A lot has been going on and I just haven’t had the time to update. My apologies in advance for the long, long post.
Yesterday I attended my convocation ceremony and have officially graduated! The ceremony was early in the morning and, even if it was a nice day, I was extremely hot in the toga. I couldn’t help feeling sleepy, but I think the fact of graduating finally hit me when everyone began to clap for the final person to pass through and shake the Chancellor/Vice President’s hand. Only then was I suddenly struck with a wave of intense relief… I’m done!
I was unaware of this going into graduation, but apparently my grades ended me off on footing for an Honours Bachelor of Arts “with Distinction”. I guess that’s a good thing because only a handful of Trin students graduated without it. Nevertheless, it was a really nice surprise.
As I was walking up to the stage and shaking the Vice President’s hand, she congratulated me and asked me what I’m planning on doing now that I’ve finished my degree. I told her I’m going to write. She asked what I planned to write. I told her I’d like to write fiction – short stories or novels. So she congratulated me again and said she can’t wait to see my name in print. Neither can I!
In terms of writing, I recently registered for the Writers and Exile program at the Tatamagouche Centre. The program is a week-long intensive writing workshop focused on creative non-fiction, fiction, and culture’s role in these forms. The mentors for this retreat will be Shani Mootoo, author of Cereus Blooms at Night, Aaron Berhane from PEN Canada, and Gwen Davies, founder of Community of Writers. The only limitation I have with this program is its price ($620 for the program, accommodation, and food costs + approx. $450 in travel costs), but I received word that I’ve been approved for a $200 bursary from the Tatamagouche Centre and I applied for a scholarship there as well. I’m hoping all goes well. I used my published short story as part of my writing sample and received an awesome reference letter from Krishna. If everything goes through, I’ll be heading off to Nova Scotia for a week after I come back from my cruise this July!
In regards to scriptwriting, I’ve still been vigorously working on my script but am still in the plot revision stage. I’m not sure if I’m just really slow-going or if this is how long it takes to set the foundation down for a feature film. Although the last day of Krishna’s contract was June 15, I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow morning for our final go-over. Krishna has really been an awesome mentor – a little rough at times and blunt when things in our script have to go, but exactly what I needed – someone to tell me how things stand exactly as they are. After my time with Krishna is done, I’m taking a bit of a break from the screenwriting, only to return to my script with a vengeance later on to ready it for film fests and scriptwriting competitions.
On the side, my scripwriting friend, Maureen Holland, and I are volunteering for the ReelHeART International Film Festival. Founded in 2005, the ReelHeART Festival has grown to include the works of over a hundred different filmmakers from all around the world. The volunteer opportunity is a pretty awesome way to learn more about the industry, see new filmmaking faces, and view emergent films and screenplays for free! Maureen and I signed up for the Lunch n’ Learn morning shifts. Although the morning is a bit hectic, we get to see live reading performances of the winning screenplays selected for this year’s festival and meet with industry execs who discuss the art of screenwriting and the steps to discovery, distribution and filmmaking. Oh, we also get some free lunch – obviously the reason why I signed up for this shift. Haha, just kidding. But seriously, I signed up for this opportunity on a last minute whim upon request from Maureen, and have been wow-ed by the windows it’s opening up, providing excellent insight into the (still widely mysterious – to me at least-) film industry.
Last but definitely not least, as part of my graduation gift in celebration of yesterday’s event, my brother presented me with the following: https://miaherrera.com! Currently, the domain name redirects users to my blogspot, but soon I will have an up and running website of my own. I’ll update everyone when the website is in place. For now, feel free to continue following me here on blogspot or on my Twitter – a more informal place where I track what I’m doing, what I’m reading, what I’m seeing and what I’m listening to.
If you’ve made it thus far in my post, congratulations! I’ll be back soon!
Tomorrow I’ll be volunteering for ReelHeART International Film Festival’s Friday Lunch n Learn session from 9:30am to 2pm. As with today’s event, the actual event begins at 11:15am and includes a Subway lunch. Tomorrow’s discussion, however, costs $12 at the door and involves a workshop discussion by top industry professionals about how to get your film out there and seen. Like today’s Lunch n Learn, tomorrow’s event will be held at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex St).