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We Are Woven (my Gift Tag poem)

I’ve posted before about Gift Tag, the new poetry e‑thology edited?and published by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It’s only $2.99 (buy it from the link on poetrytagtime.com), a complete bargain for poetry lovers (and perhaps a converter for?kids who aren’t already poetry lovers). Today, I thought I’d share my poem. We each chose a

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Poetry Friday: If a Tree Falls (by me, from BookSpeak!)

This post was originally scheduled to run November 18, while I was in Chicago. I apparently didn’t schedule it properly, because nothing published. But better late than never–here it is! ——————————————————————————— I’m in Chicago attending the NCTE convention tonight and tomorrow! In a panel called Poetry for Paupers tomorrow morning, organized by Poetry for Children’s

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Chicago–Whew!

I got home last night from my whirlwind trip to Chicago for NCTE. Wow. I spent Wednesday and Thursday and Sunday with my daughter, Maddie, who came with me for college visits and fun (2 college visits, 2 hotels, 11 miles walked on Thursday, Cloud Gate, Field Museum, shopping on the Magnificent Mile, eating our

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Poetry Friday Roundup: Starry Beach

Welcome to Poetry Friday! This is my first time hosting here at my new (and still being decorated) bloghome on WordPress, and I’m happy you’re here! Here’s a poem I wrote earlier this year. It’s part of a batch of seashell poems I wrote to submit to a themed magazine. None were accepted, but I’m

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Happy Birthday, BookSpeak!

Today is the pub date of my second poetry collection with Clarion! Happy Birthday, BookSpeak! In BookSpeak!, 21 wild, wacky, and winsome poems showcase the magic on a single bookshelf. Characters plead for sequels, book jackets strut their stuff, and a raucous party starts when the lights go out at the bookstore! You can watch my book trailer

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Great News on Eight Great Planets!

I received the very fun news last week that one of my books, Eight Great Planets (Picture Window Books, 2010), won the 2010 Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award — Children’s Category. This is one of my Science Songs books, which each cover a curriculum area via a song written to the tune of an

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The Loudest Quiet

I wanted to play in The Miss Rumphius Effect poetry stretch this week, which was about scale and magnitude. My dog, Captain Jack Sparrow, was sick last night, and it made me go into worrying mode. Here’s a poem that swam around my head as I was falling asleep last night. The Loudest Quiet The

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Circling Around

I’ve been working on a fiction shared reader of fewer than 150 words. It has to be a journey, use a certain phonetic sound throughout, rhyme, and include the basic shapes. Whew! What a puzzle to work all that in. I turned in a draft yesterday (instead of an outline, because I couldn’t figure out

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Quotation Motivation: Can’t or Won’t?

  “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”  ~Mark Twain, attributed We place a lot of emphasis on literacy, and rightly so! But this quotation made me think of how many people read only for functional reasons (work reports, sports scores, etc.) but who

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Annnnnnnnnnnd…back to reality!

My Minnesota Brass drum corps adventure came to an exciting close this weekend–we won the world championships in Rochester, NY! It’s the first time in the 30+ years that Minnesota Brass has been competing in DCA that we’ve won the championship. How lucky am I to have picked this year to participate!? I’m sure I’ll

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How (in) Accurately We See Our Work

One of the biggest things I’ve realized over the course of my drum corps adventures is that I have a very inaccurate sense of what my body’s doing when it comes to learning flag work. In slow motion, I have excellent body control, so I’m fine in yoga, workout classes, weights, etc. But the speed

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Shouldn’t Being Fearless Get Easier Eventually?

If you’re a regular reader, you know about my summer drum corps adventure and how far out of my comfort zone I am. I thought it would get easier as the summer went along, but, well, that’s just not happening. Instead, I just keep realizing how much further I need to go. A couple of weeks

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Quotation Motivation: Falling Without Hitting the Ground

  “Flying helicopters has been referred to as the art of falling without hitting the ground–and the same might be said of the ride to publication. It’s the art of hanging in during the free fall, keeping your eye on the horizon, and refusing to give up. No matter what.”–Robert B. Robeson (in the Jul/Aug

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10 Life Lessons from a Bus Trip

From Thursday evening to Sunday evening, I was on a drum corps bus trip from Minneapolis to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. We took charter buses for the almost 24-hour trips there and back. Randy and I rode the “baby bus.” The “wine and cheese bus” (adults, light drinking) was full, so we had to choose between the “party bus”

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Over My Head

Photo: Patty McKenna (This pic is from our very first show.) I’ve been feeling in waaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head in color guard. Staffers will call out commands that I have no idea of the meaning of, like, “If it’s windy, spin outside the silk more.” Or something like that. Anyway, there’s just so much stuff

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