HeyJaredGood, But Not a Standout
I'm Kathleen West, author of 4 novels and veteran English teacher. I write about reading, writing, teaching, running, and various other things.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 3
- Latest publication
- Sep 14, 2026
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- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 20, 2026
Latest issues
The Birds (opens the original)
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Something weird is going on with birds. What you need to know is that I’ve had a persistent avian phobia. I documented the problem on my erstwhile blog in 2019, thusly:I'm not sure I've ever written about my formerly-crippling fear of birds. It developed sometime around middle school and plagued me well into adulthood. I ducked and covered and avoided and panicked, all related to birds. Other people laughed about this, not because they didn't care about me, but because who's afraid of a friendly
Everything I've Read This Summer (opens the original)
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I know it’s August 8th, so we have a little summer left.But like it or not, there’s not a lot.I’ll be an empty-nester in six days. I have a new teaching job that starts in ten. Cross country (I’m a coach) starts in nine. And, I’ve finished eight books this summer. That’s a little low for me, but I’ve also abandoned quite a few. Last year, I invited more serendipity into my reading life by keeping my Libby (that’s the library app) hold list filled with random books I heard about everywhere—on pod
River Cruiser, Book Fairer, Teacher (opens the original)
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Here we are! We’re two weeks from August, and I wish I had a big pile of finished manuscript to show you…For better or worse, I’m not making fast progress on my new novel. I’m making ⭐️some⭐️ progress, but not the speedy or impressive kinds. It’s fine. I’m going to work on the book again today, tomorrow, and the day after that. That’s how it goes. Remember, I wrote my first book during recess duty and my seventeen-minute lunch break? We do what we can. Here’s what I’ve done more successfully:I’v
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