If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will
I have always heard those stories about high concept phrases that lead to books and movies, but I never thought I would ever write that way.
My first novel, Small Town News, published in 2005, was a fictionalized version of a true story that happened when I was teaching in the small Diamond, Missouri, School District in 2001. Our superintendent, the man who hired me, disappeared on the same day the city's bank was robbed. The two events had nothing to do with each other, but that will never stop them from being inextricably linked in the minds of Diamond residents.
My eighth grade writing class inspired me to write the book when class members complained about the way the media was treating the superintendent's widow. So I had the basic idea for my story- how a small town reacts when it is under siege from the media. I drew upon a lifetime of living in small towns and 22 years as a newspaper reporter and editor to write the novel. It was a mild regional success.
The next year I took a shot at something I had always wanted to write- a mystery horror story. Devil's Messenger told the story of a teenage date rape victim who communicates with her murdered father through instant messenger. I thought the book was far superior to Small Town News, so naturally, it flopped, and for the next several years, I stuck to non-fiction.
It was one line, actually three words, that finally made me want to get back to fiction and oddly enough, it was not the line that serves as the headline for this post.
I wanted to write something about the problems facing those of us who are in the trenches of everyday public education in the United States. I have been in contact with teachers all over this country, had done a considerable amount of reading, and at first, I thought I would write another non-fiction book, perhaps combining many of the education blogs I have written for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and the Turner Report. Then one night, I was watching the Glenn Ford movie from the mid-50s, about life in a high school, The Blackboard Jungle, and I thought it was time to update the concept to the 21st Century and the three words, The Smartboard Jungle, popped into my mind and immediately that became the working title for my third novel.
The new book, however, did not have juvenile delinquency as its central theme, but the twin horrors of public education, students with weapons and a clueless bureaucracy that slowly beats the idealism out of classroom teachers.
That's when the tagline occurred to me- If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will. The title, No Child Left Alive, of course, is a play on one of the most miserable educational "reforms" ever created, No Child Left Behind.
The book emphasizes the problems teachers face during one year in a dysfunctional public high school, following the dictates of a new leader and a scheming assistant who was passed up for the main job after the death of the head administrator.
From there, I weaved stories of bureaucratic inefficiency and brilliant ideas designed to keep up with government dictates or to game the system, but which do nothing to improve education.
Teachers in any public school system in the United States should be able to recognize themselves or their colleagues in No Child Left Alive.
Hopefully, they wil be able to survive the system and will never have to face a shooter.
Thanks for reading. No Child Left Alive can be found at this link: http://www.amazon.com/No-Child-Left-A...
The book is available for free download through Tuesday, October 9. After that, it will be available for $2.99.
My first novel, Small Town News, published in 2005, was a fictionalized version of a true story that happened when I was teaching in the small Diamond, Missouri, School District in 2001. Our superintendent, the man who hired me, disappeared on the same day the city's bank was robbed. The two events had nothing to do with each other, but that will never stop them from being inextricably linked in the minds of Diamond residents.
My eighth grade writing class inspired me to write the book when class members complained about the way the media was treating the superintendent's widow. So I had the basic idea for my story- how a small town reacts when it is under siege from the media. I drew upon a lifetime of living in small towns and 22 years as a newspaper reporter and editor to write the novel. It was a mild regional success.
The next year I took a shot at something I had always wanted to write- a mystery horror story. Devil's Messenger told the story of a teenage date rape victim who communicates with her murdered father through instant messenger. I thought the book was far superior to Small Town News, so naturally, it flopped, and for the next several years, I stuck to non-fiction.
It was one line, actually three words, that finally made me want to get back to fiction and oddly enough, it was not the line that serves as the headline for this post.
I wanted to write something about the problems facing those of us who are in the trenches of everyday public education in the United States. I have been in contact with teachers all over this country, had done a considerable amount of reading, and at first, I thought I would write another non-fiction book, perhaps combining many of the education blogs I have written for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and the Turner Report. Then one night, I was watching the Glenn Ford movie from the mid-50s, about life in a high school, The Blackboard Jungle, and I thought it was time to update the concept to the 21st Century and the three words, The Smartboard Jungle, popped into my mind and immediately that became the working title for my third novel.
The new book, however, did not have juvenile delinquency as its central theme, but the twin horrors of public education, students with weapons and a clueless bureaucracy that slowly beats the idealism out of classroom teachers.
That's when the tagline occurred to me- If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will. The title, No Child Left Alive, of course, is a play on one of the most miserable educational "reforms" ever created, No Child Left Behind.
The book emphasizes the problems teachers face during one year in a dysfunctional public high school, following the dictates of a new leader and a scheming assistant who was passed up for the main job after the death of the head administrator.
From there, I weaved stories of bureaucratic inefficiency and brilliant ideas designed to keep up with government dictates or to game the system, but which do nothing to improve education.
Teachers in any public school system in the United States should be able to recognize themselves or their colleagues in No Child Left Alive.
Hopefully, they wil be able to survive the system and will never have to face a shooter.
Thanks for reading. No Child Left Alive can be found at this link: http://www.amazon.com/No-Child-Left-A...
The book is available for free download through Tuesday, October 9. After that, it will be available for $2.99.
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