C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

How About Movie Tonight? Post Christmas and Happy 2015!

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How about a movie tonight? 
Popcorn? 
Yes?

So here’s one that caught my attention, thanks to Lauren of Shooting Star Magazine. 

It’s a modern take on Teens (right up my alley), and I loved the TRAILER. The cast has some new faces, but some actors that I know and enjoy watching. 

Here’s the lineup:  Britt Robertson, Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Robert Patrick, Max Carver. The director is Allison Burnett.

Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, ASK ME ANYTHING is a contemporary tale of identity, voyeurism, and deception.

Find their FACEBOOK page and give them a like. 

And it’s a topic that’s so important to explore. Do you post your intimate experiences online? I don’t. And I don’t connect with my family there either. Oh, they’re on all social media, but I’d rather keep them separate from what I do as a writer. I’m out here to connect with writers and readers I wouldn’t have the pleasure of knowing otherwise. I’m here to show you my work, share what I know, learn from you and enjoy some fun together. 


What’s your take on sharing personal information online? 

******

drdeborahserani.blogspot.com
After Christmas should be a time to kick back, loosen your belt and sigh with satisfaction-maybe see a movie. So that’s exactly what I’m doing. . .just as soon as I de-decorate the house, organize the guest list for New Year’s Eve,  finish the blog posts I’ve promised for January and apologized to the friends and relatives I didn’t get those notes to in time for the 25th! 
How are you doing out there this post Christmas day? Ready for 2015? Of course you are. See you next year. 

Pros Part 3, Elizabeth Seckman’s Hop, and I’m A NotSoAccidental Blog Tourist

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Part 3: The Pros Give Us Some Advice and Happy Launch Day to Me

I’m back to enjoying this series that features writer friends who have some excellent books out. I asked them to send me their latest book, their tagline and a short piece of advice they wanted to pass on to writers, especially those still seeking publication. Last time YVONNE VENTRESCA visited with PANDEMIC. Today we have Michelle Zink, an author I debuted with and one great person to know.
AVAILABLE NOW AT B&N
Tagline:

Voodoo… Secrets… Revenge. 
Advice for YA writers:

Read everything in the genre. Everything. Not just the big commercial hits or the ones everyone is talking about. Look for books outside your comfort zone, books that have been shortlisted for awards or won them, books about characters with which you wouldn’t normally identify, books you’ve never heard of but that have good word of mouth from a friend. It’s easy to get in a rut and think the genre is derivative (and that you have to be derivative, too), but reading widely will remind you how much is possible, and inspiration will strike you in the most unexpected of places.
Prophecy of the Sisters Trilogy
A Temptation of Angels
This Wicked Game

Lies I Told (Spring 2015))

by Michelle Zink
www.michellezink.com

******

 Availble at Evernight Teen
Double Negative’s visiting some more blogs. 

7/27 Beverly Stowe McClure 
7/27 Jess and Stephanie-Author Tracker blog
7/28 Alex Cavanaugh
7/28 L. Diane Wolfe-Spunk on a Stick and Circle of Friends 
7/30 M. J. Fifield
7/30 Julie Musil
7/30 Crystal Collier


If you haven’t entered to win the giveaway, it’s still open. Jump in.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

And Now My Contribution to ELIZABETH SECKMAN’S
Totally Imaginative HOP-The Year Was 1865

I’m excited to join in the celebration of the release of Elizabeth Seckman’s new historical novel, Bella’s Point. While the canons were exploding, and the North and South were asunder, a man out here in California was busy with something literary, so my snippet is a bit tangential. Hope nobody minds. 

The Year Was 1865. . .

The ghost didn’t scare Hazel, but it rattled her while she was working because it disrupted her routine. It wafted here and there while she tried to polish the library floor or dust tables, and, while she tried to ignore it, it distracted her from getting her job done. She’d no sooner tidy a row of book spines so they lined up flush with the edge, than a cold finger would hook one book and tug it off the shelf. Then the ghost fluttered away, thumbing the pages, then dropping the book anywhere when it had finished reading.
Rita Baum was already getting ready to fire her. Hazel could tell by how the librarian squinted her direction while re-shelving those errant books. Rita blamed her for the mess the library was in. That ghost had to leave, and Hazel was going to see to it. 
The problem was she had no idea about how to banish ghosts. She knew mops and cleansers and not much more. But she wasn’t a woman who gave up once she set her mind to doing something, so on the next Monday night when the library closed early, Hazel planned to deal with her ghostly problem. She arrived just at dusk and waited until the white cloudy form plucked the first book, fluttered its pages, then stuffed it back almost where it belonged.
As the ghost moved down the row, Hazel retrieved the book and read the title. Short Story Crafting. She put it in its correct spot and followed the ghost’s route, reading each title it selected. The Modern Short Story. How to Write Good Short Story. Grammar and Style.
When she reached the end of that row, she peered into the next, but it was empty. Usually, when the ghost was near she could feel it. The chill. The wisp of vapor. But now she felt nothing. Maybe trailing after it had frightened it away. She returned the last book to its proper shelf and brushed her hands together, satisfied and very pleased that it had taken such a short time to free herself from that pesky intruder.
She finished the floors in the non-fiction section and made her way to fiction. For a change, her job was nearly done tonight on time. And as she ran the mop along row PQR, she imagined that hot bath and TV show waiting for her at home. Then that familiar chill sprang along her arms. When she walked into the next row, STU, the ghost stood not a few feet away. The worst part of its return was that it was tearing pages from a book. That would mean her job for sure. Before she thought better of it, she lunged for the book and yanked it away. 
The ghost stood as still as a vapor can, and stared at her. “That was rude.” While the voice was all about mist and particles, it was a man’s voice.
“Not as rude as you. You can’t tear pages out of a library book!” She held out he hand. “Give me those.”
He shook his head. “These are mine.”
“Not likely. They belong to Angels Camp Public Library.”
“See here, young lady, I wrote this.” The ghost waved the loose pages in the air.
Hazel glanced at the book in her hand. The Collected Works of Mark Twain. She shifted her eyes back to the ghost. “Who are you anyways?”
He pointed at the book she held. “That is me. Or who I used to be before this terrible and permanent affliction.” He waved a hand over his ghostly form.
She opened the book to where several pages were missing. “So what is it you’re here to do?” Hazel liked things simple and tidy, and a book with missing pages annoyed her terribly.
“It has come to my attention that my prose is out of date. I have a Pass to visit for a sufficient time to make modern at least one story.”
“That seems kind of weird,” Hazel said. “Sort of like changing history.”
“Perhaps, but I intend re-writing this one about the jumping frog.”
“I can’t see the reason—”
“Listen to this.” The ghost cleared his throat, then began to read from the papers he clutched. “‘In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend’s friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result.’” He looked up at her. “Well?”
“Hmm. Kind of high and mighty sounding,” Hazel said.
The ghost agreed with a grunt. “No one’s likely to read it written the way it is. Not in this century. The year was 1865 when I wrote that. Things have changed a bit in storytelling. I’m here to set this right, but I don’t have much time left on my Pass.”
Hazel considered the problem. Rita Baum would toss her and her mops right out the door if she found this book shredded. But that writer ghost wasn’t about to budge. He was one stubborn haunt. She could tell by the way he held tight to those pages. “Look here. How about I get you some paper and a pencil, so as you can do your re-writing, but you give me those pages. I’ll lose my job if you don’t.”
Mr. Twain hesitated, then handed the pages to Hazel. “I can’t be causing a loss of a job, but I’d appreciate it mightily if you’d give me that paper and pencil.” 
He wrote for over an hour, then he gave Hazel what he’d written. She tucked the new version into the book with the restored pages she’d carefully taped back into place, then re-shelved the book in exactly the right spot.
“I thank you kindly, “ the ghost said and vanished.
A few nights later, when she’d finished mopping row STU, she opened The Collected Works of Mark Twain and took out the loose pages. Curious, she sat and read the straight up and down strokes of the handwritten lines. “‘A friend of mine wrote me from the East and ask me to visit old Simon Wheeler. My friend wanted to know what ever happened to a guy named, Leonidas W. Smiley. When I found Wheeler, he had quite a tale to tell.’” 
She turned her face to the ceiling, thinking that Mr. Twain might hear her clearer that way. “Not so highfalutin now. Much better.” 

******

Thanks to Dianne Salerni for asking me to be on The Not So Accidental Blog Tourist Hop. (Eat your heart out Gary!)
Dianne’s credits are impressive. She’s the author of The Eighth Day MG fantasy series (HarperCollins) and YA historical novels, The Caged Graves (Clarion/HMH) and We Hear the Dead (Sourcebooks). Dianne was a public school teacher for 25 years before leaving the profession to spend more time hanging around creepy cemeteries and climbing 2000 year-old pyramids in the name of book research.

I’m about hopped out, but here’s my contribution to this HOP. 

1.What am I currently working on?

I’m just wrapping up two projects. One is another young adult and I’m back to my female protagonist with this one, and my usual older character with issues. The second project is the sequel to Alligators Overhead, my middle grade fantasy/adventure. I’ve sent it to a to publisher, so I’m in the waiting room.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

You won’t find a lot of romance in my books, so don’t buy them if that’s what you want to read. My characters do love and they do have romantic moments—a few—but as you’ll see from my covers, my characters are the ones mostly on the outside, looking in or dealing with some hard life issues. There’s not a ball gown in sight. Maybe one of these days I’ll write something so I can have a beautiful girl and a beautiful dress on the front of my book.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

One reason I write “gritty” stories for young adults is that I want them to connect with my characters-the loners, the abused, the neglected, the seekers who have only a dim light to guide them. I want them to see they aren’t alone and that others, maybe the author, have experienced and understand what they’re going through. 
4. How does your writing/creating process work?
I wish I knew. If someone could see inside my brain and explain what’s going on, I’d pay a lot of money to them. Each book comes to me in a different way. Sometimes I write the end first. Sometimes I write all kinds of scenes, in no particular order. Sometimes I doodle for hours, walk, pout and give up being a writer because I’m sure I’m not one of those.

Now be sure to check out these two fine writers next Monday, August 4 and see what their answers to these questions are.
CARRIE’S BLOG
CARRIE BUTLER
Carrie daydreamed her way through college—until they thrust a marketing degree into her hands, slapped a summa cum laude seal on the corner, and booted her out into a less-than-stellar job market. Instead of panicking at the prospect of unemployment, she used her Midwestern logic to steer into the skid and point her life in the direction she really wanted to go: writing out those daydreams.Her passion for New Adult fiction led her to co-found NA Alley—one of the first websites dedicated to the category. A year later, she started a design business specializing in graphics for the publishing industry, called Forward Authority. Her Mark of Nexus series has appeared on Amazon bestselling, top-rated, and hot new release lists in various genres.

STEPHEN TREMP 
Stephen Tremp lives with his wife and two daughters in Mission Viejo, CA. He has a B.A. in information systems and an MBA degree in global management. Stephen has a background in information systems, management, and finance and draws from this varied and complex experiential knowledge to write one-of-a-kind thrillers.
His novels are enhanced by current events at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other scientific research facilities around the world. These potential advances have the ability to change the way we perceive our universe and our place in it! You can email Stephen at [email protected] and visit him at his WEBSITE for more synopses, reviews, and links to purchase or download his books from Amazon. 

Double Negative Has a Cover.

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AVAILABLE TO BUY 7/25

I’m in the middle of Advice From the Pros Series, but I have to interrupt that for a moment because my new young adult novel, Double Negative, makes it’s first appearance as a book, and I’m in a bit of a fritz. 

I’ve recycled my SADOTY Award for this occasion. The cat spoke to me, Gary.

Sixteen-year-old Hutchinson McQueen is a big time loser. Trapped in a dysfunctional family, his one thought is escape, but everything he does to get away lands him in trouble. Shackled by poor reading skills, he squeaks through classes with his talent for eavesdropping and memorizing what he hears. When he shoplifts and lands in juvenile detention, the court sentences him to a county youth program. There he meets the priest and Maggie, a retired teacher. They’re determined to set Hutch on a path leading away from trouble. Hutch is determined not to cooperate, and he blunders his way from one mess into another. It isn’t until he’s facing serious charges that he confronts the truth-his own bad choices are trapping him. The priest and Maggie have offered him the freedom he craves. All he has to do is take it.

Hope you’ll enter my giveaway to win either a copy of my book or some shopping money. Then please stop by  some of the bloggers who’ve jumped in to help me out. 

7/21 PATRICIA LYNNE
7/21 SHAH WARTON
7/21 LITERARY RAMBLES
7/22 JENN HUBBARD & HERE
7/23 ELIZABETH ARROYO
7/23 SHER HART
7/23 ANGELA BROWN
7/23 JULIE KEMP
My quote for you today is from Helen Mirren: “The word ‘freedom’ is batted around rather too freely. I like self-discipline.”

Part 2: The Pros Give Us Some Advice and What About Talking to Editors Anyway?

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Last week I started a series that featured some writer friends who have some excellent books out this year. I asked them to send me their latest book, their tagline and a short piece of advice they wanted to pass on to writers, especially those still seeking publication. Last week CHERYL RAINFIELD visited. Today I have one of my critique partners, YVONNE VENTRESCA. Waving at YV! Take it away.
Now available at AMAZON and B and N

Tagline: In Pandemic, a teenage girl struggles to survive not only a deadly influenza outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.

Advice from YV: Author Richard Bach said, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” Persistence is definitely key in this business. Good writing is certainly important, but there’s something to be said for not giving up.

Thanks Great Critique Partner. 

******
And now about talking to editors.

The first time I had a chance to talk to an editor in person was at a conference, and my tongue kept sticking to the roof of my mouth. No wonder she didn’t have any encouragement for me. How could she ever work with an author who couldn’t get her ideas across.

My next encounter with an editor was much smoother. I could talk. I could tell her what my idea was and why I was presenting it to her. Hurray! I was learning. Here are some tips that I used in that second face-to-face with someone I wanted to interest in my book.
  • I planned for this meeting far in advance. I knew about the editor, what she was looking for, and I knew about her press-what they’d recently published. I was confident my book was a match for her and her company.

  • Just before the conference, I interacted with her via Twitter. She was posting about her walk on the beach (the conference was on the CA coast), so I Tweeted her that I lived nearby and knew the place she was describing. That’s all. No pitch. No hustle. 

  • I made sure to attend the social gatherings, met her and talked about her walk on the beach. Again, that was all. I kept it social, but I wanted her to know I was the one who had Tweeted her earlier. 

  • I arrived exactly on time for our fifteen minute meeting. It was easy to greet her since we’d already had two informal encounters.

  • Earlier, I’d paid careful attention to her presentation on the editors’ panel, and I used this line to start our conversation about my proposal. ” I liked what you said about realistic fiction for teens. It made me think you might be interested in my idea.”  

  • I had my tagline memorized, and I told her I would follow up with a query if she was interested in my idea. 
I admit that she didn’t buy my manuscript, but she did ask for it, and she gave me some excellent advice when she turned me down. I know it was her advice that led to my sale of that book later because it changed the book from one that wouldn’t sell, to one that might. I don’t think she would have bothered if I hadn’t laid some ground work to meet her and present my idea clearly. 

While my sale didn’t happen as I’d hoped, it did happen, and I believe it was because I’d made a connection with this editor, and she was willing to take the time to help me.

Did you like YV’s quote? Be sure to check out her book. It’s good. Any other ideas on meeting with editors/agents? Oh, and Happy Bastille Day.

The Pros Give Us Some Advice and How to Use Coincidence in Fiction

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Last month I asked a few writer friends who have some excellent books out if they’d be interested in appearing on my blog. Eight responded and sent me their latest book, their tagline and a short piece of advice they wanted to pass on. So I’ll be featuring one of these amazing writers each week.

Buy it now on AMAZON or B&N

To kick off the series is CHERYL RAINFIELD. Her newest book is STAINED, and does it sound like a must read. I really loved her cover and these words: “Sometimes YOU have to be your own hero.”

Tagline: Sarah is abducted and must find a way to rescue herself.

Her Advice: Write what you love and what you want to read. Write about things you care deeply about; your work will have more passion and readers will feel it. And read as much as you can, especially in the genre you write in.

Thanks, Cheryl. 

******

About Coincidence. 

I found myself grappling with the issue of coincidence when I started writing middle grade fantasy. I’d never had to think about it before and that was because I avoided it. At least I tried. Then I found an old article by Nancy Kress and thought it might be helpful to others who also try to avoid this taboo in their plots.
Here’s what she suggested. Coincidence can be effective in 3 specific situations:
  • When it sets up a plot complication, but doesn’t resolve it.

So let’s see what that means. Let’s say your character “accidentally” bumps into her ex-whatever and finds him once again irresistible. From then on, the story can be about their reconciliation or their attempted reconciliation and failure-whatever direction you want your story to take. The chance meeting doesn’t occur at the end when you’re trying to wrap up the story and their meeting will give you a perfect ending. 

No Reality Here
  • When the story is comedy and you’re not trying to set up reality. 

I had in mind You’ve Got Mail when I read this. How coincidental could that online meeting between a small bookstore owner and the large F O X conglomerate be? And then keeping the secret was a great tension builder throughout the story. 
  • When you’re trying to make the point that life is more “mysterious and unpredictable” than people can imagine.

Ms. Kress says this is the most sophisticated use of coincidence and she uses her own short story to show how it could be done. Her character has nothing but a series of coincidences. He chokes on food, but while he’s choking his car’s struck and the force dislodges the particle in his throat. These “miracles” continue throughout the story, baffling the character and pushing the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief.  Her suggestion is to be sure the character remains REAL even while the unreal events occur. 
Hope you’ll stop by Cheryl Rainfield’s blog and say hi. Check out her book. She has lots to say in every one of them. And how about coincidence? What’s your take on using it?
I’ll leave you with this today: “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.” 

What Writers Can Learn from Successful Corporate Types

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The results are in on my inexact, informal survey. 
Here’s the hypothetical situation I proposed. The book is in the submission phase, so the writer is in that wonderful hell called WAITING-TO-HEAR-BACK.  What do you think is the most important thing this writer should do, believing that s/he will be published and will soon have to tell the world about this new book?
16 said keep writing 
  • something new and different
  • something to “play with” and enjoy

11 said work on marketing (many went on to be very specific)
  • set up blog tour
  • set up cover reveal 
  • book promo posts
  • blog about that tour
  • prepare “stock questions” for interviews
  • organize mailing list
  • plan website updates
  • set up social media accounts

1 make list of reviewers
1 read 
1 critique other’s work 
1 research agents
1 work on tag lines and synopses 
1 take a break before starting something new

1 make list of alternative titles

1 do anything that needs doing, even clean the bathroom
We could have predicted these responses, couldn’t we? Well, all but the bathroom suggestion. Writers are a-nose-to-the-grindstone lot. Keep writing. Start the next project. Develop a marketing plan. Whatever you do, don’t forget you’re a writer, even in the down times. 
I was sure we weren’t the only compulsive workaholics, so I took a look at a successful person in another profession and came up with some interesting things.  
While developing the Huffington post, Arianna Huffington pushed herself to the brink of exhaustion, finally fainting, falling and breaking her cheekbone on the edge of her desk.
I loved what she said about realizing she had to slow down. ” The toughest part was disconnecting from all my devices. . .” (she was running an online media company :-))
Here’s some of the other things she said that I thought we writers might take something from.
  • learn to live with incompletion
  • say no to things, even when you want to do them
  • remember success has to include health and happiness or it isn’t success.

Let’s hear it for Arianna!
*****
Juvie in Orange

So now I’m back to my Logline/Tagline creation. I got some great feedback and did some more work.

Previous Week: Shackled by near illiteracy, a teenage boy decides escape from his alcoholic mother and absentee father will give him a better life, but his bad choices trap him in even a worse place.
This Week: Sixteen-year-old Hutch McQueen is shackled by near illiteracy and trapped in a dysfunctional family. When he tries to escape, he chooses the wrong way and lands in juvenile hall. He might have a second chance if he listens to the priest and the teacher. 
Tagline: 
Previous Week: Going to juvie wasn’t part of his escape plan. 

This Week: He’s trapped by near illiteracy, surrounded by tempting escape plans, short on good choices. 

What do you think of Arianna’s advice? Any other suggestions for my log line/tagline?  Have a great Monday. 

How to Avoid Common Writer Mistakes & Cassa Fire’s Special

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If only it were easy to WhiteOut our mistakes.
http://tinyurl.com/l348ctv

Since I’ve made every mistake a writer can, I thought I could speak to this issue with some authority.

I waited way too long to start thinking about publicity.

I thought my publisher would do it all. Please don’t laugh. I was a mere child when I began.

I said, “If I can write a book, surely I can promote all by myself.”

I thought my book was good enough I didn’t need to worry about promoting it. (This isn’t exactly what I thought, but close.)

I thought that the media would pick up my Tweets and my Blog Posts and my FB Post in no time flat.

I thought that if I did a few Tweets, a few Blog Posts, a few FB Posts, I could kick back and have a nap.

I thought once I had a publisher, I didn’t have to think about finding another one.

Now that I’m a seasoned soldier in the book publishing business I can admit to all these mistakes and more. So what to do to avoid these?

 Chess…(1)
163336 © Andrei Mihalcea | Dreamstime Stock Photos

7 to 12 months before launch

  • start lining  up your reviewers.
  • make a list of book fairs or events that are scheduled around your launch target. 
  • make a list of things you can count on your publisher to do for you and fill in the gaps yourself or hire a publicist. 
  • make sure your website is up to date.

6 months before launch

  • send announcements to newspapers, trade magazines, especially those with “up-coming publications” columns.
  • write press release, so you’ll have it to send with your ARCs or galleys.
  • troll for blurbs
  • have a professional author photo taken
  • set up Google Alerts for both your author name and your book title

5 months before launch

  • update  your business cards
  • order bookmarks etc.
  • lay out a book tour for yourself. This can be in addition to what your publisher has done, or just what you want to do.

3-4 months before launch

  • have book trailer made.
  • write letters pitching your book to media.
  • check with local bookstores to see if they will carry your book.
  • create launch materials: interviews, giveaway ideas, activities for blogs.

2 months before launch

  • schedule your launch appearances: virtual or in person, using your launch materials.
  • memorize your tagline or pitch, so you can say it any time, anywhere.
  • recheck website and add your buylinks.

Just before the big DAY

  • confirm everything with everyone. 
  • schedule Tweets with buylinks for AM and PM daily. 

After the big DAY: do not stop promoting. 

This isn’t a complete list of things to do, so I hope you’ll add to it. I’ve gleaned these steps from other bloggers, my experience and reading what publicists have to say. 

ALEX CAVANAUGH’S BLOG

Here’s a writer who know all of this stuff. Be sure to take advantage of this last day of his offer.  CassaFire is 99 cents at AMAZON and his publisher’s site. 

Monday Special-When Comes What Darkly Thieves

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I’m skipping my Monday Miscellany this week to focus on a special book-one that really captured my eye and my imagination. Just look at BEN RUBIN’S art work.  To me it’s highly evocative and totally irresistible. His story is as well, and it may be in picture book format, but it appeals to all age groups with its tale of gypsies, and fears and those dreams that catch at us in the night. Here’s how that tale begins.

     Imagine this, you have always been afraid of gypsies, and for
     good reason too. After all, you’ve been told all your life that
     gypsies carry children away in sacks, that they take them
     away from their families, away from everything they’ve ever
     loved and everything they’ve ever known.

So two of you wonderful followers of the Write Game can get a free pdf copy by leaving a comment and spreading the word about WHEN COMES WHAT DARKLY THIEVES.

I want to support this writer/illustrator for several reasons: I love his work. He’s taken a risk by writing and drawing something that is new and different. 10% of any of his sales, he donates to charitable causes. Very lovely combination of reason, wouldn’t you say?

So if you’d like this gorgeous, unique book delivered to your computer, tell me so. Give Ben some promotion on Twitter and fb and wherever you hang out, then let me know the links so I can tell him. Offer expires Friday, Sept. 23.

It would be very nice if you’d also visit his WEBSITE and buy a hardcopy of his book. When you do you also get a sharable pdf. Think Christmas and think “very collectible book.” I’ve already got mine!

Monday Miscellany

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Well, it’s close to Monday. Seems like Monday came a little too soon for me to make my usual deadline, so I guess this is technically Tuesday Miscellany. 

The most important news is that I’ll probably be doing more workshops in the near future. The people liked what happened in the last one and they are asking for more. I may even be doing one for foster care kids and that’s one I’m really thrilled about. 

I visit Daisy Day Writer’s blog SunnyRoomStudio a lot because it’s so lovely and thought provoking. On one visit I posted about the synergy of art and the written word, and that made me remember E.E. Cummings who made some of his poetry into pictures. Here’s one of my favorites where the childlike attitude toward spring is capture not only in the words, but also in the way he lets those words skip onto the page.

in Just-
spring               when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame baloonman

whistles          far                     and wee

and eddieanbill com
running from marbles and 
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old baloonman whistles
far      and         wee

and abettyandisbelcom dancing
from hop-scotch and jum-rope and
it’s spring
and
      the
           goat-footed
BaloonMan
far 
and 
wee

Feel like playing a bit? Try creating some poetry-pictures. 

Here’s an old one, more charm than poetry, but still with the rhythm of a poem and the written words in a magical form. 

A
AB
ABR
ABRA
ABRAC
ABRACA
ABRACAD
ABRACADA
ABRACADAB
ABRACADABR
ABRACADABRA

The word gradually expands and becomes complete, the sound of the word unfolding like a bit of magic. 

Have fun and I hope you’ll share something with me that you’ve painted in words. 

Monday Miscellany

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What a wonderful way to start a week and spring too. I finished my Library Loving Blog Challenge with new followers and with new friends here at the Write Game. Thanks to all of you who participated and helped me help one of my favorite places on planet earth, Los Gatos Public Library.  

Our Launch yesterday was a rousing success. Here are a few pictures of the people who are making it possible for our new library to have the state of art furniture, fixtures and equipment.

To add to the excitement of the Launch Dr. Edward Lu, Nasa Astronaut, talked to the crowd and answered questions from the young library supporters.

I haven’t circled the earth hundreds of times like Dr. Lu, but I have had a full week. In addition to helping out at the Launch, I co-taught another Young Writers’ Workshop. I was amazed at some of the excellent writing that these Tweens produced in the four hours we were together. Here are some young writers at work.

Outside of having the great good luck of participating in these library-related activities, I actually reached by 30K word count goal on my WIP, did three seriously wonderful Yoga sessions, and started reading Tinkers. 
Welcome SPRING. Welcome FIRST DANDELION as it puffs it’s way toward the sun. Here’s a little Whitman to celebrate this season of stirring-of new life.
Simple and fresh and fair from winter’s close emerging,
As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,
Forth from it’s sunny nook of shelter’d grass-innocent, golden, 
     calm as the dawn,
The spring’s first dandelion shows its trustful face.
What is it in this season that you celebrate most?