Blog tour stop #14

Hi everyone,

Today it is my pleasure to have Irene Latham host the 14th stop on my blog tour on Live Your Poem at https://irenelatham.blogspot.com/2020/03/david-l-harrison-puts-his-best-words.html. Like other hosts, Irene has her own special way to approach the event and I loved her questions. I hope you enjoy my responses. And, as always, I love your own comments and support.

Today is the second to last day of the tour. Tomorrow we end on a high note with Catherine Flynn on Reading to the Core. After that I’ll have a lot of thank-you notes to post and a word about this tour. I’ll save my thoughts till then when I will also welcome comments from you.

For now, onward and upward!

4th stop on my blog tour for AFTER DARK

Hi everyone,

As the blog tour for AFTER DARK continues, today I am delighted that Sylvia Vardell is hosting at PoetryForChildren https://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com Thank you, Sylvia!

If you’ve followed the first three stops on the tour, you know that each one is different. Many of you have been helping through your own networks and for that I’m very grateful too.

My thanks to all!

On another issue, we’ve all seen the posting of student poems by teachers fall from robust to zero most months, especially since the introduction of Common Core State Standards a few years ago, which took away nearly all of a teacher’s time and focused on analyzing over writing. Over the weekend I’ve had a conversation with Rachelle Burk, who wanted to add my blog site to her suggested list of places where students can get some attention with their writing, but Rachelle became discouraged by how confusing the instructions were on the Young Poets W.O.M. Poems page plus the lack of contributions she found there.

With all that in mind I’ve made an effort to rewrite the page as you see here. Please give my your thoughts about the new page plus — especially — how we might go about attracting teachers across the country (and elsewhere) to get back in the habit of posting their students’ poems here. Many thanks!

Young Poets W.O.M. Poems

Dear Teachers,

When you are looking for ways to inspire your students to write poems, this is a special place to show off some results. Every month I post a new word and invite students of all ages to write a poem inspired by that one word. Poets in the adult category write poems based on the same word.

Young poets have been featured here since 2009. Two of the first ones are now in college and one is going into journalism.

Getting your students “published” is easy and free. Here is all you need to do.
1. Choose up to three poems per classroom to post (per month).
2. If your kids are under 13, please have on file a permission slip signed by a parent or legal guardian.
3. To post a poem, scroll down to the box at the bottom of the screen where it says LEAVE A REPLY and paste the poem there.
4. Please include the student’s name, grade, school, and city in the post.
5. Hit button to submit.
Adults who follow my blog are primarily teachers, librarians, and children’s writers or artists. You can rest assured that your students will see notes of encouragement and appreciation posted about their work. This is above all a friendly BlogSpot!

At the end of each month I erase all poems and comments and we start over with a new word. I hope to see your students join the fun.

Sincerely,

David

PS: The word for February is AGE

David

A good week

Hi everyone,

My thanks to Kathy Temean and Carol Varsalona for leading off the blog tour. I’m honored by all the lovely comments being left by friends and colleagues as well as readers I don’t know. If the rest of the tour is as much fun as these first two stops, there will be no living with me.

Meanwhile, I’m delighted to have completed a major revision of a manuscript that has been taking all my time lately. And this past week has also been a busy one for invitations. I agreed to speak to three groups, participate in another childrens literature festival, partner on a new book venture, add another book store signing, and turn a previously scheduled signing into a fund raiser for two elementary schools. More about some of those as they come along.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

David

Blog tour schedule

Hi everyone,

Here we are in February 2020. How did that happen? Didn’t we just start this year? I only stopped wishing folks a Happy New year a little while ago. Wow!

Three weeks from tomorrow, February 25, is pub day for AFTER DARK, POEMS ABOUT NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, and my blog tour to help introduce the book begins one week from today on February 11. I’m very grateful for all the good people who have agreed to be hosts on the tour and give special thanks to Jena Benton for creating a beautiful graphic so everyone can follow the schedule. And thanks to Kerry McManus at Boyds Mills & Kane for suggesting a helpful hashtag: #AfterDarkBookTour to further boost the cause. I’m excited!

Here’s the graphic with a list of blog names and dates. In many cases I’ve been asked to respond to questions. In total my responses were 17 pages long. No one asked the same question! Renee La Tulippe asked for a video so I made one for the day she hosts.

Here’s the complete list of hosts. I hope you will check their blogs each day to say hi or leave a comment. Hosting an author with a new book takes a lot of work and I can’t thank them enough.

2/11/20 Tuesday
Kathy Temean at Writing & Illustrating
https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/
or http://www.writingandillustrating.com

2/13/20 Thursday
Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
https://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com

2/17/20 Monday
Jane Heitman Healy at Read, Learn, and be Happy
http://readlearnandbehappy.blogspot.com/

2/18/20 Tuesday
Sylvia Vardell at PoetryForChildren
https://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com

2/19/20 Wednesday
Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
https://www.teacherdance.org/

2/20/20 Thursday
Michelle Kogan atMichelle Kogan–Art, Illustration, & Writing

Home

2/21/20 Friday
Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
http://janicescully.com

2/24/20 Monday
Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
http://reflectionsontheteche.com

2/25/20 Tuesday – PUBLICATION DAY!
Jena Benton at Simply 7
https://jenabenton.com/category/simply7-interview/

2/26/20 Wednesday
Renée LaTulippe at No Water River
https://www.nowaterriver.com/

2/27/20 Thursday
Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
https://awordedgewiselindamitchell.blogspot.com/

2/28/20 Friday
Matt Forest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
https://mattforrest.wordpress.com/

3/2/20 Monday
Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
https://irenelatham.blogspot.com/

3/3/20 Tuesday
Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
https://readingtothecore.wordpress.com/?p=950&preview=true ` `