Welcome Back!

Hey There, CWCers! Welcome back to Creative Writing for Children, and to your first 'Art of the Short Story' class. This site is the place where you can check in if you've forgotten what you need to do for the next class, or just to say hello. Heckling welcome [as long as it's gentle]!

Fall is a great time for creativiity, and you've come to the right place. Get ready to explore your artistic side in any and all short forms of writing.

So grab your binders, sharpen your pencils, and let's get to it!

See you in class!

~kc

So we've got to say goodbye...

...for the summer...

Can you believe the term is over so quickly? Still lots to do in the book-production department, though.

So -- before you head off to your AMAZING summer adventures, here's what you need to know.

I am NOT going to chase anyone for submissions. If you want it to be in your book, you need to get it to me.

A little over-optimism regarding what I could do in our last class means that any material you handed to me then in rough copy ALSO needs to be emailed to me. I will edit it myself [as a sweet freebie to you!] since it is now summertime. I'll also be replying to the plethora of email you flooded me with this week, so remember to check and make sure the material you sent actually arrived, okay?

And to each and every one of you -- enjoy the break, and have a wonderful summer time. Maybe I'll see some of you in Seoul in August!

~kc

The Play's the Thing...

Why hello, my crazed young storytellers. Lovely to see you here!

We are suffering from end-of-the-term busy-ness, and as such were missing quite a few of our number from our last class. Sadly for you absentee-types, we covered a LOT of material.

Happily, though, there is still time to catch up.

First -- due to a wee mix-up, we're giving you an extra week to finish up reading THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, and completing the questions. Hooray!

We'll end the year reading a selection of stories from the notorious reprobate O. Henry. More on him soon. If you do _not_ have a copy of the ILLUSTRATED MAN pt 2 questions, email me, my pretties, and I will send it to you.

Now. If you WERE away this week, you will find yourself being contacted by email by members of the group into which you have been corralled, explaining your part in the Adaptation of an Original Work, to which all are now devoting their time. We also spent some time working on the cover copy and design for the marvellous artistic productions that will result from your term in The Art of the Short Story Class. If you were away, I'll give you the materials upon your return next week. We are closing in on the end of term -- only two classes remain, so spend your focus on getting missing work in if you can. I am looking forward to seeing how wonderfully your books turn out!

As always, email me if you have any questions.

Until next Friday....!

~kc

ReAnimation...

This week, you can forget about bringing life to your short stories -- what you need to do is bring your short stories BACK to life!

We all need a little zombie in our lives, and no one does zombies better than Canadians. [Well -- Shawn of the Dead shook a pretty good stick at the genre, I guess...] Let's see how well you can take on this genre of horror writing!

Hope you enjoyed our own Master of Macabre, James McCann, as he filled in for me while I was hanging out with the Dead and Dying at Bloody Words in Victoria. [Or was it the Killers and the Killing...?]

Anyway, your homework this week is to use your BRAINZZZZ to Go Ghoulish, and write me a zombie story...with a body part in the title. [Remember to keep it clean, kiddies!]

You should also have been given the pages to do a front cover for your collection, artwork to be hopefully inspired by one of your stories. That page should come back in on Friday, too.

ALL of you have final drafts of one thing and another that are not yet complete. If you don't remember what you owe me, email me and I will fill you in.

I look forward to seeing your various mouldering body parts at class on Friday!

Edited to add:

Okay, just learned you didn't get the cover pages in class -- must've been mistaken for brainz and eaten by zombies! No worries. I still want your zombie stories and we'll work on covers this week. See you soon!

~kc

Get a Clue!

Hey -- I know you guys all have a clue. Maybe even a few more than me, seeing as this is how I feel after this week:

But here we are now, so no more headless chicken running!

I promised you the set of questions for Poirot Investigates, Pt 2 and HERE they are: Go Wild!*

1. Now that you’ve had a taste of Agatha Christie, how does she compare to other mystery writers you have read? Would you read more of her work?

2.  Can you name any other detectives created by Agatha Christie? Find a story on-line [or in a book!] starring one of her other detectives. How is it different from the Poirot stories?

3.   If you could critique Ms. Christie’s work to her face, what would you tell her?

4.   Does reading this collection of stories give you an interest in writing mysteries? Why or why not?

5.   Rate these last five stories as a group:

[Really Bad]      1     2     3     4     5     [Awesome!]

*Try to keep your head attached, if possible...

See you all on Friday!

~kc