STOP #5 - INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Check out Stop #5 on the FORGET ME NOT GHOST TOUR. Join me today over at Lisa Schroeder's Blog for another poem excerpt from my paranormal verse novel and an interview with Ernest Hemingway. Ally, the main character, writes letters to Ernest because he's the only

one she can confide in.

Lisa Schroeder is a fabulous verse novelist. I had the honor of speaking with her on a verse novel panel at the International Reading Association last spring in Chicago along with April Halprin Wayland and Caroline Starr Rose. While you're enjoying the interview with Ernest, check out Lisa's site and her newest novel in verse - THE DAY BEFORE.  Lisa Schroeder's Blog.

The History of Novels in Verse

Join Me over at Cynsations for a piece I wrote about the HISTORY OF VERSE NOVELS.

Here's a sneak peak:

With authors like Ellen Hopkins, Sonya Sones, and Lisa Schroeder, there has been a virtual explosion of verse novels in the past decade, but do we really understand their place in literature?

Are verse novels a YA or middle-grade fad, a new art form, or something else? Are they even really poetry? Were there verse novels before Out of the Dust won the Newbery in 1998?

In truth, verse novels have quite a long history.
Looking back just a few years, we find that before Out of the Dust there was Soda Jerk by Cynthia Rylant in 1990 and Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff in 1993.

And if we go back just a litter further in time we find Homer (not Simpson), who lived around 850 B.C.E. – the presumed creator of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," two Greek epic poems. Two of the oldest surviving works of Western literature happen to be written in verse. ...

For the rest of the post head over to Cynsations

IRA POETRY PANEL

Below is an Excerpt from my recent post on Crowe's Nest. To read the entire article go to the Crowe's Nest

On Sunday, April 29th, I took part in an all day preconference institute at the International Reading Association in Chicago with seven other authors and another Crowe's Nester - Lisa Schroeder.

The title of our institute was Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire. We spent an entire day sharing author tips with teachers about how professional authors write and think about stories as we explored a variety of genres that ended with a poetry panel that included me, Lisa, April Halprin Wayland, and Caroline Starr Rose.

The focus of our panel was on exploring how to hook struggling readers with verse novels in our segment entitled: Social Issues in Contemporary Fiction and Verse Novels: Recognizing Literary Devices and the Implications for Struggling Readers

Lisa and I have special places in our hearts for struggling readers. I work in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist and both of us have books selected as YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers.

 

               

Although TAKE ME THERE is not a verse novel, it contains several original poems. It's about a boy who can't read or write, but dreams of becoming a poet. My first true verse novel, FORGET ME NOT, will be published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.

To Read the Rest of the Article go to the Crowe's Nest