Quite disturbing — but way too true. They say writers are eavesdroppers and observers: do they also realize we’re restless psychopaths?
Winter Blog Blast Tour Countdown…!
Coming Soon to the Blogosphere Near You: Your favorite young adult and children’s authors and illustrators, revealed! All in one fabulous week!
The full schedule is with our organizer, Chasing Ray. We’ll be linking to all of the interviews throughout the week. Last time this was loads of fun — join us again!
Poetry Friday: Painfully Bad Math
I blame this Bad Poetry episode of Poetry Friday quite thoroughly on Read, Write, Believe, who started digging out her high school poetry.
I didn’t actually write much in terms of poetry that was for public consumption in high school, but my journals show the bizarre span of my influences. Quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer nestle against the poetry of Dorothy Parker, Judith Viorst, William Penn (Really? When did I read Fruits of Solitude?), George Herbert and Roberts Herrick and Hayden. My own bits of derivative drivel have such exalted company as Shakespeare (Hamlet, Price of Denmark, Act I: Scene ii), Longfellow’s Psalm of Life, and random song lyrics, pieces of articles taped in from magazines, and polite thank-you notes from boys with illegible handwriting (notes I obviously read tons into, since for the life of me I can’t figure out why I kept them!).
I’ve chosen two poems from a particular moment in my life, written a few months apart (And dear readers, I beg you remember I grew up to be an humanities major. I like math — I just didn’t actually know it until year past high school, when I remembered how much I’d loved long division in fourth grade. It really is very soothing…). Thanks, Sara, for giving me a reason to actually look back at all of my poetry. All I can do is shake my head and say, like one of my high school male friends once said in complete bewilderment, “Man. Girls.”
equations
I. x≥+1+1=3
x is greater than or equal to
the sum of one plus
(one, two?)
me plus you
equals three
(we?)
or
is the equation balanced?
is the sum of the quotient
greater than – (us?)
or
is the end result
always three:
is the end result
always three:
pain+you=me?
(You will be amused to find another of my poems in this vein [there are, in fact, three, astonishingly bad poems in the equation series] has the equation [# of ♂ in a room is ∝ 1/I.Q], that is, the number of boys (in a room) is inversely / proportionate to their average I.Q.! Somebody was feeling bent out of shape and rejected! [And crushing on their math tutor?])
II. ∅ Null
an empty set
as void of life
as an urn of
(ashes, ashes
we all fall down)
as empty as a silent desert
waste
As dark and
(the earth was without form &)
void
And he breathed.
Into his mouth, the breath of
Life and I
began to live.
Yes, do go ahead and vomit.
Fortunately, accomplished poets have written, and are being read elsewhere. Find them at Mentor Texts this week. Not all of you may have your high school scribblings — but the person still exists under a delicate patina of age. Go forth and write more.
Congratulate Minh: The Bottom Shelf Is Booked!
After a seriously complex plan with multi-layered deceit and maps, it looks like our little Minh’s getting hitched.
Operation Happily Ever After is a go. Joy to you, Minh. And may the Punk Farm play at your reception.
Could Shawna Tenney be any more adorable?
I am just loving this little glimpse into the ordinary lives of the extraordinarily generous and blessed illustrators that the hosts of the Robert’s Snow Blogging for a Cure folks are giving us. Today I’ve seen the fabulously vast range of Rolandas Kiaulevicus, the Lithuanian illustrator whose snowflake is featured at a wrung sponge. Rolandas came to Connecticut to marry the girl he loved, with only his brushes, his bachelor’s degree, and his talent — and no English. He’d studied German in school, not thinking he’d go to America. But we do many things for love! How fabulous that his generous heart has made room to support the fight against cancer, too.
Kate Messner’s blog is where you can see pictures of the adorable Shawna JC Tenney and her family, which includes her graphic designer husband, and two chewy-cheeked little cherubs who must keep her super busy. You will LOVE her work — and let me tell you, I can’t WAIT to see her quirky, whimsical, detailed illustrations in more books. I can just imagine all kinds of fractured fairytales and the like spilling from her accomplished pen. (Just LOOK at those sheep. They’re a scream!) Blessed with all that talent, and could she BE any more adorable?
Don’t miss the mega Monster Mo’ Love at MotherReader’s, and the inimitable J.Lo — in space, no less — at welcome to my tweendom. Lots of talent from lots of generous souls. A good ending to a great month.
Fun for Kids With an Interest in China
Sacramento Chinese Culture Foundation 沙加緬度中華文化基金會
Families with children from China, or those who have an interest in Asian languages and cultures are invited to the Northern California Wisdom Chinese School and World Journal Children’s Book and Gift Faire, November 3, 2007, from 11 a.m. – 4 pm, at the Bethany Presbyterian Church, 5625 – 24th Street in Sacramento (at Fruitridge Rd. and 24th Street, about .8 mi. west of Hwy 99).
Join us for a exciting multicultural children’s program. Highlights include:
12:30: Children’s author Oliver Chin reads from his newest book, Julie Black Belt.
1:00 pm: Join in a fun, spontaneous dramatization of Adventures of the Treasure Fleet: China Discovers the World, directed by the author of the book, Ann Martin Bowler.
2:00 pm: Hear Li Keng Wong, 81, author of Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold
Mountain, talk about her memories of her journey to and her experience living on Angel Island, CA. She will also speak of the hardships and challenges her family faced as immigrants in California. (This, to me, would be the highlight of the day!)
3:00 pm: Free books and games raffle drawing.
Bilingual books, CDs, DVDs and other educational things in Asian and South Asian languages (including Vietnamese, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Thai, Hmong, Farsi,and Tagalog) are available from Asia for Kids, Asian American Curriculum Project, and Our Chinese Daughters Foundation. Dolls, toys and games from these cultures will be available as well. This is a great resource for teachers and home-schooling parents as well as multicultural children’s lit aficionados, as there are also resources available on teaching immigration history, diversity, tolerance, and racial awareness as well. If you’re a Bay Area person interested in learning about growing up in different cultures, and researching family traditions around the world, this is the place for you.
(*courtesy of Ann Martin Bowler, SCBWI NorCal member*)
History, MEM's, Odds & Ends
“So why do we teach history to our children? Is it for the glow of pleasure we get when we hear their cherubic little mouths repeating the names and dates of all the kings and queens since Edward the Confessor, each battle they fought, every treaty they signed and every head they (personally) struck from renegade shoulders? Or is history principally about humanity? Understanding when leadership becomes tyranny and why holocausts and genocides happen?”
Beth Webb, author of the fabulous Star Dancer series talks about fiction having just as much importance as fact when children select books on historical fiction. Is there a such thing as misleading children with the fictional aspects of historical fiction?
OH. MY. Can you spot the SINGLE correct usage in this window?!
Harper Lee has been known for years as one of the most reclusive writers in our modern world. Her book was so timely a reminder of the realities of segregation and the equal rights struggle that she seems almost magical, or prophetic – she appeared when she was needed, and has virtually kept her silence ever since. Her Presidental Freedom Award means that she will soon get a chance to meet George Bush, and have a moment in the spotlight once more. Wouldn’t it be something if she found something else timely to say to the nation again?
DON’T miss the great cynsations interview with the very complex and thought-provoking Pooja Makhijani. She is, reportedly, “slowly working on a YA novel.” Much squealing here!
Oh, yeah, everybody’s excited over the tree-topper at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast — but do YOU have a Hanukkah bush? This would go with it perfectly.
History, MEM’s, Odds & Ends
“So why do we teach history to our children? Is it for the glow of pleasure we get when we hear their cherubic little mouths repeating the names and dates of all the kings and queens since Edward the Confessor, each battle they fought, every treaty they signed and every head they (personally) struck from renegade shoulders? Or is history principally about humanity? Understanding when leadership becomes tyranny and why holocausts and genocides happen?”
Beth Webb, author of the fabulous Star Dancer series talks about fiction having just as much importance as fact when children select books on historical fiction. Is there a such thing as misleading children with the fictional aspects of historical fiction?
OH. MY. Can you spot the SINGLE correct usage in this window?!
Harper Lee has been known for years as one of the most reclusive writers in our modern world. Her book was so timely a reminder of the realities of segregation and the equal rights struggle that she seems almost magical, or prophetic – she appeared when she was needed, and has virtually kept her silence ever since. Her Presidental Freedom Award means that she will soon get a chance to meet George Bush, and have a moment in the spotlight once more. Wouldn’t it be something if she found something else timely to say to the nation again?
DON’T miss the great cynsations interview with the very complex and thought-provoking Pooja Makhijani. She is, reportedly, “slowly working on a YA novel.” Much squealing here!
Oh, yeah, everybody’s excited over the tree-topper at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast — but do YOU have a Hanukkah bush? This would go with it perfectly.
Just a Little Annoucement…
Have you learned to write ‘Chill’ in Japanese? Well, why the heck not? The flake fairies today have brought us really pretty lighthouses, gorgeous seabirds, fragments of heartfelt poetry and insouciant penguins. Check the schedule, see the snow.
People! Do you remember the awesomeness that was THE SUMMER BLOG BLAST TOUR? We rocked your socks with the likes of National Book Award winner Gene Yang, newcomer Ysabeau Wilce, graphics guy Kazu Kibushi and such intense YA authors as Chris Crutcher and Julie Anne Peters. We gave you interviews with the phenomenal talent of Justina Chen Headley, and Svetlana Chmakova, and people — we’re doing it again!
And not just us, of course — the whole gang has been working hard and fast on interviews since the end of the summer, to bring you…
Coming soon to a blog near you!
Ficktion (Not Quite On) Friday: Crown of Haiku. Sort of.
A crown of sonnets is seven sonnets which begin each with last line of the previous. The advanced version of this is seen in A Wreath for Emmett Till where the poet writes fifteen sonnets and the last sonnet is composed of the first lines of ALL THE SONNETS IN THE CROWN.
It is a stunning feat — one I am nowhere near able to do, not having time or patience. But I can do a mini-wreath of haikus.
Holy God, love die hard
Holy God, love dies
Hard. In the ink black night, cold,
It still burns, alone.
It still burns, alone.
Undying ember cherished,
Though it burns our laps.
Though it burns our laps,
A cinder glows, defying
Asphyxiation.
Holy God, love dies
Hard. Her ink-smeared note still prays
Help to cut the cords.
Holy God, love dies hard.
This poem of sorts is in response to this week’s Fiction.ning.com picture Lost A Way in the Umbilical Cord of the World, taken by Flickr user Anastasia Y. Maleeva. More fiction this last week of October with the Usual Suspects, maybe, but none through November, so here character sketches will continue. TTFN.