Ah, the sadness… Today, at precisely 2:12 pm, the nine students of “Creative Writing: Prose” exited JB 21 for the last time as a class. The first semester ends today, and starting Monday, Prose will be replaced by Poetry–which should make me happy except for the fact that some of the Prose writers will be back to haunt me in this second half of the year.
Collin will still be around to entertain us with doorblocker-kicks (stop it!), random declarations, untitled titles, and…well…taking naps in the doorway of the classroom.
The creative news?
Adam, the outside-the-lines specialist on whose planet students perch on chairs with pens stuck in tennis balls and write their prose on the reverse side of paper plates, will still be among us to to make us all go “Huh?” at his outrageous creative compasslessness. He declared his passion for the class today by saying, “I wrote a poem once.” Can’t wait for poem number 2.
The culinary news?
Meredith, whose lateness has made her our favorite baker (you’re late, you bake–that’s the rule), will still be among us too, and hopefully coming late to every class. I blame her for singlehandedly undoing the New Year’s resolution I never dared to make, but try to observe nonetheless, just for traditions’s sake!
Taelyr and Rebekah will also be joining us for the second installment of “Chaos–the Creative Journey”, but I had no compromising pictures to show of them, so they’re sadly absent from this lineup…but loved and enjoyed nonetheless! And there will be a handful of new students as well. They hopefully won’t be so scared off by the returning morons (term of endearment) that they run away screaming to the guidance office on our first day of class and demand to be switched to…say…AP Trigonometry!
Here’s the Prose ’97, the best prose writers I’ve ever taught! 
(Note: Daniel’s on the picture too–just fast asleep on the floor under Josh’s arm…)
In other news, I’d like to blatantly make use of Xanga as a survey tool in an attempt to select a title for my next novel. Easy, you might think. Uh, no! And by “no”, I mean I’d rather, say, eat a mushroom salad than try to come up with a title that intrigues and stimulates… So I’m pasting below several options and would LOVE for those of you who read this to tell me what your three favorites are, in order of preference. Which ones would make you pick up a book and give it a second glance? Curious… Feel free to refer to them simply as their number!
1. The Muddlehood of Huddlehood
3. Sameness
5. Stagnant Dreams
7. The Sameness Paradox
9. The Mushroomness of Life
Any and all comments much appreciated! My love to you all. I promise to update a little more often once this round of editing is over.
nonaliz
ooh! these are GREAT! i’m so excited about another novel!!! here are my choices:
1st – 7 (the sameness of paradox)
2nd – 5 (stagnant dreams)
3rd – 2 (the woundedness of birds)
although i really like all of them and it is VERY hard to put them in order because they are all my first choice!=) i guess you’ll just have to write 9 novels so you can use them all! =)
birdkins21
i think i like 6, 5 and then 3. btw…what did you end up naming that chick anyways?!?!
laurishka
I vote for “Shards of Shell. . .”
6 is good, too. 🙂
I can’t decide on a third.
french_mk
I so enjoyed your first book, and I can’t wait to read your second! Out of the list, my all time favorite is #6 (Undone). There’s just something about one word titles that entices me to read more 😉
cheridueck
Here’s my vote — a trifecta, if you will (it’s my random word for the moment):
1st place — 9. The Mushroomness of Life
2nd place — 7. The Sameness Paradox
3rd place — 1. The Muddlehood of Huddlehood
sparkeeparkee
4,6,7,8,5,2,3,9,1
That looks so… not thought through. But I did think it through, very much, and I scrolled up and down and up and down and up and down etc.
violetkity
5,9,4
armie2007roses
I love the picture of Collin! hilarious! anyways…
1st – 7. The Sameness Paradox
2nd – 9. The Mushroomness of Life
3rd – 5. Stagnant Dreams
storchenblick_dorm
well… i don’t like mushrooms so that one is out. the muddlehood huddlehood thing kinda sounds like dr suess… aaaand… the davis genes reminds me of ap biology… i’m really liking the sameness paradox… mucho mucho liking it… then stagnant dreams too- it reminds me of langston hughes’ dream deferred poem. those are my favorites. and then i guess shards of shell is mildly pleasant too… as well as i like the birds one, but for some reason, the word woundedness bothers me…. helpful? love- erin
scoobadave
“compasslessness”- say that ten times fast
sameness
kluelessklutz
I feel sad… it made my top 3 list of favorite classes in highschool. 🙂 Oh, and good luck on a title! Let me know if you choose one!!
mereeser
7. The Sameness Paradox
1. The Muddlehood of Huddlehood
2. The Woundedness of Birds
6. Undone
Yes, I know that is 4….
Hope you had a good night’s sleep. Love you!
jules1120
6, 5, 4. Good luck with picking a title.
laurishka
4: Nothing. 🙂
polly_the_devushka
Hmmmmmm. Send me that manuscript and we’ll come up with a name. Maybe nothing with “ness” in it.
Bassist07
what? no compromising picture? i’m offended. incredulous, really.
poetry scares me. the line between good and lame/hilarious/disgusting/cliche is SO much thinner.
i think you scared kristoff today. it made me laugh.
and i like mushrooms; the texture is nice. kind of rubbery, but in a good way.
yay! another semester of trying to focus in class and copying vast amounts of information in the library with all your friends three minutes before class starts!
taelyrpan.
p.s.
crazypants16
that’s stargirl’s xanga.
nickel_for_a_penny
2,1,9
By the way, you said the class of 97. Is that a typo or are you just confused?
hehe
Micamyself
You DID too scare me…
Ok, so… The Mushroomness of Life, Shards of Shell, The Muddlehood of Huddlehood… yep, I think thatz it. But they’re all pretty cool.
You kinda scare me still…. JK =)
crazypants16
hi!
i’m stargirl.
i suppose you know that already but it is only proper to introduce myself.
taelyr has told me so many wonderful things about you. i really look forward to meeting you someday!! i get the feeling that you’re one of those people who’s amazing in a humble sort of way and
i like you already.
and if you really did manage to somewhat tame that wild creature they call taelyr, well you are certainly a superhero in my book.
oh book!
ok. so i would most definitely pluck The Woundedness of Birds off the shelf, take it home, and read it just because i like the title so much. really really. cause that’s how i am. mmmm. birds. but, really, who hasn’t ever dreamed of having wings? flying so high that you become just a sparkle in a young child’s eye. sigh. but i also love Stagnant Dreams and The Sameness Paradox. birds, dreams, and a great paradox are all important to me. so that’s my opinion. course, i’m kinda crazy when it comes to books. have you ever checked out a book just because of its shape or the way it smells? yep. that’s me. and someday, i’m going to have a job in a whole building of them.
when i write something, the perfect title always seems to find me when it decides to. funny little things. i think that it’s much harder to pick the title first but writing comes in so many shapes that it’s hard to know if i picked a good one sometimes.
i’m sorry for writing so much but once i get going, i can’t stop.
and if you think i’m a loony right now,
you’re right.
*smile*
it’s been nice, umm, ?meeting? you.
i hope that all your new classes are super-duper.
{stargirl}