Lizjonesbooks

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July 5th, 2009

The quote in today's icon is, as many of you will recognize, from Hamlet, Act I, sc. 3, when Polonius gives Laertes a laundry list of platitudes.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare Month ended earlier this week, so I thought I'd create a post out of some of my favorite Shakespeare quotes from the plays covered in the second half of the month that are sometimes useful in everyday conversation. The plays covered include Macbeth through A Midsummer Night's Dream, or so my handy dandy directory informs me.

Macbeth

"Fair is foul and foul is fair." The Witches, Act I, sc. 1.

"Screw your courage to the sticking place" Lady Macbeth, Act I, sc. 7.

"What's done is done." Lady Macbeth, Act III, sc. 2.

"Blood will have blood." Macbeth, Act III, sc. 4.

" . . . at one fell swoop?" Macduff, Act IV, sc. 3.

"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him." Lady Macduff, Act V, sc. 1.

"What's done cannot be undone." Id.

"Throw physic to the dogs. I'll none of it." Macbeth, Act V, sc. 3.

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" Macbeth, Act V, sc. 5.

"Out, out, brief candle!" Id.

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." Id.

"Lay on, Macduff" Macbeth, Act V, sc. 8.

Twelfth Night )

Richard III )

As You Like It )

Othello )

King Lear )

A Midsummer Night's Dream )

Wonkette has a post up about @AKGovSarahPalin's crazy late-night twitter bender. She's gonna have to give up that handle, no? Anyway, after you slog through all the crazy ungrammatical Palinglish rambling, the point seems to be that a "higher calling" has directed her to file anti-defamation lawsuits against a number of news websites for having reported the news that she quit her post as governor of Alaska (her "news conference" to that effect is embedded above). From Wonkette:

[A]fter crazily quitting her elected position as governor of Alaska, via an alarming backyard last-minute press conference void of any explanation , at the classic 4 p.m. hour of the Friday-Holiday news dump, Sarah Palin is now twatting on the twitter about how her Anchorage attorneys are going to SUE THE AMERICAN MEDIA, for saying "WTF?" Honestly, this is what Sarah Palin twatted on Saturday Night, July 4th, Independence Day, in America.

Her link goes to (of course) Scientologist nut and sub-literate weirdo Greta Van Susteren's blog on FoxNews.com, where Greta has helpfully (?) posted seven pages of legal threats from Palin's lawyers, although you can't actually read beyond the first vague page of whining bullshit, because Greta/Fox can't figure out how to operate the Internet.

But, from other websites, we gather Palin's lawyers plan lawsuits against MSNBC, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, individual bloggers in Alaska, and other such anti-Palin forces such as "rain on your wedding day" and static cling.

Related reading: Anchorage Daily News article, hilarious. Vanity Fair article: It Came from Wasilla (and "Don't Blame Us"). (via @Andrew Baron)

On his excellent "nedslist" mailing list, Ned Sublette wrote this concise and spot-on appreciation of the official text of Palin's goodbye speech:

[W]hat Roland Barthes would have called the pleasure of this text has to be savored in full to draw out its pure nuttiness. It's hard to know what to appreciate more: the all-caps prepositions; the sentence fragments that begin the fifth and sixth paragraphs, the run-on sentences, the frequent exclamation points!, the quotation from her parents' refrigerator magnet, the basketball analogy, the proposed logic of quitting so as not to be a quitter, or the grammatically incorrect final sentence framing the misattributed punchline, which was actually said not by General Douglas MacArthur but by General Oliver P. Smith. I especially like the capital O of "Outside" in "Outside special interests," which reminds us that the world consists of two parts: Alaska, and Outside.

But what I most enjoy is the authenticity of this text; there can be no question that Governor You Betcha wrote it herself {wink}.



Gracee!!!

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I had an eventful 4th and had my camera with me all day, which is something I don't usually do. I took various fun pictures of the neighborhood kids & my boy hanging out in the yard (check out how nicely mowed that grass is!) and of the Phillies game and of fireworks. We have a neighbor who does an extremely quality fireworks show in his backyard, complete with all sorts of illegal 'works the sort of which you usually only see at a city park or something. It's a whole big party with lots of seating and drinks and stuff. Pretty much every year the cops come & shut him down, but this year he made it through to the finale which was in fact grand!

The photo album for the day is here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030272&id=1147550346&l=f0d84be288

Happy birthday, America.



Eric sez, "The operator of a monorail at Walt Disney World died Sunday morning when two monorails crashed. About five or six guests were on the monorail at the time of the accident, but they are not seriously injured." It happened at the Ticket and Transportation Center station.

A person who was on the scene reported to the news stations that they head a loud explosion and saw the mangled trains in the station. They tried to run to get people out of the front of the crashed train. They saw a family make it out, but the driver [ed: news report cuts off here]

The monorails involved were the pink and purple trains, according to Local 6 in Orlando; pink was moving and hit purple, which was stationary.

Breaking news: Two monorails crash at Disney World overnight, one Cast Member dead (Thanks, Eric and John!)

A book publicist at a large house has a blog filled with a variety of helpful tips, some for other publicity folks, some for authors. A recent one looks at the pros and cons of different levels of web presence.

You can read it here.



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Reading the latest crowleycrow post regarding an actual but highly improbable genre author, I note that Crowley speculates on whether equally weird things are being done on fanfic sites or wherever.

Most John Crowley fans who are not fiction writers in their own right are typically so methodologically self-aware that they couldn't produce a decent Crowleyan pastiche to save themselves because they are too aware of what is required to do it right.

Which reminds me that I have written a typically weird reflection for Counterforces (that may never be posted once I have time to decide it can't be polished up with a little minor tweaking) based on the Normans' new book (I can't be bothered to look up the couple's full names) Tears in the Darkness, a new composite history of the Bataan Death March and its aftermath.

The Normans give us capsule biographies based on original interviews that make some of us want to know what happened to these people afterward, the Japanese in particular. But they follow only the familiar (albeit too often mythologized) story of General Homma on that side, and on the side of the prisoners they give us the fascinating tale of Ben Steele, a 91-year-old (I assume he is still with us) artist in Montana.

Steele grew up in ranch country in the Depression, and took up art during his years of confinement in Japanese labor camps. His notebook sketches illustrate the volume throughout.

I bring this up not because the book is such a valuable reminder of the truth of Carolyn Forché's line "There is nothing one man will not do to another" (although it is) but because the Normans settled on telling Steele's tale in a series of alternating back-story chapters that eventually bring us up to the moment we meet him just before Bataan's surrender. These establish valuable context in terms of the mindset and tough experiences of Depression-era American enlistees who composed the bulk of American survivors of the Bataan Death March (there were far more Filipinos) but they aren't integrated all that gracefully. Thereafter, the Normans integrate necessary background information and intertwine personal stories with enormous skill, and the narrative keeps moving at a novelistic pace. (They seem to have done their homework in narrative strategy as well as in evaluating the relative quality of historical documentation.)

Having discussed this same problem earlier, I thought I'd bring it up here.

I'm finding significant intellectual cross-fertilization in my concurrent reading of Peter Marshall's The Mercurial Emperor (Rudolf II) and (am momentarily blanking on the name of the author)'s Paradise, a survey of imaginal history that rightly links apocalypticism with utopianism and desires for moral perfection as models combining and contrasting with wishes for perfect physical comfort. This is exactly what I pointed out in my commentary on the "Images of Apocalypse" exhibition, in an essay on the Counterforces blog.

But the two books (which most of you probably saw when they were first published, but I hadn't read them till a friend brought remainder copies from London) contain so much that is of interest to the crowleycrow blog readers who found this blog that way that I am hoping to elucidate the links and specific topics. (Marshall is particularly good at summarizing what we already knew but didn't express so succinctly, in terms of the Emperor's sponsorship of knowledge of the world in whatever form was considered respectable in his day, whether astronomical observation or alchemy or the collection of curious botanical specimens and allegorical paintings depicting the harmonies underlying the world's conflicts and apparent diversities. Arcimboldo's bizarre paintings apparently are meant to demonstrate the harmonies of existence...if an allegorical portrait of a season can be made using the fruits of that season, it is a statement of the continuous links between climate, environment, and the harmonies of the society built upon that climate and that environment: Rudolf's Empire. I am sure I had read this before but hadn't made the obvious connection with, say, Ficino's vision of neo-Platonic natural order. It all seems self-evident but it is good to see all the parallels stated in terms of why they would have tied together what looks to modern eyes like a complete mishmash. By the way, most of my readers already know that Johannes Kepler wrote one of the foundational texts of crystallography but I hadn't realized he wrote a book about six-pointed snowflakes, noting in it that most of the stars he had observed were also six-pointed.)
Yesterday we attended a 4th of July parade in the community two towns over from our own. I use this parade as our "dress rehearsal" for the parade which takes place in our own hometown, typically the following day. I figure if my kids misbehave in a public venue on a day intended to honor our country at least I won't be facing humiliation in my own backyard. 

My husband and I also use events like these as an opportunity to audit our parental efficiency. We carefully calculate the time it takes to park, unpack the strollers, load up the kids and find a choice viewing location. Factored into that is whether or not we remembered to pack diapers, wipes, drinks, snacks, and a camera. We subtract points every time one of us directs a veiled threat at one of our offspring or has to huffily return to the car to retrieve a forgotten item.

Yesterday, I'm pleased to say our small corporate venture was running at peak efficiency. We sailed smoothly into an open parking spot at the grocery store right across the street from the prime real estate where we set up camp. We exited the car with minimal bickering and without once having to scream at the kids, "Get off other people's cars!!!" We came prepared with all the essentials, including candy-gathering bags, and I even brought back-up lest one should get a hole. My parents, who suffer from self-induced senility (at the tender age of 65) even managed to set aside their doddering and clueless ways to meet us at the event (and arrive on time!). God Bless America!

I have to say that the remainder of the day progressed rather smoothly with only a few minor (by our family's standards) bumps. My dad, who is so liberal that he makes Al Gore look like a fascist, embarassingly remained seated when the military personnel and veterans paraded by.  My mom (who, to her credit, was not born in this country) kept asking if it was Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  I kind of have to side with her on this one. Even though we do live in Illinois, the parade was heavy with Honest Abe impersonators). My husband, in an effort to keep K bound to his stroller for the entire event kept feeding him a steady stream of parade candy (and then questioned, 2 hours later, why the child had near-diarrhea).


My middle children work under the tyrrany supervision of their reclined eldest sibling.



My eldest is really beginning to understand how America operates. As his younger siblings worked the curb, he laid back on the blanket and supervised their efforts. Every once in a while he would direct my daughter to run after a particular goodie, but eventually it was she who would return to the blanket to proffer a choice item. "Look! I got you Nerds!" He would then open his bag and silently nod his head with approval like some kind of parade Godfather. This child has a future as a union boss.

My middle son, however, really shone as the true patriot of the family He wholly embodied the spirit of what it means to be an American. He steadfastly toed the pink parade safety line and shamelessly shilled for candy as if he didn't already live in the Land of Plenty. When candy was thrown his way, he elbowed women, children, babies and the elderly out of the way for his rightful share. This land is MY land, people! He double dipped by directly confronting the candy wranglers who'd already tossed him candy and demanding they give him - not only MORE candy -but only the SPECIFIC candy he requested. He held up a poor Betsy Ross from the local credit union for a full 2 minutes and rifled through her basket of Tootsie Rolls until he secured a handful of the more preferable Airheads. In the meantime, I did MY American duty and looked the other way. When it was all over my son greedily lifted his weighty bag of loot and declared the day a success. It was an embarassment of riches.

Then again, isn't that what this country is all about?
First, I must include a random photo of the most distressing cake I have ever made. Thing 1's birthday party was yesterday and she requested a princess cake on short notice, with low provisions. So I was forced to create the Fugly Cake with princesses baked inside. I am displaying it here for everyone who as ever asked me "Maggie, what can't you do?"

That, my friends, is my answer.

Anyway, onto my anecdote. The other day I was driving down from a fairly disastrous trip to an Elizabeth Scott book signing (disastrous because there was no Elizabeth Scott there). In tow I had my sister and Thing 1 & Thing 2.

Anyway, on the way back, to make up for sitting in traffic on the Devil's Vortex of Doom, High Blood Pressure, and Wankers in Porsches*, my sister asked if we could stop at this antiques place that always had cool furniture sitting out front. Since I'd just subjected her to five hours of driving, I acquiesced.

*otherwise known as I-95

I am not normally an antiques person. I did not even realize that 'antique' could be a verb until a few years ago. So I was largely disinterested. I did, however, find myself highly attracted to this mug/ stein thing. As you can see at the right, it depicts people dancing in pairs, holding fiddles, and . . . vomiting. I mean, what is that guy doing there on the left? Do you see him? The one with the string of something coming from his mouth?

I am pretty sure that is an excess of Heineken, right there.

Anyway, so if you guys ever wanted to know what kind of things would spur me to act out of character and spending money, now you know. Salt-glazed German guys playing music and vomiting artistically.

You have a better explanation for what that gentleman is doing?


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Cyn Balog’s debut novel FAIRY TALE, about a girl who can see the future, and her boyfriend, who starts to turn into a fairy, recently debuted, so we’re asking Cyn 9 essential questions we need to know about every author. Stay tuned after the questions for the Deluxe!

9. Legs or pudding?
Pudding. Yummy.

8. Jean jacket or leather jacket?
They both seem kind of scummy.

7. Blind faith or cold logic?
Blind faith. Follow your Tummy.

6. Pen or keyboard?
Pen. Less chance of getting Carpal Tunnel and wrists going Numby.

5. Zombies or unicorns?
Zombies. Nom nom nommy.

4. Hardback or paperback?
Hardback, because my book is, Dummy.

3. Bookmark or fold the page?
Fold the page, like that ancient Japanese art, ori-gummy.

2. Hoard or share?
Share, be chummy.

1. Happy ending or total devastation?
Happy Ending. Cuz sadness is crummy.

Thanks, Cyn! To find out more about Cyn, check out her website at www.cynbalog.com! And now…

Deluxe!

Win a signed, personalized copy of Cyn’s debut novel, FAIRY TALE!! Just leave a comment in this entry by midnight tonight (EST) and a winner will be chosen at random! Good luck!

Originally published at MSUFaL. You can comment here or there.

I slept past them. Had the alarm wake me up.
Had a dream about being recruited for basketball at school for as a class. Practice was from 9 to 10 at night.
counter create hit
One of my first teaching jobs was in a tiny school on a Maine island. When I talk about that teaching experience, I know it sounds romantic to take a ferry to work everyday.

And it was: September to November and May to June. Not many people have a commute where the view out of the window might include seals, porpoises, and jet-black cormorants flying just above the waves.

And yet, between those glorious fall and late spring months, it was often wind-wild and rough. The spray would freeze on the gangplank, making low-tide something to be dreaded. In fact, I was the only teacher in the whole district who had a column next to her name in the teacher attendance log for "Act of God." If the ferry couldn't run, I couldn't go to work.

I based the setting for TOUCH BLUE, my next novel, loosely on that island (and a few others). I was looking at Maine island videos this morning as I'm revising that book, and this is the ferry I took (though not the same captain).

I remember many, many days when the weather was just like this. Waiting for the boat on that wharf, there'd be an icy wet wind off the water,  I'd stand with my back to it, so my eyes wouldn't tear up. Those days, the boat pitched and rolled harder than a ride at the fair. Still, I only remember having to call in my "Act of God" excuse once to the superintendent's office.




"Didn't know if you was coming," the bus driver would say, as I climbed onto the school bus, waiting for me on the island.

"Didn't know myself," I'd reply.

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So many people in this world I'll never know
So many states I've yet to see
Do you ever worry time will slip away before you get to do it all?
I do.
I carry a notebook
and carry the faces and places of where I've been with me
I try to remember it all
and even if no one else gets to know their stories
at least, for that one moment, I feel a connection
I step outside myself
and see there's more to life than all I think I know
Yes,
I'm searching for connections
on this ribbon of highway
Words are not photographs
I can't paint you
I can't capture your image
but I can write what I see in you
and who I think you are
I hope that's enough
I hope someone out there is going to remember
I once existed
I hope someone out there is thinking,
if only for an instant,
Hey.
What about... her?
I wonder what she's thinking?
Do you ever wonder if people care
about your life?
And will you matter
One Day?
You do.
You do.






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Tim sez, "This is the pre-launch page for the Bayer 'Didget', a blood glucose meter which plugs in to the DS / DS Lite's Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult, presumably) is rewarded with points in a game that can be used to buy items or unlock levels. As with the the 'iPlayer' hardware video decoder for the DS which Cory recently posted, the downside is that the new DSi doesn't have a Slot-2.
Bayer's DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel -- the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that although his son Luke was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, he could always find his Nintendo Game Boy. It was this observation that inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite gaming systems to reward children for good testing habits.
Bayer's DIDGET Blood Glucose Meter (Thanks, Tim!)

"

Here's my friend and neighbour Matt Webb (part of the Schulze and Webb design consultancy) addressing Copenhagen's Reboot conference on what the role of a designer was and is in the 21st century. It's a great Webbrant, thought-provoking, learned, wide-ranging, weird and great.

Reboot (via Warren Ellis)

The latest cheap trick from Can-rockers Cheap Trick is an album released on an 8-track tape. Bah! My album will be released in the form of incidental grooving on the side of a thrown pot made in the style of ancient Greek potters!
As you might imagine, finding a manufacturer today for the 8-track version of Cheap Trick's The Latest wasn't easy. "There was a lot of looking under rocks," admits Frey, who finally found a small plant in Dallas, Tex., for the retro-fit. "They're expensive to make, and they don't make very many at a time," he says of the cartridge which will sell to the public for something close to $30.

The new album, issued on Cheap Trick's own label, is comprised of 12 songs broken into four sets of three songs each - suites that unfortunately don't fit nicely into the four 10-minute programs of standard 8-tracks, but which may be available at some point as a three-for-the-price-of-one deal on iTunes. As Frey explains the discount, "We're kind of more worried about being ignored than being ripped off."

Cheap Trick brings back the 8-track


A reader writes, "Take one part Threadless shirt design and one part cake mix, add in some fondant and frosting and you have Threadcakes: An online cake contest based on transforming Threadless designs into cakes."

Threadcakes Gallery! :: Threadcakes: A Threadless Cake

Behold the awesome suction power of the airplane toilet, capable of slurping up an entire roll of toilet paper in one go. Don't clog the tank, though, or chunks of shit-ice will start to fall off the undercarriage, killing people with icy B.M.s (pun courtesy of Mr Spider Robinson).

The Airplane Toilet Paper Experiment (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Recently we at "The Black Arts" finished the web site for the artist Chris Robertson. Chris has done many editorial illustrations as well as worked as a storyboard artist to a director on many animated cartoons like Hey Arnold!, Family Guy, and American Dad and has also written and illustrated his own kids book called "Little Miss Liberty".

http://chrisrobertsonbooks.com/

Silly Sisters

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I found these old drawings of mine from when I was writing Moonwise.  Do they look as you imagined them?














Sylvie
Sylvie
 
Ariane
Ariane
 

There are far more sketches and scraps than I remembered--maybe thirty?  Several of the finished ones are at my website, and will be in the Readercon souvenir book.  I'll bring the others, as copies or files, to show my Kaffeeklatsch.  [info]sovay  thinks I should do a chapbook.

Nine


July 4th, 2009

Haven't been feeling all that well today, either physically or emotionally. I love my friends and I'm sorry I missed seeing any of you. It's good to know that I would have been welcome today! Hopefully we'll be able to get together soon.

Anyway, not feeling well, not thinking well, not having the energy to do much of anything either fun or useful, I spent most of the day either in bed or sitting at the computer. On the plus side, I have tasty cherries here. Cherries make almost anything better.

Tonight, of course, I've been hearing lots of fireworks displays put on by the various local towns. Looked outside and saw colored lights sparkling through the trees. Went out on the back porch to watch for a while, then decided to put my shoes on and go walking toward the fireworks. Well, if I'd wanted to see the fireworks, I would have been better off staying where I was--we're at the top of a hill, and while the trees block out most of the view, they don't block it out entirely. So as I walked along quiet streets and dark, tree-lined paths that a sensible person wouldn't walk on alone at night, I could hear and smell the neighboring town's celebration better than I could see it. But the fireflies rising above the streets could see the flashing lights quite well, and they flashed back. I think the fireflies may have been the better show.

And a Mini-Rant

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I stopped wearing shorts very often in public several years ago. Maybe ten years ago.

I am not ashamed of my legs, exactly. But i am a very pale-skinned person. I have done my time on swimteam and lifeguarding outdoors. Skin cancer runs in my family. I see no reason to actively pursue a tan.

I am also very tall.

This means that when i do wear shorts, there is an awful lot of white leg on display.

And while i am relatively comfortable with the color of my skin--because i know it will keep me healthier and younger looking longer, etc, and well, it is the color that i happen to be--other people have trouble with my skin color.

But today was hot; so i decided (as i do maybe once or twice a summer) to go out in public in my shorts.

Did the clerk at the grocery store comment on the color of my skin? Oh, yes, he did.

Maybe i am old enough that i can get stubborn about this now. Or just invest in goth makeup and more black than i already wear... But that latter option sounds hot and slimy.

(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)


More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com




Happy Fourth!

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Photo by Lois Toureen c 2009

Hope everyone is having a lazy kinda day :)

Passions

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"All have won, and all muist have prizes," as (I think) the Dodo proclaims after the Caucus Race.  Very clever, all of you.  This is the best I could come up with:

Oysters delight to bark and bite
Though we all say them nay,
And clocks proceed from day to night
Implore them as we may!
 
But let the bears eat little boys
As is their ancient right;
And let their pretty passions rise
To give us all delight!

Princess for Hire

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I was surprised to open a box of Advance Readers at work yesterday and find an ARC for Lindsey Leavitt's ([info]lindsey_leavitt) Princess for Hire. The release date on the book is not until next March, so i had a bit of a time warp moment. (Especially since a coworker had just been complaining about there being catalogs with Christmas books in them--something we don't want to be thinking about in July.) But i was also thrilled! I love all of my writer friends, and i am proud of all of you, but i have to confess that i am particularly proud of Lindsey.

I remember the first piece of hers that i ever read. It was on the SCBWI's discussion board. It was about a girl who wanted to be a cowboy and a cow that wanted to be... oh, dear, here my memory is fuzzy--i think the cow wanted to be in a parade. Or maybe it wanted something even grander. But the two team up, get most of what they wanted from each other, and ride off into the sunset together. I laughed. It was brilliant. I could totally see it as an illustrated picture book, the images were that clear. So, i emailed her. We've been friends since.

I did not see a whole manuscript for Princess for Hire, but i remember the idea in concept. I remember thinking, if not saying, after reading the first sketch paragraphs, that this was a book that would sell. And it did.

You might think that believing in Lindsey's perpetual brilliance would set me up to be disappointed at some point. But it never has. The lady has a way with words--her characters are so lovably funny, her descriptions so spot on humorous. I stayed up very late last night, reading Princess for Hire, thinking "just one more chapter and then i'll go to bed". I finally had to force myself to go to bed, but the first thing i did when i got up this morning was pick up the book. I loved it. But i suppose that is not a surprise to me; i knew i would.

What i love most about Princess for Hire:
1. Lindsey's trademark humor--Desi is adorably self-focused and so very fourteen.
2. How beautifully unglamorous/mundane/not-at-all-what-you-dream-of the princesses' lives are.
3. How Desi's self-confidence grows.
4. How the book celebrates standing up for who you are and expecting respect from others for who you are.

In short, i can't wait 'til March when i get to start encouraging kids (and adults) to read it.

Sarlaac pillow

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Flickr user scrumptiousdelight created this Sarlaac monster in pillow form for Stitch Wars, a Star Wars crafting show. Note all the little details, like the Boba Fett helmet on one of the tentacles.

saarlac pitlow monster (via Wonderland)

Happy Independence Day, USA!

Although to be honest, I'm not super-fond of fireworks.

And on this particular 4th of July, I'm a bit concerned that at least some of the rockets and bombs were sent up by North Korea.


Kiva - loans that change lives




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Harry sez, "Computers weren't portable in 1968 (they tended to fill entire rooms), but even then, the yen for portable computing was there. In 1968, Computerworld reported on a carrying case that turned a Teletype machine into a 75-pound mobile terminal--wheels were optional." The Laptop, Circa 1968 (Thanks, Harry!)

The Weather Channel will no longer have a "smooth jazz" soundtrack behind its "Local On the 8s" segments. Instead, they will play rock. Fortunately, you can still turn down the TV volume and crank your CD of "The Weather Channel Presents Smooth Jazz," which actually hit #1 on the Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Album Chart. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“I think we’ve been doing an injustice to our viewers playing, for the lack of a better word, elevator music on the segments for all these years,” said Geoffrey Darby, the cable network’s new executive vice president of programming, Thursday.

“People would have it on but they wouldn’t be watching and they wouldn’t be listening,” said Darby, who pushed for the change after joining the network in February. “We wanted music that would get their attention —- and this has.”
Weather Channel turns to rock

What do you think?

http://www.blackholly.com
1. Yesterday we bought a new refrigerator. At last. After much teeth gnashing and worrying over the colors and sizes and whathaveyous. Got home from ordering it, remeasured, and the built-in that we have isn't as deep as what we bought. It will stick out into the pathway several inches. Instant crash and burn for me. We were going to cancel it but the built-in built-ins are $7K to $8K. Unreal! And less space and less feature and poorer ratings. So we are going with the original choice and will now have a fridge sticking out into the narrow pathway. Hey, it will match the microwave that sticks out on the other side of the kitchen. Remodeling the kitchen is such a pipe dream compared to all the other things that need doing around this house that I need to accept that what is, is. It is on its own wall, at an anle. We can't push it back any farther unless we want to remodel the bathroom and take out the countertop. Which we do, but not right now.

2. We went to multiple stores yesterday looking for a decorative but HEAVY chain to hold up the antique chandelier we bought, oh, a year or more ago. We can find heavy chains that will hold the heavy chandelier but they look like the ones you use to tow a car. And I am sure that when the electrican goes to hang it he is going to find more a problem in the ceiling. It's just the way it goes with this house.

3. The bird bath in the backyard overflows, which is good, to water the fern/wetlands area near the patio. However it does not flow the direction one would think, as in down the steeper incline. It flows toward the patio so much so that we now have a bog. Which is not good. We have played with multiple solutions and while they MIGHT work, none of the strike me as ones that WILL work for sure which is realy frustrating.

4. We have lived in this house for over two years now and the living room still does not have any furniture or a purpose or a hint of a purpose that would help me figure out what to do with it. It's a funky design that makes it even more difficult. So basically you walk into the house and see a junky room which is, let's face it, rather depressing.

5. I am trying to find a handyman or a carpenter or someone to build us sturdy garage cabinets, ones that don't have particle board shelves that will warp as soon as you put a can of paint on them, but they don't seem to be anywhere around.

6. Okay so those are only five things that are frustrating me but it frustrates me that they are bugging me so I'm counting that as number six.
I'm wrapping up this week by offering up some thoughts on what to do you you decide you really do need the services of a book doctor.  The most obvious way to find someone is to ask fellow writers if they can recommend someone.  Publishing is a networking business, and especially if you get an encouraging rejection, it's perfectly okay to ask the publishing house editor if they might recommend a freelance editor you could work with.  

I have also asked writers outside of children's and young adult fiction if they might know someone who wouldn't mind reading a text (for a nominal fee).  Just last fall I asked Blas Falconer, a professor at Austin Peay State University and an award winning poet if he would read something for me.  Blas is amazing, and I had the honor of teaching some young adult students with him last summer. He wasn't sure about the young adult audience so asked a friend, Curtis Crisler to give it a look.  As is turns our Curtis published a critically acclaimed young adult poetry book Tough Boy Sonatas with Wordsong (one of the imprints of Boyds Mills Press), so we shared the same editor.  I would have never asked Curtis to read the manuscript because I was too intimidated.  But small world.  Curtis gave me a terrific critique in exchange for a small fee, which he used to buys YA fiction. 

If you feel you really just don't know anyone, then take a look at the web site of the IEG or Independent Editors Group.  This is a group of New York based professional book doctors who practice in many genres and with many different processes and fees.  The one thing they all have in common is that they are experienced and ethical in how they work with clients.  They have been together for ten years and have worked with clients like Stephen King and Maya Angelou.  These editors are not inexpensive, but they know what they are doing.  

As for freelance editors that work specifically with children's and young adult manuscripts, you really can't go wrong with Deborah Brodie or Kara LaReau, my guests this week.  Stephen Roxburgh, my former editor at Front Street, has also opened a shop called namelos .  Here's what their web site says about initial fees and contact:  

 
For an initial reading and evaluation of up to 10,000 words of a single project (fiction or nonfiction), a complete picture-book dummy, or a picture-book manuscript, we charge a nonrefundable $200 fee, payable in advance. You will receive a written evaluation, including our assessment of the viability of the project and a recommendation for how to proceed. 


I have to say, Stephen gave me the best advice I've ever received as a writer. His first comment as my editor was, "Cut all the interior monologue." Doing that changed Long Gone Daddy into a better book, made it 100 pages shorter, and helped me see how to leave room for the reader in my manuscript.  

So that's our week.  I'm off for a cook out and some fireworks!  I can't wait for Kara's comments on my picture book manuscript.  But in case you're interested, here's the text as it stands now (see below).  On this very happy independence day, I'm thinking of my friends in South Africa, their new democracy, and the hope they share. Let freedom ring...in peace, y'all.  Anon.  HH

The Peace Garden of Manenberg

 By Helen Hemphill 

Rita rakes the tender sand.

 It is March, and the summer’s sun leaves its sting on the Cape Flats.

 But in Manenberg, there is one corner where Spring keeps her splendor. 

 Where fiddle leaf geraniums sun themselves,

 While wild giant sage zigzag in the wind.

 Ribbon bush preen purple blooms,

 And waxberries melt warm in the sand ;

 Once this land was angry with rocks and broken glass.

 Boys on opposite sides of the street threw stones at their enemies.

 Then the stones became bullets.

 And the bullets became graves.

 And the land died with the boys. 

Until one day, the people of Manenberg said, “No More!”

No more stones. 

No more bullets. 

No more graves.

“Make us a peace garden?” they asked Rita. 

“Yebo,” she said.

And Rita began to rake. 

And the people began to plant.   

And the land began to come alive

With paths for running

And bridges for wishing

And a community amphitheater for music and dancing. 

Rita and the people raked love into the soil.

Peace began to grow. 

Now, each day the garden explodes with the colors of the South African sky. 

The flowers are rich ruby, purely pink, mango, and spicy yellow. 

The leaves are soft silver and leathery purple. 

And each day Rita rakes. 

And stones become flowers, 

And flowers become love,

And love becomes hope, 

In the peace garden of Manenberg. 

Author’s note:  Manenberg is one of several townships that surround Cape Town, South Africa.  The township, a community marred by high unemployment, gangs, crime, and drug abuse, is home to seventy thousand poor South Africans of mixed race who were relocated during apartheid.  After fifteen years of South African democracy, the town felt little was being done to better their community, so the people of Manenberg decided to take matters into their own hands.  The Peace Garden of Manenberg was open in February, 2008 in conjunction with Proudly Manenberg, a community-activist group, and Western Cape Environment, Planning and Economic Development. Proudly Manenberg is also working to improve education opportunities for children, create employment within the community, and stop gangs by shutting down their operational space.  The Peace Garden of Manenberg is their first community effort to stop gang violence. 

 

 

 


 
JA Konrath (who doubles as the Energizer Bunny) provides the answer here.



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Drew Friedman continues his new series of portraits depicting legendary circus and carnie sideshow freaks. The paintings are for a private collector, who I wish was me. Fortunately, Drew says they'll eventually be collected in a book. Seen here is Julia Pastrana Percilla Lauther aka "Percilla The Monkey Girl." Her story is strange, tragic, and also quite touching. From J. Tithonus Pednaud's fantastic site, The Human Marvels:
In the late 1930’s, while performing with the Johnny J. Jones Exposition, Percilla met fellow marvel Emmitt Bejano, the Alligator-Skinned Man. Despite her heavy beard and his ichthyosis a sweet romance blossomed between the unique couple. The pair saw past their physical differences. Emmitt was a man with calloused skin who spent performance intermissions submerged in vats of ice water because he could not sweat. Emmitt was quite literally ‘thick skinned’ and he had a ‘hard shell to crack’ but beneath he was a compassionate, gentle, charming and passionate man. Percilla, despite looking more beast than beauty, was elegant, eloquent and possessed and enchanting singing voice. Before long Percilla realized that the gentle Emmitt was the love of her life and the two eloped in 1938.
Percilla The Monkey Girl (Human Marvels)
Drew Friedman's The Monkey Girl (Drawger)



On Tuesday, Sean Stanley Smith, 19, ran around Lake Tahoe's casino arcade naked until police subdued him with a taser. They arrested him for indecent exposure. According to the Record Courier, "He reportedly told officers he had ingested marijuana and LSD, and was running naked because he thought he was 'the Terminator.'" He'll be back. "Naked 'Terminator' arrested at casino" (via Dose Nation)

Book:


Salad:

Red leaf lettuce, feta cheese, dried cranberries ("Craisins"), sliced almonds, raspberry vinaigrette dressing


Friend:

Janee Trasler


Random Quote:

"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can."
~Danny Kaye


 


Hope the fireworks light up the sky!

Ice Ace
Best of them all. Everything came full circle even with the dreary beginnings. The ending is not as sad as it seems. I'm sure we'll be hearing from Buck again. After all, the squirrel will still be trying for the acorn underneath the surface.
Dawn of the Dinosaurs proves this doesn't have to end a trilogy, there's still room for an Ice Age 4. What will it be about?

Post any good ideas here.
I walked along the sidewalk to the supermarket this morning, and overhead the birds were flying back and forth in the trees, and the sunlight was shining through their wing feathers and their tail feathers, and those wings and tails were looking like sunlit fans.

No sooner did I think that than at my feet, a feather with a golden shaft (photographed here not in situ but back at home).
feather with golden-yellow shaft

So pretty. the goldenness of it )

At the supermarket, I walked alongside the canal-like ditch that runs beside the parking lot. There were frogs singing there, sounding like plucked rubber bands. (Also one bullfrog, whose song sounds like very, very deep bagpipe notes.)42-second video of frogsong )

Then, home through some long grass. Walking through long grass that's thick with dew is like wading in a stream--it was as fresh and cool and, in the end, got me as wet as walking up a stream.

There are levels of thickness of water, I think:

  • Water in still lakes and becalmed oceans is the thickest of all.
  • Water in fast rivers and streams, or on stormy seas, is somewhat thinner. The speed at which it's moving thins it. Also, it's not just water; it's water + tumult.
  • Next is dew on long grass: the water and grass and wildflowers together make waterlace, waternets.
  • And then last is water in clouds--the thinest water of all.



  •  
    A link in Rhe Dizzies homepage opposite led me to this:

    site.xavier.edu/polt/keeler/story.html

    Can this really be possible?  Is it the sort of elaborate hoax that the Net invites and obsessed over-stimulated and highly intelligent college students create?  It has to be real; follow the links and you get an actual novel, published by McSweeneys -- but then again McSweeneys is a doubtful enterprise and seems itself somehow impossible even when yhou hold its products in your hands.
    The first 2 scans constitute the "outside" of the sheet; the next 2 scans constitute the "inside."

    Click to make big.







    Posted by Paul DiFi.

    Joan Greenwood's Voice

    [info]pgdf posting in [info]theinferior4
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    I have one question for UK readers of this blog: Does any British woman in 2009 sound like Joan Greenwood?

    Hear her here, in these two clips, with, alas, only a bit of inimitable dialogue in each.





    Posted by Paul DiFi.
    Out of the Blue's "Dead Gnome" line features garden gnomes with pistols in their mouths, or holding up the dripping heads of decapitated brethren, industriously sawing their own hands off, hanging from a gibbet, grinning glassily at the arrow that's pierced their heads, and so on. It's the wet, happy grins that get me.

    Dead Gnome (Thanks, Alice!)


    Made a ring tone for main character.  Tool’s version of “No Quarter”.  Very Supernatural-ish.




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    When I read A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book, one of the many things that struck me was that Olive Wellwood, her novelist character who writes the children’s books alluded to in the title, was almost constantly either shaping narratives in her head or actually writing. One obvious and important reason for this was economic necessity, since the proceeds from her books were supporting a large family. But Wellwood’s ability to compulsively construct story out of the raw materials of experience and imagination verged on an inability to live her life without spinning it into fiction.

    It got me thinking about what I’m calling the writing commute: the psychological distance between a writer and their writing. Some writers, I think, have a really short commute. Like Wellwood, they’re never far away, workaholics who never leave their offices mentally even when they’re elsewhere physically. Others — and I count myself in this category — have farther to travel to get to the place where writing happens, and sometimes the traffic’s backed up.

    The length of your writing commute can certainly shift; getting longer when you need to spend significant time on other priorities, shorter when an idea compels you to follow it. Right now, for instance, I’m writing at this ungodly hour on a holiday weekend because I woke up knowing I had to write about this notion before I could get back to sleep. And when I’m really focused on a novel, I’ll often find myself waking up in the middle of the night, digging in my bag for a pen when I’m stopped at a stoplight. At those times, my writing commute is almost nonexistent. I am there, and it’s hard to be anywhere else.

    But it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have a longer writing commute. The space between you and writing can be a kind of breathing room. And being consciously aware that you have the commute to make — knowing you need to travel that distance — can be a reminder that you’re choosing to write, and making that choice over and over.

    Originally published at sararyan.com. You can comment here or there.

    A new Turkish game-show asks clerics to convert atheists and awards prizes for the most conversions; I think the atheists should get points for resisting the pitch, too -- it's only fair (and the atheists should win supreme if the cleric loses faith altogether!).

    A new game show on Turkish television will pit a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, an imam and a Buddhist monk against one another in attempt to convert atheists to their respective religions.

    In each episode of Penitents Compete, to be broadcast by Turkey's Kanal T television station in September, the four faith guides will try to persuade 10 atheists of the merits and truth of their creeds...

    An eight-member team of theologians will vet contestants to ensure they really are atheists before deciding who will participate in the show.

    Faiths compete on Turkish game show (via Derren Brown)


    Marilyn sez, "Pretty cool photos from July National Geographic. These manta rays in the Maldives have a 12-ft-wingspan, and the photographer Thomas Peschak was right in among them during feeding frenzies to get these shots. I especially like the last one in this gallery, which shows them lining up one behind the other in chain feeding behavior before swirling into a spiral formation for cyclone feeding, a behavior rarely seen outside the Maldives."

    Feeding Frenzy (Thanks, Marilyn!)

    Independence Day

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    THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. -Thomas Paine, The Crisis

    Yesterday, we visited the grave of an American patriot.



    Colonel Thomas Hunt was born in the Colony of Massachusetts. He was a Sergeant in Captain Croft's Company of Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. On Jan. 1, 1776 he became a member of the 25th Continental Infantry and transferred to Jackson 19s Continental Regiment as a Captain on Feb. 1, 1777. Wounded at the Battle of Stoneypoint on July 16, 1779, he transferred to the 9th Massachusetts Regiment on Jan. 1, 1781, and was wounded again at the Battle of Yorktown on Oct. 14, 1781. After the Revolution he remained in the Army, transferring to the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment on Jan. 1, 1783 and returning to Jackson’s Continental Regiment as a Captain on Feb. 1, 1777. After the Revolution he remained in the Army, transferring to the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment on Jan. 1, 1783 and returning to Jackson 19s Continental Regiment in November 1783. He became a Captain in the 3rd U.S. Infantry on March 4, 1791 and was promoted to the rank of Major on Feb. 18, 1793. He was reassigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry on Nov. 1, 1796, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on April 1, 1802 and Colonel on April 11, 1803. Colonel Hunt died Aug. 18, 1808 and was buried at Fort Bellefontaine. He was removed to Jefferson Barracks in April of 1904.

    Colonel Hunt was there at the beginning of the American Revolution during the "shot heard 'round the world". His final resting place overlooks the Mississippi River:



    It's humbling to look at that simple white headstone and see Rev War. Colonel Hunt was no "sunshine patriot" nor "summer soldier". We celebrate our independence, our liberty today because of patriots like Colonel Thomas Hunt.

    As you drive through Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery you see white headstones for as far as the eye can see.



    And you are reminded that liberty is not free.

    The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. -Thomas Jefferson




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