Today's Author Spotlight is on Kersten Hamilton. She's the author of a cool new book series that will start with the release of Tyger Tyger: A Goblin Wars Book in November. This book is currently on tour at a bunch of blogs, so check out this list for more information and giveaways! Here's what Kersten has to say about the inspiration behind this book.
On the first stop of my blog tour, I talked about how we rarely had access to a television while I was growing up, and how my dad told stories. But I was not only blessed with a story-telling dad; I was gifted with had an eccentric uncle. Uncle Ray was an artist and an engineer who wore suspenders and goggles while he zoomed around town on a motorbike, his long red beard streaming behind him.It was Ray who paid me to memorize poems.
One dollar for short poems like The Germ by Ogden Nash:
One dollar for long poems like The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: http://www.paulreverehouse.org/ride/poem.shtml
And one glorious green dollar for everything in between:
The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash: http://www.artpromote.com/arts_literature/Dragons_3.shtml
I raked in the dough for every single poem. But secretly, I would have memorized them anyway. Because I loved poetry.
Two poems came back to me when it was time to write Tyger Tyger.
The first was Overheard on a Saltmarsh by Harold Monro: http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/junior/junior-poetry-library/in-the-classroom-part-one/overheard-on-a-saltmarsh a poem about a goblin, a dryad and some beads. Ginny Greenteeth, a goblin in my novel, has more than a smidgen of Monro’s goblin in her.
But more important to the Goblin Wars was the first poem I ever memorized: The Tyger by William Blake: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/tyger.html
Blake asks his question about the nature of creation in a poem; I ask mine in a trilogy.
:) Kersten
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To win some bookmark swag from Kersten, please leave a comment on this post with the title of a poem that inspires you. Maybe there's a book in one of these poems? And, Kersten will be back in a week or so for another author spotlight segement, so this comment will count for extra credit toward that book giveaway. Lots of excitement!
Make sure to leave your email as well. This contest closes on
Thursday, August 12th at midnight. Good luck!
Thursday, August 12th at midnight. Good luck!
