GONE FISHING with the State Fish Art Expo at the Go Fish Education Center

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Wildlife Forever's State Fish Art Expo at the Go Fish Education Center in Perry, Georgia. The expo is the final celebration of the K-12 State Fish Art Contest held each year. I was lucky enough to partner with State Fish Art, meet many of the award winning young artists and authors and see their beautiful work. I also got to lead two Hooked on Writing workshops and read from GONE FISHING with several of the young readers. Here is a link to an article I wrote about State Fish Art from January 2013.

Here are photos that highlight my time in Georgia:

This is the beautiful Go Fish Education Center. I love this giant bobber that lets everyone know they’re in the right place!

 Yes, that is Smokey Bear. Representatives from the U.S. Forest Service brought him to the event. Did you know that most forest fires are started by humans? It’s true.

Several winning student artists and authors stopped by to design their own bookmarks and make paper fishing boats with me. 

Look at these young authors hard at work at the Hooked on Writing workshop.

At the morning workshop, the grown ups jumped in and wrote with their kids!

Reading from GONE FISHING & channeling Sam's frustration: "This Princess Doll Does Not Belong!" Meet Karen and Doug; the Wildlife Forever team who orchestrate State Fish Art each year. (Notice the beautiful winning fish art work in the background!)

 One of the winning artists with his copy of GONE FiSHING and his younger sister. 

A winning artists with his copy of GONE FISHING. (He's a great reader; he read the part of Sam!)

This is a winning artist with her copy of GONE FISHING. (She's a great reader; she read the part of Lucy!)

These are the winning artists and authors at the awards ceremony which I wasn't able to attend. (Photo courtesy of State Fish Art.)

Thank you to the good people at Wildlife Forever and State Fish Art Expo, the Go Fish Education Center and Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, and the other Expo sponsors, the winning artists and authors and the grown ups who brought their children to the Expo for making this a wonderful event! I was happy to be included in the fun! 

 It's not every day that a fish poet gets to have her photo taken with a life-size bobber. GO FISH and then read a good book!

07.19.2013

How Story Writing Compares to Homemade Ice Cream Making

At Smack Dab in the Middle blog, our July blog theme is Ice Cream. Here is the beginning of my post:

STORY WRITING IS LIKE MAKING HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

by Tamera Will Wissinger

Have you ever made homemade ice cream? It’s something that my family used to do when I was young, with one of those wooden hand-crank ice cream makers. It’s fun, but it’s also quite a bit of work and it can be messy.

As I was thinking of Smack Dab in the Middle’s July Ice Cream theme, it occurred to me that writing a story is a lot like making homemade ice cream...

Thanks for visiting The Writer's Whimsy. I welcome you to click through to read the rest of the story.

07.16.2013

Breaking out: The Class of 2k13 at ALA

I wanted to post a little more about ALA Chicago 2013: On Friday, June 28, The Class of 2k13 presented a panel called: 

Breaking Out: Veronica Roth and Debut Authors from The Class of 2k13 Discuss Their Upcoming Books

Here is the proposal that Polly Holyoke, author of The Neptune Project, put together:

Come hear NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Veronica Roth and debut authors from The Class of 2k13 talk about their exciting new books. This is your chance to meet the potential stars of tomorrow, today. This session will include a brief question and answer period AND a teen fiction trivia contest (librarians vs. authors) for fabulous prizes! Panelists include: K.A. Barson, 45 POUNDS, MORE OR LESS (YA Contemporary); Caela Carter, ME, HIM THEM AND IT (YA Contemporary); Debra Driza MILA 2.0 (YA Sci/fi); Geoffrey Girard PROJECT CAIN (YA Techno-thriller); Polly Holyoke THE NEPTUNE PROJECT (MG Sci/fi); Lydia Kang CONTROL (YA Sci/fi); Stephanie Kuehn CHARM & STRANGE (YA Literary Thriller); Demitria Lunetta IN THE AFTER (YA Post-Apocalyptic); Mindy McGinnis NOT A DROP TO DRINK (YA Post-Apocalyptic); Jennifer McGowan MAID OF SECRETS (YA Historical); Nicole McInnes BRIANNA ON THE BRINK (YA Contemporary); Kate Karyus Quinn ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE (YA Literary Horror); Liesl Shurtliff RUMP, THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN (MG Fantasy); Tara Sullivan GOLDEN BOY (MG Contemporary); Cristin Terrill ALL OUR YESTERDAYS (YA Sci/fi); Tamera Wissinger GONE FISHING (MG Novel In Verse). Our members have already garnered several good and excellent reviews from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and four starred KIRKUS reviews. The Junior Library Guild also picked two Class of 2k13 books for its spring catalogue.

We didn't know it until afterward, but most of the time author panel proposals are submitted in conjunction with a publisher. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss, or in our case, was a way to not be influenced by the way things are usually done.

I had a wonderfully fun time at our event, and I hope that the librarians who attended also had a great time. Here's our class photo:

Front: Jennifer McGowan, Liesl Shurtliff, Demitria Lunetta, Polly Holyoke (event chair), Mindy McGinnis, Debra Driza, Lydia Kang. Back: Geoffrey Girard, Tara Sullivan, Kate Karyus Quinn, KA Barson, Stephanie Kuehn, Cristin Terrill, Caela Carter, Tamera Wissinger, Nicole McInnesI was going to post more photos, but just today my 2k13 classmate Mindy McGinnis posted a hilarious recap of the event, including several inventively captioned photos. I welcome you to check out the full story (and then some) at Mindy's blog: WRITER, WRITER, PANTS ON FIRE

Thanks for stopping by.

T

07.15.2013

My ALA Poetry Blast! Recap

At the American Library Association conference in Chicago recently, I had the truly joyful experience of reading with a number of other poets for Marilyn Singer’s and Barbara Genco’s Poetry Blast on the Pop Top Stage.

 

Here’s a photo of the Pop Top Stage before The Poets took over:

 

Here is the Poetry Blast program:

 

So many talented poets, excellent poetry, wonderful books! Many of those listed are poets who I’ve looked up to and learned from through reading their poetry. Several years ago I met Nikki Grimes briefly when she came to lecture at Hamline University while I was studying there and I was thrilled to meet her again. (She's had a tremendous influence on my poetry writing!) I've worked with Laura Purdie Salas through one of her online workshops and it was wonderful to meet her in person. Most, though, I met through this event for the very first time. 

Sylvia Vardell (another poetry luminary who I met for the first time) posted an excellent Poetry Blast recap last week that included snippets from each of our readings. You can catch Sylvia's posting by clicking: Poetry For Children Poetry Blast!

After we read and took the group photo, we signed our books. Here’s a photo that Sylvia took of me playing it cool between Marilyn Singer (who is signing a book for a fan) and Nikki Grimes:

Nikki Grimes and Marilyn Singer - two of my poetry heroes and happy me.

July 1, 2013 will go down in history as one of my favorite author days ever. I said it then and I’ll say it again: "I feel as though I'm getting away with something here!"

Thank you, once again, Marilyn, Barbara, Nikki, Rebecca, Bob, Alma Flor, Isabelle, Laura, and Sid, for letting me participate with you in the 2013 ALA Poetry Blast! It was a true honor. Thank you ALA organizers for letting the poets have the Pop Top stage on Monday morning! And a special thanks to the good people at Houghton Mifflin Books for Children for sponsoring me! I had a BLAST!

P.S.

Joy Acey suggested that I include the poem that I'm reading in Sylvia's video; thanks for the idea, Joy - here it is:

Sam

JUST DAD AND ME

Free Verse Poem

For fishing tomorrow  

it's just us two.

Not Mom, not Grandpa,

not Lucy.

It'll be like playing catch or

painting the garage.

Just Dad and me.

Fishing.

Poetry Friday on 7.12.2013 will be at Michelle H. Barnes's Today's Little Ditty

7.11.2013

My Hometown Book Event at Book World

On Saturday, June 22, my parents helped me host an event at Book World in Fort Dodge, Iowa, near the town where I grew up. When we arrived, the staff at Book World had set up this nice display at the front of the store. I love the cheerful little bunny keeping guard to the right.

We played Pin the Fin on the Fish, ate fish snacks, and I read from Gone Fishing.

I was lucky enough to sign a few books,

see dear friends,

 

 And ham it up for the camera with a new friend. 

Thank you Book World staff, my family, and friends, for a fun day in Fort Dodge!

 07.09.2013