AnEyeball In My Garden - and Other Spine-Tingling Poems

A collection of spooky poems written, screamed, and laughed over by a dozen or so of my writing friends. Features my poem “Spooky,” "Sinking Ship," "Giant's Pocket" and “The Corner.” Due out July 15, 2010. Marshall Cavendish Publishing. Read at your own risk.

Picture Book Texts

 

While by no means the entire catalogue of MSullivanTales, here are some story and poem synopses. If you ask, “What else you got?” I got ELSE.

 

Chef Blarney Presents

How to Capture and Cook a Crocochicken

 

Ready for the culinary adventure of a lifetime? Think Seuss meets “Bizarre Foods.”

Chef Blarney invites readers on his daring search for unusual recipes. Whether it’s the Penguibear or the Wolvegoat, the chef brings you out into the wild to hunt and cook your own exotic foods. The results are always hilarious, if not always exactly edible.

(Chef Blarney stopped by with some niblets for me the other day. Wanna try some? Click here.)

(Big things going down at Chef B studios. Click here.)

Black

Sometimes I paint in black.

No other colors.

Just black.

You can't make a mistake with black

because there's always two pictures -

the one inside,

and the one outside.

If you paint enough, something will show up.

You just have to look real close,

or far away,

or sideways,

or upside down.

There it is.

That's not what I meant to paint.

Sometimes I paint in purple.

First Flight of The Philbert

Philbert is prepared. He’s always prepared. Hats and coats and boots and sweaters. He is ready. Only, as he sets out to launch The Philbert he constantly finds himself tree-bound, twig-covered.

The Philbert needs help. 

“First Flight of The Philbert” (729 words) is the story of Philbert, a falcon entirely too concerned about crashing or freezing or falling or sneezing. Hop out onto the limb with him as Mom steps in with a few pointers.

(Need more Philbert? Click here. Or.......here.)

A Letter To Feel Better

 

“Our auntie in the shanty needs a letter to feel better,”

said Billy to Bernita one fine and sunny day.

 

So a note the children wrote,

with a stampy from their grampy

sent a letter-to-feel-better

to their auntie in the shanty,

one fine and sunny day.

 

“A letter to feel better” is a popping and juking poem about the efforts of a nephew and a niece to get their aunt out of the doldrums… one fine and sunny day.

 

Mama Kai

Mama Kai’s got her a garden where the lost children of the world fall. She loves and tends to them, and rocks them on her porch. But her lap isn’t nearly big enough for the amount of rockin’ she’s doing. This is the story of the solution her children come up with.

(Sitting for a chat with Mama Kai. Click here.)

The Journey Stone

“AWROOOO!”

Wolfman after you? Something Big and Creepy disturbing your slumber?

“The Journey Stone,” a 1055-word picture book, is about a young boy unable to sleep because of nightmares and the gift his father gives him to change his dreamworld to a safe place. The good news is it works. The bad news? Somehow he ends up in a maid’s costume.

Drawing on my experience as a pediatric psychiatric nurse in an acute hospital and a storyteller who performed throughout the country, I use humor and spookies to empower children to take back their dreams. It’s pretty funny if you don’t have nightmares, too.

(The Wolfman makes a late night visit. Click here.)

 

The Peskery Mouse

Willy’s my pet,
the whiskery sort.
He loves hide and seek,
it’s his favorite sport.
He’s not in the barn
nor here in the house.
He hides in my shirt,
that tricky wee mouse.
 
“The Peskery Mouse” is a hide and seek book for toddlers. Designed to look like a flannel shirt, the book would allow kids to poke in and out of pockets and necklines as they search for Silly Willy.

The Sniffle Spell

When the last of Gramma Jeanne’s seven children fell ill, she began to suspect there was something more than the flu bug at work. She began to suspect a Sniffle Spell was on the loose.

Donning her hat and Seeing Glasses and her slapdashery robe, she pulled out the necessary ingredients to catch it.

The Spell was a lot bigger than she thought.

Come wrestle with the seven children as they put the Spell back in its place.

Angels

“STOP THE ASSEMBLY LINE!”

Tippy Waterford pointed to the last staging area where the bright golden souls bound for Earth were packaged up in any of a billion costumes – whites, reds, blacks, yellows, animals, vegetables, minerals. You name it, Tippy had it. But right now Tippy had nothing. Not a single outfit remained. On the assembly belt boxes of souls a thousand miles long waited to be packaged and sent.

“Uh-oh,” she said.

Lucky thing Herbert Huffleman was on the job.

(Important alert: Soul Suit recall issued 5/4/09. Click here for details.)

Milton’s Muffins

A giant has settled into Farfetchedville. But he’s hardly big, tall, and terrible. He’s actually quite polite, well-mannered, and talented. He can even imitate the five-fingered golden badger. His muffins, though. His muffins are to die for!

Join Milton as he prepares his next batch.

The Gula Monster

Dad was always warning James that the Gula Monster was on the way, ready to chew on the toes of disobedient boys. James should have listened to him. Luckily, his sister did. See what happens when the three finally have a chance to meet.

The Vegetable Zoo

A silly, rhyming look at the contents of The Veggie Zoo, A-Z. Just be careful of the Garlic. It has a little bite.