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It’s Like Billy Collins Read My Mind!
I mentioned recently that I had ordered Billy Collins’ Picnic, Lightning and a couple of other poetry books as my own Christmas gifts. And in a separate post, we chatted about writing in books and whether it’s a sign of love or a desecration (most, but not all, people vote the former). So I laughed
Quotation Motivation: Writing Is Bart
“Realize that publishing isn’t art, it’s bart. That’s business and art. Being true to oneself also requires being true to what publishing requires today. A writer needs to realize he can’t just sit home and write. He must market, promote, blog, Twitter, travel, call, cajole, shake hands, interpretive dance, whatever it takes to build
No To-Do List?
Every Sunday, I make my weekly to-do list. It includes reminders of all the things I try to do daily, like morning pages, blog, read 5 poems, daily poem, 15 minutes of nothing, work out, train Jack, track my food, etc. Then there’s a list of specific appointments I have, like my Wordsmiths holiday crit
Quotation Motivation: Who is that woman?
“Be curious: Who is that woman buying five lemons and two peaches at the grocery counter? What does her purse contain? And what does she dream at night? Only you, the writer, care. Don’t let her disappear out in the parking lot and into oblivion.” –Natalie Goldberg (Writer’s Digest article…Sep 2010)I love this quotation…especially
Quotation Motivation: Zipping Along the Surface
Does anyone else feel this way, too? “What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. Whether I’m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver
Tech Wreck: Good News, Bad News
I spend most of my days at the computer, online, working. I’m not a longhand writer, and I love being part of the online writing community, so technology is crucial for me. The Good News: I got an iPhone (NOT a birthday present, Randy insisted, so he gave it to me the night before my
Poetry Friday: The Insult (by me)
A couple of weeks ago, I shared how I came to write some found poems recently.Last week I shared another found poem (“I’m Sort of Sorry About What Happened While I Was Walking My Dog”), again aimed at about 4th-5th grade. Today I’m sharing one last one, at least for now. It came out too old for
10 Books I Loved as a Kid
The Northwoods Children’s Book Conference had a neat event In honor of keynote speaker Anita Silvey’s wonderful book, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book. Each of the presenters, plus some attendees, got up and spoke very briefly about the children’s book that most influenced them. I found this impossible and failed
Poetry Friday: I’m Sort of Sorry About What Happened… (by me)
Last week, I shared how I came to write some found poems recently.This week I’m sharing another found poem, again aimed at about 4th-5th grade. Today’s found poem is called “I’m Sort of Sorry About What Happened While I Was Walking My Dog,” and the source material is an online review of Mario Kart DS.
Poetry Friday: How to Talk to a Girl (by Me)
I wrote some found poems to submit for an anthology a couple of months ago, but the way I do found poems is a little different–I like to find an article or song or whatever and use it kind of like a word bank to create a poem out of. I don’t usually try to
That Freaking Goldilocks Chapter Book
You might think I’m annoyed with this project, given this post’s title, but I’m really not. It’s myself I’m annoyed with. That’s just my “affectionate” nickname for this whole project now. Anyway, I wrote three chapter book first drafts last November during NaNoWriMo, and one of them was this Goldilocks-related story. I was so excited–I liked the
Checking Off Goals–Not That I Necessarily Accomplished Them, But…
2010 is 2/3 over! I figured it was a good time to check on my writing goals for this year (not including any of my work-for-hire writing or hourly work I do) and see how I’m doing. Various changes over the past few months have affected my time, energy, and income level, so it’s a
Quotation Motivation: Flap Those Ears
“We should approach the page as a dog approaches an open car window. We have to stick our heads out, let our ears flap and watch for bugs in our eyes. We have to be in and of the moment. We have to let our hearts fly.” –N.M. Kelby A dog with its head
Boston Pictures…Minus a Few
I blogged Monday about the quick trip my husband and I took to Boston. Now I have a few pix to share, except none of our tour of the USS Constitution, which was a high point of the trip. The camera battery died (of course) that morning. And Facebook isn’t letting me upload pix from my
Back from Boston’s Back Bay
Randy and I just got home from a short trip to Boston, and we had a great time. Highlights included a whale watching cruise (where we saw two mother humpback whales and their calves, plus a couple of minke whales), touring the USS Constitution, and eating amazing amounts of food (Randy–seafood, me–salads, pastas, and sandwiches). We
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Are You Looking For?
Go to my Poetry page for:
- National Poetry Month projects through the years
- Small Reads Roundups (poems grouped by topic)
- Introductions to several favorite poetry forms