The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Saturday, October 22, 2016

A New Poet's in Town... and Back-of-the-Book Blurb Friday # 31

          If you ever wonder what the youth of today are up to, you might be surprised.

       At least one teen is blowing the minds of adults. And she's doing it with the confidence and skill of someone way beyond her years.

       Bisa Adero is St. Louis' first Youth Poet Laureate. She's a junior in high school. And she's amazing.

      On Thursday, Miss Adero graced a couple of hundred young writers with some slam poetry. Unfortunately, she only has this one video available--where she's speaking in a foreign accent (and making it sound genuine)--but hopefully that will soon change.





       Keep an eye out for Bisa. She's going to be doing speaking engagements and performances all over during the next two years, and has a book deal.
       

          And what is this book blurb stuff? Here's the particulars: 

  • Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book.
  • You choose the genre. A frothy romance? (Ugh.) A tall tale? A coffee table book on statues? You choose the genre.
  • Write an enticing blurb--150 words or less. (The title doesn't count in the word count.) Lisa Ricard Claro was the original creator of this project  and this past summer, her third novel Love to Win debuted. Currently, Lisa's too busy to host Book Blurb Friday anymore. She's exhausted from too much fun. She's still basking in an overabundance of joy. Her daughter got married, Lisa's got photos--check 'em out.
  • Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. 
  • Link your post to Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky is easy. You don't have to buy him a drink or anything. If you've never done it, you'll be impressed with how simple he is.
  • Check out the other blurb(s). It's interesting to see the different directions writers take, given the same photo.
  • And have fun with it. Think of it as a way to take a break from the truly important writing you do... like a bit of a warm-up.

      Here is the book cover and my blurb (as lame as it is):



Some Like ‘em Big and Stiff
Never married. It was the ladies’ loss, not his. Of course.
Paul’s dog, an overgrown blue-heeler named Babe—that’s all he needed as far as companionship. His joy came from simple things: physical labor (like cutting down trees) and hearty meals (like pancakes that were so huge, he joked they were six-feet across).
But then when Paul was in town one day, he met a woman. As usual, he looked down his nose at her… and expected her to fall down and worship at his enormous feet. But this lady was different. She stared up at Paul, muttered, “You’re one huge jerk. You’ll no longer work. You’re bad to the bone… Now you’ll be still as stone,” fluttered her fingers in his directions and strode off.
In her wake was left Paul, who was now a statue.
Will the spell ever be broken? Or is Paul stuck there forever? (148 words)




And for Val and Pat and anyone else brave enough (or bored enough) to play along, here is the photo for next week:





Who has wowed you lately? Astounded minds want to know...


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Courageous? Stupid? Ever Hopeful?

           It takes courage to be a writer. It's either courage or stupidity. I vacillate between the two...

          It takes courage to not accept offers from writer friends. "We would be glad to look at your manuscript," they say. I'm worried that I'm just seeing the trees and not the forest. I'm afraid my friends will say, "That's a lovely birch," and "What a fabulous pine,"  and won't say--out of kindness--that the forest is a tangled mess of vines and rotting stumps.



          It takes courage (or stupidity) to send a manuscript to a fierce writer. An unflinching critic. A poet who knows the difference between something that's decomposing and something that's green and growing.

         It takes something--courage or stupidity or eternal optimism--to keep writing. To keep submitting even though the odds are not good. (Chicken Soup gets thousands of submissions for each anthology... and still I submit.) To keep revising and talking about the craft and believing in a piece.

         It's something. I'm just not sure what it is...