Happy St. Patrick's Day

I have a love/hate relationship with St. Patrick's Day, since my great-grandmother was, as she said (according to my Dad--I never knew her), "Scotch-Irish." This means, I believe, that she was Protestant and probably didn't like Catholics.

I'm only surmising that she didn't like Catholics, but it's not a far-fetched assumption, since (my dad said) she always insisted on being identified as Scotch-Irish, not Irish. And, my dad also told me, that she insisted the correct term was Scotch-Irish, not Scots-Irish. My dad and I had this big discussion about it once when I, in my most politically correct manner, informed him that we should use the term "Scots-Irish." Boy, did he get his dander up, insisting that his grandmother used the term "Scotch-Irish" and not "Scots-Irish."

The other reason that I assume that she may have had an anti-Catholic bias is because, let's face it, most Southerners did in the early to mid-20th century. I work to accept my ancestors the way they were, not the way that I wish they had been. There is every possibility that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about and that my great-grandmother had nary a prejudiced bone in her body, but that would be unusual, given the time and place.

I don't know where my great-grandmother was originally from, if she was born in Ireland or in the U.S., but her daughter, my grandmother, was raised in Dublin, Georgia, then married my grandfather, who was raised in Barnesville, Georgia. (Dublin and Barnesville are not right next door to each other. I wonder how they met? I'll have to ask my Uncle Floyd. He knows most of the family history.)

And boy, do I have a family history. I know much of it. I love my family reunions. But it all needs to be written down, and written down soon, before everyone who really remembers dies....

Despite my great-grandmother's insistence on "Scotch-Irish," I think my tenuous connection to Ireland is cool, and I always wear a touch o' the green. Today, that takes the form of a (fake) jade bracelet and (fake) abalone ring. But, to balance it, I'm wearing an orange shirt...yep, I playing both sides of the line in the Irish culture wars.

I am wondering about whether or not to make the leading man in my new novel Catholic or Protestant...he's definitely Irish!

A Great Writing Seminar!

On Saturday, I went to a Georgia Writers' Association monthly meeting. Ellen Taber,author and professor at Kennesaw State University, was giving a reading from her new book and a seminar on writing cultural histories. It was definitely worth going to hear her! She's a great reader, and her new book sounds very good. It's called Tybee Days: 100 Years on Georgia's Island Playground.

I write both teen novels and non-fiction, so the seminar was right up my alley. If you ever get a chance to hear Ellen Taber speak, I highly recommend going.

Creativity in all everything I do

I love creativity...but what does that really mean?

I love unusual juxtapositions of colors, I love handmade crafts, I love people who write, create music, paint, and sculpt.

When I teach, I do not work on helping my students with their creativity. I concentrate on grammar, since the point of the class is to have them pass their COMPASS test (a standardized editing test that is designed to prove that students are ready for freshman comp).

I'm planning new creative activities for next quarter...but they also have to serve to teach writing. Do you have any suggestions for me?