Slice of Life Tuesday: On Being Published!

This is a tale you might have heard before or maybe experienced for yourself. But, today, it will be told again. By me! Today, in the mail, I received my copies of the poetry anthology in which I have a poem! Yes! I am published. The book’s birthday (who knew books had birthdays?) was actually 10/21/2021. But, I was on vacation during the release. Since that day, and since returning home, I’ve waited patiently to receive the hard copies of this publication by Pomelo Books. If you’ve ever had the desire to be published, worked hard to accomplish the goal, been lucky enough to receive expert guidance from not one but two established and generous mentors, then you understand my excitement.

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On 10/22, for my Poetry Friday post, I wrote about the book’s release and my small contribution to it as the author of the poem INVENT but there were two small details I left out of that post.

One was the thrill I had when Janet Wong told me she liked my INVENT poem as opposed to the two other words I had chosen and had written drafts, KICK, and WAVE. The reason I was thrilled was that my immediate family is full inventors. Each of my boys, as well as my husband and myself, have invented things, groups, logarithms, or procedures! Inventing is not the same as creating. For when you invent, you do not have or follow a set of plans or directions. We’ve all been creators, which has led to being inventors. Inventors have a vision for how something could be rather than what something is. Inventors bring that vision to life in a real form. This process takes many attempts and revisions, requiring patience, persistence, and resilience. Thus, when Janet told me to revise my draft of the INVENT poem, I was both thrilled and grateful that I might have my words represent such a personally meaningful action word!

The other thrill that I have yet to write about in a post is that one of the authors in this book is someone who has a long history of writing fabulous poetry for children. Can you look at the table of contents above and guess who it might be?! I bet you can! Yes! It is Jack Prelutsky! The fact that one of my poems resides in the same book as this Poet Laureate (2006-2008) makes me beyond ecstatic! He is a poet that I’ve not only enjoyed reading over my lifetime but one I chose to share with my writer’s circle students, over and over again! I own four of Prelutsky’s poetry collection books on holidays. The books It’s Halloween, It’s Thanksgiving, It’s Christmas, It’s Valentine’s Day all sit on the shelf in my office and are read yearly, as the seasons change. To make this even more meaningful, the books were owned by my mother, who used them in her own third-grade classroom for many years before passing them on to me. The poems are delightful and timeless.

As some of my regular readers know, my mom has had her share of poor health over the last two months. She is now in long-term care, working on getting stronger. I cannot wait to give her a copy of THINGS WE DO and show her not only my poem but that my poem is in the same book as Prelutsky and many other established poets! I’ve had to pinch myself quite a few times since learning that Prelutsky would have a poem in the anthology, THINGS WE DO. Just WOW!

Finally, I realize now that being published takes a village, even if you are an “indie publisher.” Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell of Pomelo Books have been gracious and generous mentors to those of us who are featured in the book as newly published authors. They have shared their expertise with indie publishing and encouraged us all along the way. I could not be more grateful.

If you would like to purchase THINGS WE DO there are a couple of options. Please see my prior https://theapplesinmyorchard.com/2021/10/21/poetry-friday-by-taking-advantage-of-an-opportunity-im-published/ post for links to QEP Books out of Texas and an Amazon link as well.

This is a great book choice for preschool students and those just learning to read. Add it to your classroom or home library today!

And, lastly, just so you know that I truly am a Jack Prelutsky fan, here is a link to a post I wrote about him just over a year ago! Enjoy!

Today is Slice of Life Tuesday. TwoWritingTeachers.org created this weekly forum and host each week for us to share our slices! Thank you!