2022 — and 2023 So Far

2022 and 2023 has been “returning back to normal, sort of”. Of note: The kid (as a student finishing 8th grade and then 9th grade) and I (as a college English professor) returned back to our respective campuses for face-to-face classes – with no required pandemic restrictions but vaccinated for ‘Rona. Back in summer 2021, …

Xmas 2021 Newsletter

Note: As I get back to updating my oft-neglected blog, here's a quick update of 2021, from my Xmas 2021 newsletter that I sent out to friends and family: 2021 has been a year a rollercoaster ride. Of note: After eight years of fighting liver cancer, my dad passed away at the end of April. …

The State of the LQ Address, 2020 Edition

I'm alive. Yay. And so -- what has happened between May 22, 2019, and today (October 15, 2020): ONE: as usual, I taught my college students -- Summer 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Summer 2020, and now well into the middle of Fall 2020. But, of course, with the "new normal" of a global pandemic, …

Updated My Essay Writing Handbook

Back in October 2014, I published a slim writing handbook, mostly for my Freshman Composition students so that they wouldn't have to buy a ridiculously expensive college textbook that we would only be using 10% of its bulk. Surprisingly, even though I've published other books before and after, this little handbook brings me most of …

No One Reads My Dissertation — But That’s Okay

On May 14, 2006, I graduated with my PhD in Literature. When I shortly -- and fortunately -- became a full-time faculty member of a community college a month after this photo was taken (yay employment with full benefits!), I realized that the "publish or perish" rat-race of tenure-track scholarship no longer applied to me. …