12 Years! A Thanku and Another #HaikuFromTwo

Happy Poetry Friday! This post includes a Thanku and a #HaikuFromTwo.

As Esther shared in her post kicking off our current series, this month we're celebrating our TWELFTH Blogiversary! I can hardly believe it's been that long. This blogging journey has been filled with wonderful surprises and blessings. One of those surprises was the TeachingAuthors' virtual meeting Esther shared a photo of in her post. I thought that meeting was to learn some great new Zoom teaching tips from the amazing April Halprin Wayland. Instead, it was a party to celebrate our blog and my efforts to keep it running all these years. My fellow TeachingAuthors showered me with thanks that day. But I am just as grateful for all of them and what they've contributed to this blog over these dozen years. And I'm grateful to you, our readers, for traveling along with us. 

Esther didn't mention in her post the lovely gift my fellow TeachingAuthors sent me that day, as if the surprise meeting wasn't enough:

I smile every time I see these lovely plants (which are still blooming).   

This month, each of us are sharing a favorite post written by one of our fellow TeachingAuthors. My heart is so filled with gratitude for our blogiversary milestone that if felt appropriate to remind you all of Esther's terrific post introducing us to the Thanku: a haiku expressing gratitude. Esther inspired us to feature thankus often over these twelve years. You'll find many of those posts here. I'd like to add one more to that collection:

For my fellow TeachingAuthors and All Our Readers:
       My heart overflows
       like a basket of flowers,
       still growing. Thank you.
©2021 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.

Speaking of haiku, this week I wrote another #HaikuFromTwo. I shared last month about Amanda Davis's #HaikuFromTwo challenge: you randomly pick two words from a book you're reading and create a haiku using them. After Beverly Cleary's recent death, I thought it would be fitting to read one of her books. Unlike most writers I know, I never read any of Cleary's work until I was an adult, and that book was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. A few weeks ago, I finally read the first Ramona book: Beezus and Ramona.  Today's #HaikuFromTwo includes two random words from that book: drawing (page 45) and pretend (page 159):

Be sure to check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup by Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core.

Happy writing!
Carmela

PS: Congratulations to Linda M, winner of our giveaway of JoAnn Early Macken's new book, Grow!

Our 11th Blogiversary!

Hard to believe that today marks ELEVEN years since we started this blog. Happy blogiversary to us!

Last year we did a series of ten posts to celebrate our tenth blogiversary, with contributions from all ten of the marvelous TeachingAuthors who had contributed to this blog over the years. Given the difficult times we're currently experiencing, I think a quieter celebration is in order this year. But rather than let the date go by unmarked, I thought I'd repeat the terrific Thanku poem Esther shared in her post for our tenth anniversary:

           THANKU TO YOU!

     Here’s to our Readers!
     Fans, Feeders, Fuelers all.
     True storied treasures.

poem (c) 2019 Esther Hershenhorn. All rights reserved.

We wouldn't still be doing this if not for you, our wonderful readers. Whether you're a new follower or you've been here from the beginning, we appreciate each and every one of you!

And don't forget to always Write with Joy!
Carmela

Happy #10 to the 10th Power!

We’re celebrating our TENTH Blogiversary?

We’re celebrating our TENTH BLOGIVERSARY!

Honestly? When we first began blogging, the challenge of a once-every-three-week Monday morning post caused numerous angst-filled Sunday nights.
(1) I’m the Slowest Writer East of the Mississippi.
(2) I was a tad intimidated by my fellow MFA-holding TA’S.
(3) Uploading my post to the Blogger software, inserting pictures and links and praying the post would appear the next day had me hating Sundays.

But once I got the hang of it, say after 4 years? I was there! And it gladdens my heart that I’m still here. 😊
I’ve so loved sharing my teaching and authoring smarts, experiences and wonderings with our TeachingAuthors readers. I remain truly grateful for the honor and opportunity to help seed and feed our Readers.

Gratitude lies at the heart of my very favorite post – “Celebrate October 20th the Write Way: Write a Thanku!
I love the surprise this post created whilst I was writing it – i.e. The Thanku, an original poetic form, part thank you note/part Haiku. I also love the surprise of our readers’ warm response.  The poetic form eventually led to our blog’s annual Two Weeks of Thanks celebration. 

In my very first Thanku I thanked the writers I’ve come to know through teaching and coaching.  “Such storied treasures!” I wrote.
Since 2011, I’ve thanked, in chronological order: my Children’s Book World, my students, my Carioca grandson, my fellow TeachingAuthors, my Chicago Cubs and my mentors Bernice Raab and Sue Alexander.

This year? I’m thanking YOU, our Readers who keep all of us - veteran and former bloggers alike, keepin’ on!

                      THANKU TO YOU!

Here’s to our Readers!

Fans, Feeders, Fuelers all.
True storied treasures.

With immeasurable gratitude to both my fellow TeachingAuthors and our loyal Readers,
Esther Hershenhorn

…..

And now, drum roll, please, as we announce the winner of Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS, our 10th Blogiversary’s Giveaway, personally autographed by the author at last weekend’s Marvelous Midwest SCBWI Conference: Michele H.!
Congrats, Michele!
And thanks to all who entered and shared Good Wishes, favorite posts and Kind Words!

                               Back row, left to right: Jill Esbaum, me, Carmela,                

                               JoAnn; Front row, Cheryl Klein

My Thanku to Sue (Alexander)!

I know in my heart there are legions of children’s book creators who re-express on a daily basis their gratitude Sue Alexander entered their lives.
I am but one such writer, and a lucky one at that.

All sorts of nouns in apposition describe Sue’s long-time residency in the Children’s Book World, chief among them TeachingAuthor and SCBWI’s Very First Member and #1 Supporter. 

After publishing her first book, SMALL PLAYS FOR YOU AND A FRIEND (Scholastic), in 1973, Sue went on to publish 24 other tiles, including my favorite, the picture book BEHOLD THE TREES (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2001).  As a teacher, she loved sharing all she’d learned - “from the best,” she’d like to say, and that included Myra Cohn Livingston. Sue joined SCBW in 1971 and went on to grow the organization as it took on the “I” for “Illustrators. She served as SCBWI’S Chairperson of the Board of Advisors for 33 years while helping to organize conferences and the Golden Kite Awards and watching over all.

While I’d admired Sue from afar at my very first LA SCBW Conference in 1986 (!), it wasn’t until the early 90’s, when I assumed responsibilities for my Illinois SCBWI Chapter, that I came to know this red-headed Energizer Bunny-like force of nature.
As dedicated as she was to helping children’s book creators be the best they could be, that’s how dedicated she was to making sure those of us working on SCBWI’s behalf did so with professionalism, dedication and kindness. 
Her diminutive size belied the enormity of her spirited actions. Excellence was Sue’s only standard.

IMHO: Sue’s verbs describe her best.
She taught, modeled, mentored, guided, encouraged and supported, not to mention believed in SCBWI and its members.
In so many ways, she “mothered” so many.
And like any mother, she saw the promise in each of us.

SCBWI’s Sue Alexander Manuscript Award, established in 1996, is the perfect award to honor Sue’s dedication, service and, since 2008, her memory.  It’s given to the manuscript submitted for critique to the SCBWI Annual Conference in LA deemed most promising for publication. Conference critiquers determine the finalists and a three-member panel of industry professionals make the final selection.  The work or a synopsis of the work is then presented to an esteemed group of hand-selected editors and agents.  Winners become instant Success Stories.

Whether writing, teaching, coaching or engaging in an SCBWI event, Sue is with me,
perched on my shoulder, whispering in my ear what needs to be done and how well I need to do it.  The height of the bar she set hasn’t slipped an inch. 

Here’s hoping the 17 syllables of my traditional TeachingAuthors Thanku, this time to thank Sue, keep Sue’s Spirit alive.  Paying Sue Alexander forward is something those of us who knew her do gladly and often.

          Sue Alexander –
          the gift that keeps on giving
          so we keep writing!

Happy Thanku-ing – and – Thanksgiving!

Esther Hershenhorn