Who would have paired poetry with the bookselling giant, Amazon? I'm sharing this with 'cause some of you may want to submit to Amazon Shorts, too! (-:

Since Jeff Bezos's online conglomerate entered the publishing field with a concept they called Shorts, authors everywhere have been thrilled to have their promotional power behind them. Recently they accepted a book of poetry co-authored by award-winning poets, Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball.

She Wore Emerald Then was conceived by the pair as an alternative to the sugary greeting cards usually available for mothers in card shops. Amazon Shorts are only 49 cents, can be sent to a recipient instantly at no additional cost, and are far more inclusive that the casual card or momento. All kinds of writing is available, from short stories to how-to pieces. Ball, an Australian poet, says "Chapbooks have been a tradition among poets for centuries. Mother's Day is on the way and the electronic aspect of the Amazon Short program made Shorts an ideal way for Carolyn and me to collaborate once again ."

This will be Howard-Johnson's second Short. The first is The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less. Her chapbook Tracings was honored for excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and named to Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads. She is the author of several other award-winning books. She is also an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

Magdalena Ball is the author of the novel Sleep Before Evening, which has 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, and has been growing steadily in the eight years since its launch.

The two 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, Amazon Shorts author (Paradise and The Last Striper, with more to come) 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

Fomd 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.