Bartimaeus Moves On

I'm having a really hard time keeping up with all the action on the Battle of the Kids' Books. How do those people who follow whatever sport it is that March Madness is all about do it? Is it easier when you can go to bars and watch the action on television?

Anyway, I'm happy to say that The Ring of Solomon has won its third match, thus making the finals.

But What About Spending Time Reading Articles About Dead Actors And Royal Weddings And How Things Are Going On Dancing With The Stars?

Procrastinating Writers has a post explaining that not every nonwriting activity writers do is procrastination. But, you know, a lot of what I do is. Truly. Hardcore procrastination. I'm not bragging, I'm just being truthful.

A Kids' Book For Adults Who Like Kids' Books?

If you were an overweight, unpopular, academically unsuccessful twelve-year-old, what would be your greatest fantasy? Forget the freaking wizards, vampires, and fairies. I'd want to be brilliant, rich, and powerful so I would know I was superior to all my tormentors. In fact, I'm not twelve years old or particularly overweight, and I'd still like to be brilliant, rich, and powerful so I would know I was superior to somebody. Anybody.

That is the basic premise behind I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President by Josh Lieb--an eighth grade genius has secretly wheeled and dealed and invented his way to incredible wealth and power--but no one knows it.

I can't recall exactly why it's such a big secret, but the secret is what makes the book funny. As Oliver is pretending to underachieve (almost to the point of appearing handicapped), he is also sending instructions to his body guards and slipping out to his secret lairs. Then he decides to use all his considerable means to win the position of eighth-grade class president in order to get revenge on his father, but we readers can tell that what he really wants is Daddy's love.

I am a Genius is an entertaining, clever, over-the-top ride. But as I was reading it, I couldn't help feeling that the humor was directed at me. The Raymond Carver joke, for instance. I'm not sure how many twelve to fifteen year olds will get that. Same with the references to Nabokov and Nietzsche. I also have to wonder how many kids are familiar with Cream and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I appreciated lines like "I predict a great future for him in the field of getting-a-dead-end-job-and-dying-alone-and-unmourned" and "...a collection of lurkers, butt-scratchers, and rats taking their first steps toward a glorious future as low-level bureaucrats", myself. But landing dead end jobs, dying alone and unmourned, and ending up as low-level bureaucrats all seem like very adult concerns to me. And while I definitely got all the slams regarding PBS, do teenagers even watch that network? If you're too old for Barney but too young for Depends, will you get PBS jokes?

A lot of reviews compare Oliver to Stewie in Family Guy. The thing is, Family Guy is an adult show.

I am a Genius is on the 2012 reading list for Connecticut's readers' choice award in the teen category, so if I can wait a year, I may find out how the book goes over with adolescent readers. In the meantime, I think it's definitely a book adults will enjoy.

Plot Project: No, I don't think this is a simple, give a character something to want and then keep him from getting it storyline. I think the plot grew out of the clever situation.

Hmmm. "Grow a plot." Maybe that's a line I can do something with.

A Few Words For Diana Wynne Jones

This morning I learned of the death of Diana Wynne Jones. I discovered her Chestomanci books a little over a year ago. They will always hold a special place for me because they were comfort books during a grim time. In fact, they are stacked neatly on a shelf in my living room, spines out so I can always see them. Last month I gave a copy of the first volume to my twelve-year-old niece.

Thank goodness there was a Diana Wynne Jones who wrote those books for me.

Pratchett News

You may recall that in January I announced that I was starting to read all Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. I have actually completed the first three, and the fourth is floating around upstairs.

Therefore, you can understand why I was interested to read that a Discworld TV series is being planned. It's described as a mystery series about the Ankh Morpork city watch. Having read some of the later Discworld books, I'm familiar with that group, and a TV series about those folks sounds fine with me.

I'm Very Happy With This Result

Bartimaeus won his match in the Battle of the Books. Thus, I can be a really good sport and continue to follow the Battle of the Books.

I am going to say a few words about footnotes here, since a couple of the commenters at the Battle of the Books site mention them, and a a family member and I were just talking about them in the car this afternoon. Here is the thing about footnotes in fiction--The family member in my car who said that footnotes in fictional works take readers out of the narrative and destroy the illusion of being within the story is right. He went further and said they were a mark of laziness.

I will say that Terry Pratchett sometimes uses them, but I think Jonathan Stroud, who uses footnotes in the Bartimaeus books, does them better. His footnotes are more consistently entertaining.

Anyone using footnotes in fiction who is not one of those two authors is being derivative. The footnote ship has sailed. The rest of us have to accept it and move on.

An Opportunity To Aid Japan

Been thinking that you'd really like to do something to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami but just haven't been able to decide how to go about it? Children's Authors & Illustrators for Japan can help you with that.

New items donated by authors and illustrators are going up on the auction site each day this week (And maybe beyond, since the auction lasts three week. I'm not sure about that.), and bidding will be open on each item for three to five days. Winning bidders will be directed to send their payments directly to UNICEF. But you can check out the details yourself.

You can also check out upcoming donors whose items haven't been listed yet, in case there is someone in particular whose donation you're interested in bidding on.

More On The Battle Of The Books

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch lost in the first round of Battle of the Books, but I happen to have just finished reading it, and it's definitely not a loser.

Hereville is a quirky little graphic novel that began life as a web comic. It bills itself as being about "Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl." It seems to take place in a fairy tale type world, though the kids go to a school that's contemporary enough to have a cafeteria.

One of the things that I'm not fond of in traditional fantasy is that the world building often becomes very over the top, as if the author has to go further than the last author to publish a fantasy novel. What I really liked about Hereville is that the world building seems to be all about Orthodox Judaism. (I say "seems" because that's how ignorant I am about Orthodox Judaism.) I like my fantasy with a contemporary, real world edge. This book had that for me, it was just a contemporary, real world that I don't know.

The stepmother--not a stereotypical, fantasy stepmother.

The pig--well, not a stereotypical, fantasy pig mainly because I'm not aware of any other pigs in fantasy.

Mirka--could easily have been a stereotypical, fiesty fantasy girl but the bit about being an Orthodox Jew took care of that!

A quick and clever read with an ending that suggests that Mirka might be back to do something with that sword. I hope the Battle of the Books brings more attention to this title.

My Takeaway From Saturday's Overcoming Challenges Event

For a more overall description of Saturday's Overcoming Challenges program, check out Carol Bender's blog post. (Gee, her friend looks familiar to me.)

My own takeaway from this is that while I did not learn anything dramatically different, it is just so stimulating and...is the word I'm looking for comforting? I don't know... to hear other published authors speak about the work they do because, essentially, it's the work I do. For instance, recently I changed my work schedule around (again) trying to do a few hundred words of writing first thing in the morning before I do anything else. Jo Knowles talked about doing 2,000 words before she does anything else. I did not feel chagrined by the difference in wordage. Rather, I felt, Hey, I do something like that, too.

Because I'm now trying to do the writing in the morning, the journal work I used to do then has been tossed aside these last few weeks. One of the panelists talked about doing journal work in the evening. Hey, I thought. I could do that. And last night I did.

All my published writing career I have definitely been sort of a rogue element because I didn't have an agent. I cannot recall meeting other unagented published writers. However, neither of the illustrators on the panel Saturday have agents, and, it turns out, the writer I had lunch with Saturday doesn't have one, either. That was eye opening, though not what you'd call instructive in any way.

When you've been writing and publishing a while, and you've been a member of professional listservs, and you've been training and studying craft and business, you don't often find a lot of new information at any particular writers' gathering. What I look for is more of what you might call worklife connections. I was happy to find some on Saturday.

So How Did That Experiment Of Yours Go, Gail?

I'm back from the Overcoming Challenges Program at the Eric Carle Museum. I'm sure you all recall that I was planning to introduce myself to as many people as I could over the course of the day, and then get back to you with the results.

Well, here are the results.

I figured I was going to hit twelve or thirteen people at a bare minimum. I only managed seven, and the last one I spoke with but forgot to formally introduce myself to. What happened?

1. A lot of people attend these writer events in groups. Walking into an auditorium where an entire row or rows clearly are a "group" isn't great for introductions, unless, maybe, you're campaigning.

2. At lunch I met someone I knew and then more people I knew, and so I buddied up and the introduciton thing sort of fell by the wayside. Not that I am complaining, by any means. It was great.

Here's what profound meaning I took from this:

1. It is hard to barge into a group and start introducing yourself. So become a bit predatory and look for "stragglers" or single people to, uh, prey upon. Someone who is attending a professional event by herself (and most of the participants at any children's literature event I've ever attended have been women) is actually happy to meet someone. I talked with a new illustrator who was very interesting.

2. Also, a couple of people I introduced myself to looked a bit familiar to me or their names seemed familiar. So I said, "Gee, you look familiar. Do we know each other?" Turned out we didn't, and they were new people! Seriously, that wasn't a come on. I did think they looked familiar. However, it occurred to me later that it could be a come on. It could be a way of smoothing your way into an introduction. And it isn't a lie because after you've been to a few of these things, you do start seeing people who look familiar.

3. Finally, when you've been forcing yourself to act friendly, you start feeling friendly. That's why when I actually saw someone I really knew while she was in the hallway by herself, I called out, "Hey, Dana!" And the first thing I knew, I had company for lunch and some great talking.

So while I didn't meet as many people as I theorized I would, the experiment was fascinating.