Writer's block?

Who gets writer's block? Me, that's who! Well, I'm getting over it. I'm tired of it. I'm going to write until something clicks. Is that how you get rid of it? Someone let me know...

New lenses on Squidoo

I thought a lot about my lens on Duke Ellington and the author Andrea Pinkney and consulted a big Squid, Margaret Schaut. She gave me a lot of great ideas on how to write my new lenses. That's right: more than one lens. I'm going to focus on the author, then I'm going to focus on her subjects. Two subjects in particular are Duke Ellington, king of jazz, and Alvin Ailey, father Modern Dance. So, in the meantime, for the weekend, I've updated all six of my lenses. Check it out! Catch you later.

My writings

I'm very excited about my Duke Ellington page. I think it's very organized and it's going to include the author of this tween book as much as it is going to be about Duke Ellington. So this is where I'm headed. I love the writings of Andrea Pinkney. She writes for the tween audience and her books are really interesting. Other subjects she's written about include Alvin Ailey (I'm a huge modern dance fan), Ella Fitzgerald, and letters from a slave girl to Abraham Lincoln (historical fiction). Could I become a writer for the tween audience? We'll see...

My new squidoo page about Duke Ellington and author Andrea Davis Pinkney

The title of the lens is "Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra". This is also the title of a children's book written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by her husband, Brian Pinkney. My 4th grader read this story from her school reader aloud to me. It was the story of Duke Ellington from a unique perspective. The book takes a look at his early days, learning the piano, hooking up with his band and their start in New York. This lens will provide a synopsis of the book, a short biography of the author, and listings of her other works. Points in the Duke's career will be highlighted, so as to round out the lens, providing a complete history (hopefully). I plan providing a link in which you can play some of the Duke's music. I'm thinking of including a discography and filmography, or at least links to those lists. This is the plan. My computer will not allow me to work on it right now - I will be getting a new notebook in early March (yay!) so I will be able to work much faster. "Tomorrow's another day" - Missy