Prisoner of Words? A Career in Words. Word.

My administrative assistant and I began the week by sending off the publication of POW! Prisoner of Words, a collection of writing from this summer's writing institutes. In addition, we polished off a 12-page newsletter and mailed them to the 360+ teachers in our network. On Thursday, I collected first drafts of 19 research papers from my college freshmen - to be graded this weekend - and yesterday, I worked with 44 7th graders on comparing and contrasting with writing.

You'd think I was insane. Oh, I am.

Then, last night, I came home to lock myself in a chair so that I could finish a twenty-page paper due for the Literacy Research Association conference in December. The good news is I accomplished that.

But it's Saturday. Today, I must edit the craziness I wrote last night in my paper, plus chisel away at the student research before Monday. I probably should also read for the week, as I teach Monday and Tuesday.

Another item on my radar is to prepare for two presentations at the Annual National Writing Project meeting in conjunction of the National Council of Teachers of English this Wednesday and Thursday.

It's not just POW! It's BAM! WHAM! ZONK!

The good news is that I remain passionate about what I'm doing so I don't necessarily acknowledge that my life is nothing but teaching, reading, writing, and grading. I will admit, however, that I took myself out for Vietnamese yesterday afternoon as a 'pep talk' before writing. I ate alone, but I fueled up for the writing marathon ahead.

And I'm thinking about distractions. For some reason, I believe the last 20 years of my life have been a laborious distraction from what I really should be doing - writing novels and exploring the world through characters, humor, scenarios, and plot. Nope. Instead I avoid such love to write abundantly in every other way known to man.

Did I mention I also polished off six recommendations this week?

I take comfort in the knowledge that across the country, the majority of English teachers and professors live a life similar to my own.

Here's to us.

Zzzzzzz.