Mr. Locke’s Classroom

I seem to be in this alternating pattern of posting assignments for my freshmen and pictures of Grady. One might speculate that these two occupations take up most of my waking (and some non-waking) hours these days. Speculation correct. What I wouldn’t give for an afternoon away from it all, sailing in my forgotten boat. [...]

I meant to post this much earlier, but as often happens, life and school got in the way. Each summer, I try to set aside a significant chunk of time to write–not for school, not even for Creative Writing, but just because I love to write. And because someday when I finally grow up, I [...]

Yesterday: As Amy and I pull into the driveway after running a few errands, we see our next door neighbor, Mark, headed to the house across the street…with a net. Curious. He apparently sees us seeing him, and stops. Mark: You guys wanna see a tarantula? Jim found one in his garage! Amy: You’re kidding, [...]

Sometimes I get to thinking I’m pretty darned special. Or original. Or clever. Or ahead of the curve. Or… Nope. I remember coming out of high school, I had built a small following of fans for my music–I often dreamed about becoming the next great overnight musical celebrity, and even thought I had the talent [...]

I was listening to the “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack tonight, and it reminded me of something I wrote on Christmas day a few months ago. It’s just a short reflection entitled, “To Michael W. Locke: The Man Who Read To Me.” After reading over it again, I decided I liked it enough to post [...]

I went to my writer’s group tonight. Emptyhanded. As others read their latest masterpieces (R.R. wrote an amazing short w/dialect), my lack of new material gave me the sensation of some long term goals slipping, slipping into the hazy quagmire of the distant future. Don’t get me wrong. Life is good. Too good–that’s the problem. [...]