Irene Latham's Blog, page 181

AWESOMENESS AT ALABAMA BOOK FESTIVAL

1. I traveled with my chauffer, body guard and personal assistant -- aka my three sons. This pic was taken at the end of the day. Yes, they were pretty much bored. Would have taken an appearance by James Patterson or Suzanne Collins to get them excited. But they were good sports anyhow. And it was great for me to look over and see them there. Thanks, guys! And I promise: next book festival we go to there will be more girls. (Yes, this is what they talked about on the ride home.)


2. R...

POETRY UPDATE AND NEW GIVEAWAY!

Posting poetic goodness early this week for a couple of reasons:

1. I am going to Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery tomorrow (Y'all come! It's gonna be AWESOME!!)

2. Poetry Friday Roundup is being hosted early by 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Check it out!

... and the winner of last week's POETRY IN MOTION anthology is Danielle! Danielle entered via Facebook, and she actually rides the subway every day. So yay for Danielle!

And now for this week's giveaway: another of my most fa...

MEET "MEAN IRENE"

Yep. She exists.

Check it out over at Jessica Leader's blog. (She's honeymooning and asked a few of us to guest post on the topic of NICE AND MEAN, which is the title of her rockin'debut novel for middle-grade readers, coming in June!)

CELEBRATE SECRETS

Be on the look-out for great books releasing this week, each with its own secret something:

Secret romance in THREE RIVERS RISING by Class of 2k10 classmate Jame Richards... read it... TWICE... loved it both times!


Secret society in THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY by the amazing Kay Cassidy who is so very generous... congratulations, Kay!!


Secret rooms in PALACE BEAUTIFUL by Sarah Deford Williams, which I haven't read, but am dying to!

ODE TO RICHARD PECK

Wow, what a fabulous time I had in Hattiesburg, MS, at the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival. There were lots of great folks, including my roomies Hester Bass and Sarah Campbell. Check out Sarah's great pics and wrap-up of the conference here.

And yes, Richard Peck was there. For those of you who don't know, Richard Peck blurbed my book. So he was one of the first professional people to read the book and give me any sort of feedback.... so it was pretty special. And of course, now h...

POETRY FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!

First, may I present the winner of last week's GOOD POEMS, edited by Garrison Keillor:

Susan Taylor Brown!!! She's doing one of those Victorian Commonplace books, which is something on my I-wanna-do-that shortlist. Susan, email me at irene at irenelatham dot com, and we'll get you fixed up.

Thanks so much to all who entered!

Now for this week's giveaway. It's a book for those of us with short attention spans or tight schedules or who just need a little pick-me-up. It's POETRY IN MOTION: 100 ...

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

So I promised I'd write a poem a day for National Poetry Month. So far, so good!

I've got two ekphrastic poems, based on the following paintings:


Summer Sunlight by Beatrice Whitney Van Ness


Terrasse de Cafe, Paris by Celine M. Tabary

... and four "list" poems, with the following titles:


True Things Learned from Cats
Things that Rattle
Inside my Mother's Thimble
Things on a Breakfast Tray at the Continental Hotel

None of these is what I had PLANNED to write... go figure.

How's it going for everyone ...

MISADVENTURES OF A DEBUT AUTHOR, PART ONE

Okay, so I am not one to dwell on the things that go wrong in life. But there have been a few lately I've just got to share:

1. In my effort to pack light-very light, I brought just one pair of shoes to Michigan: knee-high black books guaranteed to go with anything! Well. Said boots were quite fun in the airport security line. And didn't quite work with the pajamas I wore each morning to get breakfast at the hotel. (I'm thinking flipflops for BEA in May. What do y'all think? :)

2. Whe...

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH IS HERE!

Woohoo! It's April! Which means National Poetry Month is finally here!!

For some quick links to blogosphere celebrations, see the side bar. For an amazing, more complete resource page, visit Laura Evans at teachpoetry.k12.com. So much to do!

Here, I'm celebrating by having a GIVEAWAY!

Yep. Every Friday this month I will share one of my most favorite poems of all time... and give away one of my most favorite anthologies of all time. (What, you say? Today's not Friday? Never fear, I am not...

CELEBRATE SPRING BOOKS

...by which I mean, books released in spring -- not necessarily books about spring. But just as fresh and lively! Big CONGRATULATIONS to the following debut books and their authors:

THE SNOWBALL EFFECT by Holly Nicole Hoxter. Read it. Loved it. And PW did, too!


BRIGHTLY WOVEN by Alexandra Bracken. Also read this one. Rich fantasy!


BIRTHMARKED by Caragh O'Brien. Wow. That cover. Dystopian never looked so good!

GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD by Karen Healey, who is an awesome Tenner living in Austr...