HAPPY NEW YEAR

To all those sitting at home tonight, here’s a way to stay happy.

As writers you must be familiar with the comic poet Ogden Nash. If not, look him up, you’ll be delighted. Nash was famous for rhyming his poems, but not necessarily using meter. For instance, here’s a short one:

FLEAS
Adam had’em.

Here’s a longer one:

I REMEMBER YULE
Call me an unAmerican hellion. This year I’m going to disconnect everything electric and spend Christmas like Tiny Tim and Mr. Pickwick.
You make me sickwick.

And here’s one that has both rhyme and meter, as well as being apropos:

GOOD RIDDANCE, BUT NOW WHAT?
Come, children, gather round my knee,
Something is about to be.
Tonight’s December thirty-first.
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark, it’s midnight, children dear,
Duck! Here comes another year.

My Christmas present from hubby was a Kindle. Yes, he bought a B&N Nook for my birthday in July, but he’s buying lots of books and reading them. The three I wanted aren’t available on the Nook yet. One was DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY by P.D. James (I am a fan of Phyllis Dorothy’s mysteries) in the style of and with characters from Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, etc. The C.S. Monitor ran a glowing review of it, including their last line, “I couldn’t have liked it more unless I was drenched in chocolate and Colin Firth read it to me.”

Surprisingly, of 81 reviews noted by Amazon, the book got no 5-star reviews, one 4-star and the rest 3.5 or below. My book COLD APRIL got three 5-star reviews and a 4-star. Since when am I a better writer than P. D. James? Perhaps some readers expected something else, maybe more violence, especially if they were younger readers. But I haven’t read it yet myself.

The book was published in the UK and now by Alfred Knopf (Random House) and they want $15.99 for the e-book. For $3 more I can get the hardcover, so I will. While waiting I’ll get Anne R. Allen’s THE GATSBY GAME which is on Kindle.

TAGS:
Anne R. Allen
P.D. James
Death Comes
Ogden Nash
Colin Firth
Kindle
Nook