My Finest: none

By Janis Cramer

Now retired from teaching creative writing at two Oklahoma high schools, Janis Cramer is finally publishing her own showcase portfolio, a compilation of her readers' favorite pieces. Inside are "Kissy Kay," "2001, A Gorilla Odyssey," "Happybottom," and "Bob Dylan and Me," to name a few. The writings are followed by personal reflections about the experiences and a description of the process Janis went through in writing the piece.Each vignette is a memoir of Janis's life, growing up in 1950's Muskogee, Oklahoma, and carrying through her life as a teacher and her retirement as a writer and traveler. Each memory in some way shaped the person Janis was to become. Janis chose this format for her book because it was the way she required her students to showcase their writing at the end of the semester or school year. Good writers revise and reflect on their writing. For years, her students complained that she should be making her own portfolio, too, but she was always too busy grading their papers! From the first story--a memoir about the first time she purposefully disobeyed--to her experience meeting Bob Dylan--to her climb up a mountain in Rwanda to see gorillas--to her role as hospice nurse to her mother--she hopes the stories will bring about a sense of nostalgia and nudge a belly laugh out of the reader at least once in each chapter.For her audience, Janis hopes to find long-lost family members; old classmates; teacher friends; and other Oklahoma Writing Project teacher consultants. She hopes that each of those people will share the book with at least one more person, so that the books become earmarked and worn."Really, this is a perfect book for the bathroom. Just let it fall open where it wants to. Or choose a long or a short story, depending on how much time you have. The order of the stories doesn't really matter," Janis says. "Just enjoy the storytelling."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481181858
• ISBN13: 9781481181853
• Release Date: January 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"