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April Hiatus
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10 thoughts on “April Hiatus”
Wishing you happy writing time, Ben.
I will also be here a bit less in April because I’m working on a book. I doubt I will finish it as quickly as Ben does his, though. It’s sort of like CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. Tolkien was the careful philologist and constant reviser and had a hard time finishing his works because they were never quite perfect. Lewis was a popularizer (as well as a highly respected academic, of course) who could get a book written in a short time. Though they were great friends, this ability of Lewis to finish a book quickly frustrated Tolkien greatly.
I’m also working on getting my website up and running. Recently I realized that I am at the point where not getting this done will start costing and limiting me too much to be acceptable.
I’ll still check in – probably more often than Ben – but I need to put concentrated effort into other endeavors.
Robert, are you still writing that beginning level German novel set in Africa?
Sean, that particular book is on hold until I can arrange a trip to Tanzania – and that may not happen for a couple of years, unfortunately.
My current endeavor is to get a “manual” for my virtual move project done. I presented at the CLTA conference a couple of weekends ago, and the participants found what I had helpful. I want to have a more polished presentation for ACTFL (I’ve already made the proposal) and also a how-to guide for multiple languages. After I will have taught my unit on the Middle Ages next year, I’ll add that and have a book about how I try to create “The Realm” in my classes. The title will be Of Other Worlds.
In addition, I translated “Brandon Brown wants a Dog” for Carol Gaab and signed a non-competition agreement, so I won’t do anything for first-year students for at least another year – but I do have an idea.
Intriguing, Robert! Good luck to you with this big projects. I look forward to hearing how they come along. Any chance you could share the basic plot of this book set in Tanzania? …Just curious what you got cooking up!
Sean, the basic plot is as follows:
1. Geoff (the main character in my time travel books) gets “blasted” into the past and winds up in Dar es Salaam at the beginning of World War I.
2. Geoff meets a family who “adopts” him, and he learns a bit about life in Tanzania at the time. The family is a missionary family who lives and works in Wilhelmstal but just happened to be in Dar when the British began shelling the city from their warships.
3. Geoff joins the Schutztruppe, the forces in German East Africa tasked with defending the colony, and has some adventures along the way. I intend for him to meet General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the commander who tied up as many as 120,000 British troops, keeping them from being able to help the war effort in Europe. (That was his goal, btw.) He will also save someone from a leopard attack and earn a nickname from the Askaris (African soldiers). Geoff will also meet Margaret Trappe, a very unusual woman in that she became a quite respected big game hunter and managed to make the transition from German to British rule – something that relatively few people managed. Part of this section will provide information about and jumping off points for study of WWI in German East Africa.
4. At the very end, Geoff will return to the present and rejoin his friends.
I recognize that is a very bare-bones outline, but the story of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck is quite interesting.
In other news, my website just went live. You can see it at
http://www.compellinginput.com or
http://www.compellinginput.net
So excited – just placed my first order :-)!!!
For those new here since 2012 here is a link to some work by Robert that some of us use in our classrooms:
https://benslavic.com/blog/wp-login.php
Robert you remind of the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé who was a man of letters but also a school teacher. But he hated teaching and lived for his art, so the comparison stops there. You elevate both professions.
Another book???? I can’t wait!! Can I reserve my copy now? I know it will be amazing and helpful and well-written and awesome……..
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Brigitte. See my reply to Sean above. One of these days I’ll get back to working on another reader. Recently I played the Mafia Game with my German 3-4 class, only I called it “Gangsters in Vienna”. That will go into the how-to guide, plus I may work on a reader set in Vienna to sort of go along with it.
I have been intrigued by your virtual move ever since I first heard about it from you. It always seemed too overwhelming to try it myself. This will be motivate me to take the plunge, for sure! So excited!!