Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Z is for ZINE

Have you ever heard of Zines?

I hadn’t until four days ago. Now I’m a little bit in a daze because I can hardly believe this form of communication existed and I knew nothing of it!

When my co-worker told me she went to a Zine convention I had absolutely Zero Idea of what she was talking about. I didn’t even understand the word Zine. She enlightened me. Now I know, and I’ll share what I’ve learned, right here, on this little BlogSpot.  Excited? Me too!



Zine, pronounced zeen, (like the end part of magazine, explained my co-worker) is an old form of communication. Dating back to the 1930’s, it’s had highs and lows in popularity. 


A zine is a mini book about an off-beat or maybe unconventional, unpopular, or un-politically correct, what-have-you topic. Zines are self-published. Some are more complex, with bound spines, while others are simply photo-copied and stapled paper booklets
.
Way back in the early history of the United States, Thomas Paine printed a pamphlet in 1776 called Common Sense. It was 48 self-published pages that pushed for the colonists to fight for independence against Britain. It was of course, blasphemy to the Monarchy, therefore, an underground communication that spread like wild fire and caused men to take action.  Perhaps it could be considered the first Zine?

A zine can also look somewhat like a small comic book. I think the important thing about zines is that no matter how quirky the topic is, there will be interested buyers. Yes buyers.  Zines can sell for as low as a dollar each.Etsy even has zines for sale.



I’m attempting a zine of my own. A Nadinezine, if you will…


It’s a super rough draft of the first chapter of my novel, The Ink of Time. I’m not sure if the topic is ‘quirky’ enough to be a true zine, but I don’t care. It’s a new fun and creative way for me to do my writing thang. 

That’s what makes zines so amazing.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Big Step and Maybe a Leap!




A couple of months ago I registered with a local writers’ group. This particular writers’ group meets every two weeks, and for the past two months, since I registered, I hadn’t attended one meeting. It’s not that I forgot- they send reminders to my e-mail. It’s that I was always “too busy.”







It’s hard for me to join any group, but joining a writers’ group, while exhilarating sounding in theory was too scary to put into practice. Until this past Monday night. I did it. I put on my big girl panties and walked into that coffee house and joined in!




There were about 9 or 10 people already there when I sat down, they simply acted like I belonged. We went around the table and said our names and a brief description of what each of us write.  I was brief alright: “My name is Nadine. I write fiction.”

Stellar intro- don’t you think? I have a gift.


Anyway, this eclectic group of people- at various stages of writing success- talked with one another and me like it was the most normal thing to do. 

The format of the meetings alternate between seminar style and workshop style.  This week was seminar and the topic was about on-line tools for writers. The next meeting will be workshop, where participants may have a writing prompt and also share and ask for feedback on their personal writings.

Workshop is what I’m really interested in. When I feel comfortable, I’ll share some of my novel, The Ink of Time, which, as you know, I’m trying to get some representation for.  (See my post “Rejection with a Smile” on April 13th, 2016)

So. I’ve taken another step in this big scary world of authorship. I’ve joined a like-minded group. I am hopeful. I am excited.

I’ll keep you informed.

Let me ask. What leap are you ready to make? Go for it!!




Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Dear First Year Teacher

It’s back to school time!
Today I’m going to share an oldie but goodie.  I wrote the following list for a class I took in June of 2005.  I think it’s just as relevant today as it was back then.

Have a productive year, my teacher friends. I’m thinking of you always.Help the new ones along the way. The Good Lord knows we need them!


Survival of the First Year of Teaching
These are the important things to remember to help you survive (yes, survive) your first year of teaching.  They’re listed in no specific order of importance, because they’re all important.  Please remember the following:

1.  When you arrive at your new school, introduce yourself and always greet the office staff, custodians and aides.  They’re invaluable to you.  They can make your life easier…or NOT!






2.  Save everything.  You never know when you’re going to be asked about some random report, memo, or assessment. Don’t get rid of anything until the final report card is in the mail!
3.   Be as organized as possible.

  •    Keep your files neat:

  • Have a file on each student.  In that file save notes from parents.  Also save your personal notes and observations of student progress- you’ll be glad you did at report card time!
    • Try to put things away after you’ve used them.  One can create a huge pile in a short amount of time.
5.  Have lesson plans ready each day, and be able to justify what it is that you’ve planned.



4.Dress for success. Dress for comfort. (HA! Try to make that work!)



6.  Take time to get to know the kids.  Talk with them at appropriate times— don’t let them
monopolize learning time with their stories.





7.  Don’t gossip or criticize.  But do vent (in an appropriate place) when necessary!
8.  Learn from your mistakes.  Think: How can I do that better?   What went well?  (and why?)  What went wrong?  (and why?)
9.   Give yourself a break.  Nobody is perfect.   Give yourself the time to master your craft.
10.  Be honest with your students and with their parents, but be tactful, too.
11.  Be in charge of what is happening in the classroom.  Don’t let students control what happens. Project confidence, even if you’re not! (That’s not to say to ignore the “teachable moment.”)
12.  Help student to learn to be responsible for their belongings and their actions.
13.  Talk to every person in the system that you think might be able to help you with a question or concern.
14.  Be flexible.  There are a lot of people who have a vested interest in these kids.  Everyone has to take turns!!!  
15.  When in doubt, ask yourself:  “Is what I’m asking of the child/ children  going to prepare them to be/make them a better citizen of  the world?”  Our ultimate goal is to give these people the skills and building blocks to become responsible, productive citizens!

And finally, from the late John Finnessey, Superintendent of Bettendorf Community Schools,  Number 16:  Be the kind of teacher who gains 20 years of experience in the first year of teaching….not the kind of teacher who teaches for 20 years, but has only one year of experience.  (circa Aug. 1996)

Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine




Wednesday, August 10, 2016

When was was too much!


I read a lot of information, ideas, and opinions about writing. I’m always trying to improve my craft and my goal, as you may know, is to create a novel that actually gets published. If you’ve been following this blog you know that I’ve had a little luck but no real success in obtaining an agent to represent my book. So when I ran across something that suggested the writer do a word find for the (apparently) overused word ‘was’, I thought I’d give it a try. See what's what.

Oh boy.

In my 50,000 plus word-count novel, I used the word was 873 times. Yikes. Was was highlighted on the very first page EIGHT times! Er… I mean, I had used the word was eight times on the first page alone! (See how easy it is to overuse that little word?)

So, my novel, that I had revised a million times, is under yet another revision. I’ll give you an example of what I’m doing to this beast (the book) now.
 
This is how I introduced and described a character named Ed.

The man’s name was Ed, but he wasn’t about to introduce himself to this looser. Ed was not only broad shouldered, but tall too. He had a long, wide nose that looked like it may have been broken a time or two, and dark bags under his brown eyes. A black T-shirt, tight across his chest, was tucked into black Levi’s. His left arm sleeve was a testament to the far-east. Two large koi fish, one blue and one orange swam upstream through rough black waters. Around his wrist, a ring of lotus flowers fluttered from the black waves. Otto could not see his right arm in this light, but he had the impression that he probably had a full sleeve there too.
A large leather wallet was jammed in his back pocket. It was connected to his belt loop by a chain that swayed back and forth as he walked over to a Crock-Pot sitting on an old glass-topped end table. Full Contact Fighter was emblazoned across the back of his T-shirt. Ed scratched his head through a black stocking cap pulled down to his bushy black eyebrows and smoothed his Fu Manchu with his thumb. Both stall tactics that allowed him time to think. Ed scooped up a mugful of steaming, burnt smelling stew.

I used the word was eight times in those two paragraphs. Now here’s a revision, cutting the use of the word was in half, to four times.

The man’s name was Ed, but he wasn’t about to introduce himself to this looser. Ed was not only broad shouldered, but tall too. He had a long, wide nose that looked like it may have been broken a time or two, and dark bags under his brown eyes. A black T-shirt, tight across his chest, was tucked neatly into equally tight black Levi’s. His left arm sported two large koi fish, one blue and one orange swam upstream through steely waters. Around his wrist, a ring of lotus flowers fluttered through black waves- a full sleeve testament to the far-east, Otto concluded. Although he couldn’t see his right arm, Otto had the impression that he probably had a full sleeve there too.
A chain connected to a large leather wallet and his belt loop swayed back and forth as Ed walked over to a Crock-Pot sitting on an old glass-topped end table. Full Contact Fighter printed the back of his T-shirt in white block letters confirmed to Otto that this man could probably handle himself pretty well.
Ed scratched his head through a black stocking cap pulled down to his bushy black eyebrows and smoothed his Fu Manchu with his thumb. Both stall tactics that allowed him time to think, then he scooped up a mugful of steaming, burnt smelling stew.

By using the word was, I created a passive, rather than active story.  Active is more entertaining. Active writing places the reader in the story much better than passive writing does. And then I realized that I had been confusing passive with past tense.
Example:
A passive sentence goes like this:
He was walking to the gas station to buy a pack of smokes.
An active sentence goes like this:
He walked to the gas station for smokes.

Past-tense words are ones that end in –ed. Like walked, jumped, smoked.  I thought using a word like walked was passive when really it was just past tense.  By writing ‘he was walking’ I was trying to avoid passive writing when really I was only avoiding past tense words
In short:
Passive writing can use active, present-tense verbs.
Active writing uses past-tense verbs and that’s just the way it is. Past-tense does not mean passive.

GAA!  I hope this little tutorial doesn’t make your head spin!  It’s Live and Learn Time again (still) for me.
Gotta get back to my revisions- I’m only 30 pages in on my 165 page book.

Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself,
~Nadine


Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Keep Calm and Work Part-Time

I am the oldest child in my family. As the first born child, I tend to be a self-starter, hard worker, and independent thinker. In my professional life I was successful, in part, because of my first born traits.
 





When retirement time came, I was ready to step out of the stressful hustle-bustle of my career and slow down a bit.  However, I knew that I would want a part time job after retirement- I couldn’t just stop everything and sit around the house watching dust bunnies grow under my couch.


And now, that time has finally come. And I love it! I’m  much less stressed and I enjoy the work I do. But you know what? It’s hard for me to control my “first born” instincts. I’m still getting used to the idea of being a peon. Being a peon is not a bad deal. Really. I do my job, I don’t have big decisions to make, therefore, I don’t have any career responsibility stress.


Except sometimes, I don’t just do my job. I’ve made the mistake of “making an executive decision,” when my job description is clearly not at that caliber. I’m still learning where the line in the sand is. I’m a hard conscientious worker and my employer appreciates that. Now if I can just mellow out and just do MY job. Only.  

The struggle is real.

So, I ask, what are you learning about yourself these days?

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself,
~Nadine