24 Jul 2012 by Tony Noland

The Days of My Triumph

“The greatest barrier you have overcome in the past is not as important as any of the barriers you must overcome in your future.”—Hua-Shi Teng I tend to focus on my failings instead of my triumphs. When I look back over a year, a decade or a lifetime, what stands out to me are not the victories and accomplishments, but the defeats and the mistakes. For each of these, I study and learn,... read more

23 Jul 2012 by Matt Robb

A fifth grader’s perspective on library book selection

As a fifth grader in the fall of 1987, I often boasted of my clever library book selection process to my peers. Twice monthly my classmates and I trekked some twenty meters from our 1960s- era schoolhouse to the “old building,” a stocky granite structure built in 1921 and home the nurse’s office, a locked-room containing a half-dozen unused appliances known as personal computers, three classrooms... read more

23 Jul 2012 by Paul Anderson

Imposters

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same… “If”, Rudyard Kipling I do not feel triumphant. Little did I realise last year, when I drew up the list of themes for 2012, how badly things would crash down, for me, by the time it came to discuss triumphs. The teaching which I have enjoyed so much is being taken away from me. Rather than enjoying... read more

22 Jul 2012 by Jodi Cleghorn

F&GC #20 Space Opera Submission

“The Space Opera Challenge” Challenge: To write a space opera Form: Open Word Count: 3000 Space Opera Authors William Lailey Carolyn Wagner Annie Evett Storm... read more

21 Jul 2012 by Adam Byatt

PROMPTed #24 Reflections of the Inside

PROMPTed is a weekly collection of writing prompts to inspire your writing week. The prompts are loosely grouped under a common theme and include a random line prompt, a photograph, a song/music video, a sensory suggestion and a famous quote. Our guest programmer for the month of July is Adam Byatt. Like most of my PROMPTed entries I began with the music, and there was something in the juxtaposition of the... read more

20 Jul 2012 by Guest Post

Terrifying Beginnings

by S.C. Barrus I have heard many times that the most terrifying moment for a writer is staring at a blank page. This is absolutely not true. While for some a blank page might be a creative black whole, for me and others like me, a blank page is awash with mystery, like an introduction of a femme fatale. I have looked many a blank page in the face and turned it black and white with the pitter patter of my... read more

20 Jul 2012 by Jessica Bockman

Celebrations Big and Small

I teach my reading students that thoughts are part of action. Saying “I hate reading” undermines the action and possibilities of saying “I will read 10 pages a night”. I try to teach them to say “I read blogs” and understand that reading a 400 word post is still reading, and worthy of being considered even though I am asking them to read textbooks and novels. This came to mind as I set my pen... read more

19 Jul 2012 by Paul Anderson

Lying for fun and profit

For the purposes of full disclosure, the title of this post is meant in a tongue-in-cheek way. So if there are any potential employers reading this whilst doing research on me—please keep that in mind! Two weeks ago I got a rather unexpected shock. I interviewed for a full-time teaching position at my place of employment. I was interviewed, against external candidates, and in a subject I hadn’t... read more