Lizjonesbooks

This weekend was busy-busy.

Friday, after work/school, we had the Spring Fling at James’ school. We got there at about 5pm to help out and then didn’t leave until about 8:30pm.

Saturday I had to have James down to the bowling alley by 7:30am to start showdown bowling for a tournament of champions
(more on this later), then to the baseball field by 11am for a 12-noon Little League game
(more on this later, too), then right after the LL game we came home showered and headed to Long Beach to watch the China Olympic baseball team play the Long Beach Armada (James batboyed for the Armada).

We got home at 12:45am and everyone was in bed by 1am.

Sunday started with Mass at 7am (Mary and I were lectors and James was scheduled to serve). At 9am I had to have James down to Crown Point for a Big Brothers event with his Brother, Danny. They did a basketball shoot out competition. They passed round one and moved on to round two but didn’t advance to the finals. But it was a beautiful day to be down at the beaches and the boys had TONS of fun. At 11am I took Danny and James down to Fun 4 All (mini golf, bumper boats, batting cages, etc…) then I headed over to the Ballhogs Baseball Club practice to see everyone there (this was muchly enjoyable). After that I came home cleaned the kitchen then just hung out.

Later this evening James and I did four loads of laundry (we’re so busy, it gets really backed up!). For dinner we ate artichokes and while those were boiling I made some spaghetti for tomorrow’s dinner. All I’ll have to do tomorrow after work is to heat the sauce and boil some pasta. I might buy some biscuits too.

Ok, pure Mommy type bragging is going to be happening right now so if that kind of stuff annoys you, I totally understand and won’t be offended if you don’t read any further.

James’ bowling team did real well. They had to make up a lot of league time because of baseball games and tournaments and such, but since one kid on his team (T.) is on his baseball teams and the other is T.’s sister (S.) it made the make ups much easier to accomplish.

Both T. and S. aren’t super-super bowlers, but they held their own all season and got better and better from the beginning of the season to the end, so that was cool to see. The league is a handicap league so you don’t even need to be super good to still have fun or place well in the standings.

The season is over now and they placed second. Which is actually better than any of us thought it would be as they had at least two, maybe three weeks where they missed and were unable to make up their scores so they had to use their absentee scores. Still second place is cool.

For individual awards James got High Game Scratch (‘scratch’ is a person’s score without their handicap included…only the actual amount of pins knocked down) with 258. He also won High Average with 155.

So away goes the basketball trophy into a “save” box and up go the three bowling trophies until he gets his end-of-season baseball trophy(ies?).

I only keep the most recent trophy(ies) out on display, the rest go into a “save” box. I do this because, seriously, it’d be NUTS to keep all of them out. He has earned SO MANY. That really isn’t a Mommy brag though because sometimes the kids get a trophy just for participating in an event or sport.

Brace yourselves, more Mommy bragging is coming up:

Yesterday (5/17/08) James pitched his second complete game shutout of the season. Both of his shutouts were served up with twelve strike outs. Twelve. For those who don’t follow baseball very much, twelve strike outs in 6 innings is *really-really* good. A full 2/3’s of all the outs were his alone. (I'll post a vid later)

The weird thing is that both of his shutouts were against teams who have good enough skills and all but they just weren’t able to capitalize on the hits they got and weren’t able to move their runners around.

Back to bowling for a minute… there was a bowling tournament yesterday (before his baseball game) and he didn’t move out of the first round. His team mates did though, so that was cool. T. didn’t make it to the third, and final, round, but S. did and ended up WINNING!!

Laurie Halse Anderson is the well-known and award-winning author of novels for young adults, including Speak, Catalyst, Prom, and Twisted. She also writes for the somewhat younger set, however, including her award-winning picture book Thank You Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving and her middle-grade novel Fever, 1793. Laurie currently lives in the middle of the state of New York with her husband and the Creature With Fangs (her dog - a German Shepherd). She's an avid runner, and in addition to writing, passes her time knitting and, on occasion, canning large quantities of produce. I feel very fortunate to have the lovely and talented Ms. Anderson here today to launch the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT) in style. My particular focus today is on Laurie's nonfiction and historical fiction books. And if you think that interest is based in part on my own historically-based Jane project, well, you're right. Why not all of us learn from one of the masters?

1. Thus far, you've written two nonfiction picture books: Thank You Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving and Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution (due out in June), both of which have been illustrated by Matt Faulkner. Thank You Sarah tells the story of Sarah Hale, activist and author, who spent years lobbying for the creation of a national holiday called Thanksgiving. Independent Dames tells the story of more than 80 women and girls who made contributions during the American Revolution by fighting, acting as spies, and more. As I mentioned in my review on Saturday, Independent Dames includes a narrative, a timeline, specific biographies and copious author's notes.

Many books about history seem to discuss historical matters in a very serious tone, yet you seem to prefer a slightly more informal and occasionally irreverent tone in your nonfiction historical picture books (as when you write "Never underestimate dainty little ladies" in Thank You Sarah, or in the opening pages of Independent Dames where you not only use the term "dames" for women, but ask "Hello? How about the women? What about the girls? They wanted a free country too. They worked, they argued, they fought, and they suffered -- just like the men and the boys. They didn't teach you this yet? Listen up.") Why did you make the choice to frame the narrative as you did? Was it a difficult choice to make to break from the more typical, stentorian sort of presentation?

The traditional heavy-handed (“this is serious business, young reader, so prepare to be bored to death”) approach to history is ridiculous. History is filled with exciting, fascinating, engaging characters and dynamic situations. Our job as authors is to show them in a way that does not compromise the accuracy of their stories.

The turning point for me was when I working on the early (dreadful) drafts of Thank You, Sarah. I was struggling to figure out how to combine the history of Thanksgiving with the significant details of Sarah Hale’s life. The early drafts were written in that dry, dull, old-fashioned tone. I hated it. I hated every word that I pinned to the page. I felt like I had killed my story before anyone got the chance to read it.

One day, while busy loathing myself and my lack of ability, I doodled a large capital S, for Sarah, on the manuscript. Then I drew a border around the letter. The result looked like the shield that Superman wears on his shirt. This was my light bulb moment, my epiphany. I realized that Sarah Hale was a superhero and that was how I wanted to tell her story. The overwhelming positive response from readers made it clear that I was headed in the right direction.

2. Both of your nonfiction picture books have a feminist slant to them, both bring to light seldom-told stories from history, and both highlight (overtly or explicitly) the absence of women's stories from American history, as well as showcasing women about whom we all should have learned (while debunking some that we did learn about, like Molly Pitcher - dude, there's a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike names after Molly Pitcher, so she must have been real, right?) Given the feminist aspects (about which I am thrilled, having ranted for two years running on the paucity of attention given to Women's History Month), do you primarily see these books as appealing to female readers and as empowering future generations of independent dames?

I hope that my books will help educate a generation (or two, or three) of American children to value the contributions of all the people who contributed to our nation’s heritage. I don’t write for girls, I don’t write for boys. I write for kids because they deserve the entire scope of their history, regardless of their gender.

3. With respect to Independent Dames what on earth did your manuscript look like? Did you submit it as one document with weird breakouts per page, or as three separate manuscripts that were meant to be woven together? Was it more or less challenging that a straight narrative? How did you decide which women and girls to feature large on the page and which in the timeline? Was it difficult to know where to put them in relation to the ongoing timeline ticking across the bottoms of the pages?

I ask because there is a running narrative set apart in its own frame on each two-page spread, plus interesting profiles of women and girls (groups and individuals) who made contributions to the American Revolution, plus a running timeline across the bottom of the pages throughout the book that explains historical events throughout the time period leading up to and during the Revolutionary War, including some of the items kids will have learned in history books and classes, as well as including additional information about women and girls. And in many cases, there are dialogue bubbles within Matt Faulkner's drawings - were those your creation or Matt's?

The manuscript wound up being quite a beast. Much credit has to go to my editor, Kevin Lewis, who very patiently accepted my need to include the time line, and the profiles (we call them “bio bubbles”), and all of the other copious details.

I originally presented Kevin with short biographies of thirty women whom few people knew about. (This grew out of a much earlier project, a book that highlighted six women of the era. I could never get a publisher interested in that manuscript, so it went back in my file cabinet.) Kevin was very excited about my approach and encouraged me to dig deeper. I realized that in order to set the activities of these women in context of the Revolution, I would have to explain the war itself.

(Side note: as part of my research, I studied the Social Studies curricula and state standards for elementary and middle school students in order to understand when children were exposed to information about the Revolution.)

I made up many, many dummies for myself in order to figure how to flow the story properly. In later drafts, I presented the text spread by two-page spread. I broke each spread down into sections: Main Text, Bio Bubbles, and Bottom Crawl (the time line and miscellaneous details). The final draft of the manuscript clocked in at nearly 11,000 words. I sort of broke the rules about keeping pictures books short.
Matt came up with the text for the speech bubbles, though I edited a couple of them. I think he did a brilliant job, both with the illustrations and the fun tone that the speech bubbles add to the book. His artistic vision of the book was critical to pulling off this monumental challenge.



4. Your historical fiction novels for middle graders include Fever, 1793 and the forthcoming Chains (due out in October). Fever, 1793 tells the story of the outbreak of yellow fever in the City of Philadelphia during the summer of 1793 through the eyes of its protagonist, Mattie, a 14-year old girl living and working in her mother's tea shop. Chains tells the story of a young slave girl trapped in New York City in 1776 as the city is occupied alternately by the British and Patriots. The book examines the notion of liberty by focusing on a main character who is not themselves free, directly and implicitly addressing what the so-called goal of the revolution as set forth in the Declaration of Independence ("life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness") issued that summer means.

Both stories are set in late 18th century, with a focus on lesser-known stories of American history. Was United States history a particular interest of yours when you were in school, or did you come to it later in life? Do you prefer to read nonfiction historical texts and biographies, or historical fiction? In historical fiction, how important is historical accuracy and detail to you? Do you have any concerns about including actual historical persons (particularly famous ones, as you did with George Washington in Fever, 1793) in a historical novel?

I did not enjoy school very much. In fact, I loathed English class. (In my defense I will point out that I read almost all of the books in the library!) The one class that I adored was Social Studies. There is just something about the study of history that has always resonated deeply within me. I am a proud and patriotic American and continue to be fascinated with our history. Our experiment with democracy is an astounding thing to witness.

Historical accuracy is vital to my work. My manuscripts have all been reviewed by historians whose special expertise is the time periods or events covered by my story. Most of the characters in my novels are fictional, but they are as true to what people were like back then as possible. When “real” people wander across the pages of my books, like George Washington, they only do or say things that I can prove they did or said.

I am grateful that my editor allowed me to include the non-fiction back matter in each novel to explain the events of the story. I also love weaving in the primary source quotes that open each chapter. That’s a lot of fun.

I prefer reading history books, primary source texts, and biographies to historical fiction.

5. My first question, before moving to actual historical-fiction related questions, is whether you have any plans to write historical fiction or nonfiction for the YA market. Why or why not?

I am not sure how a historical novel or a non-fiction history book written for the YA market would differ from the same book written for adults. Until I figure that out (assuming there actually is a difference) I won’t be doing it.

6. With respect to historical fiction and nonfiction, how do you go about selecting your topic? Is it a conscious selection, or something that niggles at you and won't let go? If you were giving advice to writers interested in starting a work of historical fiction, how would you advise them to go about selecting a topic?

I select topics that fascinate me. If I don’t have an overwhelming curiosity about a time period or situation, I won’t touch it. Some people select topics that they feel are marketable or trendy. If that works for them, that’s cool. But it won’t work for me. I need to be on fire about something in order to commit to the research and the challenge of writing.

7. I am assuming that the type and amount of research required for your nonfiction picture books and your historical novels is roughly equivalent (and I hope you'll correct me if I'm wrong, and say how they differ if, in fact, they do). How do you go about collecting, organizing and synthesizing your research? Apart from putting your Beloved Husband to work at the copier, do you use research assistants (as some biographers and historians have done)? Why or why not?

It helps that I read quickly and I am rather compulsive about organization. I read constantly, both popular books about the time periods I care about and specialized historical journals. I belong to a number of history-based listservs and take advantage of the expertise of others. Once I have the broad outline of what I want to accomplish in a book, I delve into academic libraries, looking for the writings of historians who have made my topics their life’s work, and using their bibliographies as my guide to primary source materials. I keep copious notes and often have nightmares in which I am drowning in a sea of citations.

I have not used a research assistant. The concept is tempting, but I imagine it would be expensive, and (more importantly) I would be afraid that I would miss out on those little details that can be so significant if I farmed out the research. My husband, Scot, does do most of the photocopying. I am pretty sure it will take me several lifetimes of baking bread and making homemade jam to pay him back for taking on this tedious task.

8. With respect to research, how do you knew when enough is enough, or, conversely, when to go back for more?

It is very possible to get so caught up in research one forgets about writing the book!

Generally, I do two rounds of research. The first is a global kind of research; looking at possible topics or events to study, getting a sense of the hows and whys. Then I set to figuring out the lives of my characters and how they intersect with the history. Once I have a rough scene-by-scene outline, I go back to the archives to hunt for specific details.

9. Chains comes out in October of this year. What's next?

My next YA, Wintergirls, should be out in May, 2009. After that, I should have a historical novel in 2010 and another in 2011, if all goes well. I am hunting for new historical picture book topics right now, so I expect you’ll see more of those, too.

Can you tell us a bit about Wintergirls?

I’d prefer not to go into WINTERGIRLS details yet because I’m still revising. I guess you can say that is dark – maybe the darkest YA I’ve done so far.


Speed round:

Cheese or chocolate? Cheese

Coffee or tea? Tea – first thing in the morning. Coffee in the afternoon.

Cats or dogs? Dogs

Favorite color? Green

Favorite snack food? Popcorn

Favorite ice cream? Pumpkin pie

Water or soda? Water

What's in your CD player/on iTunes right now? Stevie Ray Vaughn

What's the last movie you memorized lines from? I, Robot

  Quick follow-up: What was the line? "You have so got to die.” Spooner, just before he injects the nanites into V.I.K.I.’s brain. Said with conviction and absolutely spot-on timing.


Those of you looking for more information about Laurie are commended to her website and her blog, Madwoman in the Forest. Those of you looking to do a good deed (and gain a tax write-off) are advised to sponsor Laurie's husband, Scot, who is trying to meet a fundraising goal. Scot and Laurie will be running in a Half Marathon at Lake Placid, NY sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Darcy Skinner, Laurie's cousin, who is battling Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Other SBBT stops today:

Adam Rex at Fuse Number 8
David Almond at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
R.L. Lafevers at Finding Wonderland
Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred
Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom
Susan Beth Pfeffer at Interactive Reader

The competition was stiff...there were only two entries because the rest of my friend's list...just must have had something else to do?
lizjonesbooks won the claw machine grab bag!
lyriclemon won the giant Barbie pen!
Ladies send me your addresses at writer at fox.phoenix.az.us and I'll send you your goodies! Congrats!!!

Pizza party was great fun. _twilight_ came and ate and clawed and we enjoyed her immensely. Son#2 and her talked writing and books. Jennie, he tells me he's going to be sure to check Critters out. My fam and friends came too, we had a splendid evening.

The next day was our local writing conference where I had a wonderful time catching up with friends. jmprince, I'm sorry I wasn't as animated as you had thought I would be. I must've been more tired than I thought, because I thought I was plenty perky...lol! I'm sure I'll make it up to you next time, I'll be sure to down enough sugar that I'll be hyper/hyper/hyper. Thanks again for the books, Son#2 says they all look like good reads, we've both added them to our "to read" stacks. Now, I have submissions to prepare as conferee's get those "get out of slush" free cards.

We had tragedy today when Son#2 discovered that he had put his Christmas IPod through the washer/dryer. It is now wrapped in a towel, resting on a sunny windowsill for the next week. We're holding vigils and hoping for the best.

ETA: jmprince- Son#2 just came into my office and grabbed VISABILITY, forsaking the book he WAS reading! LOL!

I'm in the delicious phase of deciding on my next project. I feel like I'm sitting in a sailboat in the middle of a beautiful blue-green sea. The sun is shining, dolphins are leaping in the distance, and I have an ample supply of iced sangria. Why, I even look good in my bikini (obviously this is fantasty metaphor land, not real life...). 

But there's absolutely no breeze. My sail hangs empty above me. No matter which way I twist the rudder, the boat simply bobs. And waits. As I nibble on a brandy-soaked orange slice, I ponder where I'll go next. To the land of the historical urban fantasy? Or maybe a suspense YA. I see the mysterious land of satire behind me, too. There are lots of ideas, hazy lands half-charted on the map. But the boat's true captain--my creativity--isn't talking yet. She is missing. Maybe she went scuba-diving, or maybe she's below decks, wondering who ate all of the Trader Joe's truffle brownies. 

I will just tilt my head back to soak in the sun, and try not to rush her. She'll show soon enough, full of energy (if she found more brownies) and crazy ideas. Maybe she's even souped up this boat to outrun that inner critic who  usually appears in her cigarette boat, Uzi in hand, about three chapters in...

Until then, until all of it, I float.

An early announcement on the KGB auction. Me and (I believe) Liz have agreed to Tuckerize one of our stories each and use the name of the successful bidders for a character, and many other authors havee contributed cool stuff. My story will be a novella, Halloween Town, so if anyone wants to be a walnut raker or a serial cat killer or any of the folk who inhabit a weird semi-subterranean town, bid early and often. The proceeds will help fund the KGB readings, a worthy cause—the official announcement as to when the auction begins will be made shortly.

Ran across this on Brendan Connell’s bog. The worst, he says, of Euro-disco. After a listen, I believe him. Here's Arabesque doing their abysmal hit, India Boy:



It's Switzerland minus 13 and counting. I can't freaking wait.

Last week, I started a serial interview with Christopher Golden. We plan to post new questions and answers on a weekly basis, and it will probably go on indefinitely, since I never tire of talking with Chris.

Here now is part two, in which we discuss music and books.

On occasion, you slip favorite songs into your books, putting them on a character's radio or getting them stuck in a character's head. What albums or artists are currently inspiring you?

My favorite thing I bought recently was probably Sara Bareilles' LITTLE VOICE, which was on your recommendation.

Yahoo! Glad that you're liking it.

I'm also really enjoying The Frames' THE COST. The Frames are fantastic.

Wasn't ONCE lovely? Wait, let me change the subject before I ramble about that film and get sidetracked. Okay. As a kid, what were your favorite books, and who were your favorite authors?

I read a ton of Doc Savage novels, loved the work of Jack London, and there was a book by Dorothy Hosford called THUNDER OF THE GODS that retold Norse myths; I read that one more than a dozen times. I read tons of comics, but especially loved Marv Wolfman writing TOMB OF DRACULA and Chris Claremont's X-MEN. Then, of course, I discovered Stephen King...and that changed everything.

And on that note, we'll put the interview on pause.

Many of Golden's childhood favorites still influence his work today. He co-wrote the non-fiction book The Stephen King Universe as well as a handful of X-Men novels. He is also collaborating with Tim Lebbon on a little something called The Secret Journeys of Jack London. If you want to know more about that, you'll have to stay tuned.

Read the previous part of the serial interview.

Read other Christopher Golden-tagged posts at Bildungsroman.

Visit Christopher Golden's website.

Last year, Colleen from Chasing Ray organized a series of author interviews which were posted at various blogs over the course of a week. It was dubbed the Summer Blog Blast Tour, or SBBT for short, and it definitely was a blast. The SBBT led to the Winter Blog Blast Tour, which was also successful.

Now it's time for the second SBBT. Here at Bildungsroman, I'll be posting all-new interviews with Susane Colasanti, Tera Lynn Childs, and Jennifer Bradbury in turn on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

( Click here for the full SBBT 2008 schedule )

Many thanks to all of the authors and bloggers involved in the SBBT, with special kudos to Colleen.

Over the weekend I've written 4,265 words.  The word count is likely doubled because I wrote all of it by hand first.  I also have most of the book in order now.  I have over ten scenes fully formed and ready to put down.  I am exhausted.  My shoulders are killing me, my hands are both cramped up.  Tomorrow I'm sure I'll have to wear my wrist braces.  I don't care!

I need to stop and will, but I sure don't want to.  I've been sucked into this world and never want to come back out.


Worries so far:

 I actually found myself worrying over my word count today, then I said, "No, you will not do it!  You will write this story just like it was intended to be written.  If it goes over 75K then it does."

I need to stay far away from agent blogs, cause reading them kills my creative side, binds me, and makes me a hysterical wreck.

I'm stressing that I'm enjoying myself too much.  Then I'm worried about how far I'm pushing the envelope here, cause it keeps getting worse.

Laura is alive, that's for sure, but goodness knows, she's nothing like I've ever met before.

So, I have a question.

If I post a snip, would you rather read one that shows the strength of Laura or shows her vulnerable side?

Either way, they are both rated PG 13 or higher.  (fair warning)

On Friday night I walked in the Relay for Life in Biglerville, PA with my good friend, Shelley Sykes. Since we weren't scheduled to walk until late that night we decided to eat dinner together and go letterboxing.  It's something Shelley has done for years and I had talked about doing for a long time. If you haven't gone letterboxing, you can learn more about it at www.letterboxing.org People all over the world hide letterboxes and finding them is like a big treasure hunt!  They post the locations on www.letterboxing.org or on http://www.atlasquest.com/

To get ready, I'd bought a journal to use for letterboxing and I carved a personal stamp from an eraser. Combining my love of our pony Sea Feather (who has a feather on his neck) and my work with the Feather Fund (www.featherfund.org) I decided my trail name would be Pony Feathers. My stamp is of a horse head with a feather on its neck.

The box we decided to find was in Fairfield, PA in a park. It was dark when we arrived, so we wandered the trail with a flashlight, giggling like schoolgirls! Pass the wall of heros. Turn left at the first trail. Pass the bench donated by the Lions Club. At the fork, take the path to the left, over the bridge, up the hill, around the pond. Look for a clearing, walk through the field. Look for a tree with three trunks.... the instructions were like a big scavenger hunt. In the dark it was double the adventure.

Finally, we found the box, hidden in the crotch of the tree, covered with brush. We opened the Tupperware lid and found the book and stamp inside. We stamped our personal stamps in the book with a note of where we are from and our trail names, then used the stamp in the box to stamp our own journals and note the location and date. Success! My first stamp, my first letterbox find!

At home, I carved three more stamps. I want to plant some boxes of my own! One of the stamps will be a "hitchhiker", a stamp that you plant in a box to be picked up and moved from box to box, moving across the country. Those who pick it up are to post its journey path on the web.  Next, I jumped on the net to search for more letterboxes and found they are everywhere. There is one at the Union Mills Homestead Park, less than 1/2 mile from my house, six in my county, more in surrounding areas.  I looked up Chincoteague to see if I could find any there on my summer trip.  Seven!  Wow! I am starting to develop an idea in my head about a letterboxing kid! I've been bitten by the letterboxing bug!
 

I've made a post on my public blog regarding my first contest. It's a query contest and the prize will be a header or banner for your website or book.

Please drop by and spread the word about it. The more participants (especially critters) I can get the better!

What made me think that just because I loved a topic I could build an actual story around it? (I mean, hello, you still need a plot.)

When am I going to accept that sometimes I just have to go along for the ride and see where it takes me? (Probably never.)

How many different ways can I pretend to start the book thereby postponing going on past the first page. (At last count, 11.)

How many times can I put the mom in, take her out, put back in again and then take her out for good? (At last count, 4.)

How important is it, really, to know what the book is about before I try to write it? (Not very, I hope.)

Why can't I find a dirty stinky smelly old sock to stuff in my inner editor's mouth when I am trying to write the crummy first draft? (That's what I get for being caught-up on laundry.)

Why does it feel like my crummy first draft is the worst crummy first draft in the entire history of crummy first drafts? (Because right now, at this moment, it is.)

Why can't I ever remember that crummy first drafts are called crummy first drafts for a reason?
 

I'm anticipating digging into the stupid dang princess novel by oh end of the summer or so ... so I'm prepping.

Bought a princess doll ... do you know how hard it is to find a non-Barbie non-Disney princess doll???? I purchased Olivia Hope, an Only Hearts Club doll, and a princess dress. Olivia Hope came the closest to my image of the main character. There are three girls in the story ... and I'm pondering getting two more dolls. It's a little hard to get in the girl mood in an all male household.

And I have the spiffy above icon.

And I'm looking for a pink binder to keep all the drafts in.

And I'm going through my purple phase ... purple flowers, purple purse, purple flowered capris ... okay...just don't think too hard about it ...

Trying to recapture my inner nine year old girl self. I've been told by various people I have the boy voice down pat, but I'm just trying to get in the girl mood ... which can be difficult when I have sons who get embarrassed if I wear pink. "Nooooo, Mom!" "But don't I get to look like a girl?" "Yeah, but not too much."

I did a bit of noodling on it a few months ago, but the priority is to get J.T. in the mail.

But I know I have a handful of dang stupid princess story fans out there, so it's just an update. For those who are clueless, this book has been in the process for (ahem) years.

+ 3 days= Me.

Bleh.

However, I was able to salvage something positive out of the non-productive writing days. An epiphany re: the ending of Brown Shoes, that will make moving through the remaining chapters much easier than it had been.

So, goody!

No additional progress yet on what I'll call summer novel. But Secret Agent Man liked what he read, so yay!!

Catch ya tomorrow! Enjoy the remainder of the weekend!

And OOOh!! squuee-age! I was a winner in Meg Cabot's Airhead t-shirt contest! :D WOOT!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/literally-last-minute-doodle-reminder.html

Just a reminder.... the National Doodle Day auction has an hour to go. Quick! Bid for a good cause!

(Last year, Barack Obama's doodle went for $2075... I hope we can get some of the high scoring doodles up to those kind of figures. Please don't make me run for president. Of anything.)

The National Doodle Day auction has begun. Proceeds will benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc. (nfinc.org).

To immediately access the eBay auction --
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnfinccharity

Direct Links to Neil Gaiman's doodles plus his fave doodles on the auction block:

Ebay link to doodle #1

Ebay link to number 2

Kendra Stout: Ebay link here

Cat Mihos: Ebay link here

Fred Hembeck: Ebay link here

Sergio Aragones: Ebay link here

Gahan Wilson: ebay link here

Inside the Medieval Mind (BBC TV)

Was too often the stupidity of shibboleths repeated by Professor Robert Bartlett (billed as one of the world's great authorities on the Middle Ages) e.g.

1. Whereas you and I could expect to live into our 70s or beyond, in Medieval England, people died on average at 35.

2. Romantic love was invented by the troubadours. The word 'love' was used before this, of course, but it meant 'caritas', love of God.

3. Bestiaries are a good guide to how people thought the world worked.

4. The inequality of society was accepted by all and codified into law, exemplified by weregeld, which was the equivalent of 20 head of cattle for a peasant but 200 for a noble, in contrast to our own age where we think everyone is equal.

I'm irritated because it's such a fascinating topic, how people in different times thought differently to us due to the culture they were in. He acknowledged that people then were as logical as we are now, were just operating in a markedly different set of assumptions/milieu. But amid telling me things I didn't know, came out with the above howlers.

1. While technically true that the average life expectancy was 35, that is nonsense in the context he put it in. A 'you and I' has survived childhood and therefore had a life 'expectancy' of what? not 35. If you were 25 you did not think you had about 10 years to go before you popped your clogs, even if you were a peasant. They had a lot of childhood death, really a lot. But if you got through infancy, how long did you live, is, after what does it do to people to have a high infancy mortality rate, the next most interesting question. I don't know and annoyingly he didn't even try to address it. Presumably peasants carked it quicker than the aristocracy. The aristocracy did expect to live into their 50s, and given reasonably good luck, into their 60s and 70s, from what I've seen. [from what I recall, he never even mentioned that it was childood mortality. and said 'A village of a hundred people would have a funeral about every 8 days' - do the math! That is not adults. (this is not during the Black Death)]

2. Abelard fancying Heloise and writing home to his mate that he'd seen a fit bird that he wanted to get off with is not anything new in the history of human kind. Fancying people is basic to human nature and not a new thing invented by troubadours. Other aspects of what 'love is' to the modern mind, I'll grant you, but not that. Heloise's reaction to marriage ("no way!") is much more surprising and maybe troubadour-relevant. [and as rufusfrog says, is not the find the One, get married and live together ever after, that is our own most prevalent story in films and books, which has nothing to do with troubador songs]

3. Bestiaries. Allegory for Christian purposes, fiction not to be taken as literally true? Any real huntsman would tell the monks that badgers do not tear off their own nads when pursued, however much they liked the story because it led to the corollary "much like we should divest ourselves of sin". The Prof said that the attitude to the world was that it was put there for our moral education. If that were so, surely the besitiary should be accurate, not fanciful. In fact the bestiary reminds me of sermons I sat through at school - like, but not actually, "Just as Beckham learnt that a petulant back-kick will deny him the semi-final, so Our Lord will exclude a sinner from the Kingdom of Heaven." o, you know what I mean. The medieval mind did not have allegory less than we do. They did not necessarily think Bestiaries were literally true.

4. Weregeld. Not much different from our own legal system, then, which when deciding how much damages/compensation to pay out, takes into account the earning potential that has been lost. In fact, I'm amazed it was as high as 20 cattle for a peasant.

I did enjoy the programmes, and I do sign up for some differences in how people think in different times - witness our own British change from the buttoned-up 1950s to the hedonistic todays. So there's no need to exaggerate or pick wrong examples. Which then means I can't trust him on any of his other interpretations. Grr.

Tammi Sauer was in a mood.

Not a good mood.

A bang her head against the keyboard mood.

Here are Lettuce, Vern and three of the bunnies with my good friends Esther and Samuel, who love what they've seen so far in the DFC. They are very cool people. Samuel joined my book club a few years ago, when he was nine, even though it wasn't really meant for children. I had spread the word among my friends that I was starting up a book club, and when Samuel asked if he could be in it, I said I didn't think I'd be able to set up a separate club for kids. But every time he saw me, he'd ask again, and now he's been coming for about three years. About a year in, he started bringing along his little sister, and they both talk about the books they've read in the first half hour of our meeting before heading off again. So, of course, they're the first people I wanted to introduce to Vern and Lettuce!

They were very stoic in the photo shoot; Samuel started streaming tears from hay fever and Esther and I accidentally sat on an anthill. We've all decided we don't want a career in modeling.



Here's another picture from Draw Vern & Lettuce, this time by Lindsey!

The quote in today's icon is the first line from "Across the Universe" by the Beatles.

It's Sunday, and although I didn't post last week, I've not forgotten about quoteskimming. And as this week marks the second annual Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT), organized by blogmistress extraordinaire, Colleen Mondor, over at Chasing Ray, I'm combining the two concepts into one post, savvy? Why would I do that? Well, I know I taunted you on May 5th about upcoming interviews, so let's just see how many interviews I have this week here at Writing and Ruminating:

Monday: You know her. You love her. The fabulous Laurie Halse Anderson will be here, talking about, well, books and stuff. Duh. But specifically, we'll be talking nonfiction and historical fiction. (You may want to have a gander at yesterday's book review of her forthcoming nonfiction picture book, Independent Dames.)

Here's what Laurie has to say about revision (taken from her FAQ section on her website):

I am a published author because I revise my books. Nobody writes a first draft that is good enough to be published. Authors spend most of their time revising and editing their work. I’ve been known to spend days on one page, trying hundreds of different ways to get the words in just the right order. I actually love revising my work. It’s the first draft – the yucky one – that is the hardest thing for me to write.

Tuesday: She's been a competitive cheerleader, a debutante, a model, a primate cognition researcher, a Fulbright scholar at Cambridge researching autism, and she's currently earning her Ph.D. Only one woman can fit that bill, and it happens to be the multi-faceted, multi-talented Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

What Jen has to say about writing (ganked from her FAQ page at her website:

I really cannot stress how important it is to actually sit down and write something every day. It doesn't have to be your masterpiece. It doesn't even have to be original fiction. Keep a journal. Write a scene that goes on the end of your favorite book or movie. Just write something every day.

Thursday: Boom-a-YAY! I'll be hosting the fascinating and multitalented Charles R. Smith, Jr., poet, photographer, and novelist. You may recall me raving about his award-winning book Twelve Rounds to Glory. Charles has a new book out about the Greek gods, illustrated by the wildly talented comic artist, P. Craig Russell, and a forthcoming novel, Chameleon set to launch this fall.

What Charles has to say about the power of positive thinking(from where? his website, of course):

Everything I've achieved in life, I've gotten from thinking positive. It sounds like such a simple thing, but if you believe you can do something and you are willing to put in the work, you'd be surprised at the results you get. To keep positive thoughts in my head, I've written down inspiring quotes over the years.

Here's the link to Charles's inspiration page, so you can see some of Charles's own quoteskimming at work.


Friday: Rounding out the SBBT chez moi, and just in time for Poetry Friday, award-winning concrete poet and book designer, John Grandits.

Now, here's the wrinkle. John doesn't have a website. And so, I'm going to steal a little something from his work.

From Technically, It's Not My Fault, part of the poem from which the title is drawn, wherein the main character, Robert (age 11), explains how he decided to test Galileo's theory of the constancy of gravity by dropping a tomato and a cinder block out of an upstairs window at the same time. We'll say that this one relates to thinking things through before you start something:

Boy, did I ever learn a lesson — and that's the important thing, isn't it? I mean, even if you know something for a fact, like heavy stuff falls faster than light stuff, it's best to check it with a carefully planned scientific experiment. Oh, yeah, and I also learned not to drop concrete blocks out of the attic window. But in my opinion, the experiment was totally worth doing. There was just a slight mix-up, one tiny detail that went wrong, so even though the car has a concrete block sticking out of the roof, technically, IT'S NOT MY FAULT

And from his 2007 follow-up title, Blue Lipstick, which is told from the vantage point of Robert's fifteen-year old sister, Jessie. This one comes from a poem entitled "Mondrian", and includes a bit of conversation between Jessie and her dad, and it has to do with what life is like for an artist (or writer):

I said, "I wish I could do that when I grow up — make ultra-cool radical art." Dad said, "It's not easy to be creative." And I thought to myself, "You wouldn't believe how creative I have to be just to get through the day." He said, "It's tough being an artist. You've got to struggle for years. People often misunderstand your work. You've got to be thick-skinned because critics can be cruel. You don't have any money. And in many ways you're really alone." And I said, "It sounds like high school."

Come back this week for the actual interviews, won't you? And don't forget to check the full line-up over at Chasing Ray. There are some amazing authors and illustrators lined up for this year's Summer Blog Blast Tour!

I read Merlin's Harp a few months ago and set it aside with a vague sense of disappointment, but find that now it's sticking with me in unexpected ways. I think the main flaw in this is that Crompton didn't develop the characters very much, she simply plucked up the characters we know so well and presented them once more, although from a different viewpoint.



From Booklist
Take heed: the feminist possibilities of the Arthurian legendary cycle were not exhausted by Marion Zimmer Bradley's best-selling Mists of Avalon. In that book's manner, Crompton retells the Matter of Britain from the point of view of the Lady of the Lake, here called Niviene. From her perspective, the well-known legends become a real fairy story, for the main characters are all fairies or, in the book's term, Fey (Niviene, her mother, Merlin, even Sir Mell), and human changelings raised in a fairy Avalon (Lancelot, the Lady of Shallot). Although the resulting novel satisfies all the primal needs for narrative intensity and firm characterization, its strengths really lie in its poetic language and its finely wrought spiritual sense. The Fey philosophy is offered as an antidote to human failings as Crompton's pagan rather than Christian, womanist rather than patriarchal fairies live in unsentimental harmony with nature and with the elemental forces. A riveting good read. --Patricia Monaghan


The language is beautifully poetic and it is a startlingly different viewpoint, although, as I said, it's the same story. She had a few nice twists, although more twists to THE story than to her story, as I didn't have any trouble seeing where they would lead.

I'd really only recommend this if you've already read everything else you can find on Arthurian Legend. It's a good addition, but not so in depth or well told that it stands on its own, without all the works that have come before.

Would you like to go, too?

So in a (yeah! successful!) effort to get rid of my migraine, I'm up very early this morning, and pedaling HARD on my exercycle. Sometimes if I do that after washing down two Excedrin Migraine with two large cups of coffee, I can fight back a headache.

Anyway, the cover story on Redbook is about Denise Richards. She wants to set the record straight. She is not horrible like people think. Her friendship with Heather Locklear was already over before she had an affair with Heather's husband. Etc.

She's decided to do a reality show so that people can see "who she really is." She "hopes that by letting E! Entertainment's cameras trail her 24/7, revealing all her mistakes and experiences, she might help other women make better choices." When asked, "Do you worry about how the show will affect your daughters? (who are 3 and 4) she says, "I'm in a no-win situation. If I have my kinds on the show, I'm exploiting them. If I don't, people will think I'm not a hands-on mom."

Um, nobody's making you be on TV. Your kids don't have any choice in the matter.

I don't have a real update for today (neptunenobody took care of that ^.^) however, we just reached a pretty cool milestone in this community:



Thanks so much for joining. Really, it's pretty amazing that we have so many members. (We actually have 204 members at the time of making this post.)
I've been keeping track of our member count for just over a month and when I started keeping track we had 143 members with 170 watchers. Today we have 204 members and 227 watchers.

You all rock so hard, thank you. I'm glad you like the community so much. It will only get better from here, I promise.

What are your Hidden City's stories?

At the novels of the Hidden Cities website, you will notice the map upon which is pinned brief accounts of myth and mystery from around the world ... and that's where you come in. Because we want you to tell us your stories. Relate to us the strange tales of urban horror, mystery or magic that have happened to you, or people you know, or perhaps stories you’ve heard second-hand. Ghosts you have seen, legends you’ve heard, strange experiences you have had … and the accounts we like the most will appear on the site, pinned to the map where they took place.

The Details:

Please keep your submissions below 500 words, and make sure there's some basis in fact (whether it’s something you saw, or an urban legend you've heard, etc). No straight fiction. There's no payment, other than the fun of revealing your nightmare experiences for all to see! There's also no guarantee that everything we’re sent will be posted to the site. You'll retain full copyright, and you’re welcome to use your accounts elsewhere.

The Competition:

The first novel in this series, MIND THE GAP, will be released from Bantam Spectra on 20th May 2008, and the best two accounts we receive between now and then (to be judged by Chris & Tim) will each win a copy of the hardback Cemetery Dance limited edition of this novel!

So tell us what happened to you in the world's Hidden Cities.

Submissions should be sent to: citieshidden@thehiddencities.com

Learn more about the books:
http://www.thehiddencities.com
The Hidden Cities @ Christopher Golden's website
The Hidden Cities @ Bildungsroman

Originally published at Dark Territory. You can comment here or there.

Yesterday, Cherie and I went exploring at the old Tumwater Brewery, which is abandoned, tied up in legal troubles and awesomely spooky.  We couldn’t get inside, sadly–that place was boarded up TIGHT.  The exterior shots are worth mentioning, though:

And just to prove how badass I actually am…a picture of the No Trespassing sign from a few steps outside the private property in question!  Take that, The Man!

Lots more on Flickr.

Cherie and I had our usual shopping/gossip/diner food-fest, and while we were partaking o