two days of hope

Yesterday was my interview at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. I found the place easily enough, and the interview itself felt pretty good. I was nervous at the start, but India Spartz (who would be my supervisor if I get the job) is a very friendly woman and made me feel comfortable. The project will involve physical appraisal and re-foldering of hand drawn maps and watercolors of archaeological artifacts. It would last eight weeks--all of June and July, essentially--and actually be paid work! Internships are almost never paid, so that's a very big deal. They expect to make their decision by the beginning of April, so I should know fairly soon whether I'll be doing that for the summer or something else. (The something else might include auditing a course on Medieval Manuscripts, which would be pretty sweet but impossible to do with a full-time internship) Keep the prayers coming!

Today focused on something completely different. A woman who works for GSLIS was having a launch party for her second YA novel, The King's Rose, a piece of historical fiction about Henry VIII's fifth wife. There was a reading and then a panel discussion about the issue of risque material in YA literature. My only reason for going was to corner the author afterward and find out who represents her so that I could have a good lead in my thus far unfruitful agent search. She was excited to hear my question and eagerly gave me the name of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency, which is actually based here in Boston. As soon as I get time to prepare my materials, I'll be sending them a query. It may just end in another rejection, but at least this way I don't feel like I'm ignoring my writing life.

Oh, and fall course listings have been posted, so I'm looking at what I want to be doing next fall. I just need to verify with my advisor that a required course will also be offered in the spring, and then I should be all set. I'm doing my best to avoid the problem I have this semester of never having a whole day off--two of the classes I want are on Tuesday and the other is on Thursday (no more Saturday classes!). Now if I could just make sure my work schedules follow the same lines...

-Kim