Val's writing classes blog

Since 65 is professional death age, I'm not counting on teaching anymore, just tutoring and editing. I still want to hear from former students, and I'm keeping the page for memories & links. But don't expect updates & I won't expect you to stay in touch about your jobs & kids. I still offer resume help and feedback if you need an international opinion. Thanks for a challenging 4th career after journalism, books & scientific editing -- I saw all those jobs transformed by technology, from paper to digital production & now AI since 1978. And higher education faces still larger changes! I like being mostly retired -- visitors to northern Minnesota are welcome & I still travel quite a bit. So I hope our paths cross, and that you recall our time on Wuxing Street as fondly as I do.

If thinking is rational, what makes overthinking irrational? | Psyche Ideas A philosophical perspective on overthinking offers fresh insights into the mental processes involved in anxiety and OCD

I'm winding down this page (at least until I teach again some other winter), but this helped me understand that pessimism is a hard sell. My dark last essay about the post-American world was heartfelt but ultimately unwelcome in the first month of Ukraine war. I still feel like the mythical Cassandra, eventually proven correct but unheard.

We're Having a Fit of Collective Amnesia There's a way to resist.

I hope everyone writes fan letters to encourage writers who move them -- it's a rare thank you for lonely keyboard life. I wrote one for this, then found much more at Longreads & her web page.

The Sunset - Longreads Lisa Bubert | Longreads | November 30, 2022 | 11 minutes (3,072 words) When I was 19, a nursing home hired me to work as an aide. There wasn’t much to the interview that I remember, other than I agreed to come to work on time and take the certification course the home provided. In […]