February 2011

And the Winners Are…

And the Winners Are...

First, let me just thank each and every one of you for entering. I couldn’t possibly choose, so I made a heartless ‘bot do it and it wept as it did. You are all just THAT AWESOME.

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Recycling Bikes and Building Pride

Recycling Bikes and Building Pride

My friend took me to the awesomest place to buy a bike today. I’d been hoping to get the kid a new bike. The old one was her first bike, far beneath her now especially in its purple and pink. So since last year’s adventures with my bike informed me that I didn’t know half

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No Class, Just Education

No Class, Just Education

We had a WWII vet (a fascinating story-teller!) sharing his experiences. We had traditional Korean drummers. We had a Buddhist monk in yellow, from Thailand. We had Afghan people to talk about Afghanistan, and Nepali to talk about Nepal. We had people teaching origami and leading the kids in karaoke, and many, many more activities based on our global studies for this semester, Asia.

And I had parent after parent calling to ask if it was true that there were “no classes today.”

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Just Fade Away

Just Fade Away

The time has come to say good-bye to an old friend. I am saddened by the retirement of my dear friend, my close companion, my keyboard. Yes, it’s time. The keyboard I have had since…well, I’m not really sure how long. I think I got it with my first Dell. I think it’s that old.

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Taming the Dreaded First Scene

Taming the Dreaded First Scene

Lots of people will tell you what not to do. Don’t start with your character waking up, for instance. Agents and editors have seen this so many times, and apparently are intensely weary of it. Starting with back-story is out, starting with description is dulls-ville, starting with a prologue is usually a bad plan, dialogue can be tricky, for heaven’s sake don’t start with a dream…what’s left?

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