5 Years Later, Still Writing the Same Way!

Hello, writers and teachers! It’s lovely to visit with you, and happy 10th anniversary to this wonderful blog!

For my blast from the past, I’ve decided to link to my Wednesday Writing Workout post on writing rhyming nonfiction. I chose this rhyming nonfiction poem exercise because, 5 years later, it still accurately reflects how I go about writing. This trial-and-error, exploratory way of writing nonfiction verse still feels like home to me. The content is king in a nonfiction book, but playing with rhyme can help shape the way and order in which I'm going to share information, and it can suggest various examples and metaphors that I might not have thought of without rhyme.


It’s basically the same way I’ve been writing my nonfiction verse books (though none have been about fences--ha!). After WATER CAN BE..., which I shared also in that post, came A ROCK CAN BE... (Millbrook, 2016), MEET MY FAMILY: ANIMAL BABIES AND THEIR FAMILIES (Millbrook, 2018), and, soon, SNACK, SNOOZE, SKEDADDLE: HOW ANIMALS GET READY FOR WINTER (Millbrook, 2019). I also have two rhyming nonfiction picture books coming out from Bloomsbury in the next few years!


This spring, though, is a Poetry-Palooza celebration, as I have three poetry picture books that have all come out in the past few months. One is nonfiction but not rhyming. One is rhyming poems, but they are pure imagination. And one is haiku riddles, nonrhyming. I have Padlets on each book’s page on my website, so if you feel like trying your hand at some different types of poetry, I hope you’ll jump in and contribute!


SNOWMAN-COLD=PUDDLE: SPRING EQUATIONS (Charlesbridge, ill. by Micha Archer)

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: POEMS FROM A WIDE-AWAKE HOUSE (Wordsong, ill. by Angela Matteson)

LION OF THE SKY: HAIKU FOR ALL SEASONS (Millbrook, ill. by Mercè López)

One other project I've been working on recently is getting some of my resources for children's writers gathered into one spot on my website.I hope you'll stop by to see if you find something useful, like my free Facebook Group or my in-depth articles on how I write a nonfiction picture book or how I research publishers and submit my manuscripts. And I've even joined Patreon, where I'm providing additional resources, like behind-the-scenes videos documenting how I'm writing my current picture book.

Besides all this good stuff, TeachingAuthors is running a giveaway of Cheryl Klein’s MAGIC WORDS. Just go back to Marti’s kickoff post to enter.

And, as it's Poetry Friday, be sure to check out the Roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink with the awesome Carol Varsalona!

Okay, that's it. Thanks for inviting me back! The depth of information shared here is really meaningful. I had fun reading a few of my old posts as well as other posts that caught my eye as I was browsing. You aren’t kidding when you call yourselves Teaching Authors!

xox,
Laura
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Laura Purdie Salas

For the Love Of...

As you may remember, I have a cat named Comma. I’ve featured Comma many times in my musings here. One of my favorite postings was For the Love of Comma,  exploring how punctuation influences a reader’s reception of your story.

This week, I lost Comma.

While reeling with this unexpected loss, I am also – now more than ever – keenly aware how fast time flies. And what matters most are the connections, the friendships and the relationships made along the way. And one of the most important for me is my connection with the Teaching Authors.

Teaching Authors celebrates our ninth anniversary. Over nine years, nine fabulous writers who teach have discussed the writer’s life, the art of teaching and the importance of literary citizenship. Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford. JoAnn Early Mackin. Carmela Martino. Mary Ann Rodman. April Halprin Wayland. Jill Esbaum. Laurie Purdie Salas. Carla McKillough Clafferty. Esther Hershenhorn.

A constant and important theme throughout these many years has been exploring strategies to help build a community of readers, for future’s sake. We have explored best books, and rousing poetry, inspirational characters, and o! the places we’ll go! We’ve featured literary heroes and celebrated our students. We exposed the shadows on the wall, and looked at monsters in the closet.

It has been a rip-roaring adventure. Now more than ever, I remain humbled and grateful that Carmela and my fellow TAs thought I might have something worthwhile to say.

And that’s worth celebrating!

I think Esther said it best with her Celebratory Nonaversary THANKU, and if I may, I repeat it here, for the love of "my TA kin – all nine of them!"

                       Nine TeachingAuthors,
                   beacons each, heart-builders all,
                   en-courage-ing me.

And Thank YOU, dear readers,  for reading my oftimes silly, rambling but always heartfelt posts through the years.

Bobbi Miller

A Celebratory Nonaversary THANKU!

My fellow TeachingAuthors and I are celebrating our Nonaversary!
We’re looking back at our nine years of posting, sharing what we loved about being a part of this original group blog.

I confess:
while the descriptive noun in apposition TeachingAuthor combined the two professions I’d dreamed of since I was six-years old,
and I LOVED the idea of a group blog composed of six children’s book writers who also teach writing,
when Carmela Martino invited me to join such a blog in the summer of 2008, I chewed my lower lip and furrowed my brow.

Me? I thought.
The Slowest Writer East of the Mississippi?!
I was a studied writer if ever there was one.  Weren’t blog posts supposed to be light and breezy?
Me? I thought.
A true Luddite, a digital immigrant with enough techno-fears to accommodate bevies of post-Baby Boomers? Wouldn’t software be involved?
And what about those MFA’s in Writing for Children my fellow bloggers held – and I didn’t? Did Carmela forget I’m The Susan Lucci of Children’s Books?!

Fortunately, Carmela’s “You can do it!” trust in me won out.  I mustered my courage and am I ever glad!
This group blog gifted me with the perfect opportunity to pay Kindness forward, to think about our Readers – and what they needed/wished for/wanted to tell their good stories well, then share all I learned, thoughtfully and honestly, from my journey, my mentors, my students, my writers, my writing kin and my Children’s Book World,
But even better?  My fellow TeachingAuthors, nine in all, in nine years of posting not only taught me volumes about teaching, writing and living the writer’s life, making me a better teacher and author.
My fellow TA’s taught me how to be braver.

Sure. My pre-Monday-posting Sundays were often fraught with angst, plus 911 calls to our Administrator-dash-Tech Guru Carmela.
I’d spend weeks brainstorming a topic, researching avenues, tickling an idea, then tinkering with words to ensure a cogent and interesting telling. Inserting and verifying links, however, sizing and positioning photos, remembering to save text? All these tasks drove me bonkers. Many Monday mornings I’d be up early, checking my post, then correcting my mistakes.
Finding relevant free clip art became a full-time job. I still have nightmares in which I’m imprisoned for copyright infringement.
And I will never forget the spirit-crushing week I spent (a) registering for SoundCloud, (b) then using it to record my chosen poem for National Poetry Month in celebration of our fifth Blogiversary and (c) uploading it to blogger, or not.
Last summer, when the blogger software refused to recognize my new laptop, I was ready to call it quits, no matter my posts’ value or how I’d come to love writing them.
As always, Carmela talked me down and found a way using a new font and Notepad that is so convoluted it’s too long to share.

But thanks to Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford, JoAnn Early Mackin, Carmela Martino, Mary Ann Rodman and April Halprin Wayland - our first 5 TA's, Jill Esbaum, Laura Purdie Salas, Carla McKillough Clafferty and Bobbi Miller, and despite the obstacles, like my all-time Heroine Brave Irene I continue to move forward on my TeachingAuthors plotline.
Irene’s AHA’s! once again proved true: our burdens are often our tickets out; in time a foe can become a friend.

My fellow TA’s – as well as our enthusiastic and dedicated readers – continue to hold the bar high as I do my best to do everything a successful children’s book does: i.e. inform, amuse, encourage, inspire and always, always offer Hope.
I delight in all I’ve gladly put forth - a new book on craft, a writing student’s Success Story, a debut author’s Wednesday Writing Workout, a relevant celebration.  I’ve especially enjoyed taking readers with me on my out-and-abouts season after season.

I especially delight, however, in my October 12, 2011 post that birthed the Thanku – a Thank You note expressed in haiku.  In eight years’ time I’ve used this poetic format to thank my writers, my students, my mentors, my colleagues, my grandson, my Children’s Book World and even my Cubbies.

My Thanku today honors and thanks my TA kin – all nine of them!

                       Nine TeachingAuthors,
                       beacons each, heart-builders all,
                       en-courage-ing me.

And no surprise.  To celebrate our Nonaversary, I’m passing along a copy of William Steig’s BRAVE IRENE to one lucky writer.

Thanks, too, and of course, to our Readers – and – to Brenda Davis Harsham at Friendly Fairy Tales for hosting today’s Poetry Friday.

Hooray and Hurrah to the Ninth power!

Esther Hershenhorn
p.s.
Don’t forget to celebrate Children’s Book Week – April 30 through May 6!
p.p.s.
It's 9:23 a.m. Friday morning and I've already corrected two mistakes!