Good and Bad

[jpskewedthrone]

A few things of note happened this past week, one good and one bad.

First, the good news: Yesterday, I sat down . . . and started to write another book. It's only the first few pages, but it's a start. I'm hoping to have the first three chapters done sometime soon, along with a plot synopsis. And then perhaps it can be sold! We'll see how the first three chapters go. But it's good to be back to writing again. I wasn't certain what project I should work on next, but that seems to be settled. It's another fantasy, but a different kind of fantasy, one that I haven't seen before (which doesn't mean is hasn't been done before, just that I haven't run across it).

The bad news . . . is that I was horribly, horribly insulted by one of my students. She was talking about another professor and how they taught and how she thought that certain things should be taught in class and that this professor was approximately the same age as me.

And then she proceeded to say that the age in question was . . . get ready . . . mid-to-late forties.

Did you hear that? That whooshing sound? Like wind, only blowing straight toward the ground? That was this student's grade falling.

I managed to suppress the immediate urge to kill her and bury her somewhere in the newly remodeled science building (with many rooms still yet to be discovered). But just barely.

In any case, she's going to have to work pretty damn hard for her grade. And in the meantime, there may appear several magical-student deaths in the new novel. Just sayin'.

Comments

[mindseas.livejournal.com]

Uh... maybe it's just that you're so much at home in your professorial authority that she just can't believe you're a new, young, inexperienced teacher? And she can't see too well, either?

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

A lot of young people are absolutely *terrible* when it comes to guessing age. I got carded the other night at dinner, and I'm 45. And I look 45!

[patesden.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest a slow painful death involving aging--perhaps hot flashes and facial hair growth as well.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

ouch. Then again, to those in their late teens to early 20s, anyone over the age of 29 is indeterminately ancient.

Also, like hominysnark, I get carded ALL THE TIME.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

You don't grade students based on the quality of their homework/tests? Are you teaching etiquette or something like that?

[mythusmage.livejournal.com]

Asking for good sense out of a college kid is like asking for a cat to stay out of the dinner roast. Age imparts an air of authority, take advantage of that. They think you're older than you are, they're gonna give you less crap about things. Age means respect, respect means power, take advantage of it.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Hey, what's wrong with the mid-to-late forties?

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Aren't you like, just a kid?

[asks the woman who just turned 44. I'm cute, don't kill me!]

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I am so so sorry. But I'm also laughing.

[mastadge.livejournal.com]

I'm 25. This summer I was teaching with a 32-year-old. Our students definitely thought of us as old. I was old. She was older, but at least she "has a great figure for an older woman." It's a combination of age and some kind of authority distancing, I'm sure. Or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.

[wortschmiedin.livejournal.com]

hehe my hubby and I were born on the exact same day three hours apart, so when he met my mum for the first time he thought of course she'd be the same age as his mum (which meant that instead of her late thirties she woudl have been going strongly onto 50) try to top that. And I married the guy :D

stupid non native speaker in diaspora

[wortschmiedin.livejournal.com]

Oh and btw Please: what does *I got carded/I get Carded* mean??

Re: stupid non native speaker in diaspora

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

In the States, you have to be 21 to legally drink alcohol. If there's the slightest doubt, and frequently if there isn't, you will be asked for your driver's license as proof of age before you'll be served, and if it's a bar or a dance club or something, you're "carded" at the door--you're just not allowed in without proof of age.

Now, now, now...

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Don't be petty or evil with your student. The little darling might grow up and pillory you in a smash Hollywood screenplay some day.

[jl-johnson.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with forty something? I destroyed my teenage neice at Guitar Hero. :P

Young people think they're infalluable, as does every generation that came before them. Don't judge her too harshly, eventurally age will catch up with her and she may see the error of her words. :P

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm ready. Just call me when it's time to sanitize the crime scene and dispose of the body.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

"Late forties?" Okay, Grandpa... I'll help pbray with the plans when we get together at Albacon.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

hair dye? Um, wearing hip hop clothes in class?

Sorry, I got nothing on how to break her idea of you. I don't think you look any older then I do, if that helps!

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Kids these days. They say the darnedest things. :) And hey, you know have a volunteer for all those "before I actually go over this concept in class, anybody know what it is" questions that you're now thinking of.

Count yourself lucky with this student. My wife has had to take an air horn to get the students to actually shut up during class.

Hey, mid forties ain't bad, said the person approaching them like a Concord flying over the Atlantic.

And congrats on the novel starting.

[vespican.livejournal.com]

"Hey, mid forties ain't bad," said the person watching them recede in the mirror like the hot rodder going the other way!
Dave

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Dave, I'm watching something recede in the mirror, but I think it's my hairline.

NEW BOOK!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

new book new book new book!!!!!!!
after i read, re-read, and am about to re-read again the Amenkor trilogy i couldn't wait until another book came about by joshua palmatier. i have to say that all three books are my all-time favorites

Re: NEW BOOK!!!!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Please make certain all your friends know. *grin*

I handed in a new book this summer that should be out sometime in the second half of next year. Same world as the Amenkor series, but different set of characters, and the start of a new trilogy. It will connect up to the Amenkor series eventually.

The new book I just started is a different kind of fantasy. I'm hoping to get a good chunk of this written before starting work on the sequels to the new trilogy.