My very favorite time of year is June when I’m teaching writers in grades 5-10. For the past few summers, I’ve taught a class called, “How to Write a Novel Over the Summer” with my friend and fellow writer, Cathy Walker-Gilman. Our class is built primarily around the materials from the Young Writers’ Program of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. http://ywp.nanowrimo.org

Some of our students also join Camp NaNoWriMo for inspiration. http://campnanowrimo.org.

In addition to How to Write a Novel, I also teach genre fiction classes which are part “appreciating the genre” and part “give the genre a try”. For two summers I taught Lasers Vs. Wands which was all Science Fiction and Fantasy. Yay!
This summer I offered a new class called, “Monsters and Mayhem”. It was a class about thrillers, horror, mystery, and suspense. A highlight was the day Cathy (who has a degree in Victorian Lit) presented about ghosts and creepy realities of the Victorian Era.