First, I finally, finally, finally found an activity that got my English IV class involved in the literary analysis essay they have to do. What I did was to write an essay myself yesterday, label each paragraph, chop it up, then make them put it back together. Sadly, only a few of the pairs were able to do it correctly, but pretty much everyone got involved in working on it, and that's enough of a success for me. Each student has been assigned a period of British literary history. They have to write an essay that analizes one work written in that period, talk about how it is an example of the period, and provide some biographical info on the author. I wrote an essay about Jack London and American naturalism. Tomorrow they'll see that essay all put back together and we'll talk about why each paragraph is where it is and how they're constructed. And about formatting, MLA citations, etc.
The other good thing was a student hug. These aren't so rare, but when they come from a kid who recently lost her dad, has been raped in a state juvenile shelter, already kicked a meth habit and been beaten up by her boyfriend, it means more. I saw her at her locker and she didn't look right. Last time she looked like that she broke down crying about her dad, so I asked what was wrong. This time it was just a headache, so I explained how she could "steal" some ibuprofen from my desk. Later, she was obviously feeling better, stopped me for a hug in the hall and thanked me for taking care of her. It's just incredible what some kids have to go through and how they're able to maintain a positive attitude most of the time. This girl struggles, but she works really hard and has already overcome so much that I know she's going to be successful. Knowing kids like her is what makes being a teacher the best career I've had.
I spent most of the weekend grading a monstrous stack of papers. Hopefully that load will be cut down beginning this week. On Saturday morning I was "trained" on how to use these electronic clickers. Basically, I can create an assignment or quiz and students answer via remote control. The computer grades them, and I just have to transfer the grades to the other program where we actually record our grades. What I like is that I can time the questions. This should keep the little buggers focused and cut down on some of the cheating. If you only have 10 seconds to choose the right answer, you're less likely to be able to look to see what other people are doing, right? We'll see.
I did try to do some Web site remodeling earlier today. The result? A message saying my site is temporarily unavailable. I had my domain forwarded to a Wordpress site, but Wordpress won't allow me to embed a PayPal button I need for a contest I'm planning. So I tried going with an older style site with frames that includes the Wordpress blog in the design. It worked on my computer. Needed some tweaking, especially in color matching, but it worked. I put it online and changed my forwarding and I have nothing.
Back to writing. Since we’ve talked about it at Conestoga and she’s mentioned it a time or two, I guess it’s not a “super secret project” any more. So, what I did with the little bit of writing time I had yesterday and today was work on a book I co-wrote with Carrie Jones. Her agent wants a few more changes, the biggest of which is to get it under 400 pages. Yes, it’s that long. And it’s shorter now than it originally was! Anyway, I have to say that I really enjoyed writing this book with Carrie and it’s a lot of fun to be back in that world.
It was a good conference, too. I learned a few things, though a lot of the panels provided information I'd heard before. One of my favorites was where three of those librarians did mini-reviews and some reading from various books from the attending authors. It was just refreshing to see somebody other than the authors pushing their work. I don't know if they mentioned mine or not, as I missed over half the two-hour panel, but it was good, anyway. I met several new people, including the editor for Silhoutte, but spent the most time talking to Michelle Bardsley, who was on the Vampires, Werewolves and Demons: The Sexy Side of the Paranormal with me and Chrystal Inman. Michelle gets a link because she'll be giving away a couple of my books at some point.
I'd never really been interested in Billie Letts' books, but she was a good speaker and what she read from the Wal-Mart book was really funny (can't remember the name of the book! But it's the one that was an Oprah selection some years back). It was kind of odd to listen to her read and say "dick head" on the stage of a Baptist church.
Probably the best thing about the conference, though, was the quiet time in the hotel. I wrote 14 or 15 pages, which is nothing compared to what I used to do in the same amount of time, but it was enough to really put me back into Nadia's Children. I can't wait to get back to it. There's a really, really big scene coming up. A couple of minor characters we haven't seen for a while are going to be killed.
Here's one of those word count things to show my progress. I guess I completed another 3 percent of the book over the weekend.
I also got my hands on about 83 pages of Gayleen's YA (or is it middle grade?) novel that she's working on. She'd left me hanging in a house that'd had all the air sucked out of it by a dust storm a long time ago. This is good stuff and I'm glad to finally get to see what happens next.
Last thing. Remember the post about my acting debut back in September? Well, the music video is online now. You can watch it here. It's good cheesy fun.
Right now you can only get the book from Graveside Tales' site. (I'm sure it'll be at Amazon and all the usual places very soon.) Here's the link to a pretty cool (but rather uninformative) book trailer.
Happy reading!
Well, it was an interesting week. I heard from an agent who wants to look at The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date. Not bad for the first query I ever sent out on it. I didn't get any real writing done, but I did make a few pages of notes for things that are coming up in Nadia's Children.
The biggest event, I guess, was having a student break down in the hallway, bury her face in my chest and cry for a while. It's just incredible what some of these kids have to go through. When I was that age I never would have imagined a teenager actually having that kind of life. This poor girl lost her father recently. She feels the grief, of course, but she's also feeling guilt because she left home because of another woman living in the house. She told me a lot more about herself that I won't divulge here. She's a strong young lady who has already overcome more than most people could, but losing her daddy really tore her up.
One thing she told me was that last time I went to the school counselors about her, they called her in, talked to her about what was going on at that time, and then called the parents of the guy she was living with and told them what she'd told them. The boyfriend beat the hell out of her for that. Most of our counselors should stick to making schedules. Sheesh. The school did just hire a full-time social worker, so hopefully we'll get somebody who is trained, compassionate and understanding of what the kids are dealing with so they can get some real help.
Another one of my students was arrested for what started as a just a minor school-related infraction in the hallway, but because he was stoned he went nuts when he was called on it. Yesterday, another of my students was so wasted in class that he didn't know what he was doing most of the time. I know I should have sent him to the office, but ... Well, there are reasons I didn't.
Looking ahead, I'll be at the Red Dirt Book Festival next weekend. My panel is "Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons - The Sexy Side of the Paranormal" with Michele Bardsley and Crystal Inman. The panel is from 4:15 to 5 p.m. on Friday. I'll also be at the book signings from 2-3 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Red Dirt is a very good conference. It's the most literary of the conferences and conventions I attend, bringing in a lot of librarians, teachers, etc. This year's featured guest is Billie Letts.
I am not taking any school papers with me to Red Dirt. When not at the conference, I will be in the hotel room provided by the conference, writing about werewolves.
Look for an announcement very soon about a new contest. The prize this time will be one of my PC copies of Little Graveyard on the Prairie. It'll cost you to enter the contest, but they money will go to a very worthy charity. (No, not me!) I'm still hammering out a few details and getting things set up.
Yes, I finally began writing again. I didn't get much done, but it was enough. It was kind of like hitting the Hoover Dam until finally a crack appears in the cement and a trickle of the Colorado River leaks through. I figured out a format for what I needed to do on the chapter of Nadia's Children that's been holding me up. It isn't brilliant, and it may not be the final format, but it was enough to pull me back into the story.
So today, to get some quiet time without discussion of past-due bills or breaking up squabbles between children, me and the trusty laptop went to the library. It was damn near orgasmic. The words flowed and flowed. I got there at about 3:30 and wrote pretty much non-stop until the library closed at 5 p.m. There was a brief break for some added research on an 18th century war between Sweden and Russia, but I knocked off seven pages. Now, that's not a lot compared to what I'm typically capable of, but considering how long it's been since I did anything, it was pretty damn good. Is it quality work? I dunno, but right now that doesn't really matter.
Here's one of those word meter things to show where I stand:
There were a few things that went into breaking the dam. One is reading John Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, and following his lead. Yes, I'm keeping a "werewolf journal." I did it with Ulrik, too, but then it was mostly just chapter outlines to plan ahead. This time there are outlines (or will be), but also notes about things that are giving me problems, possible ways to fix or get around them, things I want to include, reminders of things that have gone before, etc. Writing in it before starting my actual writing kind of gets me ready to write and focused on what's ahead.
The problem I was having was figuring out who Fenris really is, and why he's against the Pack uniting. This ate at me for weeks! And, of course, the answer was there all along. It was assigning and reading the first draft of my AP essays on the barbarism vs civilization debate that made me understand what Fenris is all about. Okay, but why does he believe what he does?
That's where the history comes in. What did we know about Fenris's history from what was in Ulrik? Not very much. He almost killed Ulrik in the forest surrounding Hitler's Wolf's Lair retreat and he looks like Jim Steinman (okay, that's not explicitly in the book, but that's who I based his physical appearance on). Now his history is coming into focus. And, I think, readers may be able to have some sympathy for him. When I teach creative writing, I always emphasize the fact that nobody sets out to be the bad guy; everyone is the hero of his own story. I wasn't doing that with Fenris in the last book. He was just a cardboard villain to oppose Ulrik. Now he's somebody unique. He's kind of reminding me of Captain Wolf Larsen from Jack London's The Sea Wolf.
When the library closed, I considered going to the park to keep writing until my battery died, but came home instead to help fix dinner. (There's a cop in the library who makes sure you're preparing to leave once they start announcing that closing is pending and he was giving me the stink eye the last 10 minutes or so.)
*If you care, the AP essay assignment is to read Jack London's The Call of the Wild (yes, I am a big fan of London), Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs, Stephen Crane's story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", and one other source of the student's choosing, then write an essay agreeing or disagreeing with Robert E. Howard's statement from "Beyond the Black River" that "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." First draft essays were mostly bad to mediocre, almost like they'd never seen a persuasive essay before.
I finally got out and bought the new KISS album, Sonic Boom, today. I like it a lot ... and I didn't expect to. Even "Modern Day Delilah" has kind of grown on me. I"d have to say "Never Enough" is my favorite song on it so far. It isn't the Destroyer meets Love Gun that Paul Stanley said it was, but it has some real klassic moments. I have to say it does have several riffs and licks that sound like they were ... uhhh ... borrowed from older songs. Still, I'll be playing the heck out of this one for a good long time. Right now I'm listening to the bonus CD. These recordings are a little different than the originals, I think. Or maybe it's just that I haven't listened to them through headphones in a long time. Every track on the bonus CD is a killer, except that horrible piece of shit "Forever." Yeah, skipping right over that one for "Christine Sixteen." By the way, "Lick It Up" has to be one of the best KISS songs ever, and really sums up what I think the band is all about.
It's fall break. The wifey had a list of appointments for me, plus my youngest daughter came down with an ear infection and strep throat, so I haven't gotten any real writing done, but I have been doing some research on something that's stumped me for a while. Fenris, the lead villian of The Werewolf Saga, needs a deeper identity. Who is he, really? And, why is he so against the Pack uniting? These are things I'm working out. Right now he seems to much like an Arnold Schwarzenegger bad buy from one of his 1980s action flicks. And that's not a good thing.
I have a stack of essays to grade. First drafts of persuasive essays exploring whether man is more prone to a state of barbarism or civilization. Should be "interesting" reading. Plus some shorter benchmark essays analyzing a quote from John Steinbeck's Cup of Gold. There are also some makeup quizzes and such to grade.
Speaking of Steinbeck, I've been on a real binge with him. A while back I ordered an omnibus of his short novels, his journal from the writing of The Grapes of Wrath and an annotated version of that novel. I've been reading the essays in that one while listening to East of Eden in my car. East of Eden is a book I read a long time ago, while working in some machine shop. I remember loving it ... and am surprised at how little of it I remember. It's weird. It's also pretty damn depressing, but the writing is beautiful and inspiring. He was a master at finding the perfect little detail to define a character or place. I just ordered the East of Eden letters, plus a Steinbeck biography and an examination of the banning of Grapes from Alibris. How much of it will I read before I burn out? I dunno. It seems I prefer reading nonfiction to fiction these days.
You say you want to go for a spin, the party's just begun, but let you in. You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy ...
I suppose I could do an audiobook of Shara. I know Maggie Bonham offers some of her work as Podiocasts, and I do have the equipment for it. What do you think?
No writing done this week. The extra job and grading papers took all my time. I'm hoping to do a little this weekend, but my bag is bulging with more papers that need to be graded. I have to write and put together six benchmark tests next week, which is only three days before fall break. In our school district's continuation of infinite wisdom, we are giving this test that is 40 percent of the 9-weeks' grade after a four-day break. Granted, you'd think the stuff would stick, and the kids might use at least some of those four days to study and be ready. But anyone who knows our students knows that neither will be the case.
We finally got our student handbooks yesterday. During the assembly to go over them, our new principal talked about "negative vibes" and how anyone -- student or faculty -- who isn't happy there should leave. Made me wonder if he reads this. I don't care too much. I mean, I made the decision to stay, now it's actually costing me money to work there because his predecessor lied to me about that whole after-school childcare thing. Hard not to be negative.
I imagine the weekend was not as well attended as the organizers hoped, but it wasn't nearly as dead as the Horrorfind Weekend I went to in Phoenix. There was a pretty steady, if modest, stream of people meandering down the aisles. Some people stopped to look at books, but not much money ended up in the hands of the authors in attendance.
Not that it was a bad con. I met a lot of new and intersting people. Among those were Damon Blaylock, who I'd spoken to on the phone and via e-mail a few times. Damon has directed a movie called Howling Moon that is based on the same source material I used for writing Murdered by Human Wolves. I got to see his trailer, which looked really good, and met his werewolf star, Carl Buffington, who seemed very cool. I'm very excited to see the movie. Oh, and Damon wants to do an interview with me for the DVD release.
I met another dude whose name escapes me, but we spent a good bit of time talking about writing screenplays.
Then there were the old friends, like Duvy and Z, Joyce, Dennis MacDonald, another Enid boy writing horror, and Jackson Compton and his very, very pregnant wife (due any day now). John Ferguson, aka Count Gregore, was there and it's always good to see him out and about.
It seemed kind of strange not having the event at a hotel, so there was no after-show hanging out, and it cost $16 to park for the two days. The biggest drawback of the event was my natural tendency to do everything wrong when it comes to driving. It took an hour and 45 minutes to drive from Moore to Tulsa, but then it took an hour and a half to make the 10-minute trip from the Convention Center to my motel. I got so freaking lost, then when I tried to get back there was road construction everywhere. That's nothing new, though. If there's a wrong turn to make, you can bet I'll make it.
Thank you for your interest in my novella Murdered by Human Wolves. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you showing up at my place of employment for a second time to demand my attention and a copy of the book. Please forgive our school secretary, but I hope you can understand that part of her job is to keep the students and faculty separated from random people who walk in off the street. Also, please understand that I do not sell my books from my classroom. I attend many conventions and other public events where I do sell my books, and it is available from any bookstore, including Amazon.com.
It was nice of you to leave your home phone number, (405) 261-0960, as well as your cell number, (405) 202-7547. However, based on previous communication with other members of your family, I regret to say I will not be able to find the time or inclination to call you before Hell freezes over. I understand that you are a family member of Katherine Cross, and the grandfather of a sweet young lady I had in my classes for two years, and it is for her sake that I am being so polite in this letter.
The e-mails I received from a relative of yours mentioned a slander lawsuit over my book. While this person's lack of understanding of the law, or even the correct definition of "slander", was humorous, such an e-mail is not the way to my heart. Nor is the impolite and incorrect review posted on Amazon by another of your family members. The note from an ordained Baptist minister -- your grandson -- posted on my bulletin board, again refers to the possibility of legal action. Anyone who has read the book can see that your minister grandson is leveling accusations without actually reading the book. And, honestly, if one of us is guilty of libel (which is what you call it when harmful lies are put into print; slander is verbal), it would be your grandson, Scott Cross, who may have cost me sales and thus hurt my livelihood with his false statements in a public forum.
If Scott can be trusted at all and you are indeed the younger brother of Katherine, you have my condolences on the untimely and tragic death of your sister. As to his accusation that I did no research, I can only reply that I tried, but was told that all the relevant records were destroyed in a fire. A scrap of a Seminole newspaper and a few online accounts were all that was to be found. Perhaps the sinister forces that caused Katherine's death are still at work in Konawa. I imagine the doctor and school teacher had relatives, too.
My publisher informs me that your family was given the chance to tell your side of Katherine's story prior to the publication of the current edition of the book. No one responded to the offer.
I will give one piece of advice to you. Should you find a lawyer desperate enough to take your case and unethical enough to take your retainer, think first about how the sales of Marilyn Manson concert tickets and The Tin Drum film skyrocketed following the publicity generated when "moral" leaders tried to ban them in our state. There is virtually no chance of you winning a lawsuit against me, for a variety of reasons. The book has earned me almost no money at all, so the only way you could get anything would be for the book to suddenly sell well due to the publicity your frivolous lawsuit would generate. In other words, your family suing me would only benefit me because people would want to know what the book is all about.
Finally, I must ask that you cease and desist trying to contact me through my employer. If you want the book, buy it in a store. If you want to talk to me, come to one of the events I attend. I'll be at this one Friday and Saturday. I will not have a conversation with you at the school. Oh, and stop playing dumb. You know damn good and well the book is named for Katherine's epitaph; it is not named Hands of the Wolf like you told our secretary.
Sincerely,
Steven E. Wedel
I was called on the carpet twice a couple of days ago. The first time because of a bellwork assignment. I'd left the chalkboard where I write the bellwork blank to do my hall monitor duty. When I came back in, a student had written, "If you have sex with a prostitute against her will, is it rape or shoplifting?" I started to erase it, kids protested they were already writing about that, so I left it and said anyone who was offended or didn't like it could do a free write about anything they wanted. Later in the day, apparently, a couple of students were talking about what they wrote and a female teacher got offended. Instead of having the guts to come talk to me about it, she went to the district superintendent, who went to the principal, who pulled me into his office.
Later the same day the principal called me about a girl who was allegedly sexually harassed by a male student in my room. I heard the beginning of that conversation, where he told her she looked nice, then I was helping other students until another male student told the first one that, "She's saying you don't have a chance to fuck her!" I told them to shut up or I'd write them all up for sexual harasment. Conversation ended. The girl mentioned it to her dad, who wrote a letter to the principal.
On Friday I caught a kid cheating on a vocabulary test and it looks like I broke up a regular ring of cheating by busting him, as several other guys who'd been doing surprisingly well suddenly went back to failing.
Today one of my students was hauled out of class, cuffed and arrested. The same period, after assigning an essay for their bad behavior yesterday, two football players went to sleep in my class, so I had them escorted to the office. Three people in my first period are in the in-school suspension room for the rest of the week, and one of my drug dealers in seventh hour was put in there or suspended today for running through the halls and slapping people on the neck or head.
We've had an increase in the number of fights this year. The freshmen are the most uppity, disrespectful bunch of brats to ever have a false sense of entitlement.
I found out yesterday that one of my students is getting checked out of seventh period almost every day to go pick up his little brother and sister at the elementary school, and his teacher isn't counting him absent. One more example of the problems caused by our new schedule.
Another teacher was called to the principal's office because in her junior AP class she said that saying "Because the Bible says so" is not a valid argument in rhetoric. A student went home and said the teacher said the Bible is invalid. Yeah, that's exactly what the teacher said. Same thing, right?
Every day I kick myself for not taking the job I was offered in late July. It would have been more money, about five minutes from home, a better support system, and couldn't possibly be the headache most days are in the ghetto this year. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great kids at my current school, but there seems to be a lot more bad ones now, and that coupled with the problems caused by admin are making it a difficult experience.
I've been drowning in paperwork from school. I've switched to a mostly participation-based grading system. I don't like it, but I simply don't have time to grade that many papers. And I'm lucky. My biggest class is 24; some of the English teachers have 36 kids to a class. Add to my three high school preps my ESL class at the college, and it's a big load. Then I had ESL testing last week, too.
My childcare issue has been resolved. A former student will watch my kids. This will be an added, and unexpected, expense.
The administration at our school is already talking about taking away our second plan period. This was expected, but I can tell you there will be a huge revolt if that happens. The classes are too big and we're expected to do too much other stuff, like mess with that horrible new lesson planning software. I know several teachers who are already saying they won't be back next year because of the schedule change this year.
I've been so busy I hadn't done any writing since school started. That was until last night, when I finally knocked out a few pages of Nadia's Children. It would have been better if I wasn't so damn tired. I'm still very, very tired. I don't know why, really. I just feel wrung out.
FenCon was fun. It would have been better if I hadn't been so tired the whole time. Saw lots of friends, sat on some good panels, and sold some books. It was good. On the way home I started listening to John Steinbeck's East of Eden on CD.
I got home to find a returned package from a publisher. This was very depressing. I sent Shara to this mass market publisher in January 2007, along with the synopsis of Ulrik, blurbs, etc. After two years and eight months, the editor sent it back unread, saying because his inventory is so backlogged that it was only fair to me to return the material. WTF? I just don't understand what it takes to break into the mass market. This editor said in late 2006 that werewolves would be the new zombies. He was right. I pitched Shara, he asked for it, had it for over two and a half years ... but didn't even read it? I don't get it.
Right now I'm watching the mighty Oklahoma Sooners beat up on BYU. The OK State Cowboys already took care of business against the Georgia Bulldogs earlier today. Last night the hgh school Jets won their first game since the 2007 season. It was the first game for my oldest daughter, who was quickly recruited to the yearbook staff. She had to take pictures of the crowd and cheerleaders. The best part of the game was seeing so many kids from the class of 2009 return.
No solution on the daycare issue yet. My kids are walking over with a boy from class and going to another teacher's empty room. However, the principal told us that has to stop. One of those class of '09 students said she'll watch mine ... but her boss has to stop scheduling her after 2 p.m. first, and that hasn't happened yet.
My ESL class started this week. Thanks to a switch with another teacher I'm teaching on the OCCC campus instead of way up in Edmond. The class is okay. I was pretty worried about it, really, but after a couple of sessions I feel all right about it.
What I do not feel all right about is my regular high school classes. I'm drowning in papers that need grading. Seriously, the bag I carry back and forth is stuffed with papers, and most of them are just from this week. Like most of the teachers, I'm giving a lot of participation grades because I simply don't have time to actually read it all. Add to that the horrible new lesson plan software we're supposed to use and every minute of every day is at a premium. That lesson planner is the worst piece of software I've ever seen. It takes forever to put anything in and last time I used it it lost half of what I did ... twice.
Needless to say, I haven't done any writing since school started. It's starting to eat at me a little. I need to write. I need therapy!
After school I got to have a little talk with the new principal, and I learned some things on the childcare front. There is something in the works for the district. In the meantime, my kids are hanging out after school with a boy in my daughter's class; his mom is a math teacher who is out of her room seventh period, so the kids go in there. They're across the hall from the 9th grade principal, who is okay with the arrangment. In a couple of weeks one of last year's graduates will probably start watching them.
My oldest daughter is doing well at my school, and that makes me very happy. She got recruited onto the yearbook staff already, and that's pretty rare for a freshman. Now she's interested in joining student council (she wasn't so interested when I suggested it, but when I mentioned it to the 9th grade principal he said he'd suggest it to her, and that did it). She's becoming friends with the movers and shakers of the student body, the kids who'll get the big scholarships to major universities. I'm very proud of her, of course, and I get to spend more time with her, something that wasn't happening much the past couple of years. And yeah, I've already had to tell a few senior boys that looking too hard would cost them their testicles.
Then I come home and find an e-mail from a publisher saying my novel Amara's Prayer is a "must-do" for his company. I haven't asked if I can announce it yet, so I won't say who it is now, but it's somebody I've worked with before. Somebody who pays what he promises and is on time, or within a reasonable shot of his projected publication date. I am really, really happy that this novel has finally found a home. It was my graduate thesis at the University of Oklahoma, so it was picked apart more than once by professors of English, journalism, and ... my third committee person had multiple degrees in various fields. She helped with the anthropology and comparative religion aspects, turning me on to some really great books as she did. What I'm getting to is that I think this is the best book I've written. There's limited violence, some graphic sex, and an actual, like, literary theme to it.
So, yeah, yesterday was a good day.
School started for us last week. I transferred my three youngest kids to the grade school close to the high school where I teach. Our superintendent pushed through a measure last year that changed us from the block schedule to a seven-period day. But he also got it to where the high school starts class 45 minutes after the grade schools. This is asinine. We teach in a poverty-stricken inner city school with about a 90 percent free/reduced lunch rate. Think of this: second graders being dropped off at a bus stop to weave through whores, crack dealers and gang bangers to get into a (hopefully) empty apartment in the ghetto of OKC because her single mom is at work and her big brother is still in class at the high school. That's the worst of it. My problem isn't so bad. I simply have no one to watch my two youngest kids for the 45 minutes after they get out of school a block away from the high school.
This wouldn't be such an issue if A) the above cursed superintendent hadn't also killed the district's latchkey program, or B) the principals at the high school had not led me along all summer making me believe there would be some provision for the young children of teachers. Instead, I've been told my little kids can't be in the high school during my contracted time. I need an hour of babysitting, but no daycare will do this unless I pay for at least half a day's care. Well, teachers at our school only got a step raise this year, which amounts to around $600 per year. That ain't gonna pay for no daycare.
Had I known all this, you can bet your ass I would have taken the job offer to work in the brand new high school five minutes from home here in one of OKC's biggest booming suburbs. I stayed because I like my students, because they need teachers who are willing to do a little extra for them, and now I'm sneaking my own kids in the back door of the school and hiding them while trying to find some daycare option that won't break the bank. Ya see why I've been too pissed to blog?
Many, many parents are angry about this and there's going to be an angry mob show up at the next school board meeting. I learned today that even some of the school board members weren't aware the latchkey program had been axed. It's no wonder the state's secretary of education doesn't like our super.
On the upside, my classes aren't too bad. My worst, actually, is my AP Literature and Composition class, and it's simply because it's too big. I have 24 in there, and they're smart kids, but very, very easily distracted. I answer a question for one and five independent conversations break out around the room. My regular classes are smaller and calmer. I don't like having three preps, but I have to confess I prefer teaching American literature to British literature for the most part. Now, if I could teach American short stories and British novels, that would be great. Poe and Dickens, O'Henry and Orwell, Hawthorne and Beowulf. Yeah. I'm splitting the American lit prep with another teacher; I've done the first two weeks, a unit that covers American Indian literature, explorations and early colonial lit, then she'll plan out The Crucible, something I love but have never taught. Then, I think, I get to plan some Hawthorne shorts. "Young Goodman Brown." One of my favorite pieces to teach.
I mentioned I haven't written anything, right? Yeah. A couple of interviews for Horror World, but that's it. Of course, it would help my mental state if I could sink into my werewolf world for at least a few hours, but it's bringing myself to a point where I can just let go and do it. Writing is therapy, but you have to drag your ass to the couch for it.
In other news, this is my last day off work before officially reporting back to school tomorrow. However, I've been at the school so much this summer it hardly seems like there was a break. It's going to be an interesting year. We're going from the block schedule in which I had four classes with three preps to a seven-period day in which I'll have five classes and three preps, but instead of having the same kids for 80 minutes a day for a semester I'll have them for 50 minutes a day all year. We're getting new computers, plus something called "the intelligent classroom" which includes a projector and, they say, a pad-thing on which we can write and it'll show up on the projector screen. Haven't seen it in action yet. After the first nine weeks one of our vice principals will become principal, and he tells me there'll be some changes coming when he takes over. Interesting year, I'm sure.
Last night I edited the short story I worked on for way too long. It's called "The Hungry Night" and was written on request for an anthology I won't name yet ... because they may reject it like they did the first one I wrote for them. I've got another short story pending with another anthology; it's made it past the first and primary reader there.
Two years ago I was gearing up for Horrorfind Weekend. I'd been every year since 2003. Didn't make it last year and won't make it this year. Damn money. Seeing the actors is no big deal anymore, but I really, really miss hanging out with the other writers I'd only get to see in Baltimore. I was gonna go into a list of names, but no way I'd get them all and I'd feel bad later about missing important ones.
Speaking of conventions, last night I was invited to join the Sci-fi Horror Weekend in Tulsa. The primary cast of Return of the Living Dead will be there and I'd get to sit in a booth next to them. However, this event is the same weekend as TrickConTreat and I've already agreed to be there. What to do, what to do?
Michele Lee gave Ulrik a four-star review. Her review is up in several places, but I found it here at Visual Bookshelf. It's also here at GoodReads, though she only gave it three stars here. This is the first line of her review: Ulrik stands somewhere between the traditional horror werewolf and the newer urban fantasy werewolf. The review contrasts the traditional werewolf to the urban fantasy werewolf and is pretty interesting.
And finally, Ethan Nahte's review of Murdered by Human Wolves went up today at Pop Syndicate. He calls it "...an interesting, quick read that should appeal to werewolf fans, history lovers and those who enjoy a good mystery."
I guess one of the good things about the small press is that books get more time to find an audience. With mass market, they're out for a few weeks, then the covers and stripped and the book disappears into the void, unless the author was lucky enough to hit some magical sales number.
At any rate, I'm glad people are still reading and enjoying my Werewolf Saga.
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