(no subject)

Teacher conferences last night!

Paidhi Boy's teacher says that for the past few weeks he's become very enthusiastic about writing books. They've been doing it all year of course, little things stapled together with construction paper covers, but he's improved a lot, writing-wise and really gotten into it. She showed me a recent work.

I can't completely reproduce it, but it went pretty much like this:

On the title page--"The tree knocked down by a storm" and then, crammed in along the side "will the lizard survive?"

The first page establishes that, in the city, the weather was fine.

The second page tells us that on the other hand, in the jungle it was storming. In subsequent pages lightning strikes "BAM" and a tree falls down. This all took maybe three pages.

On the last page, we're told that "the storm went on until it stopped, the end" and underneath that, a sort of afterword I guess, it says "the lizard crawled away and found a new home."

While I was in conference, Mr. Cameron and the kids were at the Scholastic book fair, which always runs during teacher conference time. I'm not sure what book Paidhi Girl picked out, she was holding it close and it's likely in her bed right now. Paidhi Boy picked out a Captain Underpants book. (Captain Underpants is hilarious! Just ask Paidhi Boy.) They also bought erasers that look like money, which amused both kids greatly.

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I find myself oddly fascinated, in a car-wreck kind of way, by the reaction in some quarters to Scalzi's announcing his SFWA prez candidacy. (And aghast at some of the things I'm learning, actually. SFWA lent money to who, now? And who thought that was a perfectly fine idea? But I'm not a member, so it's not really any of my business except in a "spectator slowing down and staring" way at the moment. Well, okay, I may be eligible to join someday, so I guess I do have good reason to be interested and even concerned...but anyway.)

What else is going on? Oh, I finished a second draft of my intended Sword and Sorceress sub, it's got...things wrong with it that I'm not sure how to deal with, but it's up on the Miscue now, and I'll have some time to ponder it, and all of next week to work on things--theoretically, anyway. Spring break means I don't have to work at the cafeteria, but it also means the Paidhi kids are home, so we'll see.

(no subject)

Teacher conferences last night!

Paidhi Boy's teacher says that for the past few weeks he's become very enthusiastic about writing books. They've been doing it all year of course, little things stapled together with construction paper covers, but he's improved a lot, writing-wise and really gotten into it. She showed me a recent work.

I can't completely reproduce it, but it went pretty much like this:

On the title page--"The tree knocked down by a storm" and then, crammed in along the side "will the lizard survive?"

The first page establishes that, in the city, the weather was fine.

The second page tells us that on the other hand, in the jungle it was storming. In subsequent pages lightning strikes "BAM" and a tree falls down. This all took maybe three pages.

On the last page, we're told that "the storm went on until it stopped, the end" and underneath that, a sort of afterword I guess, it says "the lizard crawled away and found a new home."

While I was in conference, Mr. Cameron and the kids were at the Scholastic book fair, which always runs during teacher conference time. I'm not sure what book Paidhi Girl picked out, she was holding it close and it's likely in her bed right now. Paidhi Boy picked out a Captain Underpants book. (Captain Underpants is hilarious! Just ask Paidhi Boy.) They also bought erasers that look like money, which amused both kids greatly.

***************

I find myself oddly fascinated, in a car-wreck kind of way, by the reaction in some quarters to Scalzi's announcing his SFWA prez candidacy. (And aghast at some of the things I'm learning, actually. SFWA lent money to who, now? And who thought that was a perfectly fine idea? But I'm not a member, so it's not really any of my business except in a "spectator slowing down and staring" way at the moment. Well, okay, I may be eligible to join someday, so I guess I do have good reason to be interested and even concerned...but anyway.)

What else is going on? Oh, I finished a second draft of my intended Sword and Sorceress sub, it's got...things wrong with it that I'm not sure how to deal with, but it's up on the Miscue now, and I'll have some time to ponder it, and all of next week to work on things--theoretically, anyway. Spring break means I don't have to work at the cafeteria, but it also means the Paidhi kids are home, so we'll see.