Teaching writing

The semester is over (well, pretty much). Papers are graded and grades have been assigned. That's why I thought it was a perfect time to talk about the benefits of teaching writing. I can personally say, teaching writing has been the most beneficial thing I have ever done to improve my own writing.

But first I should point out that I am one of those who makes the majority of his living as adjunct faculty at two local facilities. I have also served as a substitute teacher, tutor, and a number of other duties in the realm of teaching positive writing techniques. Currently, if you are curious, I am employed at Norfolk State University and Paul D Camp Community College. That means at various times throughout the year I have to grade stacks of paper that look like this:

But here are some of the benefits of teaching writing:

Teaching gives me a chance to go over grammar rules, such as the ever dreaded comma splice, verb tense shifts, fragments, etc.

It also gives me chance to discuss writing forms. Although my students learn the techniques of writing a good essay, it relates to fiction in that both must have a good beginning (it's best to open with a hook), an informative middle, and a satisfying conclusion.

Additionally, it gives me the chance to read essays from other published writers, such as Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, George Orwell, and Isaac Asimov, to name just a few. If these now famous writers once made a part of their living by writing essays for publication, perhaps I can as well.

Third, it gives me chance to see young budding writers honing their craft. Many of my students are starting out rough around the edges, especially when it comes to writing. That's not intended to be a knock on them. Many are first generation, and even first semester college students. After all, even the most beautiful sculptures started out as a hunk of shapeless rock.

Yes, I think teaching others how to write is one of the best things anyone can do for their own writing. If you consider yourself a writer, give it a try. If you can't get into a college, most libraries will allow others to give writing lessons for free. Or find yourself a small studio to rent and charge for the service. Give it a try. It really helps.

Monster Fest photos

Some time ago, I promised to post a few photos of Monster Fest 2017, so here they are:

The first one is of me doing my presentation on Ed Wood, titled "Your Stupid, Stupid Minds," the second is of me in front of the schedule of my presentation, the third is me and a statue of The Fly, fourth is Dr. Madblood, the horror movie host of Hampton Roads, fifth is the winner of the costume contest, and last is the other winners and runners up of the costume contest. Can't wait 'til next year!

So I joined the Horror Writer's Association

I teach at several higher education facilities, that's at one university and one community college to be exact. I do it part time at both schools with the hopes that one day I can do it full time, which is just part of the reason I've been preparing to enter an English PhD program next year. Another piece to that puzzle is that I'm finding that higher education facilities want you to belong to organizations in your field of study. For me that would be literature, or writing, mostly writing. It's best to join the organization that holds the most interest for me, as it is the  area I will do the majority of my research. That's why I decided to join the Horror Writer's Association.

I've been in contact with this organization for last few weeks, and just paid my dues to join earlier today. I'm supposed to receive some correspondence through the mail in the next few weeks or so. According to the organization some of the benefits of membership (besides being able to put it on my CV when applying for jobs) are that I have access to mentoring programs where other writers can help critique my work and help single supporting members (like myself) get published. They also provide exclusive access to some publishers, agents, and publications looking for more horror short stories.

Here's the link to the HWA's website in case anyone is interested in looking them up.

So, we'll see how this goes. I will again keep readers up to date on this endeavor. Hopefully it works out and turns into an investment.

Today's picture is of this year's jack-o-lantern I made at the request of my 11-year-old daughter. Yes, it's supposed to be a bat, in case you couldn't tell.

Writing group no more.

I guess no one stepped up to save the writing group. The lady who said she would step up to be the group leader said she didn't realize there was a $15 / month fee through Meet Up either, so she also declined to become its leader. I am now in the market for a new writer's group. I'd like to start my own, and may look into that come the new year. I still have a huge stack of papers to grade that will last me until the end of the year, so a lot of other projects are waiting right now. So what did I get out of the writer's group? Besides a few new Facebook friends, I did manage to latch onto a Beta reader for my current novel project. That is pretty important.

Meanwhile, I also took the GRE to get into a PhD program at Old Dominion University. I reached my goal for the verbal section, of just over the 70th percentile, but fell short of the required 50th percentile for the quantitative math section. However, I blew the writing section out of the water, and scored in the 90th percentile! Counting that writing score alone would get me into Harvard (I looked it up).

Meanwhile, I received another rejection for a short story in my e-mail this week. Such is the writer's life.

Update on the writing group.

So the group leader of the writing group I joined a few Blogger posts ago, stepped down as leader. We hadn't any meetings in a few months, so I wasn't surprised. Several members (including myself) were sent e-mails to step up as the new leader. I would love to do it, but I would have to pay $15 / month to upgrade my membership. I just can't do that right with all of my other expenses. Time is also a bit of an issue, but since I'm currently teaching college writing courses, I could actually put this on my Curriculum Vitae (which I'm about to update, as a matter of fact).

So anyway, today I received a message from another member offering to step up as group leader, but she has transportation trouble and wants to hold them near her home in Norfolk. So I'll work with that, and replied and said I would try to show up for the group meetings if she held them on Friday afternoons. We'll see how this works out.

In the meantime, here's a picture of me coming out of the grave at a previous year's Monster Fest.

Monster Fest past

Monster Fest has come and gone. I had a great time and made only one purchase, a Bride of Frankenstein action figure. I saw a King Kong action figure I was interested in, but when I returned to purchase it was already gone. Such is the way things work out for collectors. It was only $5 too. It had very few points of articulation though, but I still liked the way it looked.

Mr. Lobo returned to Monster Fest this year. That's me with Mr. Lobo in the picture above, although that picture is from a few Monster Fests ago. I'll try and get a few current Monster Fest pics up soon.

Anyway, I did a presentation on Ed Wood, and that went pretty well. You can read more about this whole event when I write a complete story about it in Wormwood Chronicles. Their website is here.

Oh yes, and I got three short stories published! Whoo hoo! Before anyone gets too congratulatory, it is self published. At some point I'll post my opinions on the whole self-publishing vs. traditional publishing thing. If anyone it is an anthology of several science fiction and horror short stories from a variety of authors, and it can be purchased here.

That's all for now. If you like what you see here, please friend me here on Google+. I promise I won't bite, unless you're into that sort of thing. 😈

Monster Fest

Now that I finally got around to posting about Fantasci, it's time for Monster Fest already! This year, I will be presenting a paper I once wrote about Ed Wood, titled "Your Stupid, Stupid Minds." It should be a lot of fun. I spent all last night watching Ed Wood films in preparation to refresh my memory on those films. The paper takes somewhat of a scholarly look at Ed Wood's life and career. It is very timely with transgender issues being all over the news these days. Ed Wood was not transgender, but he was sympathetic to their rights.

I come on right after Dillzilla is large main room. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. If you live in the Chesapeake, Virginia area feel free to come join us, not just to see me, but to see the whole spectacle of Monster Fest. Many horror hosts will be on hand, including Dr. Madblood, Mr. Lobo, and Karlos Borloff. Here's the link, and be sure to check out the schedule. Wish me luck.

Monster Fest

Fantasci

Here are some pictures I took at Fantasci. A lot has been happening, but I haven't had much time to do the Blog. I'll keep working on that. The biggest thing is that next weekend is Monster Fest, and I will be doing a presentation on Ed Wood. I will update everything else as soon as I can.

RIP George A Romero and Martin Landau

I know I said I wasn't going to post again until next week, but as soon as I published my previous blog article, two horror icons died. George A Romero of Night of the Living Dead fame:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/movies/george-romero-dead.html?mcubz=2

And Martin Landau, who portrayed Bela Lugosi in the Tim Burton film Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp, for which he won an Oscar:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/movies/martin-landau-actor-academy-award-dies-89.html?mcubz=2

More about the writer's group

Last week, I posted about my writer's group and how happy I was with it. I'm still happy with the group themselves, but now they are changing around some of the meeting times. Friday afternoons was a great time that worked well for me, but this week they changed to Thursday, and I had other early evening plans, so I could not make it, and next week they are planning to meet on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I will make it or not.

However, I did get a Beta reader out of the group. I've sent him several chapters to review, and he's sent them back. I asked if he was willing to continue looking at chapters, and his reply was that he was in this for the long haul. He's also stated he wanted to send me a few things for critique, so of course I said sure. He writes comedy and I write horror (which are more closely related than most people think, but that's an item for another post one day).

Anyway, my current project is Blood of the Werewolf, which I'll also post more about in the future. I first started this story back in college, and put it through one rewrite already, but it desperately needs another. I'm currently on chapter 6, and have added several scenes. My Beta reader recently reviewed chapters 3 and 4. I'm saving further revisions until I finish this one though. Perhaps this Blog should also be about me receiving information about writing and the writing process as well as providing it. Does anyone have any feedback about Beta Readers and whether or not you feel I'm doing this correctly?

Next week, I'll be attending Fanta-Sci at the Chesapeake Public Library and Fantasmo that evening, so I'll post about that. As a preview, below is a photo of me at Monster Fest one year.

So I joined a writer's goup

I've always heard about writer's groups where everyone sits around reading each other's work and sing cum by ar. I never really knew if I really wanted to join one of these groups, not because I'm afraid of showing my work to others and gaining criticism. I took creative writing classes in college. I know how this works. Everyone reads and talks about what they think of it. Invariably, everyone mentions what they do and don't like about each story. It's always up to the writer to decide if they wish to follow the advice of the crowd or not. Usually, if you're receiving the same advice from most students, it's probably best to take it. Everything else can be done a-la-carte.

Anyway, that's not what I was afraid of because I had done it before. What I was afraid of is what everyone is afraid of: the unknown. I've heard the horror stories. If it winds up being a group of dopes who all give all the wrong advice, and swear it's gospel, or if there's others who do take offense to all the advice they receive.

Fortunately, this was not the case with the writing group I found. In fact if anything, this group has the potential to be my dream team. The group leader is a fan of science fiction and fantasy, and even kaiju (Godzilla, Mothra, and other giant monsters). Another member is a fellow professor at the Virginia Community College System, so I can receive the academic perspective from him, and finally one more member says she reads a lot of period pieces (which is exactly what I write).

Hopefully, this group sticks around. My only complaint is logistics. It is all the way in Virginia Beach and sometimes they meet in Chesapeake. I live in Suffolk, Virginia, so we're talking about a 30 to 45 minute drive each week. The second week, I was actually thinking about starting my own writing group right here in Suffolk. The Suffolk main library is about 5 minutes from my house. But this group has turned out to be so good so far that it's actually worth the drive. I read a chapter of my current project, and got feedback that I feel was very good.

So I guess my point is, don't be afraid to meet up with people and share your writing. It is a positive experience. Sometimes it's better than sharing it on a message board (which I've also done), because you get real reactions in real time. The most important thing is you have to let others read your work in order to really improve. Good luck out there.

Slinging Poo

Welcome to Classic Camp's Classic Blog! At first I wasn't sure if I should start a blog, but then I decided it seems like every monkey has a blog these days, so what's the difference if one more monkey is out there slinging poo with the rest of them. During the course of this blog I will likely talk about some of my many interests, including old classic horror movies (I'm not talking 1980s slashers here, I'm talking Bela Logosi and Boris Karloff of the 1930s), books and literature or whatever I'm reading, teaching college writing (which is what I do for a living right now), Classic television shows, old time pro wrestling (because I'm weird that way), and writing. Sometimes I may just post a link to an interesting article about some of these interests, but most of the time I will write items myself. Sometimes I'll also write about my collection of action figures. So sit back and enjoy, eat some monsters cereal (pictured above), and I'll do my best to entertain you, and if I make you think in the process, all the better.