This wonderful class was followed up with a weeklong class on Dark Fiction. An excellent class with an excellent teacher, Richard Thomas of Chicago, Illinois (soon to be on his way to Transylvania to teach a class on Horror). If anybody I ever met knew anything about their subject, he did. A great guy too, open, honest and funny when he wanted to be. I learned a lot. Everyday brought something new, and I met a whole bunch of great people who could really write some great stuff. I was impressed and considered myself lucky to be among some of the best 'fledgling' writers in the nation.
Now, I will confess, I am still struggling with my genre. I have written Memoir, Adventure-Romance, General Fiction, Coming of Age, Suspense/Thriller and Horror and I am starting to feel like I need to pick one and stick to it. Some people say, "Oh, no, just do what you are doing! You are such a diverse writer." Then there are the others who say something more in line with the quote: "Its too easy for a writer to be like a prism, scattering a spectrum of light, but not being true to any color,they never find direction." So, I struggle, hoping that by the time my next two classes roll around in July, I will have decided which path to follow. The one that lay before me or the one on my left that diverges into a wood.