It has been five years since I have written one of these end-of-the-year reflections. I’m coming into this one after rereading what I wrote in 2018. In the intervening half a decade, I must have been just too overwhelmed by COVID and the ending of a career in education to be bothered to do aContinue reading “Mindfulness in 2023: A Reflection”
Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo
Writing in a Zoom Room with Friends
If there is anything I miss about teaching during the pandemic school shutdown, it’s sitting virtually with a group of human beings I care about, in absolute silence, and in the comfort of my home, while every student in the Zoom Room writes. A silent classroom, no doubt, is better, because not only could youContinue reading “Writing in a Zoom Room with Friends”
It’s Been A Long Time . . .
. . .since we rock and rolled. So long, in fact, that my hair color has changed from purple to blue and then to silver. Apologies to anyone who might have missed me. It was April the last time I posted something new. I’m not including July’s essay “Reflections on 37 Years of Marriage” becauseContinue reading “It’s Been A Long Time . . .”
The Book I Read: Late Work—An Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading
Hey there! Welcome back to the Book I Read podcast/blog with Michael Jarmer Writer Guy, a podcast where I talk about books mostly, books I’ve read exclusively, reading in general, writing, listening, teaching and learning. It is December; the holiday season upon us. Last time we spoke it was October when it still felt aContinue reading “The Book I Read: Late Work—An Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading”
Notes On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days
It has been five days since I reached the goal of writing 50,000 words, a draft of a novel, in a single month. I wrote, to be precise (sort of), 50,139 words during the month of November, and according to my goal tracking page on Novelpad (an online novel writing application I discovered through theContinue reading “Notes On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days”
On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days
It seems crazy, doesn’t it? I completed my first novel over an entire decade. I finished my second novel over the next decade. It took me eight years to write a novella. Granted, during the composition of all three of these pieces I was employed as a full-time public school English teacher–which may have beenContinue reading “On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days”
#295: Simultaneously
251 babies are born every minute and 105 people die. That’s not sustainable, just saying. 18 million people just got into a motor vehicle, not the same vehicle, obviously. There are 1500 active volcanos and earthquakes are always happening. 75 people just bought a burger at McDonald’s. 75 people just bought a burger at McDonald’s.Continue reading “#295: Simultaneously”
#286: When Easter Falls on April Fools Day
The first poem of the month has a provocative title, and suggests, provocatively, that Jesus was joking. He made us think he was dead and then rose again on the third day, the first day of April, to shoot hoops with his friends. Most everyone was totally fished in. You would be. But of course,Continue reading “#286: When Easter Falls on April Fools Day”
#7: Six Statements and a Question
Write a poem in which each line is a single declarative sentence until the last line. The last line should be a question. That was the prompt today on http://www.napowrimo.net and I took up the challenge. I thought, that since today was the seventh day of the poetry writing extravaganza, that my poem would containContinue reading “#7: Six Statements and a Question”
michael jarmer 