I'm thrilled to be a part of Rosen Trevithick's promotional tour for her new book, Straight Out of University, and am proud to be the only American stop on the tour.  And since it's always been a secret dream of mine to host a talk show, that's the visualization I had in my head when I conducted this interview.  (My keyboard is too crap to put this all in dialogue form, so you'll just have to imagine the TV-inteviewness of it all.)

Playwright and novelist Rosen Trevithick was born in Cornwall, during the Chinese year of the sheep. She studied at Oxford before moving back to the West Country. She now lives on the south coast of Devon with two cats, Mr. Cubert and Mrs. Wonderlickle.

Rosen Trevithick

Trevithick says that people she met in Oxford inspired her to write, but Straight Out of University is entirely fictional.  (I can confirm that she draws inspiration from others, as I was very excited to see one of my own suggestions in the book!)  This is Trevithick's second novel.

And now, on to the questions...

Kait:  I tend to get more hits on my Twitter than on my blog.  Can you pitch your book to me in 140 characters or less?
Rosen:  Sophie's uni life consists of passionate love affairs, liberal activism & boundary-pushing. She returns to Cornwall and everything changes.

Kait:  139 characters!  Awesome!  Now, moving right along:  please tell me two truths and a lie about Straight Out of University.
Rosen:  
1.) The beginning is set at a fictional Oxford college called St Cuthberts.
2.) I created the trailer using the Facebook graffiti app.
and 3.) There's a junior dean directly based on Kaitlin Walsh, called Kaity Welsh.

Kait:  I can vouch for Rosen's amazing Graffiti app skills, because once she used the Graffiti app to interpret a dream I had.  I was wondering, though:  when I first met you, you seemed to be more focused on writing plays. What sparked your decision to start writing novels?  Is there anything easier/harder about writing something to be read rather than performed?
Rosen:  A play needs a team to bring it to life.  I wanted to write something between just me and the reader, so I decided to try novel writing.  I enjoy writing prose, but I find play writing easier, because my favourite thing to write is dialogue.

Kait:  So what's next for Rosen Trevithick?  Any new writing in the works?
Rosen:  I've written two short sketches, which will be performed by The Coffee House Players in Exeter, this autumn.  I'm at the very early stages of planning a children's book.

Kait: So who do you think will win the World Series - the St. Louis Cardinals or the Texas Rangers?
Rosen:  Huh?

Kait:  Haha, that question wasn't really fair, so I'll give you a bonus question.  Is there any question your blog tour hosts would ask about your writing, or any question you wish people would stop asking?  If so, please answer it here.  You don't even have to tell me the question - I like out-of-context remarks.
Rosen:  The British monarch is a queen.

Thanks for stopping by, Rosen.  Readers, you can find Rosen's plays and novels here, available for the e-Reader of your choice.  (US Readers, be sure to click on the link to download the texts from the US version of Amazon.)

Here are the rest of the stops on Rosen's blog tour:

• Monday, 7th November - Literature & Fiction
• Tuesday, 8th November - yours truly!
• Wednesday, 9th November - Along the Write Lines
• Thursday, 10th November - Mel Comley, Author
• Friday, 11th November - Bisexuality and Beyond
• Saturday, 12th November - Fentonton

That's all for now, folks.  Good night!

It's been a while, I know.  Let's just put it this way:  I'm still here for a while.

But I wanted to get back up and running and posting and writing again.  Coming up tomorrow, I'll be interviewing Rosen Trevithick about her new book, Straight Out of University.  My interview is part of her six (seven?) part blog tour to promote the book.

So, if any of you are still out there reading, check back tomorrow!

As I mentioned previously, this week I made my way back across the pond to take part in my DPhil viva.  I won't know my results for a few weeks, but I thought I would take this opportunity to make what might be my last post from England for quite a while.

The viva seemed to go pretty well.  I am happy with my answers, and so was my supervisor.  It is now only a matter of how major or minor my corrections will be.  I don't think I was asked anything extraordinary or unfair - it was all reasonable and more or less expected.

I also had many opportunities to catch up with friends over dinner, brunch, parties, etc.  For me, those experiences were just as important as the academic ones during my time here.

Sure, it's not the same as it was when I started, and many of my friends are no longer in Oxford.  But it was a great feeling to pick up where I left off, even after nearly eight months away.

Stay tuned...this blog isn't done just yet.

Love from the land of Ox,
Kaitlin

Yesterday, he made his first visit to our house, where we were able to take a family photo with my grandfather.  Four generations, ranging from three weeks to almost 92 years old, were together in one photo.

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Next on the "potentially bloggable topics" agenda:

• Have started a job.  It feels great to be actually working.
• Saturday is my birthday - the big 3-1.  Nothing exciting planned, mostly because...
• I leave for England on Sunday to have my viva on the 30th.  Gah!!!

I may have submitted my thesis, but I'm not done yet.  I just found out this week that I'll be headed back to the UK to have my viva on March 30.


I can't believe this is actually it.

So today I went with my mom and my sister to Babies 'R' Us and Pottery Barn Kids to buy and exchange a few things for my sister.  As I walked around the stores, I noticed a lot of things were divided into themes:  jungle animals, cars, teddy bears, sports, etc.  It got me thinking about how when we're little, a lot of our "likes" are chosen by people around us.  I can't help but wonder if babies would decorate their rooms differently if they had the ability to choose.

Do you think we like or dislike certain things simply because they're what our parents like or dislike?  In my family we're not really cat people, mostly because my parents were never really cat people - none of us kids grew up longing for a cat or anything.  On the other hand, my sister and I h a t e Kenny G because one summer my mother l o v e d him, and played his tapes endlessly during long car trips.  I think we came to hate him because we associated his music with being bored and motion-sick.

Anyone else have any examples?

So yesterday, at about 8 pm, I submitted my doctoral thesis to the print shop in Oxford.

This morning, I called in my credit card information to pay for the copies.

It will be delivered to the Examination Schools tomorrow.

Now, all we can do is wait.

The time has come. Two weeks from now, I'll be submitting my thesis.

I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I don't know what to expect.

I can't believe it's actually happening.