I’ve been wanting to post this since, well, the start of the semester, but seeing that I am already four weeks in, it can only mean either of these two things: there is nothing good to say so far, or that I have been so short of time with all the writing that I haven’t been able to blog a decent post.

Thankfully, it’s the latter.

This semester, I am studying under Richard Rayner (author of The Blue Suit: A Memoir of Crime, and others) and Janet Fitch (author of White Oleander and Paint It Black). Richard has one of the sharpest editing eye I know and it’s been incredible learning his nifty techniques. Janet has been engaging our senses by making us do seemingly strange but highly effective assignments like smelling dirt and eating fuzzy peaches. I love White Oleander and have been wanting to take her class since a year ago (there is a wait list!) and I finally got in, yay! Both classes have been really great so far and I’m looking forward to see how the rest of the semester will pan out.

I must say, it’s been such a joy reading the stories sent to The Southern California Review! There are so many compelling and thought provoking fiction, essays, poems, screenplay and comics out there so if you have a story to tell, do send it to us! We want to read it! Submission guidelines can be found here.

Also, I’ll be reading one of my short stories at The Last Bookstore at downtown LA in November so that’s always nerve-racking  exciting. More details as the date draws near.

So yep! I guess this is a sort of quick hi after my little hiatus. Though I’ll be writing like crazy, I will still update this blog so stay tuned!