I was not eaten by a crocodile, so I wrote about it!
Category: Writing and Poetry

I love seeing my name in print, and I get to see it now whenever I look at Transitions Abroad Student Guide.  I wrote a piece about doing research in the rainforest, and it's published in the spring issue. 

I ended up being so fascinated by the research station I visited in Costa Rica (daughter researching there) that I wrote about it.  I had no idea if anybody would publish such a thing, but my husband James researched and found Transitions Abroad. 

Did I mention the jaguar?  We didn't see it, but Daughter pointed out a paw print on the trail we were on. That was no domestic cat. I'm lucky I'm alive to publish anything.  And what about the crocodile?  The one in the river Daughter crosed every single morning by sliding across on a cable?  And the botflies!  Their eggs love to hatch under your skin, and the only way to get them out is to squeeze them.  I won't mention any names because she's too shy and doesn't like her personal crises to be posted for all to read about, but she got one growing right on her head.

Oh, and the bullet ants (don't sit down in the rainforet!). Really, it was no ordinary place, so now there's an article about it somewhere. And I'm happy to say, I wrote it, and James' photos of daughter got in there too.

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Miambiance Issue 17 is Done!
Category: School, College, Greek

They've done it! Miambiance has been put to sleep - in orther words, it is about to go to the printers. This 2007 Volume 17 staff has a lot to live up to -- the last issue won the Gold Crown from CSPA. The staff this year is pretty confident that their work is just as good. Their theme is masquerade, hence, the photos in MySpace -- check them out.

Here are the names of the Executive Staff: The Editor in Chief: Nicole Cabrera; Executive Editor: Ivan Vargas; Designer: Michelle Hernandez; Poetry Editors, Curtis Sharpsteen and Walsy Saez; Fiction Editor: Bryan Aguilar; Art Editor: Paulo Sosa; Nonfiction Editors: Nick Rivera and Monica Leyva; Head Copy Editor: Ricardo Prieto; Stephanie Sarkissian, Music Coordinator. There were more students involved who were responsible for copy editing, photography and the like. Check out their names on the Staff Page of the magazine. It will be officially out in the fall, but staff and contributors can get their advance copy in the summer. Come by the English Department.

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Gold Circle Winners
Category: School, College, Greek

Eight members of the staff of Miambiance traveled with me to New York.  We attended the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's award ceremony and began by winning the Apple Award (for best in show). Then, we were ecstatic to learn that we won the Gold Crown (the highest award) for the first time in Miambiance history. Finally, we picked up 17 of the Gold Circle awards, which are individual awards given to the contributors in the magazine.  I'll post the winners later, but if you contributed a piece of writing, poetry, or photograph to Miambiance, contact me to check if you were a winner.  Noel Walter was the editor in chief of this winning magazine, Michelle Hernandez and Camilo Rios the designers. Noel and Michelle are passing on their expertise to the new staff this year, so I hope this coming issue (officially out in the fall) will be as good as volume 16. 

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Peter Pan Discussion for my students

Do you feel that the story of Peter Pan is a good background for the term "Peter Pan complex" used today to describe boyish men with no sense of responsibility etc.? In what ways does Peter fit, or not, the term? Give examples of his "Peter Pan complex" from the actions in the story.

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Writers at Miami SCBWI Conference
Category: Writing and Poetry

I met Bruce Hale at the Miami SCBWI Conference. He writes funny books about a gecko detective. I was lucky enough to get him to critique the first two chapters of mine.  Positive feedback, yay! 

I also met Frank Remkiewicz, the illustrator of the Horrible Harry series (I bought some of those), who turned out to be the nicest guy ever. Lunched with Elaine Landau, writer of circa 250 books, and she inspired me to try my hand at nonfiction for kids.  

And wow! Dave Barry spoke at our Friday Volunteers' Dinner, held at the Books and Books courtyard.  He constantly referred to his co-writer as a psychopath. 

I met no snobs or unfriendly people.  Well, maybe the editors and agents were a little less so (they wore their no-nosense masks). Can't be too friendly with writers, I guess. We'd all expect them to publish us. But they were all polite, approachable and responsive.

Linda Bernfeld deserves kudos for all the work she did, putting on this conference.

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Miambiance Magazine does it again

For those of you involved in Miambiance, I've just received a letter from Columbia. It said we had won another Crown award.  We won't know if it was a Gold or Silver until we go to the New York Conference in March.  Congratulations to all of you who submitted and edited it, especially the major editors, designers, etc like Noel, Camilo, Michelle, Nicole, and all of you listed on the Staff Page, who spent a lot of personal time getting it right.  If you were one of the writers or artists, you're up for an individual award as I entered all of you in their contest. We won't know until March who won best poetry, best illustrtion etc. 

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Miami Book Fair International

The Book Fair was great this year, as always. I didn't see anybody super famous because I didn't want to deal with the lines, but Isabel Allende (who I'd seen before) and Barak Obama were two I almost went to until I saw the lines.  I did see Nora Ephron (writer of "When Harry Met Sally"), other less famous but inspired authors, and also, OK, I admit it, the author of The Reality Diet. Not that I need to go on a diet or anything, but they were giving out free high-fiber shakes at that one. I also bought some beautiful leather books for my collection.  If you live in Miami, it's really worth the trip downtown.

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Blue Jasmine

I'm not reading children's books very fast because I'm teaching World Lit this semester and had to reread the Russians and others, not to mention brush up on the Age of Enlightenment etc. But I did read a little gem called Blue Jasmine by Kashmira Sheth.  It's an immigrant story (always something I identify with), plus it starts in India. India is so cool.

 Most books tend to view the whole immigration experience as a kind of loss, which indeed in some cases it is; but this one actually shows the main character growing due absolutely to her contact with American culture.  After immigrating, she begins a correspondence with a girl from a much lower caste, and begins to see her as the human being she is rather than an embarrassment.  Wow. Refreshing.

The book won the Paul Zindel First Novel Award.

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Don Quixote and Insanity

This is also from my friend Brad, who doesn't want to post comments on blogs, but wrote in an email in response to Don Quixote:

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Brad's Kids' Books Suggestions
Category: Writing and Poetry

Here are suggestions from my friend, Brad, who doesn't want to be "out there" (as he put it), blogging. Here is that part of his email to me.  He teaches courses on the environment.

 From Brad:

By the way there are a number of kids books that are within what I am teaching re Earth.

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