Friday, February 06, 2009

Articles, NCTE, Opening Night

It has been a whirlwind week. First, let's talk about our class podcasting project, Dragon Booktalk. Some major bullets:
  • So far, two authors -- Larry Colton (Counting Coup) and Michael D'Antonio (Hershey) -- have contacted me about Dragon Booktalk. They listened to the podcasts and sent their kudos to the students for their work. As if that wasn't enough . . .
  • Dragon Booktalk was mentioned in a NCTE INBOX e-newsletter (with 115,000 subscribers), and the site and C-J article was discussed at length in a corresponding blog entry. This has led to . . .
  • A lot of hits. It took three months to get the first 400 hits at the site. In the course of 48 hours, we've climbed over 1000. In addition, I've received emails from all over the United States, as well as a Canadian associate professor and a teacher in China!

I'm thrilled for the students, who are getting the opportunity to reach a global audience.

The Honest Abe Festival opened last night, and John Foster interviewed and photographed myself, Matt Orme, Dale Strange, and Juergen Tossmann for a feature article. No pictures online, but you can read the text of the article here, which came out in yesterday's edition.

Oh, and I turn 35 this weekend. What better way to celebrate a birthday than the opening of my play?

More thoughts on the production later . . .

Come to Bunbury! The three week run begins NOW!