Hugging out the Snow Day Blues

It's good to have writerly friends.

You may have heard about yesterday's winter storm, the one that dumped an inch of snow per hour on Maryland. People FREAK OUT here if snow is mentioned in the forecast. Three inches of white stuff is an emergency. By bedtime, we had at least six.

The children were off school, but they are teenagers. My days of Play-Doh and Lego marathons are, sadly, over.

This is my kind of snow day project.

Stuck at home. What to do? I know...

it's been a while since I challenged Poetry Friday blogger Michelle Heidenrich Barnes to one of our infamous Limerick Challenges.

Michelle has a series on her blog, Today's Little Ditty, called Limerick Alley. I'm not sure how the Limerick Challenges between us began, but it may have begun with the Lime Rickey Limerick Challenge.

Raspberry Lime Rickeys from Tracey's Culinary Adventures.

Then there was the Miniature Golf Limerick Challenge. The frozen grape challenge.

And when I posted the National One Hit Wonder Day Limerick Challenge on Facebook, and more writerly friends joined in. (Those poems were roll on the floor funny. Anyone remember Kajagoogoo?)

Yesterday was notable for more than the weather. It was also National Hugging Day. My Limerick Challenge was clear. I threw down the gauntlet on Twitter. Michelle was quick to respond.

@MichelleHBarnes -- It's National Hug Day. Up for a limerick challenge?
— Laura Shovan (@LauraShovan) January 21, 2014

@LauraShovan -- on National Hug Day? How can I not try to squeeze one out! I've a quick errand to run and then I'll put pencil to paper.
— Michelle H Barnes (@MichelleHBarnes) January 21, 2014

I did a little research on hugs. We are big fans of the "20 second hug" at my house (science geeks -- yes, even hugs have a science). I wrote my limerick and posted it on Facebook, with an invitation for others to join in.

Here are the results, National Hugging Day limericks by me, Michelle, and my poet friend Michael Ratcliffe.

The Science of Hugs
by Laura Shovan

Most hugs last for three seconds, true.
Long embraces are better for you.
Oxytocin starts flowing
if your hug is still going
while you count from one to twenty-two.

Michael Ratcliffe's Hug Day Limerick

While hugs are quite good for most folk,
I happen to be one of those blokes
With a very large bubble
For whom hugs cause trouble
And make me feel like I'm stuck in a yoke.

You Never Know Who You'll Run into on National Hug Day
by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes

Beware the Constrictor's embrace.
His affections are largely misplaced.
He'll give you a snuggle,
But after a struggle
He'll squeeze the last smile off your face.

Read about this squeezy snake at Nat Geo.

As I put this post together, I thought about how hugs separate the Sensory Seekers (me, me, me!) from the Sensory Avoiders.

I hope you got whatever kind of hug makes you smile yesterday, Writerly Friends. Playing limerick challenge with my fellow poets put a huge smile on my face (no boa constrictor necessary).

If you love limericks, visit Michelle's blog to read more.

You might like following @NationalDays on Twitter. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't know today is National Southern Food Day. Time to grab my snow-bound kids and bake some biscuits.

Thanks to Michael and Michelle. Today's limericks were posted with permission from the authors.

Joe Gets Cut from the Team (Kill Your Darlings 3)

Writerly Friends, thank you for all your kind words about poor Madison Singleton. My horse-obsessed fifth grader is, after all, a minor character.

From http://horsetrainingguidance.com/

Much as we all love her (see last week's post), Maddie will remain a book phantom, like word nerd Sheldon before her.

I have only heard and read about what it feels like to be head over heels for horses when you're a kid, so I couldn't give Maddie fair shakes as anything more than a minor character, an ear, a BFF. Maddie will live on only in old drafts of my middle grade novel-in-verse, and in our memories. 

This week's Poetry Friday host is
Kathy at Merely Day by Day.

I hate to do it to you again, Tender Hearts, but this week's Poetry Friday post is third in my "Kill Your Darlings" series. Each post in the series features a poem or characters cut from my book.

It is now time to say goodbye to another of my favorite characters from THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY.

Most names in the book were carefully selected.

Joe is a star athlete and all around good guy. Even when he breaks his leg, he still coaches his fifth grade classmates in kickball. After all, everyone wants to beat the teachers in the traditional fifth grade vs. staff kickball game. Joe even has a secret, but what he doesn't have is any interest in school politics.

My ensemble of characters may be the only team that Joe's ever been cut from.

If you read the working blurb for  my book -- kind of like an expanded elevator pitch -- you'll see why I permanently benched Joe:

Bulldozers crouch outside Emerson Elementary, as if they long to eat the school in one gulp. It's up to fifth grade history buff George Furst and his friends to save the not-quite historic building from demolition. George has no clue how to organize a fifth grade full of crush-obsessed, experiment-exploding hamster haters into a protest, but unless he unites their class against the powerful Board of Education, George and his friends will be THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY.

With the click of a delete button, I erased Joe and the entire kickball game thread from my working draft.

I'm really sad about this one. I felt as if Joe's voice fit his poems well, not just in topic but also in form. Joe was the best concrete poem writer in Miss Hill's (imaginary) fifth grade class. What he didn't fit was the narrative arc of the story.

Let's meet Joe before he officially becomes a book phantom. Here are his four poems. As a minor character in the novel, Joe wrote one poem for each quarter of the school year (that's all Miss Hill required).

Lucky Hat
First Quarter Poem

The Poem I Found on My Cast

Second Quarter Poem

By Joe O’Day

Break a leg, man! Ha ha, Jay

Mary R♥se: Glad you’re okay.

Come back to kickball L from Katie

Suck it up! We need you, Sydney

Jason took my line, Dude (Ben)

Rajesh Rao: Feel better, friend!

This is Newton Mathews, Hi.

Thanks for letting me sign. Ty

Mark: Slow Joe? The end is near!

Super Ash was here

(This poem works a lot better when you are familiar with the cast (!) of characters in Miss Hill's class. Every fifth grader who signed Joe's cast made it into the final version of my novel.)

Like a Cheetah

Third Quarter Poem

By Joe O’Day

When I run, I’m like a cheetah,

a blur of muscles flying past.

Nothing can catch me, not even your eye.

Blink once – I’m gone.

When I kick, I’m a mule.

I’m stubborn and that ball WILL

go over the fence.

I can make it fly.

When I catch, I’m like a Rottweiler.

I jump, trap the ball, and hang on.

Don’t try to take nothing away from me.

I’m dangerous.

But when I’m in class, I’m like a horse

with saddle and reins.

I’ll go where you want. Do what you say.

And as soon as you let me loose

blink once – I’m gone.

From National Geographic.

(This poem is based on one of the poetry prompts I often use with elementary schoolers. You can read the lesson "Animals Are like Feelings" at this post.)

I'm sneaking in one kickball poem -- also cut -- about Joe, but written by a Keeper Character. I couldn't resist sharing this poem, because I love Jason's sense of humor.

Shoe Fly Pie

By Jason Chen

There once was a kicker named Joe

who could kick a home run in the snow.

You say you want proof?

Look! His shoe’s on the roof,

where it startled a really big crow.

(P. S. Too bad, this poem has no pie in it.)

Just as in Spoon River Anthology, the poems in my novel have a way of talking to one another. Characters reveal things about themselves, but also about their classmates. Events are described from more than one point of view.

Blue Ribbon Poem

Fourth Quarter Poem

The Field Day plot line was cut, along with the kid vs. teacher kickball game.
THE LAST FIFTH GRADE is more focused, concentrating on a class
that stands up to the Board of Education, and what consequences
that has for them as individuals and as a group.

Let's all tip our baseball caps as we say goodbye to Joe.

Writerly Friends, do you have any stories of characters loved and lost? Please share in your comments. Or, better yet, sign up to guest post about the poem, character, or plot you cut. I'm looking for a few good bloggers to feature in the Kill Your Darlings series.

Last, I'm glad so many of you thought that THE BOOK PHANTOMS would make a great novel. That's my next writing project, in the planning stages now! I'm so excited about this idea. Look for a YA speculative fiction novel about a character who won't let herself be deleted without a fight. Her teenage would-be author won't know what hit him (but it might be a  meat cleaver. Long story.) Let's just hope this book doesn't take me another five years.