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Rilke quotation

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016! This year on my blog, I’m hoping to share more behind-the-scenes/inside-my-head posts about my own writing process and my life as a book-lover. I hope you’ll join me. Isn’t this a beautiful Rilke quote? I love its calm but celebratory feel. It inspires me to want to

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license plate 1

License Plate Poetry

Yesterday, I was sharing the opening poem of BookSpeak! and how it came to be the opening poem. Well, last week was my birthday, and Randy, my husband, and I were spending a few days up on the North Shore of Lake Superior–one of my favorite places in the whole

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BookSpeak! Poems About Books

Writing Openings

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about working on the opening to my next picture book. I still haven’t heard if the opening I submitted will fly or not, but I thought I’d follow up here and share a couple of openings written after the fact. A lot of

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My Little Free Library

I wanted to share some pictures from the process of my family putting together my Little Free Library birthday present:>) It’s one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten! Thank you to my thoughtful and talented family:>)

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[my life] Happy Anniversary, Randy!

Today, I have been married 25 years to Randy Salas. I met him in my first creative writing class in college (taught by Wyatt Wyatt–that’s right–at the University of Central Florida). What a great class–I found both a new career I loved and a future husband I loved! I know

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Happy Holidays to You x 2!

So much of my communion with writers, educators, and readers takes place online, and I’m truly grateful to be part of such a wonderful community! Thank you. On a funny note, my husband, Randy, makes online JibJab cards all the time, where you can stick the faces of loved ones

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Cards are extra exciting for me since Lerner used art from my forthcoming book, A LEAF CAN BE…, for its holiday cards this year. They sent me a box to use for myself, so most of my people are getting a card with Violeta Dabija’s wonderful art on it!

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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

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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,

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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

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