Monday, January 09, 2006

Odd Moments of Vindication


In the last couple days I have found myself amused by some things. Most of them have to do with the Barnes and Noble classes I am taking -- the science fiction one and the mystery one. I think I'm going to enjoy both.

But what has amused me is reading things that I've been telling people to do (writing-wise) for a long time. They are things that I've learned down through the years, and try to pass on to others. Sometimes I've gotten flak over a couple of them... but now I see many of them in You can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts -- particularly in the Fifteen Commandments section -- and a couple points in the first pieces of material presented in the science fiction class.

It amused me. I am, obviously, very easily amused.

I've been working all day at trying to get caught up with various bits of work so that I can sit down with the class stuff. Unfortunately, now that I'm about caught up, I'm also tired. I may have to rethink this plan.

We are ten days into the year. I would like to say that I'm not behind... but I'd be lying about it. Still, I think things are going pretty well. I just have to get a little better organized.

And come up with ideas for the two classes....

5 comments:

Jean said...

At least you can get into the classes. I was getting an error, fiddled with my firewall, and now I get a completely blank popup. As far as I can tell, Zonealarm should be letting it through.

I'm not sure I care about this class enough for the hassle.

Zette said...

I hope that you get it worked out!

I am just getting to the mystery stuff tonight. I had a huge amount of work drop on me. I also decided not to try and do both classes at the same time, and give them both my full attention.

It looks like fun.

But then we both know that I have strange ideas of fun.

Jean said...

I found a temporary work around. My books came today, so I can at least read those assignments. I printed the lectures from the first two lessons last night, so I'll get caught up.

So far, so good.

Zette said...

I can't remember -- are you doing the sf or the mystery class? The mystery one is very intensive. A lot of work (at least for someone who has so little free time already!) but I am enjoying it a lot. I would enjoy the sf one more if I could get hold of the books. One is on order (the nonfiction) and the other (the anthology) I keep hoping to get from the library, but I've not had any luck so far. I lucked out with the first lesson because I found the story on fictionwise. This next one, though, has a reading from the sf writing book, and I'm out of luck there for the moment!

I do have both the mystery nonfiction books, though.

Jean said...

I'm doing the mystery class. Got the books. Yes, a lot of what I'm reading is so very familiar. I consider that a good thing. And, yes, it is a lot of work. I'm nearly done with the first week's reading and must not only get started on the second week's reading (I answered the questions based upon what I thought I already knew), but I must do the assignments as well.