Archive for March, 2008

NaPoWriMo: 1

Monday, March 31st, 2008

As promised, I hereby commence with the NaPoWriMo kidlit experiement.

One. Pome. A. Day.

To begin with. I’ll be attempting “birthday poems” for the first ten years of an imaginary life.

I think…

Year ONE: Baby Kate!

Even strapped inside a stroller.
Kate’s poor folks could not control her.

When they went to wash and wipe her.
Kate kicked off her shoes–and diaper.

When they left her with a sitter,
Kate just giggled–then she bit her.

As she grew, things just got worse.
Kate poured juice in mommy’s purse.

Kate ate bugs, and kicked and spat,
And hollered, but despite all that,

Her tired parents thought her sweet,
They kissed her head and tiny feet.

They talked about her spunky laugh,
Her wiggle in the splashy bath.

They oooohed and ahhhhed and blessed her heart, and–
Dreamed sweet dreams of kindergarten.

ON SECOND THOUGHT– this is pretty bad.  I may NOT try to do this project.  Gah! NaPoWriMo, are you just a month of high speed and low standards?

Oooh! Oooh!

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

It’s up online!  For all the world to see.  My very first picture book!

I have known for a looooooong time now that I would, in theory, have a picture book coming out in September of 2008.  But now I finally, fully, truly believe it.

Yay!

I am so so so so so excited about traveling the country with the boys, reading this book to little kids in amazing bookstores areound the US.

Can we sleep on your couch?

The cruelest month is coming…

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

The fourthest month of every year,
Is meant for verse,
and so right here,
I plan to host a daily lunch
Of poems ripe for you to munch.

But unlike NaPo years gone by,
I now announce I plan to try
and write for kids.  Four lines each day!
A tiny act of wordsmithplay.

Yes, here you’ll find a daily pun,
Or rhyme, or other silly fun.
A quatrain meant for kids. Hooray!
But not for days. Now go away!

 April approacheth, and stalking in its shadow is NAPOWRIMO, that juggernaut of poetic output. Here’s the deal: through the efforts of countless poets nationwide, National Poetry Month is transformed into National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), and thus from ugly duckling into Giant Robot Duckling That Destroys Cities through the Might of its Verse.Those who accept the NaPoWriMo challenge must commit themselves to writing a poem every day for the entirety of April. Those who accept this challenge may choose to post those poems on blogs, keep them in their notebooks, or hire underemployed skywriters to decorate urban cloudscapes with their output.

Just about the coolest gal I know…

Monday, March 24th, 2008

My amazing friend Sonya Naumann needs your help!

 She is, as Tyra would say, “fierce”. She is also a wonderful photographer, and crazy lady.  And now, with the rising costs of travel, she wants YOU to help her “travel” without leaving home.

Please check out her new site, I’ve Been Everywhere, and do as this woman says.

 It’s your chance to be part of something awesome!!!

So then I rented a van…

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

I did it!  I moved on over to this blog!  I’m bringing (I hope) all my JewishyIrishy friends, and all my Kid*Lit(erary) friends… and maybe I will even catch a few Lew-ish and Mose Central friends…

Why is this so scary to me? It feels like a big thing.  How odd.

Welcome to my new digs!  Now I just have to figure out how to many the occasional poetry rants and the picture book reviews and the cute kid snapshots all dance together…

Wish me luck.  And thank you for coming to the party!!!

xoL

I have nothing to say…

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

For years I’ve been a blogger.  I blogged at Lonelysongs.com long long ago, when I was lost and lonely and drunk in New York.  Then I blogged (and still do) at Jewishyirishy.com, about the ways and hows and whats of being me and growing up a bit.  This year I began blogging (though more slowly, and less frequently) at Kid*Lit(erary).blogspot.com, because it seemed that I should blog somewhere about something related to this new career of mine.

But I don’t blog here… much. Do I?

I assume I’ll have something to say eventually, but for now I’m in this weird waiting game.

My first novel comes out in August, and I have nothing to do right now concerning its success or failure. My first picture book comes out in October.  Same story. Neither book is close enough to publication for publicity, and both are DONE!  My second novel is in a rough stage, but I handed it in, and until my wonderful editor comes back to me,  I can’t do anything to/for it.

From time to time I scribble new picture books you will never see because they are (I am told) “weird” and “not quite picture books” and sometimes, “too high concept to make sense.”  And that’s all fine. But none of that is worth telling you about.

So what can I say here.  What can I, who is so accustomed to running off at the mouth (or fingertips, really) share?

I wonder if I should fold all the blogs into one another, and tell you about my regular life– the tornado that hit my neighborhood last week (and the scary hour I spent beneath the IKEA with 2 screaming kids waiting it out), the pneumonia we just lived through, the daffodils pushing up through the read Georgia clay.  I wonder if you want to know that I’m currently a little obsessed with ranch houses, and am dreaming about a full-on 1950′s renovation.

And I wonder if I should bring Kid*Lit(erary) on over here too? If I should bore you with my reviews of Eloise in Moscow and Mister Dog and the Keeping Days? If you want to follow me along on my Poetry Fridays?

Is it time to let go? To give up my life in Blogger? To condense my little virtual worlds?

I’ve been thinking a lot latelya bout how “better” can be the enemy of “good”.  About how sometimes what will suffice is wonderful, and the best is a headache.

Am I ready for what will suffice? Am I ready to live here, on this page?  Just here?  What do you think?

xoL