The semester is almost over and I’m starting to finally feel like maybe I can breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. I decided to teach freshman English this year and it was harder than I expected.
But also better than I expected.
Here is a list of the research topics they chose:
Music
Violent Video Games
Pro-Eating Disorder websites.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) syndrome associated with Facebook etc.
Body Image
Anonymity vs. Security
New Media in Elections
Parent/Child relationships online
Truth vs. Untruths spread by social media
Women and Pornography
Pornography and the brain
Hashtag Activism
Race and Social Media
Sports and Social Media
And more. While these papers were long and long and long (I required them to be long) and I had to grade them (my least favorite thing in the whole wide world), they were also interesting. Fascinating in some cases. And gave me lots of writing ideas.
Question for the writers: Do you ever consider writing non-fiction? If so, what kind of non-fiction? What about a novel for adults? How would your brain have to shift to do that kind of writing? Why did you decide to write the things you write?
Question for readers: What do you read and why? Do you ever read outside your preferred genre? Why? When? Have you ever gone a historical fiction binge? A self-help binge? A graphic novel binge? When? Why?
I love how life can inform my profession. The good. The bad. The sad. The happy. All of it can make me a richer writer.
xoxox hastagloveandcandy
Throwing Up Words 
I just spoke to an editor, this MORNING, who loves nonfiction!
Yes, life informed my decision to write an adult historical novel. After years of being a family history consultant and doing genealogical research, it was natural that this was the kind of book that I decided to write. But it’s been harder than I thought it would be. I’ve discovered though I’ve taught FYW for years, actually writing in a different genre is humbling and painful. But I’ve learned a lot.
I like reading historically based novels. And quite a number of just plain historical writings. As my family lived in Hawaii at the outbreak of WWII, we were there when we were bombed by the Japanese. Years later, I became almost obsessed with reading about two areas within WWII: the Japanese attack AND what happened (shamefully !) to the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in Utah and several other places as a “precaution.” I also got fascinated with the so-called “Jewish solution” and read many, many fiction and non-fiction books about the Jews during and right after the war.
Otherwise, my historical preference is to read historicals within my favorite time period: pre-1600. Anything after that is mostly boring to me: too “modern”. I love a good historical, as long as it’s heavy on the historical and light on the “romance.”
I also have three ideas for non-fiction books that I keep thinking I’ll get to “one of these days:” One, a memoire about the education of a teacher (that would be me) , currently called “My Spiral Life.” Another about the trip I took during the entire summer of 1967: drove to sCA, flew to Hawaii, stayed a week with friends, boarded a cruise ship bound for Europe, by way of the California coast, through the Panama Canal into the Carribbean, across the Atlantic and eventually landed in England. Bought a moped bike in London and drove it up one side of England (through Strateford on Avon), about halfway up Scotland, came back down through Oxford, took a channel cruise across to France, the drove the moped south from Paris, into Spain, halfway down the coast, back up around the whole Riviera and into Italy. Changed flights to go into Copenhagen, thence to New York, and home to Utah to begin my grad work at BYU. THAT was a trip ! ! ! Third, non-fiction book idea: my almost 30-year-long struggle with breast cancer.
I also opened an old file on my computer labeled “Articles and Essays” — 35 pieces. And I think a number of them may be publishable.
Yeah, I’ve given some thought to writing non-fiction ! ! ! How about YOU ? ? ?