Lofty Loftiness with Loft-sauce
Mar. 26th, 2015 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseLast night was my first "Mars Needs Writers" class at the Loft. I'm happy to report it's a nice size; there's an even dozen, (if you include me.) I was only expecting seven, so this is quite a jump.
It went well. VERY WELL.
The class seems willing to talk to each other and interrupt me and throw out ideas and share stories, so that's FANTASTIC. This is Minnesota, you know, so class participation can be sketchy. I like to know the lay of the land early, i.e., am I going to have to have a LOT of material prepared so I can monologue, or can I depend on some back on forth to help carry the lectures? I test the waters with the class' outgoingness by doing an exercise/lecture the first day that *can* work if I just talk the whole time, but also encourages participation if there's willingness. I ask for definitions of science fiction vs. fantasy. Obviously, I can just DO this by myself, but I always hope that someone will start throwing out thoughts, etc.
It always takes an explicit ASK and a few 'please, I won't judge's, but I had several talkers this time around, so this is going to be FUN.
Yay!
Plus I over-caffeinated, so I did the Lyda show with a lot of dork dancing and gesticulating. So I'm sure even for the shy ones, there was entertainment value to be had. I did promise them that the day after, I would post a slightly more coherent 'lecture' covering the important bits over on my Tate Blog. If you're curious about the content of my first class, you can read it here: "Woke Up Still Caffeinated...". Mostly the blog this time was me saying, "Oh, yeah, that thing said this guy said? It was actually this other guy."
So, should be good. Fingers crossed, anyway.
In other news, my second official review at Bitter Empire is out: Bullet Catcher's Daughter. Check it out!
Speaking of Bitter Empire, I got my first official review "assignment" and its a doozie! They've asked if I'd be willing to read and review some dinosaur erotica, which is, in fact, a Thing. I bought two of them. I will be reading them today. JUST TRY AND STOP ME.
It went well. VERY WELL.
The class seems willing to talk to each other and interrupt me and throw out ideas and share stories, so that's FANTASTIC. This is Minnesota, you know, so class participation can be sketchy. I like to know the lay of the land early, i.e., am I going to have to have a LOT of material prepared so I can monologue, or can I depend on some back on forth to help carry the lectures? I test the waters with the class' outgoingness by doing an exercise/lecture the first day that *can* work if I just talk the whole time, but also encourages participation if there's willingness. I ask for definitions of science fiction vs. fantasy. Obviously, I can just DO this by myself, but I always hope that someone will start throwing out thoughts, etc.
It always takes an explicit ASK and a few 'please, I won't judge's, but I had several talkers this time around, so this is going to be FUN.
Yay!
Plus I over-caffeinated, so I did the Lyda show with a lot of dork dancing and gesticulating. So I'm sure even for the shy ones, there was entertainment value to be had. I did promise them that the day after, I would post a slightly more coherent 'lecture' covering the important bits over on my Tate Blog. If you're curious about the content of my first class, you can read it here: "Woke Up Still Caffeinated...". Mostly the blog this time was me saying, "Oh, yeah, that thing said this guy said? It was actually this other guy."
So, should be good. Fingers crossed, anyway.
In other news, my second official review at Bitter Empire is out: Bullet Catcher's Daughter. Check it out!
Speaking of Bitter Empire, I got my first official review "assignment" and its a doozie! They've asked if I'd be willing to read and review some dinosaur erotica, which is, in fact, a Thing. I bought two of them. I will be reading them today. JUST TRY AND STOP ME.