Check out this link! The illustrator for the pop-up books kept a blog about her inspiration for the series. It’s really cool, and she’s really talented! Bon appetite!
My Author Page at Amazon
I created my author page at Amazon.com. Stop by and check it out. I plan on adding more to it down the road. But for now, it gets the job done. Thanks and happy writing. http://http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0028OJPB6
Rattle contest–wish me luck
Three poems on their way to Rattle Magazine for Rattle’s 2009 Poetry Contest. Wish me luck. Grand prize is a nice amount of moolah. Not that I do it for the money. Cause I don’t. The money just helps.
Check Out These Mermaids
Who knew someone else had the mermaid rock band idea? I HAVE to get these and use them during readings and book signings, don’t you think?
Just like my book, Mermaid Battle of the Bands
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cl10/index.cfm?pkey=cnew-to-sale
The books are on their way from the printer now. Remember, keep your eye out for them this fall!
Finding Poets In the Cyber Stacks
I love searching for poems and poetry on the internet. Usually, it’s not a premeditated search. Usually, I’m shirking my job responsibilities in favor of a mental break that manifests as lounging around Poets and Writers online, The Writer’s Almanac, or some other literary Web site. Sometimes I’m looking for examples of the types of poetry certain literary magazines publish. So I check the table of contents, Google poets, read, and compare. More often than not, I realize I’m not their kind of poet (not vaginal enough, not earthy enough, not experimental enough, not formal enough, etc., etc.). But sometimes, sometimes, we strike a chord, this magazine and I, and via popular search engine they deliver to my screen a poet I could just eat. Case in point:
Poem From Which Wolves Were Banished
Jeanne Marie Beaumont
Winter is hogging the canvas tonight.
The cat and I lie curved at the edge
of the world,
well on our way to becoming a statistic.
On the far side
of white hills, gods propped on elbows
finger-paint clumsily a road, (YES!)
a few trees,
blood tracks through snow
and this, the only home that’s known—
a four-letter word with me in it.
I’ve grown complicated at life and need
to fold myself repeatedly
like an evolving organ.
Winter was simple once,
the year’s spare room.
Sure as the blanks of my eyes
and covering a great distance.
There poets scanned a row of crows as serial commas (I LOVE THIS!)
along a bare, listening branch.
Or saw the wind
strip off the leaves like gloves.
As though nature were an open book.
Now hardly that, more texture blind
as braille to the sighted,
as the animal’s fur I smooth.
How winter gets through us.
Pulse of a season.
(Ribs giving slightly at each breath)
Its truths chiefly horizontal.
Its drift toward dormancy resisted only
by the upright door, the furnace flame.
What hunts in winter has no store.
I’m half-sure the creature
out in the center of the road
has something in its mouth
so the wind does the howling
for them both.
But it’s a song I’ve been taught to ignore.
© 2007 University of North Carolina Greensboro (I posted copyright info! Please forgive me for posting the poem, UNC!)
Who does a girl have to sleep with around here to get published?
Just kidding!
Poets and Writers Magazine recently released a list of contest deadlines for June and July. Check it out. Best of luck! http://www.pw.org/content/submission_calendar
Puppet Theater Books Are Here!
Check out my new books on Amazon!http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Puppet+Theater+story+books Write a review if you want! But read them first, no fake reviews here. They should be available this fall at a retailer near you. Check for them in Sam’s Club and Costco and at Barnes and Noble and Borders. If they’re not there–ASK FOR THEM! I want these babies to sell!
Following the advice of a fortune cookie
If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be an editor at a children’s publishing company and have 4 published children’s books under my belt, I would have told you that I’d made it. Funny how the grass is always greener on the other side of an ambition. You see, I have always wanted to teach English and creative writing. Years ago, I weakly applied for several MFA programs, only to be rejected by all of them. (Looking back at the half-hearted submissions, I can see why!) I gave up on the dream in order to start paying off student loans and haven’t looked back.
Now, however, in the midst of an economic crisis that is affecting the retail market, and thus the publishing world, and an “evolving” personal life, I’m exploring new opportunities. Fueled by one of three fortunes I have taped to my computer at the office, I am getting my proverbial “move on.” Today, I looked down at the yellowing strips of paper and felt a flutter in my tummy when I read, “If you have great ambition, take as a big a step as possible toward fulfilling it.”
Don’t get me started on how this is in no way, shape, or form a fortune. I’m quite glad they don’t print actual fortunes. “You will experience great tragedy in your life.” isn’t quite as inspirational when taped to a computer monitor. What matters is that this pocket-sized bit of positivity lead me to send an email to Ashland University inquiring about their Master of Education and their Master of Fine Arts programs.
I don’t know where this might lead. Considering I have some trouble navigating through the actualities of working motherhood while simultaneously trying to accomplish life-long dreams (hence the current defunct status of my novel, the inspiration for this blog), I might not get much farther than this. But, it was a big step for me, and according to my fortune, that’s good enough.
*The entirety of this blog was written while expressing breast milk for my daughter. he he he
Poem in July 2008 Issue of The English Journal
Hey guys, the poem Epic Oridinary was published in The English Journal. Visit the site at http://www.englishjournal.colostate.edu/ if you’d like a copy of the issue.
I had a baby (or, the newest excuse in a long list of many)
My Little Punk Rock Hippie Chick
Amelia Margaret Goodwin was born on March 3, 2009.
She is a bit of lemon zest in a cupcake.
A perfectly cut peice of pie, the crust still intact, the insides spilling out . . .
just so
She’s the bee’s knees
