Cybils Time! Judging and... Nominating

I'm excited to be a judge for the upcoming Cybils awards - I'll be serving as a finals round judge in the poetry category. And I'm super excited to be joining such great folks in looking at this year's children's poetry books. Check out these fab folk:

The round one judges (who read 'em all and hand over a smaller group to us final round judges):

Bruce Black, Wordswimmer
Elaine Magliaro, Wild Rose Reader
Gina Ruiz, AmoXcalli and The Graphic Landscape
Laura Purdie Salas, Writing the World for Kids
Sylvia Vardell, Poetry for Children

The final rounders (who debate and discuss and ultimately determine one book to get the Cybil):

Kelly Fineman, Writing and Ruminating
Sara Lewis Holmes, Read Write Believe
Greg Pincus, right here at GottaBook
Jama Rattigan, Alphabet Soup
Liz Scanlon, Liz in Ink

Kelly, by the way, is the "fearless leader" of the whole poetry category. Lots o' work, that, and I'm glad she's there to do it.

Now, the Cybils start taking nominations on Friday, October 1st. And the thing is, if folks don't nominate, then we judges have nothing to do. So start thinking about your favorite books (not just in poetry, but across the kidlit board) and get ready to nominate. You can only do one book per category... but there are a lot of categories!

UNFAIR - a county fair poem/a life's unfair poem

UNFAIR
by
Greg Pincus

The fluffy candy looked bright pink,
But it was really cotton.
The caramel apples looked delish…
But every one was rotten.

The petting zoo had great big signs,
You Only Look -- Don’t Touch.
The penny candy cost twelve bucks -
I didn’t have that much.

My giant lolli fell apart:
The spiraled rings uncoiled.
I waited for the rides so long
My deep-fried Twinkie spoiled.

I went to watch a sheep get sheared.
Instead, it cut my hair!
I sure can’t wait 'til I go home...
I don’t like this Unfair.

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Karin Edmisten's Blog with the Shockingly Clever Title. Head on over and see what's poetically what this week in the blogosphere.

And as always, if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Emcee is in the House (OK, Fine - in Orange County)

On Sunday, October 3rd, I'm going to be down in Costa Mesa at the Orange County Children's Book Festival. There's a ton of fun to be had there with authors and illustratrors galore as well as other entertainment. Oh, and booooooooks!

Plus, if you come on by the illustrators' stage, you'll see ME as the stage MC! I'm excited and working on all my old comedy routines and... okay, not really on the routines. But I am excited and hope that you come on by and say hello.

Talking PoetrE

I have a guest post up over at David L. Harrison's blog today, talking about poetry and the online world (I'm an optimist, by the way). I hope you'll go check it out, and I also urge you to check out David's blog in total. It is packed with great stuff.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is up over at Elaine Magliaro's Wild Rose Reader today (another blog you should explore). Be off and enjoy some poetic thoughts and posts... and I'll see you back here soon.

Those Were The Days!

It's volunteer librarian season hereabouts again. This year, besides the elementary school where I've been involved for five years, I'm also spearheading the startup of a middle school library. I'll be yakking more about this in the weeks ahead, I'm sure, but I've already noticed a "probably good for my writing but tough on my time management" issue....

Every book that comes into our system goes through my hands. I've been known to, uh, read a few of them. Okay... a lot of them. When it was all picturebooks, I could enjoy dozens and still get the library cleaned up in the limited time I can devote to volunteering.

Now, though, more middle grade novels are coming through my hands. And yes... I'm reading. I can't get through dozens anymore! I guess it's a lucky thing for me that we haven't built up much of a collection yet.... Unluckily for me, most of what I'm scrounging up is slightly older... and covers a lot of what I somehow missed when it came out.

I often put out a call for donations (I will again!), but right now I'm accepting donations of reading time. Feel free to pass some along. Thanks!

Shhhhhhhhh.

I am being very quiet... though I am not hunting wabbit. Still, I just looked hereabouts and realized it's been a week since I posted! Why is that?

Well, I was busy saving the world in a top-secret undercover mission involving books, the beach, lots of coffee (both iced and hot), and cotton candy. That's all I'm at liberty to say, but I'm sure you can all read between the lines and, uh, figure out the, uh, top-secret mission. Yeah. The mission.

But it's almost done. Only a couple days left, in fact, and then I know we'll all sleep better. Or at least I will!

See you then....

It's Overseas! It's Everywhere!

The August Carnival of Children's Literature is up over at Sandy Fussell's Stories Are Light blog. Writing for children knows no borders, of course, but I'm trying to recall if there's been another Carnival hosted from Australia or anywhere else that to me is overseas (cuz, like, to Sandy I'd be overseas!). Anyone remember one?

Regardless, there are some fabulous links at the Carnival, and I hope you'll head on over and check it out.

I dunno. It amuses me.

Thanks to the BookChook, I got to play with Iconscrabble and came up with this:

It amuses me, I tell ya!

"Tag, You're It," He Said Poetically - an adverb poem/a dialogue tag poem

"Tag, You're It," He Said Poetically
(a dialogue tag poem)
by
Greg Pincus

"Cut them quickly," she said speedily.
"I want them gone," he said needily.
"Show don't tell," he said directly.
"Use them well," she said correctly.
"I hate adverbs," he said whinily.
"We're all done," she said finally.



It's a little silliness either designed to end your summer or to send you back to school, I type optionally. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Teach Poetry K-12 today. Why not go check it out?

And if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

A Facebook Moment....

Over at my other blog, The Happy Accident, I put up a tutorial about Facebook's privacy settings in light of their rollout of Places - their geo-tagging equivalent of Foursquare or Gowalla.

Since I figure most everyone who reads GottaBook is either on Facebook or familiar with it, I wanted to share the link and take a moment to note that taking care of your privacy settings is really rather important. Even though I always assume that everything I do online will be public in the end, I do take whatever steps I can take to make that less likely!

Word Choice and a Dis-invitation

I had a lovely little real-world vacation... and while I was gone, I missed being a part of a few interesting conversations. But that doesn't mean I can't link to 'em or talk about 'em later!

Over at MotherReader's blog, she writes about the new Lane Smith book, It's a Book. There's some controversy... and interesting comments, too.

And at a slew of blogs, there's talk of Ellen Hopkins being disinvited to the TeenLitFest in Humble, TX. A few other authors have now bowed out of the event. I liked Pete Hautman's post on the topic - The Nasty Thing in the Corner - in which you'll find links to many other posts and good conversation in the comments.

I'm still catching up, so who knows what else I've missed?! As if that's not enough....

Poetry. Awards. Poetry Awards.

Yes, I'm late to this, I know, but it's still worth a shout-out or two. While I was all SCBWI-ing, Betsy Bird was talking about whether there should be an ALA poetry award or not. Check out the heavy hitters talking in the comments there!

Then last Friday, Elaine Magliaro reposted something of her own on the same topic from 2006 that's well worth a read, too.

Guess what? I'm in the camp that's pro-award. Shocking, isn't it!

A Charity Auction... With Cool Art!

Dan Santat - author, illustrator, trailer-maker-extraordinaire - has put together an auction to benefit 826LA, a fab organization that brings the arts to school kids. And this particular auction will be happening online and gives you a chance to nab some artwork by a slew of amazing artists working in the children's book field.

You know, folks like Sean Qualls and Mo Willems and and and and, well, see the picture below. If you click the link, you'll see a trailer and more information about how you can get involved (as in... buy the art!). Check it out!

Quick Bites on a Summer Friday

Over at the Happy Accident, I wrote up more about Rubin Pfeffer's keynote as well as my own thoughts on this whole future of publishing debate. The comments are rocking, too, so be sure to check them out.

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Author Amok today. Give yourself a little moment of poetic fun and go check it out.

Learning, Connecting, and Caffeinating at SCBWI LA 2010

I have probably said this after every single SCBWI summer conference I've attended, but I'll say it again: what a blast! This was my first year on faculty - a huge honor and thrill, I must say - but that didn't change my experience very much at all, other than meaning I had to prepare and miss a few sessions when I was talking. I'll have a post up at The Happy Accident recapping what Alice Pope and I talked about in our sessions, by the way. Soon. Soooooon.

Highlights, as usual, are too numerous to list in detail... though here are a few of mine.

I was excited by what Jon Scieszka is doing with his new series Spaceheadz. The story and the multi-faceted online components work together even as either stands on its own. But they combine to enrich the universe of the story AND offer more fun for the reader. Check out http://www.sphdz.com to get a taste.

M. T. Anderson's breakout session on experimental fiction included a great reading and analysis of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, including comparing it to Burrough's Naked Lunch! Earlier, he sang us a Delaware state anthem that had 1,000 people roaring. But I digress.

Ruben Pfeffer delivered a clear-eyed view of the fact that, well, the future is now so to speak - ebooks are here, technology does have an impact, the business is changing and will continue to... and really, it's not a bad thing. This was the clearest, most direct, non-blinders-on view of the industry I've heard, and I applaud Ruben for delivering it and the SCBWI for asking him to do so. Denial is our biggest enemy, seems to me.

Ack! Already long enough and still no mention of Rachel Vail or Julia Durango or Gail Carson Levine or Marian Dane Bauer or or or or. Ack! Well, they and dozens of others were great. But I can't leave ya without one more...

Seeing 87 year-old Ashley Bryan on stage, getting 1,000 of us chanting poetry with him, filling us with inspiration, and reminding us of the importance of words on a page and getting young readers to connect with them was an experience that will inspire me for years to come.

There are a ton of great roundups already appearing on blogs today, and I'm sure more will come during the week. The SCBWI Conference blog has write-ups on all of this and more and is really worth a trip whether you were there or not.

Finally... it was great to see so many familiar faces there... some only familiar from Twitter and blogs, but many from knowing you now for years. It was a great time, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

The SCBWI Summer Conference is here!

Well, "here" as in it's time, not "here" as in on my blog.

If you're at the Conference, I do hope you'll say "hi." I'm mighty thrilled to be on the faculty this year, but I'm even more excited to be able to reconnect with so many friends and connect with new ones....

If you're there, also think of coming by and joining in our Tweetup on Sunday at 5:30 in the hotel lobby. And if you're there or not, follow along the Conference tweetstream via the hashtag #LA10SCBWI (and, of course, the fab SCBWI team blog where they will be live-blogging the conference)

I'm a Sweetheart!

More specifically, I'm the Featured Sweetheart over at the Texas Sweethearts' blog! Y'all should head over and check out their site: Jo Whittemore, P.J. Hoover, and Jessica Lee Anderson have a great, fun group blog going on over there, and I'm flattered to be part of it.

Fibbing on a Poetry Friday

What better day to talk about Fibs than on a Poetry Friday? (Well, I suppose a 11/23/58 woulda been a good day, but I wasn't blogging back then).  And what do I have to say about Fibs? Well...

The Fib Review is still going strong, now with issue #6 online. It's mighty good reading... and for those of you so inclined, they take submissions. More than one GottaBook reader has ended up in the Review, so why not join the group?

Also, head on out and check out William Cullerne Bown's new blog/project - A Year in Fibs. He's posting a Fib a day... and he's just begun. That's an ambitious project - they aren't always easy to write, I must say - and it should be fun to follow.

Finally... it's Poetry Friday! The weekly roundup is at Language, Literacy, Love. Head on over and enjoy!

#kidlitchat turns one!

Can you believe it? We've now had 52 #kidlitchats on Twitter (you can see the transcripts here). It's been a fabulous year, and we'd love to have you join us for a community celebration this week. If you're new to chatting, you might want to check out Debbie Ridpath Ohi's great blog post on Twitter chats. If you're a frequent chatter... thanks! And either way, I hope you'll come join us on Twitter this (and every) Tuesday night at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific.

See you there!

Combination = Win!

Today I'm sending you off again to celebrate poetry Friday... and the first stop combines two poets who were both part of this year's 30 Poets/30 Days celebration. Yup... you can find Charles Waters being interviewed over on David L. Harrison's blog!

Here on GottaBook, you can also find Charles' poem, I Love Being Me, and David's poem, Lookit!, from this year's celebration.

For more poetic fun, you can also find the Poetry Friday Roundup over at Carol's Corner today. Enjoy!