Scrabble Poetry

I'd not blogged for more than a handful of months in part because of so much going on -- "The vicissitudes of life" as my old friend Victor Lyons used to say.

I was prompted to get back to it recently because of something my daughter Jamie said. Yet when I did, I started (yesterday) with a note about my new novel Knights of the Full Moon.

So I decided to try again, but realized I wanted to take more time than I really have at the moment to write about Jamie. That's when I noticed how I mention Scrabble at the top of this blog, and yet I haven't said anything about it yet.

So, without (much) further ado, here's a Scrabble poem that I wrote some time ago during a fierce war with my friend George. It was the opening volley in a horrible conflict.

How do I spell thee?  Let me count the ways.

I spell thee OBI, OBE, and OBEAH, all are right,

We know even when the book is out of sight,

But FATTEND upon all seeing made me lose face

I spell thee XI and CHI and KI, with definitions not the same,

I spell thee freely, what 'ere it takes to win the game

I spell thee with passion that all can feel,

And thus bluff the phony, so you will think it real,

In thinking of GRIEFS, is it I before E?

Do ADZ and ADZE both correctly use my Z?

With my lost challenge, I'll spell thee again, but not the same,

But now the spot is gone.  Damn!

I shall spell thee better next game.


With lazy apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning. More later!

Knights of the Full Moon -- shopping

My new 87,500 word YA/SF novel Knights of the Full Moon has now survived its third draft, and is presently loose in the woods, sniffing for lucky agents. Go, Knights, go!

Under the full moon, teens Jenny, Dreek, Maria and Charlie find an ancient, indestructible jeweled shield; four hours later they've viciously murdered Davey Crockett. So much for their worst problems being Jenny's OCD and Dreek not being "black" enough for his mom.

The shield grants them mental and physical powers, but that hardly makes up for the apparent killing, even if they had been temporarily insane. Being forced to attack the police doesn't help, nor does the six-armed, blue alien woman trying to slaughter them. And then there's Stink Man, and conflict with ham and cheese. At last when Jenny's family comes under attack they have to find a way to destroy the shield or go insane trying, a challenge that shatters their friendship.