I do feel like the title of this post isn't the best of my rhyming game, but it was the perfect description of my time in Italy. I travelled from Dubai to Florence by way of Rome to attend the Futurescapes speculate fiction writer's workshop for writers in fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres.
It was my first time participating in a workshop like this, and it was an amazing opportunity to receive feedback on the first 50 pages of my novel as well as my query letter (the letter writers send to agents asking them to represent them and submit their work to editors, required by most traditional publishers) and synopsis (a summary of the rest of my novel).
The faculty were outstanding, and I received feedback directly from Lucienne Diver (a U.S. agent for N.K. Jemisin and for two of my friends from college, one of whom I interviewed for the blog previously), Zoe Plant (an agent from the UK), and Matt Kirby (an award-winning young adult and middle-grade U.S. author).
We all enjoyed a special session on including sensory details in our writing taught by Fran Wilde, a Nebula Award-winning author whose short fiction I've been reading and loving in Uncanny Magazine for years. She announced early in our workshop a surprise contest where if we completed a sensory detail writing exercise she would pick a few winners to get copies of her books.
I knew I had to participate, and I was so thrilled I won! I picked as my prize an Advance Reader Copy (meaning a print edition of the book before it goes to official publication) of her short story collection, "A Catalog of Storms", which she was kind enough to sign for me. The story "A Catalog of Storms" made a huge impact on me when I read it for the first time, and it has some of the best expressions of familial love and grief I've ever read.
I also learned so much from the other writers who participated. I was part of a five-person critique group with excerpts spanning many genres: space western, contemporary first-world fantasy (meaning fantasy set in today's world and today's time) including Meso-American mythological elements, secondary-world queer romantasy inspired partially by Spanish and Persian history, secondary-world dark fantasy inspired by African American folklore, and my own submission that I had submitted as a dystopian medical science fiction and Zoe Plant assured me fell firmly within "high-concept speculative fiction" - a label I love.
In Florence, I did several group walking tours as well as a hike. It's so fun to do things like this with other creatives, because for example we hiked to the top of a hill with a beautiful historic cemetery, where we did a writing exercise exploring how the societies in our novel understand and cope with death. It was a profound and inspiring experience, and to my delight besides us there was a group of artists similarly sketching various views. Florence is still truly a city of the arts even today.
I took advantage of my solo trip to Italy to add a few days in Rome to my itinerary, as well. I visited the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was the closest Temple to Dubai until the recent completion of the Nairobi, Kenya Temple (which I also can't wait to visit someday).
When I went, the Rome Temple was completely packed and they had to bring in rows and rows of extra chairs, and I learned it was a special final Temple visit day for missionaries assigned to Italy who were finishing their missions. How wonderful it was to share my Temple day with them!
On a complete coincidence, some of my dearest friends I had lived and worked with in Seoul happened to be visiting Rome for a weekend when I was there, so we met up for a late dinner and gelato. It was so nice to see them again. One of the best parts about being in the Foreign Service is having friends all over the world you never know when you're going to reunite with on a whim!
As you can probably tell from the photos I've sprinkled throughout this blog post, I especially enjoyed walking around many beautiful churches and cathedrals. I love the history and art in these sacred buildings, as well as their openness to the public. Multiple times, I found myself kneeling in prayer alongside total strangers from all over the world in these beautiful spaces designed to help us turn our hearts to God and more spiritual things than the bright, noisy streets just outside.
On my last morning in Rome, I decided to swing by one more church that happened to be right next to my hotel before I went to the airport, and to my surprise I discovered only after I arrived that that church was the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where Pope Francis was just laid to rest. I was grateful to have the opportunity to pay my respects and see such a special place before I left.
I came back home with a mind bursting with creative energy, which I'm already applying to finishing this first draft and then hopefully getting started as soon as possible on revising my novel. I had so much fun in Italy, but I really missed my family and it's good to be back with them. I would definitely recommend a writing workshop to any writers who are looking to take their craft to the next level, build community, and take some time away from the stresses of regular daily life.
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