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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries July 20th, 2008stacy_dekeyser @ : In Which I Reveal the True Motivation Behind That NY Times Column about the "Shame" of YA Fiction They're all jealous. Current Mood:  Proud to write YAjamarattigan @ : the world's most expensive teddy bear  Maker: Steiff (125th Anniversary Commemoration) Description: Solid gold mouth, gold thread fur, diamond and sapphire eyes Edition: Limited to 125 pieces Price: approximately $84,000 More about him here. Current Mood:  impresseddavidlubar @ : The Hard Sweat of Stigma... Sigh The other type of article that gets spread like a virus is the one that makes clueless statements about a genre. The current favorite in the YA world is a blog post from February that claims all YA is now about rich characters. (I won't grace that one with a link.) The rant is so clueless in so many ways, that it doesn't merit refutation. (One example -- the writer classifies the Fudge books as YA.) I think it's terrible when someone slams a genre without really understanding it. Speaking of understanding -- and on a somewhat separate issue -- the real failure of the New Yorker Obama cover was that there was no clue whatsoever -- even to the most sophisticated eye -- that it was satire. There was a meta-clue. "Oh -- it's the New Yorker, so it must be satire. Now I get it." (Though not all of their covers are satirical. There is the occasional falling leaf or tepid cup of tea.) But, being external to the illustration, that clue doesn't count. There should always be some sort of wink woven into satire, even if the content itself is mean-spirited. (Side note: the opportunity to use the plural of "stigma" gave me an honset-to-goodness wordgasm.) d_michiko_f @ : My Niece Tags: author news, l professornana @ : Sunday update on writing Here is a shot of the bride and groom to be: Cali and Sam. They are posing on the piece of land they purchased on the other side of the lake from where we live.  Current Mood:  contentprofessornana @ : the compound  THE COMPOUND by S. A. Bodeen was the second audiobook we took with us to San Angelo. We never began it then as the kids got so caught up in IDENTICAL. However, over the past week or so we have spent enough time in the car to listen to this thrilling novel. Eli and most of his family made it into the compound before the nuclear explosions rocked the rest of the world. For six years, Eli and his family have lived underground, alone. Survival has its costs. For Eli the cost has been his relationship with the rest of his family. He lives inside himself most of the time not wanting to be touched or to touch others. Now, things are getting more desperate in the compound. Some of the food supplies are ruined; others will run out before enough safe time has passed. After 6 years underground, Eli's father's behavior has become more erratic as well. Will the family survive the compound? There are quite a few surprises in this survival tale. And the audiobook possesses the perfect pace to convey the tension and heighten the suspense. Narrator, Christopher Lane, breathes life into Eli and his family members. He avoids one of the real pitfalls when voicing a teen and does not make Eli sound child-like or adult0like. Eli sounds much like any teen. The single voiced narration creates characters with tone and pitch. The resident teens and I enjoyed this listening experience enormously. Current Mood:  hungryCurrent Music: SNL theme July 19th, 2008tamra_wight @ : Aaargh! So . . . what do you think of our newest employee??  He certainly keeps the kids in line! Pirate weekend is always a blast . . . kids running around in pirate gear . . . lots of aaaarghing and shiver-me-timbers . . . Just like last year, Alex wrote another pirate skit for her boyfriend Bryant and his friend JMoney to perform for the kids.  They were awesome! Of course, when you have a pirate theme, you have to read pirate books at story time! On tap for Sunday morning is How I Became A Pirate, Pirates Don't Change Diapers, and Edward and the Pirates. Current Mood:  sleepyd_michiko_f @ : Check Him Out Tags: music cynleitichsmith @ : Tantalize Giveaway at The Book Girl Reviews  The Book Girl Reviews: a Place for the Book Obsessed is sponsoring a giveaway of Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick, 2007, 2008). Peek: "By midnight EST on Friday July 25th, you have to write a short summary of your favorite YA book and post it here."Cynsational Notes Tantalize will be available in paperback July 22, and news about Eternal (Candlewick, 2009) and additional books in the storyline/universe is coming soon! d_michiko_f @ : Dr Horrible Act III Um....there had BETTER be more episodes forthcoming......! Seriously. No, really. Please????!!!! EDITED TO ADD: Spoilers in comments. You've been warned! ;) Tags: dr. horrible, whedon d_michiko_f @ : Friday Fun! saraclaradara and the Webmeister, on the tail end of their vacation. Sarah and I had met briefly at the SCBWI Nationals in Los Angeles two years ago, via an introduction by dlgarfinkle. (Thanks, Debby!) It was great to catch up and to talk. We were able to talk a lot because we stood in a very long line for breakfast! It was definitely great to meet the Webmeister!
It was a lovely way to start the weekend! Tags: author news, fridays, fun davidlubar @ : Ad nauseum professornana @ : WFMAD for Saturday What photo to share today? How about Scout eating my laptop?  ETA: Thanks for the cheering up comments. I survived the day. Cali has a drop dead gorgeous dress within her budget (thanks to ProfessorNana ponying up half the cost). Now I get to watch Dr. Horrible.... Current Mood:  anxiousmountainmist @ : Franklin Folk Festival Today in Franklin, NC and daughters' swap We are swapping daughters today...Lucy and Kiffen will fly back to Los Angeles, and I am taking Norah with me on road for one last week of reading and writing workshops for JESSIE'S MOUNTAIN in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia Today we'll be in Franklin, North Carolina at the Franklin Folk Festival. Lucy and I had the most amazing time in Hyden, Kentucky...a lot of love and joy deep in those Kentucky mountains...I'd never really been in Kentucky before except for living there as a very small child when my father coached football at Morehead. The coaches' wives had to listen to football games at the bowling alley back then because there was no reception... Here are details about today...if you're around Franklin and want to come out to the festival, here is the scoop. MAGGIE VALLEY SAGA: Kerry Madden presents her young adult novel, “Jessie’s Mountain,” final novel in a Great Smoky Mountain trilogy, at the Franklin Folk Festival, Franklin Books Unlimited 60 East Main St. Franklin, NC 28734 (828)369-7942 2-4 p.m. (author signing...festival goes all day!) Maybe we'll see this musician today...lots of Smoky Mountain Music!  July 18th, 2008susanwrites @ : Friday Five - The I made an expensive mistake edition 2. I hate the color. 3. It is not returnable. 4. I screwed up when picking it out. All my fault. 5. I am now investigating ways to try and stain it enough that I am okay with the color. Will try iron sulfate first. Not sure what after that. Current Mood:  crankybiga_little_a @ : Book Review: Just Henry, by Michelle Magorian  I don't know if you've noticed, but the world isn't the most cheerful of places to be lately. Economic misery. Food shortages. War. Genocide. If I were a kid today, I'd want a good book to take me away from it all. Michelle Magorian's Just Henry is also set in a difficult time--in post war Britain (1949), when rationing is still in effect, when houses still standing are lived in amongst the ruins, when people's fathers are called deserters or heroes, regardless of the evidence.Henry Dodge's father is one of the heroes--a man who saved another solider, but died in the effort. Henry now lives with his mother and his stepfather, Bill Carpenter, in Swansea, but Henry misses his real father terribly. Indeed, Henry wants to be just like his father: he aims for manual labor, instead of book learning; he despises his stepfather, who goes for a High School Certificate despite the fact he works on the trains; and Henry shuns the boys whose fathers are not so heroic--the sons of deserters and the illegitimate. But everything changes for Henry when he enters his last year of school. First of all, he has a teacher, Mr. Finch, who is interested in him and his fellow last-formers, even though they've been written out of higher education because of poor exam results. Mr. Finch gives them a project--they can research whatever they're interested in, but they must research the topic as it was in the Victorian Era. Henry is obsessed with film--he works at the local grocery to earn money to go to the cinema--so, of course, chooses early cinema as his topic. Too bad the other two boys, who also choose film, are the sons of a deserter and an illegitimate boy. Henry's world soon turns upside down. His Gran, who lives with Henry, Henry's mother and stepfather, warns Henry against associating with these two boys. But Henry's teacher and a new friend--an intelligent and independent woman named Mrs. Beaumont--tell Henry he must work with the social outcasts. Henry soon learns that his assumptions of others are ill-founded and that the world is changing. Henry must face the old world in order to live in the new. There are many twists and turns in Just Henry's plot, so there's no point in outlining them all. This is a book whose pages you'll have to stop yourself from turning . (Or reread, if you just can't help speeding ahead.) Henry is a great character--one who grows up, adapts to the times, and finds his own way. There's much wish fulfillment in Just Henry. All the young people find a place in the new Britain. But, maybe, wish fulfillment and Just Henry is exactly what young people need today. Just Henry is highly, highly recommended for all people ages ten and up. ---------------------- Just Henry was one of three books I wanted to find during my 12 days in the U.K. I checked every major bookstore I could find in the Highlands. Nothing! It was backordered. Finally I found an independent bookstore in Banchory where I picked up an autographed copy. I checked re: U.S. publication dates and could find nothing. ---------------------- Michelle Magorian is author of one of my top-10 books for children: Goodnight, Mister Tom. jbknowles @ : Writing camp and the road we travel cfaughnan's Writing Camp. Writing Camp is one of the coolest things ever invented. We talked about writing what you know, and what that does and doesn't mean. I was fascinated by what the writers thought when they heard that advice. I hope I helped change their minds. You can write about anything! But you can also use a lot of what you know to make it sing. I also read the first chapter of my WIP, which was pretty scary, I must say. But they laughed at the right places and that made me feel good. During the work time, I got to wander around and talk with the writers about what they were working on, and also offer some advice for things they were stuck on. Today, I got some disappointing news. I admit, I cried a little (but only for like, a minute, reallY!). But it's all just part of the road we writers travel. Sometimes the scenery is breathtaking and you can hardly believe how lucky you are, and sometimes you get stuck in traffic with no air conditioner on a 90º day. And then you get a flat tire. But someone is always there to help (thanks Barry et al!). And eventually, the road opens up again, fresh air blows in the windows, and there are more gifts to be found. Am I right? I hope so. And I hope everyone has a great weekend. xo ~*~*~*~*~*~ halseanderson Daily 15 Keeping Myself Honest Check-In: Yesterday: 67 words [I know. So sad,] Today: 256 words [I know. Not much better.] biga_little_a @ : A Reader's Call for Help/Minor Rant  I'm still on the road and looking for a good book. Kate Atkinson's newest doesn't come out until July 31 in the U.K., by which time I'll be back in the States and will have to wait another six weeks for it. Here's what I'm looking for today:
I just finished reading two well-received novels and can I just say that I'm officially over the 20th century protagonist. You know the type: New York (usually), drinking problem, alienated from family, usually some connection to an Eastern European country, misanthrope, sees an Analyst/is an Analyst*, wife leaves him (usually for perfectly understandable reasons), hates dogs and/or children, makes wry comments on the failings of (usually other) human beings. I do not want a novel featuring/narrated by this type of protagonist. Maybe my increasing intolerance for the 20th century anti-hero is the reason why detective fiction has become a consoling feature in my reading life. Adam Dalgliesh, Jackson Brodie, Paddy Meehan, and Kurt Wallander aren't perfect people. But they mean well, have some minor hope in humanity, and, in their own ways, think they're making a difference. So, help me out here, readers. I'm desperate for a good read. --------------------------- *Does anyone still see an Analyst in this day and age? I'll just add that I'm totally over Freud/Freudism in literature as well. --------------------------- Please excuse the Nabokov movie image. Nabokov did the 20th century anti-hero right, in my opinion, but it's also time to move on. Seriously. |
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