Man, what a week! I finished up my first week of teaching SF and fantasy for the Young Writers Workshop, and I don't remember being so drained before in my life! It's a lot of fun, though, even if I'm rusty in my teaching skills. I think I've found a really good balance with the class, and my students have really been writing a lot.

Today was setting day, so I got to read short excerpts of some descriptions out of The Hobbit, Coraline, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's funny -- most of my older class of 6th-8th graders went nuts over Harry Potter, while the 4th-5th graders weren't nearly as excited. Most of the older students are going to midnight parties to get copies of the book. It does my heart good to think of these young writers with their noses in the fifth Harry Potter book all weekend. Nice work, JK Rowling!

While it's draining (and a bit stressful, going from work to teaching, and then working from home afterwards), the teaching has been really education for me.

There's a definite line drawn in the sand between what the 4th-5th graders can do, cognitively, and what the 6th-8th graders are able to grasp. The younger kids couldn't figure out what "rising action" is in a story, while the older got that right away. And while we talking about using the senses in our writing, the older writers were able to incorporate sight and sound and the occasional smell pretty smoothly into their writing, while the younger kids simply made a list: "I saw X, I smelled Y, I heard Z, and I really couldn't taste anything!" Pretty fascinating how brains develop.

Either that, or I'm not doing a good job of explaining myself!

Today's title, by the way, was pretty fitting for my classes today. I'm hoping my students stick with writing SF and fantasy. I came across the quote as I finished reading Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint today. A good book, really good in places, excellent characterizations, but a bit too talky. I still really dig his setting, I just wish he wouldn't belabor some points. So maybe I'm taking back some of the praise I was heaping on him earlier...

The quote "Touch magic, pass it on" is from Jane Yolen, by the way. I like it. Call me an ol' softie. Later!

Now Playing:
"Bramble Rose," Tift Merritt

Stories out to Publishers:
14

Today's Words:
20? (working on an outline for "My Son the Orc"!)