Friday, May 4, 2012

"When Magic Helps Us Steer (Celebrating Poetry That Fits in Your Pocket)"

                 Well, here it is! I finished the book. This one is not at all like my others. They were craft and activity books. (Okay, I did sneak a craft in the back of the book for making a pocket that will nicely fit a poem.)
               This glossy paperback is filled with silly poems--and a few thoughtful ones as well. Most of these verses I wrote way back when teaching 3rd grade in Germany. Many were used as handwriting exercises for my kiddos. (Yes, we used to teach handwriting.) They didn't particularly like cursive drills, but once I introduced silly poems, my students were very receptive and asked for more. These exercises were also a good way to introduce poetry form. 

Recently, I had a stress fracture and was in a boot. My mobility was a little limited.  I sat at the computer and began cleaning up files.  It seemed like a good time to look through my many poems. Some were good, some needed a lot more work and others got tossed--but, in the end, I polished enough to publish. I had done a lot of black line illustrations to accompany the poems when they were first written. After tweaking and a bit of redrawing, most scanned well. 

Then came the big leap for me.  I had been wanting to learn more about the new publishing options such as CreateSpace. I'm glad I did. Here is the finished product available on Amazon.