I earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in ’04. Since then I’ve written fiction for kids, newspaper articles, humor, example animal reports for my third-graders, and worksheets. (Lots of worksheets.)
Key Peninsula News
The Key Peninsula is a woodsy little appendix just west of the I-5 corridor near Tacoma, Washington.
It is lovely here. So much so, that I sometimes write articles for the local paper about local people doing interesting things. Here’s a recent column I wrote about our teeny corner of America.
Worksheets! Worksheets! Worksheets!
All teachers write worksheets and I am no exception. At My TeachersPayTeachers store you can browse 88 examples of my work.
I write times tables rhymes, packets for students to create their own acrostic poems, math practice sheets for many third through sixth grade skills, and more.
The Octopus Under the Bridge
My middle-grade speculative fiction is available on Kindle Aug 1st, 2020!
Jay’s parents claim he rode in a car once, but he doesn’t remember it. Despite oil being all but gone, and a good chunk of the east coast long ago bombed into oblivion, a fragile stability persists in the city of Tacoma.
But then the president is shot and stability is shattered. Black-clad Phoenix gangs roam the streets with authority, while the underfunded police force is never seen. Jay is sent away to live with his grandmother on a rural Puget Sound peninsula.
Uncovering a family secret just as it threatens to tear his family apart, Jay must risk everything by returning to Tacoma to retrieve his sister.
A Funny
I wrote a funny listical about teacher life.
BoredTeachers.com published it and added a gif of Leonardo DiCaprio. I hoped that meant Leo would call me up himself to congratulate me on the publication, but alas, not yet.
My best weapon against writer’s block is to set down the project and work on something else. Short is good. It once seemed that my future in writing might involve light-hearted comedy via online recipe reviews.
If you write to me I will write you back!
Questions I have for my readers:
- What kinds of things do you like to write??? (So far I have tried writing fiction, nonfiction, poems, diary entries, emails, newspaper articles, blog posts, worksheets, report cards, friendly letters, opinion essays, and cartoons. I would like to try writing a book of jokes. Once, when the slugs gobbling my vegetable garden, I wrote tiny signs that said “No slugs” and “I’d turn back if I were you”. They did not work. Maybe slugs can’t read? Or maybe they just don’t care.)
- Should I write a sequel to The Octopus Under the Bridge??? (I haven’t decided yet whether or not to write more about this story. I was thinking about creating a sequel from Flossie’s point of view, set a few years after this book ends, but what do you think? What would you want to see happen in a sequel? What do you imagine the characters doing after this book ends? Or do you have a totally different idea for me?)
- Who are you and what questions do you have??? (I love kids. Little kids can be cute, but let’s be honest, nobody wants to see that giant snot bubble on your face. Big kids are my favorite! That’s why I teach fourth and fifth grade! Being around kids keeps me curious. Like my students, I like to know a little bit about everything. Did you know that an octopus has light-sensitive skin which helps it see? What kinds of things are you interested in? What are you good at? What do you like to do? If you write to me I will write you back!)
Alice Kinerk 