MY PAST LIFE
Daily Thought
Former front page,
the last year I taught
I thought I would have more time than ever to read once I retired. More
Retirement is great! We are traveling and doing all the things we couldn't do during our teaching lives. We do miss interacting with kids in class.
Picture credit: Leah Johnston at retirement party with many of the BUSD staff.
My short story, “Pete’s Mesa,” was included in Things You Can Create(StoneThread Publishing, 2013).
The second Speculative Fiction anthology
published by StoneThread Publishing in ebook format was published January 10, 2013.
The
anthology is available worldwide through Amazon, Apple, Baker & Taylor,
Diesel, Kobo, Sony and a few others.
Fresh voices from
emerging authors will help you slip out of reality into the in-between places
of mind, matter and energy! If speculative fiction is your fancy, you’ll love
the 22 stories offered in this collection, written by authors from America,
Australia and the United Kingdom. You will find everything from outrageous
humor to spirituality to dreadful fear; artificial intelligence and alter egos; Kirlian auras, otherworldly beings and
post-apocalyptic journeys; changelings and entwives;
faerie gardens and forests tangled with vines; detectives and ghosts and a pixelated murderer.
“Pete’s Mesa” suggests that
we may be groomed for entrance into galactic society.
REVIEWS
Solaris
By
Stanislaw Lem
Solaris is old science fiction by a recognized giant of
sci-fi. … Continue to finish this review and read more.
Travel, writing conferences, enjoying retirement take up our time.
Mendocino Writers Conference, Society of Southwest Authors, and TusCon, have been sandwiched between trips to Death Valley, Carlsbad Caverns, Vermont, Colorado (several times), Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Oregon, Washington, and a couple of trips to Vegas to see Mystere. Of course we try to avoid the heat of Barstow summers and the snowy cold of Big Bear. But shoveling snow is not a bad thing unless it falls in depths of more than two feet at one time or is so frequent we must stay to dig out.
"Dream of Monarchs"
First publication for pay in
Volume 7 #1 of Tales of the Talisman
This was a reworked story I used in connection with Plato's Cave in Critical Thinking.
My trilogy,The Elder Saga,
is finished.
Finding
an agent or a publisher is a different job, slow moving, and infuriating.
Renaissance (working title) is undergoing rewrites. Motif for all
my writing is social commentary not unlike what Clarke was famous for.
Authoring
takes up much time and reading has taken a serious
hit. However, writers must read. I have provided reviews of the books I have read and recently noted when I finished each.
Read Mrs. Braden's Submission to NCTE on improperly posted teacher grading based on student scores.
Read my letter on education to the editor of the Wilson Quarterly.
Read my comments to Diane Ravitch on her book The Death and Life of the Great American School Systemhttp://www.dianeravitch.com/comments_page12.htm
Thirty years after A Nation at Risk
http://neatoday.org/2013/04/25/a-nation-at-risk-turns-30-where-did-it-take-us/
Good article. Here's the final paragraph:
“In some ways, A Nation at Risk was helpful, but what we’ve seen in the past 30 years are too many misguided efforts – most notably No Child Left Behind – that have only compounded the problems the report identified,” Van Roekel said. “Educators across the country work hard to give their students the great education they deserve, but lawmakers cannot keep pulling the rug out from under them with bad ideas. We need to do what we know works. We need to fully fund our schools, invest in early childhood education, increase parental involvement and keep our class sizes small, especially in high-poverty schools at the lower grades. This is how we’ll make our schools work for every student.”
