And tomorrow marks my first major development on that front, as I'm going into a local school to be the 'visiting writer' for their Creative Writing club.
I've had some excellent and inspirational visiting writers recently: Tessa Hadley, Clare Potter, James Smythe and Gwyneth Lewis (the first Welsh Poet Laureate, no less).
Each writer generally sets tasks appropriate to their field of interest, or experience, and helps us to write more efficiently, more effectively, by sharing tips and techniques.
So I've got a lot to live up to tomorrow. I'll be doing my best to give the kids at the school the sum total of my knowledge, and, once it's done, there's the small matter of teaching a 3rd year undergraduate class in a fortnights time. And a 6000 word portfolio. And an essay on Teaching Creative Writing...
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Oh yeah, I had a VERY short story pop-up on LIT BOMB - a new online lit journally thing with a very good name. The story has an equally good name, suggested by my ace tutor at the OU: it is called Alexander and Burgurs and Xavier and it is safe to say I will not be reading this out tomorrow.
