Amok in Announcements (Again)

News! My family adventure article is finally up at Baltimore's Child online. http://www.baltimoreschild.com/articles/index.cfm?fuse1=detail&ArticleID=1024 Look for a "shout out" to Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series.

Just got news my children's poem "Alphabet Soup" sold to Shoofly Audio magazine. It should be published in 2009-2010. I love this magazine's concept. No print copies -- you get an MP3 file or a CD. A great option for LD kids or those with sensory issues. Visit the magazine at http://www.shooflyaudio.com/ A poem I posted a few weeks ago, "Driving Home from the Poetry Festival, 1996," will be appearing in the next issue of Little Patuxent Review. The theme is "Turning Points." You still have time to submit work to this beautiful journal. The deadline for "Turning Points" in November 1. More info at http://www.littlepatuxentreview.org/. There are usually a few (wonderful) group readings when the issue is launched. Look for those announcements in a few months. Save the date: I just scheduled a group reading for 3/31/09 at Howard County's Central Library. A group of contributors from the Maryland Writers Association anthology, "New Lines from the Old Line State" will do a short reading and panel discussion. We'll also be selling the book. If you can't get to the reading, you can buy the book here: http://marylandwriters.org/publications.html. Two of my poems are among the entries. Last, a great writing opportunity for kids. Last November, I participated in my first NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month, an annual event). I crossed the finish line with my YA suspense novel clocking in at 50,000 words -- about 75% of a complete draft. Woohoo! It felt like a real accomplishment. NaNoWriMo has an awesome program for young writers. Less focus on word count, more on, "Just write it!" Here's a blurb from the very kid-friendly website: "The Young Writers Program of National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a novel by midnight, November 30. The word-count goal for our adult program is 50,000 words, but our Young Writers Program allows participants who are 17 years old and younger to set reasonable, yet challenging, word-count goals. The only thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly." This is a great idea for kids who love to read, but hate school-writing (the dreaded BCRs come to mind). There's a ton of online encouragement and support during NaNo month, November. Check it out at http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/ywp I promise to get back to the Dodge Poetry Festival soon. Festival Assistant Michael Murphy will be on the hot seat, giving us a behind-the-scenes view of the event.