Let it breathe, if it doesn't breathe, it's gonna die.
Let us see, if you let it be, is it gonna fly?

I want to tell you before I forget,
You're doing well!
You know you're living it!
You're gonna make it no matter how hard it gets!

-            -- Wintergreen, by the East Pointers (lyrics by Tim Chaisson, Koady Chaisson, Jake Charron, Colin MacDonald)

This week I’ve been hobbled with covid, and as such, I’ve been forced to rest. I was grumpy, to say the least, because I have so much to do! There’s the end of semester grading, my daily walks. And the holidays, including the shopping. And not to mention, but I will, wintering the garden.

Add this to the recent stresses of  current life in general, and boy did I growl about.

Wintering. Every gardener recognizes the process. Then I came upon this article, and was profoundly pleased with the new application.  As Sheridan Voysey explores in his blog post, There’s a Word for What I’m Experiencing: Wintering. Maybe You’re Feeling it Too:  

“Winter is a time of retreat and hibernation for much of the natural world, wintering is the process by which our bodies and souls seek rest and recuperation when the clouds descend and light fades.”

Voysey reviews Katherine May's book, Wintering (Riverhead Books, 2020). He highlights key points in May's definition of  "Wintering", to include:

The Power of Pause: 

 "Wintering" reflects a necessary pause for repair and reflection. Just like nature withdraws in winter, allowing the land to rest and replenish, we need times of quiet introspection. This "wintering" allows us to process experiences, heal from emotional wounds, and gain clarity on our path forward.

 Self-Compassion: 

May emphasizes the importance of self-compassion. Be kind to yourself, acknowledge your struggles, and celebrate your small victories. Prioritize activities that nourish your mind, body, and spirit, just like you would nurture a loved one going through a tough time.

 Slow Down to Savor the Journey: 

"Wintering" challenges us to slow down and appreciate the present moment. By embracing a slower pace of life, we create space for creativity, deeper connections with others, and a greater appreciation for the beauty of everyday life.

For a more in-depth discussion on the processing of wintering, Here’s an excellent Connecticut Public Radio interview with Katherine May on Wintering! 

Look for the Katherine May's book, Wintering (Riverhead Books, 2020) at your favorite book store.

And wishing you a good wintering!

-- Bobbi Miller

Inner Editor took a break as I read Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan, a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Young People's Literature. (The awards will announced this Wednesday, November 20th.) Duncan handled a disturbing topic--government-sponsored "boarding schools" for indigenous children--in an age-appropriate but serious manner. And...she did it in only 128 pages.

Usually I blitz through 128 pages in a little over an hour. This book took two days. The writing is so lovely, you read a sentence, then let it seep into your soul. My reading pace slowed as page 128 approached. I didn't want to leave these characters and their lives. 

There may be other children's books that deal with this subject, but I haven't read them. (BTW, if you know any, please let me know in the comments.) Residential schools for Native American/First Nation children were established as early as the mid-17th century in both the US and Canada. Their purpose was to assimilate the children into Anglo-American culture. All traces of their native culture were squashed. The students were dressed in Western clothes, their hair cut. Speaking their native language was forbidden. Parents who tried to hide their children were cut off from government assistance or even jailed. Sometimes the children were kidnapped from the reservations and sent miles away to school, never to be seen again. Those who tried to escape were harshly punished. Sometimes they died. Parents were never notified.

All 11-year-old Summer knows is that her beloved Mosom (grandfather) was once a student at one of these schools. A mixed tribe girl from Arizona, Summer, her mom and little brother, are on their way to her grandparent's reservation home in Alberta, Canada. On the long car trip, she falls asleep, dreaming odd dreams. About a girl who is not Summer. A girl who is trapped somewhere dark and cold. She needs to escape.

These troubling dreams unspool even as Summer enjoys her annual vacation with her mom's family. She suspects the dreams are connected to the old residential school at the edge of town. She and her mystery-loving cousin Autumn resolve to find out more about the school, and their grandfather's time there. Their investigation gets a boost when unmarked graves are discovered on the school grounds. Will Mosom at last speak about his past? Do the graves have a connection to Summer's nightmares?

Duncan doesn't pull any punches in her description of how the schools treated children. This could've been a super grim tale if not for the episodes of Summer enjoying her reservation vacation--swimming, riding bareback, picking sweetgrass, in addition to giggly sleepovers with bestie Autumn. Cultural history and customs are woven unobtrusively throughout the story, as Summer learns more about her Cree heritage. 

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

And other news I can't wait to share...

It's been three years last week since my beloved friend, April Pulley Sayre, passed away. I did not realize that six weeks later, her long-time illustrator, Steve Jenkins, also died. In honor of this perfect pairing of author and artist, Birch Lane Books will be re-issuing four of their titles: Vulture View, Eat Like a Bear, Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep and Woodpecker Wham! in 2025. I'm so thrilled these new editions will be available to the next generation of readers. April's unique vision of the world lives on.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

At long last, I’ve set aside two afternoons each week to learn 

T’ai Chi!

Though only a Beginner, thanks to my venerated Chicago 

instructor Hau Kum Kneip, I now see how this low-impact 

exercise lives up to its description as “meditation in motion”

 – as well as – “medication in motion.”

I am besotted with the gentle movements within the short 

forms I’m working hard to learn.

Increased strength, flexibility and balance are the goals, 

for my body, of course, but even better, it turns out, for 

my mind and spirit.

Speaking of my mind,

in September I lost mine when my Lenova Yoga laptop’s cursor and

touch pad froze.

Tech-savvy I am not; in fact, I’m an honest-to-goodness Luddite

who relies on the help of experts.

Enter GOOGLE and You-Tube videos, once I correctly phrased the

question that addressed the issues.

“Who knew?” I heard myself exclaim as I learned about my

keyboard’s Function Keys (Fn) – and –  top row with all sorts of

varied icons dubbed “hot keys.”

I sure didn’t.

And I’ve only been typing on a computer since maybe 1997.

After unfreezing both touchpad and cursor, I celebrated by lighting

my keyboard.

Using GOOGLE and You-Tube videos to solve several of my

computer problems has gifted me with a new independence when

technological challenges arise.

As for matters of the spirit,

alas, an editor (or three) sent me what Richard Jackson called

“an admiring decline.”

In the past, I turned to children’s books for comfort and inspiration.

(Think: I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.)

Fortunately, Amy Gash and Elise Howard gathered nearly 400 wise

and inspiring words from children’s classics old and new in their

lovely new book Believe in the World, Wisdom for Grown-ups from

Children’s Books (Algonquin, 2024).

Several of the categorically-grouped quotes restored my spirit and

had me back on task in no time.

Indeed, writing this post proved the perfect Rx, too, for keepin’ me

keepin’ on.

Believe in the World included Yuyi Morales’ words from Dreamers

(Neal Porter, 2018):

                                    “Someday we will become something we

                                      haven’t even yet imagined.” 

Thanks to Patricia Franz at Reverie for hosting today’s Poetry 

Friday.

Here’s to your New Somethings! Feel free to share them.

Esther Hershenhorn

Howdy Campers, and Happy Poetry Friday! (The link to PF is below)

Sadie learns something new: TV!

There are soooo many things I'd love to share!
But lucky, lucky you, 

If this photo is cut-off on your device,
the words on each picture are: 
Clouds rumble. Mushrooms Pop.
Raindrops Tumble. Acorns drop.

MOTTO FOR A DOG
by Arthur Guiterman

Sadie prefers Kitty's bed to her own

Born in 1871, Arthur Guiterman was famous for his clever humor and quick language.  He wrote of technological advances and modern progress in poetry, novels and satires. He addressed the hypocrisy of the ladies of Daughters of the American Revolution and other similar organizations. Guiterman co-founded the Poetry Society of America in 1910. Guiterman was forever caught in the “now,” addressing the rapid and shocking evolution of society with humor and mental agility: "First dentistry was painless;/Then bicycles were chainless" as well as...“Now motor roads are dustless, The latest steel is rustless, Our tennis courts are sodless, Our new religions, godless.” ~ The information above, which I've shortened, is from this source.

In looking up Guiterman, I discovered that one of my fellow blogmates, JoAnn Early Macken, posted information about him in 2016 and shared the very poem you just read.😊 

Thank you, Matt, for hosting Poetry Friday this week 
on Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

Our current TeachingAuthors topic is "Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share." I've been learning lots of things this year and am pleased to share a few with you today! You'll also find a link to this week's Poetry Friday roundup at the end of this post.

I'm especially pleased to announce that today we're celebrating this week's release of Clara's Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong and illustrated by Frank Ramspott (Pomelo Books).

This new anthology includes poems by me and my fellow TeachingAuthor, April Halprin Wayland. I include samples of our poems below. But first, here's a bit about this amazing new book for grades 3 and up. Clara's Kooky Compendium is a "fun-filled journal-style book featuring a mixture of dandy doodles and drawings, fun facts, quirky questions, and 150+ poems that will get your kids giggling and guffawing while they learn about language arts, science, math, research skills, writing techniques, and more." No wonder the book has been named a Children's Book Council "Hot Off the Press" Selection for October 2024! You can see the list of the over 100 poets who contributed to the anthology on the Pomelo Books website. That page also includes printable activity sheets to go with the book. (While you're there, you may notice that a portion of the profits from this book will be donated to charities that bring joy to children in hospitals.) If you'd like to learn even more about this anthology, watch this video from Pomelo Books posted on Twitter/X.

I am honored to have two poems in Clara's Kooky Compendium, both of which came out of a course I took with Sylvia and Janet on Writing Humorous Poetry. In that course, I learned that a poem doesn't always have to make the reader laugh out loud to be humorous. Instead, it can employ rhyme, repetition, sounds, wordplay, etc., to simply invoke a smile. And when Sylvia sent me the final images of my poems in the book, I also learned how much art can add to the fun! You can see that for yourself from the page featuring my poem "Pasta"!  

My fellow TeachingAuthor April Halprin Wayland also has two poems in the Compendium. Here's the first one, called "Errand Dog:"

Don't you just love April's poem? Her second poem is also about a dog, but again, you'll have to get a copy of the book and read it for yourself.

Just this week, I also learned that April has a poem in another anthology that released on October 1: The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrated by Mercè López (Carolrhoda Books). Congratulations, April!

I'm looking forward to learning a lot more from the posts in this week's Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference

 Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share…

Well, I’m not sure if it’s brand new.  It’s always brewed below the surface.  However, what I have come to understand more and more everyday is that there’s always more than meets the eye.  Whether it’s workplace politics, the publishing industry, the entertainment industry, education politics, domestic politics, geo politics, etc., there’s always more than meets the eye.

Sometimes I wonder why I can’t connect with coworkers. Sometimes I wonder why a manuscript won’t gain traction even when the notes I receive are positive (from multiple editors or my agent.) Sometimes I wonder how and why a movie gets made or a concert is performed that seems under par. Sometimes I wonder why the school board and/or the superintendent makes policy that seems counter to common sense and works against the best interests of children. Sometimes I wonder how anyone can observe this current presidential election without some hesitation and/or acknowledgement of the absurdity playing out right before our very eyes. And in regards to geo politics, I indulge myself in an analogy that there is always a chess game playing out by the powerbrokers (both corporate and their elected government representatives) in the basement while the rest of us are busy running around playing Chutes and Ladders with zeal as if our very lives depend on the outcome of that boardgame. There’s always more than meets the eye.

Chutes and Ladders

Children know this.  It is perhaps why I choose to spend my day with 4 and 5-year-olds. They intuitively understand that there is a bigger picture and they wonder about it.

Years of experiences have brought me to these conclusions:  Experiences as an activist in electoral politics, direct action, grassroots organizing, policy work, campaign work, lobbying, and international travel as a delegate.  Slowly, pieces have revealed themselves. A peek into a world that operates beyond most of our day-to-day existence. I’m not advocating for conspiracy theories.  I am supporting healthy skepticism. Question and hear multiple sources. Be curious.  

Before we had 24-hour access to “news” and everyone potentially was the truth keeper of information, we knew that we never had the full story.  And, that facilitated wondering. The illusion of unlimited access has made us blind believers.  We believe that we have the ability to know everything whenever we want.  We think it is a mere click away on the tiny computers that we hold in the palm of our hand.  I am certainly guilty of sharing posts without checking all the facts, pretending to be a reliable news source.  A confession that I must admit is embarrassing for a former journalism student who believed that I was going to join the 4th arm of democracy. I believed that the newscasts/newspapers that I wrote, was news that would give viewers/readers the information they would need to make informed decisions about their everyday lives. It was never the whole picture but I think we knew it wasn’t. And now, the genie is out of the bottle.  Artificial Intelligence is coming in fast and hard, taking us potentially deeper down the rabbit hole.  Will we ever return to wondering?  Will we ever return to knowing that we don’t have the full, expansive, and everchanging picture? Will we ever think about that chess game in the basement while we play Chutes and Ladders upstairs? There’s always more than meets the eye.  Never stop wondering.

By Zeena M. Pliska

 Teaching Authors starts a new topic, our “Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share!” It’s been a long minute since the planets aligned just right, allowing me to take a writing class. And this one is a doozy, sponsored by Lorin Oberweger and Free Expressions. This six-week course -- The Breakout Novel Intensive -- explores the principles outlined in Donald Maass ‘ book, Writing the Breakout Novel (2001). As a story nerd, I thrive on taking deep dives into the story engineering process, and this is as deep as it can get. This class is bloody brilliant. The lectures offer a deep dive into concepts. I so appreciated the discussions into creating emotionally complex characters. The one-on-ones took a further dive into my work. I had so many "ah-ha" moments when everything came together. One of the best ah-ha moments explored micro-tensions.

This type of tension isn't in the action itself, but in the psychology underscoring the action. To make this happen, the narrative uses dialogue and exposition to highlight the emotive presence, build tension and expand the plot that leads to an emotional payoff.

As a working writer, I consider my job is to write. As such, I dutifully and gleefully do my job, sometimes hours at an end. I LOVE my job (writing, that is)!

Except, unexpectedly, these days I find myself rather spent after only an hour or two. It's not just writer's block. And not just exhaustion. Something else bubbling just beneath the surface.

For example, I went about doing some errands. I kept squirming because my running shorts didn’t seem to fit. O no, I bemoaned. I already have enough old lady fat. Turns out, I had put my britches on inside out AND backwards. And yes, I went out in public like that. (You can’t take me anywhere.)

And it’s hot outside. Too hot to sleep. My garden is decimated. Bees are dropping off the petals, their little wings burned. I even feel sorry for the wasps, those evil little buggers. The heat index has reached over 100 for several days, and there’s no end in sight. Combined with the high humidity, I feel like a toad swimming in boiling water. And toads do not like to swim.

You may remember that I am the ultimate Doctor Who superfan. I’ve been watching the show since it first aired in 1963. In other words, my relationship with the Doctor has outlasted two husbands, four dogs and three cats. And yet, when the finale for the Fifteenth Doctor finally aired, I fell asleep. What? What? WHAT?

You may also remember that I live in the middle of Red Hat County. Politics are posted everywhere. I’ve learned to ignore it. Mostly. True, one neighbor did rant on about 800,000 dead people who voted illegally. I had to admit that zombies are just the worse. Another neighbor railed about how we are a republic and not a democracy. I told him that he reminded me of some of my good friends. Perhaps he knew them: John Adams, James Madison, my personal favorite John Jay, and that upstart Alexander Hamilton, who all argued the very same thing for years. I told him, he could read all about it in the Federalist Papers. Granted, with 85 long-winded essays, it’s thicker than a comic book.

The stakes are rising. Everyone brags about how many guns they collect. One man rants about shooting a coyote (in the middle of a neighborhood?). Meanwhile, the school down the road had gone on lockdown a couple of weeks ago. And a couple blocks away, a high school student shot his neighbor.

You may remember, too, that I’m counting the days to when I no longer have to teach. At long last, I can choose which classes, and when, to teach. Or not. After forty years, it’s a daunting decision. By the way, I hate WorkDay, with those online forms you have to fill out, all those fecking buttons and columns, and rows and arrows and … it took longer for me to fill out one spleeny form than to grade two weeks of class. (Yes, it’s God’s greatest joke to the universe that I teach online classes. But I am not laughing. I remember that movie when computers took control. It didn't end well for most folk.)

By the way, the water pipe burst. What a MESS. And it’s messing with my internet.

I think I'll go for a walk, and get some ice cream. Chocolate. Better yet, chocolate fudge, with chocolate sprinkles. I'll go to the local pond and count the dragonflies and watch the turtles. At least turtles make sense. And no worries, I will put my britches on the right way. Not that the turtles will care. And when I return, I’ll get back to that bothersome scene.

By the way, see what I did there? I used micro-tensions to illustrate how micro-tensions can be used to add tension to an otherwise very ordinary, if not downright bland scene.

And of course, you want a big emotional payout at the end of such a scene. Take this, for example:

For more information about the BONI and many other excellent seminars, webinars and classes at Free Expressions, check out their website. 

 Thank you for putting up with my micro-tensions!

--Bobbi Miller

"Gherkins workin'/Mustard--wow!/Piccalilli/Chowchow now!"is a sample of the pungent, picklicious poetry, combined with commentary, history and recipes of fermented food. From kosher dills to kimchi, chowchow to chutney, Sayre represents a variety of cultures and countries. Jialei Sun's multimedia illustrations feature children in a range of skin tones concocting and consuming the many sorts of pickled foods. 

However, this more than a paean to pickles. It's a love song to the power of punchy words. In the author's note, Sayre writes of her love of "delicious words...these kinds of words feel good in your mouth." An impromptu word association exercise during a school visit inspired this book. The original topic of the school visit was "whales." Only April could've described a whale as "pickle-shaped"...and then segued into asking her students "what are some words that describe pickles?" I can just hear her "tasting" each word before selection in this collection. April taught me the art of brainstorming word choices when I was writing A Tree for Emmy. Since then, I've started every picture book project with a list of associated words. I've included a "word list" exercise in every class I've taught.

April Pulley Sayre left this world way too soon, but how like her to leave us with a playful pickle party.

I miss her.

Mary Ann Rodman

In 1973, a man named Mr. Nadeau wrote beloved children’s  book 

author E.B. White requesting inspiration about humanity’s future. 

Mr. Nadeau’s world view was bleak and hopeless.

As Maria Popova wrote in her Marginalian blog’s introduction to 

the letter, which follows, Mr. White’s response “endures as a 

spectacular celebration of the human spirit.”

North Brookline, Maine

30 March, 1973

 Dear Mr. Nadeau:

 As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one 

compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the

scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in 

a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the 

clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the 

weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our 

human society — things can look dark, then a break shows 

in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather 

suddenly. 

It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer 

mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably 

harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time 

waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s 

curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity 

have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that 

these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind 

the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Sincerely,

E. B. White

Alas, hanging on to Hope is easier said than done, in our Real 

World as well as in our Children’s Book World.

A group effort is oft required.

With that truth in mind, I invited five children’s book writers I’ve 

had the honor and Good Fortune to coach and teach to share 

One Golden Nugget that kept them keepin’ on… until they 

secured this past year representation by a literary agent.

Look for each of their names on an upcoming children’s book 

cover!

 ·    Becky Hohensee, represented by Essie White of the

     Storm Literary Agency, lives in Houma, Louisiana and 

     writes picture books. 

            Becky wishes she’d spent less time revising one manuscript 

            for several years, even though it was the one story she needed

            to tell.  “It zapped my creativity for a long time. Write a story,” 

            she advises, “share it when you believe it’s ready and let it go. 

            Work on something new. Exercise your writing muscles. And 

            don’t forget to reward yourself every now and then.”

·       ·   Chicago-area picture book writer and middle grade novelist        

            Sonya Kenkare signed with the 75th agent she queried,  

           Jackie Kruzie of Focused Artists.

            “Never give up,” she shares, “and keep batting at the fences.  

            All the rejections should be worn as a Badge of Honor. 😊”

 ·      ·   Sara Crowe of Sara Crowe Literary represents Christal Presley 

           of Abingdon, Virginia, and her bounty of picture books.

     “Whatever genre you’re writing in,” Christal shares, “spend 

     equal time READING in. For reading in the same genre shows 

     you all the possibilities!” 

·    Melanie Uteg lives in Lake Forest, Illinois, writing chapter 

     books, plotting a middle grade book and reviewing bi-monthly 

     on her blog picture books, chapter books and middle grade 

     books that feature the best of science, humans, nature and 

     communities. She recently signed with Tina Schwartz who 

     founded The Purcell Agency.  

     “I believe all children matter,” Melanie responded. “Their 

     hearts. Their minds. Their voices. I believe getting to that core 

     is important as you pursue your path towards publishing. Get 

     out there and meet people – share your story and share your 

     purpose.” 

·    Fiona Wong of Los Angeles, represented by Ellen Goff at 

    HG Literary writes picture books, chapter books and middle 

    grade. 

    “Be curious,” she shared.  “Take opportunities to learn from 

    industry professionals, even if they’re discussing genres, craft 

    topics or age categories outside your focus. Hearing diverse 

    opinions and experiences can enrich your understanding of your 

    own craft, purpose and journey as a writer.” 

·   And how could I not invite my fellow TeachingAuthor blogger 

   and writer of fiction and nonfiction, Carmela Martino, to 

   share her Golden Nugget?! She, too, secured literary 

   representation this past year with Anjanette Barr of Dunham, 

   Literary, Inc.

         Carmela admitted it was “a stubborn belief that the stories I was 

         working on were worth sharing, and that they deserved to be in 

         the world, one way or another.”

         She confessed she was “so relieved and heartened to finally find 

         an agent who agreed with her!”

fe    I offer buckets of Hoorays! and Hurrahs! to our fellow 

       children’s book creators for both keepin’ on AND sharing a 

       Golden Nugget to keep US keepin’ on.

       Hoorays! and Hurrahs! hasten Hope.

   I  IMHO: Second Chances help us hang on to that Hope.

       And GOOD NEWS! The Andrea Brown Literary Agency is 

      offering such an opportunity – the ABLA Second Chance!

    “At ABLA we take pride in our collaborative approach to 

     agenting and we often share queries internally when we 

     believe a colleague is a better fit for the material.

     However, if a creator would like another opportunity to have 

     their project considered by ABLA after their first choice agent 

     passes, we invite you to submit your work to the 

     Second Chance Inbox. All our agents have access to this 

     inbox and will regularly look through it to discover new 

     material! If an agent finds something they are interested in, 

     they will reach out to that  creator directly.”

 Click here to learn the details so you can grab this Do Over. 

Thanks to former fellow TeachingAuthor blogger Laura Purdie 

Salas for hosting today’s Poetry Friday at Poems forTeachers. 

Laura, too, deserves an Hooray! and Hurrah! for her newest 

picture book– Line Leads the Way (Capstone, 2024).

Here’s to Hope and our hanging on! 

Esther Hershenhorn

Howdy, Campers ~ and Happy Poetry Friday! (Link to PF is at the end)

Look what I found in the depths of my closet:

Bobbi wrote a post titled What Comes Next?, Zeena posted Congratulations on 15 years!!! Here's to 15 more!!! Mary Ann posted 15 Years? No!!!  Esther posted  Happy15th Book and Gift Card Giveaway!  and Carmela, our Mother Board Blogger, posted 15th TA Blogiversary and Book and Gift Card Giveaway!

Let me be upfront with you. In my very first post, I wrote, "I learned that in teaching, as in poetry, less is more."   So here's the truth: this post is too long and I'm tired because I'm a puppy mom. I'm sure one day I'll get more sleep, but for now, I'm going to honor my tiredness and turn off my laptop without spending hours making it perfect. 

Because we all know there is no such thing as perfect. 

Over the years...

By the time I wrote my first TeachingAuthors post on May 8, 2009, I'd taught workshops in schools across the globe. But--whoa!--now the head of the UCLA Extension Writers' Program was on the phone, asking me to teach...TALL people?

In that first post, I blogged about how scared I was to teach adults:

"I practiced...by teaching teens at my home. The most important thing I learned from that was not to throw every single solitary thing I’d ever learned at them (those poor overwhelmed kids!)."

Over the years, as a teacher, I have learned to say less (except today on this post...forgive me). 

I've also learned to be more authentic. More human. More me. 

Here's an example:

This morning, my critique group of incredible, smart writers met. We meet every other Thursday at a deli in mid-town Los Angeles. We order breakfast, talk about our joys, our struggles, our kids and/or animals...and when we've finished eating, we get down to business. 

I was feeling weird and less-then last night because I had nothing for them to critique. 

It's dang hard to be honest, but today, when it was my turn, I told them that I was not nearly as brave as they are (believe me: they are seriously brave). When my manuscripts are rejected, or an agent asks for a revision, it takes me forever to send my revised story back. I'm timid when it comes to submitting and submitting and submitting. I'm sure my stories will never be good enough. 

How did it feel to be that honest with them? Good. 

Great, actually. I got support, practical advice and lots of love.

I did bring three picture books published in 2024--I love sharing them and hearing my group's reaction to the work of other authors and illustrators. That was really, really fun. We were all in it together, asking questions like, Did anyone edit this book? and Is this poetry or simply lyrical writing? and OMG I love this book!

I left feeling uplifted.

I've learned (am still learning) to trust that "still, small voice within."

Here's what I tell myself...and my students:

>There is no "right way" to write a book, train a dog or live your life.

>Ya gotta be honest. Telling the truth is hard. It's also what reaches a reader. 

> Listen to that still, small voice within. (Mary Ann's still, small voice has told her to write the book she must write before she dies. Not mine. Mine says to write the book that plops on my head unexpectedly and drips all over my t-shirt.)

>It's up to you to figure out what your fingerprint is... 

...whose advice to take, when to leave a critique group, a conference, an agent (and when to let that manuscript rest for awhile.) 

What's your fingerprint?

Here are three poems 

I've written over for our blogiversarys:

TeachingAuthors.com turns 2!

OUR  BLOGIVERSARY! 
by April Halprin Wayland

We six who ride our blog horse here

are rather like that Paul Revere

“One if by land, two if by sea,”
was revolution’s poetry

We TeachingAuthors gallop, too,

to share our lantern light with you

we aim to help, support and cheer

so you can write with joy, not fear

in this New Land: Kidlitosphere

(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

TeachingAuthors.com turns 4!

       A Blooming Blogiversary

     Sheaves of paper, leaves of prose
     Typing wobbly rocky rows

     Planting tender inkling seeds
     Sowing words on glowing screens

     Underground the spark is struck
     Growing with some care and luck

     First a shoot, then a sprout
     Weeding all the adverbs out

     Seedlings reaching toward the sun
     Readers, writers we are one

     Blooming in the blogisphere
     Post by post, year by year
poem © 2013 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

TeachingAuthors.com turns 1!

BLOG-I-VERSE-A-TREE
by April Halprin Wayland 

How does it feel to cross over this creek,
to fly from tree to tree to you?
To find, in the midst of the jungle a few
readers discerning, kind and true?

How does it feel, week after week,
to water a seed, now one year old?
To watch its young, green leaves unfold
as it gives me back a thousand fold?

I feel I’m Bird, just opening her beak,
at the top of a tree, on the first day of Spring,
easily found on Google or Bing,
joining five friends to Tweet, to sing!

© 2010 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Here's how I ended my first blog post...it's even truer--today:

So, it's been a process. I've become a TEACHING AUTHOR through the students I've worked with from kindergarten to AARP, through my colleagues, through my own teachers.

I’ve taught in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program for 10 years now [Update: this year marks my 25th year of teaching in UCLA's Writers' Program] and this year: 

I. Finally. Understand:

Teaching is generosity.

I feel incredibly lucky to be part of TEACHING AUTHORS, and look forward to more of this great adventure of camaraderie and discovery and learning from you.

(photo by my husband, who is proud that he's
hard to find on the internet)

Thank you, Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge  for hosting PF!

written with love by April Halprin Wayland 

with help from the film stars of my instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/aprilwayland/?hl=en):

7-month-old Sadie 

and 5-year-old Kitty

Teaching Authors is celebrating its Fifteenth Anniversary! That’s amazing, on every level! I’ve been with this amazing group for (almost) ten years. My first post was October 6, 2014, in which I discussed writing my drafts out by hand.  By the way, I still write everything out in longhand.

As a team, the six of us share our unique perspective as writing teachers who are also working writers. But as I reflect on what being a part of this blog meant to my career, I admit that it has meant so much more to me on a personal level.

You’ll remember our backstory: we met while students at Vermont College of Fine Arts, earning our MFA. I graduated 24 years ago! Friendships come and go with the ebb of time. Each serves a purpose for however long they last. Friendships change, evolve, and sometimes they come to an end. That doesn’t mean they matter less; it just means change happens.

But in all that time, amid all the changes, the TAs have been a constant.

I am grateful to the TAs.  I thank each of the TAs for having invited me into your circle, for being there in these last years that have been defined by dispiriting rejections, overwhelming life challenges, and ensuing life changes. I have learned so much from each of you, about the craft, the writing life, and about the nature of belonging. I have been inspired by each of you. And I have been awed by each of you for your dedication and passion.  And, I am thoroughly in awe of Carmela, who has managed the blog since the beginning.

 I am reminded of May Yang’s poem, To All My Friends:

To all my friends who have been with me in weakness
when water falls rush down my two sides

To all my friends who have felt me in anguish
when this earthen back breaks between the crack of two blades

To all my friends who have held me in rage
when fire tears through swallows behind tight grins

I know you
I see you 
I hear you

(Read the full poem here.) 

 So what comes next?  I’m looking ahead, planning out what I need, when  I realized…

I’ve been teaching forty years. FORTY years.

I've taught at high school, community college, university and graduate schools.  I’ve taught English as a Second Language, British Lit, Children's Lit, Writing Tech Reports, Critical Theory, and Harry Potter (yes, Harry Potter and the hero’s journey!). Critical Research, Graduate Research Strategies, Graduate Reading Strategies. Business Writing. Creative Writing. Graduate Thesis Writing one, two and three. Graduate Literature Studies. The Business of Writing. Editing and Line-editing. Composition one and two, and three.

And, I earned all the relevant certifications to keep going. BUT I didn’t make tenure because I was too old, and didn’t – couldn’t -- create a strong sense of community (because I was too crazy busy trying to keep a roof over my head and paying for my own medical insurance.)

(By the way, adjuncts hold the system together. I could go on, but I'd get rather frothy about how the system treat adjuncts...)

And yet, it’s important to remember the bigger story. I have survived for forty years, on my own, keeping a cabin’s roof over my head, making my own way doing (mostly) what I want beyond what I need. May not always have been the wisest of choices, but they’ve always been my choices. No wonder I’ve grown up to be such a roguish – and unmuzzled --  loggerhead.

More than this. I have met some massively impressive and splendid people along the way.  It has made the journey worthwhile.

So, what am I going to do next? Whatever I want. The possibilities are endless. Maybe I’ll be a pirate. And I'll continue writing about my adventures in writing, right here. 

Mary Read, in a colorized engraving (date unknown). Getty Images / Hulton Archive

 Congratulations to Teaching Authors, and thank you for bringing me along!

--Bobbi Miller

Congratulations to Danielle H.  You are the winner of the blogiversary giveaway!

The best thing about this 15th blogiversary is getting to know my fellow bloggers. I am the new kid on the block, so I actually don’t know everybody’s stories.  Because stories bring us closer together and build relationships, this has been the perfect opportunity to peer into the lives of the 5 other authors/teachers and feel genuinely a little closer to them.  Seems so strange in this digital world in which we live, I have blogged with Carmela, Bobbi, Esther, Mary Ann, and April for over 3 years and barely know them except for April. 

I was invited to temporarily blog as a substitute by April.  I was honored that such a renowned children’s book author would even consider including me.  April has quite an amazing reputation amongst up-and-coming picture book authors who have taken her UCLA extension classes.  She is a legend. I am humbly grateful. 

Carmela, I did not know that you got your MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and I didn’t know that your published middle grade novel was your creative thesis.

Esther, I didn’t know that you wrote S is For Story.  So sorry it’s out of print.  It sounds wonderful!

Mary Ann, I didn’t know that you have a 30-year-old daughter who teachers pre-k in a public school.

I am looking forward to the other stories to be revealed through the blog posts that follow mine.

As for me, 15 years ago…

In 2009, I was almost 8 years into my adventure as a single parent by choice.  

Prior to my decision to have a child, I had told stories as a filmmaker (ish), journalist, theater director, visual artist, and photographer.  I was a world traveler and a social justice activist. My story making days were put on pause as I concentrated on making my own life stories with my young daughter. My craft as a teacher got stronger as I found myself interested and immersed as a parent in my own daughter’s education.  I was happy to let go of the other directions that my life had taken, to concentrate on this new phase.  

However, I did hold on to one aspect of my activism, electoral politics. Gone for the moment were the days of making change through direct action, legal observing, and organizing.  My good friend was elected to the school board (of the second largest school district in the nation) and I found myself in a close relationship with the policymaking of my district.  Education justice became my focus.

I am happy that my life veered off in these new directions.  They have added to my understanding of the world and have strengthened the storytelling I would eventually return to as a children’s book author. Although I had dabbled in picture book writing in my early adulthood, I entered the kidlit world with commitment when my daughter became less dependent on me. I began writing when she was 13.  Signed with my agent when she was 17.  Published my first picture book when she was nearly 19.

As for my two loves: Education and Publishing, 15 years ago…

We started to see the negative effects of the policies of No Child Left Behind, enacted 9 years prior.  High stakes testing began to permeate the elementary school experience, shifting the focus of teaching. In 2010 the Common Core Standards were adopted in California. As I wrote about in my last post, the Common Core Standards have moved the expectation of young readers away from fiction and toward non-fiction. Imagination is less valued as a result of these standards. I feel that the shifts in education have moved the publishing industry, as well.  I read far fewer current picture books with fictional stories to my kindergarteners because books without complex, narrative stories seem to be the norm.  I see many Social Emotional Learning themed books that encourage readers to “be themselves,” “be strong,” “be brave.”  There are plenty of non-fiction picture books. I can’t say that I don’t long for the stories of the 90’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love the books that I see my fellow authors write.  I also find myself writing books that fit in this current market. I do hope that the pendulum swings a bit to include strong fictional picture books with narrative stories. 

I also have observed and am reading articles that are noting that children are reading less for enjoyment.  As a teacher, I am noticing this trend as well and believe that there is not one factor but maybe many.  Of course, I believe that social media and electronics in the hands of young children must have some effect.  How can it not?  At the same time, the focus on “the science of reading” has created a culture of reading for utility not joy.  Add to these ingredients, the over-testing of very young children which leads to the false assumptions that 4 and 5-year-olds should be reading or they are failing.  Also add an over scheduled world and we just might have the perfect storm. We’ve created an environment that doesn’t value the joy of reading. We don’t value imagination.

In the last 15 years, the corporate narrative that public schools are failing has become stronger.  Blaming teachers and public education for gaps between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Book banning has proliferated.  And AI is creeping into the education of our very young  (I am currently in development on a short narrative film exploring this topic.)

But all is not lost nor shall it ever be as long as we continue to use our voices and teach others to use theirs as well.  This is why I am a teaching-author.

Finally, the theme of coming full circle came up in the other blog posts.  For me, I also find myself full circle.  Having begun my storytelling journey wanting to tell stories utilizing the medium of film, I have returned to my post-college roots to explore short filmmaking while I continue to write more children’s books and teach more children.

What will the next 15 years bring?

By Zeena M. Pliska

Check out my developing film project

Check out my developing film project

 Fifteen years? Teaching Authors is fifteen years old? How is that possible?

 I have no sense of time.  People kept telling me “Wait until you have a child, and you’ll see how time flies.”

Well, no.  My daughter will be thirty in July, and her birth seems to have taken place in a “galaxy long ago and far away.” Everything in my life feels like it happened in the last Ice Age. I swear I’ve been writing these blogs for at least fifty years. 

So what is there to say on this momentous occasion? For one thing, we Teaching Authors, and especially our Mighty Blog Mistress Carmela, should give ourselves a big, old pat on the back. When we began posting 2009, everybody and his dog had a blog. The majority fizzled out after a couple of months…or weeks. We’re not the only blog that’s lasted this long…but we are definitely in an exclusive club. Let’s hear it for us!

I suppose this is a time for looking back. 

For 12 years I really was a Teaching Author, leading Young Writers’ Workshops and Camps in the Atlanta area. Then COVID hit and…well, there was really no way to do day-long programs for kids 9-15, virtually. I haven’t taught since 2019, and I really, really miss it.  The same thing happened with school visits. (I’m available for workshops and school visits...hint, hint.)

Life has shifted in my family as well.  Most of these fifteen years I was the “Sandwich Woman”; getting my daughter through school while trying to take care of my parents in another time zone. For the past ten years, my husband has been commuting from Atlanta to Chicago for work…every single week (except for the COVID year when he telecommuted from the kitchen table.) After four previously announced retirement dates (the first was March 2020 and we all know what happened then!), he is officially retiring this August.  My parents are gone, now. My daughter is teaching in a public school Pre-K, while pursuing a double masters degree in Special Education. (Her students can’t believe she was the inspiration for MY BEST FRIEND and FIRST GRADE STINKS!) The circumstances are constantly changing but life goes on.

I had a “milestone” birthday in March.  I’ve never really thought about age, but that particular number has brought me up short. My husband’s retirement plans are unformed, apart from wanting to move away from Atlanta traffic. The future seems fuzzy and uncertain. However, I am hanging on to something I was told in the Vermont MFA program; write the book you must write before you die (not that I'm planning on doing that in the near future!) So that’s what am I doing now.

I press on.

Don't forget--you have until May 18th to enter our Blogiversary Giveaway Book, S is for Story by TA Esther Herschenhorn. Details are here. 

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

so choose a flute from those pictured above, then join me in raising 

a toast to celebrate our TeachingAuthors 15^th Blogiversary!

Next, click here to enter our celebratory Giveaway to win a copy of 

my S IS FOR STORY and a $15 Bookshop gift card.

                                        S is for story, I wrote,

                                        so brilliant in its might,

                                        to help us see

                                        ourselves, our world,

                                        in oh, such dazzling light.

Reflecting on the past fifteen years, I see, as Carmela did, the 

circular structure of My Story.

I also see, and dazzlingly so: the more things change, the 

more they stay the same.

How honored I was when Carmela invited me to join five 

other children’s book writers who also taught writing 

to create this blog.

TEACHING AUTHOR? TEACHING AUTHOR!

As I shared in my very first post in April of 2009, I knew in my 

heart since learning my ABC’S, I wanted to teach and write 

children’s books.

I was grateful for the opportunity to share my Susan-Lucci-like 

Writer’s Journey to help others tell their stories to children, 

especially since I’d soon be publishing S IS FOR STORY.

As always, I was hopeful, (1) that I could hold my own in the 

company of such talented and highly-degree-ed writers – and – 

(2) that I could handle the requisite software technology.  I’m 

an unashamed Luddite.

But…and isn’t there always a but, I soon realized: TEACHING 

had over-taken my AUTHORING, filling my days and often, 

nights.

My story had become helping others tell their stories.

My students and the writers I coached – my “storied treasures” 

as I described them in my very first Thanku - had claimed my 

heart and refused to let go, which was just what my book 

characters – Lowell, Rudie, Pippin and Howie – had done.

And as former Chicago Cubs Manager Joe Maddon used to 

say, “It’s all about the heartbeat.”

Though I wasn’t writing a children’s book, I needed to do 

everything a children’s book does, beyond entertaining: 

inform, encourage, inspire and always, always offer Hope.

Chicago’s Newberry Library and the University of 

Chicago’s Graham School of Continuing Education 

continue to gift me with outstanding smart and caring 

human beings eager to tell their stories to children.

They’re joined by the singular writers I’m privileged to 

coach – in person or now via ZOOM, plus those I’ve been 

lucky enough to mentor and the Young Authors I’ve 

taught in countless school visits. 

All engage my head and heart on a daily basis.

To seed and feed, to grow these writers, I grew classes, 

workshops, seminars, programs, meeting writers’ needs, 

no matter their age or years on task. I’ve presented here, 

in Chicago, but anywhere and everywhere, often thanks 

to SCBWI.

Believe it or not, thanks to the Pandemic, I even 

learned how to teach virtually! I utilized the

unicorn's collective nouns to label the squares 

on my screen my marvel, my blessing, my glory 

of writers.

And miraculously, with a whole lot of help from 

Carmela, I posted on schedule, sharing my views, thoughts 

and opinion on the selected subject, always in service of 

offering Readers a Teaching Take-away.

                                            

Of course…and isn’t there always an of course, my students and 

writers reside in our Children’s Book World, where I reside, too, 

gladly on their behalf.

NEW has become this ever-changing World’s operative word, 

especially these past fifteen years.

New formats. New genres.

New publishers. New ways to publish a story.

New communities, online, offline.

New institutions of learning, both in person and virtually.

New gatekeepers and ways to reach our Readers.

New technology.

New social platforms.

New awards, grants, booksellers, resources.

And thanks to Walter Dean Myers’ NY Times OpEd that led 

to We Need Diverse Books, new doors, windows and mirrors 

for generations of Young Readers.

My job? To bring all of the above to the attention of my 

students and writers and to our Readers’ attention, too.

Yet…and course there's a yet, our CBW's bottom line 

remains as always.

Stories matter.

Readers matter.

WE matter.

As I shared (with the help of my then 11-year-old tech-savvy 

grandson) in my recent Power Point Chicago workshop 

presentation As Our Children’s Book World Turns: the more 

things change, the more they stay the same.

Lo and behold, while I was fully-engaged seeding and feeding 

writers, they must have been seeding and feeding me!

How else could two very different characters – one a colonial 

Jewess, one a bunny potter – grab my heart and refuse to let 

go until I get their stories told.

Writing brought me to our Children’s Book World and in truth 

to this blog.

How good it feels to be writing - and revising - children’s books 

again, while of course, still TEACHING, but yet with 

AUTHORING now and once again in view.

 I remain hopeful…

and grateful.

How could I not?

Thank you to my eleven fellow TeachingAuthors bloggers, 

veteran and former*, for sharing your Smarts and Hearts 

these past fifteen years.

Thank you to our TeachingAuthors Readers, storied treasures, 

too, loyal Fans, Feeders and Fuelers.

Happy 15^th Blogiversary!  And don’t forget to click here to 

enter our Book and Book Gift Card Giveaway!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

Thank you to Buffy Silverman/, whom I’ve cheered on since 

our Writing Paths crossed oh, so long ago in Illinois, for hosting 

today’s Poetry Friday.

P.P.S

One spot has opened up in my July 7-12 Vermont Manuscript 

Workshop! To learn more, click here and scroll down the page.

*Joann Early Macken, Jeanne Marie Grunwell-Ford, 

  Jill Esbaum, Laura Purdie Salas, Gwendolyn Hooks, 

  Carla McKillough

I can hardly believe it, but this Monday, April 22, 2024, [in addition to being Earth Day] will be the 15th anniversary of the founding of our TeachingAuthors blog! To celebrate, we're giving away an autographed copy of a very special book (hint: it was written by one of our TeachingAuthors) PLUS a $15 gift card to Bookshop.org. You'll find the giveaway details at the end of this post. Also, in honor of Poetry Friday, I am including a poem excerpt from our giveaway book. (Another hint for you!)  

When we founded TeachingAuthors back in 2009, I had no idea we'd still be here so many years later! Today I kick off a series of posts commemorating this milestone. Each of the TeachingAuthors will reflect on how her writing, her outlook, and/or the industry has changed over the last 15 years.

In one of my earliest posts here, I explained how I became a TeachingAuthor. At that time, I was teaching writing classes for adults and children at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL and other local venues. Candlewick had published Rosa, Sola, the middle-grade novel I wrote for my creative thesis for my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College, and I was working on several picture book manuscripts--some I'd started at Vermont College and others I'd drafted later. I'd loved reading picture books to my young son and had hoped to publish my own. By 2009, I had received some encouraging rejections, but I never found a publisher for any of those picture books. 

I believe I've shared here before that I think one of my biggest career mistakes was not writing another middle-grade novel to follow up Rosa, Sola. I'd had several ideas, but none of them quite worked. (And I really wanted to publish a picture book.) Perhaps if I'd sold a second novel to Candlewick, they would have published a paperback edition of Rosa, Sola and it wouldn't have gone out of print when it did. But I was honored to have a middle-grade short story published in a Candlewick anthology that came out in 2010: I Fooled You: Ten Stories of Tricks, Jokes, and Switcheroos, edited by Johanna Hurwitz. That story, "Biz Z, Cammi, and Me," allowed me to prove to myself (and the world) that I can write humorous stories. 😀

My career path has taken other unexpected twists and turns. Back in 2009, I could never have imagined that I would write a historical romance set in 18th-century Milan. Or that, after I finally finished it, I'd end up putting the manuscript in the proverbial drawer when I couldn't find a publisher, despite it winning several awards. But that's what happened with my young-adult historical Playing by Heart, as our long-time blog readers may recall. That book's path eventually had a happy ending, though, when it was published by a small press. I was thrilled to announce the good news here in January of 2017.   

The story of Rosa, Sola had a happy ending too. I eventually got my rights back from Candlewick and self-published the novel in both paperback and ebook format. In fact, we celebrated our 7th TeachingAuthors blogiversary with a reveal of the book's new cover and a giveaway. I'm so pleased that readers continue to find and enjoy the novel.

Now my writing path is circling back to the beginning--the very beginning. I started writing as a young teen, initially writing only poetry. I have returned to those roots the last few years, taking poetry classes and having my poems published in several anthologies. (You can scroll down on the Published Works page of my website to read about my most recent poetry publications.)

I've also returned to picture book writing, both fiction and nonfiction. And just two months ago, I announced that I had signed with agent Anjanette Barr of Dunham Literary to represent those manuscripts. I've never had an agent before--back when I started in children's publishing you didn't need one, and you would, in fact, have been hard-pressed to find an agent who represented books for young readers. That's one of the many ways the industry has changed in the last 15+ years.  

For all the writers reading this, I hope the story of my writing journey isn't disheartening. I confess:  there were many times along the way when I was tempted to quit. But I'm glad I stubbornly kept plodding on. If writing is your calling, I encourage you to be UNSTOPPABLE when it comes to pursuing your goals. 

And that leads into the poem I want to share today, which is an excerpt from the very special picture book you can win as part of our blogiversary giveaway. Here's the poem:

Do you recognize it? In case you don't, here's another clue: the full page from the book: 

This page is from TeachingAuthor Esther Hershenhorn's masterful picture book S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet, illustrated by Zachary Pullen (Sleeping Bear Press). One reason this book is perfect for our 15th blogiversary giveaway is because it was published the year we started this blog, 2009. In early October of that year, we celebrated the book's release with a whole series of posts about its making. We gave away a copy then, too!

A second reason why we want to include S is for Story in our giveaway is because it's all about the writing process. Here's a brief description from the Renaissance Learning Site: 

"This book utilizes the alphabet to explain and examine the techniques, tools, and strategies of those who wish to live a literary life, covering writing terms and topics such as genre and story elements, with quotes from famous authors."

But the book does so much more! Esther's energy and enthusiasm for writing and writers shines through on every page. Which is why the third reason why we're including this book in our giveaway makes me sad: S is for Story is no longer in print. 😢

Fortunately for us, though, Esther has a copy she's willing to part with that she'll autograph for one lucky winner. If you're not that winner, I encourage you to check the book out from your favorite library so that it continues to circulate.    

Howdy, Campers ~ Happy Poetry Friday and Happy Poetry Month!

Many of you may remember that our beloved 14-year-old dog, Eli died last October.  It hit Kitty hard. She wouldn't sleep in our bedroom. She didn't purr for two weeks.

Although Eli was a large dog, our empty house reminded me of a poem I wrote when my mom's dog died:  

ON THE DEATH OF A SMALL DOG

Opening the front door,
there is no small sound of clicking nails
on the wooden floor
no bright eyes
no jumping, dancing dog.             

I have opened a pomegranate
and found no ruby seeds --
only this
hollow
shell.

published in Cricket Magazine November, 1999

Last week, we felt ready for a new dog. We knew exactly what we wanted: a cat-friendly, submissive dog, about a year old. NOT a puppy. 

Well...
we got two out of the three.  

Introducing four month-old Sadie, who fills our lives with laughter and whose puppiness creeps into most of my poems these days--hence, the title of today's post. 

                       

I began writing a poem a day on April 1, 2010 and I've been writing one a day ever since. Today I'm offering you a few dog poems I wrote during Poetry Month 2013. (Keep in mind they're Ruff Drafts.)

You can read them all here: https://www.aprilwayland.com/poetry/2013-poetry-month/

Here are a four, just for you:

WHAT NOT TO NAME YOUR DOG ~ rough draft
by April Halprin Wayland

Hy.
Hello.
Hey.

Trust me. You don’t want your dog
spinning in circles
wondering who's calling his name.

And do NOT name your child after a month.
Trust me.
I have whiplash for thirty days every spring.
==================

IF OUR HOUSE WERE ON FIRE, DOG, WHAT WOULD I TAKE? ~ rough draft
by April Halprin Wayland

I would take you
just you…

Well, you
and the usual zoo:

our tortoise and frog and our noodle-brain dog
and the cat that purrs if I can find her

and Mom’s grand piano, my scarf from Berlin
Dad’s old typewriter, my violin

and you.
==================

DISCIPLES AT THE DOG PARK ~ rough draft
by April Halprin Wayland

At this moment,
Tom is either
Mr. Cook, second grade teacher,
or God.

In the dust of the park,
five dogs sit tightly around Tom,
who is standing,
holding a dried chicken chip,
as if it were a gold medallion.

Pick me, pick me, pick me,
they seem to be saying,
like second graders,
waving their bare arms in the air.

If I sit up the straightest,
he will give it to me,
they seem to be saying,
noses held high,
backs straight,
tails up, wagging wildly.

Or perhaps they are worshipping,
praying with all their might
to the tall guy
who holds the answer to everything.

======================

DOG EXPLORER USES HIS NOSE ~ rough draft
by April Halprin Wayland

Sniff, o, sniff—what glorious fumes
coats the world beyond these rooms?

You with your pens and their feathery plumes—
sit ’round the table in your conference rooms

but I have a calling beyond these doors
to the tang and the stink at the wild waves’ shores

while you’re puzzling over lines of ink,
I’ll be rolling in things that stink!

I’ll catch the tang of a porcupine’s trail,
decoding flavors that tell a tale.

You find words, I’ll follow vapors
I’ll bound through meadows, you plough your papers.

As your new poem begins to speak
I’ll uncover a treasure that reeks!

================================

National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the American Academy of Poets.

Here are two events for your edification:

April 9, 2024 9am PST…I’m the guest speaker in Poetry Month at Rebecca Gold’s Yogic Writing Circle I’ll speak for 30 minutes with a Q & A at the end. Each session includes a daily writing circle, Tuesday and Thursday co-writing sessions, and monthly guest speakers. Sign up on her website. Rebecca is an amazing teacher; I HIGHLY recommend her newest book, From Your Mat to Your Memoir.

April 13, 2024 11:30am PST…FREE Adult Poetry Writing Workshop. How to Put WOW in Your Poetry (Don't you want to know what WOW stands for?!?) We'll play with words and have time for writing and sharing. Chances are, your writing will never be the same. Join us for the fun at the Hermosa Beach Library 550 Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Thank you, Irene, for hosting Poetry Friday this week at Live Your Poem

 

 A photo from long-ago when Monkey and Eli regularly read poetry to each other

poems (c) 2024 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

Recently, a friend shared his wisdom when another said that writing is hard, and asked if there was a way to make it easier. To this, my friend said, describing his approach to writing fiction, “Write it from inside the characters. Allow the characters to grow their own story and follow their lead. When it is complete and you are seeking opinions about how well you wrote it, leave your ego at home and allow the comments --- even the foolish or misguided ones --- to penetrate because they are talking about a book, not about you. Even a fool is correct once in a while! The goal is to create a work of art that will speak well of you. Any hack can cobble together 80,000 words, but most of that kind of writing can put a shark to sleep.”

Every term, my MFA students lament this very thing. I have to remind them that every writer carries similar worries at every stage of their career. In some part, it's the nature of the business itself. But it's also a function of human nature.

It seems the core of these worries are defined by a lot of shouldas and couldas, accompanied by a strong belief in several sacred myths about writing and writers.  Myths, they hope, that carry the secrets to and serve as a compass for how to succeed as a writer.

Myth: Writers only write when they are inspired.

I’m too old to wait around, hoping for some magical muse to show up. The truth is, writers write. It seems to me that curiosity is much more important.

Recently I’ve been going through a phase in which I really like Australian TV. The scenery. The intersection of history between indigenous and penal colonies. The Māori (and the Huka!). A common plot device is cricket – whether it’s baking, mystery, supernatural or comedy, there always seems to be a leather ball and a flat bat involved. To understand the context, I started researching cricket. And watching Australian cricket. (Baggy green is now my favorite color! What a sticky wicket!) This led me to research certain cricket personalities, then cricket history, which led to reading more about British colonialism. Which led to reading about the mid-Atlantic slave trade and the middle passage and the slave narratives. Which led me to Caribbean uprisings. While it sounds like a rabbit hole that Lewis Carrol might envy (and it was), I began noticing a seed for a story. This seed soon developed into a premise. Then it became a character. Then it became a draft.

More often it is through the act of reading and writing itself that inspiration finally decides to visit.

Myth: Writers are introverts.

There may be some truth to this. I prefer long walks to parties. I prefer languorous conversations with my flowers. Albeit, my granddaughter is pretty good at discussing the secrets of dragonflight. Others travel, attend literary events, participate in writing and reading groups, join online discussions. Sometimes I pop into one or two events.  Given my luddite nature, my relationship with social media is rather wobbly. (The irony that I’m writing a blog isn’t lost on me. But I did handwrite this first!) Some may be energized and go full steam into social events, while others find it exhausting. In the end, writers need diverse perspectives and connections to enrich their writing, but ultimately, it’s more important for you to be you.

 Myth: Method X is better than Method Y.

I’m a nerd about the writing process. I find it an endlessly fascinating topic. While I have more than a fair share of degrees and certificates in the writing process, I still attend classes, workshops and lectures given by the best in the business. If you have the chance, I can’t recommend enough the classes given by Emma D. Dryden, Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson, and the many offerings at Free Expressions, sponsored by Lorin Oberweger and company, featuring such lecturers as Donald Maass, Chris Vogler and many others.

Whether it’s plotting versus pantsing, the hero’s journey versus the snowflake method, or saving the cat versus the three-act narrative, editing while you go or hammering out an SFD, everyone has their own way of engineering a story. My own process tends to follow four steps:

1. Research to get an overview of historical and social contexts. Besides, I like to read. You never know what treasure you’ll find.

2.  Outline, because I tend to work with a cast of characters as well as historical/social elements that require careful staging.

3. Write that SFD, usually by hand first.

4. Revise, then revise again, then revise again, because this is where the real magic happens.

What makes it work for me is that I set time apart for my writing and treat it like a job. I know how busy life becomes, having worked as a single parent maintaining a household. But it is still my job to write.

Myth: Writers are excellent spellers.

Yea. Right.

Myth: Writing is easy.

Does any of this sound easy?

Just as an engineer relies on a structurally-sound blueprint – one that, according to Larry Brooks in his book, Story Engineering, requires a plan based on proven physics and structural dynamics -- to build something that will bear weight and resist the elements, so must a writer engineer a story using the literary equivalent. The technicality of the story is fundamental to its creativity. The master writers make it look easy, but behind the scenes, it’s all sweat, blood and a few tears.

There are no easy answers. I tend to like what  Margaret Dilloway suggests in The Writer Unboxed, that you have to give  yourself the permission to write, and you have to give yourself your own approval and authentication, instead of depending on external sources. As she states,  "Nobody else can do that for you. You have to take that power and confidence for yourself.”

Most important, remember that it's important to celebrate the little things. And the big things. And the wicked goggly things, too.

 Celebrating the completion of my SFD! You know, shitty first draft! Only 99 more to go!

Thank you for reading!

-- Bobbi Miller

My word for the year is PLAY.  The opposite of toil.  And why not? 

17 years ago, at my current school, I wrote my Teaching Philosophy to articulate the direction that I was headed as a kindergarten teacher.

“I believe in the power of play (think of anyone you know who has lost their passion for life and they’ve probably forgotten how to play.)

I believe in learning through wonder, exploration, and discovery (think of anyone you know who is a lifelong learner and they’re probably driven by wonder, exploration, and discovery rather than thinking of learning as a task that must be completed.)”

My commitment to play has become even more entrenched.  I’m not sure what my life would have been like had I not found my way to a career surrounded by 5-year-olds and a life of visual art and writing for children.  Play is powerful. My own daughter went to a school until she was 12 in LA committed to play, Play Mountain Place.  I carry the lessons of our experience there as a parent into my classroom every day.

https://www.playmountain.org/

I design writing, reading, math, science, and social studies invitations to deepen the play and find relationships between scholastic skills.  

Writing is a tool to express oneself.  This is the reason to learn to write.  Our week is designed with many different projects anchored in play, all leading to the goal of writing.  Story crafting in the Wildlands (an acre of outdoor learning on campus), the classroom, or the play yard is designed to end in writing.  Making inventions at the Maker Table is designed to lead to writing about the invention. Consistent writing leads to more writing.  Writing makes stronger readers. All of this steeped in play.

In my own writing, play drives my work.  It is the joyful adventure of following an idea without fully knowing where I’ll land.  It is playfully following the twists and turns. It is the journey of delight that brings me back to the computer (or notebook) again and again.  Creativity anchored in play is like a drug. If it were toil, I doubt I would be compelled to return over and over.  It is play that drives me. Play that beckons me back. Play that keeps it fresh, alive, and youthful. 

I am a pessimist by nature. I think I inherited this “attribute” from my mom who had two favorite sayings. 1.  Don’t get your hopes up. 2. Don’t expect the best and you’ll never be disappointed. (So that’s how The Greatest Generation got through the Depression, WWII and raising us Boomers. Chronic skepticism.)

So when my college roommate sent me this during the Pandemic, I had to chuckle. The world was going to hell in a hand basket, and she literally sent me Hope, courtesy of UPS. I hung it where I would see it multiple times a day. Who knew? Maybe it would inspire hope. Right, I thought. As if!

This has been a particularly grim winter for me. Battleship grey skies…not even clouds, just solid grey overhead. Every time I turned on my computer I learned another cousin, friend, former student or had died. I was writing myself into literary cul-de-sacs. And let’s not talk about the general state of the world. In fact, the only hopeful thing in life was that little word, hanging by the front door.

But you know what? The sun started making cameo appearances throughout the day. People didn’t stop dying but now there was good news as well. Friends who had searched decades for an agent, acquired one. First time authors of a certain age (which is now how I refer to myself) were being published. My long dormant brain became aware of story ideas.

In other words, I felt hopeful. I also had faith, that elusive concept that makes hope possible. As the Bible says  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” --Hebrew 11:1

I will write my way out of those cul-de-sacs. Those ideas will blossom into stories.

I can feel that fluttering of hope that Emily Dickinson wrote of.  If there comes a time when hope seems to be taking another sabbatical, I can always recall my favorite Woody Allen quote: 

 “How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not the thing with feathers. The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.”

Hope also has a sense of humor.

When all else fails, there are the wise words of Cormac McCarthy—“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.” 

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Great minds think alike. Or rather similar Spirits recognize 

a similar need.

My word for 2024 – LIGHT, both the Noun and the Verb, and 

Carmela’s LIGHTER, both the Adjective and the Adverb, share 

the same root:         

            The word “light” comes from Old English leht 

            (Anglian), Leoht (West Saxon), meaning 

            “brightness, radiant energy, that which makes 

             things visible.”

I admit (painfully):

My expertise at finding silver linings?

My ability to focus on the positive?

To date, neither has totally reduced the sometimes-crushing 

weight of our oft-dark World that surprisingly leaves me – 

a Cubs Fan! – wobbly, unable to navigate.

Fortunately, the two inspirational quotes I keep in view on my 

real-life desk top broadcast a qualifying NEVERTHELESS.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s words help me steady my footing, 

look up and find my way.

He’d been asked if given the choice, what era would he live in?  

He acknowledged his land’s troubles and confusion, messes 

and sicknesses.

     “But I know, somehow,” he said, “that only when it’s dark 

       enough can you see the stars.”

        

The Dark, I’ve learned, can indeed be a Good Thing.

So, thirty-three days into this New Year, I continue to focus all of 

me on the Anyones and Anythings who and that gift me with joy, 

wonder, cause for celebration and/or prompt me to count my 

blessings on a quarter-hour basis.

All those lights, all those nouns, especially the Proper ones, keep 

me keepin’ on.

Ah, the Possibilities!

But even more important, I learned all those lights empower me so 

I can do the same for others.

They recharge my batteries so I can burn bright, so I can light the 

way enabling others to keep keepin’ on.

 L.R. Knost’s words remind me. “The broken world waits in 

darkness for the light that is you.” 

Ah, the opportunities!

 Thanks to Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for hosting 

today’s Poetry Friday. 

 In signing off, I can’t help but recall the motto of my family’s 

electrician Moish Dove who happened to be my father’s lodge 

brother.  “Let there be light!”

Esther Hershenhorn

p.s.

My go-to sources for inspirational cards that help to keep me, 

and thus everyone I know and love, keepin’ on?

Curly Girl Designs and Marylou Falstreau’s Cards and Prints!