Poetry, Prizes and a PURRfect 6-1/2 List from Author Lee Wardlaw

Acclaimed author, Lee Wardlaw, has not only created a PURRfect post to celebrate National Poetry Month, she's also offered the most unusual item I've ever given away on my blog. (Scroll down to enter contest.)

6-1/2 Things I Learned from My Cat

About Writing Haiku

by Lee Wardlaw

1. There is no yesterday; there is no tomorrow.

There is only you, scratching under my chin,

now.

The best haiku poems emerge from a right-this-minute experience. Use present tense to heighten immediacy – especially if writing from memory. Avoid creating haiku out of your imagination; they will lack authenticity.

2. When poised at a hole, remain still – and use your ears, eyes, nose, whiskers and mouth to detect a lurking gopher.

Observation is crucial to good haiku. Quiet your mind and use all five (or more!) senses to absorb the moment.

3. Be patient – then pounce!

Your haiku should capture a moment in time, revealing a surprise or evoking an ‘a-ha!’ or ‘ahh’. This pounce helps the reader awaken; to experience the ordinary in an extraordinary way.

4. Most felines have18 toes – unless we’re polydactyl; then we might have 20…or 22…or even 28!

Traditional Japanese haiku features a total of seventeen beats: five in the first line, seven in the second, five again in the third. The 5-7-5 rule does not apply to American haiku because 17 English phonetic syllables conveys way more information than needed – and can sound awkward or forced. So don’t worry if your haiku turns out 2-3-2 or 5-6-4. What’s more important is the essence of your chosen moment.

5. When I’m out, I want in; when I’m in, I want out. Mostly, I want out. That’s where the rats, gophers, lizards, snakes, bugs and birds are.

Traditional haiku features themes of nature. Try to use a kigo (season) word to hint at the weather or time of year.

6. What part of ‘meow’ don’t you understand?

If you tease a cat, it won’t bother to meow – it will bite or scratch. It shows its annoyance

rather than tells. Your haiku should not

explain; instead, it will illustrate a meaning

or feeling through a vivid image.

6 1/2. When in doubt, nap. Take time to revise and hone your haiku. If you grow weary, well, there’s always that comfy looking couch…

AUTHOR, LEE WARDLAW

Lee Wardlaw claims her first spoken word was ‘kitty’. Since then, she's shared her life with more than two-dozen cats and published more than two-dozen, award-winning books for young readers, including 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents (Sidenote: Our oldest son loved this novel so much that he read it at least a dozen times!), 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher, Punia and the King of Sharks, Saturday Night Jamboree and Seventh-Grade Weirdo.

Her newest book, Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Holt), illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, tells the story of a wary shelter cat and the boy who adopts him. Won Ton has received starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal and Kirkus, and was praised by the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post. Publisher’s Weekly called it “…a surprisingly powerful story in verse.” (To win an autographed copy of Won Ton and a special kitty surprise, scroll down.)

Lee received her B.A. in Education from Cal Poly, SLO, and taught for five years before choosing to write full-time. She recently graduated from the Montessori Institute of San Diego with an AMI Primary diploma, and will earn her M.Ed. from Loyola University, Maryland, in 2012. Lee has 30+ years experience working with children of all ages; her schools visits, presentations and workshops are lively, interactive and popular with students, teachers, librarians, parents and writers.

Lee lives in Santa Barbara, CA, with her husband, Craig Jaffurs; their teenage son, Patterson; and three former shelter cats: Papaya, Koloa and Mai Tai (whose story inspired Won Ton). Look for 101 Ways to Bug Your Friends and Enemies (Dial/Penguin), coming in September 2011.

To learn more about Lee and her books, visit: http://www.leewardlaw.com

Enter to win an autographed copy of Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku and a catnip mousie by clicking the "follow" link to the right and leaving a comment below. A winner will be chosen at random Friday, April 29th. Good luck!

Thanks, Lee, for helping us celebrate National Poetry Month with your words of wisdom about writing haiku and for your fun prize offerings!

St. Lucie County's Family Raining, er, Reading Festival

As Hubby and I drove to St. Lucie County Saturday morning, I knew the second annual St. Lucie County Family Reading Festival would be as much fun as the first.

What I hadn't counted on was the rain. The minute Hubby and I arrived with our boxes of books, the skies over the Digital Domain Baseball Stadium opened up.

Everyone ran for cover. "Save the books!" was the battlecry.

We huddled in a dry area while the field was covered by tarps.




Young "Book-aneers" were not deterred from reading . . .




As is typical of South Florida weather, the shower passed and the sun shone brightly for the rest of the festival.

I was one of several authors who spoke and signed books. There was a "Read to the Principal" area. (Participants got a free book.) The mascot met young readers. Families browsed bins of free books from a book exchange. There were games and entertainment. But mostly, there was reading . . .




It's always a delight to see the community come out in force -- teachers, librarians, media specialists and families -- to celebrate reading.

A huge thanks to uber-amazing Debbie Remington for inviting me again this year . . .

Donna and Debbie Remington

My next event is April 30th. If you live in the area, I hope you'll come enjoy April is for Authors. (It's a free event, and the author line-up is amazing.)

In the meantime, I plan to write, write, WRITE, do a few Skype visits with schools and look at cute videos on YouTube, like this one.

SCBWI-EPA Pocono Mountain Retreat

Here's the Shawnee Inn, scene of the recent SCBWI-EPA Pocono Mountain Retreat . . .




What an interesting place. Right on the bank of the Delaware River . . .




I sat on one of these rocking chairs to enjoy the view . . .




And this little guy, "Sonny," kept me company in my room . . .




Every evening I returned to my room to find a poem and a freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookie waiting for me. And in the morning, I was awakened by a man playing bagpipes -- Yes, bagpipes! -- outside my window.

But the Inn wasn't the best part.

The people were!

Here are some of the fine, funny folks who endured, um, were enlightened by my humor writing workshop . . .




Here they are again, getting their funny on . . .




I enjoyed listening to amazing keynote speeches, but when it came time to give my keynote, "Six Reasons to Quit Writing (And One Important Reason Not To)," I was so nervous I slept only three measly hours the night before.

Here is a shot of some of the folks who suffered through, um, sat through my keynote . . .



I survived. In fact, the speech went really well. As did the entire conference from start to finish.

So many wonderful people. A silent auction and raffle to benefit the SCBWI chapter in Japan. Inspiring speakers and attendees.

I definitely felt like I gained more than I gave.

Thank you to Marilyn Hershey for inviting me and for all the dedicated volunteers, speakers and attendees who created such a magical experience!

Happy Birthday, Book!

Birthdays are fun.

Especially book birthdays. Especially this book's birthday because How to Survive Middle School has had a year I couldn't have imagined.



Let's begin at the beginning.

After As If Being 12-3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother Is Running for President came out, I wrote another book. It took a year of research and writing, involved multiple viewpoints and was 400 pages looooooooong.

My agent, Tina Wexler, was savvy enough to tell me those 400 pages were terrible. Actually, she was kind enough to say, "I think you should put this one away and write another book."

She was right, of course.

But there was no way I could write another book just then. My heart was in a chokehold. Our youngest son had just started middle school. One of 1,200 kids, he suffered mightily. He hated himself and got into all manner of trouble. I remembered that our older son had similar heart-breaking episodes at that age. In fact, I remembered when I suffered the humiliations of acne, unrequited love and discomfort in one's own skin during those awkward years.

I could write about those feelings, I thought. Maybe a character could write a book about how to survive middle school. Or better yet, create funny videos that end up on YouTube.

I infused those intense feelings into a book I titled: How to Survive Middle School Without Getting Your Head Flushed, Deal with an Ex-best Friend, um, Girls and a Heart-breaking Hamster. Thank goodness my publisher shortened the title!

My editor told me this territory has been covered before, so I'd better work hard to make my book different. I worked hard. She sent me several rounds of revisions until I got it right.

Still, when starred reviews came in, I was stunned. I'd never gotten a starred review.

Similarly, when I got the e-mail telling me that my book landed on the Texas Lone Star Reading List, I was shocked. I'd never appeared on a state reading list. Last week, I found out How to Survive Middle School will be on the New York state reading list, too. Then came inclusion on the Bank Street Children's Books best books of the year list.

Yowza! Checking my e-mail had become thrilling.

I'd been invited to speak at schools and literary events all over the country, like the BK Book Festival, coordinated by the awesome Arthur Levine. (Check out his new picture book, Monday is One Day.)



I learned that Scholastic bought the right to include my book in its fall book fairs and book club. And How to Survive Middle School will be featured in their author video that students across the country view before attending their school's book fair.

I received e-mails from children and adults that have made my day, week, month! Lily sent me a photo of the Jewish apple cake she and her mother made from the recipe in the back of my book.



When one sends a book into the world, one never knows what will happen. Usually what happens is a big pile of nothing.

So I'm delighted about all the wonderful that's happened in the first year of How to Survive Middle School. I'm glad most of all that it's made a difference to some young readers, that they learned they weren't alone in their feelings and struggles to survive those turbulent middle school years. I'm happy some young people learned that things get better.

Things certainly got better for our son. And the cool thing about all this is that some of the money I earn from this book will go to paying tuition for him to attend a phenomenal private high school in our area next year.

And I'm thrilled to announce that on my book's birthday -- April 13th -- How to Survive Middle School will go into its 6th printing.

So, happy birthday book. Thank you for bringing so much joy into my life. And don't forget that next year you'll have a sibling -- Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen will come into the world early in 2012. I hope she receives a reception half as lovely as you've had.

I'd have posted this on my book's actual birthday, but next week I'll be in PA, speaking at this conference then visiting family and friends.

When I return, I'll share photos from my adventures.

And to celebrate National Poetry Month, talented author, Lee Wardlaw, will offer an inspiring guest post about writing poetry.

Remember Typewriters?

Here are a few fun videos . . .

It's Agent Appreciation Day!

Okay, I'm dubbing it Agent Appreciation Day although the "real" day created by author, Kody Keplinger, happened December 11th.

You can read lots of really nice posts about lots of literary agents here.

Since I missed the big day, my Agent Appreciation Day is, um, right now.

Tina Dubois Wexler, this one's for you . . .



In 2005, I wanted so badly to be on the other side of the divide between unpublished and published children's book authors. It's a dream that began when I was ten and wrote my first short story. There was nothing I wanted more.

By 2005, I'd published hundreds of greeting cards, funny essays for adults in major magazines and a story and poem in Highlights for Children, but selling just one children's book proved to be elusive. I have piles of rejection slips and six unpublishable children's novels in a drawer to prove it.

Then agent extraordinaire with I.C.M. (International Creative Management), Tina Wexler, came into my life.

Tina put out a call for writers on the SCBWI message boards in 2005. (If you don't belong to SCBWI and want a career writing or illustrating for children, stop reading this post and join immediately.)

The night I read Tina's call for new writers, I sent a book I'd written called How to Be a Naughty Kid and mentioned a "book" I was working on about a shy, gawky spelling bee champ whose mother was running for president in my query letter.

While Tina didn't think she could sell the Naughty Kid book, she liked my writing and loved the idea about the girl whose mother was running for president. In a letter, she told me to send her that book.

* Choke. Cough. Gasp. *

Oh honey, there was no book. There was a short story and the thought that it would make a good book. Someday.

I don't know where I got the courage, but I picked up the phone and called Tina, then Tina Dubois, and told her I didn't have a book, only a short story. I thought she might call me a big liar and hang up, but she responded differently. Tina said, "Take your time. Write the book and send it to me. My interest in this won't go away."

My interest in this won't go away.

So I wrote the book. I sent it to her.

She sent back MAJOR revision suggestions.

I quit. (Applied for a job as a children's librarian and didn't get it.)

Then I unquit, threw out all but the first two chapters and spent four months immersed in research and revisions.

I sent Tina those pages.

She loved it and sent it to seven publishing houses!

Three weeks later (Yes, three weeks.), Stephanie Elliott (then Stephanie Lane) at Delacorte Press/Random House acquired that novel.

The book came out in 2008 and went on to win the Sid Fleischman Humor Award. The weekend I flew to L.A. to accept that award at the SCBWI Conference was the best of my life because I was surrounded by my husband, Dan, dear friend, Jill, and agent/friend, Tina.



After As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother Is Running for President! it was time to write the next book.

So, I did. I wrote a 400-page book with four different perspectives and sent it to Tina.

In a very nice way, she told me to put that book away and start something else.

I'd spent a year writing and researching that book. And I would have been devastated by Tina's assessment had she not been 100% right. Cliched characters, dull story, etc.

The next book I wrote was How to Survive Middle School. And I would not have written it if Tina hadn't very gently told me to put the other book away and start something else.

That's what Tina does, what every good agent does -- looks out for your whole career, not just one book. A good agent doesn't tell you everything you write is wonderful. She keeps you from putting junk into the world. And for that, I'm eternally grateful.

Being between books is an uncomfortable place for me. I've learned that it takes time for me to let go of one book and fill the well before I can write the next book, but I don't like it. I get antsy and frustrated. I write junk. And I write more junk. I decide I need to do something constructive with my time and check out the want ads.

During this crazy-making time for me, Tina reminds me that I don't need to become-a-librarian, write-a-chapter-book-series, cure-cancer . . . She gently guides me down from the ledge and whispers, "All you have to do is write the next book."

All you have to do is write the next book.

Notice, she doesn't say, "You have to write the next high-concept, best-selling, vampire/ghost/wizard/zombie book." She simply says, "All you have to do is write the next book." And because she's funny, she usually follows that up with, "Easy for me to say."

With Tina's wise words in my head, I wrote Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen, which was enthusiastically accepted by Stephanie Elliott at Delacorte -- our third book together. It was a bonus to learn that Stephanie, like my main character, is a big fan of Jeopardy!.

Tina had done a great job pairing me with Stephanie. I adored Stephanie's subtle wit and wicked way with a blue pencil on my manuscripts. (That's another thing a good agent does -- tries to match the right book/author with the right editor/house.)

So I was knocked right off my axis when Stephanie called to tell me she was leaving Random House for another job.

"But, but . . ."

It didn't help that I'm in that wonky place of letting go of one novel and gathering, gathering, gathering for the next one.

And while amazing things are happening for How to Survive Middle School -- landing on both the Texas and New York state reading lists and being picked up by Scholastic for book fairs and clubs -- that felt like pressure that my next book had to be out-of-this-galaxy spectacular, which of course made it impossible to write the only way that works -- allowing oneself to write a lousy first draft.

And there was Tina, with her calm, wise words. "All you have to do is write the next book."

My sister once asked me why I would give someone 15% of my earnings. I told my sister that without my agent, I'd get 100% of nothing. I would not have the career I have without Tina's guidance and wisdom. Tina earns her 15% by giving me and my career 115% of her time and energy.

Even though Tina has many wonderful clients, she always makes me feel like I'm her only one. She answers my questions promptly and is excellent about communicating during every step of the process.

I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have an agent who is also a friend, but I do. And today, I want to thank my friend, my agent for all the wonderful things she has helped bring into my life.

Thank you, Tina, for being my career partner, the person who ALWAYS has my back, my business guru, my champion and advocate for each stage of each book, my pre-editor and most importantly, my dear friend.




Tina, words can't convey my appreciation for all you've done for me (and my family) over the years, but maybe these seven simple ones will do: I'm off to write the next book . . .

YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DOG . . .

Hammy Hits the Big Time . . .

Ever since Hammy found out he'd be featured in Scholastic's Book Fair Author Video, there's been no living with him.

He demands only organic veggies to stuff his cheeks with. He expects us to line his hamster wheel with shimmery, gold fabric and bring him fresh water every hour in a silver pitcher. And he squeals whenever I'm on the phone. He's afraid he'll miss a call from MTV, Oprah or Hamster Time, where he thinks he'll be named Hamster of the Year.

Sheesh! Who knew such a little hamster could get such a big head?

All this hamster hooplah just because Hammy's video will be part of the Scholastic video shown to middle school students before they head to their school book fairs this coming fall.






I mean, big deal. It's not as though he's as famous as this hamster . . .