Welcome to the Carnival

      I am your host, Mark Johnson, and I am excited to be able to spend time with you. My hope is that when the dust settles we will have shared with each other, learned from each other and become friends. I have spent the past year and a half absorbing as much as I could from the experiences and advice of the writing community. I am in awe of the knowledge, talent and generosity of everyone I have come across. I aspire to be in a position to pay it forward some day. I am in the process of focusing on writing and publishing children books, collaborating with Sarah Gledhill who hails from Huddersfield, England. We have a number of new selections in the pipeline that we will be publishing. Soon I will be working on a chapter book whose plot is sketched out but is presently untitled. The next project is a YA novel that is in the research phase that I are really excited about. It is a story that needs to be told.  

So what can you expect to see in The Carnival? 

Creative Writing: I will share the good 

and the bad of my writing experiences. You will find "how to" posts and fascinating articles or stories. Recently I have started to read a number of screen plays. I find the format to be relevant to what I am trying to do with my writing albeit in book form. That is something I would like to explore more.  I will post writing prompts along with inspirational pictures, videos and musical snippets. Also you can look for notices for learning experiences that I would recommend. I am looking forward to posting recommendations for my favorite books across the children book continuum. 

                                                    

                 Children as readers: I spent 22 years of my life as a special education teacher, elementary school principal and special education director. It has been my privilege to work with so many incredible children and families. Too often reading was a struggle for my "kids" rather than a pleasure. I would like to share my insight, some of those experiences, supports, strategies, and success stories from time to time.


                                                   
               Musicals: When I considered titles for my blog I chose the word carnival because it denotes something that is exciting and fun. That is what writing is to me. It also has an open ended meaning. This gives me an opportunity to discuss and share things related to musical theater, another literary art form and another of my loves. I was hooked by it in NYC in 1968 at the Martin Beck Theater when I experienced Richard Kiley and the amazing cast of Man of LaMancha. So if this is an interest we can share with each other I would really enjoy that.    

Here is to posting and sharing,
Mark