by yarn do not work well as an eavesdropping device unless they are fairly close together and the string is pulled quite tight. Laying them on the floor definitely did not work. I also kept a fairly close eye on the weather in a small notebook, where I recorded the date, time, temperature, wind conditions, and whether it was sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc. I mostly kept track of the weather while perched in my favorite tree in the front yard, which may be why there were very few "rainy" or "snowy" entries. So much for wet weather -- I only kept a record of the nicer days. If only that worked in real life!
When I was in high school, I had the privilege of studying English at Sayre Area High School with Mrs. Fariello and Mrs. Zyga, both of whom were extraordinary teachers. I became proficient at diagramming sentences, which is a handy skill to have. More importantly, I got to read loads of marvelous literature, from the plays of William Shakespeare to the poems of William Blake to the song lyrics of Don McLean's "American Pie". Reading such a variety of writing was interesting and inspiring and fun. Plus, it made me think about my own writing.
As a teenager, I wrote a number of items for my own enjoyment. They included poems dealing with nature, religion, and (of course) love. I also wrote a comic series detailing the various relationships and activities of my friends in the high school music department, which cracked me up when I wrote the various "episodes" and when I
read them again later. I destroyed them even before I got out of high school. Too bad - I'm sure I'd think they were a riot to read now. So if you're a writer, my advice to you is to:
Your older self will be very amused and glad you did when you become a grown-up.hang onto the stuff you like when you write it!
I left home, to go to college at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, when I was seventeen. I majored in music, with a minor in (and I quote) "late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century British and American literature." I particularly enjoyed reading the poetry of William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats and Robert Frost. If you get a chance to study them in school, please let me know what you think of their writings. I assure you that they are very different from one another, with distinct voices and styles, but each gives you plenty to think about.
I spent a lot of time writing in college. Not just notes and term papers, either. I wrote a great deal of very bad poetry, some of which I submitted to a well-respected publisher. I never heard back from them, which is probably just as well. I'm sure the publisher would have been taxed to find anything supportive to say about the poems I'd sent. I was also quite a letter-writer in college. Back then, there were no cell phones, and the only phone available was a payphone, so calling was quite costly. Writing letters is an excellent way to find your own voice, and if you write about what you think, as opposed to what you've done, you will find that writing letters helps you sort things out until one day, you have your very own personal philosophy. Now, doesn't that sound like a good idea?
After college , I worked in business management positions for about five years, then went to law school because I thought being a lawyer would be a challenging, interesting job. I was right, but I must caution those of you thinking about becoming lawyers that if you want to be a very successful lawyer, you must make the practice of law the single most important thing in your life. It's not the right job for you if you'd prefer to spend time fishing or rollerskating or digging in the mud. These days I spend most of my time at home. I spend part of every day writing poems and stories for children. I feed my cats and pet my goofy dog Katie. My husband and two daughters are used to me hogging the computer, and are almost as excited as I am about my writing career. They are my biggest fan club and three of the best people I've ever met.
So far, I've had two poems for children accepted for publication. I hope to see more of my poems in magazines, and, one day soon, to have at least one of my books published. I've written the text for several picture books, which publishers are looking at right now. I've also finished a collection of poems that I'd love to see in picture book form, and I've been working on a series of easy reader books. Okay, so I've only written two books in the series so far, but I assure you that the characters are quite entertaining and will do quite well once they find someone to print them up and sell them. Right now I'm also working on a nonfiction book for teens and a novel for children in grades 4 through 7.