BOOK LOVE: This past week, the school where I teach had a book sale and one of the books on the shelves and my wish list was JULIA GILLIAN (and the Quest for Joy) by Alison McGhee. You know that wonderful feeling when you find a great book and you can’t wait to share it [...]
Breezing through Facebook tonight, I happened upon a link a friend posted to Upstart Crow Literary . Agent Michael Stearns has written an excellent piece on Agenting Picture Books v. Agenting Novels. It’s one of the most insightful posts I’ve seen on the subject of picture books – both the art of writing them and [...]
Bugs of the Computer Variety Today is one of those days when I… 1) *wish* I hadn’t updated to the latest version of WordPress and 2) wish I knew enough about HTML to be able to help myself. The best I can figure out, after scouting around the internet, is that the WP 2.8 version [...]
The last two weeks have been crazy busy BUT I love Tricia’s – of The Miss Rumphius Effect – poetry stretches. So I couldn’t let this week go by without attempting – another first for me – a Tritina! The thing about writing to the poetry stretch, is that it’s a bit uncomfortable for me [...]
“Window Sijo” was this week’s poetry stretch – a first attempt at sijo, as described by Linda Sue Park in Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems). Heat was on my mind: a hot weekend in Death Valley and more hot weather at home. This week also brought the audio of Peony in Love by [...]
Here are my attempts at this week’s poetry stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect – a bite-sized sonnet. I had no idea I would spend so much time on this tiny-sized version of a sonnet. The truth is, it’s just not that easy. At least for me… I did many many versions until I arrived [...]
I’ve added a new page: PICTURE BOOKS: ART AND CRAFT. Click here or on the GREEN tab in the banner above and take a look!
The other morning as I skimmed through the current issue of the Horn Book while doing morning face prep at the sink, I flipped open to a review of Joyce Sidman’s latest poetry collection: Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors. I love many of Sidman’s collections (particularly Song of the Waterboatman and [...]
I discovered Marilyn Nelson’s powerful stories and amazing poetry - Carver: A Life in Poems , A Wreath for Emmett Till, and Fortune’s Bones – several years ago. I’m so pleased to see Nelson’s work spotlighted on The Brown Bookshelf‘s: 28 Days Later, 2009 campaign (including her latest, The Freedom Business, which I have yet [...]
Stephen Fry in The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within has this to say about writing poetry: “It can take weeks to assemble and polish a single line of poetry… poems take time… they are to be lived with and endlessly revisited.” Fry could easily be talking about picture books. They take ages to [...]
I've lived and traveled around the world, but now make my home in California.
By day, I teach; evenings and many weekends, I write.
My teaching, reading, and writing eventually led to a Master's degree in Language and Literacy and, later, an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
My first picture book, BLUE ON BLUE, illustrated by the amazing Beth Krommes, will be published by Beach Lane Books (Simon and Schuster) in 2014.
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