In that post, I mentioned the two poetry books of Adam Rex, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Amazing, funny, brilliant, books with incredible artistry. A better blogger would now spend some time reviewing one or the other of them, but I expended all of my energy on that run-on sentence above. So instead you’ll get a poem. And not even the whole poem, because now I’m getting freaked out by the legality of that. Plus the whole poem really needs the illustrations to make it work to its full potential. But in any case, here is the beginning and you can get the book to see how Girl Scouts fit in.
Before I got to the second part of the poem, I was absolutely certain that he was going to talk about election campaigners. I don’t know how it’s been in other parts of the country, but in Virginia the election is huge, with the Republican candidate for governor leading by double digits in a state that went blue in 2008. I’ve been getting tons of calls and campaigners coming by and flyers at every local event. Obama even came to a rally in Norfolk, but a little late, I think. The only thing that could really help the Democrats now is if people take the new health care legislation seriously and don’t want Virginia to opt out of a public health care choice. In any case, they’ll have to campaign without me on Folloween because I need this weekend to catch up on things I let go for the last two months.Folloween
No ghosts are seen on Halloween,
except for kids in sheets.
No zombies ring for anything
apart from tricks or treats.
Though people say
today’s the day
when bogeymen
come out to play,
November first is when the worst
of monsters hit the streets.
And in disguise the dead arise
to sell us magazines.
In ties and slacks
they hand out tracts
as fine, upstanding teens.
I also need time to prepare — possibly — for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve never been interested before, but I do have a book in my head and maybe this is the time to let it out. I don’t know. Is it crazy to go from being consumed by KidLitCon to committing to writing a novel in a month? Are you doing it this year? If you did it before, was it worth the pressure?
Oh, Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jennie at Biblio File. Happy Halloween, everyone!
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12 comments:
OH GOD! THE CAMPAIGNERS! Why do they always come to my door when I'm still in my jammies at 3pm? I want to sneeze on them and pretend I have H1N1.
And NaNo is TOTALLY worth the insanity. It's just plain fun.
I'm in love with your run-on sentence! I am that last-minute mom/and librarian but I always seem to find the right thing so I guess it works for me! I've never done nano but i'm intrigued!
Okay, here's the thing about NaNoWriMo. In order to be successful, you have to stop caring if your writing is good. There is no time to rewrite and there's hardly any time to even stop and think. SO if you can stop caring about whether your writing is good, DO IT. I have had such fun with it and I'm so excited to start my novel this year!
Some years I've found more stressful than others, usually dependent on how much I love my idea. Some years (like when I was in library school), NaNoveling was actually a stress release because unlike writing papers (or, say, blog posts that thousands of people will read), when you write your NaNo novel you can just follow your imagination and write something that helps you escape from your own life for a little bit.
ANYhoo. You should totally do it. The community is awesome, more and more bloggers are taking part, and it's something I look forward to every year!
PLUS, I will be your writing buddy and send you encouraging messages like "You can do it!", etc. ;)
I mean, stop caring whether your writing is good on the first draft. You can always go back after November and edit. (Like, say, in March for NaNoEdMo...)
I love Nanwrimo! I participated for the first time last year and had a blast. I'm ready to go for it again. It's fun because writing a novel for a month is such an insane thing to do that the Inner Critic gets completely shut down in the mad rush for words, words, words! I encourage you to sign up and give it a try.
It's kinda crazy to go from one nutso event to the next, but if you got it, do it!
Your poem Falloween was neat, although I didn't really understand the ending about teens selling magazines.
Yes, "November first is when the worst/of monsters hit the streets" in Ohio, too. (Actually, the election nonsense started way back in the summer, but it's at a frenzy now.) Ohio voters will decide whether or not to amend the state constitution to allow casino gambling in our state. ...Those words shouldn't be allowed to be in the same sentence (amend constitution and casino gambling). REE-DICKALUS!
I think if you have an idea in your head then you absolutely have to give it wings. NaNoWriMo seems the perfect opportunity to do so. Plus you have a lovely family who would encourage and support you and a blogging community who will be rooting for you!! Go Dog Go!
Oh! I love Mordecai Gerstein's THe Absolutely Awful ALphabet, Jon Stone's The Monster at the End of this Book and Arrrrggghhhh! Spider! by Lydia Monks as notHalloween, Halloween books.
-r
Love this poem! And your story:>)
I'm doing nanowrimo this year for the first time. I'm writing several chapter books, though, not one longer novel.
Did you decide to do it? If so, buddy me--I'm salaslp. (Not sure exactly what buddies do, but I know I'll need some to survive the month:>)
Hello,
I am an intern at Simon & Schuster in the children’s department, and I was hoping I could get your mailing address. We would love to be able to send books for possible reviews in your blogs and other promotional information. If you would like to specify what kinds of children's books you prefer, I will happily make a note of it for you. My email address is Rainna.Erikson@simonandschuster.com.
Sincerely, Rainna Erikson
Publicity Intern
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
(212) 698-2841
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