Oh, Happy Day

First thing is first. Yesterday was the greatest day ever. Why, you ask? Before I went off to work, I saw in my mailbox what I had been waiting for for over a week: three books written/ compiled/ edited by Joyce Carol Oates. I’m excited to read them and review them. Even though these books are at least seven years old, it will be quite the breath of fresh air I’ve been looking for.

As a third year Creative Writing and English student, it could be assumed that I would have plenty of time to read and write on the side. This, however, is not the case. It would be a luxury to be able to sit down and read something I’d like to read rather than reading an array of books, pamphlets, plays, stories, and excerpts assigned for survey courses of British and American literature, as specific topic courses.

Unfortunately, as this is my first post, I do not have anything substantial to say! However, this weekend or sometime this week, I’m going to review/critique “Wind” by Michael Czyzniejewski. Mike actually is a graduate of the same Rhetoric/Creative Writing program that I am currently enrolled in here at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This story is in his book Elephants in Our Bedroom.

We had an Alumni Week in the English/Creative Writing Department here at UIUC and Mike Czyzniejewski and Matthew Gaven Frank were the guest alumni. I remember Mike gave three pieces of advice and words of wisdom. The first, if you’re a writer, you don’t give out people business cards, otherwise you’re not really a writer. Second, college is bad for your liver. Third, within the first paragraph, he tries to identify the subject, the problem, and the setting of the story.

With his story “Wind,” I hope to delve into his writing style. What he has done with this story, and if he has actually shown the subject, problem, and setting within the first paragraph, and seen how he has developed his story.

All I can provide you with, my dear readers, is the inscription he wrote within my book: “Dear Crap-for-brains, Thanks so much for being Juba when you could have been so many other things to me and everyone. We’ll always have EB131. –Mike”

If only I could explain the Juba reference and "crap-for-brains" right now. Maybe in a few weeks I can reveal its true meaning. Until then, fare thee well, dear readers.