Callin' out around the world

CUE THE MUSIC!!

Callin' out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat?

Summer's MY BOOK's here and the time is right
For dancin' in the streets

They're dancin' in Chicago
Down in New Orleans
Up in New York City . . .

Okay, maybe not.

Book launches aren't like that. Except in my wildest dreams where the Big Cruise Boat of Beloved Authors crashes into the world's largest children's bookstore, and in true cartoon dream fashion, all the characters spill out of the pages to party down with the root-beer swilling, funky-shoed writers, all day and into the Owl Moon night.

Instead, I'm here at my desk, wearing my YES wristband

and smiling in the quiet of the morning.

It's a good day.

And it's going to get even nicer, because I'm going to give away one of those YES wristbands and a signed copy of Operation Yes.

All you have to do is visit my new website: www.operationyesbook.com and leave a comment on any post or picture. (If you have trouble leaving a comment there, just come back to Read*Write*Believe and leave your thoughts here. I'll still count you in.) Deadline to enter is this Friday (by midnight wherever you live.)

Okay, now . . . let's dance!

Forward, back, round and round

I believe Kelly Fineman could teach a duck to dance. Yesterday, she lucidly explained how a poet revises. If you don't think that's harder than waltzing with a web-footed wannabe, try it yourself.

Not only that, her post makes you want to drop everything, seize your latest draft and do the poetic two-step that is revision. One word in, two words out. Forward, back, round and round.

That's what I did last night. Danced with my YA poetry manuscript. Thanks, Kelly!

Kelly also invited everyone to revise this prose sentence with her:

Today I walked through the woods as the light faded, heedless of nature until a rustling noise drew my attention to a litter of raccoons near the stream.

Here's my attempt:

Woods, near dark.

Five
mottled shadows

pocketing light
from unsuspecting
stream.

Raccoons?
Or
rustlers?

Now: Read her post and try it yourself. Ducks and everybody.

It's just a step to the right...

Have you seen the "top 100 songs for the year you graduated" meme that's going around? I was so relieved when Kelly didn't tag me. Oh yes, I had fun looking at her list, and I knew almost all of the songs. But the truth is, there was only one gut level check I had for each song:

Does it have a good beat and can you dance (or work out) to it?
---American Bandstand

From Kelly's year:

#51. Raspberry Beret, Prince (Just typing that makes me break out in a dance sweat.)

#38. Neutron Dance, Pointer Sisters (Come on, it has DANCE in the title!)

#43 Freeway of Love, Aretha Franklin (Even an idiot can groove to this one. Just imagine you're in that pink Cadillac and careen on down the dance floor.)

From my year:

#57. De Do Do Do, De Da Da, The Police (What can I say? The title IS a dance beat.)

#94. Whip It, Devo (I can feel my head starting to bang already)

#68. While You See A Chance, Steve Winwood (Imagine me doing an embarrassing interpretive dance. Or running. Or cranking out pushups. Hey! Bonus! The YouTube video has Muppet commentary at the end!)

So there you have it. I'm a dunce, musically. My whole family discusses bass lines, chord progressions, and the histories of individual musicians in various, ever-shifting band incarnations. Yesterday, my husband helped my son re-build his guitar so the strings wouldn't buzz against the neck. My daughter sang a Latin mass last year. Me? I jokingly tell people that I'm "the audience." I absolutely adore music, but I can't discuss it intelligently at all. The only way I can express what I think about a song is to move to it. Which might explain why I've always wanted to learn how to...

Oh, yeah!

(link found courtesy of BB-Blog)