Rus VanWestervelt
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Every time I think about it, the number of years that have passed overwhelms me with something a little less than grief and a little more than wonder. 34 years. . . and counting. And yet, when I tap into the power of that almighty muse that fueled my way through the autumn of 1992,…
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This weekend has been filled with a lot of “huh.” moments. You might know the kind. It’s when you realize something is over, or some priorities need to shift. You can ponder them all you want; you can even know – deep within you – that something has to change. But until the “huh.” moment…
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It was the summer of 1985, I was a rising junior at Towson State University, and I was rebounding from a break up with my high school sweetheart. My friend Bryan decided that a road trip to Kings Dominion Theme Park in Richmond would be a good way to get my mind off of “the…
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As we begin our study of poetry in my English classes, we are preparing for our participation in Poetry Out Loud, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Instead of reviewing the list of approved poems for the competition, I first take my students through a Daybook writing activity where they answer…
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I need your help. In 2025, my primary goal was to immerse myself into my creative endeavors: writing, drawing, crafting, and photography. On all measures, I exceeded my goals. Much of what I accomplished was private and not done with the intention of sharing with a larger audience. The focus was to dedicate more time…
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We are exactly one week away from students showing up in our classrooms and beginning that next year-long journey of their high school experience, and we spent the day at countywide Professional Learning sessions. Ours in the English Language Arts weren’t bad at all. We were fortunate to spend the morning with this year’s HoCoPoLitSo…
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The fires in Los Angeles have exposed some real limitations that were once unfathomable. As firefighters from across the region joined in to help fight the fires, they soon realized that the unprecedented stress they were putting on the water supplies flowing to the hydrants overwhelmed what was literally in the tank. The suburban hydrant…
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At the end of 2023, I decided that I was going to make a commitment to reading, primarily for me and to help me as a writer. I wanted to read and study more of the books that fall into genres that shaped me as a writer – most particularly Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Suspense-Thriller.…
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My brother, Warren, raised me on the stories that founded the fantasy genre. From Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to Adams’ Watership Down to Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, we read it all. Not only was he an avid reader of the genre, but he was a pretty damn good artist, too, bringing dragons to life…
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Before I begin, don’t worry if you have not yet read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library; I won’t be sharing any spoilers in this post. I just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a book filled with surprises and personal challenges that, at times, made me feel as if the pages were mirrors themselves,…
