Hi everyone,
Yesterday I received notice from Kindle that some kind soul somewhere has purchased a copy of my one and only self-published book, an e-book called GOOSE LAKE, A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A LAKE. https://www.amazon.com/Goose-Lake-Year-Life-ebook/dp/B006MGDDHS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=goose+lake+by+david+l+harrison&qid=1613917596&sr=8-1 It came out on December 14, 2011. Before going the self-publishing route I tried a number of editors, each of whom said they liked the poems but couldn’t consider publishing about a small, local lake. I thought it was important to point out to young readers that any small body of water anywhere is a microcosm of life, each species in some way dependent on the other. It’s a lesson about life in general, life everywhere, including human life. Kids (and adults) need to be aware that no kind of life on Earth lives in isolation, without impacting on or being impacted by other species.
So with the help of talented artist Sladjana Vasic, I published the book on the Internet to see what might happen. The answer has been — mostly nothing. Now and then a copy sells for the handsome price of $1.99 and my share of the transaction, $0.70, is transferred directly into a special account I established at my bank strictly to keep track of this one book. The current balance after 9 1/2 years is a bit over $300. You can see why I take grateful notice when someone orders a copy!
Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong were kind enough to write a foreword for my little book. I reread it now and then and smile. Thank you again, Sylvia and Janet.
Foreword
When we invited David L. Harrison to contribute to our PoetryTagTime e-book, we expected lighthearted verse; with his dozens of playful poetry books, David has developed a reputation as one of our nation’s funniest children’s poets. He surprised us with a simple but philosophical poem about a drone who lives and dies for love. For our second and third e-books, P*TAG (for teens) and Gift Tag (holiday poems), David gave us reflective offerings about a teen who wants just “to be a kid at the beach” and about a boy’s baseball dreams.
Sometimes we need a reminder that an author’s talents might extend beyond the popular titles that we know. Maybe our view is limited by his editors’ needs or what his publishers can afford to print. In this new age of e-books, it is becoming easier for authors to show us who they are, to make a greater range of their work available. We think the wonderful poems in this e-book give us a more complete view of the poet David L. Harrison. Enjoy!
Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
http://www.PoetryTagTime.com
I may have posted this poem before as an example from the book, but I like it so here it is (again).
Sometimes skunks cross our yard
when it’s too dark to see black fur.
Their white bands jiggling up and down
seem to glow like skeleton bones
out to trick or treat.
This summer we saw
a mother of seven
doing her best to keep her kids
from wrestling in the street.
I wonder how many
passed their babyhood lessons,
advanced to mischievous youngsters
who may, as I sit here sniffing the air,
be taking target practice at a horrified
neighborhood cat.
(c) 2011 David L. Harrison, all rights reserved
P.S. For those of you who have read AFTER DARK, you may recognized parts of this poem echoing in the skunk poem in that title. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 