I haven’t been updating this blog too much lately. My last post came a week before I left for home to visit my family. My grandfather is very ill and getting to spend Easter with him took priority. My life since has been a whirlwind. The semester is about to end, though, and I will be back with a vengeance.
Some of you may know from my previous ramblings that I am a graduate education major studying to become a High School English teacher. I’ll finish this time next spring and go hunting for jobs in the area. Balancing that with work and writing has been fun (sarcastically), but it’s about to become fun (literally)!
This fall I have to take a graduate English class. I signed up for whatever was available during the time-slot I had available. I still need to work, so I have to be careful not to break up my day too much and make my available hours completely unusable. I signed up for “Studies in the Novel…” and let that be it. Friday I found out that the longer title for this course is “Studies in the Novel: Creative Nonfiction and the Graphic Novel.” The girl who tipped me off about this has the book list in advance, and it’s awesome! We’ll be reading Persepolis, Maus, and a Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (among others).
What Else Have I Been Reading?
Inside Out & Back Again- This Semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of Há, a Vietnamese girl in the 70s who leaves her home at the collapse of South Vietnam and settles as a refugee in Montgomery, AL. The novel is written as a series of poems that have a focus on the sensory experience, rather than concrete description.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian- Neil Gaiman highly recommends this book. It has cartoons, so the Kindle is not going to do you much good here.
When Kids Can’t Read- What Teachers Can Do- The textbook for my graduate literacy education class. This is a great resource for literature teachers. It’s actually an enjoyable read.
The Breadwinner- I wasn’t that big of a fan. It’s a story about a girl who pretends to be a boy so that she can support her family in a Taliban-run Afghanistan. There are very few descriptions or images in the novel.
Ender’s Game- I will teach this book.
Pretty When She Dies- I’m in the middle of this book on my Kindle. Life put it on hiatus.
Sandman 4: Season of Mists (Recolored)- My husband bought me the 4th Sandman for our anniversary.
That’s Great, But What Have I Been Writing?
Olympia Heights: The Weight of the World- This novel is very near completion. It has one more round of content edits before being passed around for grammar and spelling.
Galaxy Skate- This is the project title/working title for a middle grade roller derby story.
Killing Corpses- Cody will get his own story. I’ve only been plotting this one.
Boo Radley Paper- I wrote a paper for my graduate Literature For Young Adults class and my professor has been talking about submitting it for publication. We’ll see where that goes.
That’s it for tonight! I hope to be back with a review of Pretty When She Dies soon. Goodnight!
Amy Leigh Strickland is a writer and teacher from Townsend, Massachusetts. She has a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Amy currently lives outside Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Kyle and their two dogs, Apollo and Linus.
