drupagliassotti @ August 31, 2008 # One Comment
“Underachievement among American youth is often blamed on inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes. We suggest another reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline.” 1
Many of you are probably familiar with the “marshmallow test,” in which Walter Mischel, and other psychologists since, discovered that children from […]
drupagliassotti @ August 30, 2008 # 2 Comments
Although I initially wrote Clockwork Heart as a standalone novel, enough readers and reviewers have wondered about a sequel that I’ve found myself musing over what’s going to happen next to Taya and Cristof. As a result, I’m planning to start writing an as-of-yet-unnamed and -uncontracted sequel this November. It ought to be a lighthearted […]
drupagliassotti @ August 27, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Today I just finished the first day of my university’s annual one-and-a-half-day faculty retreat, and in the time between the end of the formal presentations and the barbecue on the beach — gotta love working in Ventura County — I thought I’d blog a little on one of the issues that was raised: the increasing […]
drupagliassotti @ August 22, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Today’s grammar lesson:
The past tense of to lead is led, not lead. I know “led” and “lead” (as in pencil lead) sound the same, but they are not spelled the same.
If somebody is asking a question, do not use said or says as your dialog tag. “What are you doing?” she said is incorrect. “What […]
drupagliassotti @ August 20, 2008 # 2 Comments
Professors keep paper — way too much paper. After ten years of accumulation, this summer I began purging my files of articles I’d saved but no longer used. In doing so, I ran across an article I’d kept called “The Ineluctable Mysteries of Possessions.”
The article disputes the assumption that the relationship between people and possessions […]
drupagliassotti @ August 19, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Tick, tick, tick. We’re closing in on the end of August, which means I’m starting to hyperventilate as the first day of class draws near.
The life of a professor right before the new academic year is busier than most students think, I’ll bet. I’m revising syllabi, updating classroom notes and slides, making certain I’m familiar […]
drupagliassotti @ August 14, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Ah, August, when the days grow sultry and professors start to panic….
I’ve spent the last few days copyediting a handful of manuscripts for a conference issue of a journal that I’m guest-editing. I wanted to get that step out of the way before the new semester, so I could concentrate on syllabus-writing and lecture-revising. Today, […]
drupagliassotti @ August 8, 2008 # No Comment Yet
I traveled through India for three weeks with a duffel bag and lived in Italy for three months out of a carry-on suitcase, so you’d think I could have done a week in Australia with a schoolkid’s backpack. Unfortunately, I had to bring the larger carry-on. That’s the bother of business travel — cramming blazers […]
drupagliassotti @ August 1, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Hooray! Just days after getting the good news that Holy Horrors has been revived and my short story “Waters Dark as a Raven’s Wing, Flames Bright as a Dove’s Breast” may see the light of day after all, I just received an email saying that Hardboiled Horror is finally underway from Notorious Press. Editor Jim […]