Horrible Things
Just a sample of the treats in store for you on this page:
Seventh grade:
The end of an entry
it is hard to say
makes me wish I
could write all day
Senior year:
Haven't I known you forever
Or was there a day we met?
I can remember a time without you
I was just waiting, I bet.
Sixth through Tenth grade writings:
The shoe poemsI have no idea why I wrote so many poems about shoes, but clearly, they were very important to me in Junior High School.
Poem about my mother
Truly hilarious. Don't miss this one. From elementary school.
Dreams poem #1
Dreams poem #2
Who can hate a poem about dreams? Me. Here are two from seventh grade, when the Reflections theme was dreams.
"What I Like"
A Christmas poem, the kind of thing I felt obliged to make sappy, which is not good. And also, not so good with the rhyming, eh?
"Waiting For Dawn"
A poem written for the annual Reflections contest. I actually like the Reflections contest now and am frequently a judge for it. The problem I find is that the best things that are sent in tend not to have anything to do with the (inevitably bad) theme. I ignore this and give kids the prizes they deserve anyway, but as a kid, I felt obliged to write something to the theme. I don't write well this way, even now.
Poems about my German teacher
These are not love poems. Also junior high.
Sherlock Holmes pastiche #1
Sherlock Holmes pastiche #2
I think this was ninth grade, too. I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes at the time, and would spout trivia about him at anyone who would listen.
Perry Mason pastiche
The Adventures of Captain Lash
Don't you love the subtlety of the title for this pirate adventure, based partly on my reading the Horatio Hornblower series?
I Love to Fly
What more can I say?
Star Trek Pastiche
I loved Captain Kirk. I am sorry for it now. Ninth or tenth grade.
Enid is At the Door
This was my first publication, in college. I honestly have no idea why it was published. I think
sometimes short stories are published because they need to fill a space, and you have the right word count.
Thane's Heir
This is so bad! This is an encylopedia on how not to write!
My romance novel
Pink Elephant
I wrote this in graduate school, taking a creative writing class at Princeton. This is actually one of my best pieces. Poor Mary Morris, who was the instructor at the time!
Hush, Little Baby
Also in my graduate school writing days.
The Shepherdess Daughter
I think my favorite line in this novel was "She was a shepherdess without a single sheep." But here are the first two paragraphs. I don't think you can survive until chapter four to get to that other line.
Special thanks to Rick Walton, my brother-in-law, who took the time to help me in my early writing days, and typed up some of my handwritten manuscripts for me--then returned them to me when I was an adult, so that I have some records. Anything I kept for myself is probably long gone.!
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