Alison Acheson

2 weeks ago | unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson

Two threads are at play for this post. One of the two is my recent read of Eowyn Ivey’s latest work. Last year I posted a ‘close read’ of her The Snow Child. This one is Black Woods Blue Sky, and I’ll post a close read as soon as the copy I’ve ordered from my fave bookstore comes in for a second read. It’s that good! I returned it to the library with 24 people in line for it, and had to order my own. The ending of this novel is one of the finest I’ve read in a number of years.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alison Acheson

Member-only storyAnother writing “principle” to questionAlison Acheson·FollowPublished inThe Unschool for Writers·7 min read·--photo by authorBack in the day, works for children were intended to be instructive — how to be in the world, AKA listen to the wise adults. In the past, many children’s books read more like historical Sunday School papers.

3 weeks ago | unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson

The first of the month posts are an eclectic mix and free. They generally include a snippet of a writing idea/mini-‘lesson,’ a prompt of some type, a re-cap of the previous month’s posts, sometimes a poll to generate thought for an article, and so on… Suggestions and questions about anything writing- and publishing-related are always welcome. I like to know what’s on your mind. Send email to: alison at alison acheson dot com orI’m nearing 500 posts after four years here on the ‘Stack.

4 weeks ago | unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson

favourite beach walk… Tsawwassen, BCThe Unschool is close to 500 posts after almost five years on Substack. I have at times shared instructions on how to access the home page and the indexes (click on title. Check out lower right hand corner) and general navigation of Substack. It’s not always obvious or easy. Indexes: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. You can use the indexes to create your own mini-courses; they are divided into genre and topics. What have been stand-out posts for you?

1 month ago | unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson

photo of my father, as a child, with his beloved Zip —In my most recent post, I mention this piece of writing advice or ‘principle’ in working for young people. And it occurred to me that I’ve never addressed this on The Unschool, even though it’s one of the first, and most frequent issues to come up in classes on writing for young people. If you write only for adults, do read on; the principle, in general, will cause you to ponder what it is to have an active character.