Category A book I recommend
For those who haven’t had the experience yet, your time is coming and, when it does, you’ll know what I mean.
Planning a blog tour
Hi everyone,
Saturday my first bound copy of AFTER DARK arrived and I can hardly put it down. I keep asking Sandy if she’s seen my new book. For a while she smiled. Now I’m getting the one eyebrow up look. Anyway, I’m proud of it.
At the suggestion of others I’m putting together my first ever blog tour next month to help introduce AFTER DARK. I love trying new things and this one promises to be exciting. I’m scheduling week days from one week prior to pub date of February 25 to one week after (2/18-3/3). I plunged into this last Thursday and have been delighted with early responses. As of this morning I have only three open dates remaining and am told that it’s okay to have more than one host on a given day. I’m encouraged to think the dates will fill with plenty of time for hosts to prepare for their days. I’m extremely grateful. I’ll let you know when plans are complete.
Kirkus likes AFTER DARK
Hi everyone,
The first review is in for AFTER DARK, and it’s a good one. I’m delighted!
Review Issue Date: March 1, 2020
Online Publish Date: December 18, 2019
Publisher:Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Pages: 32
Price ( Hardcover ): $17.99
Publication Date: February 25, 2020
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-62979-717-5
Category: Poetry
Who’s out at night, and what do they do? These poems answer that for you.”Shhhh, listen… / Hear that howling? / Dogs don’t howl, / not like that.” It’s coyotes that are on the hunt, and everyone from mouse to deer better be on the lookout. Harrison’s night is broadly populated. Some mark their territory or hide from large predators. A mother skunk teaches her children not to venture into the road. Fireflies flash looking for mates in the grass, a little as though the insects are texting one another. Meanwhile: “Along a path of slime / you softly flow, / scraping holes in petals / as you go”; the leopard slug eats hollyhocks and daffodils, all the while leaving a slimy trail as proof it was there in the night. The Mexican free-tail bat is on bug patrol. Twenty-one animals who live by the light of the moon get profiled in Harrison’s poems, written in a variety of forms, some rhymed and most not. Each is featured in a one- or two-page spread with realistic, appropriately dark, attractive illustrations by Laberis. Though none are anthropomorphized, they still have plenty of personality. A kit fox yawns luxuriantly; a flathead catfish opens its huge mouth to suck in a hapless frog. Two pages of backmatter reveal four further facts about each profiled animal.A fine collection of poetical odes to a nicely diverse group of nighttime fauna. (Picture book/poetry. 7-12)
AFTER DARK comes out February 25 but many have already preordered their copies. I’m grateful to everyone who has ordered or will order a copy when they’re available. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1629797170?pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8&pf_rd_r=HTAZW9VX54ZEHZH1DBCC
Sharing LET’S GO TRUCKS
Hi everyone,
I recently showed you this picture of Marshall, who is three years old and likes a book I wrote in 1973. It was his father Paul’s favorite book when he was a little boy too. Paul sent his son’s picture and said “Whenever I or my parents see a tow truck being towed, we cheerfully say, ‘Tow trucks tow tow trucks.’ We also tend to mention “crafty criminals and crooks” whenever we see an armored truck.”
Paul grew up to become a technical writer. His mother Nancy smilingly says she’s sure that all those times she read to her son when he was a little boy had something to do with it. She sent me the book so I could sign it and send it back to Marshall. 
It isn’t often I get to hold a copy of a book that has been shared by two generations. I asked Sandy to take my picture before it went out in today’s mail on its way back to Marshall in California.
Doing whatever it takes
Hi everyone,
I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving. We missed the rest of our family but loved being with Jeff and Jennifer. Can’t be in all places at one time but we are blessed to have two lovely choices.
December will be another busy month with limited writing time, but I’ve been pecking away at a new idea while flying and in other snatches of time here and there. It’s coming along well, I think, and will soon be ready to show. After that I need to get back to a couple of other projects that are waiting in line. This year is almost over but there’s till time to make things happen!
That includes working on promotional events for AFTER DARK, which comes out February 25. I hope enough preorders come in to get the title in a good range on Amazon.com.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1629797170?pf_rd_p=689bcb70-87e1-4ba7-8c3f-6e501eb6eacf&pf_rd_r=4WWNB71ZP6ZYVZ9M27R1
That’s my December resolution.
