The Book of Common Prayer and Quotation of the Week

Book of Common Prayer 2011

As our family begins our sixteenth year of home education, it is entirely necessary to bathe our plans, our children, myself, and our entire school year in prayer.

In the Book of Common Prayer 2011 which I helped to edit, a prayer "For Christians in Their Daily Life" seems extremely appropriate:

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, whose glory is made known in your creation in heaven and on earth; In our vocations, may we not be distracted by that which is passing away, but may we do the work that you have given us to do in truth, in beauty, and in righteousness; So that, in our daily life, we might serve you in singleness of heart and for the benefit of others; For the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  

 This prayer reminds me of the teachings on the Tyranny of the Urgent which I first learned from Sue Edwards, the wife of our former pastor. So often we allow the things that seem urgent, but really are not, to gobble up the time that we could spend on eternal activities: encouraging a friend in crisis, having an earnest, one-on-one talk with one of our children, sharing Christ through word and/or deed, teaching God's Word to our children. But so often the telephone or e-mail or Facebook (not that we can't minister through Facebook, but we must be careful not to allow the fun but eternally worthless parts to swallow up the encouraging of and praying for friends and family which is the true value of social media for Christians) or other seemingly "urgent" activities tend to distract us from the work God has given us to do...which is so beautifully expressed in the above prayer.

So prayer needs to be our first and main ingredient in our home school. Since Day 1 of this home education adventure sixteen years ago, we start our day gathered together. I'm sitting either at the school table or on the hearth, and the kids are stretched out in the recliners, on the sofa, or on the floor as we start our family devotions. These devotions have changed over the years, but over the past five or more years, the Book of Common Prayer has been the centerpiece of our family time in God's Word.

Some evangelicals take issue with the Book of Common Prayer, our present evangelical pastor included. But for me, I find the repetition of God's Word soothing as each day it nestles more firmly into my mind, heart, and soul. The services of Morning Prayer and Family Prayers for Morning, especially in the new Book of Common Prayer 2011, is simply Scripture laid out to pray. We also follow the Lectionary which is an annual plan of Scripture reading laid out for Morning and Evening Prayer; the Old Testament is read through once and the New Testament twice each year.

In addition, the Psalter (Book of Psalms) is laid out in its entirety; in the BCP 2011, the English Standard Version (ESV) translation is used. A new translation (2001), it reads easily yet is accurate; the ESV is the translation of choice at both our EV Free Church and the Reformed Episcopal Church I attend on Friday mornings. So the 150 Psalms are laid out in sixty readings: 30 for Morning Prayer and thirty for Evening Prayer, and are arranged to be read/prayed each day of the month: Day 1 Morning Prayer, Day 1 Evening Prayer, Day 2 Morning Prayer, etc. Thus the entire Book of Psalms is read/prayed every month, in addition to the Lectionary readings which contain an Old Testament, a New Testament, and a Psalm or two, morning and evening, for each day of the year. If we are reading the Psalter as part of Morning and Evening Prayer, then we don't have to read the Psalm readings listed in the Lectionary.

We are warned against "vain repetition" in the Scriptures; for me, the key word here is "vain," as in useless, meaningless. But we are indeed called upon to repeat God's Word meaningfully; how else can we inscribe God's Word onto our hearts and minds? For me (and obviously not for everyone), God's Word is indeed inscribed in my heart and mind through the Book of Common Prayer. In our family devotions, we follow our time in the BCP with each of us taking time to pray aloud for the new day, asking for help and healing for those we know and love and asking for help to accomplish God's plan for us this day. So we aren't merely relying on the BCP for prayers; we also pray extemporaneously as part of our family devotions.

My quotation for this week is from a saint of the early church, and I've found it an excellent reminder of the value of prayer, not just to us but also to God:

"God accepts our desires as though they were a great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favor. His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God's greatness."

~Saint Gregory of Nazianzen (329-390)  

I need this reminder that I'm not "bothering God" with my requests, but that He delights in my prayers to Him. I've always struggled with prayer lists and praying for myself and others because it always feels as if I'm bringing God a grocery list of demands rather than worshiping Him for Who He is. That's where the Book of Common Prayer helps me. After confessing our sins (which begins every service in the BCP), bathing ourselves in God's Word, and celebrating His majesty and sacrificial love for us, I feel that I can then bring my requests to Him in a right frame of mind. I'm not just praying to "get stuff" from God; I am confessing my sin, worshiping Him, and dwelling in His Word first, and then, filled with His Spirit, I can reveal the needs and desires of my heart more fully and completely.

So as we begin this sixteenth year of home education, I pray that God's glory will surround us as He assists each of us to become the people of His Heart, people who love and serve others in His Name, people who lead worshipful lives focused on Him, people who glorify Him and lead others into His eternal Kingdom.

May we indeed glorify God in all we think, speak, and do, this day, this year, and always.

Soli Deo Gloria, (to God alone be the glory)

2012-2013 Homeschooling Plans

I don't know where August went. I think it mostly was swallowed up in watching the Olympics and in finding my groove as I adjust to non-teaching work between classes at Brave Writer. And yes, some homeschooling plans....

On Tuesday we'll be starting Year #16 of home education. We've been with Heritage Christian School since we started Elizabeth in kindergarten. Heritage provides accountability with quarterly grades and progress reports due, plus they do the high school transcripts, keep the kids' cum files, deal with paperwork for the state, and provide annual academic testing for grades 4-11.

In addition, Heritage offers twice-monthly Class Days at several sites around the county. At East County II, we meet the second and fourth Thursdays at a large church facility for homeroom (elementary kids in one; junior high and high school in another). Then we have two 50-minute classes, a half-hour lunch break, then a final class that's an hour long, leaving us with an extra ten minutes to tidy our classrooms.

Class Days are set up like a co-op: one parent needs to be on a teaching team for two class periods, or they need to help set up, clean up, work at the lunch table, etc. This year I'll be teaching a combination class of Intermediate (college prep) and Advanced (honors) Writing, and my class is full at 15 students with a waiting list. Because I'm a one-woman team and need to spend so much time grading essays, I only have to teach one class to fulfill my co-op requirement.

The boys are looking forward to their classes which begin on September 13. Benjamin, now in 7th grade, will be taking PE (one semester volleyball, one semester basketball), Chess, and Boys' Adventure Class II which involves learning all kinds of boy-type activities. Jonathan, a high school sophomore, is taking double Biology Lab and my Intermediate Writing course. Timothy, a senior this year, has it easy at our Class Day, taking PE and Chess with Benjamin, and PE again. But Timothy will also be a drop-off student at  East County I for a double-period Physics Lab class with his former Biology teacher.

The boys will also be meeting with our wonderful tutor who has known them all their lives: "Auntie Jo" who will be helping Timothy with ACT prep, Jonathan with Geometry, and Benjamin with Pre-Algebra. Jo, a ten-year veteran of teaching high school English at a private school, is a God-send; when I was too ill to teach the kids many years ago when I was first diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, she drove up the mountain 2-3 days per week to home school the kids for me. Now she's my sounding board regarding curriculum choices, Timothy's writing struggles, etc. I couldn't educate the kids without her.

We always have Family Devotions, usually Morning Prayer or Family Prayers with Scripture readings from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer 2011 as part of our "Opening" each day, and have done Church History, Art History, Poetry, and other courses as part of Opening. This year, however, I think we'll study the Bible with Know Why You Believe: Connecting Faith and Reason by Little plus Family Devotions only.

Our plans for Benjamin (7th grade) are these:

Math: Saxon Algebra 1/2 with Auntie Jo
Reading: Bob Jones 7th grade reader
Grammar: Daily Grams for 7th Grade
Spelling: Tricks of the Trade and Any Child Can Spell
Writing: Various Brave Writer classes and freewrites
Science: ABeka 7th Grade Science
History: Sonlight 100 (American History over two years)
Typing/Keyboarding: Writing Skills: Keyboarding
PE: @Class Day & PV Park
Electives: Chess and Boys' Adventure @Class Day

Jonathan (10th grade) will be doing:

Math: Geometry--Saxon Algebra I and II with Auntie Jo
Literature: Bob Jones 10th grade reader & Brave Writer Shakespeare
Writing: My Intermediate Writing course @Class Day
Science: Apologia Biology and Biology Lab @Class Day
History: ABeka World History
PE: @Park with brothers
Electives: Free Teen Guitar Class in Alpine with Father Acker

Timothy (12th grade) will be finishing up with:

Math: Bob Jones Consumer Math with Auntie Jo
Literature: Sonlight British Literature & Brave Writer Shakespeare
Writing: Brave Writer MLA Research Essay; ACT Prep
Science: Apologia Physics and Physics Lab @Class Day (EC1)
History: ABeka Economics and American Government
PE: Double PE @Class Day & PV Park
Electives: Chess @Class Day; Art Class @Grossmont or Cuyamaca 

In addition to teaching Intermediate/Advanced Writing at Class Day, I'll be teaching various classes at Brave Writer this school year as well. I taught a Fan Fiction class over the summer, and in September I'll be leading the Boomerang Book Club in a discussion of Jane Eyre, one of my favorite novels. In November and early December I'll be teaching the MLA Research Essay, plus in November I'll be leading the Boomerang Book Club's discussion of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Then in the winter term, I'll be teaching the Groovy Grammar Workshop and the Playing with Poetry Workshop, followed by a Literary Analysis Class on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, my favorite play. In the spring, all thoughts will turn to Shakespeare as I teach my favorite Shakespearean comedy, Much Ado About Nothing followed by the Shakespeare Family Workshop.

Whenever I'm not teaching, I'll be helping to edit and update older monthly subscriptions, expand some online classes into e-books, and other similar sorts of jobs for Brave Writer in my new position as Senior Teacher, Staff Writer, and Curriculum Developer.

And in between all of this, I'm still offering my essay grading service for homeschoolers through my website, SusanneBarrett.com. I'll make corrections and offer encouragement and ideas for improvement for $5 per double-spaced page (or part page) in 12 point font. It's a good deal; after all, it's not every day that a former university instructor grades essays for homeschoolers.

Obviously, with all this going on, it's not easy for me to find time to write myself, whether it be journaling, blogging, composing poetry, publishing fan fiction chapters online, etc. But I do try to write something each week to keep me honest and active as a writer. My doctor insists that we all need creative outlets, after all, and writing is definitely mine.

Have a lovely school year, everyone!!

The Feast of Transfiguration

(Image from dic.academic.ru)

Repost from Archives, 2009

August 6 marks the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, a feast celebrated on this day for only the past six hundred or so years but still an important Biblical event that should indeed be remembered by all Christians, no matter their mode of worship. This event is described in three of the four Gospels in the New Testament, revealing Christ for Who He truly is, to paraphrase Thomas: Our Lord and Our God.

A couple of years ago in our Sunday School at Lake Murray Community Church, our teacher, Bill (who has since left Lake Murray to return to the Catholic Church), passed around copies of The Transfiguration by Raphael, seen in the above image. We were slowly proceeding through the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, verse by verse, chewing on God's Word, savouring it, sucking the marrow out of it. At this time we were discussing the event of the Transfiguration and what was also happening while Christ and his chosen three were on the mountain as depicted in Raphael's painting: below the supernatural transfiguration of Christ is a scene of chaos in which the remaining disciples are unable to release a young boy from the demons possessing him. Using artwork to help us more fully understand the Scriptures was a new method for me, but then we can learn a great deal about the Bible and literature in general from the keen insight of artists.

Christian Art, in the Middle Ages and even far into the Renaissance, became "the poor man's Bible" in a way. The vast majority of the population was illiterate, so the artwork hanging in their churches told them the stories behind Biblical events like the Transfiguration as well as stories of the Saints. For example, parishioners who couldn't read would recognize a painting of Saint Sebastian by the arrow plunged into his side. So while they listened to sermons in church, their eyes would wander to the art in the church, linking the images to the Biblical and Saint stories they had learned. Art told the stories without words, a gift of beauty as well as education to an illiterate populace. And Raphael's "Transfiguration" is such a one as it relates two Biblical events occurring simultaneously: the heavenly vision of a transfigured Christ and the earthly battle against demonic possession, a battle only won when Christ Himself stepped in to assist His Disciples.

The Saint of the Day e-mails from AmericanCatholic.org describe the Transfiguration thus:

All three Synoptic Gospels tell the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-36). With remarkable agreement, all three place the event shortly after Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus’ first prediction of his passion and death. Peter’s eagerness to erect tents or booths on the spot suggests it occurred during the Jewish weeklong, fall Feast of Booths.

Certainly Peter, James and John had a glimpse of Jesus’ divinity strong enough to strike fear into their hearts. Such an experience defies description. And certainly Jesus warned them that his glory and his suffering were to be inextricably connected—a theme John highlights throughout his Gospel.

Tradition names Mt. Tabor as the site of the revelation. A church first raised there in the fourth century was dedicated on August 6. A feast in honor of the Transfiguration was celebrated in the Eastern Church from about that time. Western observance began in some localities about the eighth century.

On July 22, 1456, Crusaders defeated the Turks at Belgrade. News of the victory reached Rome on August 6, and Pope Callistus III placed the feast on the Roman calendar the following year.

Comment:
One of the Transfiguration accounts is read on the second Sunday of Lent each year, proclaiming Christ’s divinity to catechumens and baptized alike. The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, by contrast, is the story of the temptation in the desert—affirmation of Jesus’ humanity. The two distinct but inseparable natures of the Lord were a subject of much theological argument at the beginning of the Church’s history; it remains hard for believers to grasp.

Quote:
“At his Transfiguration Christ showed his disciples the splendor of his beauty, to which he will shape and color those who are his: ‘He will reform our lowness configured to the body of his glory’” (Philippians 3:21) (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae).

The Collect for The Feast of the Transfiguration from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

O God, who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistering; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in his beauty, who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

So the Transfiguration shows us the divine side of Jesus, revealing His Power and Glory, while the chaos of humanity below cries out for His help -- a picture not just painted by Raphael hundreds of years ago but a picture of daily life for us as well. We have to look for those moments of Divine Revelation in our own lives on a daily basis. They are there, if only we choke back our fear and open our eyes to see them.

Quotation of the Week: Wilde About Oscar!

Oscar Wilde

Most of you know that I teach online Shakespeare classes (and other language arts courses, too, through Brave Writer). I mean, what cooler job is there in which I am paid to read and discuss Shakespeare's plays, all from the comfort of my sofa??? I have the BEST job on the face of the planet.

But one would think that my favorite play would be one by the Bard, right? Perhaps Hamlet, the tale of the melancholy Danish prince? Perhaps the sublime poetry of Romeo and Juliet? Perhaps the brewing evil and wicked Fates of Macbeth, or the jolly repartee of Much Ado About Nothing or Taming of the Shrew? 


Nope. My favorite play was written several centuries after the Bard left us his collected works to read, perform, and enjoy. My favorite play was written by an Irishman, not an Englishman. It's Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Truly, Earnest is the most clever play ever written, with Tom Stoppard's brilliant Hamlet-reversal Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as a close second.

Although they cut one of my favorite scenes, I am thoroughly in love with the 2002 Rupert Everett/Colin Firth film version of The Importance of Being Earnest as no one (and I mean NO ONE!) can play Lady Bracknell like Judi Dench. Yes, Reese Witherspoon gets on my nerves just a bit, but the remainder is simply marvelous. Every line sparkles. It's sheer brilliance.

Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

Did I happen to mention that I'll be teaching an online Literary Analysis class at Brave Writer next spring on The Importance of Being Earnest? As I said above: I have the BEST job on the face of the planet!!! :)

Over the weekend I began corresponding with a writer who happens to live in Italy and possesses her PhD in Italian Literature. She sent me several quotes in thanks for some feedback I offered her on a story she had published online, and two of the quotations were from Oscar Wilde. I immediately drew out my brass-nibbed pen and corked bottle of black ink and copied both quotations into my Quotation Journal which I have been keeping since August 2001.

So here are my Quotations of the Week, courtesy of my new Italian acquaintance:

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

~Oscar Wilde

"Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." 

~Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist"

So I wish you all a wonderful week ahead, a week of truly living and of dreaming and enjoying the beautiful dawns before everyone else.

All About Oscar,

Twilight vs. Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre (2011)

Fictional characters are compelling people. Just because they don't exist beyond the written page, the computer screen, or the digital image/film doesn't mean that they can't affect our lives just as much as real people can. My family continues to laugh at me when I cry while reading books or watching movies. The characters come alive, and for a few hours I am transported into their worlds and inhabit them as completely as I inhabit our book-lined mountain cabin.


Once character I've been fascinated by is Stephenie Meyer's Edward Cullen from the Twilight series. And it's not because handsome Robert Pattinson plays him in the movies; it's because of Edward Cullen's literary heritage. Like me, Ms. Meyer became an English major because she adored books--she loved inhabiting new (or old) world peopled with incredible characters. 


So when she created a vampire-with-a-conscience in Edward Cullen, Ms. Meyer drew him from some outstanding male characters throughout literary history. If you've read the books, some of Edward's predecessors are obvious: Emily Bronte's Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Shakespeare's Romeo, Austen's Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, and Stoker's Dracula. But others may be more difficult to spot. In the character of Edward Cullen I also see shades of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, of the Byronic Hero of Don Juan, of Raskolnikov from Dostoyevsky's masterful Crime and Punishment, of Edmund from Austen's Mansfield Park, among others. But for me, the most obvious literary predecessor of vampire Edward Cullen is another angst-ridden Edward: Edward Fairfax Rochester of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

I can almost place a Robert Pattinson, aged by 15 years, in the role of this older and more urbane Edward, one equally haunted by his past sins and tied to a dark mystery in which he drags a young, innocent girl into because of the depth of his love. Only Edward Cullen leaves his Bella while Jane Eyre leaves Rochester behind...but both leave for what they believe is the "right" reason.


The women of both Jane Eyre and Twilight, and their stories, definitely parallel each other. Both raised in unusual circumstances, Jane an orphan and Bella parenting her own parents, Jane and Bella are rather strong-minded in some ways, yet their teenaged romanticism colors their world greatly. They're young, innocent, trusting girls who are drawn to dark, angsty men who conceal dangerous secrets and checquered pasts. After a climatic event in the story line, a separation ensues during which both women discover another possible love interest, Jane with St. John Rivers and Bella with Jacob Black. Both women's lives are in danger because of this relationship as Jane could easily die on the missionary fields of India where St. John intends for her to join him while Bella learns to love a werewolf.


Supernatural forces (Jane hearing Rochester call for her, and Bella learning of Alice's vision of Edward's suicide attempt with the Volturi) bring the couples back together, Jane to a blinded and contrite Rochester, Bella to a contrite and apologetic Edward. Choices must be made regarding which love interest the women will choose, and of course they choose their angsty guys, marry them, and live happily ever after, children and all.


And the two Edwards are so similar. They both possess sinful pasts that they are reluctant to share with their innocent teenaged loves, and both have a deep-seated self-hatred based on those pasts and on their perceived danger to their women. Once restored to their loves, both are appropriate contrite although Rochester has truly changed during the separation from Jane while Edward Cullen was altered by Bella more before the separation.


Both male characters are loners to an extent, have past romantic interests in Blanche Ingram and Tanya from Denali, neither truly worthy of the angsty guys, who inspire jealousy in their teenaged loves. Both men are altered greatly by the introduction of these pure, idealistic women who look past the ugliness in the men's lives (Rochester's physical ugliness and the ugliness of who Edward is as a vampire) and love them not only despite the men's flaws but perhaps because of them.


If you haven't yet had the pleasure, I cannot more highly recommend the 2011 film version of Jane Eyre with Mia Wasikowska (from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender. For a short film version, it's masterful, even though it omits much of the faith element of the book (one of my top three favorite novels of all time) and rushes the ending a bit. It's far better than the Twilight films in quality and faithfulness to the book. 


Always reading,

Summer Stuff

Well, it's been a strange summer so far, alternatively crazy-busy and then peacefully serene. (Or as serene as a house with four young people and a dachshund can be, LOL!)

My brother married his beautiful bride on Saturday on a mountaintop in Wildomar (north of Temecula), and so we welcome Ari and her two young people, Brooke and Grant, into our family officially. The sunset ceremony was lovely, and then the kids and the wedded couple danced under the stars, with the addition of a distant lightning storm illuminating the clouds over the desert. My sister and her family who live in Montana were here for two weeks, arriving in time for the traditional 4th of July Beach and BBQ at my parents' home in Pacific Beach and staying through the wedding.

I've been working hard on my new job at Brave Writer which currently involves teaching a new class in writing Fan Fiction. Because it's a new class, I'm constantly writing posts and assignments as well as responding to the students' work. My own fan fiction novels and stories are doing well, and I'm approaching 1.5 million reads between the two sites on which I post. I've written well over 100 chapters between the two novels and the three short stories, and teaching the fan fiction class is renewing my inspiration as I strive to complete my second novel (I'm about 3/4 the way done and have written 43 chapters so far).

But I've spent a lot of time reading this summer as well. The first novel I tackled was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yes, the movie was popular, but I haven't seen it yet, but if it's half as compelling as the book, it will be wonderful. Yet the book was difficult to read--not because of vocabulary or quality, but because of the difficult subject matter. I cringed so often as I read it, hating the way "the help"was treated, especially being forced to use different bathrooms from their employers because African-Americans "were diseased." Ugh!!! And readers can see the train wreck coming a mile away as one white woman and one black woman seek to change the situation by writing a book together. When the slow-building climax does occur, it's expected but nonetheless powerful. It was a book I was loathe to pick up to continue reading each evening, but once I started reading it, I just couldn't stop. If there were only one word I choose to describe The Help it would be compelling. Truly.

Between The Help and the next recent release I've been reading, I picked up the Anne of Green Gables series again. I taught the first book in a literary analysis class in the fall at Brave Writer, but I really missed Avonlea and all of Anne's capers, so I thought I'd reread the whole eight-book series. So I made my way quickly through Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. Finally Anne and Gilbert are together, even though my least favorite book of the series, Anne of Windy Poplars, is next. I may just skim it so that I can start one of my favorites, Anne's House of Dreams.

But before I return to lovely Prince Edward Island, I've taken a serious detour and am currently reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I know, considering my love for the Twilight books, one must wonder if I have a thing for vampires. But truly, it's not so. I'm just a fan of the author, Seth Grahame-Smith whose hilarious Pride and Prejudice and Zombies amused me when I listened to it on audio book over the winter. I haven't yet attempted Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, mostly because I don't have easy access to a copy. But Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is fascinating. I'm learning a lot about Lincoln's life as background to the novel, and I'm quite fascinated by Lincoln's bravery in killing renegade vampires. The premise of the book is that slavery provided vampires with a steady diet of victims they could purchase at will, thus providing the reasoning behind Lincoln's hatred of slavery and willingness to enter the Civil War.

I'm still trying to add the final Harry Potter audio book to my iPod; once Half Blood Prince is properly loaded in, I'll be uploading the thirty-disc monstrosity of Stephen King's Under the Dome. The book is simply too heavy to carry, and the Kindle version is $15, which is about $14 too much to spend. So I'll try the audio version as soon as I can. :) After all, I promised my friend from second grade, Teddy Vardell, that I would read Under the Dome if he read Harry Potter (all seven books), and now that he's starting Half Blood Prince, I need to get moving. :)

We've been watching some great old movies this summer, too. Yesterday Elizabeth and I watched two movies from the 1950s: How to Marry a Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable, and Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Astaire was 58 when he filmed the movie, but his dancing was just as light and perfect as when he was dancing in the mid-1930s. We're also on a Jeeves and Wooster kick right now as we finished Season 1 and am waiting for Season 2 to arrive from the library. I also want to order Season 2 of Castle since the boys have missed it all because it's on too late for them to watch. I still want Castle's bullet-proof vest emblazoned with "Writer" across the front instead of "FBI" or "NYPD."

So that's what we've been up to this summer. As I said, it's been alternatively crazy-busy and wonderfully peaceful, and I'm hoping for more of both as the summer sun continues to shine, and we continue to swelter....

Happy Sum-Sum-Summertime,

   

A New Job Position

I've been working at Brave Writer for ten of the twelve-plus years that the company, the brainchild of Julie Bogart, has existed. I started with teaching an online poetry class and with writing the monthly language arts subscriptions. This past school year I taught eight courses: Literary Analysis: Anne of Green Gables, MLA Research Essay, Groovy Grammar Workshop, Playing with Poetry Workshop, Literary Analysis: Little Women, Literary Analysis: Merchant of Venice, and Shakespeare Family Workshop. Whew!! The fall wasn't too bad, but I taught straight through from January 3-June 15. It was crazy but fun. 

I'm also teaching a summer course at Brave Writer in writing Fan Fiction (class #8 for the 2011-2012 school year) which starts next Monday, July 9 and runs for four weeks. It will be fun to explore writing stories based on already-existing characters, from Jane Austen to The Hunger Games. Fan Fiction writing is especially helpful in luring reluctant writers to the keyboard as they create new adventures for their favorite video game, movie, TV, or book characters while they absorb basic story structure which will assist them when they approach literary analysis as high school students. Plus...they're actually writing during summer break!! Yes, Virginia, miracles can happen!! ;)

Recently Julie offered me a new position that will be of greater assistance to her in the running and expansion of Brave Writer. I signed the contract and mailed it back on Friday, so we're ON!! My new title is Senior Teacher, Staff Writer, and Curriculum Developer. Pretty cool, eh?

I'll be working with the language arts subscriptions again; Julie now has three: The Wand (grades 1-3), The Arrow (grades 4-6), and The Boomerang (grades 7-9+). We used to have The Slingshot (grades 10-12), but there just wasn't that much call for subscriptions for high schoolers; they prefer the interactivity of discussions, so Julie has added a Boomerang Discussion Group, plus we'll be offering several literary analysis courses this year as well.

I'll also be helping with new staff hires (probably at a later date), with creating a "staff handbook" of sorts to keep all the online classes organized similarly, with creating and editing curricula, with some information for the website, etc. Teaching classes will still be a large portion of my work; I'll be teaching six courses (one in the fall, three in winter, two in spring), then possibly a seventh class in Fan Fiction again if this summer class starting next week does well. I'm to be working twenty hours a week with teaching always being the first priority.

So I'm really excited about this new position at Brave Writer--no more freelancing!!! And I'm also looking forward to teaching the following courses in the 2012-2013 school year:

MLA Research Essay
Groovy Grammar Workshop
Playing with Poetry Workshop
Literary Analysis: The Importance of Being Earnest
Literary Analysis: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare Family Workshop
possibly...Fan Fiction in summer 2013

Please do feel free to check out all that's going on at Brave Writer by clicking the bolded, colored words or by typing in www.bravewriter.com.

Writing bravely with you,

My Journey as a Writer and Quote of the Week

When I was about eleven, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I took a pad of paper and a pencil and settled myself on the floor under the family room window and prepared to write my first story.

I think I wrote three sentences, got bored, and ran off to play touch football with the neighbors.

The next time I tried to write a fictional story was in my college creative writing course, and then I wasn't writing a story because I wanted to; it was an assignment. I remembered an old story my aunt had written in college at SDSU years before about a flea named Spike, so I wrote a sequel to her story. Not a creative assignment on my part, but it was the best I could do with fiction writing.

Since then, I've written nonfiction and poetry. I've published two books, but both times in an editorial capacity; the first was a collection of scholarly essays I helped to publish in grad school, and the second was a new Book of Common Prayer for the Reformed Episcopal Church. I also started writing poetry in high school, kept writing poetry in college (and was editor of both literary magazines in high school and college), but once I started grad school, the poetry writing tapered off slowly to nothing.

Once I completed graduate school, I was too busy to write; instead, I was researching and designing lesson plans for teaching college courses and the only writing I was doing was in the margins of student essays and exams. Then kids came along, with five pregnancies within eight years resulting in four wonderful children and a difficult and heartbreaking miscarriage. Obviously with a houseful of children and the decision to educate them at home, I had no time to write.

In 2006 I met two amazing women. Smart women. Writing women. Poets, actually: Kitty and Judith. And I was drawn back into the poetic vortex and started composing poems again. I had re-embarked on the writing journey.

In the fall of 2008 I did something that still shocks me. Along with a number of women from a self-education forum, I joined the melee of NaNoWriMo -- National Novel Writing Month. The idea of writing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days--the month of November--was daunting enough, but fiction writing? Me? It didn't seem like a promising combination.

But then I remembered something I read from Christian writer Brian McLaren: he turned an autobiographical journey into a fictional novel which because a well-known book, A New Kind of Christian. And I thought that I could do the same. I could chronicle my journey from evangelical to Anglican via a novel. So I made up a character that was part me and part several women I admired greatly, and I went for it. In November of 2008, I wrote those 50,000 words in thirty days, thus drafting the first half of the novel. In 2009 I committed to NaNoWriMo again, this time drafting the second half of the novel. The join between the two is very rough, as is the entire book; if I ever go back to work on it, it will need massive editing and expanding.

But I had done it. I had written fiction. And writing fiction in the carefree drafting mode of NaNoWriMo was strangely freeing. Although fiction writing always seemed like it was outside my skill set as a writer/editor, I found writing from the top of my head, no outline on paper or plan in mind until I wrote scenes into existence, totally invigorating.

I skipped NaNoWriMo in 2010, opting for a poetry challenge instead. But also in November of 2010,  a hair-raising idea grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. I don't know how I got there, but I landed on an unfamiliar website called Wattpad. And there, amongst all of the different writing genres of historical fiction, science fiction, teen fiction, thrillers, horror, poetry, etc., I saw "fan fiction." And in that moment, an idea was born, and I started writing a story under a pen name, publishing one chapter per week on Wattpad; my tale takes place between the first and second books of the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Obviously, fan fiction based on copyrighted material cannot be published for sale, but I found myself intrigued by the characters and what I could add to those mysterious three months between the books. And slowly other people became interested, too.

Eventually that story became a novel of 140,000 words and 56 chapters. Currently that first fan fiction novel has received over 600,000 "reads" (hits) on Wattpad, and I completed it one week shy of a year after I started it, during NaNoWriMo 2011. A second fan fiction novel, which presents a whole new Twilight story, is even more successful at 40 chapters this week (I'm working on the 41st) and nearly 550,000 reads. I've also written three short stories based directly on the Twilight books, retelling a few incidents from Edward's point of view rather than Bella's (as the original novels are written). On Wattpad alone (I also have posted the stories on FanFiction.net) I've garnered nearly 1.2 million reads. I spend almost a day after posting a new chapter responding to comments and reviews on the two sites (fan mail, basically). And I also am thrilled to be able to mentor some young writers on Wattpad and FanFiction.net as well.

In fact, I'll be teaching a new four-week Fan Fiction Writing class at Brave Writer starting July 9!! It's going to be so much fun leading young people into writing fan fiction about characters from their favorite books, movies, television shows, and even video games and music groups.  Fan fiction is a wonderful way to coax reluctant writers to write, especially in the summer. It's fun, creative, low-pressure, and is very popular among teens...who are most of my readers. :)

So in light of this post on writing, I thought I'd share a quotation that I saw on Twitter only yesterday that inspired me greatly:

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." ~Richard Bach

Isn't that a wonderful thought? I may "only" be writing fan fiction, but I also have hopes of pushing beyond the unpaid writing of fan fiction and write some original fiction as well; time will tell. But until then, I have another chapter to post by tonight, so I'd better get cracking! Fan fiction readers can become quite impatient while waiting for a new chapter; I've instant-messaged with readers who were staying up all night on the East Coast, waiting for my next chapter to be posted at 1:00 AM here in California. (I revise each chapter several times before posting, so it takes a while to get a "finished" chapter ready for publication.) 

Enjoy the journey, my friends~

Nearly There....

Finally, we are in our final week of home education for the 2011-2012 school year. Benjamin has a few math, history, reading, and science lessons to do while Jonathan has only algebra and guitar. Timothy has Algebra II, a US History final, and an online SAT/ACT prep class through Brave Writer to finish. But, really, we're nearly there.

I'm in my final week of my last Brave Writer class this school year, the Shakespeare Family Workshop which has been very quiet. It's a rather self-directed class, and this spring's class is not large, plus many families are dealing with graduations and other year-end activities, so it's been a quiet class. I spent many hours last year totally revamping the class so that each family can take its own approach to each genre of comedies, histories, and tragedies after a two-week introduction covering Shakespeare's life and times and his language and poetry. So families can skim the surface or go really in depth, or any measure in between, as fits their kids' ages and interest levels. So this class has been quite a relief after teaching two totally intense literary analysis classes back-to-back. Whew!! I was often up working until 2:00 in the morning or later. It was wild!

So I will have the rest of June OFF. Yay!!

 Plans? Read, rest, relax! And write. :)

 On July 1, I start working for Brave Writer as a salaried employee rather than freelancing. I'll have additional duties in addition to teaching, so basically I'll be working year-round for Julie, and I've cut back my teaching load for the fall when I'll be needed more. It'll be a win-win: Julie will be able to hand off some of her tremendous work load, and I'll have set hours to work and a steady paycheck each month.

 I'm really looking forward to this kind of work; it's what I do best and enjoy most: investing myself into the detail work to flesh out someone else's brilliant visions. I'm not an idea-person; I'm more of a make-things-work-behind-the-scenes person, so I enjoy taking someone's visions and making them work in a practical sense. I've done it with my poet friend Judith and her many creative enterprises: an arts council for our small town, a monthly writers' workshop meeting at our local library, a community garden for our area, a children's program for her large annual artists' retreat, etc. Now I get to help Julie with the practicalities of her vision for Brave Writer so that she can leave the detail work to me while she keeps dreaming BIG. I'm really excited about helping her make Brave Writer everything she wants it to be.

Julie is a smart businesswoman as well as a brilliant and passionate educator and writer, and it will be a joy to work more closely with her. I'll also be teaching a summer class in writing fan fiction; I'll have the information up on my new website, SusanneBarrett.com, in the next week or so. It's a new class, but I think it will be truly amazing!! So as the school year finishes up, I'll be taking a couple of weeks to rest and relax, then I'll get to work at Brave Writer.

 See you all soon!

Quotation of the Week and Trinity Sunday

Rublev: The Trinity (Icon)

This Sunday marks the beginning of Ordinary Time...not because it is ordinary per se, but because we count the Sundays that follow with ordinal numbers: The First Sunday After Trinity, The Second Sunday After Trinity, and so on, all the way to the "New Year" of the Christian Cycle: the First Sunday in Advent. So from now until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we're in Ordinary Time.

 Trinity Sunday is a Feast Day for me, not just because it's the Sunday after Pentecost, which the Anglicans call "Whitsunday" as it's the day that the catechumens, garbed in white robes, are welcomed into the Church, but because it's the Feast of Title for Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. I don't usually attend Sunday services at Blessed Trinity, but I've been a regular at the Friday morning healing services for almost eight years, even before Blessed Trinity came into existence.

 Today I slipped into church just at ten o'clock, and Alice asked me to read the Epistle, my first time reading the Epistle at a Sunday service. I love reading God's Word aloud, so I gladly read from the Fourth Chapter of The Revelation to Saint John, verses 1-11:

AFTER this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first was like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third had a face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.

Although we use the Book of Common Prayer 2011 on Friday mornings, on Sundays Blessed Trinity reverts to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, thus the more archaic language (which I love, of course, being the medievalist that I am).

The Collect for Trinity Sunday from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; We beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

So for this Trinity Sunday, it seems fitting to choose a verse from the Epistle I read to be my Quotation of the Week:

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created." --Revelation 4:11, 1928 Book of Common Prayer Propers

So as we enter Ordinary Time, may we focus on the worship of our Lord. The liturgical color of Ordinary Time, green, reminds us to be always growing in our faith in Christ and in our love for God and our fellow people. May we shine forth His Divine Love through the power and grace of Our Living God.

Soli Deo Gloria,