Aurora’s Last Dance — in progress
Aurora’s Last Dance is the teen and adult verse version of Bernie and the Day the Icebergs Melted. Call me a narcissist, but I thought the work that went into writing the verse was too good to throw out. Frankly again, the difference in sales between the kids’ and the teen/adult version will influence whether I write in pose or verse in the future!
How do I get the book?
Not so fast! I just had the impulse to publish this book in October 2018. I’m hoping to get it out by Christmas 2018, but that’s not certain.
Can I read a sample?
Sure! Here are the opening stanzas:
Winchester Walter McBurnside the Third
Was sleeping off crab cakes when first he got word
Of the problem that one day would make him well-known through the world.
His family and friends called him "Bernie" for short;
To "Bern" (even shorter) they'd often resort.
No matter the moniker, he was beloved of all.
With captain's cap set in a nautical way,
And meter-long tusks that kept rivals at bay,
His sail was quite steady, till all sea and heaven broke loose.
Old Bernie, the third to be granted the name,
Like granddad and dad, could (without blush) lay claim
To a largeness in size matched by greatness of heart and of soul.
Bernice was the name of his long-loving spouse;
A walrus, like Bernie, they shared an ice house
With their walri, from pup to a five-year-old ready to roam.
Protector of family, defender of friend,
Stout-hearted and loyal right up to the end.
Each one of his neighbors ranked him up among the elite.
Why write in verse?
I find that I am most creative and use the most interesting images when I write in verse. The strictures of the form mean that I often write myself into corners, meaning I have to use my ingenuity to get out of them. Sometimes that means rhyming a word in the middle of a thought. Sometimes it means reaching back for a strange but satisfying metaphor. Sometimes it means figuring out how to use a rhyming but seemly-unrelated idea. all of this lets my serious and humorous sides collaborate to get me out of textual scrapes!
Writing in verse also makes it more acceptable to write alliterations and casual language (“no matter the moniker”) and allusions — “Till all sea and heaven broke loose” comically inverts and alludes to the saying, “all hell broke loose.”
You wrote this first, so why not publish it first?
That was the plan until my test audience — the children of my dear cousins — dashed my well-laid plans. Turns out the parents felt the verse would be too challenging to their kids. So, I thanked them for the feedback and went out to write the prose version of this book, Bernie and the Day the Icebergs Melted.
Why write about global warming?
I didn’t originally intend to write about climate change. I had hoped that a walrus-sketching friend might want to work on a book with me. But he wasn’t able to. Stuck with a walrus character, a desire to be published, and a fear of the coming cataclysm of climate change, I kept pecking away at my computer until the story of a walrus family bedeviled by warming seas took shape.
As a person who places great faith in science, it has disturbed me that so many of my fellow citizens (though they benefit greatly from advances in health, entertainment and communications) see science as optional. At least they talk and vote that way! I felt I had to use my talents to drive home a message that was in line with what science is telling us: that the global climate is warming quickly, that humans are responsible, and that something must be done about it very soon.