Author: edohertyauthor (Page 4 of 4)

Summer

July 15, 2015 / edohertyauthor

I thought about writing a post about the awful week I’ve had. Between grown-up decisions and research and dealing with crazy parents at the summer job, I needed to vent. But a part of me doesn’t want to dwell. It’s over and done. And good things are happening.

So. Instead of venting, I present to you: Reasons I love summer (in no particular order)

Ice cream
Sun
Warm days (although the northeast gets a little humid for me)
Blockbuster movies (here I come Ant Man)
More time to read
More time to exercise (when I can drag myself)
Hamburgers
Patio dining
Ice cream (yes, again)
Driving with the sunroof open
Time with friends
My birthday!

What do you love about summer?

Like the movies…

July 7, 2015 / edohertyauthor

Do you ever envision your life in the movies?

I don’t mean picturing you yourself in the movies, starring alongside Johnny Depp or Halle Berry or whatever. But more, do you picture yourself as one of the characters in the movie that you’re watching? Do you imagine what your life would be like if you were that character? Because I do.

And I sound totally pathetic.

But hear me out. As a teacher (who loves her job) slash summer camp counselor (maybe not so much) with no significant other and not much of a social life, there comes times when I like to lose myself in the movies.

When I was little, I would imagine myself as a spy as my class walked from our classroom to the library for reading time. Even my early writings drew a lot from the films that I love. (Why Liz, I hear you asking, does that mean that you wrote fanfiction? Oh yes. Yes it does. And the Harry Potter lover in me still misses it.)

Writing this blog was inspired by movie watching. Julie & Julia, which is about a bloggist, and Meryl Streep’s Julia Child impression. (What? I was in a Stanley Tucci mood.)

I don’t know. A part of me thinks that, from time to time, envisioning life as a movie can be good. It can break the monotony of, oh, I don’t know. A humid summer spent supervising hundreds of children as they play dodgeball and soccer over and over again. For me, it has helped me write on more than one occasion. Throwing my characters into a movie scene in my head, or turning something that I’m going through into a movie scene has helped me when the dreaded writers’ block hits.

And as long as I’m not living in my personal head movie all of the time, what’s wrong with it?

What’s your favorite movie, readers?

The Fourth Festivities

July 3, 2015 / edohertyauthor

I love the Fourth of July. It’s my favorite holiday.

For a little kid who was obsessed with Christmas for years, this is a big deal. There are no presents, no Santa Claus, less decorations when it comes to the Fourth of July. And certainly less build-up than there is to Christmas.

But there’s something special in the Fourth.

I’m not saying this out of patriotic loyalty. I am proud to be an American, but that is not where my joy in the Fourth comes from.

My family is very no-frills when it comes to the holidays. We celebrate, but not lavishly. Our celebrations for holidays usually last less than half a day. Quiet, quaint affairs in our household.

In that respect, the Fourth of July is no different. The location changes sometimes, but we never seek out fireworks or big parties or anything of the sort. Instead, we go to a neighbor’s house, sit on the deck, drink margaritas, and eat hamburgers. It’s not special, it’s not unique. We sit around and snack and talk and laugh. Usually into the night.

And I love every second of it.

I couldn’t describe why exactly. It’s calm and collected and surrounded by people I know and love. And maybe that’s it. There’s no airs put on. Just fun. And I always look forward to it.

What’s your favorite holiday, followers?

Goodbyes

June 26, 2015 / edohertyauthor

When I was little, I used to pride myself on not being emotional. “I’ve never cried during a movie,” I thought. “Except for Titanic.” But who could blame me there, really? She had to let go!

When I was a little bit older, I wondered if that was right. My friends cried over movies, over music, over breakups. They would sit around crying with each other over how terrible life was (we were teenagers, after all), while I would leave the room. I had a privileged life, not a whole lot of hardship, but even when tough or sad things happened to me, like my grandparents dying within two days of each other, I pushed through. I might have cried briefly and moved on. Found my way back to humor.

To this day, my friends tell me that Chandler is the Friend that I most resemble.

And that’s fine. I don’t mind being less emotional. It’s a lot less to worry about, and makeup is never a problem.

Except, I have become more emotional as I’ve grown up. I don’t cry at sad things, necessarily. But I cry when I am stressed out. I cry when I see my students performing in their school play or at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I cry when my favorite actress finally wins her Tony Award.

And I cry at goodbyes. It’s a trait passed down to me by my uncle, who is famous in our family for crying whenever a big goodbye happens. And now I do the same.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not hardcore sobbing or anything. I just get choked up.

Today I said goodbye to the men and women at the school I have worked at for the past fourteen months. These people have seen me at my best and my worst. They’ve made me laugh and given me so much of themselves. It’s thanks to them that I am the teacher I am today, that I am confident in and love what I do. I can’t imagine not seeing them next year, not knowing what’s happening in their lives. It’s hard knowing that I won’t get to see my classroom anymore or tease my friends. Yes, a new chapter is starting in my life, but I am going to miss this old chapter so much.

And yay marriage equality!

Time for some big grown-up decisions

June 17, 2015 / edohertyauthor

I got offered a job! A real, live, actual teaching job.

Well, kind of. A year-long, long-term. At my old high school. Which means that all of my old teachers will now be my coworkers.

Okay, so it will be a little weird. And super awkward. But I honestly don’t mind. I’m shy and doubt I’ll talk to a lot of them, or make a lot of friends that I would hang out with on weekends. I’ll ignore all of the drama I’ve heard about. I will look on the bright side. I will put my nerves aside and be a great teacher.

But I am still anxious. There are still a few other jobs in the mix. Full-time, permanent positions. They’re at great schools, but they’re far away from my friends and family. I know I should take them if I were offered, but I’m terrified. How do I establish a life so far away from everything I know? In the middle of nowhere?

I know I shouldn’t worry about it yet. It’s not like I’ve been offered anything. I’m trying not to psych myself out about any of it. But it’s time for me to make some big grown-up decisions. I don’t know if I’m ready.

Apologies for the radio silence

June 11, 2015 / edohertyauthor

When I started this site, I told myself that I was going to be active. I want to meet and interact with other authors. And I want to get advice for my own stuff. I was going to be so good about it. It was going to be great.

Then real life happened.

It’s the end of the school year for my students. In fact, they start their final tomorrow. In an ordinary year, this would be hectic anyway, what with final grades and students needing to study and the fact that our school has NO AC (humidity and I are NOT friends).

BUT. I am about to lose this job. My position is victim to the many budget cuts that teachers face. Because of this, I am about to lose my health insurance, which is a VERY scary thought.

On top of that, I have gotten a zillion job interviews. This is a good thing. I KNOW it is. I know that the more interviews I go on, the more chance I have of landing a job. Unfortunately, interviews take a lot out of someone. Selling yourself, being your best, dealing with the nerves, is taxing. Especially when they make you teach in front of a group of real live students.

I have had 8 interviews in 2 weeks. And more before that. I am tired. I have a perpetual stomach ache. I keep losing my train of thought. Worst of all, I burst into tears in front of one of my classes today. For no reason. It’s been so hard.

I just want a job. I want this to be over. I want the anxiety to go away. I want to focus on other things.

But until then, I might be a little silent for a while.

The one where job interviews are beating the crap out of me

June 5, 2015 / edohertyauthor

When I started this thing, I told myself that I was going to stay active with it, that I was going to post several times a week. And I was really excited about it.

But then real life happened.

I’m a teacher, which is great. Except that teaching jobs are hard to come by in this neck of the woods. I’ve actually been searching for a full time job for five years now. I’ve had part time teaching jobs, and long term sub jobs, but nothing that stick. And so now, I am teaching full time in a job that is ending in a couple of weeks, and frantically applying for new jobs.

I’m getting a lot of calls. Six job interviews in two weeks is nothing to slouch about. But it’s hard. No one seems to understand that I still feel a kind of loyalty to the students that I have been working with all year. I want to stay with them, and help them do their best, until the end. And when I have to take days off for these interviews, I feel like I’m letting them down.

And on top of that, job interviews are SO TAXING. You’re asked the same variants of about ten questions, and you answer, hoping to appeal to that school’s sensibility. And you get psyched up and nervous, so when you’re done, you just want to sleep. AND THEN, you get your damn hopes up, only to hear that they are going with someone with more experience. Well how am I supposed to get experience if you don’t give it to me?!

How many times can I listen to someone tell me I am not quite good enough? What am I going to do if I don’t get a job?

The perils of being employed full time — at something other than authoring

May 28, 2015 / edohertyauthor

There are always stories in my head. In fact, there are often more stories than I can keep track of most of the time. I’ve loved writing since I was a little kid with my nose stuck in my first chapter book. I’ve always written for fun, and I love it.

Unfortunately, I also love my day job. I’m a teacher, and as crazy and hectic as it can be, I love it. I love the kids and the struggles and the chaos. I love being that completely nerdy teacher that my students roll their eyes about.

But here is the problem. Teaching and writing don’t always mix. Even when I come home, my work isn’t done. There’s work to grade, emails to respond to, lessons to plan, and the general worry hanging over my head that I’ve messed up my students for life. It’s stressful.

The worst part about it all is that after a full 8+ hour day of teaching, I can’t do anything else. Words don’t want to come, and I certainly don’t want to sit up at a computer for hours and write a story. Even now, I am forcing myself to sit here and write this. My eyes are heavy and painful. I’m easily annoyed and brought to tears at the drop of a hat.

SO VERY TIRED.

And yet, there’s this story in my head, clamoring to get out. It’s been there for days, weeks, months. The only work I’ve been able to do on it is choose two names that I like to name my female protagonist. Because as exciting as it all is (and starting a new novel is one of my favorite things in the world), all’s I want to do is sleep until I don’t feel so uncomfortable anymore.

But look… so shiny…

First blog post. Ahhhhh!

May 23, 2015 / edohertyauthor

Okay.

I’m here. Here I am.

I’ve been writing since I was 12 years old. I mean, I wasn’t any good back then. They almost put me in a remedial writing class. But I liked creating stories. I wrote stupid “plays” for my seventh-grade class and stupid Friends fanfiction. (Oh yes, I did.)

It took a lot of practice (over half my life at this point) and a lot of dabbling in a lot of genres, but I’d like to think I’ve improved a bit. Even if I haven’t, I still love creating and writing stories. And I’m at a point in my life where I want to share them.

My debut novel, tentatively titled The Policeman’s Ball, is currently looking for reliable beta readers (anyone?), and in the meantime, I’m told that social media is the way to connect with other writers and readers. So I’m excited for that. It’s certainly a nice distraction from being a teacher without a job (which is what I am by day) and a socially inept human being (which is what I am by night).

I have a feeling that this site (and this blog) will be all over the place. Nostalgia, movie/theater reviews, whining about writer’s block. You name it. But I hope to make a lot of friends from it too. It’s an experiment, of sorts, And I’m ready.