Good News for Children’s Writers from BEA

Read more about 2013 BEA news for writers of middle grade novels, picture books, and YA by clicking on the link below.

Harold Underdown: “YA isn’t going away … print end of the publishing business is healthy” | Young People’s Pavilion.

Barry Goldblatt Represents Books for Children and Young Adults

An interview with Barry Goldblatt. He will be at Pikes Peak next weekend!

Literary Rambles: Agent Spotlight: Barry Goldblatt.

Write a “Post” Poem for Robert Brewer’s Blog

Here’s my contribution for Day 6 of the Poem a Day Challenge. It draws from a strange childhood fascination–a small poster on a fence which I could read, but which seemed to make no sense at all. That fascination was, actually, an early manifestation of my interest in poetry–the multiple implications of words and the meanings that lurk among them.

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 6 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Post No Bills 

The sign

on the

construction company’s

temporary fence

said “Post no bills.”

I could read

all the words

as I skipped past

and I read it

over and over,

so seemingly

simple, yet holding

so little sense.

My parents

muttered something

about advertisements,

but what did

Brill Cream or Babbo

have to do with

posts or bills?

They must have,

I thought,

misunderstood me

again, and I mulled

what adult secrets could

be hidden so out there

in the open, among

little words.

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Write a “Plus” Poem

Here’s a poem for the fifth day of the 2013 Poem a Day Challenge on Rober Brewer’s blog. My contribution is below the link.

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 5 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Plus

They all add up,

in the end,

remnants of

all the different

people we have

been, the toddling

baby, tasting

everything that falls

in reach, the school

child hearing

the music of varied

voices, the teen

watching for every

slight, the young

adult feeling the frustrations

of a striving world,

the parent, overwhelmed

by the surprising perfume

of a child’s sun-dusted arm,

the aging friend, walking

by a river in the afternoon,

a sum from similar

numbers, so like, yet

unlike any other,

when added up.

#AprilPrompts – Day 4 – Sin – #Haiku – #NaPoWriMo | Donna L Sadd

Okay, with this one, I am caught up for Day 4. Whew! Donna L. Sadd asks us to write a poem about sin. Wow, that lady can come up with them, can’t she? If you want to read the contributions of her community and/or write one of your own, here’s the link:

#AprilPrompts – Day 4 – Sin – #Haiku – #NaPoWriMo | Donna L Sadd.

Here’s mine:

Sin

It was original,

there right from

the start, embedded

in clay scooped

from the creekbed

in Eden’s garden,

that inability

to resist the temptation

to defy authority,

do the denied, and

then lie, covering

everything up with

strategic leaves,

making alternative

arrangements as

the Creator laughed

softly behind His

hand, pretending

to be angry, sending

his charges out

into the rest

of the world to be

the restless souls

He had always

intended.

#AprilPrompts – DAY 3 – BIRTHDAY – #Haiku – #NaPoWriMo | Donna L Sadd

Here’s yesterday’s for Donna L. Sadd’s challenge. It’s a birthday Haiku.

#AprilPrompts – DAY 3 – BIRTHDAY – #Haiku – #NaPoWriMo | Donna L Sadd.

Following the Japanese seasonal, nature tradition, inspired by a real nest we saw–that bird was insane!

Birthday

Out on an elm branch

dangling over a swollen creek

a nest; a hatchling

Write a “Hold That ____________!” Poem for Robert Brewer’s Blog

Here’s my day 4 poem for Robert Brewer’s blog. His challenge today is to write a Hold That______! poem. Click the link below to read dozens from his growing community of poets and to contribute your own. Mine is below the link.

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 4 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Hold That Pose

You are no model

neither am I

which is the whole

point of this

particular enterprise

as we aim long lenses

at one another to

document this

afternoon of  real

warmth and silliness

it doesn’t matter

that our hair

is wild and none

would copy our

clothes but that

no look will

ever be quite

like this again

though eons

through space

the planet will

spin.

Write a Poem Inspired by the Word “Tentative”

I am playing catch-up today. I did not write yesterday. We were out enjoying spring weather, cherry blossoms, and herons. Yesterday’s prompt on Robert Brewer’s blog was to write a Tentative poem. Click on the link to read more and to post your own. It’s never too late (or you can go straight to today’s prompt.)

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 3 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Tentative

It’s the first film

our fathers took,

fiddling with the

unfamiliar controls

of the camera,

trembling

with unaccustomed

excitement, knowing

there would

only be one chance,

without clumsy

reenactment, to catch

the mythic occasion,

as we, clinging

for dear life, to our

mother’s forefingers,

stretch our unsteady

legs and, tentative,

let go.

Write a “Bright” or “Dark” Poem for Robert Brewer’s Blog

This is Two-fer Tuesday on Robert Brewer’s blog.  Today’s assignment is to write a poem suggested by the word bright, the word dark, or both.

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 2 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

Bright

Blinding

emergence

from pulsing

red heat

beating darkness

unconscious

junction unaware

of unseen realities

of separation

promising brightness

at the end of

a pressing tunnel

blinking screaming

at bloody murder

of beginning

and all blinding

divisions gradually

emerging

from icy light.

Pitch Your Book to Agents on March 15

Prepare to pitch your book to agents on March 15! Click the link below for details.

Brenda Drake . . . under the influence of coffee: Pitch Madness … details.