Jeannine Atkins's Blog, page 48

Porch Weekend

Watching the bees mingle among star flowers and hummingbirds sip iris.

Doing some writing, a bit of gardening, and gazing at my visiting daughter, here enjoying our dog who let her dress him up. And seems to be trying to read her new business card which we wanted to document. Emily is Director of New Media at Organically Grown, where she helps sell clothes and products for babies and children. We couldn't be prouder.



And I loved getting a celebratory slap of her soft hand after learning that B...

Poetry and Computers

Confession: I like writing poetry on my laptop.

Poetry has a history of being written with quills and inkpots, then perhaps ballpoints and notebooks small enough to stash at the sound of an opening door. I like to think of Emily Dickinson off in her bedroom, perhaps nibbling gingerbread or looking into the garden. Or Wordsworth striding among daffodils, then slipping out a quiet piece of paper. Here's Robert Louis Stevenson perhaps penning A Child's Garden of Verses.

Computers come with a litt...

Thankful Thursday

1. Thank you Cindy Dobrez at Bookends for the time and creativity you put into making a book trailer for Borrowed Names.
2. Thank you friends and voters: Bookends is the Nontraditional Review winner for this excellent book trailer, among some very cool competition! http://100scopenotes.com/2010/05/27/bookends-is-the-nontraditional-review-winner/

3. My daughter is boarding the red-eye tonight! We'll get to see her i...

Thankful Thursday and the Albany Children's Book Festival

1. Thank you Cindy Dobrez at Bookends for the time and creativity you put into making a book trailer for Borrowed Names.
2. Thank you friends and voters: Bookends is the Nontraditional Review winner for this excellent book trailer, among some very cool competition! http://100scopenotes.com/2010/05/27/bookends-is-the-nontraditional-review-winner/

3. My daughter is boarding the red-eye tonight! We'll get to see her i...

A Good Morning

I loved started my morning hearing that The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., a novel about a girl with an athletic, scientific, and creative bent, perhaps a bit like her creator, Kate Messner kmessner , was honored with an E.B. White award for best read aloud. I'm giddy thinking of this book moving into more homes and classrooms. Kate teaches middle school where her students get to read silently with her or sometimes listen. All these spoken and silent words make me happy, as does a prize for the...

Book Trailer of Borrowed Names!

Sometimes I've posted book reviews to Nonfiction Monday, where lovers of frogs, dinosaurs, musicals, the solar system, bubble gum, how-to-write books, Jane Goodall, etc. find books or issues they may have missed. Today Travis is hosting at http://100scopenotes.com/2010/05/24/nontraditional-nonfiction-monday-the-circulatory-story/
and posed a challenge for bloggers to post nontraditionally on nonfiction. I skipped the challenge and stuck to my fuzzy little goslings. Others are braver. For insta...

Sometimes one line is all you need

Yesterday my husband and I loaded bikes into the truck and drove to the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. One of the great things about this western Mass. path is it goes by several lakes and a brook. We saw yellow water lilies in one and swamp marigold in another. As we pedaled, my husband, who has been scanning old photos from our pre-digital age and has been nostalgic, talked about the ways I wrote when we first met almost thirty years ago – mostly stories on an electric typewriter -- and the w...

Lady Slippers

My mother's friend Marguerite loved all kinds of plants, and when I was a child sometimes led us on walks through the woods. She pointed out a few lady slippers and told us they were endangered and could not be picked. It wasn't until fairly recently that botanists understood that they need certain kinds of fungi, which was why when people transplanted them, the flowers couldn't survive in another place. One of the special spots where they thrive is High Ledges, a Mass Audubon Sanctuary http:...

How Do You Know When a Poem is Done?

Sometimes I wish writing poetry was like baking. You set the timer, though there are always a few adjustments: slipping a knife into the cake to see if it's still sticky inside, or pressing a fingertip to see if the surface bounces back. At least we know what it's supposed to look and taste like.

Poetry is trickier. Recently I met someone who sent me a poem for my opinion. I told her I liked it, but mentioned a few words and phrases that felt a bit mushy, to continue with the cake metaphor. Th...

Mini Lesson in Writing a Picture Book

Recently someone with a few characters in mind asked me, "How do I write a picture book?"

This was a phone conversation, so I didn't have much time. I didn't point out that I'd studied English in college and grad school and kept reading lots of books, wrote a zillion pages that never worked out, regularly bang my head on my desk, and keep myself still until some delight comes back onto the page.

What I said was, "Watch the balance of what's a lesson and what's fun. Most books have something to...