Love in Dark Settings

What was happening during this time: My parents were trying to find a school that would take me in. They weren't succeeding.

Background to my retro daily life entries

( My problems at school and my time at a psychiatric ward )
( Loading on the guilt trip to school officials )
( Tutor )
( A new school )

What was happening during this time: Just a few items of everyday life.

Background to my retro daily life entries


( Trespassing )
( Kid power )
( Questions about death )
( Neighborhood kids )
( Book dedications and our car )

What was happening during this time: I was kicked out of school, just in time for an early summer vacation.

Background to my retro daily life entries


( School suspension )
( The Fourth of July and the Beatles )
( A hubristic child-writer's goals; plus, my family, and a description of my family's favorite toy, namely our electronic typesetter )
( Brain (early fictionalized autobiography) )

What was happening during this time: The calm before the storm. My discipline problems at school and home were building, though I touch only lightly on them in these entries. I was disappearing deeper into my fantasy life, as you'll see.

Background to my retro daily life entries.

( New Year's Eve celebrations )
( Trouble with the physical education teacher )
( Off to the psychiatrist again )
( Spy notes )
( Spy plans )
( Dancing )
( No P.E.! )
( A budding hurt/comfort writer )
( Movie outing )
( Cathedral outing )
( Playwright )
( A change of schools )
( Where I got my ideas for practical jokes )
( Criminal life )
( The eve of a great change )
( Misery is . . . )
( Trent (early fiction) )

This is the first journal I ever kept, at the beginning of sixth grade. In imitation of the notebook kept by Harriet the Spy (I had recently read Louise Fitzhugh's novel about her), it was a stream-of-consciousness journal, where I gave a blow-by-blow account of my activities.

What was happening during this time: I was on my way to being expelled from sixth grade. (That happened the following spring.) I was bored with my schoolwork, was teased by many of my classmates, and was unbearably self-centered and whiny. I was also suffering from clinical depression and was engaging in what the school counsellor referred to euphemistically as "anti-social behavior." (I threw chairs at people when I got angry.) So this is my "rebel without a cause" notebook.

Background to my retro daily life entries

( A trip to the psychiatrist )
( School and a party )
( Not a good day )
( Playing hookey )
( A love affair )
( It was on January 18, 2005 That It Happened (early fiction) )

This is the first journal I ever kept, at the beginning of sixth grade. In imitation of the notebook kept by Harriet the Spy (I had recently read Louise Fitzhugh's novel about her), it was a stream-of-consciousness journal, where I gave a blow-by-blow account of my activities.

What was happening during this time: I was on my way to being expelled from sixth grade. (That happened the following spring.) I was bored with my schoolwork, was teased by many of my classmates, and was unbearably self-centered and whiny. I was also suffering from clinical depression and was engaging in what the school counsellor referred to euphemistically as "anti-social behavior." (I threw chairs at people when I got angry.) So this is my "rebel without a cause" notebook.

Background to my retro daily life entries

( A trip to the psychiatrist )
( School and a party )
( Not a good day )
( Playing hookey )
( A love affair )
( It was on January 18, 2005 That It Happened )

These are entries from my old journals, beginning in 1974, when I was eleven years old. The main reason I kept journals so assiduously throughout my pre-teens and teens is that Jacqueline Jackson had recommended them in her book Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail: A Book About Writing Among Other Things as a good tool for writers. Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail was my writers' bible for many years (and remains my favorite book on authorship).

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