Whew. Two eight-hour days of straight TA orientation is fairly brutal. We have the weekend to recuperate (with homework of course) followed by two more days next week, plus an extra-special bonus session on Wednesday. And I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that even with all of this training, you just have to stumble into teaching composition and learn a lot by trial and error. So it goes.

The Egyptian striker Mido has revealed that Wigan want to sign him on loan. From Spurs to Boro to Wigan? There’s a trajectory there son, and it sure as hell ain’t up. Next stop: Millwall.

My fiction group critiqued my novel Thursday night and I got a ton of valuable feedback. The things I thought were problems and I could quickly paper over? Still glaring problems. The parts I thought were the best part of the book? Yeah, they liked those the best. All without me really saying a word.

Sadly, the novel needs more work than I would have hoped. Happily, thanks to these friends, I have a much, much better idea of where and how to start fixing. Having good critical readers is invaluable. What I really learned is what themes or parts to ramp up a bit and what parts to suppress. And I found it oddly liberating to laugh along with them at the parts that just didn’t work. Like I said, far better for us to laugh so I can cut them than have potential agents and editors laughing at them as they seal up my pink slip.

Current Mood: Sleeping While Typing |