Pitch Wars 2017 Mentor Information

 
 #PITCHWARS 2017
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Kristin Bartley Lenz 

Heather Smith Meloche

Check out the Pitch Wars 2017 page 

for Mentor Info and Our Wish List!

                           

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February Daily Poetry Project - February 2

I was so kindly invited to join the 5th Annual February Daily Poem Project, an event started by Laura Shovan, a fabulous poet, fellow Sweet Sixteener, and friend. This year, the group of poets (that is growing daily!) takes turns pulling 10 words from an article, and then we each incorporate those words into a poem. We can alter the form of the words if creativity begs for it, and we can opt to leave one or more words out. However, we strive for complete inclusion of the chosen words or sometimes, phrases.

Today, I'm sharing my poem from February 2 pulled from this NPR article.


The 10 words used are:

worldview
help
shareholders
safer
protections
dishonest
media
replace
business
Messiah

SUSPENSION

She was a quiet one, would simply

bite her tongue when, on occasion,

they made notice and poked fun

at her old clothes, her crookedly cut hair,

her frequent lack of hygienic care.

She’d heard of Dylan Klebold,

Adam Lanza. She knew

of James Holmes’s movie

theater spree. All these, media lore.

And so she bore a plan,

though not Messiah-driven,

just a simple shake to be given

to those elite shareholders of the

school’s worldview.

She drew.

A Sharpie in an empty hall,

she started with Colleen Kluer

hidden in a bathroom stall, and upon

her locker, she sketched the tale,

the events that went beyond the flush,

the shady business made -- ten pills

for Colleen’s monetary trade.

Then on Jordan Stanveer’s desk,

her hand drawn down Brent Wickhab’s pants,

as our quiet girl had stumbled on it,

just by chance, though everyone

clearly knows, Brent is Kallie Harlow’s.

That afternoon on into night, she hid in shadows,

struck with might, drew those indiscretions,

thought safe and secret, she took

protections and she twisted,  

because, though quiet, she still existed,

a witness to dishonest acts – their truth

her power for all she’d been through.

And when they dragged her from the school,

set to book and to fine her, she smiled,

knowing this would now define her. She

waved to onlookers, some who cheered

for they had also been harassed and jeered.

And now our girl is myth, she’s lore,

her lesson forever drawn to clear;

it is the quiet ones who rise, who dare,

lest you forget they’re even there.

Graphic source: http://onepenaday.blogspot.com/2013/06/pen-02-sharpie-magnum.html

It's Release Day!

Release Day is Almost Here!!

RIPPLE COMES OUT ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2016!!!

RIPPLE is a YA Contemporary that looks at how compulsion in the lives of two teens shapes who they are and the choices they have to make. Check out the reviews coming in on Goodreads!!

Tessa doesn't understand why she can't stop cheating on her boyfriends. She only knows she gets a rush and a feeling of power from her trysts in neighboring towns -- and that rush is so welcome when there is so much ugliness and pressure at home. But when the wrong person from her high school accidentally walks in on her in the most revealing of situations, Tessa suddenly finds herself doing everything she can to cover her tracks.

Jack doesn't see his habit for destruction of public property or his love of screwing with authority figures as anything but a way to release the pressure from his home life. His mom is an all-out mess, and his home life is absolutely whacked-out crazy, but it's his mom and his life, and he'll do whatever he needs to in order to keep it together.

The story of RIPPLE navigates Tessa and Jack through their all-too-adult lives as they wrestle with their own destructive habits and struggle to find each other as well as the best parts of themselves.