The Great Comedy Albums of My Youth: “March Comes In Like A Lion . . . and Out Like a Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse”
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 Posted in Family, Interviews & Appreciations, Jigsaw Jones | 3 Comments »"Now look, pal! I know a country where March comes in like an emu and goes out like a tapir. And they don't even know what it means!" -- John Belushi Do you remember listening to comedy albums? I sure do. ...
James Preller Interviews . . . Kurtis Scaletta, author of “Mudville” and “Mamba Point”
Sunday, February 21st, 2010 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations | 3 Comments »Sorry, you're going to have to wait a minute. I know you're in a big hurry and everything. People nowadays expect their blog entertainment to run like clockwork, click, click, click on that mouse. Well, go grab a seat. There's ...
RIP, J.D.
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 Posted in Current Events, Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »"I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your ...
“Teachers Make A Difference,” performed by Taylor Mali
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 Posted in In the Classroom, Interviews & Appreciations | 1 Comment »I understand that in some exotic cultures poetry -- actual poetry -- is celebrated on Fridays. For example: here, and here, and here. This week I decided to play along. But with a difference. Here at JamesPreller.com, we're all about ...
Suggestions & Cautionary Hints: Rereading “The Elements of Style”
Friday, January 8th, 2010 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, Readings, the writing process | No Comments »The slim book does not need my praise, so I'll refrain from making a testimonial. But every once in a while I'll remember that it exists, usually by virtue of keeping the physical object in plain sight. Lately it's been ...
James Preller Interviews . . . Deborah Kovacs, Part Deux
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »If you missed Part One of the thrilling Deborah Kovacs interview, what are you doing here? Catch up by clicking here, then come on back. Hum-de-dum, de-dum-dum. Everybody else can watch this 40-second video while we wait: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idpCUocQkGw&channel=sesamestreet] So, tell me, DJ, what makes ...
James Preller Interviews . . . Deborah Kovacs, Part One
Sunday, December 13th, 2009 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process | No Comments »Back during the Archaean eon, the earth received a heavy bombardment of meteorites. That's about when Deborah Kovacs and I first met to discuss co-authoring a book for Scholastic Professional Books, eventually titled: Meet the Authors and Illustrators. Wait, no, ...
A Favorite Line from Charlotte Zolotow
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, Readings | No Comments »I busted out the scanner to give you all a gander at a favorite page from a collection titled Snippets, by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Published in 1993, Snippets is exactly that -- forty-one brief passages gathered from Zolotow's ...
By Dickens: Rewriting Christmas
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 Posted in Current Events, Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process | No Comments »Charles Dickens has been wildly (and unexpectedly) popular around here lately, with children's authors speaking about him in revered tones, and not just because of the holiday season. As Carmen Deedy, author of 14 Cows for America, told me in a ...
A Quick Interview: Bystander and Bullying!
Thursday, November 5th, 2009 Posted in Bystander, Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »I was recently interviewed by author Kurtis Scaletta (Mudville, Mamba Point) over at his impressive, long-running site -- 2 1/2 blog years and still kicking. That's like 112 in human years, folks. Most blogs come and go like fruit flies. If ...