Chapter 5 of Blade's Edge and other Monday Ramblings

First of all, check out Chapter 5 of Blade's Edge now up on JukePop Serials! A return to my day job almost kept me from getting the newest Chapter up and ready for the mid-day post lunch internet rush, but I just made it (at least in my time zone).

A couple quick notes/reminders about the way that JukePop works (if you're already familiar with JukePop please skip past the bullet points):

• if you haven't created a free account you won't be able to read past Chapter 1
• once you've created your account please +vote every chapter that you read and enjoy
• once you've read three chapters or more of a novel it is automatically added to your "bookshelf" and you will be notified within 24 hours of a new chapter being published (you can turn this setting off in your settings if you like)
• once I have published a chapter I can NEVER edit it again... :-( So, while I normally appreciate feedback on typos and missed commas etc. that kind of feedback won't help me in this case
• comments on how you like the characters, story arc, and other things that can be adjusted in upcoming chapters, are welcome and may (or may not) be addressed as the novel progresses
• the "support the author" button allows you to tip the author of the story you're enjoying should you think they deserve it

In the meantime, it's Monday, and everyone in our little bubble of world is just back from a week of holidays, immediately preceded by field trips, so it feels like we haven't seen anyone in months. It's nice to be back and I like the new approach that we're taking to this awkward space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, newly dubbed Decembermester. Decembermester is a two and a half week span in which we switch to (hopefully) more project based, hands on, learning using block classes to give everyone an opportunity to take students places they wouldn't be able to otherwise. Should be fun.

In other news, I'm making progress with my new revision class, and am looking forward to lesson two which I get to start on Friday of this week. I wound up choosing to work with a novel that I wrote back in 2008 that I didn't like enough to even pick up again after it was done. It was fun to write, but I thought the state of the overall story by the end was beyond help. I'm using it for this course for a couple of reasons: 1. It's short, just over 50,000 words and so it won't drive me as crazy to have to read it over and over again. 2. I thought it was unsalvageable so it will be a good test of this revision process to see how good I can make it. 3. I thought it was unsalvageable so if I still have a only a pile of crap at the end I won't feel like I wasted a manuscript.

So that's what's going on in the wilds of Northern Arizona, where the high school students roam free and the adults who still think they're in high school (aka high school teachers) play among the red rocks. Not sure when Chapter 6 will be up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were sometime between Wednesday and Friday.

Happy December!