Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My DSL line has been down since I got back from my MFA residency and myspace is murder on a dial up connection, so my posting will be brief until I'm back to high speed!
The residency went well. I have David Payne as my pod instructor this semester and his comments were very insightful at the residency, unfortunately I workshopped the novel that is out with publishers now, so I feel like the book is total crap and I'm sure no one will buy it. If only I had him last semester!  Oh, well. At least the manuscript will be better when I had it in for my thesis.
I've had 5 rejects on the novel so far. Still 17 editors to go. I've convinced myself that the novel won't sell, so the rejections are expected and a sale will be a pleasant suprise. I have a feeling the genre novel that I haven't put as much effort into will probably sell and the one I slaved over won't. Such is the publishing world. On the bright side, I do get to attend the AWP conference in Atlanta in Feb for free! Queens University had 10 free spots and I got one of them! There are some interesting panels (some meet at the same time, so I may want to buddy up with someone and exchange information!) and I'm looking forward to going.
Check out Borders.com for the first chapters contest. In conjunction with Touchstone-Fireside (they rejected me, not that I'm bitter) Borders is running a contest where the 1st prize is  a $5000 advance and a publishing contract with Touchstone-Fireside. Finalists also have their first 3 chapters critiqued by board. Good luck!