10 ways to celebrate the end of grading
Like most college professors the day after finals week, I should be grading. The paper piles, more than half-vanquished but still huge, …
Words with friends: Collaboration makes better writers
I love the stereotypical image of a writer: A solitary figure, holed up somewhere chain smoking and drinking buckets of booze coffee, …
2016 theme: ‘Bitches get stuff done’
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve spent a good number of days at the airport with my father-in-law, Ray-Dad, wrenching on airplanes. The …
13 things writing students need to know
It’s obvious when a class’s honeymoon period is over. It happens after the first essay is graded and it feels like deflated …
Six years in the blogosphere: The Blue Muse in review
Seems like just yesterday that I typed my Maiden Voyage post, launching the Blue Muse on August 3, 2009 as a mechanism to …
‘How porcupines make love’: Because why not?
The first time I walked past, I was sure I’d misread the title. The hallway filled with between class bodies, and I …
Childhood dreams
We made them crowd into the shed, sweltering in the Sacramento summer. It was our “classroom.” And by golly, we had signed …
Finding flow in collaboration
We started after breakfast, me unpacking colored paper, a pad of poster-sized pages, and a collection of happy office supplies (highlighters, markers, …
Thursday 13: Life lately
I almost bragged too soon. Getting the Christmas decorations put away the second week of January? Unheard of in this household. And …
Random with a side of controversial
Religion. Politics. Suicide. Feminism. Funeral plans. Ferguson. When I read the NaBloPoMo writing prompt this morning which asked about the most controversial posts I’ve …