I am NERVOUS! Why you ask? Today, I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to be a “guest author” for an English Creative Writing class at the LAVC campus.

Okay, so your probably thinking how the hell did she get the title to be a guest author, she hasn’t even made a name for herself! Well, don’t worry I’m thinking the same thing too.

Let me give you the background story:

As mentioned in the previous entry “Finally Out Of Quicksand”, I had to attend LAVC in order to bring up my g.p.a. so that I could continue my education at CSUN once again. Well, DONE & DONE! 🙂

This last Fall semester 2011, I took a short story writing class at LAVC and loved it! I had one of the best professors ever ( Prof. M.) and I was able to really grow as a writer from the class and my peers. At the end of the semester I was invited by my peers to join a private writer’s workshop group taught/lead by our favorite Prof. M. Needless to say, I joined!

It’s almost like a secret society of writers (only thing is, it’s not a secret). We’re made up of five students and one professor. We meet once a month at the Robin Hood Bar/Restaurant on Burbank blvd. When we meet we either present new or “old” work and have the group discuss and critique our individual pieces and in turn we later decide if we want to use the suggestions or not – basic workshop.

The group had been going well. And just recently it got even better. Our professor felt that we had each improved very much and that we had each presented exemplary work that he asked each one of us if we wouldn’t mind if he used our work in one of the classes that he is teaching.

OMG! Use my work in a class?!?!?! He said that his students could benefit from what we had to offer and so that they could learn different styles of writing for crafting a short story.

I was blown away when he asked me. I of course said yes! And then as the shock dissipated I began to fret over the possibility that maybe he was going to use my story as a “How NOT to Write” type of lesson. I would be mortified had that been the case.

He later put my worries at ease and explained that he was going to have his student write a paper on my story along with the stories of my peers.

It’s definitely a strange notion to think that at this stage in my life my writing is being used as a teaching tool.

And to top it off, each one of us has been invited to the class tonight as “guest-authors” for an informal discussion and Q&A lead by my professor. So to say the least, I am super nervous. I worry that the class is going to slaughter me and my story and that I may never recover, ahhh!

One thing is for sure; this will be a good experience one that I can learn from. I don’t know the students in his class so there wont be any biases or any secret agendas hidden behind their notebooks. But still the artist in me is scared and anxious. I don’t know what to expect. Who knows, maybe the class will not have time to get to my story, ha!

Okay, I’ve got to jet to the class anyhow. So stay tuned for a follow-up post on how my first guest-author experience went. 🙂

-AlessandraWrites