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melodypond-thewomanwhomarriedme · 5 years

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for the writer's ask, every question please! ^^

Nkcjnikanidnwienf what the- anon, you’re really sweet, but i wish you’d reveal yourself so that i can answer this privately lol. No one else wants to know this stuff omg. Okay well, here we go! The answers are under the cut.

ink: what do you do to “set the mood” when writing?

If it’s a piece I’m continuing, I’ll reread it from the start and make some changes her and there, and that way I can kind of segue from editing to writing some more. If it’s a piece i’m just starting out, i need to stay really quiet for a while and map it out clearly in my head so i’ll know the general direction of where the story is going.

pen and paper: do you prefer writing by hand or on a device? why?

It really depends for me. I use both my ipad and my notebook interchangeably. I’ve realised that after I’ve used one of them for too long, I’ll tend to write better and longer on the other.

diary: how many pieces have you written that are just for you or will never see the light of day?

So many. So, so many, ya’ll.

journal: do you ever write just so you can enjoy something to read?

I enjoy the process of writing but I never enjoy my end product. Idk, it’s a really weird thing. But in the end, my stories are for other people to read.

novella: do you prefer to write short stories, one-shots, or entire novels?

Short stories for sure.

pulitzer: tell about/link a piece where you felt your writing was the best.

It isn’t posted yet, and I’m still in the process of writing it. It’s a library fixit with thirteen and river, and I think it’s really some of my best writing. I love it, and I’m really proud of it, and I can’t wait to share it once it’s done.

genre: what genre do you prefer to write in?

Uhh I guess romance? Or angst?

narrator: what pov do you like writing in best?

Third person for sure.

backstory: how did you come to love writing?

When i was a kid i read the harry potter books and i remember being absolutely obsessed with them. I would carry those books around with me everywhere, and that fandom was the one that introduced me to fanfiction as a reader. With reading came writing and i discovered that i was a natural talent (my teacher’s words), and it just grew from there. My love of English and language grew even more and i kept reading and writing until I just couldn’t imagine my life without it.

time-lapse: how long have you been writing (as a hobby or for work)?

I’ve been writing for maybe five to six years? Rough estimate.

characterization: describe your favorite character(s) you’ve written.

I only really write two characters - neither of them are mine, so hehe.

carnegie: what authors and/or books/stories have inspired you to write or influenced your work?

Harry potter, as mentioned. And i had the lovely pleasure of reading amazing works from my other fandom, NCIS. And then this current fandom i’m in is just blessed with gifted writers everywhere and every single one of their works have influenced my writing in some way, shape or form, even if they don’t know it. I honestly just,,, read really really great fic from really really great writers until i decided i wanted to become one of them, too.

faulkner: what tropes do you LOVE writing? which ones are your guilty pleasure?

Omg. I have wayyy to many guilty pleasures. I love when like, things are going perfectly and it’s all sunshine and balloons until something majorly bad happens and everything starts to fall apart. And there’s angst and hurting and fights and screaming. I love that. I write that a lot. But i love it even more when it comes with a happy ending, just cuz i need that energy in my life. Some other tropes i really really like are: fake dating, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, they’re both in love with each other but are too afraid to say anything so they pine with doe eyes, and so many more i can’t think of right now but the list is never ending, i assure you.

o’connor: what tropes/genres do you dislike writing?

LOVE TRIANGLES WHERE ONE OPTION IS CLEARLY BETTER THAN THE OTHER. OMG. MISS ME WITH THAT SHIT.

dickinson: what insecurities do you have about your own writing? what do you think you should improve on?

E V E R Y T H I N G

playlist: what kind of music/songs help you write? do you have a writing playlist?

I do not. Though when i’m writing doctor/river, i do listen to ‘The Wedding of River Song’, ‘Melody Pond’, ‘The Woman He Loves’ and ‘The Singing Towers’. Just to remind myself how in love they are.

record: have you written things based off of songs? do you like to?

Omg. I just did a whole thing on discord about ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ by the Bee Gees and how i associated it with doctor/river. I was crying to cassie and bernie all night about it lol. I love write things based off songs, but it’s more likely to be meta than fic.

nobel: have you published anything you’ve written? online or irl?

If i ever get the chance to publish original works in real life i’ll never shut up about it, trust me. Many moons ago, i used to publish original stuff on wordpress, but then i deleted my account so. Nah. Only on ao3 for now, lads.

notepad: can you write anywhere or do you have to be in a specific place and mood to write?

I have to be alone. I cannot work with anyone else in the room. I need it to be quiet, so i can hear myself think.

parchment: how often do you or your personal life influence your writing?

Not that often. My life is boring and all the action seems to come from my stories so.

dedication: if you were to publish a book or multiple, who would you dedicate the book(s) to?

Everyone who has supported me in my writing. So mostly my friends online.

trope: what’s a pet peeve you have about writing?

When i do this damn annoying thing where i’m so ready, i have my notebook and pen or my ipad or whatever, and then i sit there and i…. dont…. write

input: what’s something you hate that people say to you about writing/your writing?

When they tell me something about my writing that is blatantly false

critic: what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about writing?

“you do you, boo.”

mifflin: what do you feel is your strong suit in writing?

A lot of people say i’m good at writing emotions. So i guess that???

houghton: what’s something you love that people compliment your pieces on?

When they’ve given thought to my story and they notice something that was actually unintentional and it just feels like they really love my story to give it that much attention, ya know? But i do love every single comment you guys give me, i swear. :)

#anonymous #meme thing #writer’s ask #nat the writer

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legendarynightmaresandwich · 6 years

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My 17 Books of 2017

I swear to Glob, I’m gonna have to make this a monthly thing bc my dumb ass didn’t write down what I read every month so I sat for 30 mins straight thinking “what did I read this year?????” Then I kept confusing this year with 2016, relived the fact that I didn’t read a single book this Summer bc I had a stupid boyfriend instead, and that I won’t have any pictures of the books bc most of them were from the library and I’m lazy.

2017. While I was still in school I exclusively read stuff for class and not pleasure. I still enjoyed the books I read, so I included them. After graduation, like I said, I acquired a dumb boyfriend, so instead of reading I wasted my life with him for three months. (Pro-Tip: Reading is always more satisfying than boys.) Moving back home, and working at a library, I read 11 books, a graphic novel, and almost half of a graphic novel series. (I’ll explain.) It feels so good to read again!

So the total for the year is 17. Not bad at all! So, here we go.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

Hooooo boy it was so good to read this book again. This book was first presented to me in high school, by a teacher I didn’t like, who treated everything we read like it was stupid. I guess that was her sense of humor. What I remember from high school is that everyone hated this book and especially hated the main character, Janie. The consensus was that Janie makes horrible decisions, relies on men too much, and is irresponsible. Talk about an anti-feminist reading. Reading the book again, being older and slightly wiser, I’ve realized that the book outlines the ways that society makes it almost impossible for a character like Janie (a woman of color, uneducated, and poor) to thrive. Her life is about survival, despite her missteps and trials she survives. My one problem with the book is that I wish Hurston explored Janie’s inner thoughts more. Other than that, this book is beautiful.

Quote: “There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.”

I love this quote bc instead of seeing Janie as a lost cause we should view her as untapped potential, she is so much deeper than the surface layer that I was unfortunately taught in high school.

Native Son by Richard Wright

Here’s another book that was good to revisit in a sense. I didn’t read this in high school, but my sister’s grade and the grade before me did. And everyone hated it. Reading it in college, I am so glad that I didn’t read it in high school. Generations younger than me might be ready to read this book in high school, but my generation was not. (I am so glad that it seems like younger generations are more informed about inequality, feminism, etc.) For my grade and the kids older than me I think it was impossible for white kids, in a white high school, with white teachers, to fully understand this book. It is so EASY to read this book and view Bigger as a murderer. (It is important that he doesn’t kill on accident either. He smothers a woman, chops her up, and incinerates her.) And he is a murderer, but not exclusively. He is oppressed every way he turns, by his employers, the police, the media, his friends, his family, etc. And Bigger responds to the world’s anticipations. This book is fascinating to me in that Wright wanted to create an “Anti-Uncle Tom” character. Bigger is a bad person, and a criminal. But he also represents the inevitability of an oppressive society to fail its citizens and create monsters.

Quote: “Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner

This book was HARD. Faulkner is impossible, especially when you have other classes to focus on. I survived by reading a Cliffs Notes synopsis of each chapter before and after reading it. But this book was worth the read. It’s a brief, but deep look into the practices of the antebellum South. I really liked the format of this book being a series of short stories. (But in Faulkner fashion he never tells the reader who is speaking and what time period we’re in.)

Quote: “But you cant be alive forever, and you always wear out life long before you have exhausted the possibilities of living. And all that must be somewhere; all that could not have been invented and created just to be thrown away. And the earth is shallow; there is not a great deal of it before you come to the rock. And the earth don’t want to just keep things, hoard them; it wants to use them again.”

Counterlife by Philip Roth

This book is extremely interesting. It’s broken into five parts and each part is an alternate version of the same awkward story. Henry has a serious heart condition. BUT the medicine that is keeping him alive makes him impotent. The only other option is to undergo an extremely dangerous surgery. In one version he dies of the surgery, in one he survives and moves to Israel, then in another his brother Nathan is impotent instead of him. The whole book is framed by Nathan who is an author. It shows how fiction can be unreliable, how authors twist the truth. We never know the “true” story. This is a structurally brilliant book, even though I’m not a huge fan of the characters. Their problems are worthy of eye-rolls.

Quote: “And as he spoke, I was thinking, 'the kind of stories that people turn life into, the kind of lives people turn stories into.”

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

I read this book bc I read Fangirl and really enjoyed it. This book was just as cute and fun to read if you can get over the creepiness of the plot. Lincoln’s job is to read company emails to make sure everyone is following email policy. Emails get flagged for swearing, other code words, and anything that doesn’t seem like work to the computer system. Two women that work at the company chit-chat through email all day, not following the email rules. Lincoln reads their emails and falls in love with one of them. Like Sleepless in Seattle, the two don’t meet until the end. Again, if you can get over the lack of privacy in the plot, this book is enjoyable. I love Lincoln as a character. He’s a big, tall, lumber-jack type man who is really sweet. I also enjoyed how the book portrays working the night-shift. It’s a world I don’t think most people really know about. Lincoln is lonely and in a rut and these two hilarious women are the only bright spot in his life.

This book is cute, and it was a good break from reading heavy stuff for class.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I have always wanted to read this book. The cover is beautiful. (That shouldn’t matter...but it does.) It seems like the general consensus of this book is that it is life changing. This book will inspire you! This book will make you take the initiative to follow your dream! Snake oil. Maybe I’m cynical, but I HATED this book. It’s preachy, it’s chock full of cliches, and worst of all I cannot get over how sexist this book is. The boy character is allowed to have a dream and pursue it. But the girl’s dream is to STAY BEHIND AND WAIT FOR HIM TO COME HOME????? That’s her dream!?!? That sucks!!!!!!! That’s unacceptable to me. Every nice thought or potential mantra to be gleaned from this book is completely overshadowed by the mistreatment of the female characters. LAME.

It by Stephen King

I read this book bc I wanted something really long to read at jury duty. This book is so long, but I honestly loved every second of it. I was borderline obsessed for two weeks of my life. I completely fell in love with the characters, my precious babies. I was always weirdly fascinated by the mini-series when I was little. I really liked getting to know the kids and then the adults. I was surprised that the book is not split half in half, but the adult scenes are mixed in with the childhood memories. I really enjoyed this book that my first reaction to seeing the new It movie was to be MAD at what they changed. That hasn’t happened in a while. (Harry Potter anyone?) I thought the tumblr love for Pennywise was funny to a certain extent, he’s pretty hilarious in the movie. But in the book...real life nightmares were had. Nothing in particular gave me a nightmare, just the overall vibe and tone of the book stressed me out and kept me awake. This book really transported me. When I was reading it, for better or for worse, I was in the town of Derry.

Quote: “Maybe there aren't any such things as good friends or bad friends - maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you're hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they're always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for too, if that's what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart.”

Fair Play by Tove Jansson

I love this book. Tove Jansson is the creator of Moomin and I only recently found out that she wrote a few books too. Fair Play was the only one my library had so I checked it out. And it was amazing. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

The more I learn about Tove, the more obviously autobiographical her books seem. This book is a series of short stories about two women who live together and learn to work around and with each other in every way. Mari is sensitive where Jonna is gruff. They are both stubborn about different things and have a beautiful symbiotic relationship. In some reviews I’ve read of this book people go out of their way to make sure it’s known that Mari and Jonna’s “sisterhood” is strictly “platonic.” I roll my eyes, bc CLEARLY they are not. They are life partners and have a deep love for each other that goes beyond just being roommates. Plus, it’s pretty obvious that Mari, a writer, is Tove Jansson, and Jonna, an artist, is her life partner and graphic designer Tuulikki Pietila.

But back to the book. It is an absolutely beautiful series of short stories. I wouldn’t even call them stories. They are more like little snippets of daily life. They are full of subtle emotion and are written in such a straight forward but artistic way. Simple prose carries deep meaning in this book.

Quote: “It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.”

The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai

I originally read this book for a class (Landscape Architecture of India) and to be honest I skimmed through it and wrote a bullshit book report. When I saw it in the library I wanted to try it again. This book is just three short stories I can’t believe I didn’t find time to read it before. I didn’t really like the third story, about man living in the mountains, but the first two are great. The first is about a man trying to figure out how to insure a dusty mansion full of treasures. The second is about a woman translating a work of fiction, on the brink of madness as she becomes more of a creator than strictly a translator. These two are among the best short stories I’ve read. The writing is so beautiful.

Quote: “Everything in the house turned damp; the blue fur of mildew crept furtively over any object left standing for the briefest length of time: shoes, bags, boxes, it consumed them all. The sheets on the bed were clammy when he got between them at night, and the darkness rang with the strident cacophony of the big tree crickets that had been waiting for this, their season.”

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

I’ve been meaning to read some Agatha Christie for some time now. I read And Then There Were None in high school and absolutely hated it. I was interested in this one bc I know Christie went on many archaeological digs. So I thought this book would contain interesting historical elements about archaeology in the Middle East and ancient Mesopotamian culture. Not at all. Lapis lazuli is mentioned once, cylinder seals are briefly mentioned, everything else mentioned are just “tablet fragments” and “vases.” I was disappointed. I was also really disappointed by how BORING this book is. The mystery is slightly compelling, but nothing exciting really happens. This is a Poirot mystery, another reason I picked it, but he doesn’t show up until halfway through the book! The book is narrated by a nurse. She’s tough and straightforward. I really liked her at first, but throughout the book she is straight up racist. The Middle East is a “primitive” land to her. The natives speak in a “funny, sing-song” language. She is suspicious of the native men around the dig being thieves. She’s even prejudiced against Poirot, showing much disdain toward his accent.

At least Poirot is nice. And he solves the stupid mystery. How does a woman drink a WHOLE GLASS of acid without noticing??? This book was dumb. I don’t think I’ll read Christie again. In this instance my high school self was right.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

I was really excited to read this book, Neil Gaiman has yet to disappoint me. I love the way this book was written. I especially loved how in the introduction Gaiman outlines all the female Norse gods whose stories have unfortunately not survived. (Makes me want to write some Norse mythology fanfiction. Nerd alert.) I love these characters, the stories are so interesting. A very good read.

Quote: “The Norse myths are the myths of a chilly place, with long, long winter nights and endless summer days, myths of a people who did not entirely trust or even like their gods, although they respected and feared them.”

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Jumped on the bandwagon with this one. This was a really popular book at the library so I checked it out. It’s cute. (Bridget Jones is better.) The book promised to make me cry, but I didn’t. I really liked the main character, Lou. She’s funny and just trying to figure out her life which I related to. A quick read, VERY predictable.

After You by Jojo Moyes

I liked the Louisa character from Me Before You, so I thought I would read the sequel. It was disappointing. Everything fun and admirable about Lou is lost. The story-line where Will’s conveniently long-lost teenage daughter shows up is stupid. The love interest is boring. Really, a terrible sequel. I’m sure there’s better fan fiction out there.

The Whispering Muse by Sjon

This book is plain weird and not my favorite. Luckily, it’s short. I like the mythological/folkloric aspects of the story. My main issue is that the main character is so unlikable. He’s pompous, annoying, and rude. Not endearing in any way. The ending is very strange.

Autumn by Karl Ove Knaussgard

I LOVED this one. The author is writing letters to his unborn daughter. They’re not really letters though, more like small essays on completely random topics: frogs, sunset, plastic bags, embarrassment. The author has a fascinating way of thinking, and the connection to his daughter made the book sweeter. This will be the first of three, I think a book will be published for each trimester? Not sure. But I can’t wait to read the rest.

The Fables Series by Bill Cunningham

Fables starts out great. Fairy Tale characters in NYC, trying to survive. The premise was intriguing and the first few volumes are awesome. It was everything I wanted Once Upon A Time to be. Where OUAT is over-dramatic and embarrassing, Fables is gritty and clever. It started falling apart for me about halfway through the series.I wound up only liking a few characters that the series kept straying away from. Sitting and reading a whole, long-winded story about Little Boy Blue, when Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf are so much more interesting, got tedious. To be honest, I just skimmed through the later issues.

Origin by Dan Brown

Dan Brown’s worst book, in my opinion. I’ll have to read some of his others again to make sure this theory pans out, but the writing in this one is so condescending. It was really annoying. It’s as if Dan Brown thinks his audience is stupid. Instead of saying “Beethoven was playing on the radio” he’ll write “18th century composer, known for works such as this and that, emitted from the iHome music player that was invented in 2005.” Every little detail has some shitty explanation. He explains what Uber is, what William Blake’s most famous poem is, "Nicolaus Copernicus … the father of the heliocentric model — the belief that the planets revolve around the sun — which ignited a scientific revolution in the 1500s"; "Friedrich Nietzsche, the renowned 19th-century German philosopher and atheist"; and "Winston Churchill himself, the celebrated British statesman who, in addition to being a military hero, historian, orator, and Nobel Prize-winning author, was an artist of remarkable talent." WE KNOW. Or you could google it!

Honestly, the writing made this book hard to read and not be insulted by. I did like the story. It’s interesting, very contrived but it’s Dan Brown. Contrived is his middle name. This book read like a shit mystery with sentences from wikipedia copied and pasted in.

Quote: "'Robert,' Ambra whispered, 'just remember the wise words of Disney's Princess Elsa.' Langdon turned. 'I'm sorry?' Ambra smiled softly. 'Let it go.'" (The "it" in question is Langdon's cellphone.)

I can’t believe I had to read that with my own eyes.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

My last read of 2017. I was intrigued by the movie trailer and the cover of the book is beautiful. This book will stick with me for a while. One review describes it perfectly.

“It’s been a long time since a book filled me with this kind of palpable, wondrous, disquiet, a feeling that started on the first page and that I’m not sure I’ve yet shaken.” -Matt Bell

This book is beautifully disturbing. And the ending is perfect! It’s a trilogy, but I don’t know if I even want to read the other two yet. I think I have to let this one marinate for a while.

A stunning read, a great way to end the year.

Quote: “I am walking forever on the path from the border to base camp. It is taking a long time, and I know it will take even longer to get back. There is no one with me. I am all by myself. The trees are not trees the birds are not birds and I am not me but just something that has been walking for a very long time…”

And there you have it! My year in books. Here’s to next year!

#2017 #happy new year #tove jansson #native son #their eyes were watching god #annihilation #dan brown #origin #books

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thesavvyurbaneducator · 4 years

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What Students Don't Know Won't Hurt Them

I have always been a staunch realist. I have NEVER been a person to see a glass half-full. Even though I won't necessarily consider it half-empty (a pessimist? me?), I have always thought of it as just a glass with not enough water in it to fully quince my thirst. In layman's terms, things are as they appear. It is what it is. Straight, no chaser. You get the cliches.

I have also been a person who has been an expert at my craft. In this profession, you could say that I "have arrived". Prior to this past year, I only served as a classroom teacher for 3 years. The principal I worked for then called me, in all my 24 years of wisdom, a "veteran teacher". I was very surprised at this assessment during my tenure moment: that term was always reserved for teachers who had spent many, many moons in hallowed halls and had many, many stories to tell you-the novice teacher- chronicling their adventures in teaching. In my 3 years of teaching, I was considered a darn good teacher.

In my fourth year as an educator, my district propelled me to the top of the literacy totem pole as a literacy coach. My task- avoiding becoming the "reading Nazi" and truly mentor teachers and lead my school into AYP success. That I did for 3 years and was successful in making AYP all 3 years. I was, at 25 years old, giving professional development for English teachers throughout the district, running departmental meetings, shaping curriculum, mentoring first year teachers...living the LIFE. I think what added to my reputation was the fact that I was a realistic expert. I knew what I was talking about and the research behind it and was frank with them about the expectation of them getting the job done. Yeah everybody didn't like me, but they respected me. This whole idea of "I love you but this is business" really sums up my attitude about work. And I was good at it. I helped in the making of 14 excellent teachers during my time as a specialist.

Then all of a sudden, reality came crashing down, as my husband (who was hired in Memphis and commuted 6 hours on weekends to be with me and our sons) put his foot down and told me I had to move to Memphis.

Here I was, 7 years into my career, starting over. Almost instantaneously, all of my storied career was reduced to a resume.

So being the realistic expert I am, I started over, and that was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. Take it from me- it is not easy to close your eyes to craziness and unprofessionalism running a muck all around you when you know you have the wisdom to possibly suggest better. Envision the Titanic- you are in the band, and even though the damned boat is sinking, you are being paid to do your job, and thus sink with the boat. That sums up my first year.

But, I made a little of a splash. My scores were not hardly as disappointing as much of the STATE of TENNESSEE, so that says a lot. If that makes any sense.

My principal, who believes in my ability, decided in this second year, to really push me (whether he knows it or not). I was chosen to teach some upper level courses. In my mind, being the realist I am, decided that I could use this as an opportunity to pull out some college stuff and try to force the kids to be mature learners. Yeah, it could be a daunting task, but clearly I had the ability and the background knowledge to get this done...............

However, shortly into planning, I realized, I was out of my comfort zone. Being in the Middle School for 6 years and teaching 10th grade in my 7th, has really removed me from English Literature and rhetoric exponentially. I am no longer the Shakespeare buff; no longer the quoter of Langston Hughes and Robert Frost. No longer the lover of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the reader of critical analysis or the intellectual who could allude in and out of literature. No longer the admirer of the dark charm of J. Alfred Prufrock. No longer the MLA and APA whiz. Not even the scholar who would have realized the last 5 sentences constituted an aphorism! I realized, in essence, that I have either dumbed myself down or let myself go. I received my M.A. a little over 5 years ago now, and I am certainly convinced that furthering my education is an action that is well overdue. I have to find that 24 year old English student and merge her with this now almost 30 year old woman who has matured pedagogically. Thanks to this, I now consider myself having moonlighted as a M.A. in the past 5 years, because I certainly didn't use ANYTHING I learned in school during my teaching career. What and how I had been teaching was merely what I had learned as a teacher! Which was really not the teaching of literature, but clearly teaching students how to read and comprehend, and Lord knows I definitely did NOT learn that skill in school.

That realization angered me: what was the point of going to school to be a teacher, if most of what you used was on the job training skills rather than what you amassed serious debt TRYING to learn? Secondary education is clearly for people who are going straight to high school to teach because my matriculation at the school of education did not teach me what I needed to know as a middle school and early high school teacher.

The way I came to this realization was unnerving: I was in a training with higher level English teachers recently, and found it difficult to converse about syllogisms and enthymemes and troupes and schemes with them. Those terms were interred in the land of "lost vocabulary". I also attempted to attend a William Faulkner convention and when I got a whiff of the conversations those people were having, I turned tail out of there before they began asking who the hell gave me a graduate degree.

I guess that is essentially what happens to Middle School and 9th and 10th grade teachers who are trained as secondary teacers: removed from the canon and the likes of Poe and Hawthorne to trade them in for Walter Dean Myers, Gary Soto and Ann M. Martin.

Nothing wrong with adolescent literature- except that unless you actively continue with your "English buff" status by being a part of literature groups or in school, you lose it. The issue I am tackling with bothers me because I have ALWAYS been the expert; in this case, I still have quite a bit to re-learn. Experts don't believe in this: that there are ideas you don't know or can't remember in your area of expertise. In a little over a month, I have to reprogram my mind to the world of American Literature and rhetoric and teach my hungry students how to write and think by any means necessary. The realist in me understands that I AM an expert and a heavily proactive person, and that I have a lot to do to design this course AND make it rigorous.

They don't know how much work that is. How many late nights that will be. How much dedication it takes on my part. I told my students last year, when they asked me to move with them to eleventh grade, that I had taught them everything in my brain. What I should have said is I had taught them everything I had taught recently, which was what the average middle or high-schooler was supposed to know. Now, in 11th grade AP, we have a whole world of challenge that we all are about to encounter, which really starts with me excavating the lost lore within my head. I swear, it is there. I just have to go into seclusion and find the M.A. that resides inside of me.

And as the addict goes to rehab to learn how to be the person they were before the addiction, so will my journey back to being the English Literature teacher I was when I completed graduate school 5 years ago.

Boy, I feel so sorry for the AP students who will follow this group of juniors.

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hottytoddynews · 7 years

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This story was reprinted with permission from the Ole Miss Alumni Review.

“What would you do tomorrow if you didn’t get paid for it?” is the question Mike Stewart (BPA 75, MCJ 78) of Oxford-based Wildrose Kennels challenges people to ask themselves when they want to know the secret of his success. They pick his brain because they know he pulled a complete career 180 with optimal results.

Today, Stewart, 60, certainly gets paid for what he pursued [he’s even graced the cover of Forbes magazine as the purveyor of a “recession-proof” business], but it didn’t happen overnight. You could say it’s been generations in the making.

“My father was a horse trainer and a really good one,” says Stewart. “But I’ve always gravitated to dogs.”

In high school, Stewart even wrote a biology paper on dog training, delving into dog behaviors.

“I think the teacher just let me get by with it because I couldn’t do anything else in biology,” he says. “I’ve always been blessed to live an outdoor lifestyle around animals. So many people today were born two and three generations away from the farm, so they’ve lost a lot of aptitude for how animals think and how they work. I grew up around animals, so I always had that in my back pocket.”

The back pocket he refers to was on a pair of rigid police uniform pants. The University of Mississippi grad went into law enforcement full-time in 1974 and spent seven years with the Oxford Police Department, working up from dispatcher to captain, before going to Ole Miss’ police department as chief of police in 1981. He also graduated from the FBI National Academy in 1989 and served in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a commander.

The entire time Stewart was in law enforcement, training dogs remained a hobby for him.

“I had beagles, treeing dogs,” he recalls. “I had obedience classes in town. I lived on Sisk then, and people would bring their dogs, and we’d work ’em. So, I’ve always worked with dogs, all the way back to junior high school. The interest has always been there and always been very keen.”

COPPING A NEW CAREER

In 1998, while chief of UPD, Stewart bought land east of Oxford, primarily, he says, to run beagles on. He soon ran a cattle business there and got into holistic gardening.

“I was always into the natural order of things and how crops grew, and grass-fed beef,” he says.

While dealing in cattle, he kept up his dog-training hobby, and he says these experiences with the natural way came to bear on his interest in dogs, to train them “in a more positive way — not using as much force but trying to take the natural ability of the dog, applying certain controls and then training the people to work their dogs better. It caught on.”

In the mid-’90s, Stewart found a kennel in Tennessee called Wildrose that was going out of business.

“I merged it with my operation here, and it took off fast enough that I had to get out of the cattle and get strictly into dog training,” he says.

But more than the cattle business would have to give.

“After that, I was faced with either cutting down on the dog side of things or retiring from Ole Miss,” says Stewart. “Most departments would open around 8 and be over at 5, whereas we ran around the clock, seven days a week. It was hard to get [the kennel business] going, so I faced leaving Ole Miss a little earlier than I anticipated. I enjoyed the work out there and the relationships, and things were going very well, but I couldn’t work all those shifts and keep up with all the manpower.”

In 2000, he made the break, and he hasn’t looked back.

His wife, Cathy, a former teacher who for 20 years directed the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference at Ole Miss, is his vice president of Wildrose Kennels. They live in a house within throwing distance of the Wildrose facility, on the same property. Stewart eases home for lunch or when he needs a little peace to work on what he’ll say as keynote speaker at various events for schools and groups.

THE WILDROSE WAY

Stewart has distilled his training methodology as “the Wildrose Way” and shares it with the hunting market on two DVDs and in one book, published last year.

“It’s our unique, balanced training philosophy,” he says. “We use a lot of positive reinforcement to engrain skills in the dog that are going to endure a lifetime.”

A pup, reporting to Stewart at around 8 months old, will stay an average of six months to experience the Wildrose Way — a dynamic curriculum to be sure.

“To be able to hunt upland in one minute and go down and handle duck hunting and hand signals on the water in another, that’s a lot to cover in five months, and most of them will stay about six,” Stewart says.

Wildrose focuses on one breed: British Labradors.

“All our genetics are original and authentic, imported from England and Northern Ireland,” Stewart says. “We breed them here and raise the pups. When I started, there was virtually nobody doing that — maybe one other kennel in the country. I had the only ad in Ducks Unlimited magazine in the 1990s; now there’s 16 to 18 ads. So, we’ve created divergence in the market. You’ve got the American Labrador and the British Labrador. When I started, there was no difference at all.”

Decades into honing his specific angle on Labs, Stewart knows what he wants.

“What we’re looking for in our dogs is their size, their athletic ability and their natural nose,” he says. “They’re a bit smaller and more compact than the average Labrador.”

Customers have options at Wildrose. Some buy “started” pups bred there — in black, yellow, chocolate or fox red — for $1,750 to $2,000. The owners then send them back to train. Others save some money by buying pups elsewhere and enrolling them at Wildrose for their education. Still others, willing to pay $12,000 to $15,000, get the “totally finished turnkey” job — buying a Wildrose-bred pup and leaving it with Stewart’s team until it’s 2 1/2 to 3 years old.

Certainly, to put it lightly, a customer must really enjoy hunting to outlay such an investment, and it’s no surprise Stewart says it’s worth the price. In the grand scheme of the hunting world, though, it does make sense.

“These dogs are not like bird dogs that you just take out and turn loose and kill some birds with them,” Stewart says. “These dogs live in your home and travel with you; they are 365-day dogs. When you look at it that way and you get around 10 years of companionship, and you amortize it out, it’s probably the cheapest thing the hunter owns — when you start looking at duck leases, fuel, corn and everything to produce the duck sites and hunt. It’s a pretty expensive hobby. The dog is probably only about $1 a day when you look at it.”

Oxonian and Ole Miss alum Bradley Rayner (BBA 00, BBA 02) got his “started” fox red Lab Nella as a pup from Wildrose and sent her back at 8 months of age for training for six months.

Rayner notes that the dogs aren’t the only ones getting an education.

“The things that Mike and his crew can accomplish with a dog are amazing,” Rayner says. “I know a number of people that have sporting dogs from Wildrose Kennels, and they are among the best in the field. The trainers work closely with you and play a critical role in your understanding of how to work your dog. The entire staff is friendly and willing to help you better your Wildrose dog, even after [the dog has] left training.”

You could say lifelong duck hunter Jeff Buckner, founder of financial planning firm Plancorp in St. Louis, is a believer in the Wildrose Way.

Buckner’s gotten three Wildrose Labs — one for himself, one for his son [who went to Ole Miss] and one for his grandson, so he’s more than qualified to be a part of a customer base he calls “the Wildrose community.” Buckner says his dog Rebel is the best duck dog at his club and swears the other members will vouch for him on that.

“Most of the non-Wildrose dogs I see in the field are pretty hyper and sometimes not very well-behaved in the blind, and that can be a problem,” says Buckner. “A big part of success in hunting is having total control over the dog.”

Buckner says Rebel has an “off switch” and can hang out at his office “with all the distractions going on without making a noise or disturbing anything, and then he’s capable of getting into the truck and going to the club and turning the switch back on in terms of high-powered performance in the field.”

Like Rayner, Buckner is a believer in the importance of the care Stewart takes to train owners.

Wildrose customers visit the Oxford facility for weekends at a time to learn how to properly handle their dogs. Stewart says being located in Oxford has worked out very well as an attractive community for folks from far away who are drawn to Wildrose.

Architect Heather Cass and her husband, Baltimore Ravens president Dick Cass, are both Yale graduates, so perhaps it’s natural that for a companion dog, they appreciate a Lab educated by the canine-training equivalent of an Ivy League professor.

Their last few dogs have been Labs, and a few years ago when her last Lab grew old, Heather Cass began contemplating how she could ever replace the beloved family member. The idea of starting over with a puppy in the home seemed daunting. That’s when she happened upon the Forbes article about Mike Stewart and Wildrose.

“I read it with interest, especially the part saying that they sell finished dogs,” Cass says. “One of the benefits of the whole investigation would be getting to come to Oxford because I’m a Faulkner fan and heard wonderful things about the town.”

About six months after the passing of her previous Lab in 2010, Cass visited Oxford and Wildrose Kennels.

She was floored by Stewart’s operation and impressed that he actually first asked her what she wanted out of a dog in her life. He invited her to check out one of his handler workshops so Cass could get to know the Stewarts, and they could get to know her, to better begin developing a plan for the right dog for her. She used one of their dogs in a workshop to get a feel.

“A few months later, Jack arrived in our life, and the rest is history,” Cass says. “We could not be happier with him but more importantly with the whole experience.”

BREEDING BUSINESS

In the mid-’90s, Stewart latched onto a succinct term: “Gentleman’s Gundog.” He picked up on it from a customer.

“I was training his dogs, and he mentioned that term one day,” Stewart says. “He was a stately gentleman with a big mustache. I thought, ‘I like that; I think I’ll keep it.’ It’s now the trademarked slogan of Wildrose Kennels, and Stewart says it helped gain his business a little more word-of-mouth.

“What kicked the can way down the road is when, in 2001, Ducks Unlimited gave us the contract for Drake, the first DU mascot,” Stewart says. “That was a huge long ball.”

The result was, Stewart says, that more people knew about Wildrose nationally in hunting circles than they did in Oxford. Drake now shows grey hair on his chin and is joined at Wildrose by Deke, the newer DU mascot.

“People come to Oxford and say, ‘We want to visit Wildrose,’ and people say, ‘What?’ They didn’t know where it was. Most [businesses] start locally and branch out; I did just the opposite.”

When Stewart retired from UPD in 2000, he had only one employee in his dog-training enterprise. He now has 14 to handle the many-pronged operation, including breeding puppies, training, running a full retail outfitter store on-site and an 1,800-square-foot vet-tech health care facility.

“Our vet-tech staff works from 6:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night, seven days a week.”

What’s more, Wildrose raises its own flight birds for training dogs. Five trainers come from different parts of the country. Some are Ole Miss alums, but the team includes staffers recruited from as far as Colorado and Wisconsin.

Originally, Wildrose’s scope was mostly breeding and some training, but training is now at least half of the operation.

“In the training, when we’re completely full, we manage about 100 dogs at one time,” Stewart says.

Training also isn’t limited to the Wildrose headquarters’ property in Lafayette County.

“We have now four facilities across the country. One is in northwest Arkansas on the Buffalo River, and we’re guests on a ranch in Colorado,” says Stewart. “The newest facility we just purchased … one of my partners and I are going to develop a duck-hunting operation in the Mississippi Delta. Each of those sites allows us to get realistic training for the dogs.”

In 2007, Stewart ventured outside the hunting dog paradigm, developing a training model for adventure dogs.

“That’s for people who don’t hunt that much, but the dogs complement a sporting lifestyle — hiking, biking, camping, canoeing.”

About five years ago came a third type of dog that Wildrose would produce: diabetic-alert dogs.

“We do a few of those, and it’s a nonprofit side of the company,” Stewart says of the Wildrose collaboration with the Tupelo-based CREATE Foundation.

THE OTHER SIDE

With all his success from what had been a lifelong hobby, Stewart offers some perspective from the other side for anyone mulling over the idea of turning a favorite hobby into a career.

“If you’re older in life and you want to follow a dream, and you have a passion — whether it’s a bicycle shop or pottery shop or whatever it is — get it going before you quit your day job,” he advises. “Do a good job there and get the other side going, and see if you can actually make a living at it. I was able to do that, and I was very fortunate.”

By Tad Wilkes. Photos by Nathan Latil.

This story was reprinted with permission from the Ole Miss Alumni Review. The Alumni Review is published quarterly for members of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. Join or renew your membership with the Alumni Association today, and don’t miss a single issue.

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