Journal

Friday, October 25, 2002
Did you know that there's already a little image from Wolves in the Walls up here? COLONYMEDIA

I didn't, no. But that's the cover, here shown very small -- you can't really even see the yellow wolf-eyes staring out through the hole in the wall.

Hi. I'm a student teacher on my first practice teaching assignment. I used your essay on where ideas come from in a lesson for Grade 7s and Grade 8s a few days ago. It sort of came up, because last week, I had another author come to the school, and the most common question from the kids was "Where do you get your ideas from?" Actually, it was more like, "Where did you get your idea for [book X] from." He was quite game about the issue, and mostly gave straight answers. But I thought the class might appreciate a different perspective.

I also got the second last page of Sandman #50. I blanked out the captions, and asked the kids to tell me who the characters were, and fill out the captions. It was a good way to think about character and characterization. I think the best answer was that the city in the bottle was a carving made out of cheese by a race of intelligent ants. I also hope the educational license ends up providing you with some money, somehow.

I wish I had time to do a short story, but what I did sure was a lot of fun Thanks for the great essay, and the great work. And, err, this isn't really a question, is it?


Not even a little bit, but it was still interesting.

Okay... so, this evening, Friday, is a small reading and a signing at Andersens Bookshop in Naperville, Il (Chicago). Tomorrow is the COMPLETE CORALINE READING for the Chicago Humanities Festival. Go down a post or two and phone the number, or just come down and get a ticket on the door.