Free stuff/exciting stuff!

Hey guys! First of all, hello! I've enjoyed reading everyone's summer entries. It's cool to see what your interests are and lives are outside of the MFA world.

I've been having a lot of "non-MFA" stuff happen lately-- I got engaged, and I'm getting married in August. I've been writing music reviews and interviews for my college hometown's paper, the Evansville Courier & Press, and some of that has translated to my other blog-- I got to talk to Art Alexakis from Everclear (a favorite band from my teenage years-- I still think Songs from an American Movie is my favorite narrative album of all time), and more recently, Mary Gauthier.

Mary's latest album is autobiographical-- The Foundling is about her own adoption, her search for (and later, rejection by) her birth mother, and processing all of that. It's really good, and if you listen to any kind of folk or indie music, you ought to get a copy. I've got one for free up at my website right now (which is the reason I mention any of this)-- if you want to win, just go to Katie Darby Recommends.

I've also been in contact with a lot of my favorite writers, which is partially because: I've decided to defer from the MFA program for a year. Right now, I need to get things settled in my personal life: I want to focus on building the strongest marriage I can and on figuring out what I want out of writing (since lately, I seem to be doing almost all music writing). I'm still technically enrolled at SIU, and I'll actually be teaching a comp and lit class at a local university in Indiana in the fall. I'm still part of the MFA community, but now I'm the fringe guy.

This summer has already been the most exciting one of my life, though. I wish the same to all of you. Hope your lives are going well!