Week 9 #3

Now that we are finished (has it really been nine weeks – where does the time go?)I’m going to have to get my thoughts together.  Admittedly, there have been some ups and downs, but the training as a whole was very well conceived and usable, if not in every detail.   What I mostly enjoyed was the assignment on narrative nonfiction, the articles on overlap with fiction, and choosing books to write about.  The teen articles and flowchart were very helpful as was trolling through the teen resources. Following the genre links is something I will follow up on, they are great resources; Salon Books and Early Word, though different in style and offerings, both have excellent content.  Spending time with a genre outside your interest level or comfort zone was very valuable as was the RA conversation and appeal factors brush-up of skills.

What I liked less were the subgenres, the fan websites, mashups and book trailers.  Taking time to research these topics was pretty much a teeth-gnashing experience and my further use of them will probably be limited at best.  That being said, I do need to be more aware of the growth of additional resources, and will try to keep up as best I can.

 As far as the pacing, I was able to stay on track with the assignments with a concerted effort, though I’ve heard that those with more projects and meetings going on at the moment had a more difficult time.  One week for each assignment was probably not enough to digest the information, and I felt that, though my responses were technically “finished,” they weren’t that great - just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

 However, many thanks to the committee for a terrific effort – it’s much appreciated.