The Marriage Problem

To start with, I debated with posting this topic for quite a while. This blog is supposed to be a reflection of my life and my writing journey, but more and more I'm posting about topics that are important to me-topics that aren't always writing.

Hence today's entry.

Still the debate about today's entry was more about if I wanted to get into something this personal and really share my opinion on a new law in Kuwait. It's a bit of a controversial topic, and I like my blog to reflect more happy, shiny things.

But it's hard to reflect on happy, shiny things when you have something weighing down on your shoulders. And all writers know that sometimes we just have to get it out.

So here it goes.

The Kuwait government could refuse to recognize my marriage.

My Dream Classroom

Starting off with a reminder: I'm a writing teacher at a school in the Middle East. I teach writing full time, to about 200 students. (But only 20 at a time).

There's been some changes at my school recently. I could bore you with all the set up of what our (K-12) school is like, but I don't want to be boring :)

Some of our classrooms are becoming empty for next year-actually, almost a whole floor is emptying out. And I've been offered the chance to move into a new classroom. My current classroom is nice. I like it, but it is small.  Actually, it's too small to have my grade 7s in it because they take up too much space.

So I was offered a new room.

Not just any new room. The best room. I'm pretty sure it's the biggest room in the entire school. It has a Smart Board, a projector, and basically enough space for me to put all my students in one area, and still have another area to do something else with (I have no idea what though!)

I've also been told to order anything I want for the room.

I get to plan my dream classroom.

And that's where my problem starts.

Query Writing

For those who don't know, a query is something writer's write (duh) to try to get an agent or a publisher interested in reading their books and taking them on as clients.

Basically,  it's supposed to be this tantalizing hook into what your book is about and make the agent/publisher say, "Gimme More!" Then, hopefully, they'll request pages and you'll be on your way to being rich and famous (or something like that).

Right now, I'm trying to write my first query.

My last entry? Not a lie. Queries are hard.

You're supposed to take your book and be able to entice someone to read more of it in about 250 words.

Doesn't sound so hard, does it? 250 words, we can write that in 10 minutes. So you try. And then you realize it's really hard to take your 50,000 word novel and pull out the really exciting, really intriguing parts and put them into 250 words.

And you decide screw it. I'm not doing this.

Except you have to. If you want to go the commercial publishing route (which I do).

Surprise Lesson of the Day.

Something I learned today.

Queries are HARD.

That is all. For now. More tomorrow....or soon, when I'm done being frustrated.

Vacation Writing Rocks...Mostly.

The last time I was on vacation (in the beautiful Bahamas...a place I basically had to be dragged out of) I managed to finish the first draft of my Middle Grade novel.

I was excited. It was the second book I'd ever finished writing and the first book I ever finished and went "Wow, this could actually be a published novel." (Unfortunately my first novel did not give me the same feeling. It is now trunked while I consider a rewrite).

The good news is, I'm on vacation again! (Doesn't being a teacher rock?) It's winter vacation and I have absolutely no plans. For the first time, I'm not traveling or going home (sorry, Mom). It gave me plenty of time to work on the second draft of my novel.

And I'm done! Yay! But I learned something from doing all this revising.

Revising is hard.

No wonder my students always refuse to do it.

All You Need is Love

It's been a hard few days. I think everyone around the world can admit to that. There's a lot I would like to say about Sandy Hookl, but most of it has been covered in much better words than I can ever put together, and I still feel a bit too emotional to talk about it.

Instead, I wanted to talk about something that I'm just as passionate about.

Islam.

I'll start by saying I am not Muslim. And I don't plan on converting. But I am married to a man who is Muslim. Which means my family is Muslim.  My students are also Muslim.

Dubai 7s!

It's been a while!

I have many excuses (I was lazy, I was busy, etc, etc), but I won't force you to listen to them.  Instead, I wanted to tell you about my trip to Dubai 7s at the beginning of December.

In a word: FUN!

I love the Dubai 7s. I've gone every year for the past four years. I'm not one to miss rugby tournaments, but I definitely refuse to miss the Dubai 7s. It is the be all and end all of rugby tournaments in the Middle East.

But let back up and explain it first.

So lets start with what is 7s? 7s rugby is  rugby played with 7 players from each team on the field. It's a big field. It's a game for sprinters (something I am not). It's fast paced, and only lasts 14 minutes.  Like 15s rugby, 7s is played by scoring trys at the goal line of the opposing team, but you have to do it while passing the ball backwards.

Confusing, right? I didn't understand it until I played my first tournament. Now, I feel like a pro (but there's still so many rules I don't know!)