What I Love About Being a TeachingAuthor

     We're celebrating our Ninth Blogiversary with a series of posts sharing what we love about being a TeachingAuthor.

     I fear my comments may sound redundant, as I'm the next to last TA to address the topic. Like my fellow TAs, I love being part of this terrific team of award-winning authors who happen to also be writing teachers. It's amazing how close I feel to all the  TeachingAuthors even though most of them live far from me, in locations scattered across the country, and I have yet to meet one in person!

     What's surprises me even more, though, is how connected I feel to you, our readers. I did not foresee this when the initial TeachingAuthors team met to plan this blog and discuss who our target audience would be. We eventually decided we wanted to write about topics of interest to fellow writers--published and yet-to-be-published--and to those who teach writing. We hoped to share information that would be useful to both groups. To this day, that continues to be our goal.

     The part I didn't anticipate was how supportive, encouraging, and downright friendly our readers would be. Many of you comment regularly, and when I see your lovely profile photos in the comment box, I feel I'm reconnecting with a longtime friend. I initially proposed this blog as a way to be of service, and, as Esther says, "pay it forward," to fellow writers, writing students, and teachers. But often, I feel I get back more from you, dear readers, than I give.

     One of the posts that stands out in my mind was one I wrote back in 2014 called Holding on to Hope for Our "Unmarketable" Manuscripts. In that post, I shared about putting a young adult historical manuscript I'd poured my heart and soul into in the proverbial writer's drawer after being told it wasn't marketable enough. Not only did my fellow TAs post encouraging comments, but two readers, Linda Baie and Jan Godown Annino did, too. I was especially touched that Jan took the time to write a lengthy, lovely note in which she said: 

"I guess it's like a potter who creates a vase without a buyer ready to purchase, or a composer who hears music in her head & creates a score without knowing a symphony will perform her new piece." 

I don't think she even knew my novel's main character is a composer!

All the comments on my post lifted me up and made me feel embraced by a marvelous community.

Two and a half years later, in January, 2017, that same community celebrated with me when I announced that my YA historical had found its way out of the drawer and was in fact being published! And you've continued to cheer me on every step of the way, from the cover reveal through the book birthday.

It's that wonderful sense of community that is one of the things I love about being a TeachingAuthor. Thank you, dear readers. ❤

     It's been a hectic week so I don't have a poem to share for Poetry Friday today, but I look forward to reading those in the roundup hosted by Buffy Silverman at Buffy's Blog.

As always, I encourage you to Write with Joy!
Carmela

6 Word Memoir ~ Fearlessly Looking Forward To The New Year!

Howdy, Campers ~

Happy New Year from all of us at TeachingAuthors! We are kicking this year off with a tip-of-the-hat to Smith Magazine's Six-Word Memoirs http://www.sixwordmemoirs.com/  More on this in a bit.

Thank you, Linda, for hosting Poetry Friday today. The link to PF is below, as is my small poem.

"The first and great commandment is: Don't let them scare you." ~ Elmer Davis

When I was young, my blood froze if I saw a spider across the room. I experienced sheer terror at the thought of a spider. When I was in college, I lived in a student co-op, with six guys and six girls. We were like a large family whose parents were gone for a very long weekend. We cooked and had dinner together each night—my kind of heaven. One of my first chores was to clean the downstairs bathroom. This was the University of California, Davis, originally an ag school, surrounded by fields and vineyards. So the Davis Student Co-op was filled with ...spiders. Of course it was. And the downstairs bathroom was apparently their party room.

How could I admit my phobia to my fellows? I could not. Instead, I made a sign that said "Charlotte," pasted it just under the big spider in the corner above the sink, and used a rolled up newspaper to send the rest to spider heaven. 

Charlotte?
credit: https://morguefile.com/creative/ardelfin

Every week I'd talk to Charlotte. I grew fond of her. With Charlotte's help, my phobia disappeared.

Fast forward to my life these days. I am afraid of a boatload of things--but not spiders. For example, I am afraid of earthquakes. So I volunteer with CERT, Community Emergency Response Team. We learn to rescue people. CERT turns neighbors into team members so that in an emergency we band together. This doesn't mean I've lost my fear of earthquakes, it means if there is one, I have a job to do, and a community of people who will help me do it.

More fears: I am a TeachingAuthor who is afraid of teaching...and of writing. Of teaching badly. Of writing something mediocre. 

I am learning to walk through these fears with the help of others who have gone before me, including our tiny village of TeachingAuthors ~ and all of you, our readers. Thank you.

This year? I am afraid for democracy. 

Sometimes 

I am terrified.

Fear, I'm told, is the opposite of faith. I have faith in my own resilience, in the basic goodness of the universe, in a village of courageous and smart friends and fellows along the way.

So, I've decided to copy many of you who, like Irene Latham, choose One Little Word (OWL) to guide them each year. My word for 2017 is Fearless. Every day I tell myself I am fearless and everyday I believe it a smidgen more. I love the whole community of words that I could have chosen, including unflinching, unafraid, defiant, gutsy, and audacious.

In fact, SixWordMemoirs.com is having a contest right now about hope in the new year which ends January 13th: Basically, "Tell us how you keep hope alive in six words." You can read the rules here.

#HopeIn6Words
by April Halprin Wayland

Breathe.

Hold hands.

Move fearlessly

forward.

photo credit: https://morguefile.com/creative/thelesleyshow

What is your Six Word Hope in this New Year?

Check out a host of Poetry Friday hopes at Linda's TeacherDance

posted by April Halprin Wayland with a heart full of hope (with help from Eli, Monkey and Snot.)

Lucky, Lucky Me!

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend David Harrison’s “Poetry for the Delight of It” workshop, organized by the Highlights Foundation. I’m happy to report that I found not only the poetry but the entire experience delightful. From my ride from the airport to the tour of the Highlights for Children offices to the comfy couches where we discussed poetry to the massive fireplace on the patio where we roasted s’mores, every detail was taken care of so that I didn’t have to think about anything but poetry. And the food—oh, my! We were spoiled. During breaks and in the evenings, we retired to our own cozy cabins with rocking chairs on the porches and plenty of wonderful books to read—a writer’s heaven!

David Harrison (a Guest Teaching Author in 2012) led group discussions with a reassuring blend of wit, humor, explanation, and examples. He supplied writing prompts that resulted in humorous and heartfelt poems, and he provided perceptive, encouraging critiques of our work. Poets Jane Yolen and Kenn Nesbitt visited via Skype to share their own tips and examples. Boyds Mills Press Senior Editor Rebecca Davis participated in a session about editorial and marketing practices, and Executive Editor Liz Van Doren joined us for dinner.

Lucky me! I’m still floating.

Here’s a poem I wrote there, inspired by one of David’s prompts, about waking up early:

Day 

Catbird screeches up the morning.
Acorns drop to mark the minutes.
Knock! Woodpeckers count the hours.
Crickets sing me back to sleep.

Another lucky surprise: I got to meet and hang out with our longtime friend Linda Baie, who wrote about connecting the experience to writing in one of her blog posts. What fun!

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken