Another Neil Gaiman Book

I've been sick this weekend, which is why 1. I couldn't see Hellboy last night; 2. I couldn't go bicycling today; and 3. I'm back here so soon.

However, it was the kind of sickness that leaves you feeling that it's acceptable to read instead of cleaning, doing yardwork, and other weekend slave activities. So I finished reading Stardust. I thought the first two chapters were really ho-hum fantasy (little village near the land of Fairy, sometime in the past, lad of mysterious birth) and the ending was sort of flat. I prefer a big climactic scene like the ones in some other Gaiman books such as American Gods and Good Omens. However, the central material had lots of unique stuff that made me want to keep reading.

It was, though, one of those mythic journey stories about a guy finding his birth right and his beautiful maiden. While I know those have a long and honorable tradition in our culture, I do feel I've read it before.

I am still a Gaiman fan and will continue to make my way through his works as I stumble upon them here and there, now and again.

A Busy April

No more whining! I have nearly finished my scheduled school and bookstore visits. All things considered, everything went very well. I only had trouble getting to one place, a bookstore appearance, and the manager was just lovely about it. The school presentations have gone well so far, even though I had to do four different presentations in one day. By four different I do not mean that I had to do the same presentation four times. I do that all the time. No sweat. I mean that I was speaking to kids in such a wide range of grades that I had to come up with new material for some of them. Then I did an evening talk on the history behind The Hero of Ticonderoga. I've done that before, but not often so I did have to do some planning.

What I have learned this spring: A. from talking to a bookstore owner and a young woman who joined her PTA rep mom and me for dinner, it appears that teenagers do read YA. Conventional wisdom suggests that they don't, that twelve and thirteen year olds read YA and older teenagers read adult fiction or nothing at all. Which just goes to show you can't believe everything you hear. B. After reading the first few pages of Prince Whiskers (have I mentioned that here?) to two kindergarten classes I now know I need to make some changes. What's more, I know what some of those changes should be. and C. Grade school kids really aren't terribly interested in the Puritans and Enlightenment philosophy. Which is so sad, because it's fascinating!

Alex Awards

Here is something I found out about a while back and have been holding on to so I could post it here. (What an elegant lead in, huh?)

The Alex Awards are given for the 10 best adult books for young adults. That doesn't mean they were written for young adults. They are adult books that either the award committee members think young adults would like or would be suitable for them or improving in some way or something. I can't tell from the description.

I like the idea, though. And I like going through the list to see what I've read.

I have this fear that I've written about this award before, but I couldn't find a reference to it when I did a search. And, let's face it, who's going to look?

Getting Out and About

I am having the busiest school presentation season ever. I did two days at one school along with a one-shot presentation at a second school last month. And a bookstore appearance that went quite well, if I haven't mentioned it before. I have two days of work lined up for this month, one of which involves three different presentations. One of those presentations I still have to plan and the third one I've done before but not recently. And I have a store appearance this Saturday. Then today I got another request for another school for this month.

Why is all this sudden popularity a problem? Because I still haven't finished writing that book!!

Sorry About That

This is day two of We have DSL on the second best computer and I can do all kinds of things when the family is hogging the good one! I was going to do another update, but I got distracted when I read in Newsweek about these cool sites to visit. So I did that instead. I would do an update now, but I have to A. Read Virginia Wolfe's To the Lighthouse B. Watch American Idol Try to choose the correct answer.

Think Geek!

Oh, brave new world! We have DSL! It's not as fast as I'd hoped, but I'm connected all the time. And, what is better, the second best, so-called "Doom Computer" (don't ask) has been networked to the good one so we can go on-line from both of them! That means I can spend a couple of evening hours each week while other family members are hogging the good computer updating my blog, ordering things, ego surfing, and generally doing all the things I waste time doing during the day. This should change my life. I should now be able to work harder and faster and do wonderful things.

Yeah. Right.

I finished Postcards From No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers. I found the book disappointing. I loved the idea of a boy "finding" his grandfather who had died in another country during World War II. Family members meeting across generations and particularly from beyond the grave always grabs me. But I didn't really feel Jacob II found Jacob I. He found out something he did, but not the man. Was he funny? Serious? Business-like? I didn't feel any of that. The World War II part of the story seemed extremely traditional. And the modern portion of the book seemed an excuse for the author to air his views on sexuality and euthanasia. I also felt the dialogue was stilted and unrealistic.


I know. I'm a witch.

Good Times

I am still swamped with this manuscript I'm working on. Yes, I am very slow. No apologies. I have accepted this about myself.

I am doing a few other things, though. Last week I spent two days at an elementary school. Two days in a row, which was a first. Almost like working, for real. Over the course of the two days I gave presentations for every kid in the school. I also got to hang out in the cafeteria during lunch.

And then, on the following Saturday, I did a bookstore appearance in the same town--the most successful I've ever had.

Next week I'll be in another school talking about how writers use reading in their work. Which I've never done before so I'll be spending part of this weekend planning it. Yup, that's time I could have been writing in my blog.

Very Absent and Very Hungry

I have been among the missing because of that revision mentioned in my last post and a couple of winter illnesses. I don't expect to be around much because I'm trying to stay in revision mode to get that job done.

However, I am hoarding kidlit info I find here and there and will have lots to talk about when I come back.

In the meantime, I've just discovered that there's a touring production of a show based on Eric Carle's work, called Very Eric Carle. Check it out.

Same Old, Same Old

I'm just checking in to make sure none of my legions of readers is worried that I've abandoned this blog. As usual, I am overwhelmed with work. I got Happy Kids! back from my editor yesterday. That means a major rewrite, which was no surprise. After that, I'm going to be revising the picturebook I may or may not have mentioned here into a chapter book for the very young. Prince Whiskers, as I've been calling it, is only a gleam in my eye--no contract or anything remotely like one. I'm reading at a library tomorrow and haven't picked out or practiced the material yet. I've nearly finished revising an essay I want to send off somewhere. And I'm supposed to be writing something for a writing group I belong to.

I don't want anyone to think I'm complaining, though I'm sure it sounds as if I am. But writing is work. It's more enjoyable than some kinds of work and less enjoyable than others. Though, I must say, a lot of the research and reading portions of my job I do while lying on a couch. It's hard to think of another job with work conditions like that.

Gail's on the Cutting Edge

I've just finished reading a book that is so new that the issue of The Horn Book on sale now carries a review. I am always the last to read stuff, just as I'm always the last to see movies. I see most movies on video and read an awful lot of books after they've been released in paper.

Not the case with Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I was the first at my library to get the book (which is now two days overdue, of course). The book has a very clever basic story and the plot twists came as surprises to me, though they were surprises that worked. However, the story moved unbelieveably slowly. The chapters were short, fortunately, but occasionally I'd finish one and feel that absolutely nothing had happened. I wasn't aware of what was actually going on in the story, since I didn't see the review until I was more then half done and evidently I didn't read much of the cover notes. (I heard about this book at Readerville). So I didn't "get it" until around page 152. Now, it's terrific to have to "get" a book on your own without spoilers from reviews and publicity people. But not until page 152 of a 500+ page book? And I did feel the ending fell apart a bit.

Here is what The Horn Book had to say: "Thanks to Harry P., kids may not be scared off by this volume's heft, though they may wish the pacing wasn't quite so leisurely--even the novel's many chases and hostagetakings are related in a deliberate fashion. But bibliophiles will delight in a story that celebrates books (each chapter begins with a literary passage ranging from Shakespeare to Sendak), and the conclusion is especially satisfying."

So the reviewer liked the ending.