This arrived in the mail--a book by a past student. And she credits an assignment in my class at John C. Campbell as being the catalyst for this novel. She thinks the assignment was something along the lines of "Put your character in a pickle."
It was a very basic class, meant to get folks going on a novel. I probably had them write a scene that introduced their protagonist and a scene that showed the protagonist in a setting of some sort. Basic stuff but Anita ran with it and, over a period of some years, wrote a novel about a young female reporter in the 70s.
I've been fortunate, as a teacher and as an occasional editor, to see quite a few folks persevere and bring to publication novels that I had a bit of input on. It's a bit like being a grandmother--you feel a lot of pride in someone else's baby, someone else who did all the work. Well, done, Anita! And many thanks for reminding me why I loved teaching.
