Today was a largely administrative day. I overslept and missed the escort from hotel to campus, but I did manage to still arrive for the breakfast/checkin/meet and greet in the morning. This was followed by a brief orientation session and an introduction to the blackboard system that we’re to use for all of our assignments.
Fun fact revealed during orientation: Out of 46 students total, all but 15 are fiction writers. The rest are poets (8) and creative non-fiction (7). The poets look to have a lot of opportunity for individual attention in the program.
Lunch was salad and sandwiches. Not really a great selection of breads, nothing really grainy which is what I’ve grown accustomed to. There was a big block of free time in the afternoon that I dedicated to getting some reading and writing done.
Late afternoon was an introduction to the library services, then we had a reception at Plant Hall, the Moorish-style former hotel that’s the center of the University of Tampa campus. As an introvert, I found this to be about an hour too long for me to really be able to do the stand and mingle thing so I wandered off a bit to see if I could find my way to somewhere I didn’t belong.
The evening’s readings were from Maile Chapman and Brock Clarke. The reading was in theory open to the public, but I didn’t see any sign of this. Maile read a short story of hers, while Clarke read the first three chapters of a new novel he’s working on, something that sounded quite appealing and I look forward to reading it when it’s published.
Tomorrow will be a full and busy day.
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