My first print publication in a literary journal is out (my previous publications were both in online journals). This one is a nonfiction essay called “Farzad, Son of Glory,” and appears in the 2010 edition of Bayou, a literary journal published by the University of New Orleans. (Support the cause of literature by buying a hard copy here.)
For now, though, you can read it online in PDF format by clicking here. (Sorry, the quality of the scan isn’t the best.)
As for me, I’ve been in my new full-time job now for three weeks, and while the job is great (as is having a job tout court), it’s been very busy. I landed on a team that was right in the middle of field work, which is always a time of crazy-busyness and hecticity (no, that’s not really a word, I just made it up). Besides that, I have a horrible commute that involves dropping my daughter off at a daycare in the opposite direction of the metro, then retracing my route and driving like a maniac to get to the metro in time to catch the 7:50 train downtown, running at top speed on foot from metro to work, and then repeating the whole thing in reverse at the end of the day. I get up at 6am, get home at 6:30pm, and just have time to feed Amandine dinner, bathe her, and put her in her pajamas before she conks out, c. 8pm. At which point I’m a vegetable and incapable of any further brain functioning, and soon thereafter am also asleep.
I expect things to ease up a bit starting next month though, because Amandine will be starting in a new daycare in the building where I work, so my commute will be shorter, and we can go downtown together, which means I get 2 and 1/2 more hours a day with her, and that’s a lot. And fieldwork will be mostly done and we’ll be into report-writing, which is also grueling, but in a less tightly-scheduled way. So hopefully I can write more regularly then—I have a new novel that I’ve been trying to start, but it’s hard to get much writing done when one regularly metamorphoses into a brainless vegetable every night after one’s toddler is in bed.
Lastly, I wanted to give a shout-out to a friend who I recently found out makes amazing steampunk jewelry out of old clocks and sells it on Etsy. Check out her shop – it’s called The Blue Carbuncle (in clever reference to a Sherlock Holmes story!)
Therese Doucet 
I know you don’t have internet right now, but I found myself reading this and wanted to comment. The whole situation you describe here sounds rough, rough, rough. I hope the new commute is much improved and that Amandine’s daycare situation is everything you hoped. A new job and a big move: those are two of life’s biggest stressors. It’s too bad they so often occur together. I’m sending you some good strong juggling vibes.
Dear Pmom,
Thanks so much for your thoughts and well-wishing, and the juggling vibes – they will definitely come in handy! It’s true that it has been very rough adjusting to all the changes at once, so your kind words and sympathy mean a lot to me. A big hug, Therese