Sample of a reverse poem -

I love to show students the reverse poem titled, "The Lost Generation," by Jonathan Reed. To just keep myself creative and sharp, I tried my own version. It's not easily done quickly unless you use Reed's poem closely as a model.  Not a bad little ditty...


I am part of a dying profession
and I refuse to believe that
I can still inspire my students
I realize this may be a shock but
"All students can succeed"
is a lie, and
"Students are lazy."
I will tell my students
They are not the reason for my passion in life
The politicians will know that
I have my priorities straight because
test scores
are more important than
independent thinkers
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Teachers cared
but this will not be true in my time
This is a shallow society
Experts tell me
10 years from now, I will have left the teaching profession
I do not concede that
I will design a lesson full of creativity
Every day forward
Online or packaged programs will be the norm and
no longer can it be said that
my peers and I care about the welfare of our students
It will be evident
that teachers are data analysts
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope
and all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it...

As the World Turns...

My writing life has taken some jumps, dips, stalls, and hard turns. It doesn't stress me too much, as I have another career that provides my income.  And, I've been assured by many writers that this is not uncommon. I've left my publishing house. After one year, they have not been able to publish my book, and I was told to find and pay for my own illustrator.  It wasn't part of the contract, nor of our original discussions, so I told them that it was unacceptable to change the rules after they'd already missed the prime sales for my Christmas story.  I'd already completed a second manuscript as part of a series, and I was beginning my third.

That is not the interesting part of this story. What is interesting is that I posted a status update on Facebook and was contacted (almost immediately) by people in the publishing world and other authors.  Now that I'm in the publishing/writing world, there is a nice network of support.  I have wonderful peers in all types of genre-writing and all stages of their careers.

I'm reminded that people and relationships are a prime success factor for me. They are more important to me than the books.  Integrity and professionalism are the legacy I want to leave.

What do you want to be remembered for?  What do you want as your legacy?

Bad Writing

Though I would never shame anyone, there is a benefit to reading "bad writing."  Careful analysis of what works is as important as studying what isn't working in a piece.  Sometimes I just abandon books, but other times, I push through and finish. I want to know from start to finish why I think there are problems.  I do this in order to avoid it in my own writing.

I look at consistency - in writing, in the characters, in the plot, and in simple facts/research. One author I know didn't do any kind of research in her books. Simple facts were blatantly wrong. It was sad.

I look at the author's tone. I've read several books where I just didn't like the tone.  It was off-putting. One male author really liked to use big words from a thesaurus.  It seemed just like middle school writing where kids throw in big words without really understanding the meaning or understanding the effect that the words have on readers. He was pretty obnoxious.

I look at the craft of writing, especially at the sentence level. One very famous author could tell an interesting story, but her work was full of incomplete sentences.  I couldn't really feel the same level of respect for the works after a while.

I look at the point of view that the story is told from. Another popular book was off-putting in the POV, and I skipped through and read only the last few pages. I was unimpressed.  I have read a few books written from the second person point of view.  I didn't enjoy it. I felt like it was a barrier to enjoying the story in a fluid read.

The last thing I've noticed is verb tense.  Present tense is popular right now with many popular books. I find it hard to follow on occasion. I know from experience that it's harder to tell stories with present tense than past tense. As a reader and a writer, I've stumbled and fumbled with present tense. It's not a good feeling.

All in all, writing is personal. Writers must make many choices, but it's as important to give the reader the kind of experience you want them to have as it is to stay true to your craft. I don't know any good writers who actually want readers to struggle with the mechanics of a writer's choice in crafting.

Do you purposefully continue reading something bad? Let me know in the comments. What do you notice in bad writing?

It's the little things

My publisher called for all authors to list books they plan to complete for publication in 2014.  This was a great move for the house and for me. It helped us both plan.   Now, I know what I need to accomplish and pretty much when in order to get these books published. I work better with deadlines and dates than an unending, blank calendar.

However, the best part of my writing life lately is watching young writers bloom underneath my tutelage. I have carefully created real-world situations where students have an audience besides me, a teacher. They now see the larger world as their audience.  They are crafting words with purpose beyond a grade. That's been my goal in teaching, but this is really the first year that I could make that happen on a larger scale. I've been working up to it, but this year is the year that all of the magical pieces fell into place. 

I have Creative Writing students begging to spend more time with their NaNoWriMo novels...that was in November, yes? They are begging to spend more time writing in January. I won't hold them back. They alone know when their story is complete.  I can't answer that really, which is why I haven't "graded" those stories. I'll look for progress and over-arching story arcs, but they will know when they've reached success. 

My language arts students just completed blog posts and comments on books. I've encouraged the staff at my school and their parents to also read and comment, to foster a reading community, to say something to our students and children. I once had an author write a comment back to a student on his blog post. I still do a happy dance about that. 

Here are the links, if you'd like to also play a part of our real world community. 

http://haranda1st.blogspot.com/

http://haranda3rd.blogspot.com/

http://haranda6th.blogspot.com/

A Writing Place

I think having a special place just for writing is important.  Sadly, I chose (too often) to make that special place in my bed. XXXXXXXX NOPE! Wrong! Go directly to jail!

About a year ago, I brought my childhood desk to my own home. It was an antique that had been my aunt's. In her ownership, whitewashing had been all the rage. In mine, restoring furniture back to its original lovely wood was the thing to do. It's easier to slap white wash on than to remove it from every nook and cranny.  Grrr.   But, I digress.

I hadn't quite finished the restoration started in my 20s, and here I am in my 40s. I didn't care. I loved my little desk, and I wanted it. So, I packed it and all the pieces still un-reattached, and brought it to a place in my bedroom, just like when I was growing up.

While I was working on my MFA in Creative Writing (go Full Sail Univeristy!), I occasionally worked at my little desk, but I didn't make it a habit. I still found myself back on my bed, either laying, lounging, or sometimes kneeling at the side of the bed. And what happened is that my sleep and my rest suffered.

I've read tons of those studies and articles about good sleep.  Don't do other things in your bedroom that take away from your rest. I ended up surfing the internet when I should have been sleeping. I found myself up until 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 in the morning.  All the while, my sweet little desk sat quietly.

I've even noticed more problems with my already not-so-great back and with my calves and hamstrings getting tighter. But, I continued to lie in bed or sit on my bed. Oh oh..have I mentioned that I have an OFFICE with a desk and a desk top computer? Yeah. It's ridiculous, and I acknowledge my part in it. However, a special writing spot is different. It's different for me, anyway.

SO...


The other night, I moved my charger and my laptop back over to my desk. Even before 2014 starts, I want to get back into the habit of using my darling desk. I am currently about 48 hours into the writing desk only phase of my writing.


Writing feels like it's own, very special activity now. I feel like I'm productive and working. I also feel like I am in a sacred space, sharing a piece of my family's furniture with generations of women before me.

Do you have a special space? If you do, I'd love to see it!  If not, go create a space now.  Enjoy it.

Plan C?

Well, my book is not yet published because my publishing house is having a challenge getting an illustrator.  At one time, two illustrators were interested, but since I'm not on the business side as an author, I don't really know any details.  What I do know is that my little Baxter mouse is still waiting for me to write more stories and for the rest of the publishing process to continue.

I've had a lot of feelings about this. I've been very angry and disappointed. I've also been desperate and sad. In between, I've felt the call of a challenge. What is it that I can do? I'm not an illustrator, so I won't be creating my own art. I'd like to, but I know my creative and time limitations.  Plan B was to get published in anthologies and write on more Baxter stories while the house locates an illustrator. (There are really good people who are trying to work miracles behind the publishing house doors.) But, I'm still no closer to getting published than the day I signed my contract last March.

However, as we were taught in my master's program and as I have experienced as an entrepreneur - keep many options available. As writers, we should not have all of our dreams banked on one piece. I actually have a couple of other books in the works. Several of them are children's books. One is not. And honestly, I have a previously published article that I have been expanding for an ebook. So, there ya go. I have two other projects to work on.

My publishing house is really cranking out books, though. I've watched a number of authors see their books selling in multiple markets. So, I think Plan C might be to look at my nonfiction books, started a couple of years ago and tabled once I started writing children's books with my classes. It seems to be a reasonable plan to focus on those texts, which deserve to be told, and send them to be published since I know that they have fewer requirements for the house to handle. So, I'll send in something that I know they can handle with a bit more ease. Cool!

There are many circumstances out of my control - and even out of the control of my publishing house - but I can continue to keep writing.  I can keep looking for the opportunities in front of me.

A discovery in writing

I'm still working through Nanowrimo with my students, and we are all finding the end of the month slowing down.   Some of my students know they are only in the middle of their stories and push to write more. Some of us are stuck.

I've been switching back and forth between a  young adult novel and another Baxter children's book.  I struggled with Baxter's story until today.  I went to read the first book I wrote, Merry Christmouse, and discovered I had been writing the new story in a very different voice and style.  Most importantly, I was writing in a different verb tense.  

Once I went back to make changes in the new draft, I noticed how I relaxed and slid right into the story again.  Who knew - the story wants to be told in a certain tense and style.