Five questions from the advice guru (inspired by the fox woman):

1. What is the difference between a passable teacher and an inspiring one? Have you had a particularly inspiring one (or more)?

Unfortunately, there seem to be too many passable teachers right now, and not enough inspiring ones. This may be a function of them not being supported by their administrations and given an impossible workload (I'm referring to public schools here; I don't know how it works with universities), but it also may be a question of apathy. Teachers are so restricted in what they can say and do in a classroom anymore that they don't know how to handle their students, and the students know it.

Those inspiring teachers, however, are a special breed. They are the ones that know the material backward and forward, get the students excited about what they are studying, and make the time to meet with them outside of the classroom. These are the teachers who light your brain on fire with new ideas. I've had two teachers who were particularly inspiring: Michael W. Prim, who taught my senior-year physics class, didn't own a TV, and painted these really bizarre and interesting abstract paintings; and Dr. John Kessel, who many of you may know (or at least know about), and who got me excited about science fiction again, and completely recharged my desire to be a writer. And though I've never taken a class with her, my mother (who taught in the public schools, and is now a professor in journalism at St. Augustine's College) is pretty inspiring too. I hope that once I've gained that Ph.D and gotten a job at a university that I'll inspire some students of my own.

2. Where would you fit into the heirarchy on a pirate ship?

I'm not sure how rank goes on a pirate ship, but if it's anything like the Navy, I'd probably be the XO (executive officer), the second in command. I like telling people what to do, but would feel uncomfortable being completely responsible for everyone else. I'd be the crusty old salt who'd say things like, "Aye, stick to the code" and "Leverage, says you; I think I be feelin' a change in the wind, says I." Yeah, I'd be that guy.

3. What is the thing you are most grateful for from your childhood?

I guess it would be two things: the importance expressed by my parents on reading, and my dog. The reading thing started with watching Sesame Street and my parents reading to me at night. I picked it up pretty quickly too; one of my favorite stories my parents tell is where my parents took me to meet the kindergarten teacher, and upon her assertion that I couldn't possibly be reading at my age, I went around the classroom and told her what all the posters on the walls said while she watched in shock. Reading has been a big part of my life, and I appreciate that my parents encouraged me to read as much as possible.

On to the second thing: my dog while I was growing up (Shauna) was a Great Dane/German Shepherd mix, and though she was big and could clear a table with one swipe from her tail, she was the most gentle dog in the world. My sister and I would try to ride Shauna when we were little, and instead of snapping at us or growling, she would simply sit down and watch us slide off. I remember the first family reunion we had, where all the boy cousins had to camp outside in a tent, and there were wasps around in the backyard (there was a nest that we could never find). Shauna kept guard all night, and whenever a wasp flew near the tent, she would chew it up, and she was smart enough to spit it out. The next morning, wasp corpses would litter the ground, but she never once got stung. She died from old age before we made the move from Oklahoma to North Carolina, and I still think about her sometimes. Dogs like that are a truly rare gift.

4. When was the first time you consciously realized someone wrote something you'd read?

That's a hard one. I guess the first time I realized the concept of "author" was when I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle when I was around seven years old. I liked the book so much that I started looking for the other books she'd written, since they used the same characters. Before that, books were just books, and I was fairly indiscrimate on who I read.

5. What's being in a long distance relationship like? Are there any advantages?

It pretty much sucks. You really have to be in love with a person to be willing to have a long distance relationship with them. Though Janet will be here in two weeks and two days (yay!), it'll have been almost nine months since I saw her last, and I miss the hell out of her. We email each other nearly every day, and I call her once a week (with this phonecard); I don't know what I would do if we didn't have email. It's been really hard for both of us. But I guess the one advantage would be that when we do see each other, it's like my heart explodes from having so much love. Since I haven't seen her in so long, and I've missed her so much, it feels like the beginning of the relationship all over again, where you can't stand to be away from each other for a single minute, and you stay in bed until noon talking in low voices, or frolicking, or just holding each other. Those intense experiences don't make up for the months and months that we are apart, but they sure help.

And just to be clear, it's the situation that sucks, not the relationship. This relationship with Janet has been the best of my life. Sometimes there are bumpy patches and disagreements, but she's the love of my life, and I can't even conceive of being without her. It's like my life didn't start until we met. It's kinda sentimental, but it's true. She is my world.

RULES:

1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed
2. I will respond; I'll ask you five questions
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers
4. You'll include this explanation
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed

Now Reading:
Shank's Mare by Ikku Jippensha

Stories Out to Publishers:
6

Books Read This Year:
2

Zines/Chapbooks/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
4