unpublished writers

Walking Out of Stride (a Hump Day Hmmph)


The first time it was brought to my attention that I am not “normed” properly was my second or third year of teaching. The middle school where I taught was on the far east side of Des Moines with all the problems that “east of Eden” implies. The principal, a stern old schooler who would eventually come to loathe me, had a small group of us meeting after school one day to discuss best practices. Best practices is the last new title given to the collection of common sense things that all good teachers do to engage, corral, coerce and lift up their kids. I don’t know what they term it now as I have been out of education for almost a year and the buzz words move at the speed of sound in my former field though the ideas never really change.

At some point in the conversation, I pointed out that much of what we were discussing were practical things that all teachers do. My principal turned to me, smiled, and said,

“No, they don’t.”

“But I do these things.”

“You are not like other teachers.”

At the time I didn’t feel complimented and perhaps I wasn’t being given one. I was puzzled. Teaching was something that just came to me like manna in the desert to the Hebrews minus the wandering aimlessly. It never occurred to me that I was different. I thought I had discovered a place to belong. Or I hoped I had.

Today I find myself in much the same place career wise. While most others see the blogosphere as inferior to writing for print, I see limitless possibilities and opportunities for writers. Self-publishing and writing for nothing but the chance to be read are not generally viewed as positives by “real writers”. I can see their point. The goal is to give up the day job at some point and one can’t do that unless one’s words are being purchased.

I would like to be purchased. Bought and taken home to be perused and thought about and discussed. It’s not that I don’t have that goal too, but the true aim of my writing is to find an impact point within the people who read my thoughts. Does this put me out of stride with other writers as my long ago self was out of stride with other teachers? For the most part, I guess it does though I have found many more like minds as a writer than I ever did as a teacher.

Being different bothered me when I was younger. Lately however I have come to celebrate my inner Pippi Longstocking. There is nothing wrong, in fact much right, about walking backward or on my hands, and though I am much more likely to walk backwards than with my legs akimbo in the air (due to the gravity thing and my lack of agility), I am happy to be happy with my stride these days.

Writing About Not Writing


Damyanti at a Daily (w)rite wrote a piece about what she is not writing as she is net-less due to service provider issues that sound strangely Canadian for such an exotic locale as Malaysia, and it reminded me of another spring cleaning task that I haven’t tackled yet. My writing. Read Full Article

BlogHer ’08 in San Francisco


I am a registered blogger at BlogHer, a large almost entirely women-only site that kind of collects the various female bloggers in cyber-space and houses them under a single “roof”. I don’t blog there – yet – still thinking about it, but I really would like to attend their annual conference which this summer is in San Francisco. Last year’s was in Chicago, I think, but Rob and I had only been married just shy of a month, Katy and I were still adjusting from the big move north, and there was that sticky thing about not being able to travel freely back and forth across the border without Rob as I wasn’t a permanent resident yet.

This July I will have my PR card. In fact I should have my final approval within the next week or so as the FBI very kindly put an expedite on my fingerprint/background check (and as I suspected I have never been arrested) which my caseworker at CIC will have this Monday. After that it is (I assume) stamping and mailing me the final approval. With that I can apply for the cards for Katy and I. Once again, freedom of movement. Not that I was restricted all that much. Canada is an overly large place. However the mere idea that I couldn’t get to the States and back on my own felt confining for some reason. This development means, of course, that I could go to Blogher ’08 in SF this July. It would come pretty close on the tails of our return from Iowa (family business), but it’s doable. It’s also an expense. Rob figures about $2000 dollars between airfare, hotel, and conference fees. My tax refund will more than cover it, but I hate to be frivolous with that money. Is this conference something that could be beneficial for me as a writer?

Pro and Con?

Okay, pro is that I was recently accepted as a writer for an online activist site called Moms Speak Up. It’s not a compensated position but it’s also not self-publishing. It is a chance to write about things that matter to me. Issues that affect our lives and futures. A few of the scheduled sessions dovetail with the type of thing I would be doing like political opinion writing and writing with a global perspective. There is also an interesting sounding session on the gender and race issues generated from the current presidential campaign. In addition there will be sessions on building traffic and syndication and promotion. And advertising. Can’t forget that. And yes, I realize I can’t get to that many sessions, but as you can see there is a lot to learn. I would get my money’s worth out of the registration.

Continuing with the pro, there are opportunities to meet other bloggers. I think they call this “networking”. I didn’t do that kind of thing as a teacher because I wasn’t interested in moving into administration. I don’t consider admin having much to do with real teaching. I had some great bosses, don’t misinterpret, but managing isn’t educating though a really good admin knows how to set up a productive atmosphere and get out of his/her teachers way. Networking among bloggers is important. You can learn things from the good ones. I have learned so much from just reading good blogs. Daisyfae and Nurse Myra for instance have taught me the importance of replying to commenters. Julie has shown me that it is possible to mix serious commentary with personal life observations and anecdotes. Meeting bloggers in person and talking about blogs and writing seriously could be even more informative.

Cons? Oh yeah, gotta do that list too.

Being away from Rob for another three days. We will have already spent time apart when I head to Iowa to help my mother out. Rob is going to spend part of that trip up here working – at the plant and on the house. There are reno jobs that are going to create a certain amount of dust, among others things, that an asthmatic like me shouldn’t be exposed to (this could technically be a pro too but time away from the husband is not counted as a positive in my world-view).

There is also the money aspect. It’s not a bank breaker but it is enough money to give pause. Okay yes, it could be considered an investment but an investment in what? Me? To what end?

Hmmm. I have to give this more thought. It would be fun and the bottom line is that learning should be fun. I have never been to San Francisco although in going there it does put the onus on me to try and find time to visit my younger brother now that he has moved down there from Tahoe (that is almost a con).

Has anyone been to BlogHer or is going? Your perspective would be interesting to know.