Taking Stock

1.  So, I’m a month into the semester and loving it. I have students from Indonesia, China, Puerto Rico, rural Alaska, and the Dominican Republic. They are my teachers as much or more as I am theirs.

2.  I won’t be running the Equinox Marathon next weekend because of a slow-to-heal calf injury, but I did run three marathons in the past twelve months so I’m not too disappointed. Still, on race day I’m sure I’ll be missing it. It’s my all time favorite race and I’ve run it eight times.

3.  Fall is in full swing up here. The birches and aspens are a blaze of yellow, and strings of Sandhill Cranes are heading south interspersed with V’s of Canada Geese. And with the increased security on the borders I’m not sure what will happen. I mean, the geese will have no problem getting into Canada, but when they try to cross back into the states…could be trouble.

"I've never needed a passport before on this flyway."

The garden is halfway harvested but there are still lots of potatoes to dig and carrots to pull.

And the cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse—we just eat them right off the vine.

And my writing….I’m hoping to dig into my WIP soon.

That’s what’s going on with me. What’s happening in your life, friends?

Read Full Post »

A little bit of news and what I’ve been doing lately

The blog has been a little quiet lately but that doesn’t mean I’ve been sitting around doing nothing.

1.  I had a wonderful two week visit with my family, one of the highlights being a trip to Grand Haven, Michigan to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. Yes, I took a dip in Lake Michigan.

2.  I ran the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend, Indiana in high humidity and 80 degree plus heat. I’m glad I crossed the finish line before they called the race due to hazardous heat conditions.

3.  While I was in the Midwest, I received some good news: My middle grade novel has been chosen as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s Annual Contest. Winners will be announced in August at their annual conference.

4.  I accepted a job for the fall semester. I will be teaching English to the ELL (English Language Learners) students at West Valley High School.  It is a ¾ time teaching position and just for the fall semester, kind of perfect for me in terms of keeping my writing going.

5.  I’m going hiking in the Italian Alps in late July/early August.

6.  And, am I working on a new book? You bet I am!!

Interesting. Is that public information?

That’s all the news that fit to tell. What have you been up to lately?

Read Full Post »

Who I Am

 Okay, I stole this idea from ali cross. She did this super-cool post for the benefit of her new followers. So, here are a few snippets—in no particular order—about who I am.

I’ve got a B.A. in English and Psychology from Indiana University and a K-8 Teaching Credential from the University of Alaska Southeast.

I was the Lead Teacher in a Therapeutic Day Treatment School in Fairbanks, Alaska. I worked there for fifteen years teaching and counseling junior high and high school students who’d been removed from the mainstream for various reasons: violence, drug use, defiance, depression…the list goes on.

I’ve been happily married for 14 years. Yes, I sometimes talk about my wife on this blog. She’s a teacher and a writer too. We exchange manuscripts and we still like each other. She’s my best friend.

A few other jobs I have held: salmon cannery fish-slimer, wilderness guide for teens, field biology technician, naturalist/outdoor educator.

I participated in a ten-day deep-ecology meditation retreat on an uninhabited island in Southeast Alaska. It was a mind blowing experience—that topic deserves a post of its own.

Places I lived before settling in Alaska: Pennsylvania, Indiana, Massachusetts, Idaho, California.

I write young adult and middle grade fiction. I hope my stories will speak to people across ages and gender; however, I often write with the struggling and reluctant reader population in mind. As a teacher I love opening the world of reading to non-readers by connecting them with books that speak to them. My personal sun shines a little brighter whenever this happens because that means they’ve just found a way to get to know themselves and the world in a new way.

A few more things: I love sea kayaking, and all kinds of wilderness travel, running, movies, good books, walking in big cities, and cooking for friends.

So, yeah, that’s a little of who I am. Thanks for stopping by today.

Read Full Post »

Frolicking Through Cyberspace Interview

Heather Ayris Burnell, author of  the recently released picture book Bedtime Monster, (Raven Tree Press), was kind enough to interview me on her blog, Frolicking Through Cyberspace. If you’d like to read the interview, here’s the link: Interview. 

Thanks, Heather.

And, I couldn’t resist showing off the cover of Bedtime Monster and a short summary:

A little boy doesn’t want to go to bed. He whines. He cries. He throws a tantrum. He begins to grow long claws and a tail. What? A tail? It’s true! This little boy is not only acting like a monster, he turns into one! He growls a scary growl. He grows a tail. But, his parents know what to do. They calmly cuddle, rock, and sing to him. Here is a monster you might actually want to snuggle with as bedtime draws near.

Thanks for stopping by.

Read Full Post »

A Brief History of how I came to be a Writer

I came at writing slowly.

As a kid I spent most of my free time playing or watching TV. I liked to read but not in an obsessive way. And I didn’t write unless I had to for school.

My senior year of high school I had an English teacher who really knew how to bring books to life through discussion, and I discovered that I liked thinking deeply about books.

In college I started keeping a journal, but only wrote in it sporadically about girls I liked but was too shy to ask out, or about what life is all about, or about how I needed to get off my butt and do something, anything.

Sophomore year I decided to major in English because I had to major in something and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life besides go camping and backpacking.

My last two years of college I wrote lots of old-style rhyming poetry, modeling the poets I was reading, and had two poems published in a student literary journal.

When I moved to Alaska a few years later and was living in a cabin outside of town, I wrote some really bad short stories about a guy living in a cabin where not much of anything is happening.

Yeah, writing what you know doesn't always work out.

Fast forward a few years: I’m teaching English in an alternative school and I discover Young Adult Literature. I start bringing home books by the arm-load, searching for a few my reluctant and struggling readers will connect with, and I fall in love with the genre.

Now that I’ve got my students reading, I’m looking for ways to turn my students on to writing so we start writing scenes using characters from the novels we are reading.

My students like doing the assignments, but I love doing the assignments.

I’m not sure I would’ve started writing YA if it weren’t for my students. Now, I’m hooked.

How did you come to be a writer? Did you love writing from an early age or did you discover it in a more roundabout way?

Read Full Post »