Update: Patience is a Virtue

His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

I haven’t had too much time to write, but I did manage a few pages this week.  I’ve been splitting my time between Patience is a Virtue and 82 Eridani.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails this month about His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife.  People seem to be enjoying them and that’s great.  I wish I could tell everyone exactly when I will have the new book done, but I can’t.  I’m really planning to finish this summer.

I walked into school the other day and the first thing anyone said to me was “Four weeks till spring break, and ten more after that.”  So, I’m not the only one counting down.  I’d really like to get caught up during Spring Break, but I don’t know.  At least I’ll keep plunking away.  Whenever I get a page written I’ll have to give myself a little celebration.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

Things really seem to be conspiring to keep me from writing.  I’m spending more and more time away from school working on lessons.  I definitely have more homework than the kids do.  In addition, we’re working on a reenactment battle of Gettysburg, which has its 150 anniversary this year.  I was out in the wind all day maneuvering the troops around– you have to give it to those Civil War soldiers.  You should see my kids trying to perform a “right wheel march!”  If that wasn’t enough, I’ve only got three weeks until the deadline for your yearbook.  I’ve got twenty kids working on it with me, but I seem to be the only one stressing out about it.  I don’t know if that’s because they’re confident or just don’t give a crap.  When I got home this evening, I just passed out in my comfy chair.  Anyway, I’ve got about two hours till bedtime, so I’m going to try and get a few pages done.

Tesla’s Stepdaughters Casting Call

Speaking of casting movies from my books, I’ve always thought that if they made a Tesla’s Stepdaughters movie, they should cast some real rock stars as The Ladybugs.

I think that Lykke Li would probably make a good Ep!phanee.  First, she has a slightly pixy-ish quality that works with that character.  Second, she is Swedish, and Ep!phanee is a Swedish-American and retains a not-quite-American accent.  Finally, Ep!phanee is described as having an unusual slightly annoying speaking voice (although she has a huge vocal range when singing).  I always thought of Bjork’s voice when I was writing Ep!phanee.  If you listen to Lykke Li’s song “Let if Fall” (which I really like) you can get a sense of an unusual voice.  Also that song is a little unusual– not quite mainstream– which is just the kind of thing that Ep!phanee did in her solo albums.

His Robot Girlfriend Casting Call

We’ve talked about casting actors to play the characters in my books before.  I’ve had all kinds of suggestions for who could play Patience, but I saw Emmy Rossum in the preview for Beautiful Creatures and knew immediately that she would be my new choice.  She looks like how I imagine Patience, and that is because she looks quite a bit like the young lady that I used as a model when I was writing His Robot Girlfriend.  When I think about Patience, I see the tall forehead, the big eyes, and the wide mouth.  That doesn’t sound all that attractive when I say it like that, but you can see that they all go together to make an altogether beautiful woman.  Imagine my surprise when after looking up her name on IMDB, I found out that she is also a singer and I had a couple of her songs in my “Current Faves” playlist the whole time.

Spring Break Coming

I looked at the calendar today and noticed that it is only about a month until Spring Break arrives.  I’m looking forward to using the time to get caught up on my writing– and you know… my sanity.

My paper work has just gotten crazy in the past two years.  There are lesson plans, IEPs (Individual Education Plans), 504 plans (for students with medical issues), weekly writing prompts that must be turned in, writing samples that must be turned in, primary sources that must be turned in… and don’t forget that good old stand-by: Attendance, which despite the fact that it is taken on computer has to be replicated on paper to meet Nevada State law, which is stuck in the Dark Ages.

For those of you who haven’t been in school for a while and who may have never seen a lesson plan, here are a couple of mine.

 

Lesson One

U.S. History – 9.1 – Students will describe the annexation of Alaska and Hawaii by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills.

Introduction:  Today we continue our unit on American Imperialism.

Warm Up: Examine the maps on page 651.  According to the two maps, in which area did more fighting take place.  What evidence did you find to support your answer?

Daily Review: Review Beveridge’s speech.

Daily Objectives: See Below.

Student Friendly Objective: Describe expansion of US power overseas at the turn of the twentieth century.

Essential Question: How did the closing of the American Frontier impact U.S. oversees policies?

School-wide vocabulary: consistent, deduce, event, exhibit, prove

Define each of the terms students will encounter (whole class):  annexatiion, sphere’s of influence, Open Door Policy

Concept and Skill Development Application

The teacher will guide the students through a Think/Write/Discuss interactive lecture using the Smartboard.

A. Introductory/Motivational Question: Why do some countries try to rule and control other countries?  Students will write a 2-minute response.

B. After slide three (of five): Clarifying Question: Was American expansion fair to Japan?  Hawaii?  China?  Students will write a short response; sharing some questions aloud.

C. After slide 5: Reflective Question: How does American expansion at the beginning of the twentieth century compare with America’s role in the world today?  Students will write a two minute response.

Guided / Independent Practice

See above.

Homework: None.

Closure: Compare and contrast Beveridge’s imperialism of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Ticket out the door: What was one important issue addressed by reformers of the Progressive Era?  (From the review.)

Long Term Review: Students will review their notebooks, including their two foldable study guides.

Related Standards/Objectives:

  • 9.1 – Students will describe the annexation of Alaska and Hawaii by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [H4]
  • 9.2 – Students will analyze the political and social impact of the Panama Canal by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [H3.[6-8].14]
  • 9.3 – Students will identify Latin American nations that play a significant role in United States foreign policy and examine how we interacted including the Spanish American War by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [C16.[6-8].3, C16.[6-8].4]
  • 9.4 – Students will critique the influence of the media in forming public opinion through yellow journalism by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [C15.[6-8].4]

 

Lesson Two

U.S. History – 9.1 – Students will describe the annexation of Alaska and Hawaii by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills.

Introduction:  Today we complete our unit on American Imperialism.

Warm Up: Read the profile of Jovita Idar on page 660.  Write a summary of what you’ve read and answer the question “Who benefited most of Jovita Ivar’s efforts?  What evidence did you find to support your answer?

Daily Review: Review notes from the interactive lecture.

Daily Objectives: See Below.

Student Friendly Objective: Describe expansion of US power overseas at the turn of the twentieth century.

Essential Question: How did the closing of the American Frontier impact U.S. oversees policies?

School-wide vocabulary: consistent, deduce, event, exhibit, prove

Define each of the terms students will encounter (whole class):  isthmus, anarchy, dollar diplomacy

Concept and Skill Development Application

Students will view “Bring Me the Pictures and I’ll Bring You the War” video clip (10 mins).  They will answer the following study questions from the video: What two newspaper owners were in competition?  Why did Frederick Remington not want to stay in Cuba?  Who were the Rough Riders?

Students will work in groups to find information from their textbooks on the following topics: The Maine, The Rough Riders, The Panama Canal, The Roosevelt Corollary, Dollar Diplomacy, Moral Diplomacy, Francisco Pancho Villa.  Groups will orally present their finding to the class.

Guided / Independent Practice

See above.

Homework: None.

Closure: Summarize the Spanish American War.

Ticket out the door: What is Yellow Journalism.

Long Term Review: Students will review their notebooks, including their two foldable study guides.

Related Standards/Objectives:

  • 9.1 – Students will describe the annexation of Alaska and Hawaii by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [H4]
  • 9.2 – Students will analyze the political and social impact of the Panama Canal by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [H3.[6-8].14]
  • 9.3 – Students will identify Latin American nations that play a significant role in United States foreign policy and examine how we interacted including the Spanish American War by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [C16.[6-8].3, C16.[6-8].4]
  • 9.4 – Students will critique the influence of the media in forming public opinion through yellow journalism by utilizing one of the big 11 social studies skills. [C15.[6-8].4]

 

Indie Book Lounge

Indie Book Lounge has received a facelift.  I thought it was pretty cool before, with nifty little artwork, but it has been redesigned to make it even easier to find interesting books by new and unknown authors.  The books are broken down by genre and you can find many bargain and free books among them.  Check it out here: http://www.indiebooklounge.com.

A New Chair

I went down to Staples this morning and got a new chair.  My old chair just wouldn’t hold me up anymore.  I decided to get a really nice chair in which to sit in front of my really nice computer.  Thankfully it was on sale, but even so, it’s more than I ever paid for a chair before.  It was only an hour or so later that my wife let me know I had no more money.  Go figure.

82 Eridani Update

82 Eridani Journey

I finished chapter seven today and wrote a good portion of chapter eight.  I spent longer on seven than on most of the others.  I think it’s because it was one of the few chapters so far without much in the way of sex or violence.  Chapters five and six both had both.  They’re a lot of fun to write.  Chapter eight has some violence but no sex.  It’s a really fun chapter to write though, because I get to tear one of my characters apart– or at least to have him fall apart.

Most of my favorite characters are the really flawed ones.  The character in chapter five is a person that is so physically and mentally perfect that everyone else hates her.  And her flaw is that she hates herself more than anyone else does, for the same reason.  She hates her own perfection.  The chapter six character is a loving family man on the surface but has a deep and compelling need to kill people.  The chapter seven character is (maybe a little stereotypically) an introverted nerd, who is interested in a woman to the point of obsession.  The chapter eight character was a completely normal, well-balanced guy though– until his perfect world falls apart.  So now, he can be one of my favorite characters too.

Two Steps from Hell – Continued

I mentioned the other day that I had purchased the album SkyWorld from Two Steps from Hell and that I wanted to listen to it while I write 82 Eridani.  Well, I am, and I really like it.  What I would like to do is identify each track with a particular character so that I could play that track while I write that character.  I haven’t done that yet though.  Maybe I will think about it today as I write.

Today is the first day in a while that I’ve reached my daily writing quota.  I kind of feel like I’m setting myself up for failure, because I’m already 200 pages behind for the year.  I hope that I’m able to catch up this summer…. come on Summer!  Come on Summer!  And not just because I want to get caught up on my writing.

I have another problem now too.  As I write this, my chair keeps descending.  I either need to lose weight or get a new chair… guess which one is more likely to happen.

Facebook is a Bummer

I’ve already reduced my time and efforts on Facebook, but I think I’m going to reduce my presence there further.  Facebook is annoying.  They have no problem spamming me with crappy game invitations and using my pictures to sell their ads, but I try to upload more than 10 links to my own page and I get denied the ability to upload for two days, because I’m abusing the feature.

There are a few people that I am glad that I can connect with via Facebook– people I otherwise wouldn’t be able to connect with.  Mostly the messages I see on my “news feed” though are from people I see everyday.  The people I don’t see often that I really would like to send messages to, aren’t on Facebook or don’t use it that much.

The web is always evolving.  I think Facebook has probably reached its peak and has begun its inevitable decline.  Anyone remember MySpace…. AOL…?  I wonder what the next great innovation of telecommunication will be.  Twitter is still on the rise, but I think there is room for something that offers users something new and cool.  I just don’t know what the new and cool is going to be.