Pigs and Pugs at the Virginia statewide librarian conference (VAASL)

I kissed a pig. Okay, maybe that's nothing to brag about but this wasn't an ordinary pig. Farmer Minor travels to schools with his pet pig, Daisy and two adorable pug dogs for the Pig Out on Reading program. Daisy has bragging rights to the world's largest collection of pig books. They were visiting the VAASL statewide librarian conference in Hampton. I wanted to snap a photo of the animals and Farmer Minor asked me to lean over and kiss the porcine wonder so he could take MY photo. What a twist. I'm usually on the other side of the lens.

I attended the conference to give a workshop on turning nonfiction into poetry. My workshop was titled, From Timeline to Byline. It was fun to present and before long, I was coaxing poetry out of some great poet/librarians from all over the state. Here's a poem written by Alesia Talbot, employed at Elkton Elementary School in Elkton. It was inspired by a famous photo of a sailor kissing a nurse.

Joy
Passion
Grabbing life
Celebrating
Seizing the moment
Touching humanity
Death not here.

Here's a poem by Laura Bell, librarian at Clara Byrd Baker Elementary in Williamsburg.

Stuck in the Mud

Road of mud,
tires stuck
all we have is awful luck.

Jack up the car
let's make haste
there is just no time to waste.

What's up ahead,
we haven't a clue,
we're just hoping for work to do.

An excerpt from Zlata's Diary inspired this poem from Mary Margaret Browning, librarian at Nandua Middle School in Accomack County.

Life in  Sarajevo

On this morning,
water didn't come
nor did birthday parties,
better than cellar life.
But on this morning,
shooting came
as did Mommy's
broken heart
because Neda
needs to leave.

I enjoyed hearing some of them share their poetry with the workshop participants. It was also a pleasure that day to meet vendors such as Bookworm Central, where I had a book signing following the workshop. The folks from the LUCY Bibliography group were also there. That is a listing of multicultural books, maintained by Old Dominion University. My book, Being Frank with Anne, is listed on that bibliography under Holocaust books.

Next time I hope to attend some of the other workshops. The librarian conferences have the most incredible offerings. In the spring I attended a number of great classes. I'd recommend these conferences to other writers. It would be well worth their time.

Just Me- my latest book, 100 monologues for teens

I hope you've had a great summer. It's been a busy one for me. One thrill this summer was landing a contract for my monologue book, JUST ME. This book has 100 monologues for teens, 50 for boys and 50 for girls. It's going to be in catalogs distributed by Meriwether Publishing in January that will be sent to middle school and high schools across the nation. The publication date is set for March 2013 so I'm pumped about that. I don't have the front cover yet but look forward to seeing it. I'll keep you posted. Now, on to writing JUST ME, books two and three. Woo hoo! Unfortunately I missed the Annual One Acts at the Smithfield Little Theatre this year. I'd hoped to present a monologue this year like I did a few years back but I had a conflict in schedule. I'm sure it was great!

My thoughts on writing about Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl is the kind of book that grabs hold of your heart and never lets go. Reading it as a young girl, it staked a claim on my emotions and followed me through life. Never recovering from it, I sat down and immersed myself in the diary entries. What resulted was a poetic interpretation, Being Frank with Anne. It was a moving experience that allowed me to climb into her head while attempting to feel some of what she did while in captivity.


In the end, I had several spiral bound notebooks full of my poetic thoughts on her life in the Secret Annexe. Writing the book meant a great deal to me and I felt as though I had come to know Anne in a whole new way. The original version was published by Community Press in Virginia Beach. Later, I had it re-published with Anne Frank’s image on the front cover, licensed by Getty Images.

I was honored to have had it reviewed by Anne’s first cousin, Buddy Elias. He sent me a personal letter telling me that Anne would have loved it. Encouraged by his words, I contacted Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Frank family. At age 99, she requested copies of the book. She returned one of the copies to me with her signature inside. I was both humbled and amazed by having received this very special package from the Netherlands.

It’s been an interesting journey for me to have written this book. A book that is now archived at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and posted at the online bookstore at the New York Anne Frank Center website. To have come in contact with Anne’s cousin and the woman who bravely hid the family leaves me both grateful and breathless. I wish that I could also be in contact with Anne herself but sadly, that isn’t possible. The Holocaust was a horrible time and it saddens me to think about it. If only mankind would learn from its mistakes and love its fellow man. The fact that Anne tried to look on the bright side of things always endeared me to her. Now, like I said in Being Frank with Anne- Anne you are with us still.

www.beingfrankwithanne.com

www.phyllisjohnson.net

Written a Poem Lately?

My co-writer, Nancy Naigle, and I had the pleasure last week of giving a presentation at the ODU Tri-Cities Center at the VEMA Conference. Lots of librarians were in attendance and we had fun coaxing poetry out of them in our From Timeline by Byline session. Turning nonfiction into poetry was the name of the game and a half dozen district librarians wowed us with their poetic prowess. The others wrote poetry but didn't share them orally.

I enjoyed attending some other sessions, listening to Bill Wellington, a storyteller and folk music singer, hearing a librarian talk about working with students who knit to contribute to society and listening to Sue Kimmel talk about the LUCY multicultural literature list, maintained by an organization at ODU.

The barbecue we ate at lunch was phenomenal and the keynote speaker was Sue Corbett, an author. A lot of raffle gifts were given away and I was lucky enough to win a cookbook, published by the VEMA organization. I can't wait to try some of the recipes. I'm looking forward to the next conference in the fall.

Ink Link- Teen Murder Mystery Inspired by inkBLOT

It was teen murder/mystery night at Russell Memorial Library in Chesapeake, Virginia and teens congregated to solve the mystery at hand. Four fake crime scenes provided clues for the Ink Link, the murder mystery inspired by the novel, inkBLOT by Johnson Naigle, the creative writing team of Nancy Naigle and Phyllis Johnson. Who was the real culprit? The common denominator in all the crime scenes was rat poison and a copy of inkBLOT. At the secretary's desk, the janitor's station, the psychiatrists' office and apartment space and the crazy daughter's room, there was rat poison and a copy of the novel to be found. The victim? A psychiatrist named Ima Gawner. Suspects? The crazy daughter, Matera; her mother, Lilly; Anita Friend- the other psychiatrist, a bystander and the janitor, Klean O'Nuton. The motive- Ima Gawner had told the mother, Lilly that she'd have to send her crazy daughter away to an assylum. Isaiah, one of the attendees, made the correct guess that Lilly had killed the psychiatrist. Word was that she'd done it with a broom, of all things. All three students who placed won free books. Morgan, the oldest winners was awarded a copy of inkBLOT. Ronnie and Tiffany of inkBLOT fame would have been proud. Who knows? Maybe they were watching...

inkBLOT review at Books with Bite

As I started this book I was intrigued with the concept of Inkblot. I always tried to read them and I always see something different than most. Or most of the time I don't see what others see. IDK. I like the way the author entwined the Inkblot with crimes. I took quite a few psychology classes and learned loads about criminals and their characters traits. This book is great in creating high tension and a great mystery to solve.

What I liked most about this book is the great mystery that the reader get to follow along. We have a the main character Ronnie who has dedicated his life in Inkblot. He has a great online survey to find out your personality traits,character, etc. I liked that the main character Ronnie is very mature. Her has been through a lot and knows where he is going. He has very few friends which sets up for him being naive. I liked that as well. The author did a great job in setting the plot up simple and not too confusing for the reader.

The main thing I like is the whole mystery of the murders being committed. As I read the book, I like that Ronnie fell in the rabbit hole. It gave the reader a nice chase in seeing the main character struggle. What I also liked is seeing Ronnie's best friend come to his rescue.

The love interest in this book played out the way I expected it and enjoyed it. I liked seeing Ronnie realize that his true love was right before his eyes. And I'm glad that even with all of this trouble, Ronnie finally made some good choices.

Overall this is a great book with lots of mystery, adventure and a psycho on the loose.

I give it 4 BITES! (a review posted by the reviewer at Books with Bite)