Questions About the Book
Questions About Mikka
Questions About Bones
Questions About the Book
Q. Will this book help improve my love life and/or my English?
That is its intent.
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Q. How will it help improve my English?
The second half of this book contains my definitions for every word used in the poems. That way readers can quickly flip to the back to learn the meanings of words they might not know. Learning words in context is better than rote memorization. Reciting them will help even more. Most of the poems contained within use meter and rhyme. In most, but not all cases, I went for exact rhymes, meaning the pronunciation is the same as the matching word, so if one line ends with “stare” the next line might end with “care”. Other types of rhymes that I tried to avoid are close but not exact, for instance, “Vegas” with “(out)rageous”, which don't rhyme exactly. The goal of meter is many, but it is also to help non-native speakers “hear” the sound patterns in English. It's the musical quality readers should hear in their heads when reading the poems or sounding them out. This part can be especially hard for non-native speakers. Practice by reading them aloud.
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Q. How will it help help improve my love life?
Read the first half of this book containing fifty poems representing love, dedicated to love, and written with love on the brain; they celebrate romance, the impulse to feel good, and the complications of love. Give a copy of the book to loved ones and see what happens.
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Q. How should I read the book, straight through?
The poems are not sequential. Skip around.
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Q. How can I buy the book?
Mikka Mi Amor (paperback, 160 pages) is available through Amazon.com, and your local bookstore should be able to order it. See this page.
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Q. Is Mikka Mi Amor an ESL book?
Mikka Mi Amor is first a collection of love poems. Love poetry has a long tradition and my goal is to toss my talent and ability into the mix. Ultimately, it will be up to history and literary critics to decide if this book has merit. The inclusion of the glossary, plus the accessibility of the poems, plus the meter and rhyme all make it a good book for those learning English. It\'s definitely not a textbook, nor is it a workbook. It is a book to read and read aloud, an example of the art of the English language put to practice.
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Q. What's free about this? What does "copyleft" mean?
As part of a practical and philosophical belief, the poems that I wrote are released under what has been called a "copyleft", which basically means that you are free to copy the poems, just please give me credit. In other words, you don't need to get my permission first and you don't need to pay me if you use it in a not-for-profit way (for-profit use requires approval). Copyright protects authors and publishers from having their writing copied without permission. The idea is that if a writer wrote a book, only the writer should profit from it, and the writer should have control over how it is used. Perhaps I'll learn a lesson from misuse, but for now, I just think about how the greatest poems in the world are free because they were written such a long time ago that the words aren't owned by anybody. The language is simply richer because of it. That's what I want to do...enrich the language as well as the world of ideas. And getting my stuff read is how I'm aiming to do it. Allowing it to be duplicated, well, there are different points of view about what people consider just reward.
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Q. Can the book be bought in bulk?
Yes. Also, some foreign distribution rights are available. Just contact Evan.
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Questions About Mikka
Q. The poems are to Mikka, but is "you" always Mikka?
"You" is whomever you wish it to be. It's your imagination that gives them meaning. Meaning is what you bring to the words you read.
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Q. Is Mikka a Japanese name? Why does it have two Ks?
Mikka is a Japanese name. It means "beautful flower". Her mother gave her the extra K to hopefully avoid her being called "Mike-a", which she heard a lot anyway.
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Q. First name Mikka, last name Gutierrez -- is she mixed race? Is she the offspring of a war bride?
Sorry scandal seekers, though her father was a soldier, he was stationed in San Francisco, where Mikka's parents met. Mikka does, then, have parents who come from different cultures. Some may prefer to use the term bi-racial. Ask her what she is, though, and she'll probably tell you, "American".
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Questions About Bones
Q. Is Bones an English Professor?
Bones is Evan Kendall, an English Professor. I teach a lot of writing courses, Freshman English, etc. I work regularly with students learning English who are both native speakers and non-native speakers and all shades in between. I also taught English as a Foreign Language in Japan and tutored many ESL/EFL students during my time working in and running writing centers.
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Q. Why are you doing all this? What is it that you're doing?
I'm defining a new content model based on an old one (books) and a new one (the world wide web). I'm doing it to show that it can be done. I suppose I could have looked around for other ways to do it, but this is the one that seemed most obvious to me.
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The name Mikka Gutierrez
Hello! My name is Mikka Gutierrez and I am fascinated that my name appears in your poetry. However, unlike your character my name is pronounced Mike-a. How did you come up with this name? Just curious, I can't wait to order your book.
Sincerely,
Mikka Gutierrez Lovington, NM
That's great! There are a few
That's great! There are a few Mikka Gutierrez's out there, but only a few.
Thanks and hope you enjoy the poems.
- Bones