overly heavy, so they left the baggage of about 35-40 people behind. she had to fill out a form to have her suitcase delivered to the hotel when it arrived on the next flight from ATL.

Melissa, Analisa and I stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch upon leaving the airport in our sleek black Pontiac Grand Prix. What a wonderful time of catching up,, even though it seemed like we’d just seen each other six days rather than six months before.

From the airport, it’s about a 30-45 minute drive to Greensburg where we got checked in at the Comfort Inn and unloaded/unpacked in our room with a king-sized bed and roll-away (so much more room than in January with 2 queen size beds with the roll-away). We discovered we had a microwave and fridge, too! Which was great because Analisa and I wanted to be able to pack our own lunches to take to school, since we’ve never been overly impressed with the cafeteria there.

Analisa and Melissa stayed at the hotel to rest while I drove about 5 miles south of Greensburg to get a spa gift certificate for Wendy Lynn, the program’s secretary–a job I respect and fully sympathize with. After getting that, I stopped at Pier One to get gifts for my faculty mentors, Leslie Guccione and Barbara Miller. By this time, it was pushing 5:00. So I went back to the hotel to get Analisa and Melissa so we could go to Target and the grocery store before orientation.

After all of our errands and going back to the hotel to put the groceries in the fridge, we ended up walking into the library at Seton Hill University right at 7:00, but everyone was still mingling. I had a brief moment to meet my newbie–Aubrey Curry–and to say hello to/hug other friends.

Dr. Albert Wendland oriented us by recognizing the faculty and staff, newbies/”ones”, and graduating students; making announcements; and introducing the theme of the week: critiquing–but more so being a community of writers who assist and support each other.

After trying to talk to/catch up with everyone I know after orientation, Analisa, Melissa, Danielle Hinesley, Melanie Schaeffer, and I went to our favorite Mexican place for dinner–Cozumel, which is right in front of our hotel. They were getting ready to close in 20 minutes, but recognized us and invited us to stay as long as we wanted to–which wasn’t too long, as we were exhausted and really just wanted to go to bed, which we did around 11 p.m., excited about what the next 5 days might bring!

Here is the text of the prayer I was blessed to be able to give at my Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction commencement ceremony Sunday, June 25.

Blessed Creator and sustainer of life, we enter your presence with grateful hearts.

Only you know the path of life that has brought each person here, and we thank you for directing our steps and intersecting our lives for a brief but shining time. We have met opportunities and faced challenges that have shaped who we are today. Please use the wisdom we have gained as a blessing for others. May we always listen for the whisper of your grace as we move through our lives, and may we always use our writing to encourage others to live in harmony and create a world in which there is peace, inclusiveness, and justice. May we find inspiration in the beauty and whimsy of your creation, and may we never lose the love of story you have woven into our very souls.

Thank you, Lord, for this university and for the faculty and staff who have given of themselves to help us succeed through their teaching and mentoring and, most especially, working so diligently behind the scenes to meet our needs and keep us on track.

May we never waste nor take for granted our creativity. Bless us, Lord, with pens and paper a-plenty, ideas overflowing, and, if it is your will, multi-book contracts and at least five-figure advances.

Acknowledging that we call you by many different names and worship you differently, I pray in the name by which I know you best, Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.