Cynthia Harrison

Novelist

Category: Teachers & Teaching

  • Give Me Everything You Have

    For awhile now I’ve known I need to go back and finish out my teaching career if I want to receive my pension. I gave myself time to write all the books in my head, and I resolved to start teaching full time again for just the semester or two it will take to make…

  • Career(s)

    My husband and I have had a long disagreement about my retiring from teaching. It started maybe six years ago, when I found out that if I worked in the public school system for ten years, I was entitled to a retirement. Age 51 is not a great time to begin strategizing a career that…

  • Gratitude & Grading

    Yesterday was my last day of school for who knows how long, maybe forever. I now have at least a year off to focus on my writing and my website project. There is of course one little thing  to finish up–grading. My least favorite part of teaching. Most of these students will get good grades…

  • Teaching News

    I don’t say this to my students, but teaching is not a great career choice for a writer. It’s a very demanding job if you do it right. It depletes you mentally and emotionally, and when that happens, you feel physically depleted too. I work part time now, but I remember when I had a…

  • Rest

    After finishing the latest revision of Luke’s #1 Rule, I’m taking a rest from revision. For the moment. It’s a strange thing to find myself with four novels in various states of almost-readiness. It’s even stranger that I’m not pushing myself to get back to Sugar Shack, which I still have a feeling will be…