The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 8

Hey, all you people with long SFF and horror mss. Tor UK opened up to unagented subs -- cool!

Hey guys! Copying from FB to make sure you all see this, because THIS MEANS YOU. Every one of you have helped in some way to make this an amazing day for me. Thank you.

Wow. Just wow. I have dreamed of this day for years, and it has truly been every bit as amazing as I imagined. And then some! Thank you so much, everyone who has taken the time to write a review or tell a friend about Front Page Fatality, for helping to make this a day I will never forget. ♥

Click to expand...

Must sleep. I couldn't last night.

*snorples everyone*

callalily61 said:

*stares pointedly at sunna and Clovia*

Click to expand...

I thought about it, Lily, but I just spent 4 mos on the HV open call, and what, nearly two years before that trying to get an agent for this book? And mumbletyfrink before that trying to get an agent with the one before and the one before and--

Haha.

Unless HV is waiting to pounce on me when the boom-clock hits two seconds, the next three books are getting self-pubbed. And then I'll try the trade routes (ha!) again.

But, for sticking with me all this time.

You worked hard, LynDee, wrote a great book, and earned every minute of this.

<3

Clovia, whatever works best for YOU, darlin'! Love you!

On a totally unrelated note, but the weather is such a mess out here. We already have over two feet of snow out and I barely made it safely to school today and now we've been notified that schools will let out early tomorrow due to an expected afternoon snow storm. Lucky me, because my first observation is scheduled for tomorrow and I'll have to strip my lesson to its bare bones. Bah. This sucks. But it does teach me how to do last minute adjustments and completely throw things over... Ugh.

Anyway. Stay safe, everyone.

Indoors and writing sounds like a good plan to me. If only.

Hugs for the Rs, idontknowwhatimdoing and Smiley.

And Happy Release Day, lwalker!

dystophil said:

But it does teach me how to do last minute adjustments and completely throw things over... Ugh.


.

Click to expand...

That reminds me, along with you saying something about interviews for a summer teaching position- the school I used to teach at did something I thought really awful to a candidate for a position. They told her to prepare to give the hiring committee a typical lesson, and that they'd have a powerpoint, overhead, etc. if she wanted it. She got there and they claimed they were having technical problems and she'd just have to lecture without anything but a whiteboard. It was clearly meant to see how she'd think on her feet, because there is no way there were no working overheads in the school.

Lily, MAJOR congrats to your kid and his scholarships! That is super. I bet he's thrilled. Well, not about the 40K in loans, but, you know. What's he majoring in?

And let me just chime in here with everyone else by saying happy book birthday to LW! I have officially ordered my copy.

Amarie said:

They told her to prepare to give the hiring committee a typical lesson, and that they'd have a powerpoint, overhead, etc. if she wanted it. She got there and they claimed they were having technical problems and she'd just have to lecture without anything but a whiteboard. It was clearly meant to see how she'd think on her feet, because there is no way there were no working overheads in the school.

Click to expand...

Aaaaaaaaahahaha! That's awesome. So mean, but awesome. Our training for teaching in China was kinda like this, because you never know what resources you'd end up with wherever you were placed. (Answer: Not much.) But when you have all your crappy Chinese crap break down, adapting on the fly is a very useful skill.

Sharkbite's moving into a phase where he sings to himself all the time. He makes up his own little songs to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle" and "London Bridges." Really cute. On the other hand, he's also moved into instant-judgment mode on all things food, regardless of whether it's something he actually likes or not. Is it green? "I DON'T LIKE THAT!!!" Is it slightly different from what he expected? "I DON'T LIKE THAT!!!" Sigh.

EDIT: Did I say LD? I mean LW. Wrong initials.

Wow, Amarie, that's both awful and awesome. I'm seriously learning how to do this. Actually, my very first day teaching junior high last year went exactly like this: So you think you have technology? Um. NO! Muahahaha! Improvise! And do it now, because you're in front of a room full of eight-graders with the attention span of hungry hamsters...

Have to say though, the more I teach, the more comfortable I get with my students overall and I'm okay riding by the seat of my pants if I have to.

And my coordinating teacher has been gone (she's doing her MA in administration right now) for the last week or so, so it's been all me all the time in my English classes already, which has been an excellent preparation for my crazy disruptive German kids who I've only just completely taken over today.

It's a lot of fun, but I do come home with giant headaches. 's what caffeine is for, yes?

I did several career day presentations today at a middle school where my friend teaches. It's in a really, REALLY tough part of LA and while the conditions in which these students go to school everyday are deplorable (the halls were filthy, the building is falling apart and they don't even have access to their library anymore because the librarian was laid off due to budget cuts) I found the teachers and the students inspiring. They were smart, asked insightful questions, and I just pray some of these kids make it out of the barrio someday.

That's brilliant, Blond! So glad you did this!

There is an alternative high school here whose English teacher is just inspiring in the work she does with her students, getting them hooked on reading, inviting authors and just altogether going more than the extra mile to give these kids perspective, because so many of them feel like "failures who can't make it" in the regular school system or otherwise.

She told us about this incident when she took a group of students to an author dinner at the local Ol1ve G@rden (she is great at getting funds for these things) and one of her students approached her at the end of this and she told him how proud she was of him for getting his grades up. The student was beaming and telling her how he really needs to get into college. When she asked him why, he said "so I am able to take my family to a nice place like this". Made me tear up. This teacher is just brilliant.

night post, puglets!

1. lily pie, how is mr. lily adjusting to
full time work?

2. blondie, how is your bff and his new
boys?

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, LWALKER!!!!




I've got nothin' other than a 12 hour day behind me and another one in front. Boo. Hiss.

Dys or anyone else - I've been thinking lately about maybe volunteering at some of the local high schools, assuming they'd want me. Is a novelist and/or travel writer someone a high school English teacher would want? If so, in what sense? What would I bring to the table, so to speak? Specifically, I live on the border of a really disadvantaged area and I would love to be able to do something positive there. I don't have the time or resources right now to do mentorship or anything like that, but going in now and then would be do-able. I dunno, just having thoughts. Mostly wondering if anyone would even care since there's no way my book appeals to high-schoolers.

Jo, English teachers always, always love writers as guest speakers and/or to volunteer in creative writing workshops. Specifically it would be great if you could talk about your writing journey, how you got started, give advice on craft etc. My advice would be to check local school websites and email the head of the English departments offering to volunteer - in my experience some teachers sometimes just don't have an in with any local authors, so I'm sure contacting them would yield great responses.

Also, Amarie and some others in here have had great experiences with Skype calls and interviews, so they may know more. From my perspective though, even in a "regular" English class, I would love to have authors come in or skype, just to share writing advice and cool books with kids who might feel more involved this way.

Thanks, Dys. That gives me a better idea. And you know what I could do, that I'd love, is to take home some of their creative work and give feedback. I can be nice!

Um, wow. Just looked at the high school I was thinking of. Not only do they not have an English department listed (everything else from Mathematics to Family Planning and Foster Care), but it looks like if I want to even step onto the campus I've got to pay to be fingerprinted and TB tested. Niiiiice.

Oh. Oh wait. Sorry, no, this is the wrong place. I was looking at the school where the kids gang raped a girl at prom while everyone took photos on their phones. Nope. Not going there.

I wanted the place on the OTHER side of town.

ETA: Now looking at the right school - they've got an online bulletin board system and I can see all of their class syllabuses. Daaaang, they're running this place like a prison. I'm thinking maybe I might want to ease into this with some of the nicer schools... not prepared to go all Sister Act right off the bat.

If it's any reassurance, you wouldn't believe how many paperwork and clearance hoops I had to jump through to get my student teaching license. *flashes FBI clearance*

And I'm not sure I understand, Jo. It's fairly common for schools to post syllabi etc. online (though it does make me sad on principle that the first school doesn't list their English department). Different schools just have different requirements as well as different forms of online presence. My advice is to contact department heads or individual teachers (sometimes you can go by their teacher bio here, we have some seriously creative teachers who put up great info about themselves that gives a sense of their personality).

Anyway, good luck and don't be deterred.

Speaking of not being deterred, I joined this email job list specifically for educators looking to work in the field of German and got a listing for what is basically my dream job, only that it's not teaching. It's in New York and I probably don't have a shot at this at all, but hey, you never know, right...?

I meant that the syllabus is not so much a syllabus as a... um... well, a list of rules and regulations. And the things that they have to make rules about? Kinda scary. For example,

If you make racist/homophobic/sexual remarks or "get it on" with anyone in my class, you get a zero for the day. Do it twice and I will call home.
Destroy property and you will get a detention. Do it twice and we will have a conference.

Etc. etc. Not... really the sort of thing that had to be said up front in any class I ever took.

Thanks for the reps. It was a small loan covering the extra tuition cost other things didn't cover, but due to various factors, I had to use every deferment offered instead of paying it off, and then the previous loan holder was a PITA for over a year, so with notices from the latest one, I sent them a lump and had done with it.

Jo, if high schools seem different now to you, imagine what they seem like to me at my age from small town Iowa! Both my kids go to a large urban school where the range of economic advantages/ disadvantages is huge. Sadly, with our more violent society now, some kids take on aggressive posturing as a way to survive in their own neighborhoods and they have to learn how to turn it off in school. Some don't learn easily.

Got an unintentionally funny email from a kid, very to the point:
"how old are you? You are my porject."

That's it, no closing, nothing else. I hope his class gets to letter writing etiquette at some point.