Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing...

Oops

2011-06-16T16:21:00.002-04:00

I have just inadvertently deleted the 25 most recent comments to this blog. Including my own.

*facepalm*

I didn't even know batch deletion was possible.

This brief (and apparently inept) foray back into blogging has been fun on some levels, but it's also reminded me just how much time a blog slurps out of my day. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how many minutes I spent posting the quiz answers. I don't even believe it.

So. Once again I am forsaking the blog and fleeing back to my WIP. However, I'm not disappearing entirely -- if you'd like to keep up with my mini-updates on reviews, interviews, contests, and Romanov-y things in general, please bookmark my Facebook page:

Sarah Miller writes books

And the winners are....

2011-06-13T11:12:00.004-04:00

Prize package #1

BECKY

Prize package #2

ANNE

Prize package #3

CLOCKWORKGIRL21

Ladies, please contact me via email or private message within 7 days with your shipping addresses to collect your loot!

And now, the answers.

Quiz #1:

What disease did the imperial children contract at the outbreak of the Russian revolution?

measles

Where and when did the tsar abdicate?

March 2/15 1917, aboard the imperial train at Pskov (you didn't have to mention the train to win)

Name the man in charge of the Romanovs’ execution.

Yakov Yurovsky

The soviets changed the name of the city where the imperial family was murdered. What was it called during the soviet era?

Sverdlovsk

When was the state funeral for the remains of the Romanovs?

July 17, 1998

Trick question:
What does “shvibzyk” mean in Russian?

Absolutely nothing! It doesn't mean imp -- it's a made-up nickname, possibly derived from the German word "schwipsig," which means tipsy.

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge:

This cat's name is Vaska.

Quiz#2:
Which regiment was Anastasia honorary colonel-in-chief of?

148th Kaspian Infantry

Who was Olga’s “golden Mitya”?

Dmitri Shakh-Baghov, a wounded officer she nursed during WWI

True or false: All four of the grand duchesses smoked.

true

Name the officer Maria had a crush on.

Nikolai Demenkov

What kind of perfume did Tatiana wear?

Jasmine de corse, by Coty

Trick question:
According to the western calendar, was Olga born on November 15 or 16, 1895?

Olga was born on November 15, 1895. However, her birthday is now observed on November 16 in the west because the difference between the Old Style and New Style calendars increased from twelve to thirteen days in beginning in 1900.

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge:

The peasant girl in Olga's lap is named Stephania

Quiz #3:
How many of Aleksei's sisters carried the gene for hemophilia?

True or false: One of Rasputin's daughters became a lion tamer.

true

What opera were Olga and Tatiana attending when they witnessed an assassination in 1911?

Tale of the Tsar Saltan

Which of the imperial family's closest friends was nearly killed in a railway accident in January of 1915?

Anna Vyrubova

Name one of the eight plays the imperial family performed to amuse themselves in exile.

Packing Up, The Bear, The Crystal Gazer, Les Deus Timides, A La Porte, La Bete Noir, In and Out of a Punt, Le Fluide de John

Trick question:
What was the name of Tatiana’s French bulldog?

Although some prominent English sources call the dog "Ortino" every Russian source I've consulted gives her name as Ortipo. The confusion is probably due to a mistransliteration. Tatiana's handwriting is notoriously difficult to read, and in Russian the letters that correspond to our n and p differ only by the height of one stroke of the pen: Ортино/Ортипо. Lili Dehn, who knew the dog in person and would have heard her called by name, spells it "Artipo" in her English-language memoir, which further supports the -po spelling.

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge:

Olga and Tatiana's horses are named Regent and Robino

Поздравлают to the winners and Большое спасибо to everyone who participated!

Self-Googling: the agony and the ecstasy

2011-06-11T21:09:00.008-04:00

Today I fell off the anti-self-Googling wagon in spectacular fashion. For your amusement and edification, here's a sampling of what I found people saying about The Lost Crown:

Pacing:
"...you easily could have docked 50-100 pages."

"No chapter is useless or unnecessary."

Momentum:
"It is so well written and captivating that I couldn’t put it down; read it all in one sitting."

"...the book may have made me cry out of boredom at some parts..."

Style:
"She uses a lot of unique similes and metaphors throughout - which were mildly distracting..."

"I was floored in regards to her beautiful descriptions."

Characters' believability:
"The relationship between the sisters is realistic to the point of being eerie..."

"...all of the girls react in interesting ways and, sometimes in ways that almost don't make sense."

Voice:
"The book is told from Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia's POV, sounds lovely no? It wasn't, it's hard to keep track of who is who..."

"...I was impressed with Miller's ability to give distinct voices to each girl, while at the same time showing how similar they were..."

POV:
"Each princess has their own unique voice and offers different insight into what was happening-whether it be war-torn Europe or problems at home..."

"...having four voices going through basically the same things does make the book a bit confusing."

Historical scope:
"She seemed to leave out certain things, or just didn't go into them very much..."

"...The Lost Crown offers a whole lot more in the way of story and real historical events."

The bloggers and Goodreads members whose snippets I've ganked could argue that I've pulled some of these lines out of context. That's absolutely true. But you know what else is true? When you're the author of a brand new book, sometimes all you can see are the best and worst fragments of a reader's reaction. And the real kicker is, when the book is so sparkly-fresh that you're panting for feedback, you believe EVERYTHING everyone says.

It's enough to make you crazy, and in the beginning it usually does. All that noise can burrow into your head and start to taint your feelings toward your own book. That's when you've got to STOP typing your name into Google. But not forever, because after a while, when enough reviews and reactions have accumulated, all those opposing opinions suddenly become comforting as you begin to realize that nothing any one person says is going to mean life or death for your pretty new book-baby. I think that's where I am now. For a minute, anyway.

Frozentears Interview

2011-06-08T11:52:00.005-04:00

Need a break from pondering those trivia questions? Click on the image below to visit Frozentears.org and treat yourself to a thoughtful interview hosted by my Romanov-buddy, Laura Mabee:

(Nose around a little while you're there. You might even stumble across some useful information.)

Lost Crown giveaway QUIZ #3

2011-06-06T00:03:00.009-04:00

QUIZ #3

For a chance to win a signed copy of The Lost Crown and The Sunset of the Romanov Dynasty, post a comment with your answers to these five questions:

How many of Aleksei's sisters carried the gene for hemophilia?
True or false: One of Rasputin's daughters became a lion tamer.
What opera were Olga and Tatiana attending when they witnessed an assassination in 1911?
Which of the imperial family's closest friends was nearly killed in a railway accident in January of 1915?
Name one of the eight plays the imperial family performed to amuse themselves in exile.

Trick Question!
Be the first to answer this correctly and your name will be entered twice in this quiz's drawing:
What was the name of Tatiana's French bulldog?

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge!

Be the first to answer this question correctly and your name will be entered two more times in this quiz's drawing:

Name the horses Olga and Tatiana are riding in this photo:

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Your answers will NOT appear in the comments section once you've submitted them. Don't panic -- all comments that contain trivia answers are being held captive in my moderation queue as protection from copycats. If I've received your entry, I will post only your username in the comments section.

The fine print:
By submitting an entry, you are verifying that you are over 13 years old, and will provide me with a United States shipping address in the event that you win!

Lost Crown giveaway QUIZ #2

2011-06-06T00:02:00.011-04:00

QUIZ #2

For a chance to win a signed copy of The Lost Crown and Nicholas II: The Imperial Family, post a comment with your answers to these five questions:

Which regiment was Anastasia honorary colonel-in-chief of?
Who was Olga's "golden Mitya"?
True or false: All four of the grand duchesses smoked.
Name the officer Maria had a crush on.
What kind of perfume did Tatiana wear?

Trick Question!

Be the first to answer this correctly and your name will be entered twice in this quiz's drawing:

According to the western (Gregorian) calendar, was Olga born on November 15th or 16th in 1895?

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge!

Be the first to answer this question correctly and your name will be entered two more times in this quiz's drawing:

Name the peasant girl in Olga's lap:

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The fine print:
By submitting an entry, you are verifying that you are over 13 years old, and will provide me with a United States shipping address in the event that you win!

Lost Crown giveaway QUIZ #1

2011-06-06T00:01:00.009-04:00

QUIZ #1

For a chance to win a signed copy of The Lost Crown and The House of Special Purpose, post a comment with your answers to these five questions:

What disease did the imperial children contract at the outbreak of the Russian revolution?
Where and when did the tsar abdicate?
Name the man in charge of the Romanovs’ execution.
The soviets changed the name of the city where the imperial family was murdered. What was it called during the soviet era?
When was the state funeral for the remains of the Romanovs?

Trick Question!

Be the first to answer this correctly and your name will be entered twice in this quiz's drawing:

What does “shvibzyk” (швибзык) mean in Russian?

Ridiculous Bonus Challenge!

Be the first to answer this question correctly and your name will be entered two more times in this quiz's drawing:

Name this imperial cat:

IMPORTANT NOTE:

More fine print:
By submitting an entry, you are verifying that you are over 13 years old, and will provide me with a United States shipping address in the event that you win!

Giveaway!

2011-06-04T23:20:00.002-04:00

Look what arrived at my house yesterday -- something good enough to break six months of blog-silence!

To celebrate, I am giving away three signed copies of The Lost Crown. The ones in the lower right corner, to be precise.

Warning:

The Romanovs are addictive. If I've done my job well, you will want to run out and learn more about them the moment you finish The Lost Crown.

To save you some trouble, I am pairing up each free copy of The Lost Crown with a non-fiction companion:

PRIZE PACKAGE #1

The Lost Crown

The House of Special Purpose

by John C. Trewin

PRIZE PACKAGE #2

The Lost Crown

Nicholas II: The Imperial Family

by Olga Barkovets and Valentina Tenikhina

PRIZE PACKAGE #3

The Lost Crown

Sunset of the Romanov Dynasty

by Mikhail Iroshnikov, Liudmila Protsai & Yuri Shelayev

(Click on the titles for more information about each non-fiction book.)

How do you win one of these nifty prize packages?

On Monday morning at 12:01, 12:02, and 12:03 EST, I will post three separate Romanov trivia quizzes -- one for each prize package. Answer all five questions correctly to have your name entered in a drawing for the featured books.

Each quiz also includes a trick question and a Ridiculous Bonus Challenge. The first person to answer the trick question correctly will earn an extra entry in that quiz's drawing. The first person to answer the Ridiculous Bonus Challenge correctly earns two extra entries in that quiz's drawing. (In other words, if you are the fastest and most accurate, your name could be entered up to four times in each drawing.)

The contest closes at 11:59 pm on Sunday, June 12. Winners will be announced on June 13, and will have one week to contact me privately with a shipping address.

Questions you might have about this giveaway:

Do I have to pick just one quiz? Nope, you can enter all three if you want to. (You can only win once, though.)

Can I enter if I'm not a young adult? Yes! I don't care how old you are as long as you're over 13.

Can I enter if I live outside the United States? I'm sorry, I can only ship to addresses in the USA.

Darn, I live in Fiji! But wait -- I have a helpful friend in the USA! Will you ship the books to her so she can forward them to me? Yes, that sounds like an excellent loophole.

Can I enter if my name is on the dedication and/or acknowledgements page of The Lost Crown? Sure!

Any other questions? Please post them in the comments section of this post.

*Please note that none of the non-fiction prizes are brand new. They are all out of print and/or imported from Russia, and are a little bumped or worn around the edges. I promise they will look nice on your shelves and still have all their pages and pictures inside.

About the blogging...

2011-01-04T23:09:00.002-05:00

Guess how many novels I read last year?

A whopping seven. I counted the other night, and I couldn't believe it either. No wonder it's been quiet around here. Even getting my very first pair of glasses hasn't made me more fictionally inclined.

Add to this the fact that I refuse to discuss what I might be working on next -- even with the people I live with -- and there isn't much left to talk about.

Sorry 'bout that. I didn't mean to turn into such a wiener, even when I proclaimed myself a Very Occasional Blogger. At the moment, I don't see a cure for it on the horizon.

Scrivener for Windows!

2010-10-29T16:34:00.006-04:00

Remember ages ago when I extolled the virtues of my favorite writing software -- Scrivener? In brief: It's the Mac-based program that kept my brains from exploding while I juggled four narrators during the two years it took me to write The Lost Crown. I would never write a book without it ever again.

Scrivener is now available in a Windows beta version -- free! If you're willing to put up with some bugs, PC users can play with the program for nothing before the official version goes on sale next spring. Also, according to the Scrivener website:

Anyone who participates in NaNoWriMo this year and achieves their 50,000 words (and has them validated) will get a 50% discount coupon which they will be able to use when Scrivener for Windows is released next year."

Learn how it works from Scrivener's fast-talking designer:

Get it. Try it. Love it.

(Ahem. My Blogger template is a bit narrow. You might want to watch the Scrivener video directly on the official site to see the full width.)

Author-nerdery at its finest

2010-10-27T16:57:00.012-04:00

There may still be 8 months to wait for The Lost Crown, but look what I can do with my brand new dust jacket and a great big book* from my own shelves in the meantime:

(*I've left a smidgen of a certain somebody else's great big book peeking out at the bottom. Bonus points if you can ID it.)

The spine is GINORMOUS. And pearly. The little purple square is glossy-laminated, and the title is embossed on the front. Possibly this is crazy, but my favorite part might be the back:

Banned Books Week

2010-09-28T15:48:00.003-04:00

This sculpture isn't about book-banning, but don't you think it could be?

"Listening to History," by Bill Woodrow

Image snapped this weekend at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, which, incidentally, is having a great big exhibit of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly. It's nifty stuff -- sort of a Willy Wonka meets Dr. Seuss flavor:

Proofreading

2010-09-19T12:18:00.005-04:00

Page proofs for THE LOST CROWN arrived on Friday, and they are prettyful:

Appealing as that is, you know what I looked at first? The back matter. Nerdy stuff like photo captions and bibliography:

I kind of like this page, too:

So. I'm supposed to be correcting the text, not just ogling it. Confession: I'm not the world's greatest proofreader. Ever seen that email that begins,

Aoccdrnig to a rseearchr at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit any porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

I can read that without even blinking. (Well, except for where it says "it self" instead of "itself.") I'm much better at spotting formatting goofs -- like misplaced italics and reversed quotation marks -- than spelling errors.

Nevertheless, I'm finding plenty to keep me busy:

270 pages down, 163 to go...

Cover art!

2010-08-31T22:19:00.001-04:00

Paperbacks!

2010-08-24T19:01:00.005-04:00

Look what arrived at my house today:

Paperbacks!

(They are considerably spiffier than my expression might lead you to believe.)

I really really like that little apple on the spine. Don't forget to peek at the very backest back, where you'll find a teaser chapter from The Lost Crown:*

(*Yes, the title's changed again. Daughters of the Tsar -- formerly known as OTMA -- is now THE LOST CROWN. Once and for all.)

WFMAD Challenge-fail?

2010-08-05T09:03:00.007-04:00

Over at Madwoman in the Forest, Laurie Halse Anderson is hosting her annual Write Fifteen Minutes a Day Challenge. So far, I think I'm flunking. I just left this comment:

So...if I've spent the first 5 days of WFMAD submerged in copyedits, does that count? Clearly it's writing-related, but even when I'm tweaking a scene it doesn't feel like "real" writing -- it mostly feels like clerical work. At the end of a day of copyedits, the last thing I want to do is compose something new, and I end up rationalizing for waaaay more than 15 minutes:

This is necessary work, real-live-published-author-work. The deadline is Friday; that takes precedence. You've been at it for hours, give yourself a break. (ad nauseam)

Maybe I do need to quit being so literal and give myself a break. Pirate Code of Writing, and all that. But the daily rationalization bugs me -- isn't that exactly the sort of procrastinatory baloney that WFAMD aims to conquer? Isn't rationalizing a signal of guilt? Because for the record, I KNOW DARN WELL ANOTHER 15 MINUTES WON'T KILL ME. I just don't *want* to....

What do you think? Should I atone with make-up days in September? Or am I being too hard on myself?

(In the interest of full disclosure: a couple days ago I did squeeze in my 15 minutes. It felt FABULOUS -- when it was over, that is.)

Copyedits, BLARGH

2010-07-28T20:50:00.004-04:00

If I ever start writing a book that includes vocabulary from a language with a non-latin alphabet, SHAKE ME BY MY SHIRTFRONT.

Motherofgod, I'm a Russian minor, and I can't tell you how much of the transliteration I've botched. Lemme tell you, in 400+ pages, there's a lot of room for botching.

Just when I think it's all sorted out, one more sneaky word pops up to throw me for a loop. For example, the Russian letter "Я" can be rendered correctly in English as "ya" or "ia." I picked "ia." Oh wait, except for when I spell dorogaya -- which I refuse to change, because dorogaia looks ridiculous and unpronouncable. If I want to keep my preferred spelling, then all my "ia" words and names (Obednia, prigoditsia, Rodzianko...) have to be converted to "ya."

Hence, I have been Find-and-Replacing for three hours.

And it's dawned on me that technically, if I follow this -ia/-ya rule, the two youngest grand duchesses' names should be spelled Mariya and Anastasiya.

NO NO NO I WON'T AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.

(I'm afraid to look at my character list now.)

Sunday grumble

2010-07-25T15:41:00.002-04:00

Been doing a bit of reading on Laura Ingalls Wilder's portrayal of Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie, and if one more historian sees fit to remind me that "Wilder's genre was fiction -- and children's fiction at that," I'm going to blow a gasket.

Reds

2010-07-13T17:16:00.005-04:00

You might recall that not long ago I was raving about Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son. Couldn't wait to read the sequel.

Well. Red Prophet has been on my nightstand for the better part of two weeks now, and I'm all the way up to...page 11. The thing is, I've been reading up on Native images and stereotypes in American culture -- mostly here and here -- and I must be starting to get it, because in less than a dozen pages the descriptions of the Indians in Red Prophet are turning me right off. Given the setting, I can't say the white characters' racism is inappropriate. It's probably accurate, and it may even turn out to be an integral element of the story. But for me, right at this moment, it's not much fun to wade through.

Those of you who've read the series -- should I stick with this installment? Are there going to be other perspectives to counterbalance Hooch's attitude toward the Reds?

KEEPER, by Kathi Appelt

2010-07-08T13:50:00.004-04:00

KEEPER

by Kathi Appelt

illus. by August Hall

(Atheneum)

If I told you exactly what I liked best about this book, I'd spoil it for you in at least three different ways. Instead, I will be cagey, brief, and metaphorical -- probably maddeningly so:

If The Underneath was a ballad, Keeper is a pot of gumbo. So many flavors and combinations, some of them even a little audacious -- a girl who believes her mama is a mermaid? -- but so, so tasty when they're all simmered together.

Read it by the sea, or a lake -- like so:

(Or a puddle, if all else fails.)

Need I say more?

2010-06-23T19:27:00.006-04:00

I haven't read a novel in three months. Really. Three months.

But yesterday I sat by Lake Huron and reveled in Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son. All the way to the end.

I don't read sequels.

But today I informed my library that I must have Red Prophet -- book #2 in the aforementioned Tales of Alvin Maker series.

That is all for now.

Discovering disablism

2010-05-07T08:32:00.007-04:00

Confession #1:
I'd never heard the term disablism until I read my friend diceytillerman's Blogging Against Disablism post over the weekend.

Confession #2:
Although I haven't run into anything cringe-worthy yet, it's pretty darn unnerving to be reading up on this topic now, nearly three years after publishing a novel about two of the most famous disabled people on the planet. But it's also making me think - a lot - about how disability is portrayed in children's literature.

Case in point:
Through a weeklong session of link-clicking, I found my way this morning to one of the best book reviews I've ever read:

Dear Author, please don't heal me

The trouble with hybrids

2010-04-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

Lookit this pretty font I found while I was pretending to be OTMA's* designer instead of its author:

OMG, I LOVES THAT.

But oh wait, it's a latin-cyrillic hybrid font, so look at the dumb things that happen when I add the subtitle:

I guess it's supposed to look exotic and Russiany, but if you are a person who actually reads Russian, this is what your mind says when your eyes try to read those words: D Iovel of Yaomanov Yaussia

OMG, I HATES THAT.

*I have neglected to mention that Madame Editor and I seem to have settled on an official title for OTMA. As you may have guessed by now, it's Daughters of the Tsar: A Novel of Romanov Russia.

Don't Let the Pigeon Procrastinate

2010-03-15T15:45:00.007-04:00

(I'm supposed to be working.)

ETA: The line at the end that turned out too tiny to read: "Thanks to my editor (I think) and Mo Willems for making this movie possible."

OTMA, round 2

2010-03-11T21:09:00.004-05:00

OTMA has returned. Again.

By and large, the proposed cuts are not as scary as I was braced for. Madame Editor is a sharp line editor. However, there is the matter of her suggestion to do away with ALL THESE PAGES:

Two great big handfuls, both from chapters narrated by Maria. The first one had me bent over the kitchen counter making horrified exclamations: Oh. Oh, you vile woman! No! And then I caught myself smiling as I fussed, because....because...I think she might be right.

But I am not touching this big pile of paper again until Monday.

BFF recap: good news/bad news

2010-03-01T07:50:00.000-05:00

This month I have:

not blogged once (aside from this post)
turned off Google Alerts
cut down Goodreads email updates by at least 50%
stopped posting star-ratings to the books I've read on Goodreads
pared down blogs I follow by 30%
abandoned daily visits to two of my three favorite message boards
(mostly) stopped reading Facebook updates of people who aren't personal friends or family
stopped checking my Amazon ranks(!)
ignored my blog traffic stats
decreed that widget-peeks and web browsing sessions may commence only between the hour and the quarter (how long those sessions last is another matter, however)

Discoveries:

Networking and blogging and all the rest aren't so much about keeping in touch as about keeping up. And up, and up, and UP. Blargh.
Left to my own devices, it's positively creepy how much time I will spend loitering online, waiting for a bit of virtual interaction to pounce on. As opposed to, say, seeking out a live human to speak with in person.
It's also disconcerting to see how odd it initially felt to be done with my morning web-binge in half the time. I found myself staring at the screen thinking, Really? Already? as if I were an alcoholic dumbfounded by an empty glass.
I can't honestly say that cutting down on all this malarkey has upped my productivity. My constitutional resistance to drafting is still a great big hurdle. However, I am far less inclined to do my procrastinating online, which in turn makes me feel far less...turdy. The internet is a strange place, capable of making me feel simultaneously harried and slovenly.
Posting only privacy-filtered, literature-relevant slices of yourself online paints a very two-dimensional impression of a person. It's also oddly tiring.

The good news:

Cutting back was much easier than I expected. And you know what? I LIKE IT BETTER THIS WAY.

The bad news:

I wish there was a way to say this gently, but...I did not miss blogging. Not one little bit.

Confession: I've been suspicious of blog-burnout since well before Christmas, and Blog-Free February provided the definitive diagnosis. The space that has opened up in my brain and my schedule this past month is too big to let go -- especially while I'm doing daily battle with a first draft. (Or trying to.) I always give precedence to the more pressing deadline, and that is nearly always blogging.

From now on, fiction comes first -- count on me only as a Very Occasional Blogger.

State of the TBR pile

2010-01-31T10:32:00.000-05:00

Finished:

The Story of the Ingalls, by William Anderson

The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by William Anderson

Larger-than-life Lara, by Dandi Daley Mackall

Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story, by William Anderson

The Ingalls Family Album, by William Anderson

See you all in March!

The new BFF

2010-01-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

Laurie Anderson posted a Really Good Idea a couple weeks ago:

We had NaNoWriMo in November. December and January have been filled with revisions for many of us, and by many of us, I mean ME. And many of us want to finish up the current project so we can get hopping on the next one. So...........

Let's make February a blog-free month.

(I heard that gasp. Breathe slowly. Into a paper bag. With your head between your knees.)

Do not panic. February is short! We could call it the new BFF: Blog-Free February.

If you do this, you'll be at the cutting edge of the next digital trend: the Slow Media Movement. Give everyone a heads-up that you're stepping away from blogging for a couple of weeks. If you are truly bold (or desperate) make February an Internet-free month, not just blog-free. On March 1st, write a blog (or a letter) evaluating any differences in your productivity during February.

Count me IN. I'm actually between revisions, having shipped off a shiny new draft of OTMA to Madame Editor the morning I left for Boston. If I behave myself during BFF, I might get a decent start on something new before OTMA returns to haunt me...

******************

Currently reading:

The Catch Trap
by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Bookshop memories

2010-01-25T11:39:00.007-05:00

Remember the snurpy Halfway Down the Stairs tribute video I made a couple years ago? To create a teaser for the Rochester Oral History Archive, longtime HDS customer Corrie Pokrzywa layered in an audio track of owner Cam Mannino's bookshop memories:

Intrigued? Listen to Cammie's full 45 minute interview here for lots more insider stories on the life, evolution, and legacy of a beloved book store.

State of the TBR pile

2010-01-24T20:05:00.000-05:00

Finished:

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, by Barbara O'Connor (manuscript!)

Fame and Glory in Freedom Georgia, by Barbara O'Connor

Beethoven in Paradise, by Barbara O'Connor

Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White (audio)

Next week I'l maybe lay into the pile of ARCs I acquired at ALA...

My dumbest thrill yet

2010-01-23T22:53:00.004-05:00

Mucho bonus points if you can name either of the two famous tushes who've also occupied this uber-ugly seat:

(Closeup of the vehicle in question here.)

I rang the bell and everything. Twice.

Thanks to Barbara O'Connor for making a movie-dweeb's whole morning.

Stop #5

2010-01-22T07:19:00.001-05:00

Reclining on the Alphabet Throne outside Eight Cousins children's bookshop in Falmouth, MA:

Followed by a rock-hopping jaunt into Cape Cod:

Stop #4.5

2010-01-21T07:16:00.000-05:00

Stop #4

2010-01-20T09:23:00.001-05:00

Barbara O'Connor and me, getting to know each other before dinner:

(No, we're not IM-ing.)

Stop #3*

2010-01-19T09:34:00.006-05:00

PERKINS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.

OMG. Everywhere I turned, there were photos and sculptures and tributes and exhibits related to Dr. Howe, Laura Bridgman, Michael Anagnos, Annie Sullivan, and Helen Keller. I should have taken more pictures, but I was mostly wandering around feeling stupidly joyful at "meeting" so many of my imaginary friends.

In the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, this was

waiting for me:

Thirty-six binders full of notes and correspondence belonging to Nella Braddy Henney, author of the very first biography of Anne Sullivan. There were dozens of pages of scribbled jottings in Annie's own handwriting. As you might imagine, I got a little verklempt. I also got intimately acquainted with the photocopy machine:

___

*I've neglected to mention Stop/Adventure #2, which was the ALA midwinter conference Boston. More on that later. Maybe. (I didn't take nearly enough pictures.)

State of the TBR pile

2010-01-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Finished:

The Trial, by Jen Bryant

So B. It, by Sarah Weeks (audio)

Dave at Night, by Gail Carson Levine (audio)

Research

2010-01-16T00:40:00.005-05:00

Click here to see my videographer and flying buddy, she of the spectacular cat socks, Kristin Cashore, go through the same routine.

Stop #1

2010-01-13T21:12:00.003-05:00

Bon Voyage!

2010-01-13T07:54:00.002-05:00

I am about to embark on a small adventure that's almost certain to involve authorial shenanigans and will likely disrupt my usual blogging schedule but not necessarily generate a full 10-day hiatus. Updates to follow as blog-worthy events (and time to chronicle them) arise...

Editing with Uncle Walt

2010-01-11T09:21:00.004-05:00

Among the goodies under my Christmas tree: the latest fluffed up re-release of Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Popped the DVD into my computer the other night to discover there are 20-some minutes of "restored" footage incorporated into the feature.

Well. I find myself intrigued and irritated in equal measure. It's always interesting to see what tidbits ended up on the cutting room floor, but to jam it all right back into the film? Blargh. On top of that, the dubbed voices in a few of the restored scenes are downright vomitous.

On the other hand, this makes for a darn good lesson in editing. Since I've got the shorter version more or less memorized, watching the longer cut makes it vividly clear how much you can get away without, in a way that browsing a separate series of deleted scenes doesn't quite convey. Mentally, I'm revved up for the cut to the next scene, the next verse, or even the next line -- and it doesn't come. Instead something extra's elbowed its way in, and to me it feels like tripping over my own feet.

For someone who's trying to cut a manuscript by 15% (and so far achieved only 5%) this is encouraging. As I'm trying to make myself see with OTMA, a single superfluous line can divert the momentum. Fortunately for me, Madame Editor has a hawk-eye for this kind of thing. Click on the thumbnails to have a peek at nips and tucks she made when I asked her to make an example of Chapter 22 and show me how it's done:

pg 189:

pg 194:

pg 195:

[The last teensy line's cut off: "Why?"]

Snip, snip, snip...

(For an altogether different lesson in editing, watch the Bedknobs and Broomsticks horror trailer on Youtube.)

***********************
Currently re-reading:

The Trial
by jen Bryant

State of the TBR pile

2010-01-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

Finished:

Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson

City of Thieves, by David Benioff

East, by Edith Pattou

De-updating my website

2010-01-06T09:12:00.001-05:00

I regret to inform you (actually, I don't, but it sounds more polite than squeeing) that as of the first of the year, I'm no longer adding to my online reading journal.

When I launched my website, Halfway Down the Stairs was singing its swan song, and I hated the thought of losing the opportunity to accost strangers with booktalk. So I dreamed up the online reading journal as an alternative place to sound off about what I was reading. And so for two and a half years I said something about every single book I finished. Every single one.

I'm done with that. My November/December re-read-a-thon showed me just how much I've come to dread composing the obligatory reactions to each book, as well as how much time maintaining the journal with any level of tact or sensitivity siphons out of my week. It's time to just...read. Time to finish a book and simply let myself be done with it.

I still have a GoodReads account for those of you who want to keep up with every last thing I'm reading. I still have a blog, so if I want to say something about a super-duper book, I surely will. You'll be the first to know.

********************

Currently re-reading:

Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

THE WAGER, by Donna Jo Napoli

2010-01-04T09:01:00.003-05:00

THE WAGER
by Donna Jo Napoli

(Henry Holt/Macmillan)

Quick and dirty (ha!) summary:
After a catastrophe leaves him penniless, playboy Don Giovanni makes a bargain with the devil -- in exchange for limitless wealth, he will not wash, cut his hair, or change his clothes for three years, three months, and three days.

If you know Donna Jo Napoli, you know she doesn't flinch. The lady's made a living out of delving into the details fairy tales ignore or gloss over, so brace yourself. There are boils, sores, scabs, bugs, infections, itches, and worse. All 1188 unwashed days are downright tangible. *scratches* There are practical concerns, too: where does a walking accumulation of filth sleep? Where does he get food? (He's not especially popular at inns.) Most of all, how does a man stay human when the world shuns him?

And here's the other thing about Donna Jo: she knows Italy firsthand, and it shows. The colors, flavors, and scents of the food, the cities, and the landscape are every bit as palpable as Don Giovanni's offal. And that makes it just about bearable.

(Available in April)

********************

Currently reading:

Dear Julia
by Amy Bronwen Zemser

State of the TBR pile

2010-01-03T23:42:00.001-05:00

Finished:

Operating Instructions, by Anne Lamott

Truce, by Jim Murphy

Dear Julia, by Amy Bronwen Zemser

A year of book-gathering

2010-01-02T11:35:00.004-05:00

All the books that have in one way or another found their way into my collection in 2009. And in order of acquisition, because I've been adding to this post for the last 365 days:

A Time of Angels, by Karen Hesse

Trouble Don't Last, by Shelley Pearsall

The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney

The Red Tree, by Shaun Tan

Pis'ma Tsarskoi Sem'i iz Zatocheniia, by E.E. Alfer'ev

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Faberge: Easter Gifts, by T.N. Muntyan

Last Days of the Romanovs, by Helen Rappaport

Le Tsarevitch, enfant martyr, by Eugenie de Grece

Beyond the Miracle Worker, by Kim E. Nielsen

The Great Fire, by Jim Murphy

La "Maison a destination speciale" by Valentin Speranski

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

Desyat' Let na Imperatorskiy Yakhte "Shtandart" by Nikolai Sablin

Ubiistvo Tsarskoi Sem'i, by M.K. Diterikhs

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

Skorbnyi Angel, by Sergei Fomin

Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott

Enna Burning, by Shannon Hale

River Secrets, by Shannon Hale

I Was So Mad, by Mercer Mayer

Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Faberge and the Russian Master Goldsmiths, by Gerard Hill

Faberge: Court Jewelers to the Tsars, by Habsburg-Lothingen & Solodkoff

Aleksandrovskii Dvorets-Muzei v Detskom Sele, by V.I. Yakovlev

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, by a heap of righteously geeky folks

Fire, by Kristin Cashore (print & audio editions)
Forest Born, by Shannon Hale

Once Was Lost, by Sara Zarr

A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck

Stitches, by David Small

Gibel' Tsarskoi Sem'i, by Nikolai Ross

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry

I must say it's been quite a year for Romanov books. And now for the nerdy math portion of the program:

My calculator informs me I've acquired 23.03% of the 152 books I read last year. As usual.

(Last year's figures: 36 out of 167 = 21.55%)

Poetry Friday

2010-01-01T08:58:00.002-05:00

An Awkward Comparison

This physical world has no two things alike.

Every comparison is awkwardly rough.

You can put a lion next to a man,

but the placing is hazardous to both.

Say the body is like this lamp.

It has to have a wick and oil. Sleep and food.

If it doesn't get those, it will die,

and it's always burning those up, trying to die.

But where is the sun in this comparison?

It rises, and the lamp's light

mixes with the day. Oneness,

which is the reality, cannot be understood

with lamp and sun images. The blurring

of a plural into a unity is wrong.

No images can describe

what our fathers and mothers,

our grandfathers and grandmothers, remains.

Language does not touch the one

who lives in each of us.

~Rumi

Bests, faves, and so forth: 2009

2009-12-31T09:08:00.001-05:00

Most intense:

Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson

Most mind-bending:

Liar
by Justine Larbalestier

Favorite adult read:

Stitches
by David Small

Favorite audios:

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (performed by Dylan Baker)

Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale (Full Cast Audio)

Provoked the most plot-envy:

When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead

Best voice:

Marcelo in the Real World

by Francisco X. Stork

Best sequel:

A Season of Gifts

by Richard Peck

Best non-fiction/

FINALLY knocked off my TBR list:

A Short History of Nearly Everything

by Bill Bryson

Best biography:

Beyond the Miracle Worker

by Kim E. Nielsen

Third-person present tense narration that actually worked for me:

After

by Amy Efaw

Most compelling:

The Chosen One

by Carol Lynch Williams

Most anticipated:

Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

The omg, she did it to me *again* award:

Crossing Stones

by Helen Frost

Read at exactly the right moment:

Once Was Lost

by Sara Zarr

(Attempted to) read at exactly the wrong moment:

Jellicoe Road

by Melina Marchetta

I should be flogged for overlooking:

Alvin Ho

by Lenore Look

Favorite cover:

Distant Waters: A Novel of the Titanic

by Suzanne Weyn

Provoked the most wordsmith-envy:

Forest Born

by Shannon Hale

Most affecting:

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Most innovative:

The Black Book of Colors

by Menina Cottin and Rosana Faria

Best re-read:

The Moorchild

by Eloise McGraw

Worst re-read:

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle

Book I liked better in print than audio:

Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Most ridonkulous titles:

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman

Castration Celebration, by Jake Wizner

Book I wish I was as head-over-heels for as everyone else:

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

by Jacqueline Kelly

Most creepily atmospheric:

Days of Little Texas

by E.A. Nelson

Most fun:

The Miles Between

by Mary E. Pearson

Best backlist:

Nobody's Family is Going to Change

by Louise Fitzhugh

The it's-about-time award:

The Rock and the River, by Kekla Magoon

Rage: A Love Story, by Julie Anne Peters

Favorite overall reading experience of the year:

Fire

by Kristin Cashore

******************

Currently reading:

Truce

by Jim Murphy

Fa la la

2009-12-17T08:52:00.004-05:00

As you are no doubt aware, Christmas is a-coming. Geese are getting fat, and there might even be one on my table in a week or so. (Or maybe a duck -- the jury's still out.)

ANYHOW. As of now, this blog's on vacation. I'll see you all on New Year's eve with my arbitrary list of 2009 bests and favorites.

Candleshoe

2009-12-16T12:27:00.002-05:00

Anybody here seen Candleshoe? Fun 1970's Disney movie starring Helen Hayes, David Niven and teenaged Jodie Foster. Also featuring a treasure hunt, pirate gold, and an Anastasia-like attempt at conning a rich English dowager. Mystery, comedy, and mayhem ensue.

I've never really grown out of the movie, so I thought I'd have a look at the original novel, Christmas at Candleshoe, by Michael Innes. Just imagine, Candleshoe plus Christmas!

Two unfortunate facts:

Christmas at Candleshoe is not a Christmas book (the title apparently concerns a 17th century monument-carver named Gerard Christmas).
Nor is it a children's book.

In my opinion, it's not even an interesting book. I just barely made it to the second paragraph.

We are looking at an English rural landscape on a summer afternoon. Most of us are urban folk -- we come from New York and London and Birmingham and St. Louis -- and our principle sensation is the comfortable one of getting our money's worth. The Englishness is unchallengable, the rurality unflawed, and the whole effect a landscape in the fullest sense of the word. This last circumstance, indeed, makes a few of us obscurely uneasy.

Delimiting the forest...

"Delimiting the forest"? I dunno about you, but *poof* -- there went my attention span. A grudging flip through the next 80 pages exposed very little adventure, and very much chewy British prose. Phooey.

**********************

Currently reading:

The Wager
by Donna Jo Napoli
(THANK YOU MELISSA WEISBERG!)

Routine

2009-12-14T08:28:00.000-05:00

In the morning, I wake up, grab the book I'm reading from my nightstand/pillow, and carry it into the other room. While I catch up on email and so forth, it sits on the footstool beside me. When I go downstairs to shower, the book comes with me - to be parked on the bathroom counter. Next I go upstairs to get dressed and make my bed, book still in tow. (It sits on the hamper.) Then it accompanies me back down to the bathroom counter while I play 'beauty shop' with eyeliner and hairspray. After all that's done, it's back to the computer for me, and back to the footstool for the book of the day.

In all this time, I haven't read a word -- just carried the book from place to place.

Same thing happens at lunch time. I put my computer aside, carry the book downstairs and set it on the kitchen table while I eat and watch an episode of Jeopardy. Then, back to the footstool it goes while I tinker with the WIP for the afternoon.

Generally, I don't get around to actually reading until after 4:00 or 5:00.

How strange is this?

State of the TBR pile

2009-12-13T20:54:00.001-05:00

Finished!

Dicey's Song, by Cynthia Voigt (audio)

And...that's all I have to report. I don't dare predict when I will finally reach the end of Straw Into Gold. I had no idea I could dawdle so aimlessly over a book I enjoyed so much the first time around.

ps: Almost forgot -- I killed a yellow post-it flag today.

Poetry Friday

2009-12-11T11:06:00.004-05:00

There once was a mixture called mince,

whose consistency made sissies wince.

So we put it in pies

and say "Close your eyes,"

for the tasting will surely convince.

(Don't tell Grandpa -- these simmering vats of mincemeat are his Christmas present.)

Mouth-watering Tablet demo

2009-12-09T10:17:00.003-05:00

I have three thing to say about this:

1. For some fuddy-duddy reason the idea of multi-media fiction makes me throw up a little, and
2. I don't even like Sports Illustrated a tiny bit, but
3. Wouldn't something like this make reading non-fiction wildly awesome:

The joy of widgets

2009-12-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

This is completely counter-intuitive. Desktop email widgets - those little thingies that make your email inbox more accessible - are helping keep me off the internet.

Peeking at widgets lets me have a little breather without throwing open the door to the endless spiral of procrastination that is the internet. No blogs, no message boards, no sales ranks. Just a glimpse at a few subject lines now and then. And ok, yeah, I do it a lot. But it takes about 5 seconds now instead of, oh, upwards of 20 minutes. It's like playing peek-a-boo.

Widgets, man. They'll save you from yourself.

State of the TBR pile

2009-12-06T16:37:00.001-05:00

Hi.

Was I supposed to be reading something this week?

Crap.

Napoli strikes again

2009-12-05T08:57:00.003-05:00

I've just found out Donna Jo Napoli has a new fairy tale novel coming out this spring, and it's making me die a little. WAAAAAANT.

The Wager is an adaptation of the Grimm tale called The Bearskinner, and I will trade a whole batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies for the chance to read an ARC. (Note: I am really good at chocolate chip cookies. Ask Deborah Wiles.)

Thank you, Betsy Bird, for compromising my sanity until April.

*whimper*

Poetry Friday

2009-12-04T16:44:00.002-05:00

A Single Slice Reveals Them

An apple on the table

hides its seeds

so neatly

under seamless skin.

But we talk and talk and talk

to let somebody

in.

~Naomi Shihab Nye

(From 19 Varieties of Gazelle)

Heads-up: Meet authors on Sunday!

2009-12-02T07:12:00.006-05:00

If you haven't read Crossing Stones yet, you should. If you haven't met Helen Frost yet, you should do that, too. And if you live in Michigan, you can -- and two more YA authors besides.

This Sunday afternoon, Book Beat hosts a triple-author event featuring Helen Frost, Amy Huntley, and Pearl North at the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham. (I'd be gushing about the other ladies' books too, if only I'd paused my Re-read-a-thon long enough to read them. But if Colleen at Book Beat says they're good, odds are that's all you need to know.)

Lots more info here.

Readergirlz homecoming chat!

2009-11-30T07:01:00.005-05:00

Wanna chat live with me and almost two dozen YA authors? Get your tushie over to the rgz blog tonight at 9:00 EST.

The rgz alumni roster includes:

Coe Booth, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, Cecil Castelucci, Justina Chen, Rachel Cohn, Holly Cupala, Liz Gallagher, Nikki Grimes, Lorie Ann Grover, Ellen Hopkins, Sarah Miller, Mary Pearson, Mitali Perkins, Dana Reinhardt, Laura Resau, Melissa Walker, Ellen Emerson White, Rita Williams-Garcia, Sara Zarr...

Be there!

**********************

Currently re-reading:

Straw Into Gold

by Gary D. Schmidt

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

The Napoli portion of my Re-read-a-thon has progressed through:

Song of the Magdalene, by Donna Jo Napoli
The Magic Circle, by Donna Jo Napoli
Spinners, by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen

From Spinners, I springboard into a Rumplestiltskin revival:

Straw Into Gold, by Gary D. Schmidt
A Curse Dark as Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Poetry Friday

2009-11-27T08:18:00.000-05:00

What we speak

Becomes the house we live in.

Who will want to sleep in your bed

If the roof leaks right above it?

Look what happens when the tongue

Cannot say to kindness,

"I will be your slave."

The moon covers her face with both hands

And cannot bear to look.

~Hafiz

************************
Currently re-reading:

The Magic Circle
by Donna Jo Napoli

There are no words

2009-11-25T08:08:00.000-05:00

I don't know who created this, or why, or how I missed it before. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across it, but GOD BLESS WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE:

My e-book dilemma

2009-11-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

Ever since Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook e-reader, my gadget lust has been flaring something awful. They're so compact and nifty-looking. Plus the thought of being able to search and annotate hundreds of books at once makes me a little tingly. I want one. I think. Maybe not.

The trouble with me is, I only buy books once I've read them. And then I defy organizational conventions by arranging them chronologically on my shelves, so that browsing my personal library is akin to a book-spine version of This Is Your Life. Which is probably why I love shelf-gazing so much - I revere my bookshelves the way most people cherish their family photo albums.

Somehow, I doubt flicking through an alphabetical series of virtual cover images is going to be quite the same. (Although the amount of time I can spend admiring the covers in my LibraryThing catalog might indicate otherwise.)

And I further doubt that my inner cheapskate will be up for spending $5-10 apiece to acquire duplicate e-editions of dozens of books I've already paid $15-20 apiece for.

What I really want is an e-reader that will magically import every last one of my existing 752 volumes the moment I hold it near a shelf and switch it on. Because everyone wants to carry 752 books they've already read everywhere they go, right? Or imagine the joy of searching for phrases like "love handles on God" or "awesomely brainless prattle" without having to bother with the irksome task of turning pages.

*sigh*

*******************

Currently re-reading:

Song of the Magdalene

by Donna Jo Napoli

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

Five re-reads and one newcomer this week:

The Alfred Summer, by Jan Slepian
A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, by Barbara O'Connor
The River Between Us, by Richard Peck
Ever, by Gail Carson Levine
Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli

I have a feeling a Napoli-festival is on next week's horizon...

Post-It countdown, week 4

2009-11-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

As far as actual post-its, these last couple weeks aren't so impressive. You could count them on one hand, without even using your thumb. HOWEVER. In the last month since receiving Madame Editor's suggestions I have:

removed 109 out of 130 post-it flags
drafted 3 pesky unfinished chapters
cut somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,248 words (it's hard to know for sure when you're simultaneously drafting at the back and deleting from the front)
converted 20 chapters from past to present tense (which I swore I wouldn't do)
rewritten the end (ditto)

I want a cookie. A big one.

*******************

Currently re-reading:

Zel
by Donna Jo Napoli

Poetry Friday

2009-11-20T08:36:00.004-05:00

Assurances

I need no assurances, I am a man who is preoccupied of his own soul;

I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands and
face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,

I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent in
any iota of the world,

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless,
in vain I try to think how limitless,

I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play their
swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I shall one day
be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they,

I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions of years,

I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have
their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and
the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice,

I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young men are
provided for, and that the deaths of young women and the
deaths of little children are provided for,

(Did you think Life was so well provided for, and Death, the purport
of all Life, is not well provided for?)

I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors of
them, no matter whose wife, child, husband, father, lover, has
gone down, are provided for, to the minutest points,

I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere at any
time, is provided for in the inherences of things,

I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space, but I
believe Heavenly Death provides for all.

~Walt Whitman

************************
Currently re-reading:

Ever
by Gail Carson Levine

Peck + Cashore = hilarity

2009-11-18T08:56:00.002-05:00

So last week I re-read Graceling, and then a few days later listened to A Year Down Yonder for the umpteenth time. And you know what I discovered? The backwoods Burdick clan of Piatt County is chock full of Gracelings! One blue eye, one green, just like Katsa -- thanks to a lightning rod salesman, according to Aunt Mae Griswold.

Just the thought of Mildred Burdick trying to take on Katsa makes me snork...

*******************

Currently re-reading:

The River Between Us
by Richard Peck

Author stalker!

2009-11-16T08:16:00.002-05:00

Me & Deborah Wiles, carousing at the Flint Airport:

(Lookit me, acting all demure. Don't believe it for an instant.)

Yes, the airport. See, I'm the sort of gal who'll jump into a car and drive toward any author who happens to be passing within a two-hour radius of my house. Come to think of it, I believe I neglected to blog the Lansing Sushi-hunting Odyssey I embarked upon with Robin Brande this spring. Shame on me.

ANYWAY.

If I ever question the usefulness of Facebook (and/or airports), remind me of this photo. When Debbie posted that she was headed for Flint, I pounced. Totally worth the drive.

So if you're a kidlit author saddled with a layover in Detroit or Flint, give me a call. I might even bring chocolate chip cookies.

*********************

Currently re-reading:

The Alfred Summer
by Jan Slepian

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

This week's re-reads:

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott

Wendy, by Karen Wallace

Heartbeat, by Sharon Creech (audio edition)

A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck (audio edition)

The Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles

As for next week's Re-read-a-thon selections? I'm flying by my whims, but I already feel a hankering for...

The Alfred Summer, by Jan Slepian

A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck

Swine flu reaches the Hundred Acre Wood

2009-11-14T07:01:00.003-05:00

***********************
Currently re-reading:

The Aurora County All-Stars
by Deborah Wiles

[BECAUSE I'M GOING TO MEET HER TODAY]

Poetry Friday

2009-11-13T07:41:00.001-05:00

God Got in a Boat

And said "Wow."

He'd never actually

floated in a boat, though

He'd seen people

out on the water and

told Himself He'd have

to try that someday.

Water had always bored Him

until He started seeing

people having fun on it.

So one day He got in a boat,

said Wow,

and headed out across the lake.

And the whole world looked different.

He couldn't get over it.

It didn't look anything like

it looked from the sky

or from the ground

or even from inside a whale,

which He'd tried once or twice.

He sat in the boat

and was surprised how

much sense it all made.

All the little houses

and all the green trees

and all the tidy cities

and all the sky and all the land,

it all made sense.

He was surprised.

Because, really,

He'd just been winging it.

~Cynthia Rylant

(from God Went to Beauty School)

DLC match #13: Disney vs. Milne

2009-11-11T08:51:00.002-05:00

Disney Literature Challenge:

WINNIE-THE-POOH

THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER

by A. A. Milne

If you want to learn something about the impact of voice on a story, read the old school Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne. Even though Disney lifted the plots and characters and a heap of dialog without much meddling, in spite of creating an animated storybook complete with text and narrator, there's still something missing.

That something is the gentle earnestness of Milne's voice. For whatever reason, it just doesn't translate. Disney's Pooh is sort of dopily lovable, which endears him to millions of people -- even me, once upon a time. But no more. I accept no substitutes. (Besides, once you've worked at a place called Halfway Down the Stairs, Milne spinoffs are strictly verboten.)

Verdict:

Milne

Score:

Disney - 6

Authors - 8

********************

Currently re-reading:

Living Dead Girl
by Elizabeth Scott

A-men!

2009-11-09T15:37:00.003-05:00

This should be required reading for everyone who ever asks anyone (editor, agent, author, critique partner, mail carrier, etc.) to read anything they've ever written. Period.

********************

Currently re-reading:

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-08T18:31:00.000-05:00

Finished:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

The Re-read-a-thon continues with...

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Wendy, by Karen Wallace

Per request

2009-11-07T08:32:00.004-05:00

(Rather dim) closeup of Mystery Book #3:

Also, don't forget #7 and #11 remain unidentified...

Reminder clues:

All three books are by Newbery-winning authors
#7 and #11 are by the same author

***********************
Currently skimming:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Poetry Friday

2009-11-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

"Those who speak know nothing
Those who know are silent."
These words, as I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzü.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzü
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?

~Po Chü-i

Clues

2009-11-04T07:02:00.002-05:00

Four books still left to identify from Saturday's Books Unmasked challenge: 2, 3, 7, & 11.

Clues:

All the remaining books are by Newbery-winners
#2 and #1 come from the same family tree, so to speak
#7 and #11 also share the same type of relationship

[ETA: closeup of #3 here]

Post-It countdown, week 2

2009-11-02T09:13:00.003-05:00

After one week of revision:

Red: 11
Orange: 5
Yellow: 6
Green: 6
Blue: 2

100 post-its, GONE. 30 left to go. Probably less, actually, since some of those red and green ones are likely to stay right where they are. That leaves just a few more tasks. Little things, like, oh...

Rewriting the first 20 chapters in present tense (maybe)
Finishing chapters 44 and 45
Trimming the whole shebang by 15%

Blogging from this quarter might be erratic for the time being. I've got stuff to do.

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

Finished:

Under Three Tsars, by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin
Fire, by Kristin Cashore (audio)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

Books unmasked

2009-10-31T07:11:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Here's a puzzle for you -- how many of these books can you identify without their costumes, er, dust jackets? Some should be easy, others maybe not so much:

(click the image to make it bigger)

Other nifty undercover embellishments, which didn't make the puzzle matrix for obvious reasons:

Some cover decorations, like those on Number the Stars, Beauty, The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, Diamond Willow, and The Castle in the Attic are embossed without foil or color, and don't photograph worth a darn. Check 'em out! And next time you've got your hands on a nice new hardcover, don't be too shy to peep under its knickers. You might be surprised by what you find. Heh.

********************

Currently re-reading:

Jackaroo
by Cynthia Voigt

Poetry Friday

2009-10-30T07:01:00.002-04:00

The Hag

The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

~Robert Herrick (1648)

*******************

Currently reading:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Tiresome trends, volume 5

2009-10-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

For the record: I am officially getting my fill of realistic novels narrated by witty, sarcastic, socially outcast teenagers.

Thank you.

(Prior complaints gathered here.)

*****************

Currently reading:

Under Three Tsars
by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin

Shorty-short Spitfire news post:

2009-10-27T20:47:00.004-04:00

As of today, Miss Spitfire is an ebook!

ELSKE, by Cynthia Voigt

2009-10-26T12:23:00.003-04:00

ELSKE

by Cynthia Voigt

(Atheneum)

I've had a doozy of a time figuring out why I like this book so much. With its restrained style and limited access to the characters' inner lives, a number of readers have complained that they felt detached from Elske. Stepping back to consider objectively, I can see where they're coming from - that sort of thing usually drives me bats. But in this case, where others wind up disengaged, I find myself fascinated. Even when they don't say so, I'm sure I know what the characters are feeling. What they do say, and the way they say it, tells me everything I need to know. It's like watching really good theatre, the kind without voiceover or soliloquy, where the tension between the surface and what lies beneath simply crackles.

How does Cynthia Voigt do that, without a stage, and without actors? If I find out, I'm not telling - at least not until I've learned to do it myself.

State of the TBR pile

2009-10-25T17:11:00.000-04:00

Finished:

The Storm in the Barn, by Matt Phelan

Escaping the Tiger, by Laura Manivong

As for next week, I'm thinking some classic horror might be fun. Say, Dracula, or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Probably the latter, since it's shorter and the movie's showing on TCM on Halloween.) Possibly with a little Poe mixed in.

*******************

Currently reading:

The Lost Conspiracy
by Frances Hardinge

Post-It countdown

2009-10-24T10:45:00.002-04:00

I hereby retire the [first draft] Revise-O-Meter with the following stats:

Chapter standings:
Chapter 1: 100
Chapter 2: 100
Chapter 3: 100
Chapter 4: 85
Chapter 5: 100
Chapter 6: 100
Chapter 7: 100
Chapter 8: 85
Chapter 9: 85
Chapter 10: 85
Chapter 11: 95
Chapter 12: 80
Chapter 13: 95
Chapter 14: 100
Chapter 15: 100
Chapter 16: 100
Chapter 17: 100
Chapter 18: 85
Chapter 19: 95
Chapter 20: 100
Chapter 21: 85
Chapter 22: 90
Chapter 23: 80
Chapter 24: 85
Chapter 25: 90
Chapter 26: 80
Chapter 27: 80
Chapter 28: 95
Chapter 29: 90
Chapter 30: 90
Chapter 31: 90
Chapter 32: 90
Chapter 33: 90
Chapter 34: 85
Chapter 35: 85
Chapter 36: 85
Chapter 37: 85
Chapter 38: 90
Chapter 39: 75
Chapter 40: 75Chapter 41: 70
Chapter 42: 80Chapter 43: 85Chapter 44: 25Chapter 45: 25
Chapter 46: 85
Chapter 47: 45
Chapter 48: 80Afterword: 100
For a grand total of 4200 out of 4900 possible points
85.71% overall satisfaction

GOAL:

85% (or better) overall satisfaction

(Achieved...uh...sometime in early September)

Eventually I may reinstate the Revise-O-Meter for another draft, but for now progress shall be measured via a Post-It countdown:

Opening Standings:

Red: 22

Orange: 38

Yellow: 21

Green: 10

Blue: 39

(click here in case you missed the visuals and color-codes)

Yesterday, I peeled off 35 flags. We'll see what kind of numbers I pull now that I've demolished 50% of the "easy" ones right off the bat.

Poetry Friday

2009-10-23T07:55:00.003-04:00

To Hope

When by my solitary hearth I sit,
And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom;
When no fair dreams before my "mind's eye" flit,
And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!

Whene'er I wander, at the fall of night,
Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray,
Should sad Despondency my musings fright,
And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,
Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,
And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof!

Should Disappointment, parent of Despair,
Strive for her son to seize my careless heart;
When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air,
Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart:
Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright,
And fright him as the morning frightens night!

Whene'er the fate of those I hold most dear
Tells to my fearful breast a tale of sorrow,
O bright-eyed Hope, my morbidfancy cheer;
Let me awhile thy sweetest comforts borrow:
Thy heaven-born radiance around me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!

Should e'er unhappy love my bosom pain,
From cruel parents, or relentless fair;
O let me think it is not quite in vain
To sigh out sonnets to the midnight air!
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!

In the long vista of the years to roll,
Let me not see our country's honour fade:
O let me see our land retain her soul,
Her pride, her freedom; and not freedom's shade.
From thy bright eyes unusual brightness shed
Beneath thy pinions canopy my head!

Let me not see the patriot's high bequest,
Great Liberty! how great in plain attire!
With the base purple of a court oppress'd,
Bowing her head, and ready to expire:
But let me see thee stoop from heaven on wings
That fill the skies with silver glitterings!

And as, in sparkling majesty, a star
Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud;
Brightening the half veil'd face of heaven afar:
So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud,
Sweet Hope, celestial influence round me shed,
Waving thy silver pinions o'er my head!

~John Keats

*********************
Currently reading:

Escaping the Tiger
by Laura Manivong

OTMA returns

2009-10-22T15:45:00.004-04:00

Madame Editor has had her way with OTMA.

Two things:

This manuscript is HUGE. I'd never printed it out myself, so I didn't really understand the scale of this thing. According to the shipping label, it weighs more than my godson did when he was born.
Madame Editor is SMART. (Even when I don't agree with her.)

What OTMA looks like after I had my way with two pads of Post-It flags:

A nosy reader's guide to Post-It color-coding:

Red - points where Madame Editor and I disagree
Orange - stuff I'm willing and able to fix
Yellow - same as above, but affecting more than just the line or paragraph indicated
Green - evidence of editorial brilliance
Blue - quick fixes (typos, deletions, repetitive vocabulary, etc.)

DLC match #12: Disney vs. Porter

2009-10-21T09:40:00.006-04:00

Disney Literature Challenge:

POLLYANNA

by Eleanor H. Porter

Say what you will: I like the Disney version better - and not just because of that frakking awesome little old lady who plays the drums in the bazaar scene.

Over and over again, I've heard that Walt Disney's greatest strength was as a storyteller. Now I know darn well that Mr. Walt Disney himself didn't sit down and construct each and every script the studio produced, but the man had a story department like no other. The more I read of the original sources, the more I admire what their pixie dust can do for a saggy plot.

In print, Pollyanna meanders. A lot goes on in isolation in the novel that I'm used to seeing piggybacked into compact scenes, and plenty more happens offstage, conveyed only in conversations between Nancy and Old Tom. Disney has honed a knack for streamlining that sort of thing like no one else, and once you've seen the story team at their best, it's hard to go back. In this case they managed to preserve the essential character dynamics and the emotional arc of the plot, at the same time pressurizing the story just enough to make it really fizz. Some of the differences are significant, but they're never gratuitous; nearly everything Disney added serves to unite the plot with a common thread and give it the momentum the novel lacks.

For example: they way Eleanor Porter wrote it, Pollyanna gets hit by a car. Random. Out of the blue. In the movie, Pollyanna's accident is a direct result of Aunt Polly forbidding her to go to the bazaar -- boosting the emotional stakes that much higher.

Also, for as much as Disney has a reputation for sugar-coating everything he touched, it was Eleanor Porter, not Walt Disney, who couldn't resist spilling the beans about Pollyanna recovering the use of her legs. If you ask me, the Disney version, which leaves you happy, hopeful, and hanging, says more about the power of optimism than the oh-I'm-so-glad-I-can-walk-again letter that concludes the novel.

(And all that says nothing about what Hayley Mills brings to the picture.)

Verdict:

Disney

Score:

Disney - 6

Authors - 7

THE MOORCHILD, by Eloise McGraw

2009-10-19T11:16:00.005-04:00

THE MOORCHILD

by Eloise McGraw

(McElderry/Simon & Schuster)

It takes a special kind of aplomb to make a reader fall for a sharp-edged character, and I can't remember the last time anyone carried it off as well as Eloise McGraw. With a personality palpable as burlap, Saaski the changeling somehow comes across as lovable as she is fierce, even as she tumbles and blunders through a life that seems utterly foreign to her. The fantasy is just the way I like it - grounded in a robust old world setting that makes fairy folk seem matter-of-fact as moor grass. Meanwhile, the grudging affection that takes root in Saaski's family unfurls at just the right moment to wrench your heart sideways.

Quite possibly the best re-read of the year.

*******************

Currently reading:

The Children's Book
by A.S. Byatt

State of the TBR pile

2009-10-18T19:03:00.000-04:00

Finished:

Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter
Elske, by Cynthia Voigt
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant

As for next week, I'm hoping Monica was right about this one, because it's BIG:

The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt

The Andrew Zimmern of chldren's lit?

2009-10-17T17:34:00.004-04:00

It's been a long time since we've had an installment of the Ucky Food Chronicles.

If you've read or watched Pollyanna, you probably remember thinking What the...? whenever Mrs. Snow mentions calf's foot jelly.

Well, I've found a recipe, and it's not quite so foul-sounding as I was braced for. Basically, it's the next best thing to Jell-o. (News flash: even when it's packaged up all neat and pretty, gelatin still comes from boiling the collagen out of critters.)

Not sure whether I'll be able to find a real live batch of calf's foot jelly to try for myself, but let the record state that I'm game. Or maybe if I can figure out what the ratio of calves' feet to Knox gelatin packets is, I can stir up a vat myself. Either way, I'll keep you posted...

Poetry Friday

2009-10-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.

~ John Burroughs

********************
Currently re-reading:

The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant

DLC match #11: Disney vs. Carroll

2009-10-14T08:07:00.005-04:00

Disney Literature Challenge:

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

by Lewis Carroll

Even though I'd read the first book years ago, somehow I expected Lewis Carroll's prose to be much more stuffy and old-fashioned. Blame J.M. Barrie. To my chagrin, Alice turns out to be a heap more accessible than my beloved Peter Pan; Carroll is more playful and far less prone to asides and lectures than Sir Barrie. When the plot is so loaded with nonsense, it's a wise author who doesn't go for a lot of stylistic flourishes.

A note on the artwork:

Normally I'm a traditionalist, but I make special exception when it comes to Helen Oxenbury's illustrations. They're so cozy and ageless, as opposed to Tenniel's stiffly Victorian originals. I don't see how anyone could resist the whimsy and design of these particular editions:

As for the film, Disney pretty much cherry-picked scenes from both books and jumbled them up as he saw fit. Nevertheless, with the exception of the contrived unbirthday party, those individual scenes stick closer to the source than much of the Disney canon. The styling of characters like Alice, the cheshire cat, and the Tweedle twins is remarkably similar to John Tenniel's illustrations as well.

However, much as I usually appreciate the way Disney smartens up the pacing of classic stories, in Alice's case, it backfired. Without the added support of plot or character development the storyline's rendered into a frenetic string of encounters. Whimsy gets pushed to the wayside, and turns the mood much more brash and garish than Carroll's comfortable tales.

Matter of fact, Disney himself never cared much for how the animated Alice turned out, so I don't think even he would dispute my ruling in this match.

Verdict:

CARROLL

Score:

Disney - 5

Authors - 7

Incidentally, this happens to be my favorite film version of Alice (orange dress notwithstanding). Perhaps a bit hokey, but there's a holy royal truckload of old school star power strutting around in those crazy costumes.

*******************

Currently re-reading:

Elske
by Cynthia Voigt

Nucking futs

2009-10-13T07:59:00.001-04:00

Last week the superdrive in my MacBook died. No more playing of CDs, watching of DVDs, loading of software, or adding of audiobooks to my iPod. Kaput. The bugger costs $280 to replace, which was way more money than I cared to spend.

So...I, um...

...I bought one of those shiny new MacBook Pros instead. Because they're so much cheaper and all...

HERE'S HOW I SEE IT - HERE'S HOW IT IS, by Heather Henson

2009-10-12T09:07:00.006-04:00

HERE'S HOW I SEE IT - HERE'S HOW IT IS
by Heather Henson

(Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)

I may not have a summer stock theater in my backyard, but man can I relate to a season where everything goes rotten. Junebug knows she's leading lady material, but so far she's only been cast as. . .a thunderstorm. Plus, her family's cracking at the seams, and there's a weirdo wannabe thespian trailing her like a puppy dog. Oh, and she might have given her own father a heart attack. Yet the show must go on.

The story may revolve around stock theater, but you won't find stock characters here. And the two-birds-with-one-stone way Henson gets across all sorts of information about the history of acting and the stage made me grin - once I'd caught on, that is. This is a book anyone can love, but given Junebug's ping-ponging between her dreams (Here's How I See It) and reality (Here's How It Is) I'm betting fans of Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect in particular will find a friend indeed in this plunge into the performing arts.

*****************

Currently reading:

Pollyanna
by Eleanor H. Porter

State of the TBR pile

2009-10-11T23:47:00.003-04:00

Finished:

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (audio)

A short list, due to the fact that I spent five days dipping doggedly in and out of the prequel to Wise Child before finally giving up around page 100. And the dumb thing about that? I forced my way thought Juniper four or five years ago and didn't like it any better then, either. There's nothing "wrong" with it, except that as much as I love Wise Child, the prequel leaves me utterly unaffected and uninterested. How can that be, especially given how appealing Juniper's character is to me in the original story?

Meanwhile, I'm having a good old time revisiting some of the favorites on my very own shelves. Next week's contenders:

Elske, by Cynthia Voigt
The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant

Hear ye!

2009-10-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

Know how to pronounce Brian Jacques's name? How about Jon Scieszka's? Are you sure? Now you can be:

Author Name Pronunciation Guide

Roughly a hojillion authors' names, spoken aloud for your pleasure and edification.

Don't scoff at that link if you're already a pronunciation prodigy -- the voices that guide you belong to none other than the authors themselves, and many of them treat you to the stories behind their names. (Any dingbat can figure out how to pronounce Lois Lowry, but how many of you smartypantses knew she spent a short time in 1937 as Sena Hammersburg?)

Poetry Friday

2009-10-09T07:54:00.001-04:00

Do you think I know what I'm doing?

That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?

As much as a pen knows what it's writing,

or the ball can guess where it's going next.

~Rumi

DLC match #10: Disney vs. Alexander

2009-10-07T10:25:00.001-04:00

Disney Literature Challenge:

THE BLACK CAULDRON

by Lloyd Alexander

Some years ago, I embarked on a Newbery marathon that involved a detour through The Book of Three on my way to The High King. I don't remember much about Lloyd Alexander's original story, other than I didn't hang around in the land of Prydian long enough to make it to the silver medal-winning second installment for which the Disney movie is named. But my indifference, as you'll soon see, is beside the point.

The other night, I grabbed the DVD from the library on a whim and sat through the whole thing. More accurately, I ranted my way through it, because the film version has all the artistry and subtlety of a Saturday morning cartoon series. Despite the fact that it contains the only dribble of animated blood I can recall ever slipping out of the Walt Disney studios, The Black Cauldron is so spectacularly crummy on screen that I don't care how Disney's version of the story matches up with the Prydian books -- it's a disgrace to Disney's reputation as much as Lloyd Alexander's. For Pete's sake, the best thing I can say for it is that I liked the way Gurgi, the requisite fuzzy lovable sidekick, says "munchems and crunchems" in his gurgly voice. That's absolutely it.

Verdict:

Forfeit to ALEXANDER

Score:

Disney - 5

Authors - 6