Not All Who Wander Are Lost

My dad's currently in the hospital, being kept under because he just had surgery. I was sitting there this afternoon watching him, the monitors all beeping, whirring and clicking in the background. His feet moved, rather restlessly and every now and again he'd open his eyes and look around, but you knew that he wasn't really seeing anything. They're keeping him really groggy, and he's always hated that feeling. The meds give him some wild dreams. I've heard that from others too. What is it like to be trapped in that twilight world of dreams? All of us have regrets, fears and parts of our lives we don't want to confront. What if we didn't have a choice? What if we were trapped in that world? What sorts of demon dreams would be scraping against our minds as we slept. All of us have had nightmares. I'm usually looking for something or fleeing from something. I wonder what that says about my subconscious? I'm sure someone who analyzed dreams would ...

That was the journal topic last week. I asked my students to talk about books they loved and why they loved them. I also asked them to talk about books they hated and why they hated them. I also asked them to talk about how they would change those books they didn't like in order to make them better. It's always fun to see how the kids would change books. I'm also a little shocked when I have students come up to me and tell me that they don't like any books. Or they've never actually finished a book. I die a little inside when I hear eighth graders tell me that. I'm also always a little appalled when kids tell me they hate books I've loved. Some of them hated the Harry Potter books. Others thought The Hunger Games was boring. (How that's possible is beyond me!) I had to expand the journal assignment a little bit to movies when too many of the kids told me that they really didn't like too many books. I suppose I have my work cut out for me this year....

Just pondering the concept of truth today. Don't know why really. Maybe I've been reading too many newspaper articles on the presidential election. Or I listened to my daughter and her cousin blame each other for everything that fell over this evening. Just got me thinking about truth. You know, they always say there are two sides to every story. When I think about that it's actually wrong. There are three sides of every story--yours, mine and the truth. No matter how much we try to hold onto veracity, I think we all do some judicious editing. Think about your own childhood. Have you ever caught yourself thinking about, kids these days? (Cue the Broadway song in the background!) When you were their age? How many of our parents traveled uphill, both ways, to school in the snow? Our own childhoods have that gilded look. I think back to all the years at the lake house and it brings a nostalgic smile to my face. It was so great, wasn't it? I only have to look in the journ...

I usually read genre books. I love fantasy, science fiction, romance, horror . . . you name it. I like genre fiction. I usually do not like modern fiction. I remember several years ago talking to a colleague of mine about books. We'd come back from summer break and she was telling me about how much she loved Nicholas Sparks. I don't recall at the moment which book it was, but I do remember her telling me that she sobbed through the whole book. I think I looked like a dog listening to a high pitched sound at that second. How could you possibly love a book that made you cry? Maybe I'm just deficient. I don't like, for the most part, those tear jerker endings. Titanic, the movie? Never saw it. Never wanted to. Never thought there was a point to subjecting myself to three hours of misery ending in a freezing death. I teach Romeo and Juliet to my students, but we talk about how the tragedy isn't romantic. It's just sad. The tragedy isn't that Romeo and Juliet d...

I'm sitting here waiting for the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies to begin. I've convinced the four year old that these are going to be some of the coolest shows she's going to watch in the entire universe. I'm sentimentally patriotic and a hopeless romantic all rolled up into one. I always mist up at the national anthem playing in the background with the flag rising to frame one of our athletes. I also love the stories behind the athletes. The legally blind Korean archer who set a new world record, the Japanese equestrian who happens to be Buddhist monk, the sprinter with two artificial legs . . . It's my mom's fault. I know that. She always watched the Olympics. It was a big deal in our house. My brother and I were gymnasts, never anywhere near the Olympics, but we did have dreams of gold. The same dreams of every young athlete. I know what it's like to stand on a balance beam with the crowd looking on and feel your heart in your throat. I remember the pa...

According to a quote by Ray Bradbury "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." I love this quote both as a writer and as a teacher. More so as a teacher. I teach 8th graders so I hear, "I hate to read," pretty often. I love it when I take them to the library in the first week telling them they all need to have a book in their hands before they leave. There are a handful in each class who dive toward the stacks knowing exactly what kind of book they're looking for. A few others meander around checking covers and skimming backs of books. Two of three more wander aimlessly not even really picking up a book or getting too close. At the end of the class those two are still circling--looking for a place to land. I've spent most of the class talking to my meanderers. What do you like to read? What do you like to do when you're not at school? What's your favorite movie? As I walk with them pulling books ...

How do you describe what it feels like to be in the home stretch of a book? To know that there are only about twenty or thirty pages to the end? You know where the story is, you know where it has to go, and you know what you need to write in order to get there. Of course, it's only the beginning of the end. Once you finish the story itself, once that first draft is done--well, overall, it's a heady feeling. When you actually write those last words you automatically want to erase them. You can't be done. There's got to be more to be said. That's true. There is always more that you can say. The problem is knowing when the book is done. Sometimes there are stories that you just can't let go. Characters you love. You really want to stay with them, know more about them, follow them home after they're done riding away into the sunset. Like I said the end of a book is actually only the beginning of the end. Once that draft is finished you have to go back and re...