One Week

My blog spoke to me. It said "It's been one week since you blogged on me, typed your words on my page and showed you loved me; Five days since you checked you stats saying 'where'd ya'll go, wontcha come back and see me.'"

I can always look back at my year and identify different events in my offline life by looking at gaps in my blog and, specifically, Fridays when I don't even mention Poetry Friday or mention it late in the day (and for the record, this week's roundup is at Toby Speed's Writer's Armchair). 

I wonder if the uber-active on Facebook or Twitter can look back at an individual day and say "oh, see that one hour gap in activity? I was really busy doing xxxxxx and talking to yyyyy" or if it doesn't quite scale the same way? Questions. I've always got questions....

Happy Halloween, y'all! If you end up with any extra of those adorable little Reese's cups, be sure to save me a few!

Not To Sound Like a Broken Record...

Actually, I don't think I will. Instead, I have a question:

How many people, when they hear that phrase, know what a broken record sounds like? Do any kids today know it? At what age does it go from being something that has no relevance to something that, for me at least, brings up specific LPs that stuck and repeated like, well, like broken records.

Writing for kids, we're always told it's best to avoid slang that dates your book (unless you're trying to be of a certain time, of course). I wonder if a phrase like this, which is one I can use naturally, is going to disappear from the lexicon? And what other phrases are like this, based on something that we just don't experience with regularity anymore?

Now You're Talking

Or really, "Then We Were Talking" would be more accurate....

No matter, though, I wanted to put up a link to the transcript of last night's #kidlitchat conversation about the differences between Middle Grade and YA... and whether any of it matters.

We had authors, editors, readers, agents, and teachers weighing in on a whole range of issues related to the topic. We talked about "upper MG" and "teen" and chapter books, and whether it's all about marketing or not.

Good times and a good convo, I thought. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Is it YA? Is it MG? This Week on #kidlitchat

Can you define the difference between YA (young adult) and MG (middle grade)? Is it about content? Theme? Language? Sex vs. no sex? All of this and more? None of the above? And why do any of these distinctions matter... or do they?

That'll be the topic of conversation tomorrow (Tuesday, October 19th) at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific at #kidlitchat. I hope you'll come join us.

#kidlitchat is a weekly chat on Twitter, co-hosted by Bonnie Adamson and me, and featuring an incredibly smart, vibrant, ever-changing collection of others passionate about children's literature - writers, illustrators, editors, agents, librarians, readers, teachers, and beyond. Everyone's welcome. I think it's always informative and a blast, though I suppose I'm biased.

If you have never participated in a Twitter chat (and even if you have!), Debbie Ridpath Ohi has a must-read article that will explain the whats, whys and hows of it. Feel free to ask questions here or find me or Bonnie on Twitter and ask there.

You can also check out the transcripts of all prior #kidlitchats at their home on my other blog, The Happy Accident.

Hope to see you there!

This is Not a Poem

This Is Not a Poem
By
Gregory K.

This is not a poem:
It’s a moment caught in time.
It isn’t full of imagery
Or meter, form, or rhyme.

This is not a poem.
It can’t be heard or read.
It’s nothing but a small idea
Now planted in your head.


I've written many a poem when I should've been listening or working on something else. This one probably had its roots in M.T. Anderson's breakout session at the SCBWI Summer Conference this year... or maybe at a recent visit to the BCAM here in LA. Or maybe it's never had roots because it's not a poem :-) No matter, though, the Poetry Friday roundup (full of poetry and NOT poetry, perhaps) is up today over at Liz Garton Scanlon's Liz in Ink. That's always a lovely blog to visit, so you should go there just cuz.

And if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems, yet including the "not a poems") emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Fibonacci EVERYWHERE

It's not just in poetry or nature. Nope, Fibonacci... and the Golden Ratio... show up the darnedest places.

Like Twitter's new design!

Sweeeeeeet!

With a Link, Link Here....

And a link, link there!

Here's a link to the Poetry Friday Roundup over at at Jen Rothschild's Biblio File.

There's a link to the new Carnival of Children's Literature over at Great Kid Books.

Everywhere (well, I wish!) a link to nominate books for this year's Cybils awards.

(And again, if you happen to be coming to the Orange County Children's Book Festival on Sunday, be sure to say "hi!")

Cybils Time! Judging and... Nominating

I'm excited to be a judge for the upcoming Cybils awards - I'll be serving as a finals round judge in the poetry category. And I'm super excited to be joining such great folks in looking at this year's children's poetry books. Check out these fab folk:

The round one judges (who read 'em all and hand over a smaller group to us final round judges):

Bruce Black, Wordswimmer
Elaine Magliaro, Wild Rose Reader
Gina Ruiz, AmoXcalli and The Graphic Landscape
Laura Purdie Salas, Writing the World for Kids
Sylvia Vardell, Poetry for Children

The final rounders (who debate and discuss and ultimately determine one book to get the Cybil):

Kelly Fineman, Writing and Ruminating
Sara Lewis Holmes, Read Write Believe
Greg Pincus, right here at GottaBook
Jama Rattigan, Alphabet Soup
Liz Scanlon, Liz in Ink

Kelly, by the way, is the "fearless leader" of the whole poetry category. Lots o' work, that, and I'm glad she's there to do it.

Now, the Cybils start taking nominations on Friday, October 1st. And the thing is, if folks don't nominate, then we judges have nothing to do. So start thinking about your favorite books (not just in poetry, but across the kidlit board) and get ready to nominate. You can only do one book per category... but there are a lot of categories!

UNFAIR - a county fair poem/a life's unfair poem

UNFAIR
by
Greg Pincus

The fluffy candy looked bright pink,
But it was really cotton.
The caramel apples looked delish…
But every one was rotten.

The petting zoo had great big signs,
You Only Look -- Don’t Touch.
The penny candy cost twelve bucks -
I didn’t have that much.

My giant lolli fell apart:
The spiraled rings uncoiled.
I waited for the rides so long
My deep-fried Twinkie spoiled.

I went to watch a sheep get sheared.
Instead, it cut my hair!
I sure can’t wait 'til I go home...
I don’t like this Unfair.

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Karin Edmisten's Blog with the Shockingly Clever Title. Head on over and see what's poetically what this week in the blogosphere.

And as always, if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Emcee is in the House (OK, Fine - in Orange County)

On Sunday, October 3rd, I'm going to be down in Costa Mesa at the Orange County Children's Book Festival. There's a ton of fun to be had there with authors and illustratrors galore as well as other entertainment. Oh, and booooooooks!

Plus, if you come on by the illustrators' stage, you'll see ME as the stage MC! I'm excited and working on all my old comedy routines and... okay, not really on the routines. But I am excited and hope that you come on by and say hello.

Talking PoetrE

I have a guest post up over at David L. Harrison's blog today, talking about poetry and the online world (I'm an optimist, by the way). I hope you'll go check it out, and I also urge you to check out David's blog in total. It is packed with great stuff.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is up over at Elaine Magliaro's Wild Rose Reader today (another blog you should explore). Be off and enjoy some poetic thoughts and posts... and I'll see you back here soon.

Those Were The Days!

It's volunteer librarian season hereabouts again. This year, besides the elementary school where I've been involved for five years, I'm also spearheading the startup of a middle school library. I'll be yakking more about this in the weeks ahead, I'm sure, but I've already noticed a "probably good for my writing but tough on my time management" issue....

Every book that comes into our system goes through my hands. I've been known to, uh, read a few of them. Okay... a lot of them. When it was all picturebooks, I could enjoy dozens and still get the library cleaned up in the limited time I can devote to volunteering.

Now, though, more middle grade novels are coming through my hands. And yes... I'm reading. I can't get through dozens anymore! I guess it's a lucky thing for me that we haven't built up much of a collection yet.... Unluckily for me, most of what I'm scrounging up is slightly older... and covers a lot of what I somehow missed when it came out.

I often put out a call for donations (I will again!), but right now I'm accepting donations of reading time. Feel free to pass some along. Thanks!

Shhhhhhhhh.

I am being very quiet... though I am not hunting wabbit. Still, I just looked hereabouts and realized it's been a week since I posted! Why is that?

Well, I was busy saving the world in a top-secret undercover mission involving books, the beach, lots of coffee (both iced and hot), and cotton candy. That's all I'm at liberty to say, but I'm sure you can all read between the lines and, uh, figure out the, uh, top-secret mission. Yeah. The mission.

But it's almost done. Only a couple days left, in fact, and then I know we'll all sleep better. Or at least I will!

See you then....

It's Overseas! It's Everywhere!

The August Carnival of Children's Literature is up over at Sandy Fussell's Stories Are Light blog. Writing for children knows no borders, of course, but I'm trying to recall if there's been another Carnival hosted from Australia or anywhere else that to me is overseas (cuz, like, to Sandy I'd be overseas!). Anyone remember one?

Regardless, there are some fabulous links at the Carnival, and I hope you'll head on over and check it out.

I dunno. It amuses me.

Thanks to the BookChook, I got to play with Iconscrabble and came up with this:

It amuses me, I tell ya!

"Tag, You're It," He Said Poetically - an adverb poem/a dialogue tag poem

"Tag, You're It," He Said Poetically
(a dialogue tag poem)
by
Greg Pincus

"Cut them quickly," she said speedily.
"I want them gone," he said needily.
"Show don't tell," he said directly.
"Use them well," she said correctly.
"I hate adverbs," he said whinily.
"We're all done," she said finally.



It's a little silliness either designed to end your summer or to send you back to school, I type optionally. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Teach Poetry K-12 today. Why not go check it out?

And if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

A Facebook Moment....

Over at my other blog, The Happy Accident, I put up a tutorial about Facebook's privacy settings in light of their rollout of Places - their geo-tagging equivalent of Foursquare or Gowalla.

Since I figure most everyone who reads GottaBook is either on Facebook or familiar with it, I wanted to share the link and take a moment to note that taking care of your privacy settings is really rather important. Even though I always assume that everything I do online will be public in the end, I do take whatever steps I can take to make that less likely!

Word Choice and a Dis-invitation

I had a lovely little real-world vacation... and while I was gone, I missed being a part of a few interesting conversations. But that doesn't mean I can't link to 'em or talk about 'em later!

Over at MotherReader's blog, she writes about the new Lane Smith book, It's a Book. There's some controversy... and interesting comments, too.

And at a slew of blogs, there's talk of Ellen Hopkins being disinvited to the TeenLitFest in Humble, TX. A few other authors have now bowed out of the event. I liked Pete Hautman's post on the topic - The Nasty Thing in the Corner - in which you'll find links to many other posts and good conversation in the comments.

I'm still catching up, so who knows what else I've missed?! As if that's not enough....

Poetry. Awards. Poetry Awards.

Yes, I'm late to this, I know, but it's still worth a shout-out or two. While I was all SCBWI-ing, Betsy Bird was talking about whether there should be an ALA poetry award or not. Check out the heavy hitters talking in the comments there!

Then last Friday, Elaine Magliaro reposted something of her own on the same topic from 2006 that's well worth a read, too.

Guess what? I'm in the camp that's pro-award. Shocking, isn't it!

A Charity Auction... With Cool Art!

Dan Santat - author, illustrator, trailer-maker-extraordinaire - has put together an auction to benefit 826LA, a fab organization that brings the arts to school kids. And this particular auction will be happening online and gives you a chance to nab some artwork by a slew of amazing artists working in the children's book field.

You know, folks like Sean Qualls and Mo Willems and and and and, well, see the picture below. If you click the link, you'll see a trailer and more information about how you can get involved (as in... buy the art!). Check it out!