Write a Novel is "a form of open courseware," says the website's creator. His goal is to "give you some basic information on topics related to writing fiction in general and a novel in particular." The site includes 18 downloadable guides that discuss everything from story synopsis to plotting to writing habits. Wondering what comes after, "It was a dark and stormy night?" This site can help you. (And help you write a better open!)

We're all aflutter in the Lounge this month, and hope that what we're crowing about doesn't stick in anyone's craw.  Continue reading...

I began writing Jump at the Sun in early spring 2001. Or wait -- maybe it was late spring 2001. Or maybe it was the fall. The truth is, I don't remember. I don't remember much about that time. The whole thing, frankly, is a hazy blur.

It's a blur because my daughter was two years old and my son was six months and we had just moved from New York to Boston so my husband could take a new job. I was alone in a new city (actually worse, a new suburb) with small children and no friends and no job and no family and I was starting, seriously, to question the whole thing. Boston. (Still questioning that one). Wifedom. Motherhood.

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Bud Hunt, the teacher we interviewed about student blogging, suggests these links for educators interested in working with Internet technology in the classroom:

"Check out my bloglines account, the contents of which are my regular reads. Another place that folks should look for resources and conversation is EdTechTalk.com. I also recommend Educationbridges, a community of teachers experimenting with social networking and other Web 2.0 tools."

Bud Hunt writes the respected blog Bud the Teacher, a website for "inquiry and reflection for better teaching." He puts his ideas for innovative education to work as an English teacher at Olde Columbine High School, an alternative public school in Longmont, Colorado. To Bud, inspiring teaching means bringing Internet technology into the classroom. Bud explains:  Continue reading...

Teacher Bud Hunt , the innovative educator who introduced blogs into his classroom says, "I strongly recommend reading Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms."

For a long time the idea was only a doodle in my notebook. "Happy families," wrote Tolstoy, "are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Why, I wondered, do so many intelligent people cite that line... without ever seeming to question whether it's true? Do we honestly agree with Tolstoy that only tragedy is interesting... that happiness is boring, cliché? And if so, what does this say about our own expectations and dreams? Is our choice really between being interestingly tragic, or else being automatons of contentment? Or can happiness be quirky, hilarious, deeply challenging?

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