Hey Y'all

Hello faithful readers, I know a new post has been a long time coming--since my last update in 2010, I've gotten a new computer (Dell laptop, courtesy of Chris Rogers), and experienced the wonder of cable/wireless internet! Yes, I was a dial-up user until very recently with my old iMac, part of the reason it's been so long since my last update.

Well, a lot has happened in the past year--in addition to my personal technological advances, I was a featured reader at last fall's Cheap Beer & Prose at Hugo House, and read at the Spring Off Hours Reading at Sole Repair in April 2011. I recently received a 2011 GAP grant from Artist Trust to help finish work on my debut novel, Biloxi Suite Trapeze, a mainstream romantic comedy about a troupe of Eastern-European acrobats at a ritzy Gulf Coast casino hotel. I am 100K words into this work and hope to have a clean draft by December 2011; The Artist Trust grant is allowing me to take some time off work at Rudy's Barbershop to finish my novel. I was also the lucky recipient of a scholarship to take the 10-week Fall Master Class in Prose at Hugo House taught by author Peter Mountford (A Young Man's Guide To Late Capitalism), so will finish that up in a couple weeks. It's been a fantastic--if slightly grueling--course in novel writing with a bunch of talented writers who have provided invaluable input  in every workshop: seriously, such a great group of writers, couldn't have asked for a better experience. My UW MFA classmate, Elissa Washuta, is also attending the Master Class and blogging about it on Hugo House's site: http://hugohouse.org/blog/2011/nov/master-class-fiction-week-7-elissa-too-busy-write-because-shes-blogging-and-watching-t

So things have been good--while I'm still cutting hair part-time to pay the bills, I have been working full-time on my novel and also sending out short stories for publication.Oh, I did have some successs there--my short story, "Celebrity Sperm Bank" was published in The Ledge Magazine No. 33: http://www.theledgemagazine.com/current%20issue.html

It's a great issue, only $12, my story is on page 326 or so, it was a finalist in their 2009 fiction contest, buy it and I'll sign it if I see you around town!

I guess that's all from my end right now--I'm on Twitter, @PaulletteGaudet, and have a Facebook page. Being busy with writing class on Monday nights has cut into my Salsa dancing, so I am behind on that, but miss it greatly. My good friends Talia and Nancy keep me up-to-date on the salsa world, but I aching to actually get out there and dance myself.

Well, I promise to be a better blogger in future, none of this taking a year off! Hopefully my life will be interesting enough to warrant regular updates,
xoxo-P