Posted on by Laura Lee

This teacher would like to know: would anyone like periodic tips for using this crazy language, English?

crazy english         Hello, readers.   This educator, me, misses teaching.  I am wondering if any readers here would like some little English tips I’ve picked up through my many years of teaching English, ELL, and reading?  If so, reply here or send me a message! 

I believe it’s important to give back, and this is one way I can do that.  I’ve volunteered in literacy settings by tutoring or other ways since the 1980s, and I miss it.

So this is a personal post: I am wondering if any readers here would like some little English tips I’ve picked up through my many years of teaching English, ELL, and reading?  If so, reply here or send me a message! 

Thanks for reading in this CRAZY ENGLISH language!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Submissions this Week and Writing Outside my Usual Genre

marketing-man-person-communication   I do enjoy tracking my submissions via submittable.com.  If you are a writer, this site makes it quite easy to submit your writing and to track it: Submittable

If you don’t yet have an account, you can set up a free account and enter your author bio in a matter of minutes.

Yesterday I wrote outside of my genre and submitted a peace poem and a short nonfiction piece written totally in dialogue.  Six submissions this week, three rejections.

It was fun to try writing entirely in dialogue; good thing I’ve listened to teens talk over the years!

How are your submissions going?

Thanks for reading, writers!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Writers: a nice feature of submittable.com

typewriter-vintage-old-vintage-typewriter-163116     Writers!  Perhaps you knew about this great feature of Submittable, but I did not until today.   Submittable.com is a site where some publishers collect submissions to journals and contests, reply to the writers,  accept submissions, reject submissions.  It’s a way to read submissions “blindly,” without seeing an author’s name.

I like using Submittable, since it also helps me keep track of what piece of writing I’ve submitted where.

What I just discovered, however, is a great find: the “discover” section of the website.  There I found many journals listing their requirements, deadlines, etc.  All in one place.

I also found sites I now like to read from (is that the term…read from? Read there?)

So, writers, if you haven’t discovered the DISCOVER feature of Submittable yet, here you go: Discover Opportunities Submittable.  If you don’t have an account there yet, you will need to create a free account.

What are some useful writing tools you have discovered?

Thanks for reading!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Coffin Bell Journal, a mini-review

Another interesting site.  This is not my genre, dark literature, but I realize many of my writings contain very dark elements–just not supernatural.  With some editing, they could fit the genre.  In any case, here is a journal that has an interesting premise.  From scary housetheir website:  Coffin Bell

Coffin Bell is a new quarterly online journal of dark literature seeking poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and creative nonfiction exploring dark themes. When we say “dark themes,” we don’t necessarily mean traditional horror. Send us your waking nightmares, dark CNF, dystopian flash, cursed verse. Surprise us. Make us think in a new way. Give us a new fear. Make our skin crawl.

If you write flash fiction or dark verse, read here  and consider submitting.  The site is attractive, the care given to writers evident in their bios.  What an interesting group of writers published there already, from lawyers to ghost writers.

Yesterday I changed the speaker of a poem from human to animal, something I’ve not done before.  Have you considered writing outside of your genre?  If so, what was your experience?

Thanks for reading!

Posted on by Laura Lee

A Fascinating BBC Article about Adolescence

teens        The BBC has a number of my most liked websites, and here is an example why.  In a recent article BBC How Teen Years Shape Our Personalities by psychologist and father of twins Christian Jarrett, we learn about current research about the young, which includes, as Jarrett writes:

…long-term studies show that the traits that appear in our teenage years are predictive of a wide range of outcomes in life, including academic success and risk of unemployment.

As an educator, I am interested in learning more.  Jarrett doesn’t write about the teen years just to share knowledge, but also hopes that (from the article) …learning more about the forces that shape teenagers’ personalities, we can potentially intervene and help set them on a healthier, more successful path.

For me, learning that… Another study uncovered a link between self-confidence at school and positive personality development is intriguing.  Are students confident at school because they have more positive personality development, or do they become more positive in their development because they are confident at school?  I wonder.

If you are interested in learning more about topics like this, the BBC does offer to send you their top six “can’t miss” stories each week by signing up here: BBC’s 6 “can’t miss” stories.

I know I am looking forward to reading these top 6 stories each Friday.

What about you? Do you have some favorite news sites?

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Some (not so?) random thoughts

thinking    A kinder atmosphere in my world with the teachers out for summer.  It’s just nice to know good people are out there. And I know such good teacher colleagues and friends.

*~*~*~

I would have returned the email, even between terms.  Yes, I judge her for not replying.  Yes, I know she wasn’t being paid to check emails between terms.

But I would have. And I always did.

Because of being like that, so hyper-vigilant, I will never relax.  I have never relaxed.  Always on.  Retirement would kill me.

*~*~*~

Some people are multi-talented in music and art and writing.  It’s amazing.  It’s great to see.

 

*~*~*~

I wish I’d thanked my parents for moving us from a middle-class existence in a high-crime area to a poor existence in a much safer one.  I never thanked them, but rather blamed them for making us poor by moving.  I am ashamed I didn’t appreciate how much better a safe life would be for all of us, and especially for someone as sensitive as I am.  I am decades too late for they have died, but I wish I could tell them: “Thank you for this sacrifice.”

*~*~*~

One of the joys of being a highly sensitive person is that I can find great joy in simple beauties, actions, sounds, smells, sights. To me, nothing is simple, and I am grateful for all beauty of person or nature.

Because I am off-the-chart highly sensitive, I also find life to be greatly complicated and difficult at times, exhausting often.

A gift and a curse, but I don’t know how to be otherwise.

Someone laughed at me chuckling over ducks recently, but that’s all right.  It was delightful to hear them quacking and see them flying overhead on an otherwise cool and quiet spring afternoon.

That’s me, sometimes flying, often quacking. Never graceful, but often feeling grace.

*~*~*~

This aging is a hoot.  I remember things so clearly that turn out to be decades ago.

 

*~*~*~

Kindness matters.  I would advise against ambition over compassion.  In the long run, if we are human, we need each other more than another thing.  Yes, that’s a privileged point of view, for many struggle to survive, and I’ve been there.  When I was struggling so hard just to keep a roof over my head, I was all ambition.

But after survival, and during survival, I do believe compassion is paramount.

 

*~*~*~

What’s with so few people reading poetry? Language is so magical and poetry the most possessed!

*~*~*

I like the free photo/ image I found from pexels.com more than anything I have created.  Talk about evocative!

*~*~*~

In my dreams, I can paint.  And sing.  And dance.  Also in my dreams, I awaken and realize I cannot do any of those.

*~*~*~

Just some random (or not) thoughts on a lovely quiet and cool late spring evening before the riot of summer heat sets in.

Laura Lee

 

 

 

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

An Accidental Troll Hunt

35076989_10155572027678499_6537897654326657024_n          I went in search of flowers today, but had a flat tire and could not make it to the Chicago Botanic Garden in time.  Tire fixed, headed to the Morton Arboretum for a quick woodland walk, and found a troll.  There are six altogether, and I saw one.

The Morton Arboretum (look here for more details and more pictures) is sponsoring a “troll hunt” over next year.  Danish sculptor Thomas Dambo (see Thomas Dambo Sculptures) and his team build trolls around the Arboretum using “reclaimed” wood only, wood from trees downed by storms, etc.

I have to wonder WHERE these huge wooden sculptures will go after the summer of 2019.  I cannot imagine anyone having a home large enough for them! Will they go to a new forest?  Where will they go?

These are a few photos I was able to take before the rain started.

Always fun to find a troll.

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

I (accidentally) grew up on a prairie (sort of)

Sand prairie at The Nature Conservancy's Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.                 I accidentally grew up with a few acres of rare Midwestern prairie behind our home.  When we moved from Chicago, my parents bought a house not yet built, in a neighborhood with streets not yet paved.  At first, we had sticks in mud with street names painted on them.  The area was filled with former soldiers using their benefits to buy their first home in that unknown place called the suburbs. The lure was land, open spaces, less crime, better schools, and a chance at the so-called American Dream.

Before we moved, neighbors had nearly burned us out of our apartment with cooking while drunk, had left their used needles in the common ways, and gangs were eyeing my now teen aged elder brother.

My parents were terrified of what would happen to my teen brother at first, then the rest of us.

So they headed west, to a suburb mostly mud and dreams at that time.

And a surprise behind the house? The few acres of prairie remained, with a small swamp at one end.  We didn’t know it at the time, but two towns were suing for the right to build on this land.  Each town felt these precious acres were part of their town, and the lawsuit went on for a dozen years.

But during those years, we had this piece of prairie heaven to ourselves; it was a place for children to safely play and explore.  We grew to believe that butterflies lived everywhere and were plentiful, that wildflowers would forever grow, that the summer days would never end as we played, made up stories (okay, that was me), and explored.

But to me, I was a bit afraid of the swamp up close, for the stories were becoming our childhood myths: witches lived there. Children–and even airplanes!–disappeared in the swamp.

So I spent a lot of time watching the prairie sunsets from my own backyard, often standing on a rickety picnic table to catch the very last rays of sun.  I was drawn to this beauty, drawn to the sky, the sun, the miracle of the ending of daylight.

I had no camera back then to capture a sunset, as I was just a child myself and cameras were something professionals had at weddings or older family members had for special days.

As to the swamp? I’ll write more about my love/ hate relationship with that magical place another time.

When I drive through the flat lands of the Midwest now, I often think of how boring all this flatness is–no variety.  But then I remember the magic of sunsets on a prairie.

These are not my photographs, (these are photos in the public domain) but they do capture something of what I remember: the beauty of wide open land that led to the miracle of a sunset.  Every day.

Sand prairie at The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.

 

 

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Another fun site for learners, Thoughtco.com

Website      As promised, I’ll keep sharing sites I find interesting. Thoughtco.com

asserts its goal as lifelong learning, and that is why I like it.  If you subscribe to posts, each day you receive some interesting tidbit of information, ranging from science to homework, Monet to gas gauges. (I kid you not–how to fix gas gauges!)

I have no idea who told me about this site, but I like learning something new every day.

Why not give it a try?  And do you have any sites you like for learning something new every day?

Laura Lee

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Submitted three poems today (hate to let them go–what’s wrong with me?)

coffee-smartphone-desk-pen    So we write to be published, right?  Erm… sometimes.  I submitted three poems today to a journal a dear friend recommended, and it hurt to let them go.  What’s wrong with me?

I have heard you need to kill your darlings or something similar, meaning don’t hold on to the art… share it.  I have to believe I will write more, I will write poems as good or better.

Yet I’m not sure I believe that, and I remember why I wrote each poem.

So I sent three poems I believe are good as poems, but that didn’t punch me to let go.

I’ve never felt this way about fiction or nonfiction; perhaps it’s the compressed nature of poetry that packs this type of punch?

We shall see; I read many poems in this journal, and they are good! I would be lucky to be included.

Do you ever feel “too close” to something you have written or created?