Poem in Your Pocket Day

Today is the last day of National Poetry Month and it's Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Simply, write a poem or choose one by your fav poet, and put it in your pocket. All day, share it with your friends, family, or strangers.

Click here to learn more.

I'm off to write out a poem. Woohoo, for April and poetry!

Marble or wire: Two processes to writing a novel

I was just smiling over Holly Cupala's post on her revision. Chatting with authors the past nineteen years, I find there are two approaches to writing a novel. I believe it became apparent to me when I was speaking with Randy Powell.

The first is like Randy and Holly. They are like Michelangelo sculpting a large piece of marble.



They write many, many, many words (their blocks of stone) and then they begin to chisel. Tap, tap, tap. Until the story forms and stands before them.

Ah, a reason to post David. :~)



Then there are writers like me. We begin with the thinnest armature wire.

Photo by Studio Arts.

And we build layer upon layer. One word added at a time. One word, then another, and another. Until our sculpture is created like a Giacometti appears to have been formed.


What different processes! And yet both end in novels! So, which are you?

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

On our way to Western Washington University, we stopped in Skagit Valley to see the tulips!


So beautiful up close...


or sitting among them...


with someone you love.

Field after field. Can you believe this?


There is so much beauty around us!

Poetry Friday: A Nap

A Nap

A nap is a speck
in time for warm, curled bones.
Don't disturb our fur.

Catch the full roundup with Lisa Chellman at Under the Covers.

Road Trip to WWU

Getting ready to head out with my oldest daughter to explore Western Washington University! She's looking to transfer as a Junior. Got the maps, the hotel, and the food. Road trip! (which is also a writing retreat in disguise. :~)

Celebrating with James Bond and M

So how does a rgz diva celebrate the completion of TBD '09? By hanging with a girlfriend and watching:



And then, watching it the next night with her b-day husband and fam. The grandmas were squealing. Honestly.



But I tell you, my hero is M!



Thanks to the creators for giving us an older, powerful, female character! She trusts her agent. :~) Brava, Judi!

Favorite quotes:

M: When someone says that they have people everywhere, you expect it to be hyperbole. Lots of people say that. Florists use that expression. It doesn't mean that they have people in the bloody room.

Camille: So, what's your interest in Greene?
James Bond: Among other things, he tried to kill a friend of mine.
Camille: A woman?
James Bond: Yes. But it's not what you think.
Camille: Your mother?
James Bond: She likes to think so.

Poetry Friday: TBD '09

Operation Teen Book Drop,
TBD '09

One book left behind
inscribed, waiting, open
for another soul.

Catch the roundup with Becky at Becky's Book Reviews.

Natural disasters run in my family

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew took my folks' house in Miami. Totaled it.



Now for a SECOND TIME, a tree has fallen on my biological father's home in Georgia and split it in two! The second time his house has been smashed by a tree!



Our home sits at the foot of Mt. Rainier. I'm just wondering...

Goodreads and Stars Upon Thars

With a nudge from Simon and Schuster, I've made it over to goodreads.com. I've received invites from friends for a year or so but haven't had the time to jump on it. Now I have!

I've made my list of my own works, classic loves, and what I'm reading now. THAT I love. However, I don't love putting up public stars on books. I know I'm truly missing out on the spirit of the site. But this is what comes to mind:




Do I put a star on the belly or not? Did a reader star my belly? If so, with how many stars? Is my belly even that big?

I can't do it! My compromise is to use goodreads as my bookshelf to review what I've read. Rarely will I do reviews.

If you want to know what I really think, you'll have to get your hands on my journal. There you will find my world belly view, those who have stars upon thars, and those that, in my opinion, don't. Because come on, we all have our own opinions, right? I just prefer to keep the bellies covered. If my little words, or absence of stars, ever hindered an author from writing their next great work, it would be a great sadness. On the flip side, I can't fling stars without merit, either.

So, at this point, for me, if you pass me on goodreads, let's just say I'll shake your hand, no matter the stars on your belly or mine.

Poetry Friday: Converse

Converse

Criss-crossed feet
stylin' in sneaks.
Laces and stripes
dancing tonight!

Catch the full roundup with Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner. Photo is by Miss Erin of my shoes!

From Stephenie Meyer, to Stephen King, to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe

I've been intrigued by Justina Chen Headley's post about Stephenie Meyer's writing. How Stephenie is beloved, an amazing contributor of YA lit, and that she ought not say that she is a storyteller rather than a writer. Yet, how does one withstand the verbal hit by a writing legend such as Stephen King?



With those thoughts popping around in my mind, I was assigning my daughter her reading in the college curriculum American History, a Survey by Alan Brinkley.



There's a section concerning sentimental novels. This quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne stopped me:

"and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash."



Nathaniel was complaining about middle class, female-generated fiction of the mid-nineteenth century. Here was a selection of work giving voice to female hopes and anxieties. Many were romances, while others dealt with social injustices and urged reform. This was a time in which women were new consumers in the growing industrial economy.

And who was the most famous sentimental novelist of the time? Harriet Beecher Stowe, known for her 1852 antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Alan Brinkley calls the work, "one of the most influential books ever published in America."



When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet, he said, "So you are the little lady that has brought about this great war."

Maybe Nathaniel didn't respect Harriet's work, but it still stands. It spurred national change. Stephen King claimed, "Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn," he said. "She's not very good." Not that different than Nathaniel's sentiments: "America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women."

We women will continue to exercise our voices through the written word and our novel purchases. We will publish alongside amazing male writers. And we will all instigate change in one heart or many.

Here's to Stephenie Meyer who has encouraged literacy across the world with a story we can delight in. Brava!

A Map of the Known World: Lisa Ann Sandell

How lovely is Lisa Ann Sandell? VERY! And not just because I'm partial to verse novelists. :~) Or because her middle name is Ann without an "e," too. Her latest work is prose, and it launches in a few short days!



Cora is dealing with the death of her older brother, Nate. Surviving in a small town while trying to unravel who her brother really was, she dreams of distant places she might one day visit. Her passion is to draw beautiful enhanced maps. When Cora begins to relate to Damian, the boy who survived her brother's car crash, she finds truth, friendship, and her own way through her world.

"They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something."

A Map of the Known World is a beautiful contribution to YA lit. The inclusion of art as a means to heal and understand is so well done and uplifting. In keeping with the novel's themes, Lisa has uploaded a virtual gallery. What a marvelous idea! She was kind enough to accept my collage for my latest work in progress. Look for Secrets!

Brava, Lisa! And happy launch to you!

A Map of the Known World
Lisa Ann Sandell
Scholastic Press, 2009

Report in for TBD '09!

You know rgz, GuysLitWire, YALSA, and publishers are dropping 8,000 new young-adult novels, audiobooks, and graphic novels into hospitals for teens across the country on April 16th, 2009.

Now it's time to focus on YOU! We invite all of you teen readers and YA authors to participate in Operation TBD. Help spur reading on a national scale! Leave a YA book in a public place on April 16th. Look at the joy you can share when a teen finds your book!

So what right now? You need a bookplate!

Click for bookplates!

Then leave a comment in the rgz blog report blog telling us what you are going to drop in your community. Want to tell us where? Think about taking a photo when you drop your book. You can upload it during the TBD Post-Op Party, a live chat in another rgz blog post that night at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern. You never know who you might bump into...

Are you an author? Drop a comment with your title and link to your site. We'd love to celebrate your work as you leave a free copy in your town! Mark your calendar for the Post-Op Party.

Spread the news about this blog! Report in to rock the drop!

TLA Top Ten (and a few more)

Justina asked me to share my top 10 moments from TLA. I found I had a photo for most!

1. Getting to travel with Justina and Dia. Although we missed Holly Cupala and Melissa Walker dearly!


2. Packing up the gifties for publishers who are supporting TBD '09!


3. Finding Jodie Cohen on the floor. She's now at Listening Library. We formerly worked together at Simon and Schuster. Note: she's wearing heels!


4. Meeting the legend Sharyn November who probably has her eyes closed here because she can't believe the ruckus the co-founders of rgz are making over her.


5. My massive fan girl moment over Gary Schmidt where I kept mentioning the breeze, the breeze in Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. Oh, my.


6. Happening upon Joan Bauer and putting two and two together to remember we first met at SCBWI National where we listened to Karen Hesse speak. I lurve Joan's work!


7. Our presentation to over 200 fantastic Texas librarians!


8. Our signings where S&S provided Hug Hug! and On Pointe for conference attendees.


9. Coming upon Justina's shrine of stars!

10. And then meeting Meg Cabot after working together multiple times with rgz!


There were so many highlights, really:

Authors: Sara Zarr, Ally Carter, Jennifer Zeigler, Justine Larbalestier, Walter Dean Myers, Margo Rabb, John Green, Scott Westerfeld, two Brown Bookshelf co-founders, and Cynthia Leitich Smith (and more, more, more!)

Publishers: the Little, Brown staff--Victoria Stapleton (Who I just love. She brought a chair into the Publishers' Reception. So appreciated. And her humor just cracks me up!) Kate Sullivan who helped carry my bags. How sweet is that? Laura Antonacci from S&S and her full team.

Librarians: our power lunch with Lorienne Roy and a midnight meeting with Beth Yoke. Susi Grissom and Joanna Nigrelli, our Texas hosts. An entire conference full of passionate, generous librarians. Just wonderful!

Here's to a great conference, and the rumor of TLA '10. I hope, I hope, I hope!



And sweet thanks to the librarian who asked me if my hair color was natural and another who gave me the "Best Shoe Award" for the entire conference. *wink*

Poetry Friday: Gulls, Suspended or Caught?

Okay, both of these popped out. Which is stronger to you? Thanks! And thanks to my daughter who took the photo. :~)

Suspended

The gulls
hang in the air;
buoyed on our laughter,
they weave their squeals
into our moment.


Caught

The gulls trap time.
Buoyed on our laughter,
they float
above our astonishment.

Catch the full roundup with Amy Planchak Graves at ayuddha.net