Laser Cutting Notebook Covers

With the laser cutter, I came up with some plywood cover designs for wire-bound notebooks.  I’m still putting together my purchasing pages, but these should be available for sale soon.  But if you’d like, you can order these through the Contact Us page.  Current prices are $15 for the small notebooks and $30 for the large ones, plus taxes and shipping.  If you like, I can also customize the text and images.

Exhibiting at FlatCon 2025

Gawyn and I are hosting a booth at this year's FlatCon!  We'll be there with a collection of laser-cut game tokens, decor, and the Lunar Racer!  (Added bonus: the Lunar Racer now has rubber tires!  Truly cutting-edge technology, I know!  But you don't want to know how long it took to cut the perfect edge that would hold a rubber band in place around the wheel!)

It was a bit of a surprise — when we were on the waitlist, I figured there was no chance that any other exhibitors would cancel.  But we are on the FlatCon schedule!  We are scrambling at this point to get everything ready, but please stop by our table to check out the projects we've been working on!  And though it's not ready yet, we're hoping to have our Logystyka handout ready to print out for the conference.  So yes, please stop by to get your very own custom QR code to visit this page that you are reading now!  (More updates to come...just as soon as I laser cut a bunch more game pieces...)

Laser Cutting Game Pieces

Pretty much anything can work as a game piece.  Little toy cars, plastic dinosaurs, or wooden blocks have all made it onto our game boards.  But sometimes, you just have to make your own pieces.  So for Logystyka, we purchased a laser cutter.

Logystyka: A Turn-Based Tabletop Strategy Game

In Logystyka, the goal is simple: build your empire!  But no game is ever that simple!

We're currently working on versions 10 and 11 of the rules.  But why two versions?  Because my son and I don't agree on how complex the game should be.  So while I'm working on the "simple" version, my son's developing the enhanced version.  So for the "simple" version, imagine:

• Feeding your hungry army from settlements as inspired by Cataan and Roman logistics.
• Massing armies with combined-arms support as inspired by Risk Europe and modern military tactics.
• Deploying spells and action cards as inspired by MTG and Pokemon and Clash Royale and...okay, not exactly our most original idea! 

And for the enhanced version...add in unit upgrades.  And every single battle is like a chess game.  Except the pawns carry pitchforks.

Read On to for more details!

On Not Reading Enough of the Right Books...

About ten years ago, one of my creative writing professors was curious about where I learned to write.  I had finally admitted that most of my stories were science fiction, and that most of my reading choices were similar.  Unlike my classmates in the MFA program, I had never been a huge fan of "literature."  I love a good book, yes, but I don't seem to have the attention span for great books.  Getting through them is a real struggle for me — it should be no surprise that I usually earned B's in my college literature courses.  For an English major, I wasn't exactly the best reader.

On Reading the Fantastic and Writing the Meh

I learned to write when I was "young."  As a sixth grader — all of eleven years old — I developed a fixation on The Lord of the Rings.  And also Dungeons and Dragons.  With character sheets on one corner of the desk and hand-drawn sketches of a "hobbit swashbuckler" in the other corner, I put all my attention to the beautiful blank page before me: the story.

UDL Project: Universal Design for Learning in English Composition

To provide new resources for my students, I've started a new website that applies Universal Design for Learning to Writing Courses like English 101.  Much as I love Blogger, I'm finding that Google Sites offers somewhat more flexibility in terms of layout and organization, so I've been starting the site from scratch rather than continue on my Intro to Fiction and Poetry website at IFP.12Writing.com.

The Uncharted Neurology of Writing

Presentation Slides for the 2019 CTLT Teaching and Learning Symposium.

 In neurology, imaging studies have shown specific locations in the brain associated with creativity, word recall, and the physical act of placing symbols upon the page. With these insights, we could theoretically come up with ways to better “coach” the brain to maximize student writing abilities. Neurologically speaking, variations in access to the digital world “wire” our students in different ways, and these differences may both enhance and limit their abilities to convey thinking through writing. But if we draw too heavily from neurology, there is an inherent ethical risk of imposing unfounded biological assumptions about the “normal” brain upon the unique skills and personalities of individual students.

In this presentation, I will discuss recovering from a wrist injury in Afghanistan, and how the physical limitations of that injury affected not only my ability to place words on the page, but the capacity to express thoughts. From there, I’ll look at the ways in which emotional investments have further affected my capacities to process and compose ideas. I will contemplate how my experiences may apply to our students, particularly in light of contemporary concerns surrounding “digital natives,” trigger warnings, and disability studies.

Changing Directions: The Story of a Website

I started 12Writing just over ten years ago.  At the time, I didn't know enough about websites, about teaching, or about writing.  But I was confident.  I was convinced I could do better than others who teach and write online.

And I was wrong.  So as I turn my thoughts forward, here are some reflections on the past.

Addressing America's Racial History

A presentation giving at the Center for Teaching and Learning Symposium on January 10, 2018.

Link to Presentation

Embedded Presentation: 

Digital Autography: CWCon 2015 Presentation Slides

How do we assess writing students in a digital world where personal relationships remain largely untheorized?

External Link to Presentation Slides

A Research Gap: Life Writing, Epistemology, and Creative Writing Studies

Link to Present
This is above the break

Books for Small Children - My Recommendations

When I was little, my favorite book of all time was The Little Engine That Could.  My mom says she read it to me so often that she had the book memorized.  Apparently, so did I - if she turned to the wrong page and kept reading from memory, I would call her out on it.  (Which would probably explain why she was tired of my not reading on my own...all the more reason to teach your children early, yes?) Now, we had many books at home, but there were always those few that stood out.  With my own son, I'm finding the same phenomenon - there are certain books he loves, and he will keep pull those out from his little cubby while others gather dust.  Some of these books are touching, others are beautiful, and still others just beg for small fingers to touch their pages.  Here's a short list of favorites.

Read Your Toddler Books All Day - Even If You Never Finish One

Yes, everyone knows you should read aloud to your child.  It's common wisdom - read a book at bedtime, instill a love of reading.  But is that really enough?  I don't think so.  Instead, find those quick opportunities for all-day reading.

Image courtesy of  AKARAKINGDOMS / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Manage Yourself Past Writer's Block

Let's be honest - I hate time management.  I hate the thought of planning out my days, of regimenting my writing.  I prefer the idea of inspiration, like breaking the rules and ignoring your muse. But there are days when even that doesn't work. That's where time management comes in.  And the acronym CREATE (Chunk, Read, Eat, Associate, Time, and Endeavor).

Yes, you can manage your time.  But it might get messy.  Not like this picture, which is disturbingly optimistic in it's portrayal of personal control.  (Original image courtesy of Stuart Mills on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

Spoon River Poetry Contest

The Spoon River Poetry Review (SRPR) announces its Editors' Prize Contest

(http://www.srpr.org/contest.php)

First Place Prize: $1,000, publication, and introduction written by prominent outside judge.

Entry Fee: $20, includes one-year subscription to SRPR (two issues).

Deadline: April 15, 2014 (postmark)

Submission: ONLINE as well postal

Click on for more details!  Or simply visit their website for the submission form and more.

Life Writing: A Bridge Between Writers and Researchers

Hello, writers.

If you check this website often, you will undoubtedly noticed a lack in activity. Ryan, Emily and I have been tangled in work and personal obligations, but hopefully as the semester winds down we'll be making more regular posts here.

Anway, on to the post!

As a rhetoric studies person (the only one at 12Writing), I spend most of my time looking at other people's writing instead of creating my own texts. I tend to think less about aesthetics and more the work that writing does in the world. If you think it seems strange that I am working on a creative writing website, you wouldn't be wrong.

Traditionally, the was an invisible wall between rhetoric studies and creative writing studies in the academic world and often this wall extended outside of the university to artist and researchers outside of academia. This wall has been breaking down in recent years as interdisciplinary studies and hybrid writing gains popularity, but old habits die hard, as the saying goes. This habit is the reason for my post today.

Writing Workshops: The How-To of Sharing Your Work

Hey there, Fellow Writers!

Here's a list of blog posts describing the writing workshop process and what to look for as you seek your own workshop.

More Tips for Writers

General Writing Advice and Tips

(Coming Soon!) 

Looking for ways to improve your writing? We have compiled some websites that offer you tips and tricks to make your writing life more productive.