mjlauthor

Move It!

I have to admit I’m a Word Nerd. I love reading, writing, discussing literature, and all things linguistic. However, the best class I ever took was totally out of my comfort zone: action-packed, highly physical, and hugely impactful on my teaching philosophy and style. It was called The Kinesthetic Classroom. The premise of the classContinue reading “Move It!”

Wattpad: One Author’s Review

In case you haven’t heard, Wattpad is a huge online community for amateur writers and their fans. Unlike other sites that focus on completed e-books, Wattpad features serialized stories, with many readers getting hooked on the first few chapters of an ongoing story and tuning in for new chapters when they drop. With over 70Continue reading “Wattpad: One Author’s Review”

Permission to Write Freely, Sir!

Writing, like most things, gets easier with practice. If your goal is to write more, then all you need to do is write more. Yeah, I know that’s simpler said than done–who has the time, the skills, the inspiration to write as much as they want? You do, for one. I know you don’t haveContinue reading “Permission to Write Freely, Sir!”

Food Tourism: COVID Edition

Three of my favorite things are food, travel, and quality time with my family. Last March when the whole country went into lockdown, it became a lot harder to enjoy two of those three things: we couldn’t go out to eat, we couldn’t travel anywhere, but we had more than enough family time. One ofContinue reading “Food Tourism: COVID Edition”

Health Hacks You Won’t Find Anywhere Else!

Based on the four minutes of research I just did, the most popular blog posts are about health and fitness. And while there’s countless trendy diets and new exercise regimens, most health experts recommend the same basic things: eat a balanced diet, work out regularly, drink lots of water and get plenty of sleep. YaContinue reading “Health Hacks You Won’t Find Anywhere Else!”

4/11/2021 Writing Update: Watt’s Up!

Since I last posted a writing update, I’ve probably written 3,000 words a day… but very few of those words were for “Operation Firebrand.” I gave myself permission to write whatever I felt like for a week or so, and I fleshed out a couple other story ideas, which was exciting. More importantly, I cameContinue reading “4/11/2021 Writing Update: Watt’s Up!”

Don’t Get Me Started

One of the most common questions I get from my students and from any adult interested in writing is, “What do you do about writer’s block?” Not to be a smart aleck, but I never get the chance to have writer’s block. I have way too many ideas and not enough time to write themContinue reading “Don’t Get Me Started”

I’m Gonna Regret This

One thing I’ve learned as a teacher is that you have to be able to laugh at yourself. More importantly, you have to be OK with the kids laughing at you sometimes, too. I’d like to think I’ve turned this into an art. A perennial favorite in my class is my How 2 #App video,Continue reading “I’m Gonna Regret This”

3/22/2021 Writing Update

In case you were wondering, my latest writing project (codenamed Firebrand) is moving along slowly, but still making progress. I’m currently just shy of 46,000 words, which is more than a third of the way to my goal for the book. 🙌 HOWEVER, my ever-evolving plans have changed from what I typically do: rather thanContinue reading “3/22/2021 Writing Update”

Setting Expectations

I expect this is the first thing many of you will read by me, so obviously I want it to provide an accurate picture of who I am. As a result, this will probably be a disorganized collection of random thoughts, subjected to a dozen revisions which will never live up to my level ofContinue reading “Setting Expectations”