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Today’s Poetry Activity: Conversation Poem

April 9, 2019 by

Conversation poems are just what they sound like: a poem in which one person is speaking to another.

For instance, your poem could be a wife and husband speaking to one another, siblings arguing over a toy, or a father/mother speaking to a son/daughter.

There are a multitude of conversations you could have in poetic form, and they do not have to rhyme, though they can.

Here’s one I wrote as an example:

Darling, I wish we could go out more.
Honey, we’re out all the time.
But we’re never alone, even in the store.
I think a night in the tub would be sublime.

That’s an example of one that rhymes, but here’s another that doesn’t:

Give me that!
No way, it’s mine, and you know it.
It was never yours; you stole it from my room.
Really, a My Little Pony? No way.

Try your skills at a conversation poem and share it below in the comments.

Filed Under: Events, national poetry month Tagged With: ,

Mailbox Monday #526

April 8, 2019 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what I received:

Beyond the Lens by Hannah Ellis, a Kindle freebie.

Twenty-six-year-old Lucy Mitchell isn’t the sort of person who’d take part in a reality TV show. But when she loses her job and is offered a free trip to Spain, she reluctantly agrees. She has no idea what to expect.

But she definitely isn’t expecting Adam.

The lovely cameraman captures her heart, and as Lucy sips cocktails in the sun with fantastic new friends, everything seems perfect.

But that’s all about to change.

Thrust into the spotlight, Lucy’s world is turned upside down. Can her blossoming romance survive under pressure? Will she ever escape the cameras? There’s one thing she knows for sure: when dealing with the media, you should always read the fine print…

A Father’s Sins by J. Dawn King, a Kindle freebie.

How do Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet overcome the consequences of poor decisions made by their fathers when Darcy and Elizabeth were young?

In A Father’s Sins, Mr. George Darcy, father of an illegitimate child raised by his steward, Mr. Wickham, agreed with his wife, Anne, that the firstborn son of their marriage would be heir to Pemberley. However, Mr. Darcy loved his eldest son, George Wickham, and indulged him by bringing him to Pemberley to live after the death of his wife. His heir, Fitzwilliam Darcy, paid a heavy price for this decision.

Mr. Thomas Bennet, an educated gentleman and father of five daughters, favored his second born, Elizabeth. Unexpectedly, his wife gave birth to a son and heir. Mr. Bennet, at the persistent urging of his wife, chose not to have his youngest children vaccinated for smallpox. When the plague hit Longbourn it devastated their family. Elizabeth paid the heaviest price for this decision of her father.

Her Good Opinion by Eden Forster, a Kindle freebie.

Mr. Darcy knows that Miss Elizabeth Bennet is aware of his role in separating her eldest sister, Miss Jane Bennet, and his friend, Mr. Bingley, and thereby involving them both in misery of the acutest kind. He knows because he was there when Elizabeth found out. Still, the gentleman offers her his hand in marriage—an offer she promptly refuses.

Determined to win her good opinion and ultimately her heart, Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth for six weeks to change her mind.

What could possibly tempt Elizabeth to accept the man who has been the means of ruining the happiness of a most beloved sister?

A Case of First Impression by A.M. Blair, a Kindle freebie.

What if George Wickham hadn’t married into the Bennet family?

A Case of First Impression — a modern twist on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – gives George and his accomplice, Mrs. Younge, the alternate endings they deserve. George Wickham’s 21st Century counterpart, George Wickersham, is more corrupt than the original, but then again, who knows what the original is up to when he goes off to “enjoy himself in London or Bath.”

Elyse Barret, an updated version of Elizabeth, narrates this modern tale. She’s the only family member her father trusts to keep an eye on Mrs. Younge’s criminal trial, which involves a modern Mr. Darcy as a key witness.

Second Impressions by Pepper Basham, a Kindle freebie.

He likes streamline. She prefers embellishments. His forte is business. Hers is atmosphere. Will they realize each has what the other needs most to create the perfect romance with a touch of Jane Austen flair?

When a country girl travels to Bath, England to visit Jane Austen country, will a serious businessman ruin her regency-dream?

Maria Lucas: A Short Story by Jennifer Becton, a Kindle freebie.

After a great deal of romantic strife, Maria Lucas finds herself married to Mr. Jonas Card in a desperate attempt to extricate herself and her sister Charlotte from a dire financial situation. Mr. Card, however, truly loves Maria and has vowed to woo her. Alas, she views him only in friendly terms. But when it seems that Mr. Card’s feelings have changed, Maria sets out to discover why. And through a series of unexpected events, Mr. Card succeeds in wooing his wife without saying a word.

“Maria Lucas” is a post script to the novel Charlotte Collins: A Continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. As such, it contains minor spoilers, but it can be read as a stand-alone piece.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms, a Kindle freebie.

Overworked and underappreciated, single mom Amy Byler needs a break. So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City.

Usually grounded and mild mannered, Amy finally lets her hair down in the city that never sleeps. She discovers a life filled with culture, sophistication, and—with a little encouragement from her friends—a few blind dates. When one man in particular makes quick work of Amy’s heart, she risks losing herself completely in the unexpected escape, and as the summer comes to an end, Amy realizes too late that she must make an impossible decision: stay in this exciting new chapter of her life, or return to the life she left behind.

But before she can choose, a crisis forces the two worlds together, and Amy must stare down a future where she could lose both sides of herself, and every dream she’s ever nurtured, in the beat of a heart.

Dirty English by Ilsa Madden-Mills, a Kindle freebie.

A scarred fighter.
A girl with rules.
One night of unbridled passion.

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Bennett: she’s smart as a whip, always in control, and lives by a set of carefully crafted rules. She’s learned the hard way that people you love the most always hurt you in the end. But then she meets Declan Blay, the new neighbor at her apartment complex.

A tattooed British street fighter, he’s the campus bad boy she’s supposed to avoid, but when he saves her from a frat party gone bad, all her rules about sex and love fly out the window. She gives him one night of unbridled passion, but he longs for more.

With only a cardboard-thin wall separating their bedrooms, he dreams of possessing the vulnerable girl next door forever.

One night. Two damaged hearts. The passion of a lifetime.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

YouTube Poetry: John Keats – Ode to a Nightingale

April 6, 2019 by

Filed Under: Events, national poetry month Tagged With: ,

Book Fairs Around the World

April 5, 2019 by

As book lovers nothing gratifies us more than a book in hand. When we’re at book fairs surrounded by books, authors, publishers, and fellow book mongers, well that’s pure bliss.

If you’re looking for a book fair, check out this colossal searchable list International Book Fairs 2019 by the folks at the Kotobee Blog.

No matter where you are in the world, this list will help you locate the nearest book treat to you. Here’s a little snippet I took for the calendar of book fairs in North America (posted here with permission from the Kotobee Blog).

 

Filed Under: announcements, Events, national poetry month Tagged With: , ,

The Real Sky by Valerie Fox and Jacklynn Niemiec

April 4, 2019 by

Source: the poet
Paperback, 30 pgs
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Real Sky by Valerie Fox and Jacklynn Niemiec is a chapbook that melds imagery with poetry so that readers look beyond the confines of structure to see the potential in each poem and drawing. Fox’s poems explore reality with surreal or dreamlike sequences, but they also are grounded in situations that readers will recognize from their own lives.

In “Ribs, Cat Claws,” Fox examines the notion that we all must “grow up sometime” with a cast of characters who on one hand seem to be out of their minds with mental lapses and disease and on the other hand lament the dreams they once had that are not fulfilled. Other poems delve deep into the unwritten rules of following doctors’ orders, only to secret believe they are useless orders — like many of the unwritten rules of society we follow. Should we just blindly follow them? Question them, only to follow them anyway? Or simply throw the rules out the window?

Fox’s slanted perspective on life and how rules guide us and are so easily set aside — our societal structures are artificial and yet they confine us. Where is the “real sky?” How do we break those invisible binds to see the light and the expanse of possibility? Niemiec’s sketches dovetail into these themes nicely, painting a physical picture for the readers.

The Real Sky by Valerie Fox and Jacklynn Niemiec is a multilayered collection that bends genre to incorporate not only the visual, but also fictionalized accounts and reality into a surreal mesh for readers to fall into and explore. A great deal of food for though in this slim volume.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Authors:

Valerie Fox’s most recent book is Insomniatic [poems] from PS Books, and her other volumes include The Rorschach Factory (Straw Gate Books) and The Glass Book (Texture Press). Her poems and stories have appeared in The Cafe Irreal, Juked, Sentence, Across the Margin, Cleaver, Hanging Loose, West Branch, Ping Pong, and other journals.

She has taught at various institutions, including Peirce College (Philadelphia) and Sophia University (Tokyo). Currently she teaches writing at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she is a writing fellow with the Writers Room. Much interested in collaboration, Valerie has published writing (poems, fiction) with Arlene Ang in journals such as Blip, Cordite, Apiary, Qarrtsiluni, and New World Writing. Ang and Fox also published Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon (Texture Press).

Jacklynn Niemiec teaches with the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University in the foundation year design studios, and coordinates their architectural representation sequence. Her creative interest and research lies in developing visual methods for understanding and representing space with the added and intangible layers of time, movement and memory. Her current creative work and interdisciplinary research project is Variable Space.

Jacklynn is a Registered Architect in the State of Pennsylvania and is LEED Accredited. She received her undergraduate degree at Pennsylvania State University and Master of Architecture degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Filed Under: challenges, Events, national poetry month, poetry, Poetry Reading Challenge, Read in 2019, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Today’s Poetry Activity: Acrostic Poems

April 3, 2019 by

Acrostic Poem? What on earth is that?

You actually may recognize them from your days in school. They’re like mini word puzzles in which the first letter of each line spells out a word.

I’ve shared my Acrostic poem below, and would love to see your poems in the comments using this word: SPRING

For those who want a little help, you can try this Acrostic Generator to spark some creativity or help you find some words for your poem related to the word above.

Sunrise warms my cold face
Pried from the warm blankets of bed
Rising like the dead
I only wish sunrise happened later
Noon to be precise, a
Good time to wake.

Please share your poem below in the comments.

Filed Under: Events, national poetry month Tagged With: ,

National Poetry Month 2019

April 2, 2019 by

For more than 20 years, the Academy of American Poets has been celebrating National Poetry Month in April.

My favorite part of the month has always been to see the latest poster creation, which you can request from the Academy.

Another favorite of mine is Poem in Your Pocket Day, which this year will be April 18. I’m not sure what poem to keep in my pocket this year, but maybe it will be a haiku.

If I were a teacher, I would be all over this Dear Poet Project, in which students write letters in response to poems written or read by poets on the  Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors.

I strongly encourage everyone to sign up for Poem-a-Day, which comes direct to your email inbox. You’ll be reading more poems in no time, with this service.

Want to attend a poetry event near you, the Academy has this wonderful search engine by zipcode. Check out what events are near you and please share your experiences.

Here are 30 other ways to celebrate National Poetry Month; share yours too.

Filed Under: Events, national poetry month Tagged With:

Mailbox Monday #525

April 1, 2019 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Happy National Poetry Month! I hope you picked out some poems to read this month and share with others. Maybe you even received some poetry books in your mailboxes. I haven’t but I will be sharing poetry this month. Feel free to stop by!

Here’s what I received:

The Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa for TLC Book Tours.

BERLIN, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the south of France, where the widow of an old friend of her husband’s has agreed to take her in. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is inter­rupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where she must once again make a heroic sacrifice.

NEW YORK, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Despite Elise’s best efforts to stave off her past, seven decades of secrets begin to unravel.

Based on true events, The Daughter’s Tale chronicles one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during the war. Heart­breaking and immersive, it is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival, and redemption.

The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros from Scribbler box.

If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , ,

The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman

March 26, 2019 by

Source: TLC Book Tours
Paperback, 352 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman follows Eva Cassidy aboard the Lurline on its way to Hawaii where she will serve as an army nurse in Pearl Harbor. She has secrets, and she’s hoping that despite her new name and faked documents, she will be able to use her nursing skills and send money to her sister, Ruby, who was struck with polio, in Michigan. Aboard the ship, she is immediately drawn to Lieutenant Clark Spencer, a man with secrets of his own.

“He reminded Eva of her father, who was always requiring her to answer her own questions and solve her own problems.” (pg. 29)

Ackerman’s WWII setting is well rendered, and the scenes where the Zeroes attack and the harrowing chaos of the hospital are vivid and frightening, especially viewing it from the point of views of her characters. Whether with Spencer trying to save himself and the men around him as bullets shower down on them or with Eva running from a lecture hall to the hospital.

“With fewer new injuries coming in, the nurses busied themselves cleaning up the place in between surgeries and tending the wounded. You could hardly see the linoleum under mud, soot, and blood. Beds and sheets were soiled, and so were the men.” (pg. 250)

The love triangle between Eva, Clark, and Billy — her hometown boyfriend who helped her get her job and wants to marry her — is wrapped up a little too neatly in the end. There also is a government conspiracy that is a little too thin, given that one of the key players is not as high level as one would expect, as well as some other nuances. None of this detracted from Ackerman’s lovely story about a woman wronged and looking to still fulfill her dreams and build a new life in paradise. The attack on Pearl Harbor looms large but it is not the heart of this story.

The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman’s well-researched novel is a delight in terms of its heart. The resilience of humanity and its ability to pull together in times of crisis are its main themes. Eva Cassidy is a strong woman who lost her compass — her father — only to find she’s as strong as she was when he was alive. She just needed to tap into her strength for herself and those around her.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Sara is the bestselling author of Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers. Born and raised in Hawaii, she studied journalism and earned graduate degrees in psychology and Chinese medicine. She blames Hawaii for her addiction to writing, and sees no end to its untapped stories. When she’s not writing or teaching, you’ll find her in the mountains or in the ocean. She currently lives on the Big Island with her boyfriend and a houseful of bossy animals. Find out more about Sara and her books at www.ackermanbooks.com. Connect with Sara: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Filed Under: challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2019, review copy, reviews, tlc book tours, WWII Reading Challenge Tagged With: ,

Mailbox Monday #524

March 25, 2019 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what I received:

Bed and Breakfast and Murder by Patti Larsen, Christina Gaudet, a Kindle freebie

Fiona Fleming is in so much trouble. Her recently inherited bed and breakfast might not actually be hers thanks to the underhanded misdealings of the local real estate bully. Despite her grandmother’s last will and testament, Fee might be out of luck and on the street before she even gets settled. But when her new enemy floats belly up in her koi pond, she’s the prime suspect in his murder! Can she uncover who the real killer is before the smoking hot new sheriff puts her behind bars instead of asking her out on a date?

Elizabeth Bennet’s Wedding: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Olivia Kane, a Kindle freebie

Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy are due to be married in a few weeks time in a double wedding with Mr. Bingley and Jane in the local church at Meryton. But Lady Catherine de Bourgh, still smarting from the loss of her nephew Darcy as a husband for her daughter Anne, has her own ideas about their wedding day and she can’t help but interfere. Will Darcy live to regret inviting Lady Catherine back into his life, or will Lady Catherine’s plan to take a little revenge on Elizabeth unwittingly backfire on her?

Elizabeth Bennet’s Wedding is a lighthearted, somewhat comic novel; in the spirit of the time frame, it is a genteel romance where only the tea is steamy.

Darcy and Fitzwilliam: A tale of a gentleman and an officer by Karen V. Wasylowski, a Kindle freebie

A gentleman in love cannot survive without his best friend…

Fitzwilliam Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam couldn’t be more different, and that goes for the way each one woos and pursues the woman of his dreams. Darcy is quiet and reserved, careful and dutiful, and his qualms and hesitations are going to torpedo his courtship of Elizabeth. His affable and vivacious cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam is a military hero whose devil-may-care personality hides the torments within, until he finds himself in a passionate, whirlwind affair with a beautiful widow who won’t hear of his honorable intentions.

Cousins, best friends, and sparring partners, Darcy and Fitzwilliam have always been there for each other. So it’s no surprise when the only one who can help Darcy fix his botched marriage proposals is Fitzwilliam, and the only one who can pull Fitzwilliam out of an increasingly dangerous entanglement is Darcy…

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , ,