Poetry Month is coming to a close. I hope you’ve taken a chance and opened your mind and heart to some new verses, explored new poetic vistas, and discovered some new poetic insights.

Just in case you want to continue celebrating poetry, I have some other dates you can participate in!

National Poem on Your Pillow Day! Always the first Tuesday in May, this year it is May 3. On this day put a poem on your spouses or significant other’s pillow, a child’s pillow, your roommate or dorm mate — and give them something memorable, be it fun or deep or even odd.

National Take A Poet to Work Day! Always the third Wednesday in July, this year it is July 20. This is the day you take something of your favorite poet to work, set it beside your phone or calendar, your computer or on your door. Celebrate the day by introducing everything about your favorite poet to everyone else.

Random Acts of Poetry Day! Always the first Wednesday in October, this year it is Oct 5. Leave random bits of poetry in public places — on the bus, on a park bench, on the train, in your spouses’ car, on the school bus, in your break room at work. Make them fun and interesting. Pithy or fun.

Let these be added ways to include poetry in your life, make it fun and introduce poetry to others. No one said poetry had to be dull or hard to understand.

I leave you with a poem I’ve come to love. I hope you’ll share this with your students, your friends, your family, your readers. Let us keep poetry alive long after Poetry Month has passed.

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
 and hold it up to the light
 like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
 and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
 and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
 across the surface of a poem
 waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
 is tie the poem to a chair with rope
 and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
 to find out what it really means.

—Billy Collins
Introduction to Poetry Billy Collins. From The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.

Tomorrow – come by to read an excerpt from the Magic Princess books as we draw National Princess Week to a close! You should enjoy some of PJ’s writing and awaken your inner fierce warrior!

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter! I’ll be publishing new material and there will be giveaways and goodies for newletter followers ONLY! Spread the word, thank you!

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****The following items will always appear to keep you posted on activities.*****

WIP (Works in Progress): 

– NEW BOOK OF POETRY! – expected release July 2016
– first novel in the Evening Bower series, about vampires and other supernatural creatures
– fictional memoir
– four-part fairy story (part one complete)

On the Desk: (next reading): In Shining Armor  (#4) Elliott James

Off the Desk (book just finished): Soulless by Gail Carriger (#1 in a series)

Coming Soon:  Let’s Talk About Your Writing!

I’m delighted to usher in National Princess Week (always the last full week of April) by first embracing my inner princess, and also welcoming my guest blogger, the beautiful author of some fierce princesses, PJ LaRue.  I “met” PJ online thanks to Twitter and we quickly discovered we shared many mutual likes from Indie authorship, photography, our stand against domestic violence, to our love of girl power. PJ writes about female empowerment in her Mystic Princess series for young girls and I’m delighted to have PJ here during Princess Week to tell you more about her work and her choices as an author. Welcome PJ!

I’d like to thank you, Sherry, for inviting me to guest post on your blog. I appreciate the opportunity to share the Mystic Princesses with your readers.

I began the Mystic Princess series specifically to teach confidence to girls. I love to travel and want to inspire young girls with a love of adventure, as well as cultural and environmental awareness. I don’t have a certain number of books outlined, but I do have several locales and storylines charted. The first book, The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool, is set underwater near Kauai, and the second is in New Orleans and Alaska. The third book will feature the four primary Hawaiian Islands. Future books could include Yellowstone, Florida and Japan.

My writing style for the princesses is a little out of the norm. The girls like to talk, so there is a lot of conversation amongst them. The pace is fast for adults, who are accustomed to background-setting filler scenes showing the story partly through narration. However, those types of slower paced scenes bog down reluctant readers. Several parents have told me that their kids liked the fast pace and that it encouraged their children to continue reading. I called the girls “princesses” because they are daughters of gods and goddesses, and children may not have been exposed to mythology yet. But they certainly have the princess concept down.

That brings up another reason I started the Mystic Princess series. I want to teach girls that they can rely on themselves to solve their problems. I’m not a fan of princess stories where the prince rescues the princess then they get married and live happily ever after. Their life is just beginning at that point. My husband and I are happily married, and have been since 1982. But, as noted in my book, After “I Do!” A Marriage Map, approximately 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. And even if couples don’t split, it doesn’t mean that they are happy. I can’t help but wonder if fairy tales unfairly lead girls into relationships believing that life will be perfect once they marry their handsome prince. Girls who grow up with a more realistic view of marriage will be better equipped to handle relationships.

At this time, I do not have handsome princes scripted for the Mystic Princess series. And if I were to allow the girls to grow into a dating age, the prince will not rescue the princesses. They are too young to be concerned with boys at this time. The Mystic Princesses are designed to be fun, adventurous and to teach a few life lessons. You might have noticed I didn’t say anything about their looks. One can see from their pictures that they are diverse. But the Mystic Princesses will always rely on their wit, not their looks, to get them through situations.

Now that I’ve discussed my reasons for writing, I’ll move on to my background. Hmm. I didn’t have any formal experience with publishing, although I’ve written off and on throughout my life. That meant I had my work cut out for me. I researched traditional and indie publishing before putting The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool up for sale, choosing the indie route. I’ve gone back and forth between all available e-publishing platforms and an Amazon only platform. The book is currently available on several websites. I had to learn as much as I could about publishing. I may be one of those people who decided to write a book with no training, but the quality of my books needs to be professional for me to feel a sense of accomplishment. As such, I’ve built a team of professionals to help me and continue to seek advice from those more knowledgeable than me.

There is one area where I didn’t start with a professional, though. My sister-in-law, who is a talented but untrained artist, offered to draw the artwork and only take a fee if I ever became profitable with the book sales. Another author, who fell in love with the Mystic Princesses, advised me that she’d held a focus group because she thought she could help me when the book didn’t sell. The participants told her that I would sell more if the artwork were more professional. That led to an intensely painful and costly lesson when I changed from my sister-in-law to a professional illustrator. I hurt my sister-in-law to the core and have to live with that forever. While I’ve done my best to make amends, I doubt our relationship will ever be what it once was. So, please take this advice: never mix business with family.

The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool introduces Coral, Janna, Catie, Breanna and Harmonie. Princess Coral, daughter of Neptune, can change from mermaid to person and can help the girls breathe underwater without scuba tanks. She will grow to control all sea creatures. Janna, daughter of Mother Nature, can turn the other girls into flowers to blend into the landscape if they need to hide. She also controls lady bugs and butterflies and will grow to control all land animals. Catie, daughter of Iris, can make rainbows and turn the other girls into birds. Breanna, Pele’s daughter, can throw fireballs. Harmonie, who is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, makes people feel peaceful, but her brothers and sisters want to fight and cause wars. The Children of Ares know that if they capture Harmonie, it will be easier to carry out their warfare. The princesses learn their powers are to be used to protect Harmonie from her warrior siblings, known as the Children of Ares.

There are many lessons in the book that parents can use as opportunities to talk to their children, the first being that it is better to try and solve problems through communication rather than fighting. A second lesson involves the girls learning that it is okay to reveal certain secrets. This concept could open the door for parents to talk about child abuse because abusers instruct their targets not to tell. It also applies to bullying or if a child learns that another child has weapons at school.

The book shows the girls practicing their elemental powers to become proficient. My parents used to tell me that practicing would make me better. And that is the concept I tried to convey by having the girls’ skills improve as The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool unfolds.

Additionally, the Mystic Princess series carries a theme of environmental consciousness. In the first book, the girls learn to keep the oceans clean while living with Princess Coral at her underwater castle near Kauai. In the second book, The Mystic Princesses and the Magic Show, the girls live with Princess Catie in New Orleans, explore the city, receive self-defense lessons from the Goddess Athena and learn about an oil spill in Alaska. They raise money using their powers to perform a magic show to help with the clean-up efforts. In Alaska, the girls help clean the oil-soaked birds and learn about the Inuit culture, the polar bears’ plight due to the melting ice caps and what causes the Northern Lights to dance across the sky.

I’ve started and stopped the third book several times. I recently changed the direction of the book but have been quite busy with my job and personal life. I will have to set aside time each week to finish writing the book, but am excited to get back to it. The book is on the Big Island of Hawaii, at Pele’s home in Volcano National Park and is tentatively called The Mystic Princesses and the Volcano. I can’t share what happens near the volcano without spoiling the ending. But I can tell you that the girls participate in a scavenger hunt throughout the primary Hawaiian Islands. Through the hunt, the girls learn about Hawaiian culture, including the practice of leaving traditional offerings to the gods. My husband and I were fortunate to come across an offering such as this while in Waimea Canyon on Kauai.

At this time, I’m not sure where the fourth book will take place. It will become clearer to me while I’m writing the third book. I don’t need to know the location to hope that readers will discover the series, learn that they can solve problems and learn that each person can do his or her part to better the world. It’s a lofty goal, but as my Mom always told me, “A job worth doing, is a job worth doing well.” So, I’m swinging for the stars with my marriage, my job and my budding career as a writer, and I know that she’d be proud of my princesses and me.

*****

Thank you, PJ, for sharing your princesses with us and I look forward to reading the next books in the series. Hey, you are never too old to exercise your princess powers, right?

More about PJ:

PJ wrote poetry in high school, but she discovered writing children’s books and short stories later in life. Her writing inspirations are hiking, photography and environmental consciousness, but she links these interests to much larger social issues. A person very close to PJ was molested as a child, making PJ passionate about providing child safety tips. And, PJ was bullied in the third grade by girls much larger than she, who demanded that PJ give them her lunch money. As a result, PJ is committed to spreading the word that bullying must be stopped.

One of PJ’s goals is to help educate children, parents and caregivers, in a fun way, using her children’s book series, The Mystic Princesses. Because PJ loves to travel, the princesses will visit many locales, learning about environmental concerns along the way.

PJ has been happily married over 30 years although there are many reasons why her marriage should have failed. Some of those factors are that her parents divorced after a long and sometimes abusive relationship, that her father is an alcoholic (now sober for many years), and that she married at a very young age. She broke the domestic abuse cycle by marrying a kind and supportive man. During 2013, PJ wrote a blog post called “How I Escaped the Domestic Violence Cycle.” That blog post can be read here. After the website designer and other friends who read the blog post encouraged PJ to write more, she wrote After “I Do!” A Marriage Map a short advice book filled with anecdotes from her own marriage. 

Find PJ on Twitter, Facebook, and CreateSpace.

Poetry Smoetry – Why Should I Care About Poetry?

We are three weeks into National Poetry Month and I continue hearing people groan about having to listen to, recite or read poems. “Why,” they implore, “must I bother? I don’t care!”

Ah, my metaphoric padawan, you might want to rethink that position!

To begin with, poetry has its roots in history.
Just as a reminder, poetry comes from an oral tradition. Before we could write, we told stories and sang songs. These “tales” were a record of the community, of history, of births and deaths. The anecdotes and the tragedies, everything was oral. And to make it easy to remember, clever rhymes and catchy tunes were used, even a sing-song style to help children remember the difficult and even exhaustive stories.

Celebrations were usually done in music and once again, it was easier to apply a rhyme to help others remember what to say each time. With repetition, as with the oral histories, songs that celebrate events become traditional and provided a sense of community and security. Roots.

Poetry was also a device for relaxation.
Long ago, before there were radios or televisions, phones or Facebook, poems were put into small compact books. These small volumes were easily carried and often found their way to the seaside, on a picnic, in the library or drawing room, at parties and by the beside. Poetry was an abbreviated form of a story that both men and women could share. Read by a practiced voice, it could be delightfully humorous, or scary, or loving. The joy was in the peaceful gathering. Additionally, small volumes were easily used in private for quiet reflection (given that women didn’t care a purse, this was something women could keep in hand).

Poetry was used for social interaction.
Being able to read aloud was an encouraged talent as was dancing or art or needlepoint or cooking. Various “ages” though time have maintained that reading poetry well signified a graceful spirit and mind, a healthy education or even a dramatic talent. No one went to an event without having something poetry memorized or able to be referenced. Up through the 1920’s poetry was standard fare at parties. Today, open mic café’s and beat poetry is making a comeback.

Finally, poetry engages the imagination.
Poets, beyond being historians and entertainers, teach us to see the world in new ways. Words are synthesized, and in their economy of use we discover more succinct visuals, opening our minds to new ways of visualizing, sensing and dreaming of our world. Poetry has a rhythm and flow that binds us to what could be, not just what is. We discover the power of words in both our dreams and our truth. This is the power of imagination and poets understand the power of this tool.

You don’t have to “understand” a poem in order to gain something from it. Often comprehension takes many readings before an “ah-ha” moment is reached. However, while you are reading, you can be feeling the flow, the passing and falling of the words. You can be sensing emotions though the words. Even without a depth of knowledge, poetry can enlighten through the senses and this enhances thinking and imagination. Poetry gives a sense of perspective through the music of the words.

Why should you care about poetry, a literary form that offers so much? No one says you have to be a William Shakespeare groupie. Neither do you need to be an avid follower of the dark deliciousness of Baudelaire and Poe, the satire of Ogden Nash or the love of the Brownings. But when you open yourself to just one poem once in a while, you are giving yourself a gift of truth, of history, of peace and relaxation, grace and adventure. You allow your soul to fly and be enriched.

Samuel Johnson said, “Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”
It’s the best of both worlds. You don’t have to be a Poetic Jedi and that’s why you should care.

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Recommended reading: Poems by Agatha Christie (1973) Christie’s first book of poetry, The Road of Dreams, was self-published in 1925.

Paper Bones by me! Contemporary social issues poetry written for everyone and anyone.

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****The following items will always appear to keep you posted on activities.*****

WIP (Works in Progress): 

– NEW BOOK OF POETRY! – expected release July 2016
– first novel in the Evening Bower series, about vampires and other supernatural creatures
– fictional memoir
– four-part fairy story (part one complete)

On the Desk: (next reading): Soulless by Gail Carriger (#1 in a series)

Off the Desk (book just finished): Burned (Alex Verus #7) by Benedict Jacka

Coming Soon:  Princess Week and Guest Blogger PJ LaRue