Guest Blog: No Boundaries – A Collection of Poetry by Karen R. Sanderson

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Book launch, Books, Guest blog, Karen Sanderson, No Boundaries, Poetry, Poetry Collection

One of my great pleasures here at the Nest – right up there with Month of the Dragon – is helping to spread the word about books my wonderfully talented friends have written.

Today, by way of a guest blog, I am delighted to share Karen R. Sanderson’s debut volume of poetry, No Boundaries.

No Boundaries is a long-arced portrait limned with warmth and humor. In blank verse and rhyme, limerick and haiku, she skips across the emotional touchstones of family, friends, memory, nature, and the writer’s craft itself. This is a delightfully accessible collection, full of wry observations and little gems, including the following.

Enjoy. And be sure to order your copy in time for the holidays.

My ancestral home

I am wondering about my ancestors,
About the music they might have listened to.

 
I wonder what they felt when the harps
plucked at their hearts
while coal miners picked and
shoveled the coal.

 
I wonder about their choral voices raised in lament,
for the brothers and fathers they left behind
under the mountain.

 
I wonder why the mothers
did not sing for their sons,
but cried instead
among the southern valleys, among the coal.

 
I wonder what mountains could be moved.
I wonder.

 

 

Shawn’s Limerick

There’s this gal I like to call Kenzie

Her writing shows us dragons a-frenzy

Lives with cats and chinchillas

Feeds friendly woodsy fellas

I’m grateful we’re editors friendly.

 

***

Karen R. Sanderson was raised by a mother who wanted to be an English teacher and who worked for Merriam-Webster as a proofreader and an aunt who could complete the Sunday New York Times crossword in a day. Their favorite expression was, “Look it up!”

Karen is an editor and proofreader, blogger, poet, writer, and a fabulous grandma. She completed writing coursework through UCLA and the University of New Mexico. Her short stories have been featured in The Rose & Thorn Journal, Every Child is Entitled to Innocence anthology, Valley Living Magazine, BewilderingStories.com, and WritingRaw.com.

Karen is currently pursuing a degree at Minot State University and Lake Region State College in Interpreting and Sign Language Studies.

You can connect with Karen on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ and on her blog at www.karenrsanderson.wordpress.com.

Contact karenrsanderson@midco.net.

 

 

 

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I’m published!

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Book launch, Books, Karen Sanderson, Poetry, Poets

Always love sharing when friends get into print! Congrats, Karen.

Karen R. Sanderson's Blog

Here’s a holiday selection

From my collection

(changed slightly to accommodate Thanksgiving)

**** 

Holiday Dinner

Chicken runs round the farm yard,

Wishes he was the duck.

Duck runs round the barn yard,

Wishes he was the pig.

Pig runs round the pig sty,

Wishes he was the horse.

Horse smiles, relaxes in stall.

Thanksgiving Eve, he’ll mourn them all.

****

My collection includes Family and Friends, God Bless Our Military, Limericks, Beautiful Earth, Art, Imagination, & Miscellany, Haiku, and My Funny Bone.

To order, go to “No Boundaries” at Amazon.

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Pleasure-Dragons on the Wing…

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Book launch, Dragons, e-books, Kindle, Month of the Dragon, Pleasure-Dragons, Short stories, Smashwords

The dog days of summer are past, the nights are longer and cooler, and October – Month of the Dragon – is creeping up on us faster than a zaltys in the tall grass.

As a harbinger of draconic fun to come, I am pleased to announce the e-book launch of my short story, Because the Pleasure-Dragon Whistles. 

In a flight of fancy, a young Welsh Dragon befriends a young Welsh poet. This is their story, wistful and funny as only Dragons and Bards can be.

It is available in Kindle and Smashwords editions.

Enjoy.

And don’t forget to return in October for a whole month of Dragon Festivities. 

 

 

 

O Brave New World: Book Launch in PJs –

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Book launch, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, e-books, Editing, Editor's Corner, Essays, Kindle, Red Line/Blue Line, Smashwords, Vernal equinox, Writing

It is the eve of the vernal equinox and here in Vermont we are still flirting with single digits on the back of bitter winds. When better to stay inside, snuggly surrounded by cats, and launch a book in comfort?

After tackling the learning curve of e-text idiosyncrasies and cleaving the Gordian knots in my stomach, I am thrilled to announce that Red Line/Blue Line: Essays from the Editor’s Corner has hit the e-book runway. It is available in a text edition through Smashwords [Nook, Apple, and a variety of generic platforms], and, in an illustrated Kindle edition.

Regular visitors to the Dragon’s Nest may be familiar with my Editor’s Corner pieces. Since their initial blog appearance, they have been spruced up, augmented, re-worked – in short, edited – for publication. All thirty-six essays are now together in one easy-access volume. And, thanks to the sage input from Nest followers, they are dressed in a kick-ass cover, to boot.

From Red Line/Blue Line:

Any book about editing is, necessarily, a book about writing.

Every day, a writer weaves passionately through a forest of choices both large and small. For, beyond the spark of an idea and the ensuing blood, sweat, and tears, writing is all about choices. This is the heart of editing. In the end, of course, even the most experienced scribe can benefit from outside insight and expertise. We don’t need someone to simply gush and insist every word is a gem plucked from the mouths of the divine literati. Grandma Esther does that. She’s family; it’s her job.

An editor’s job is to be supportively ruthless as she brings fresh eyes to a manuscript, looks for awkward passages, incongruities, weaknesses, even disasters waiting to happen. She discerns not only what we say, but also what we mean to say. She helps us tighten our prose, hone our voice, and sing. In short, an editor helps make our work better.

A good editor is priceless.

Of course, whether just starting out or after years in the trenches, there are times when the services of a professional editor are beyond our means. Do not despair! And do not let this be an excuse for laziness. Even a lone scribe struggling in the literary wilderness should respect her creation enough to make it as good as it can possibly be before sending it out into the world. After all, we may write in our teddy-bear slippers and pjs, but our work should go forth in crisp Ascot and morning coat.

Readers of Kindle or Smashwords, I hope you will check out Red Line/Blue Line , tell your friends, and enjoy.

 

The Blue Jar is Launched!

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Blue Jar, Book launch, Books, Fiction, Marta Pelrine-Bacon, Plum Tree Books

The Blue Jar is Launched!.

Alan Patrick Traynor’s Book: Seven Days Of Ashes, is launched!

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Alan Patrick Traynor, Book launch, Books, Holocaust, Niamh Clune, Plum Tree Books, Poetry, Shivah

Alan Patrick Traynor has created an extraordinary volume that demands to be read and remembered.