Front Garden/Back Garden

Both are made to sow seeds and grow plants.

But some people expect that your front garden should be beautiful and have curbside appeal, and your back garden should be for vegetables and uglier plants where no one can see them.

The front garden is my books. They've been edited, designed, published, read, reviewed, and awarded.

But this website is back garden. It's home to weird experiments and odd ideas. The stories and posts are imperfect, but I intentionally share it all.
Hopefully, the ideas from here will grow into front garden projects.

However, some people might ask why I show my back garden. It's not showing me in my best light or selling me as a writer. The writing is rough and unfinished.

The reason is that I'm a teacher, so I want to show up and share my work. If I expect my students to write weekly, so should I, whether it's perfect or not. It certainly can be dismissed as "David's a shit writer," but it also shows my process to the good stuff.

However, this website is also for me. A place where I choose to show up and do daily work. Either share a lesson I've learned, an idea I'm wrestling with, or write a new story. All of these keep me practicing my craft regularly without excuses.

Does this make the work here messy? Of course, it does. But in the end, I believe it keeps me honest—with my students and myself—and, therefore, celebrates the ugly garden that can hopefully become something beautiful.