The end of the semester as we know it

I have survived my first semester of doctoral studies, and have to say I am loving it!If I were a good blogger, I would have written a separate post about each of these things as they happened, but because I'm not, here is a run-down of a few things that happened this semester:PerformancesI sang a duet in a concert of Charpentier motets with Concerto Urbano, performed in two music/dance improvisation concerts with COLAB, and in my Krannert Hall solo debut, I was a soloist in the annual Salvatore Martirano Award Concert performing three delightful songs by Martirano, along with pianist So Jung Kwak.WritingMy gender-bending fairy tale, "Homo Homarus," was published in Daily Science Fiction. This is among my favorite pieces I've written, so I was very glad it found a good home! You can read it here: Homo Homarus by Ellen DenhamMy steampunk opera dystopia, "The Golden Larynx," was accepted for publication in the anthology Gears and Levers 3, forthcoming from Sky Warrior Books. This piece received honorable mention from the Writers of the Future Contest and got lots of very nice personal rejections from top markets. I'm glad it has found its home.I also wrote a paper "Schubert and Goethe: A Transcendence of Competing Aesthetics" which was very interesting to research and write. The subject of translating material from one art to another (poetry to music in this case) and how artists collaborate (or don't in the case of Goethe and Scubert) is fascinating.I have an opera libretto project in the works but no details to report at this time.Other NewsI joined the Executive Board of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, where we have some really exciting projects coming to fruition soon. My bio from the IAF site is here: Ellen Denham.Cindy Marie Jenkins interviewed me for her arts outreach conversation series, here, in which I talk about doctoral studies, Homo Homarus, and other work: Artist Check-in: Ellen DenhamIntimate Opera of Indianapolis, with which I performed the role of Violet in Rorem's A Childhood Miracle in January, included an update about my current activities here: December 2012 NewsletterAnd I'm excited to report that I've been asked to direct the Umbrella Project at the 2013 Indy Convergence! More details to follow.That is my semester in a nutshell, but that only tells you a few activities and accomplishments. I'm not sure I can adequately convey how thrilled I am to be back in school, how much I love my classes, professors, colleagues, students, and everything I'm learning. It's not always easy (hello to breaking years of habits ingrained into my muscle memory and to learning to live on a teaching assistant income), but it's always enriching and productive.