Wish I'd Had Teachers Like These

I don't know what kind of teachers you all had in school, but mine left a lot to be desired. Here are a few examples.

Miss D. - the English teacher/cheerleading coach who pronounced the W in sword and couldn't diagram a sentence to save her life.

Mr. C. - the Church History teacher who let the football players sleep in class to rest up for the games.

Mr. S. - the Social Studies teacher/swim coach whose idea of a curriculum was having students read articles aloud from Newsweek magazine. This is was we did every day for a year. Also, he'd hang his terrifyingly teeny tiny speedo from the classroom window. You couldn't not look at it. It was just there.

Sister Pearl Mary - the Major World Religion teacher who insisted that there might be "perfectly lovely" people of other religions, but they were "all going to Hell."

Sister Rosine - the Old Testament teacher who made me stand up and say to the class, "I'm the bride of Satan" because I was wearing red nail polish. (This was my first experience with Catholic schooling...I wasn't impressed.)

Sister Florentine - the Algebra nun who was a notorious ear twister.

Sister Clarine - the Biology teacher whom I genuinely adored, but the woman wore six foot boa constrictors. There's nothing more disconcerting that seeing a nun in a habit draped with huge snakes. Disturbing on levels I didn't know existed.

Sister Mary Projector - okay, that wasn't her real name and she wasn't really a teacher. I can't remember her name for the life of me. All day long, she walked the halls pushing the squeaky film strip projector cart...and never delivered it anywhere. I followed her one day and she just walked up and down the halls all day. I suspect Sister Michael Ellen, the library nun gave Sister MP a room number that didn't exist just to keep her out of her hair.

Now for some teachers I wish I'd had.

One of my daycare kids is taking a field trip to the Underworld. Her seventh grade class is studying the myth of Persephone, so Mr D. is transforming his classroom into the Underworld. I'm guessing there will be pomegranates for all.

My oldest son is in the eighth grade. His teacher, Ms. D. is absolutely amazing. She connects with the kids like no one I've ever seen. This is the woman who when there's a kid appropriate concert in town, she'll accompany the kids who want to go as a chaperon. She created a Parent Awareness Night for the school where all the kids researched topics that affect teenagers like underage drinking, eating disorders, drug abuse, mental illness, AIDS, etc and then presented their findings to the parents. It was fabulous. Right now, the kids are studying the fantasy genre and every day, five different kids get to draw from the bag of Super Powers to add a little fantasy to their everyday lives.

If s/he gets Power of the Mind, s/he blows on a recorder and she gives him/her a typed page of whatever needed to be written for the class period and s/he doesn't have to write.

If s/he gets Time Travel, s/he can travel back in time and change a missing assignment.

If s/he gets d Perfectionist, s/he will wear a cape and be considered perfect and complimented by everyone in class. S/he could say the grass was perfect and everyone would agree and compliment the wisdom of the wearer of the cape.

If s/he gets Technological Genius, s/he gets to wear a special headband and listen to music while you are in class.

If s/he gets Invisibility, s/he wears special sunglasses and no matter what s/he does, the class will not notice.

These kids are excited about what they're learning and are loving what they're reading. Luckily, I had a great mom who told me tales of King Arthur and Greek Myths as bedtime stories and inspired me. I'm not even going to get started on the Wildly Inappropriate Lullabies... My hope is that every child has at least one teacher who inspires them.

I'm such a dork...

and I'm sure that announcement surprises no one.

Granted, last week sucked beyond the telling of it, but I forgot to tell you that I guest blogged at Novelspot. If you get a chance, stop by and take a peek.

There are five entries. There's also a photograph with each one...not sure who that chick is, but it's not me. ;)

Story Seeds

Book of Wonder

Does Your Book Have a Soundtrack?

Decrease Stress and Increase Productivity

You're a Writer - What are You Afraid of?

Here's the link to the index, if you're interested. If you get a chance, let me know what you think. http://novelspot.net/behind_the_scenes_index

Monday's Eye Candy...Today

Due to extreme chaos Eye Candy Monday has been moved to Tuesday. I'd like to introduce you to Kieran the hero of my story Moonlit Magic. Cleverly, he's also the hero of one of Brynn's stories - can't remember the name of the book, but his name is Airyon.

His real name is Rafael Lazini -also known as towel boy. Towel boy makes frequent appearances in emails to cheer people up. Wouldn't you be cheered up if he showed up in your inbox?

Sad Update

I want to thank all of you for your positive thoughts and prayers. I truly believe they gave us an extra week with our beloved Small.

She took a turn for the worse Wednesday night and continued to go downhill. We ended up having to put her down yesterday.

I wish things could have been different - obviously. She was a good kitty - a good friend.

Thanks again, both for your thoughts and prayers as well as your support and friendship. I truly appreciate all of it.

I'm Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving, or Happy Kill the Indigenous Peoples Day as my family often says. I joke about Thanksgiving...well...Columbus Day, too, for that matter, but I do think it's important to take the time to reflect on the things we're grateful for.

So often the mindset seems to be about focusing on what we want rather than the what we have, and that can lead to dissatisfaction with our lives. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to improve our lives, but when we don't acknowledge the great - or yeah - even the mediocre stuff we tend to take it for granted or cease to appreciate it all together. Sometimes the acknowledging process requires us to reframe our perceptions a bit.

For instance, I could be pissy that our house needs a new roof, but looking at the economic crisis in the state of Michigan, I'm thrilled that we have a house. It's warm, it's not in danger of foreclosure and my family is safe and protected.

I could be bitter because my hubby has to work today. And truth be told, I'm not thrilled, but because he was without permanent work and we were all without health insurance for almost two years makes the fact that he now has a great job (with benefits) that he loves 99.9% of the time more important than the fact that he has to work a holiday. (I'll be bringing home leftovers for him.)

Now, I'm not trying to sound like Pollyanna here, cause really, I kinda want to slap her, but I would like to share some of the things I'm grateful for.

My kids who make me laugh and help me see the world with new eyes and teach me about love every day.

My hubby - even though he pisses me off from time to time, I love him more each day.

My family - the whole crazyass lot of them. No matter what, we're all there for one another.

My friends - they listen to me whine, share my joys, make me laugh til I turn an unhealthy shade of purple and gasp for breath.

My kitties - I'm especially thankful that Small's health is improving every day.

My career - I'm doing what I always wanted to do and loving it.

And now, in no particular order, some random bits I'm grateful for...Johnny Depp, Coke, pretty stones, music, Buffy, hot tea, the sound of clacking knitting needles, hugs, frequent and clean restrooms along the highway, the internet, Ani Difranco, vanilla flavored lip balm, sleep, chocolate, salt & vinegar potato chips, sandalwood essential oil, Adam Duritz, faeries, falling leaves, ibuprofen, cheese pizza, ren faires, books, Brian Froud, fabric stores, legos, Kate Rusby, more books, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, central air, the muppets, laughter, standing stones, new baby smell, oak trees and the nice, warm bed I'm about to crawl into.

How about it - what are you grateful for?

Picture Pages from Ronan's Grail

As a prewriting exercise I basically scrapbook my story. It works really well for me on a lot of different levels. It solidifies the story in my head in the early stages. The pages help me get back into the story later in the writing process when I inevitably get pulled away. But mostly, I like to procrastinate and make pretty things.

So anyway, I thought I'd share the pretty things from Ronan's Grail. Sorry about the wonky spacing...still figuring out how to post more than one picture at time.)

I'm working on the pages for Solstice Seduction - they're pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

It's Monday...

I declare Monday to be Eye Candy Day. Tuesday might be too...it's been a long weekend.

On the plus side, the boyscout popcorn sale is over and I didn't murder my son's Scout Master though I was sorely tempted...on many occasions.

Had a lovely dinner yesterday at my mom's with my hubby and kids, two of my brothers and their spouses and my neice. Unfortunately, my sister and her partner and my other brother and his fam couldn't make it, but I'm hoping to see them on Thanksgiving as long as Small is well enough for me to leave her for that long.

Speaking of Small, she got her IV catheter taken out yesterday, so now I'm giving her sub-cutaneous fluids at home. She's eating a bit and drinking a little and is more alert than she has been. We still don't know what caused her liver to stop functioning in the first place, but I'm hoping we can figure it out so this doesn't happen again.

Back to eating pomegrantes, cuddling a kitty and the WIP.

Some Smallish News

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for their prayers, positive thoughts and vibes - I truly, truly appreciate it. I think Small does too.

She's showing some signs of improvement. The doctor let me bring her home yesterday since she started eating on her own. Unfortunately, she's not drinking yet so we're still giving her IV fluids. She's responsive and even tackled the stairs today. Right now, she's laying on my bed with me being the Queen of All She Surveys. She's delighted at being reunited with her boy, and her boy is very happy too.

It's too soon to tell if the liver meds are working, but we're encouraged by her progress - particularly the doctor who told me that he honestly didn't think she'd survive the night Thursday.

So thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart. Please keep the positive vibes and prayers coming. I'm hoping for a healthy Small for Christmas.

Small

This is Tamerlyn Catkin a.k.a. Small. As you might be able to tell, she's not the least little bit small.

She's great cat. Loving, loyal, hilariously funny - although I don't think she intends to be. Every night, she climbs the ladder to the upper bunk in my boys' room so she can sleep with my oldest son. Killian is her boy. She follows him everywhere, lays on the desk while he's playing computer games or doing homework, watches him play guitar hero and stares at him from the porch while he skateboards.

So here's the thing, I'm not simply posting to evangelize about my cat. We just got back from the vet, and Small's not doing well - it looks like she's got liver disease along with some other issues. She had to spend the night so the doctor can run some more tests on her. My kids are absolute wrecks and to be honest, so am I. I would really appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts you can send her way.

Today's the Day...Well, the other one, anyway.

It's been quite the week so far, and it's only Wednesday.

Monday, I had my first TEB release.

Yesterday, I did not drop kick a daycare child who desperately deserved it.

And today is my third EC release, Ronan's Grail! I've been waiting a long time to see this story in print. It's been rattling around my head for years - ever since I worked in the costume shop of my university's theatre.

Incidentally, this is how I picture Ronan. The art department had a different idea...and evidently, they took him unicorn hunting. I'd post it here, but I'm not clever enough to post more than one picture per blog. However, the fantabulous Amarinda has it on her blog where she was kind enough to interview me. As AJ would say, go have a squiz. http://amarindajones.blogspot.com/