gillpolack @ 2014-05-21T17:09:00
My days continue interesting. Today's interestingness was ameliorated by everyone being equally vague and scatty. I think we might be into the full change of seasons. The only grounded person was my BCS boss, who bought me an extra large coffee to get me through our early meeting. My writing class asked for extra morning tea time (there's a first time for everything, so I took a vote and there was a narrow majority) and I used it to start reading for the Retro Hugos. My work experience student was equally tired. Neither she nor I did much real work, but we had a good time, as did I with my class this morning. She has finally admitted that the reason she brings me books and DVDs to borrow each week is because she's educating me - I have 7 more this fortnight. This means right now my recreational reading is all YA. I'm not going to complain about that!
My Aurealis reading this year is not YA. One can't judge in the same category every year, so this year I've been transferred to fantasy novels. I shall miss the short stories, but the fantasy novel Aurealis is the meatiest in terms of sheer numbers of books, so I shall enjoy the reading. Just as in previous years, I'm part of a great panel. Reading doesn't start til June, though, which gives me a few weeks to catch up before things get busy.
Word of the day today (we're back to talking about my class) was 'steampunk', by request. Books of the day were (from me) The Rebel and Counting Coup by Jack Dann (I said I was on a reading binge of Jack's work!) and (from my students) Oscar Wilde's fairytales (again) and my Cellophane novel. A student bringing the book into class was entirely unexpected - this is not the same group that was interested in my writing the other day. The two groups are part of the same larger programme, though, so it's quite possible that the Friday group talked to the Wednesday group socially and they are making up their minds about my writing, one by one. You'll be pleased to know that Cellophane got a good review.
Today's content concerned finding emotions and communicating them so they felt real to the reader. Too many of my students are better at high level thought or at skipping emotions entirely. We did several exercises, and also looked at how one can develop a work that's authentic through deep personal connections. My students produced some nice stuff as a result and I'm rather hoping this will continue.
And my rest-of-day is completing most of an article. I may have to check something at the NLA tomorrow, but apart from that, I expect to be totally finished it. Then I have the last bit of the other one to do by the weekend, and then they can wend their way. Then I move onto the next thing... That's what this six months is all about: completing academic writing so that projects can be wound up, so that I clear the decks for fiction, so I have something to show for this quiet time.
My Aurealis reading this year is not YA. One can't judge in the same category every year, so this year I've been transferred to fantasy novels. I shall miss the short stories, but the fantasy novel Aurealis is the meatiest in terms of sheer numbers of books, so I shall enjoy the reading. Just as in previous years, I'm part of a great panel. Reading doesn't start til June, though, which gives me a few weeks to catch up before things get busy.
Word of the day today (we're back to talking about my class) was 'steampunk', by request. Books of the day were (from me) The Rebel and Counting Coup by Jack Dann (I said I was on a reading binge of Jack's work!) and (from my students) Oscar Wilde's fairytales (again) and my Cellophane novel. A student bringing the book into class was entirely unexpected - this is not the same group that was interested in my writing the other day. The two groups are part of the same larger programme, though, so it's quite possible that the Friday group talked to the Wednesday group socially and they are making up their minds about my writing, one by one. You'll be pleased to know that Cellophane got a good review.
Today's content concerned finding emotions and communicating them so they felt real to the reader. Too many of my students are better at high level thought or at skipping emotions entirely. We did several exercises, and also looked at how one can develop a work that's authentic through deep personal connections. My students produced some nice stuff as a result and I'm rather hoping this will continue.
And my rest-of-day is completing most of an article. I may have to check something at the NLA tomorrow, but apart from that, I expect to be totally finished it. Then I have the last bit of the other one to do by the weekend, and then they can wend their way. Then I move onto the next thing... That's what this six months is all about: completing academic writing so that projects can be wound up, so that I clear the decks for fiction, so I have something to show for this quiet time.
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