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Sunday Snippet: Happy May!
May. 2nd, 2021 12:33 pmHello again, lovelies! It is now May, it is still hecking cold in Minsk, and I am grumpy about it. This week, my hometown got up into the 80’s! And okay, I’m not quite ready for that, but I am ready for some solid 60’s and sunshine!
We have seven more weeks of school, which means I want to do anything but work. However, I have some fun planned for the last few units. Well, it’s fun for me. I hope the kids like it. For British Lit, we’re going to read some contemporary speculative fiction from authors who are from former British colonies, like Zen Cho. Then we’ll finish up the year with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. In American Lit, we’ll crash through our contemporary lit unit with whatever is in the textbook because I am le tired. The final unit, however, is going to be nonfiction about the American concept of wilderness and how it’s actually pretty racist and harmful. We will read a little bit of Edward Abbey as grounding, but then branch out to BIPOC authors and also women like Rebecca Solnit, Annie Dillard, and Terry Tempest Williams. I don’t have the list of the BIPOC writers here at home, although N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko are definitely on the list. For my sophomores, we’re finishing The Hobbit and will end the year with short stories, literary analysis, and creative writing. I know we’ll read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. LeGuin, and “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman. One of the skills for that unit is looking at how authors build suspense, and those stories are pretty classic.
And writing! I’m actually getting back into the groove. I mentioned the NMJ week that helped me get going. I’ve started in on my friend UndeadRobbins hugs prompt list, which she made after completing the 50 kisses challenge. I did that one last year. I’ve challenged myself to keep these hugs non-amorous, even if they are between romantic partners. And in general, I’ve tried to keep them fluffy and lighthearted, although the one I’m working on now is very much not that. I’ve also challenged myself to work with different relationships. Like this story in my vague modern cultivators AU, where Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng have a slight mishap on a night hunt.
Someday, Jiang Cheng will stop tempting fate and thinking of these outings as “just a little night hunt.” Someday, he will stop expecting things to go smoothly for him. Someday, he will remember that the gods are laughing at him.
But not today. And not now, tumbled down a (very small) ravine, with an armful of Lan Wangji.
We have seven more weeks of school, which means I want to do anything but work. However, I have some fun planned for the last few units. Well, it’s fun for me. I hope the kids like it. For British Lit, we’re going to read some contemporary speculative fiction from authors who are from former British colonies, like Zen Cho. Then we’ll finish up the year with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. In American Lit, we’ll crash through our contemporary lit unit with whatever is in the textbook because I am le tired. The final unit, however, is going to be nonfiction about the American concept of wilderness and how it’s actually pretty racist and harmful. We will read a little bit of Edward Abbey as grounding, but then branch out to BIPOC authors and also women like Rebecca Solnit, Annie Dillard, and Terry Tempest Williams. I don’t have the list of the BIPOC writers here at home, although N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko are definitely on the list. For my sophomores, we’re finishing The Hobbit and will end the year with short stories, literary analysis, and creative writing. I know we’ll read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. LeGuin, and “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman. One of the skills for that unit is looking at how authors build suspense, and those stories are pretty classic.
And writing! I’m actually getting back into the groove. I mentioned the NMJ week that helped me get going. I’ve started in on my friend UndeadRobbins hugs prompt list, which she made after completing the 50 kisses challenge. I did that one last year. I’ve challenged myself to keep these hugs non-amorous, even if they are between romantic partners. And in general, I’ve tried to keep them fluffy and lighthearted, although the one I’m working on now is very much not that. I’ve also challenged myself to work with different relationships. Like this story in my vague modern cultivators AU, where Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng have a slight mishap on a night hunt.
Someday, Jiang Cheng will stop tempting fate and thinking of these outings as “just a little night hunt.” Someday, he will stop expecting things to go smoothly for him. Someday, he will remember that the gods are laughing at him.
But not today. And not now, tumbled down a (very small) ravine, with an armful of Lan Wangji.
