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Meet My Family Blog Tour Graphic 2018

A Celebration of ALL Kinds of Families and a Blog Tour!

First things first. Happy 30th anniversary to my fantastic husband, Randy Salas! My writing and career would be very different without him in my life.   Now, onto book stuff:>) Last week, I did my first school visit since receiving my author copies of Meet My Family, and it was great to read it aloud

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More Than Two Sides

More Than Two Sides, a Tanka About Truth [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) So, this month, our Poetry Princess challenge was my choice, so it’s extra frustrating that I found it SO challenging. I chose tanka (non-rhyming form with a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count) as our form, because I like short poems. But I also wanted our

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Moon Over Rooftops

Winter Sky [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Thank you for your poems last week! In case you’re wondering, that was a filtered picture of water pouring into my bathtub. The orange “straw” at the right

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Avalanche? [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.    This image (which I’m not going to identify right now) makes me think of several things:

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8 Things a Kid Believes In

8 Things a Kid Believes In [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I wanted to give myself a new poetry challenge for 2018, and here’s what I decided to do. I had bought a Sierra Club desk calendar on clearance. Something about the empty spaces in their orderly 7 spots for each week made me want to

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Angel Card

Angel Wings [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  I got so  many beautiful holiday cards this year, and one of my favorites was from Poetry Princess Tanita, who sent one of those amazing pop-up cards I

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When Death Moved In [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I hadn’t planned to post today, but this past couple of weeks, death has been touching the lives of Randy and me a lot in various forms. The death of our beloved dog, the death of a drum corps friend, the death of a comedian

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Candle

Candle [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Last week’s image was a close-up of the pompoms I use whenever we watch Dolphins games:>) This week, I give you: This image makes me think of several

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kirkus header

Diverse Family Structures Highlighted in MEET MY FAMILY!

It’s always nerve-wracking waiting for reviews, but–yay–here’s one from Kirkus. I’m glad the diversity theme came through loud and clear! KIRKUS REVIEW Animal babies from around the world describe their families. This information-packed title not only describes varied family structures and child-rearing practices, it gives the proper names of the children for each of 23

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Mae's Wall of Warmth

Mae’s Wall of Warmth [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday, and Happy New Year! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) 2017 ended on a low note for me, so I’m happy to be sharing poems with the Poetry Princesses today. We’ve decided to continue on our monthly journey of writing and posting poems according to a prompt chosen by

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Shredder [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Thank you, everyone who sent such nice thoughts of the death of our dog, Jackie. It’s been a painful week, and your touching notes have helped ease my

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In Memory of Jack

We just got home from the vet, where we had to have Captain Jack Sparrow put to sleep. It’s been a hard, hard day. Here are a few poems I wrote with Jack in mind, plus a video I made a couple of months ago. Thanks, you guys, for always being so fond of Jack

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Gloves on Ground

Gloves in the Snow [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome to the final 15 Words or Less Poems of the year! This is a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Walking to the mailbox with Jack is always an adventure. Trying to corral him while unlocking the mailbox with a tiny key

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