Mishmash

Rocketfuel Blasts Off, 10 and Rising

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The fantasy writers of tomorrow are sitting in a high school French Library looking at photographs on a table. Their task is to first pick a photo that appeals to them out of the twenty or thirty scattered there. Then, they have to tell who this person is, what’s happening in the picture, and what that person wants. After writing for fifteen minutes, I tell them to switch gears. I tell them to keep the same person they’ve written about but change the setting to a science fiction or fantasy one, give them a new situation. Keep the real person, though…

Rocketfuel started with six students and now has nine students and next week will have ten, and we meet at FH Collins High School to work on Fantasy and Science Fiction writing. So far, it’s green lights all the way! Snacks seem to be the fuel for this writing –and there’s a lot of good writing going on. And enough enthusiasm to make an hour and a half zoom by. They are a great group.

Thanks to all those who spread the word–and if you are still thinking of signing up, or telling your son or daughter about Rocketfuel, have them meet us on Wednesdays at FH Collins Library at 3:30. We’ll get them on board.

Every Clear Day From Now On is a Gift

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If you are like me, you cursed the lousy summer we had this year in the Yukon.  Okay, maybe you didn’t curse it.  But I wasn’t the only one who felt a bit shortchanged.  It’s because of my expectations for Summer– dazzling summers here.  We know.  We expect that.  We live through the winter to get that summer.  We had two weeks of summer—14 days, I think.  Only 3 in a row.

But now, my tune is changing.  The last few days, I haven’t been expecting good weather—I’ve been anticipating that slide into Winter.  And I’ve been pleased at every day that thwarts that.  Like today.  All it takes is the sun to be shining, and I’m thrilled that it made it out.

Funny how it isn’t that the sunny days are more frequent, or that there is less rain than in the summer.  Really it’s just a continuation of the Yukon Summer as a long British movie …BUT my expectations for summer and for fall are completely different.  I expected more out of summer, and was disappointed.  Now that I’ve accepted my fate, that Winter will be here soon, I’m delighted when my expectations are NOT met.  That Fall has some nice warm days for us.

So I’ve been out picking berries, cutting wood, eating lunch in the forest, enjoying the surprise gifts I don’t deserve and shouldn’t expect.  It’s a kind of Weather Grace.  Next year, maybe I’ll expect the summer to be lousy and then I can be as pleasantly surprised by the weather’s good behavior when it happens.

Change yourself, change the weather.  Hmmm.  That’s an idea.  At least, the yellow is brighter that way.

Rocket Fuel May Not Make it Off the Ground

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Our new afterschool program for High school students interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing may not make it off the ground if The City of Whitehorse doesn’t have enough registered people.

So far, we have five.  They need eight to make it.  But I know there are many many more young authors out there who love to write science fiction and fantasy.  The group is scheduled from Sept 17th through the first part of December.  The cost is $65 for 12 weeks of instruction–exercises, workshopping, brainstorming, building characters and plots–plus snacks.

I’m gonna do this:  I’ll meet on Wednesday, after school with whoever shows up.  If we don’t make the required numbers via the City of Whitehorse, we will figure out our options.  If you know of youth interested in writing science fiction and fantasy, have them sign up via Parks and Recreation, 668-8325, or 668-8360 at the Canada Games Centre.

World Building: Novel writing for SciFi/Fantasy Writers begins soon

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The novel writing course for Fantasy and Science Fiction writers will begin on Tuesday, Sept 23. Come join us this year to learn to write novels. If you are part way working on one, join us anyway. (If you have a draft completed of your novel, you might want to wait till January to start with us in the Workshop phase. )

World Building will cover plot structure and character arc for the novel and then join up with NaNoWriMo in November to push out a first draft. It will be fun and exciting to do this with 15 people. Come join us on Tuesday nights! Registration is now open through the City of Whitehorse, so you can sign up today!

Come build a world, spin a plot, go on a journey.

[In conjunction with this class, the City of Whitehorse will be offering a lunchtime lecture series, free and open to the public, called We All Began With Fantasy, talking about the first great epics of many cultures and their fantasy elements. More details soon…]

Rocketfuel: Sci-fi/Fantasy Writing for teens starting at FH Collins

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Through the City of Whitehorse, with the cooperation of FH Collins Secondary School, we’re about to start a new afterschool program, RocketFuel Relaunched, for high school students who want to write Science Fiction and Fantasy stories. We’ll be meeting after school in FH Collins beginning September 17th, 3:30-5:00pm. The program is 13 weeks long, or about the length of the semester, from Sept 17 to Dec. 10th. Sign up through the City of Whitehorse’s Leisure Guide. Come with your imagination, pen, notebook, willingness to write a lot and encourage each other. Snacks will be provided. Participants are there to write and learn, and will be expected to work hard on their own writing. Be warned: Don’t come if you don’t enjoy the writing! But if you are already writing—come join everyone else who’s writing the same things! We have a great core group started, and we’re looking to add many more writers to our group.

Spread the word! If you know of teens who would be interested in this program, tell them to sign up with the City. We’ll have posters up in the schools soon. But we’d like to let everyone know it’s coming!

Contact Mia Lee through mia.lee@whitehorse.ca

ENGL 205: Literary Representations of the Natural World

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Hey Folks, Andrew Richardson’s teaching a Literature course at Yukon College this semester and it sounds great. Here’s his description, with another fine photo from Amanda Graham. If you’re at all interested in writing about the natural world or enjoy books about the natural world, this class could be just what you need to introduce you to books you can hunker down with this winter.

ENGL 205: Literary Representations of the Natural World–Fall 2008

Instructor, Andrew Richardson

Ever been at a loss for words in the presence of Nature’s grandeur? Well, don’t despair: Others have found the words already!–and you can explore them. Sign up for English 205 and delve into the best writing about the natural world and humanity’s relationship to it. The course syllabus includes controversial GG Award winner Bear, by Marian Engel.

ENGL205 transfers to several universities down south. Course Website: dl1.yukoncollege.yk.ca/engl205
Prerequisite: completion of a college-level intro to literature course or instructor’s permission. Contact Yukon College for more registration information.

For more information about the course, contact Andrew Richardson directly at:

arichardson@yukoncollege.yk.ca

The Photography of Amanda Graham

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While many of us know Amanda Graham as both an editor of the Northern Review, a professor in the University of the Arctic and at Yukon College, she is fast becoming, IMHO, one of the best photographers around. She calls it a hobby. I think her work is fascinating. I have borrowed a couple of her photographs for advertising classes at the college, but you really must see her collection on Flickr.

What I love about Amanda’s photos is that she has a great eye for quiet moments. These are photographs that deserve to be much bigger, hanging inside a room where you want to feel peace. Sometimes, I think they bring me solace–that maybe if I look for it in the real world, I’ll find the peace in the chaos. She finds the arrangement, the composition, that brings out the peace in discarded carts, peeling paint, arranged fruit, abandoned rags–and makes them beautiful.

She’s also quick to take advantage of a moment of light, an odd juxtaposition that’s there for a second, revealing something I may not catch if I wait for it to happen. I mean, most of these subjects are in Whitehorse. Can you find them?

I’m reminded of the waltz of the bag in American Beauty. It takes the right eye to see the beauty. But that eye can be trained. And thank goodness, that beauty can also be shared.

“Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart’s just going to cave in.”–American Beauty.

Please take a moment and wander through her Flickr collection. You’ll be glad you did.

Leaving America is playing in Edmonton

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Just heard some good news.  My 7 part radio series “Leaving America,” about my immigration journey from Texas to the Yukon, is now playing on CBC in Edmonton!!  (Thanks Diane Walton and Marcelle Dubé for letting me know).  For more thoughts on the similarities between being an Alien and being an alien see my post on “Immigration and Aliens“.

Very happy to be here.  And parts 6 and 7 are set completely in Canada.  Part Six is with my good friends in Calgary and includes romping through Vulcan, Alberta, nights of Battlestar Galactica, viewing the William Shatner Show, and the Glenbow.  Thanks to Kirstin Morrell for making the transition to Canada so filled with good memories!  She knows how to show aliens around.  The rest of the series talks about Canada through the eyes of someone heading there and what I love about the place I’m going.  As well as adventurous moments in travel through the States.

Pop Art: When Comic Book Art met 80s Music

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Continuing my absolute wave of nostalgia for music I grew up with, here’s my excuse to post three more videos: they all play with animation that imitates comic book art. They are also GREAT songs, and I hope you enjoy them. But you can also notice how directors in the mid-eighties, still connecting story with song, started stealing from comic books (which were having their own revival in the mid-eighties!) for structure. Danny Wilson experiments with what looks like paper cuttings and French-styled comics; Alan Parsons Project with old 1940s comics; A-Ha with transforming live action into comic style (anyone remember the The Lord of the Rings movie back in the 80s?–animation overlay on live action). Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia if you remember these songs, and if you don’t remember them, enjoy the style of art.

We used to gather around the TV for Friday Night Videos, and MTV was born to house these videos, all day, all the time. Videos were the new mini-movie–a mini storyline set to a popular song. I guess we still have videos, but we don’t flock to them like we used to. We do still have the best hair, though!

Enjoy.

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Danny Wilson, “Mary’s Prayer”

Alan Parsons Project, “Don’t Answer Me”

A-Ha, “Take on Me”

Novel Writing Course Texts for Fall 2008

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In case you were wondering what we were reading for the Novel Writing course, here are a list of texts.

We have two “How to Write” books:

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell

No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty (to be used during the NaNoWriMo experience)

and one novel: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

and two texts available online:

“The Bear Went Over the Mountain”–Alice Munro, a novella that became Away from Her, the movie

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Don’t worry about Bell’s text being from a suspense/thriller author’s point of view.  A) his points are valid and tips useful for whatever you might be writing and B) I’ll be supplementing his tips with advice from a literary standpoint too.  This class is approachable then from both a popular and literary fiction standpoint.  Storytelling is basically the same in either camp–it’s just whether you want to take a canoe down the river or shoot the rapids in a kayak.

Most of the novel/novella reading we’ll do in September and October, leaving you November to write the first draft. If you want to read ahead, feel free. The Munro piece is small, and the Fitzgerald novel is thin. But they balance out the types of novels/novellas we’re looking at closely, so that students can choose the type of novel they want to write knowing that we’ve looked closely at several types.

Please contact me at jstueart@yahoo.com if you have any questions about the course.