Military Writers Society of America Award Winner Publishes for Mother's Day

Remembering Mothers a New Way

Award-winning Poets From Two Hemispheres Co-Author Chapbook

She Wore Emerald Then was conceived by Californian Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Aussie Magdalena Ball as an alternative to the cloying greeting cards usually available for mothers in card shops. In fact, originally it was to be a thoughtful digital upgrade for a card. It would be about the same price as a card but an entire chapbook full of poems.

That idea was influenced by the pair’s awareness that the Net was, in fact, what allowed them to meet and collaborate. But the chapbook turned out to be both digital (for greenies who want to save paper, postage and airline fuel) and a lovely to have-and-hold book for those who still have room in their hearts only for the real thing. And the book is still no more expensive than some of the fancier cards.

Howard-Johnson's first chapbook, Tracings (Finishing Line Press) was honored for excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and named to Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads. Her poetry has also been published in journals like Pear Noir, Montana State University's literary magazine, Writings from the River, Mt. St. Mary’s College journal Mary, The Pedestal magazine and in the soon-to-be released anthology by UCLA’s own Suzanne Lummis. She is the author of several other award-winning books. She is also an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

Ball’s novel Sleep Before Evening received unanimous 5-star reviews for its linguistic beauty and the intensity of its plot. She is also the author of an award-winning poetry chapbook Quark Soup, and a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. Her website The Compulsive Reader, http://www.compulsivereader.com/html, has become a benchmark for high quality online literary criticism.

The two poets collaborated last year on a book of what Howard-Johnson calls "unsyrupy" poetry for Valentines Day. It is available at http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/cherishedpulse.htm

Artwork for She Wore Emerald Then is by May Lattanzio. She is a freelance writer/photographer, and author of Waltz on the Wild Side -- An Animal Lover's Journal and contributor to Native West's anthology Least Loved Beasts of the Really Wild West - A Tribute.

Learn more about Magdalena Ball at http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/MediaRoom.htm

Learn More about Carolyn Howard-Johnson at www.HowToDoItFrugally.com

Find a catalog of Lattanzio's writing at http://maylattanzio.blogspot.com and her photographs at http://www.jpgmag.com/people/may or http://www.thelensflare.com/u_may.php.

Find She Wore Emerald Then on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections/dp/1438263791/