Quarter end...

Heading into the last quarter of 2007 (already! amazing! holy smokes!) and I was thinking of doing a personal review of the last quarter here on GottaBook. But I've decided to look more forward rather than back at the inconsistent three months just passed. So, I think I need to get back to more poetry, perhaps deal with the return of Oddaptations, and, as always, there must be merriment. And grog. Gotta be grog.

Lofty goals, I know, but what can you do?

It's Cybilriffic!

The Cybils are back for year two, and I'm thrilled and honored to be part of the Poetry judging committee (alongside AND following some mighty fine bloggers!) And foor those of you who don't know, the Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. In other words... good stuff.

This year, I see, there's a Cybils blog. AND... perhaps most importantly... nominations for all categories, not just poetry, open soon, and y'all are part of that process! So go on... check it out.

Don't miss the ride...

... on the most recent Carnival of Children's Literature (hosted over on (or is it at???) Charlotte's Library). If you've been behind on your blog reading (and really now... who isn't?) this is a nice way to get a smattering of what's been going on out there in the kidlitosphere.

Just funny...

Thanks to a friend who saw this on Anastasia Suen's blog before I did, I share now a link for any of you who have ever received notes on a work in progress. Or, for that matter, if you've ever GIVEN them (and you know who you are!)...

Mitchell and Webb -- Write this... or that... or maybe...

I found the Edge!

Well, The Edge of the Forest, at least. The September issue is up and running, once again chock full o' great stuff. Check it out!

Happy Punctuation Day!

Thanks to the talented and more up-to-date-than-me Barbara Bietz, I have learned that today is National Punctuation Day! Well, shiver my colon!

How did you celebrate?

Spiderweb chronicles...

Carrying leftovers from a family meal, I walked smack dab into a giant spider web tonight. Face first. Sticky and strong, as if made by spiderman himself, this thing was all over me. After shaking off the dangling spider (who was clearly more upset than I was) and brushing off what I could, I took off my glasses and looked at them through a light -- a perfect spider web design still covered them, as if now part of my lenses.

Luckily it came off. And after three showers and changes of clothes, I'm pretty sure I'm free of the stuff myself. Maybe. Can't... be... sure!

Ack! Time for a shower, so I gotta book!

Friday and poetry together again....

Sneaking in again at the last minute. The roundup of Poetry Friday posts this week is at Sara Lewis Holmes' Read Write Believe blog. Get the hence.

As for me, all I can add poetically is that at the library, I've read poetry by John Ciardi, Judith Viorst, Douglas Florian, Gelett Burgess (come on... guess what poem), Langston Hughes, and Paul B. Janeczko among others. Good times!

A link to a call to action...

I'm linking you to this post over at Kelly Fineman's blog cuz it's got lots of good info on a bill about library funding. If you are one who cares about having quality school libraries, then read that post and take the appropriate action. Children (and their children) will thank you....

I remember....

... when I had time to procrastinate and could look for games on the web and follow every link on every blog. Those were the days, eh?

I seem to recall last year at back to school time was much the same way, but please forgive any dropouts here on the blog. Could happen. No tears, please!

A worthy new blog!

There are so many faboo blogs in the kidlitosphere, but I want to point you all over to a new entry: Lee Wind's "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I read?" Can you guess what it's about? Good work! But if you chose to skip the guessing game, Lee is blogging about YA books with GLBT characters and themes (and much more, actually. There's even poetry!).

Great resource... good writing... so why the heck haven't you clicked over there?

A poetry Friday partial...

So, I had a bit of time this week and thought "hey, I'll try a poem for Poetry Friday. I think I'll make some coffee. And maybe read the paper. And then clean. And then...." No, wait! That's not right. I did have some writing time within my writing time. But it didn't go well. In fact, I ended up quite annoyed at what I was writing since phrases weren't turning well... and I felt constrained by the way I'd started the poem. But, on the plus side, that's what lead to what I'll post today. It's not a finished work, obviously, and some might say it's derivative. But so what? I was peeved!


That damn iamb.
That damn iamb.
I do not like that damn iamb!


When the roundup's up, I'll post it here....

Kids, I tell ya. Kids.

So, in my guise as volunteer librarian, I do quite like to have fun. And so, one of the first read-alouds this year was Barney Saltzberg's The Soccer Mom from Outer Space. And one reason for this, besides the fact that it's fun, is that it affords me the opportunity to go "Wooooo-wooooooo-wooooooooooo!" at the top of my lungs. IN THE LIBRARY! The reactions from kids run the gamut, though some of them are so used to me that they don't even raise an eyebrow. Which is fun, too.

Yes, it really is all about the simple pleasures, isn't it?

And I'm back!

Gotta love the Apple Store and the 'Genius' there today who did my repair so I could be back up and running to entertain you all today. Of course, that merely enabled me to have the ability, but it did not, in fact, guarantee I would entertain you. So I probably won't.

That said, as I get our school library up and running again this year, I wanted to thank all y'all library angels -- folks who read this blog who have sent picture books and middle grade to us out of the goodness of your heart -- and note that the reality is that I have and will continue to read so many of the books you've donated as read-alouds. And so many other books you've sent us go home with our student every week, helping teach them a love of reading. How can you beat that??? You can't! So thank you once again....

My new genre...

... of Poofetry has already hit a snag: my computer won't even go on, so i can't even start a poem to save. What a shame. Did this happen to the sonnet, too?

In other news... I read-aloud today for the first time in months in the library. I'm tired after five classes. As usual, I have no idea how teachers do it....

Poofetry!

So, I've developed a new genre of poetry. I call it poofetry. What is it? It's poetry that's a little bit along the lines of Russian roulette. See, my computer has a bad power supply (part on order, thanks). Consequently, it simply shuts down from time to time, and there's nothing my UPS and surge suppressor can do about it. And that's right... whatever you're working on at the moment is GONE FOREVER. Yup, it goes POOF.

And so... Poofetry is what you write and save. You can only save once. If you fail to save and the power goes off, the poem is gone. Oh, sure, cheaters among us can then try and rewrite the same lines, but frankly, the power supply gods know, and they'll shut you down faster than you can write "Jim Dandy." So you type and work and type and work and then, when your nerves get you and you want to make sure you keep this gem forever, you save. And that's it -- the piece of Poofetry is done, never to be edited.

So far, my collection of Poofetry is pretty weak. I'm kinda chicken, having lost the same long email three times running (hey, normally the computer stayed on for an hour, at least. How was I to know it would be 5 minutes?). And so, here's my fave of what I've got:

Loss of power
Makes me sour
And it


Hey, I told you I was chicken!

This, btw, is a poof-post. So I gotta book!

Poetry Friday... and a quote

Sherry has today's Poetry Friday recap. I... uh... you know... uh... nope. Didn't get anything up. But I'd note that this post is about 5 hours earlier than the last few links to the recap!

And today I leave you with a bonus quote from Madeleine L'Engle who passed away today. She left behind a legacy of wonderful books, obviously, but she was also highly quotable, I must say. So, picking from many, here is perhaps my fave on the topic of writing.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

A smattering....

Boy oh boy, there is so much going on out in the kidlitosphere....

Let's start with the fact that Fuse8 is now podcasting at her old site!

Then let's note, shall we, that MotherReader's blog was also acquired on Blogshares, a fact she mentions in this great catch-all post (on which I followed many a great link).

Still not satisfied? What about Greg Trine sitting down and interviewing... Mark Twain!

And finally in this brief trip around the 'sphere, ya'll must check out my carpool buddy Rita's blog and specifically this post... which has a link to the best collection of pictures from the SCBWI Conference that I've seen.

Whew. And that's, as noted, just a smattering....

Totally unfair!

So, I've waited til nearly the end of the day thinking that since I was taken over, I wouldn't have to do any more posting cuz it would be done for me. But nooooooooo. No wonder they call it a hostile takeover!

Since I was planning on sitting back and relaxing today, I'm afraid I have nothing better to offer, other than my annoyance that I don't even get a day off. This new boss is a drag!

I've been taken over (in a hostile manner)!

Yes, you read it right. Here in the wonderful kidlitosphere there's been a hostile takeover. OK, it's kinda kidlitosphere-adjacent. Or it's... actually...

Well, you tell me:

From the GottaBook page on Blogshares.com (under Press Releases): Ken Adams performed a hostile takeover at a total cost of B$760,573.01 using a Anne Frank's Diary (artefact).


Huh. I guess... well... I think Ken has valued me nicely. And admit it, even though you don't know what it means, you're a little jealous!

I fried an egg on...

... the floor in my office. No, really. It's that hot.

Well, maybe not. But it's hot enough that my computer actually overheated and shut itself off. See, there's no air-conditioning in my office. Normally that's not a problem. About 2-3 weeks out of any year, I think "well, it would be nice to have it" and another 2-3 weeks I think "well, it would be REALLY nice to have it." We're in the latter spell. So I'm gonna go get some bacon and work on that. Might as well have a fine meal.

If I'm not here tomorrow, just know that I left y'all for someplace cooler. Like a volcano!