Updates, I guess

I have a very short lull in my semester right now, and I'm so relieved!  I'll teach a writing session tonight, and then I have a few days in which I do not have to teach.  Some might call such days "days off," but there is no such thing in my life.  There is ALWAYS school work to do--prepping the next unit and creating lesson plans, grading old homework, trying to find the mythical "perfect textbook" for next semester, suddenly realizing that textbook orders were due several weeks ago and that I should get on that.... oops.

But, during this special time, I may also have some time to do somethings I want to do!  Sadly, my list is mostly comprised of housekeeping chores that have been neglected for months (notice the passive voice here--a clever way of not placing blame on an individual.  The chores have simply been neglected.  By whom?  Well, I don't know; it just says they've been neglected.)  BUT after approximately 45 hours of non-stop house cleaning, I might squeeze in some sort of hobby.

Abrupt topic shift with no transition whatsoever.

I decided yesterday that I want to write the next huge teen sensation of novels.  But instead of a trilogy like those now-rich gals have been putting out--and which the greedy movie studios keep turning into four films, I intend to write a tetralogy--a series of four book.  Yes, the word is so unfamiliar that my spell check says it is not spelled correctly.  I shall introduce this term to the masses!  The only trick is... what to write about....

Actually, I spent some time thinking it over yesterday.  There are some models already out there--just follow the models!  But, first, it needs a hook: Twilight has teen vampires and werewolves (i.e. the supernatural). Hunger Games presents a dystopia with teens and the whole danger and suspense aspect mixed with rebellion and revolution.  Divergent has... well, what the hell does it have?  It's not very good.  Okay, try again: Divergent has teens who must choose their lifetime clique at age 16, and if they choose to join the cool clique, the might die or become homeless.  Okay, try again: Divergent presents a seeming utopia that has teens making difficult decisions, being tough when faced with the consequences of their choices, then the series takes it up about 20 notches and reveals the actual dystopia with (fairly small-scale) conspiracy (which needs to be addressed by teens) and moves up to extremely large-scale conspiracy/revelation of government interference and control of entire cities of people.

Common themes: first person teen girl narrators (age 16) with the usual teenage emotions and angsty complications with boys.  These girls do things and make decisions that no 16-year-old girl would ever, ever do.

So, after bouncing some ideas off Jon, I ran upstairs to my office and frantically typed out three pages of notes.

It's a promising start, right?

Now I just need to figure out how to write fiction. 
Compelling fiction. 
Compelling fiction that a publisher will actually publish--oh, and that people will read. 

Yeah, I think I've already got the hard part out of the way with those three pages of notes.  Phew.  I was beginning to think this might be too impossible a task for me to even consider under taking.

Looking for some help

For several years I have been teaching a Korean graphic novel in my World Literature course.

The Color of Earth, by Kim Dong Hwa is a beautiful book and beautiful story.  And because I lived in this amazing country (eleven years ago, but who's counting), I really, REALLY want a copy of this book (or the entire trilogy) in Korean.

As internet savvy as I consider myself to be, I cannot locate a Korean copy of this book online.  This is the closest I've come:











An image of the Korean covers.  That's it.  No way to purchase it.

So I'm finally reaching out for help.  Can someone please help me acquire this book or series in the original Korean?  If you find it online, that'd be best (post a link in the comment box).  If you know someone in South Korea (preferably who knows English!) who you could put me in touch with, that would be awesome.

And before you ask, no, I don't speak or read Korean.  So what's the point of having a copy of a book I can't actually read?  Comparison.  Side by side comparison.  Even if it's only the artwork and word/thought bubbles, I want to compare the versions.  

If you can help me with this personal, professional, and scholarly pursuit, I would very much appreciate it.  I might even send you some cookies.  :)

Two posts in one day?!?!

I just glanced at the Dec 23 entry and wanted to add an update: though I lost a course at the last minute, I received a phone call from my department chair in the middle of the first week of classes.  One of her instructors had just quit (had found a full-time job), and she wanted to know if I would be able take the class. 

Uh, yes.  Please!!!!

So, I frantically prepared a syllabus (I've taught the course before, but it's quite different to come in a week late), and now I'm teaching three courses this semester instead of two.  What an amazing relief--both financially and emotionally!

God is good!

So, I should still have a bit of free time (unlike last semester), but I should also be busy enough to keep crippling apathy and depression at bay.

Anyone want to hang out?  I'm feeling artsy: I'd love to paint, practice my photography more (both b&w and digital--I have a new Canon digital SLR!), work with pastels, improve my calligraphy--and this is just the stuff I have supplies for (and yet still pretty much suck at).  Travel also sounds amazing, but I'm pretty sure I'd need a beneficent donor to help with that one!

Feeling pretty good at the moment.  Smooches to all!

Not cool enough for graphic novels

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Everyone else reads them.  Everyone else enjoys them (okay, I work at an art school....).  I even teach (and like) one: The Color of Earth, a really great Bildungsroman from a Korean master of manwha, in my World Literature course. 

But, I'm discovering that I don't like graphic novels.

When asked to pilot a new course--Narrative Studies--I really wanted to include a graphic novel.  How hard could it be to find a great one, really?  There are so many classics, so many that people rave about.

I started with Watchmen several months ago. I mean that I literally started reading Watchmen several months ago.  It wasn't going well, so I gave V for Vendetta a try.  I nearly gave up 40 pages in.  But it got better, considerably better.  But I don't think it's a book I can teach--for a host of reasons.  But I'm still struggling through Watchmen!

 I haven't finished it yet; I'm forcing my way through it little by little, making slow progress. 

On my bookshelf, I still have Maus and Persepolis (either of which I could use for World Lit), but I'm so disillusioned with the genre that I can't see to pull them off the shelf.  The art is rather unimpressive (and almost distractingly bad compared to others), so I'd be focusing on story, which is fine, as that's what books are for.  But...I'd rather just read a pictureless book then.

Perhaps I'm too old, too old-fashioned, not eclectic enough for graphic novels.  Or perhaps I'm just reading the wrong things.

Wow. What a semester!

I've finally started breathing normally again after the most brutal semester of my entire academic career.

Somehow the stars, or perhaps school schedules, aligned poorly this year, and by about week 7 of the semester, I was on the verge of being behind.  But here's the thing: I've established routines and protocols so that I don't get behind.  For me, for the last several years, even one day behind was unusual.  So, in early November, when I was about 12 days behind in my grading, well, panic began to set in.  The car accident I was in on October 29 didn't help matters any, as I was unable to think--and therefore work--for days.  And as my cognition slowly came back, I was still unable to move quickly enough through assignments.  Oh, did I mention I was teaching 6 writing courses?  Two freshman composition courses, one business communications course, and three graduate-level writing-intensive courses.

I began spending weekends up at my parent's cottage in order to have uninterrupted time to grade.  I never got caught up.  I have a strict policy on returning student work in a timely fashion; I reserve the right to take up to two weeks to grade major assignments.  I usually get assignments back to students in 7-10 days.  By week 10, that stopped happening.  Stress.  Huge stress.

Throughout all this, a proposal that a colleague and I wrote was accepted, and we presented at a conference.  It's a lovely thing to put on my CV, but it's a lot of work to prepare for an academic presentation.

But it was a nice excuse to show off my sleeker self.  I went back to WeightWatchers and lost about 17 pounds and am able to fit into my suits again.  This was essential, as I TEACH IN A SUIT.  I wasn't able to do this last spring or over the summer because the suits didn't fit.  I was not going to enter this busy semester unable to wear a suit.  This cute dress was a side benefit.  :)

Evie is the cutest thing on two legs.  Now that I'm finally able to spend some time with her, she's warming back up to me nicely.

Still, she's 3 1/2, which is a rough age.  Kudos to people who make the conscious decision to have more than one child.  It's, frankly, a concept I cannot grasp.  Truly.  Beautiful, smart, silly as she is, I can't do this again.

Plus, did you know that kids are expensive?  I'd love a vacation.  We haven't taken one since 2010, not even a short one.  But, apparently kids need things like food, clothing, shelter, and preschool.  And books.  So many books.

Now, back to me.  Of course.

I'm suddenly severely underemployed for the spring semester, having just lost a course at my highest paying school.  I didn't realize the course was being run as a 200-level elective; I thought it was a Gen Ed requirement.  Only two students enrolled--and both were former students of mine who I would have loved to have in class again.  So I'm hoping and praying something will come my way, as two courses next semester is not enough to financially sustain me.

Maybe I'll get my darkroom all set up, and I'll start printing amazing, saleable prints from the comfort of my basement.  Yeah.  I think I'll put all my eggs in that basket.  (I can't even post pictures of my b&w stuff because... it's not digital.)

Yeah, it's been a while

Sure, it's been a year and a half since my last post, but who really cares?  No one reads this anyway.  But I'll share/update anyway.

We moved about 5 months ago.  It's a nice house on a golf course (which isn't all it's cracked up to be, by the way).  Our old house was on the market for 10 months, 10 agonizing months.  We had hoped to build in Byron Center in a great community, but those plans fell through when our house didn't sell, and didn't sell, and didn't sell.  When we finally got and accepted an offer, we had to scramble to find something.  I knew this was the house when we walked in.  The floor plan works great for us, and there wasn't much hesitation for me.  I wanted this house.  It had been on the market for 2 days when we first saw it, and we made an offer just a few days later.

Then shit started happening.  It's a  long, frustrating list, which includes (as just a few examples): the water heater at the old place broke before closing, so we had to replace it.  The master bath at the new house had a crack in the bathtub that was actually leaking into the garage (and the owners claimed it was just a cosmetic scratch).  The furnace broke at the new place 2 weeks after we moved in and needed replacing.  The contractors we hired to redo part of the master bath and finish part of the basement ....well, that's another story.  Let's just say it was a really bad experience that lasted 4.5 months (rather than about 3 weeks).

But, the master bath is now gorgeous, and the basement will be getting carpet very soon and will be a lovely room for us to hang out in.  I'm very excited about this.  It will be so nice to feel like everything is complete and finally start REALLY LIVING in this house.

I have a good-sized office, which is a disaster area at the moment.  I'm still trying to figure out the best places for stuff, but this is a process that I almost enjoy.  I'm really going to make this a great, functional space.

We're attempting to build a darkroom in the basement so that I can pursue my photography hobby.  I love being in a darkroom and just making the best print I can from a negative.  For me, it's fairly relaxing (without being boring), and I have a real, actual product at the end.  This is actually an important thing for me.  Though I love to read, there's no product at the end, so I sometimes find it hard to justify (to myself) my reading time.  There are also time-wasting computer and phone games, which, again, definitely don't produce a product at the end.  With darkroom photography though, I get a beautiful (if I'm lucky) print at the end.

There's more, but that will have to suffice for now.  Or for a year.  Who knows?

Fantasy novels, really?

I've never been interested in reading fantasy.  I developed a love for sci fi over a decade ago when I discovered Arthur C. Clarke and Orson Scott Card.  I've read a lot of Isaac Asimov over the last 2 years.  I especially like sci fi that takes place off-planet--in a space ship, on a distance planet, etc.  But fantasy--keep that junk away from me.  When I discuss books with people, I have to remind them that sci fi and fantasy are different genres and that "I don't do fantasy." In the past, I have started to read several fantasy novels and always gave up quickly.  I realized that I just didn't have the attention span to learn all of the new rules introduced in each book: new cultures, new magic systems, new worlds with new (and often very weird and unintuitive) customs, conventions, histories, species, races, etc).  No thanks.

But....

Last June, I was desperate for new reading material.  A friend lent me Brandon Sanderson's Elantris.  I was skeptical (it was fantasy, after all), but I decided to give it a try.  At times, I was frustrated by occasional poor stylistic decisions, the sudden drops in action, and changes in character points of view.  However, this was a compelling read.  I was done in 6 days; I didn't want to put it down.  I really enjoyed it.

So maybe I had neglected a perfectly good genre of fiction.  Maybe there was a sophistication that I hadn't expected.  My only option was to read some more.

Based on another recommendation, I bought Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind in October.  Holy cow.  Brilliantly constructed, wonderfully tight prose, compelling story.  This novel showed amazing and deliberate care in its creation.  I was impressed and quickly (i.e. immediately) went on to the next book in the series, The Wise Man's Fear.  I had just started this book when I decided to see how many of these books to expect--and was devastated to discover that book 2 had only recently been published and that I would have to wait until at least May for the next installment.  I was so (temporarily) disgusted that I nearly stopped reading.  Okay, probably not, but there's a reason why I don't start reading a series until the series in completed: I'm not good at waiting.  Harry Potter, Twilight, Mistborn (but I'll get to that): I read them after the entire series had been published.  My assessment of The Wise Man's Fear: pretty darn good.  This book was much slower, and honestly, showed less care with the construction.  Large sections of the text dragged; it felt like little cutting/trimming had been done.  The phrasing was not as controlled and deliberate.  But it was still quite good; I'm attached to the characters and really want to know what happens next in the story.  I'm eagerly awaiting the next volume.

Okay, so I'd found THREE whole fantasy books that I liked.  More research was needed, so I returned to Brandon Sanderson. 

I started the Mistborn trilogy, and read Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages.  Mistborn: amazing.  Careful, well-planned, well-conceived brilliance.  The Well of Ascension: great.  Well-planned still, good follow through on details set up in the first book.  A great, quick read.  The Hero of Ages: a nice conclusion that left me wanting more.  This book was frustrating at times because it did not show the caliber of writing that the first two exhibited, but it wrapped things up nicely, and I was pleased with the trilogy as a whole.  Then I discovered The Alloy of Law, a Mistborn novel that takes place hundreds of years after the original trilogy.  While I appreciated not have to learn a new magic system (Pushing and Pulling was complicated enough, thank you very much), I was not impressed by this book.  Perhaps the setting (in a way, kind of industrial revolution-y) put me off, or maybe the characters weren't as likeable.  But I never really got attached to anyone; I think the characters needed a little more depth.  But I gave Sanderson another try with his novella, The Emperor's Soul.  I really enjoyed this.  I'm not typically a fan of novellas; it seems that just when they're getting started, they've suddenly ended, and I'm rarely satisfied with brevity.  This was an exception.  Though the magic system of soul stamps was complicated and really needed a bit more explanation, this was a complete work: it left me satisfied. 

I'd borrowed Sanderson's Warbreaker from a friend, but when I mentioned to one of my composition classes that I was going to start reading it, one of my students urged me to read Brent Weeks' Lightbringer books first.  Near Christmas, I gave the first, The Black Prism, a try.  It was an interesting combination of clumsy, cluncky, and sometimes awkward prose, a fairly complex but intriguing magic system, and a really great story line.  It was perplexing to be so intrigued by the story but so annoyed by the diction. I immediately moved on to The Blinding Knife when I finished the first installment.  The character development is really quite good, and the story is compelling.  Better yet, the prose has a much more polished feel.  It was clearly given more care in the editing stages.  This book dragged in places, but the slow points were always brief.  I really believe that book 2 was better than book 1; I think Weeks is hitting his stride and has the potential to create a really great book 3.

However, this leaves me with Warbreaker, which is not living up to expectations.  I'm about 200 pages in, and I'm less impressed than I expected.  As with all Sanderson I've read, this is compelling.  I will have no trouble finishing this book in a couple more days.  But after read The Alloy of Law, which left a bad taste in my mouth, I'm wondering if Sanderson is the John Grisham or Danielle Steel of fantasy.  Has he figured out the "fantasy formula" and is now just cranking the books out?  Is he cashing in on his Wheel of Time fame by publishing second-rate novels?  I don't know.  I'm still too new to this genre to have an educated opinion. 

I don't know if I'm ready for dragons or other devices/characters that are so stereotypically "fantasy," but I've discovered that I can handle magic--and that I actually like it.  Perhaps there's still hope for my conversion.