By setting modest, attainable goals, I managed to feel very good about my week off. Amazingly, by Friday, I was genuinely feeling rested, a state of being that persisted until the alarm went off this morning.Unlike last break in February, I had papers to write and two essays to revise and another two to write. […]
Back in the late 1990s, I bought a score book and took it with me to baseball games and kept score. It didn’t matter who was playing or at what level it was being played on, I focused on the game and scored every pitch and hit. I would staple my ticket stub to the […]
Sunday morning found me somewhat awake after a fitful night’s sleep. I was showered and dressed, in the lobby pouring myself a cup of coffee as the fire alarm sounded. I spent about an hour in the lobby, playing with my new Droid X phone (which I obtained Friday night and we hadn’t really been […]
Seeing friend s and fans are the main reasons I return to I-Con again and again. As with any student-run organization with turnover every few years, there are inevitable bumps in the road. This year was no exception.Despite worsening weather, the campus was abuzz with activity, especially cosplayers in a wide variety of outfits. Fortunately, […]
I-Con 30. What an odd concept that the cons I’ve been regularly attending are entering their third decade. I was at I-Con I and have been more or less going back every year without fail. I love its breadth and depth of programming and invariably, cannot see everyone I want to or attend every fascinating […]
Every writer has projects that do not get sold; it’s the nature of the business. It’s rare, though, that the unsold material never is ever on display. Sometimes, though, you can’t resist.Recently, my pal Johanna Draper Carlson posted the unsold pitch to a Lois Lane YA book series. I found it fascinating at how developed […]
So Friday and Saturday I spent 8 hours in class, the second of my three required electives. This one was on identifying and teaching the Gifted Student and it was great fun. The teacher had us reading handouts aloud and working in groups on silly little projects, all to demonstrate ways to extend a classroom […]
Everyone’s family has its own dynamic and through the generations that changes. One thing I always loved about Barry Levinson’s Avalon was how well it captured the period when the extended family began to split apart, like so many electrons being flung away, leaving just the nuclear family.Growing up, my mother’s side of the family […]