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News Corp announced today that it has agreed to acquire romance imprint Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corporation, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. News Corp will make Harlequin a division of its subsidiary HarperCollins Publishers.
“Harlequin is a perfect fit for the new News Corp, vastly expanding our digital platform, extending our reach across borders and languages, and is expected to provide an immediate lift to earnings,” explained Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, in a press release. “Harlequin has a devoted audience around the globe and an empathetic insight into contemporary cultures, which is itself a remarkable resource. This acquisition will broaden the boundaries of both HarperCollins and Harlequin, and is a significant step in our strategy to establish a network of digital properties in the growth regions of the world.”
The deal will help HarperCollins goal to expand into more foreign markets. Harlequin has titles in 34 languages and sells in more than 100 international markets. Harlequin earns about 40 percent of its revenues come from non-English books, whereas 99 percent of HarperCollins books are published in English.
What a Poetry Month we've celebrated! Now I hope to backtrack and read the many intriguing posts I've bookmarked for later enjoyment. In case you missed any of ours, here's a recap:
We each read one of our favorite poems aloud. (Of course, it was a difficult choice!) You can hear:
April reading "Liberty" by Janet Wong from Declaration of Interdependence – Poems for an Election Year
I had tons of fun writing Wednesday Writing Workouts about different poetry forms. I gave myself a weekly writing assignment and wrote a new poem (or several) to accompany each one:
For our Fifth Anniversary Blogiversary Book Bundle Giveaway, we gave bundles of 5 books each to 5 winners. We are thrilled with our readers and tickled to read all of your smart, funny, thoughtful comments. Thank you for inspiring us!
What's Old Is New: Recent YA Books with Allusions to Classic Lit by Emily Moore from School Library Journal. Peek: "Dorothy gets her comeuppance. Young book addicts share their love for Harper Lee’s classic. And Robert Louis Stevensons’s thrilling novel is reimagined as a gothic romance."
In the Past or Present by Tabitha Olson from Writer Musings. Peek: "To have a completely effective story told in present tense, the characters must be in the moment, not the author. That means that there should be no reflection or analyzing of what is currently happening. They need to figure things out as they go."
Choosing a Point of View Character by Janice Hardy from QueryTracker Blog. Peek: "If you're faced with a story idea and you aren't sure what the best point of view to tell it from, try asking a few questions. These questions can also help if you have a novel that isn't quite working and you're not sure why."
How Author G. Neri and Librarian Kimberly DeFusco Changed a Life by G. Neri, Kimberly DeFusco, and Raequon P. from School Library Journal. Peek: "He had made a conscious decision to not be 'smart' in middle school so he wouldn’t be bullied. He put on this tough-guy, joker persona and started goofing off in school. He did not want anyone to know he was a poet."
National Book Award finalist Franny Billingsley is starting a new semester of private novel study and has room for new students. Peek: "Work on your middle grade/YA novel in an intellectually rigorous semester based on the low-residency MFA program model." For more information, contact: [email protected].
Too Good for Grownups: On the Art of Writing for Children by Anne Ursu from The Loft Literary Center. Peek: "...mostly, I write for kids because nobody loves a book like a kid loves a book. They need them, and you can tell that by the way they take them into their whole being, absorb them like the blob."
In Praise of Revision from Marion Dane Bauer. Peek: "Let me note, though, that I’m talking about revising, not polishing... That’s when you lovingly caress what’s already there, trimming, refining."
On the writing front, I turned in copy edits for my upcoming short story, "Cupid's Beaux," which will appear in Things I'll Never Say: Short Stories About Our Secret Selves, edited by Ann Angel (Candlewick, 2015). Note: "Cupid's Beaux" is a Tantalize-Feral universe story, set in Austin and told from the point of view of the guardian angel Joshua. Note: Quincie fans should love it, too!
Click title links to purchase. Peek: "The First Book Marketplace is an online resource available exclusively to Title I schools and community-based programs serving children in need."
Like many publishing folks, I'm thinking a lot this week about diversity in the industry and within the body of literature. Thank you to everyone who's supporting diverse books and voices! Please remember to include books by Native authors in your collections and conversations. For recent titles, see Resources and Kid Lit About American Indians by Debbie Reese from School Library Journal.
35 prompts (including 5 “Two for Tuesday” prompts)
21,515 comments (and counting)
30 guest judges
1 amazing month!
So, what’s next?
First off, there’s a lot of poetry and poeming that happens around the Poetic Asides blog throughout the year. I’ll share more on that in a moment (see below), but I’m sure at least a few of you are wondering about how the judging will happen, when results will be posted, and so on.
The “official” cut off for Day 30 prompt is 11:59 p.m. EST on May 5, 2014. However, I’ve only copied over poems for the first 15 days so far (hint, hint). That means Days 16-30 are still “live,” though I plan to start copying over other days very soon.
I’ve already started the process of going through the earlier prompts and narrowing down “finalist” lists for the guest judges. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll hand off a finalist list to each of the guest judges on May 20, 2014. Then, they will give me their winners in June.
If all goes to plan, I will announce the winners on July 4, 2014. The announcement will be on the Poetic Asides blog.
And then?
Then, the winning poems will be collected into an incredible anthology/prompt/work book titled Poem Your Heart Out that will be published by Words Dance Publishing. Click here to order a copy, because it’s going to be filled with 30 incredible poems, space for you to add your own, and even if you make it into the anthology–you’ll want a copy to give your mom, right?
Yes, the 30 winners will receive a copy of the anthology. Look at that: After 7 years of poem-a-day challenges, we’ve finally got a tangible thing to mark the occasion. Sweet!
*****
Get the National Poetry Month Kit!
Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!
Well, no, of course not. There’s a lot of poetry-related mischief happening at Poetic Asides throughout the year. I’m probably going to take a long weekend off, but this is what you can expect:
Wednesday Poetry Prompts. Yeah, we get together to poem on hump day throughout the year.
Poet Interviews. I’ve interviewed more than 100 poets on here over the years. In fact, maybe even more than 200. I don’t keep count, but each and every interview is a snapshot into another poet’s poetic outlook, process, and more.
Poetic Forms. Every month or so, I share a new poetic form I’ve found. And that leads to…
WD Poetic Form Challenges. These free challenges are devoted to a poetic form, and the winning poem/poet is featured as an example of the form in Writer’s Digest magazine.
November PAD (Poem-A-Day) Chapbook Challenge. It’s like April, but it gets even more involved, because the ultimate goal is to produce an amazing chapbook of poems.
And more! I don’t know what yet, but I’ve had some great guest post pitches, and I get bored easy–so who knows what tricks I’ve got up my sleeve?!? Seriously, because I don’t.
Still got questions? That’s cool. Drop them in the comments below, or send me an e-mail at [email protected].
*****
Robert Lee Brewer
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community. He’s also the author of Solving the World’s Problems, an incredible collection of poetry that stirs the soul. Okay, Robert wrote that, but Sandra Beasley called the book, “Compassionate, challenging, and filled with slinky swerves of phrase,” while Patricia Fargnolia said, “The poems are brim-full of surprises and delights, twists in language, double-meanings of words, leaps of thought and imagination, interesting line-breaks. … I will go back to them often.” So that’s means you’re going to buy it, right? Click here to make it happen.
TV-Legende Heinz Schenk, hier im Mai 1979, starb im Alter von 89 Jahren
Foto: dpa Picture-Alliance1 von 21
Trauer um einen ganz Großen der TV-Geschichte! Heinz Schenk („Zum Blauen Bock”) ist tot. Der Fernsehmoderator und Entertainer starb im Alter von 89 Jahren in der Nacht zum Donnerstag in seinem Wohnort Wiesbaden, wie sein langjähriger Manager Horst Klemmer der Nachrichtenagentur dpa sagte.
Heinz Schenk ist tot
Schenks Manager und Freund über Jahrzehnte Horst Klemmer zu BILD: „Wir haben einen großen Unterhaltungskünstler und Freund verloren. Was mich tröstet ist, dass er nicht gelitten hat, sondern friedlich einschlief und nicht mehr aufgewacht ist.“
Vor knapp einer Woche habe Schenk einen Schlaganfall erlitten und seither im Koma gelegen.
Heinz Schenk wurde einem Millionenpublikum durch seine Fernsehshow „Zum Blauen Bock” bekannt, die er 21 Jahre lang moderierte. Die Sendung gehörte zur goldenen Ära des deutschen Fernsehens. Bis zu 20 Millionen Menschen schalteten regelmäßig ein.
Schenk mit Helmut Lange, Robert Lembke, Kurt Felix und Hermann Mäni Weber (v.l.) im „blauen Bock“Foto: dpa Picture-Alliance
Der schlagfertige Entertainer benötigte weder Teleprompter noch Gagschreiber. Die Texte und fast alle Lieder im „Blauen Bock” schrieb Schenk selbst.
Neben Hape Kerkeling (49) feierte er in „Kein Pardon“ ein fulminantes Kino-Comeback. Dort spielte er einen alternden intriganten Showmaster, der seinen Assistentinnen nachstellt.Ihr gemeinsamer Song „Witzigkeit kennt keine Grenzen“ hat heute Kult-Status.
Schenk als intriganter Showmaster in der Kino-Komödie „Kein Pardon“ (1992)Foto: ddp images
Heinz Schenk war außerdem ein sehr beliebter Volksschauspieler. Sein besonderes Markenzeichen war der hessische Zungenschlag. Nachdem er die 80 überschritten hatte, zog er sich jedoch immer mehr aus der Öffentlichkeit zurück. Sein Haussender, der Hessische Rundfunk, feierte ihn zuletzt 2007 mit einer eigenen Sendung.
Im Dezember 2013 starb Schenks Ehefrau Gerti († 85), mit der er 62 Jahre lang verheiratet war. „Ich habe meine große Liebe verloren. Ich werde sie nie vergessen und bin unendlich traurig”, sagte Schenk damals.Nur fünf Monate später ist auch er gegangen.
Heinz († 89) und Gerti († 85) Schenk waren mehr als sechs Jahrzehnte verheiratetFoto: Public Address
A couple of incidents this week of creators who spoke out, and editors who took offense at the speaking out.
First off, we’ve noted many times that Jim Starlin and Marvel seemed to have reached a happy place in terms of Starlin created characters Gamora and Thanos getting the big screen treatment in Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Starlin, whose various cosmic works such as The Infinity Gauntlet have been hugely influential in that end of the Marvel Universe, created a new Thanos graphic novel for Marvel and all seemed to be well. But then….things weren’t. Newsarama has a full rundown of the matter but The Beat first noticed something might be up when Starlin posted this on his FB page:
The kerfuffle stems from what Starlin described as “someone at Marvel anonymously put a corporation-wide-no-use restriction on the character, effectively putting the brakes on the ongoing plans I had for him and [Thanos].”
No, there’s no truth to this. Thanos will be appearing as much as ever in our books.
This is all really about something else, something much smaller that Jim probably shouldn’t even have taken public on his Facebook page. But he did, so there you go.
Starlin elaborated to Newsarama, saying
According to Starlin, he finished penciling his four-issue arc of Savage Hulk last week but found the Adam Warlock situation had remained unchanged.
“The hold is still in place and, apparently, shows no signs of being lifted any time in the future,” Starlin told Newsarama Tuesday. “So I’m moving on.”
Starlin’s own Dreadstar was just optioned for a movie so he has plenty more to keep him busy. It is a little sad—while Marvel can’t give comics creators a starring role in movie promotion the way, say, Robert Kirkman and Mike Mignola do, they did give Ed Brubaker a cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was nice since Brubaker created the whole Winter Soldier character. It would be nice to see these relationships evolve, but in the social media era, things get played out much faster.
The quick gist is I was asked to contribute a story. I brought in Ken as INTERGALACTIC’s going to be a while and this would be a fun, quick way to get something by us out there. Vertigo via Editor Mark Doyle was very accommodating in allowing us to collaborate. Seemed like a good deal.
The story Ken and I conceived together, which I scripted, ended up coming back in a proof PDF where — despite Ken’s art looking even better than ever — our story and my dialog were drastically altered, specifically our ending. We were told by editorial that it was locked in and set for publication without further explanation as to what happened or why.
I need to be clear — Ken did an astonishing job with the art and the whole book is worth the price of admission for what he did alone. It’s absolutely beautiful and it’s truly an honor to work with him.
And the truth is maybe no one would ever notice. Maybe people will like the end result much more than what we wanted to do. Maybe it was the right call, but since it was contracted and solicited as an original work by the two of us I feel uncomfortable taking credit for it, despite how proud I am of everything Ken did and how great working with him is.
You can read the whole exchange in the first link.
I think what struck me about both of these is Brevoort and Dennis mourning the public airing of, if not dirty, then laundry that maybe had been sitting in the hamper for a while. Obviously with all the platforms available to everyone now, it’s a wonder we don’t see MORE complaining. Of course, it’s doubtful that Keatinge will work at Vertigo again, and Starlin’s future work at Marvel (where he’s been working for 43 years!) seems to be on hold. Speaking out is still risky business. I’m not picking any sides here—Brevoort and Dennis are esteemed editors, but you can’t make every one happy, and fans (and bloggers) are eager to jump on any hint of behind the scenes turmoil. Brevoort addressed this in a later post, when a fan asked about “You , Axel and even now Joe seem to talk a lot of shit about the Sept Solicitations from DC but look at what you guys are doing to Jim Starlin and what you did with Greg Rucka , Matt Fractions Inhuman and George Martin and I can go on how you consort in the same type of actions.”:
Wait, what?
JIm Starlin came back and did an OGN, and then an Annual, and then an arc on a book that’s launching. While he’s frustrated because there’s something he wants to do that he can’t do at the moment, on a series that was never approved, that’s hardly a list of infractions.
Greg Rucka is so upset about his awful treatment that he’s writing CYCLOPS at the moment. Matt’s so upset hat he keeps coming to the Marvel summits to share his ideas freely and contribute to the process.
And George RR Martin? We haven’t even talked to the man!
So I have to say, this sort of thinking is beyond bogus. It’s ridiculous. It’s a by-product of the manner in which you fans sometimes confuse the creators and editors with the characters, and want eveybody’s trading card to either clearly say “super hero” or “super villain” on it.
it is always easier to side with the creator whose work you love, especially when you don’t really have but the slightest inking about what is actually going on—and, in fact, there is likely not 1/10th of the drama to the situation as you’re imagining. We don’t have fight scenes in our offices.
We work in a creative industry. In such an environment, not everybody can get everything that they want. Nor is anybody entitled to it. That applies to everybody on both sides of the desk, from Stan lee down to the newbie walking in the door for the first time.
While that seems like a fair assessment on Brevoort’s part, it’s also fair to say that publishers held a lot more cards than creators for a long time. If every editorial squabble got played out in social media, believe me, you’d get tired of it very quickly. However, it’s a healthier atmosphere for everyone when creators AND publishers have more options. Everyone is held to a higher standard when there are more places to play the game.
15 Comments on When creators complain: Jim Starlin and Joe Keatinge, last added: 5/1/2014
When creators complain: Jim Starlin and Joe Keatin said, on 5/1/2014 7:24:00 AM
[…] Tweet […]
Johnny Memeonic said, on 5/1/2014 7:35:00 AM
Starlin basically gave Thanos to Marvel. He provided for them their go-to big cosmic threat that’s served the comics for decades and is set to be the heavy in (likely) Avengers 3 which will rake in billions.
And the character premiered in the early 70s so I doubt Starlin gets much if any royalties. You’d think the least Marvel could do after all that was let the man use Adam Warlock in a comic book story.
Bill W. said, on 5/1/2014 7:37:00 AM
Freelancers that publicly complain about a client stand a chance of losing that client.
Thankfully, there are more options to get your work in front of readers than ever if you’re a creator.
BobH said, on 5/1/2014 7:46:00 AM
“which was nice since Brubaker created the whole Winter Soldier character”
Bucky Barnes? No, I’m pretty sure that was Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Brubaker at most created his arm, not the whole character.
Also, “Dreadstar”, not “Deathstar”.
Erik Scott said, on 5/1/2014 7:48:00 AM
Brubaker did not create Bucky Barnes. You are correct. Brubaker did create the Winter Soldier.
BobH said, on 5/1/2014 8:11:00 AM
Am I confused, isn’t Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier? I stopped reading the Brubaker comics early on, and haven’t seen the movie, so maybe I missed something.
Vanth said, on 5/1/2014 8:17:00 AM
DREADstar!!!
Jeepers creepers…
Erik Scott said, on 5/1/2014 8:55:00 AM
Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon did not create the Winter Soldier however. Ed Brubaker did.
Just like while Marv Wolfman did not create the character of Dick Grayson, he and George Perez are solely credited with creating Nightwing.
Johnathan Black said, on 5/1/2014 9:07:00 AM
“…[Starlin’s] frustrated because there’s something he wants to do that he can’t do at the moment, ON A SERIES THAT WAS NEVER APPROVED…”
If this is accurate then… wow.
BobH said, on 5/1/2014 9:23:00 AM
Yeah, I always thought that Nightwing credit was a little ridiculous. I was actually wondering the other day if, when the title is relaunched as GRAYSON, if Wolfman and Perez will keep the creator credit. They created the “Nightwing” name (actually borrowed from an old Superman identity), and the original Nightwing costume (which is pretty much completely different now), but if there was any creator participation and credit to Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson in the Dick Grayson character, they’d deserve it as much whether the character is called Robin or Grayson or Nightwing or whatever. This is a side issue to the bigger injustice that there’s no creator participation and credit to Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson.
I still think saying Brubaker created the “whole Winter Soldier character” is weird. He created the name, I guess. Presumably someone else (Epting?) created the costume. But the “whole character” surely includes Bucky Barnes.
If there’s a story where Bucky shows up at SHIELD HQ in civilian clothing to pick up his robot arm which is being repaired, is addressed only as Bucky by Dum Dum Dugan, and then foils a Hydra invasion without changing into costume and using only his Kirby&Simon created arm and legs, is there anything in the story created by Brubaker?
Michael P said, on 5/1/2014 10:19:00 AM
It’s worth noting that Brevoort wasn’t responding to what Starlin said, but to a fan’s telephone-style misconception of what Starlin said. The fan thought NOBODY was allowed to use Thanos, instead of some sort of freeze on Warlock (possibly because there are plans in the offing) making Starlin’s Warlock/Thanos story unworkable.. (This misconception was largely due to another site on the Internet deliberately misconstruing what Starlin said so they could run an inflammatory headline.)
jacob lyon goddard said, on 5/1/2014 10:51:00 AM
I wish cartoonists flipped out every time someone else made more money off of their creations than they did.
Regular Syzed Mike said, on 5/1/2014 11:03:00 AM
It’s amazing how quickly these types of situations turn into Jr. High grade sniping instead of professional conversation. These people aren’t pretty enough to be on TMZ so I don’t know what they hope to accomplish behaving like this.
I’m speaking of both the creators and the editors here. Keatinge’s is a little more justified in my opinion because he only wants to be credited for work he actually does and DC appeared to have altered their agreement. However, the key to that situation is to address it directly with the company and if they are unresponsive then don’t work with that company anymore…or if you have to work with that company then lower your expectations of their professionalism.
If you’re an editor who is working with an unreasonable artist as the editors’ responses imply, then you ask the person to meet directly to clear up the situation and if they aren’t responsive then you don’t work with them anymore. The solution is not to go on the internet and say “oh, didn’t know you were a jerk, bro.”
Regardless of what’s actually happening behind the scenes, the mature response for all involved isn’t to jump on the internet with a tell-all tweet.
This is why we can’t have nice corporate comics!
horatio weisfeld said, on 5/1/2014 12:43:00 PM
Starlin basically gave Thanos to… .. ..Brubaker at most created … ..They created the “Nightwing” name .. . ..they’d deserve it as much whether the character is called Robin or Grayson or… .. created the name, I guess. Presumably someone else (Epting?) created the… … .. .. .
>>
I jus’ hope none of you bastards forgot who created LIBBY IN THE LOST WORLD !
Evan said, on 5/1/2014 1:47:00 PM
To me its far more telling where the fan asked about Thanos and Adam Warlock, and Breevort only mentioned “Oh no Thanos isn’t going anywhere” completely sidestepping Adam Warlock at all.
That to me says there is more truth going on then he’d like to admit. Because Breevort knows by now its really about Adam Warlock, not Thanos and has made it seem like Starlin is being ridiculous by only talking about Thanos. And then go “I’m only answering what the question was?” He’s well aware of what Starlin is saying, because I’m sure he checked to see what Starlin’s actual statements were.
The Syfy Channel has generally been left out of the comic book mania gripping Hollywood, although they’ve had various stuff in development over the years. But now they’re going all in with FOUR projects in development including Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s Ronin, an often assayed but never conquered peak.
This time out Warners Horizon is developing it as a mini-series. The original was a complicated story about a reincarnated ronin who comes to a futuristic city to fight a demon. Darren Aronofsky once took a crack at making a Ronin movie, and a later movie version has been languishing for a long time. Frank Miller has been out of favor in Tinsel Town for a while but I guess 300: Rise of Empire did okay so he’s “in” again.
Also in development:
Clone, based on the Skybound comic by David Schulner and Juan Jose Ryp. Robert Kirkman is aboard as executive producer. The story involves a retired soldier who has to fight a clone of himself. Schulner, who was involved in the recent Dracula and Ironside tv shows, will write and produce himself.
Letter 44, based on the Charles Soule/Alberto Albuquerque book about a new US president dealing with aliens and such. Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) will write and direct.
Pax Romana by Jonathan Hickman, about a Vatican-led plan to travel back in time and improve things via warfare. Federman & Stephen Scaia (Jericho, Warehouse 13, Human Target) are writing the script.
Wonder if any kind of weird legal action will happen between Syfy and whatever studio it was that bought that reddit kid’s idea about marines going back in time to fight the Roman army.
Pax Romana predates that reddit thing by several years, but when have facts ever stopped lawyers out for blood and money?
Brian said, on 5/2/2014 6:39:00 AM
Yeah, the Spirit really brought Frank Miller back down to Earth. However, his older stuff could still work as a movie/tv thing. I wouldn’t mind seeing Martha Washington or Hardboiled.
NEWS Round-up | Week of May 3, 2014 « The Comixve said, on 5/3/2014 2:29:00 PM
[…] Syfy adapting Frank Miller’s Ronin, Schulner and Ryp’s Clone, Soule and Albuquerque’s Letter 44, and […]
With Ronin on the Way from SyFy, Can We at Least D said, on 5/3/2014 11:53:00 PM
[…] SyFy having announced that work has begun on a Ronin mini-series, can we at least discuss Frank Miller’s […]
New York City, five boroughs boasting nine million people occupying an ever-expanding concrete jungle. The industrial hand has touched almost every inch of the city, leaving even the parks over manicured and uncomfortably structured. There is, however, a lesser known corner that has been uncharacteristically left to regress to its natural state. North Brother Island, a small sliver of land situated off the southern coast of the Bronx, once housed Riverside Hospital, veteran housing, and ultimately a drug rehabilitation center for recovering heroin addicts. In the 1960s the island, once full with New Yorkers, became deserted and nature has been slowly swallowing the remaining structures ever since. Christopher Payne, the photographer behind North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City, was able to access the otherwise prohibited to the public island, and document the incredible phenomenon of the gradual destruction of man’s artificial structures.
North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City: Photographs by Christopher Payne, A History by Randall Mason, and Essay by Robert Sullivan (A Fordham University Press Publication). Christopher Payne, a photographer based in New York City, specializes in the documentation of America’s vanishing architecture and industrial landscape. Trained as an architect, he has a natural interest in how things are purposefully designed and constructed, and how they work. Randall Mason is Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. He worked previously at the Getty Conservation Institute, University of Maryland, and Rhode Island School of Design. Robert Sullivan is the author of numerous books, including The Meadowlands: WildernessAdventures at the Edge of a City; Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants; The Thoreau You Don’t Know: The Father of Nature Writers on the Importance of Cities, Finance, and Fooling Around; A Whale Hunt, and, most recently, My American Revolution. His stories and essays have been published in magazines such asNew York, The New Yorker, and A Public Space. He is a contributing editor to Vogue.
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Barry Rudner has been an author/poet of self-esteem books for children for over thirty years, dealing with universal truths such as, reaching for your dreams, homelessness, undying friendships, disability awareness, always being yourself, autism awareness, hope and utter silliness. He firmly believes that we cannot educate our children unless they feel good about who they are; and ultimately, as they grow up, they will not feel good about themselves unless they educate themselves. Please feel free to visit us at our website at www.nickoftime.us.
Thank you for joining us today, Barry Rudner. Can you please start off by telling us a bit about yourself?
I am a product of an incredible education from my parents. My formal education was a double major in biology and religious studies. I thought I wanted to grow up to become a doctor, but I realized I wanted to grow up and try to answer questions in ways that science cannot. But it is this hybrid of both degrees that gives me a certain insight into the world of children’s literature. In other words, as a scientist, I know the grass is green because the chlorophyl absorbs all the wavelengths of light and reflects the green. But as a children’s author, it is so much more poetic to think that the grass is green because it envies where the children have stepped.
When did you first get bit by the writing bug?
I was in graduate school in the late ’70s trying to earn a Masters degree in neuroanatomy in the hopes of being admitted into medical school. I was at a friend’s house, and he had a room mate who was taking a children’s literature course. On the kitchen table was Shel Silversteins, The Giving Tree. That one moment completely changed the path of my life.I knew that I would spend the rest of my life chasing after what I consider to be the most linear thought ever committed to paper for children. I have been pursuing this goal ever since.
Why did you decide to write stories for children?
I started writing stories for children because I love the way they think. If I may be so bold to quote Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, “…and such things commonly please us best which are most strange and come from farthest off.” And that in essence is our children. Somehow, in their innocence they understand things that we do not even mean. They are living, breathing allegories. Children are that very thing that “comes from farthest off”.
Do you believe it is harder to write books for a younger audience?
I believe that my life would be much harder if I did not write for children. I believe I understand my audience as well as my craft. Children’s literature is no different than taking a felled tree and stripping it of its bark and limbs and whittling it down to the size of a toothpick; and, right when you think you are done you split it in half. That is children’s literature.
What is your favorite part of writing for young people?
My favorite part about writing for children, especially thirty-two page picture books is to teach them universal truths without ever dealing with what is real. By definition, that is a fairy tale. Teaching them to reach for their dreams. Teaching them to be themselves. Teaching them to be aware of the less fortunate. The beauty of truth is that it is multi-cultural and I never have to deal with what is real: only with what is true.
Can you tell us what your latest book is all about?
The latest book is entitled, Silent Voice, and it is a modern day allegory about autism awareness: that the only ought in autism is that we ought not ever give up trying to find the cause and cure. The majority of the world population is not even aware of the pandemic nature of this disorder. But the book is not about finger pointing or blame. It is about educating those who are simply unaware.
What inspired you to write it?
Last year in March I was speaking to a dear friend, Nicole Albert, a licensed therapist, who approached me about writing a book about the lack of awareness of those children that fall under the spectrum of autism: worldwide one in eighty-eight suffer from this disorder. It is a staggering number when you consider the statistics. I simply felt that it needed to be addressed. After three months of researching, I started the process of rewriting.
Where can readers purchase a copy?
Silent Voice can be purchased online at our website at http://www.nickoftime.us in a variety of electronic formats as well as a hardcover version of the book. Our hope is that the book version will become a part of bookshelves everywhere.
What is up next for you?
For an author, even a barely-an-author-type like myself, all that matters is to rewrite a book that is worthier than the one that proceeded it.
Do you have anything else to add?
It took almost eleven years to become published. For anyone aspiring to become an author, do not take rejection personally. Take it as a complement. It means your work is being circulated. You are looking for that one editor who is searching for that very manuscript you have written. Case in point: I once met the editor at a symposium who rejected Richard Bach’s, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, because their was no mass market appeal for it. Need I say more.
Thank you for spending time with us today, Barry Rudner. We wish you much success.
1 Comments on Interview with Barry Rudner, author of ‘Silent Voice’, last added: 5/4/2014
Best Friends Pretend. Linda Leopold Strauss. Illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. 2014. 14 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Who Can Jump? Sebastien Braun. 2014. Candlewick. 14 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Who Can Swim? Sebastien Braun. 2014. Candlewick. 14 pages. [Source: Review copy]
The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Beatrix Potter. Illustrated by David McPhail. Text from 1902. Illustrations from 1986. Board book format 2014. Scholastic. 28 pages.
Ack! Today is the final day of the challenge! For people catching up, I’m giving a 5-day buffer between each day’s prompt–so the cut-off will be 11:59 p.m. on May 5 (Atlanta, GA time). Also, I’m going to post on “Next Steps” regarding this challenge tomorrow afternoon that will outline what to expect as far as judging, results, etc.
For today’s prompt, write a “calling it a day” poem. Some people might call this “Miller time,” others may refer to it as “closing time.” Just remember: Don’t call it a day until you put it in a poem.
*****
Get the National Poetry Month Kit!
Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!
i’m tired of this cat & mouse
this cleaning house
omg
if you knew
what i wanted to do
rotfl
& other stuff
well
fml
w/o you in it
no other way to say
i <3 u
& i’m done cleaning house
be the cat
i’m your mouse
*****
Today’s guest judge is…
Jillian Weise
Jillian Weise
Jillian is the author of The Amputee’s Guide to Sex, the novel The Colony,and The Book of Goodbyes, which won the 2013 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, The New York Times and Tin House.
After fellowships from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Fine Arts Work Center and the Fulbright Program, she joined the faculty at Clemson University.
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. His favorite Marquez story is “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” though he also loves the short novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
Kate Elliott and I have started a Bestselling Women’s Fiction Book Club together. Our criteria is that each book be a bestseller, classified as women’s fiction, be published between the end of World War One and twenty years ago. So no books from before 1918 or after 1994. We also decided not to look at any books by living authors. That way if we hate a book we can truly let rip. So far we’ve discussed Jacqueline Susann’s The Valley of the Dollshere on my blog and Ron Jaffe’s The Best of Everythingover on Kate’s.
So that more of you can join in here’s what we’ve got planned for the rest of the year. All of these books are in print and available as ebooks except for A Many-Splendored Thing and Imitation of Life. We’ve scheduled them for September and October so you’ll have plenty of time to inter-library loan or find them second-hand:
May: Grace MetaliousPeyton Place (1956). This book was a huge blockbuster in its day and was made into an equally popular movie. I read and loved it as a kid but have memories of finding everyone’s behaviour very odd. This one was suggested by many different people.
June: Ann PetryThe Street (1946). I confess I’d never heard of this one until Kate suggested it. Ann Petry was the first African-American woman to have a book sell more than one million copies. Set in Harlem in the 1940s. I cannot wait to read this one.
July: Patricia Highsmith Price of Salt aka Carol (1952). This was the first mainstream lesbian novel to not end miserably. Highsmith wrote it under a pseudonym. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Highsmith is one of my favourites but this book is nothing like her other books as it doesn’t make you despair of the human condition. It’s almost cheerful.
September: Han SuyinA Many-Splendored Thing (1952). This is set in Hong Kong and China. Suyin’s The Mountain is Young is one of my favourite books but I’d never read her most popular book Splendored. Partly because it was made into a crappy movie, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, with an unspeakably awful song of the same title in 1955. I hate that song so much that it put me off reading the book. What can I say? Every time I read the title the song pops into my head. Like, right now. Aaaarrrgh!
Then in October we’ll be doing something slightly different. We’ll be reading two books together. They’re both about a black girl who passes as white. One was written by a black woman, Nella Larsen, and was not a bestseller. The other by a white woman, Fannie Hurst, was a huge success and made into two big Hollywood movies. (I wrote a comparison of the movies here.) Interestingly it’s much easier now to get hold of Larsen’s work than it is Hurst’s. Even though in her day Hurst had multiple bestsellers and was crazy popular. When you read the books you’ll discover why. If you wind up skimming the Hurst we won’t judge. At all.
October: Nella LarsenPassing (1929) and Fannie HurstImitation of Life (1933). I’ve read both of these. The Larsen is far superior on pretty much every count. But they’re both fascinating documents of their time. (Passing is available as part of the collected fiction of Nella Larsen: An Intimation of Things Distant.)
November: V. C. Andrews Flowers in the Attic (1979). This one is mostly for Kate who for some strange reason has never read it. Me, I have read it multiple times. When I was twelve I thought it was the best book ever written. *cough* Why I have even blogged about Flowers. V. C. Andrews was my Robert Heinlein. Only much better, obviously.
December: Barbara Taylor BradfordA Woman of Substance (1979). If I have read this I have no memory of it. I don’t remember the mini-series either. Again many people suggested this one.
Thanks so much for all your suggestions. They were most helpful. Keep ‘em coming. Maybe we’ll keep doing this next year. I hope so. We’d especially love if you can recommend books by women of colour that fit our bill. Even if they’re not bestsellers, like Passing, we can read them against what was selling at the time.
And, of course, do please join in. We’d love to hear what you think of these books in the coming months.
0 Comments on Bestselling Women’s Fiction Book Club: Rest of the Year Schedule as of 4/29/2014 8:27:00 PM
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you share a typical day in your life?
[Aaron Robinson] Most days start with a strong cup of coffee while I drive to the station. From there, it’s usually pretty low-key. Wellingford isn’t exactly a hub of criminal activity, so the most an average day has to deal with is our town drunk needing to be driven home, or little Anna’s cat wandering off again. It’s a nice change of pace from being in the military.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words come to mind when you think of Marceline?
[Aaron Robinson] Stubborn, independent, gorgeous
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What’s her most appealing quality?
[Aaron Robinson] She’s independent to a fault. The woman has handled things that would bring other people to their knees, and she just keeps on trucking. It’s amazing.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What just drives you nuts about her?
[Aaron Robinson] That she’s independent to a fault. Haha. She’s so busy taking care of business, she’s slowly been closing herself off to any possibility of dating.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be?
[Aaron Robinson] That’s a tough one. There are things I wish I hadn’t seen—a couple tours in Afghanistan that weren’t a walk in the park—but I’m a firm believer that everything you do leads you to where you’re supposed to be. If the military hadn’t been so shitty for me, I might not have come back to Wellingford to settle down, and then I wouldn’t have had my chance with Marceline.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What’s one thing you won’t leave home without?
[Aaron Robinson] My phone. Wellingford’s police force is small, so there’s always a chance the Sheriff, Drew, or one of the other deputies might need help with something when I’m not on the clock.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you share your dreams for the future in five words or less.
[Aaron Robinson] A wife and kids. Marceline.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!
[Aaron Robinson] Thanks for having me!
About the book:
Out of Uniform
Katee Robert
Tagline: He’s always wanted her. Now’s his chance to claim what’s his.
Book Synopsis: He’s always wanted her. Now’s his chance to claim what’s his.
School teacher Marceline Bellini gave up everything—men, sex, anything resembling a social life—to raise her young daughter. To be the perfect parent. But when she attends an engagement party in her standard stick-in-the-mud mode, her friends begin plying Marceline with shots. Just enough to convince her that a little fun doesn’t sound like a bad idea… and having some naughty fun is an even better one.
Like finding herself deliciously pressed against a dark alley wall by the very familiar and über-hot bod of her best friend’s older brother.
After years of waiting in painful silence, cop Zach Robinson finally has Marceline’s attention. And man, does he have it. But nothing could have prepared either of them for the rush of fiery lust between them. So he’ll just have to convince Marceline he’s for real. And that a rainy, lust-fuelled romp is the first step to a lifetime of completely imperfect happiness…
Author Bio: Katee Robert learned to tell stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her favorites then were the rather epic adventures of The Three Bears, but at age twelve she discovered romance novels and never looked back.
Though she dabbled in writing, life got in the way—as it often does—and she spent a few years traveling, living in both Philadelphia and Germany. In between traveling and raising her two wee ones, she had the crazy idea that she’d like to write a book and try to get published.
Her first novel was an epic fantasy that, God willing, will never see the light of day. From there, she dabbled in YA and horror, before finally finding speculative romance. Because, really, who wouldn’t want to write entire books about the smoking-hot relationships between two people?
She now spends her time—when not lost in Far Reach worlds—playing imaginary games with her wee ones, writing, ogling men, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
Here’s a quick behind the scenes of the April PAD Challenge: I always get the prompts set in stone before the month begins. There are a couple reasons for this, though the most important reason is that I don’t want to get “prompt block” and slow everyone else up during the month. However, the death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez–one of my favorite writers–forced my hand, and I changed today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt mid-month. Enjoy!
The final Two-for-Tuesday prompt for this month is:
Write a realism poem. A poem that is rooted in the real world. Or…
Write a magical poem. A poem that incorporates magical or fantastical elements.
Or write like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and do both!
*****
Get the National Poetry Month Kit!
Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!
Here’s my attempt at a Realism and/or Magical Poem:
“young men with enormous wings”
listen the ocean has fish
for every mood & the sun
can only travel so deep
beneath the surface we hide
our intentions mako sharks
swim figure 8s & approach
with open mouths before they
attack we ran along docks
watching fish scatter as we
dove into the azure sky
spreading our wings & flying
to the vermillion sunset
*****
Today’s guest judge is…
Adam Fitzgerald
Adam Fitzgerald
Adam is the author of The Late Parade, his debut collection of poetry from W. W. Norton’s historic Liveright imprint. A 2005 graduate of Boston College, in 2008 he received his Masters in Editorial Studies from Boston University’s Editorial Institute. In 2010, he received his MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Adam’s poems, essays and interviews have appeared in A Public Space, Boston Review, Conjunctions, Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of the poetry journal Maggy and contributing editor for The American Reader. In September 2013, he co-curated the immersive-environment exhibit “John Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things” for Loretta Howard Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Next summer, he will direct The Ashbery Home School in Hudson, New York with Timothy Donnelly and Dorothea Lasky.
He teaches at The New School and Rutgers University, and lives in a pea-sized studio in NYC.
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. His favorite Marquez story is “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” though he also loves the short novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
When I was teaching kids on a daily basis, I began my lessons with a cartoon, a poem, or short excerpt from a book. It was a great way to "hook" kids into the ideas that would be presented while getting them interested in learning more. Cartoons from The Far Side were a staple, as were Calvin and Hobbes (there's a lot of bad science in those puppies!). I had a huge classroom library, so books weren't a problem. When we studied insects I read excerpts from James and the Giant Peach and told students their job was to determine if certain statements were true. When we studied electricity I read an excerpt from Dear Mr. Henshaw where Leigh builds an alarm system (circuit!) into his lunch box. Poetry, however, was a bit harder to come by. Sure, there was a great deal of nature poetry by some classic poets, but poetry that touched kids seemed hard to find.
If you've been following my posts this month, you'll note that finding good science poetry is, thankfully, not so hard these days! This is definitely something to celebrate.
Today's "perfectly paired" is about books of science poems that are wide-ranging in topic, and some comprehensive books for the classroom that complement them.
Poetry Books
Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Virginia Halstead, is an anthology of 15 poems that includes work by Valerie Worth, Lilian Moore, Carl Sandburg and others. Here's one of my favorite poems.
Rocks by Florence Parry Heide
Big rocks into pebbles, pebbles into sand, I really hold a million million rocks here in my hand.
Covering topics such as rocks, snowflakes, and stars, this collection invites readers to think about science and the work that scientists do.
Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science, written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz, is a book of 18 riddle poems on a range of science topics. Here's an example.
The Old Switcheroo
My father's the arc, My mother's the sparck. Without them you would Be left in the dark.
Do you know the answer? Readers turn the page upside down to find it. The illustrations that accompany each riddle give visual clues if readers can't make sense of the poems.
Here's one more for you to puzzle over.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
I am expressible Only by decibel:
10 is a whisper 30 is cripser, 60, in relation, Is normal conversation. 80 is traffic and telephones. 120? The Rolling Stones. 130 is a cannon shot!
Back matter includes notes on the poems that explain a bit about the science of each subject.
Together there are some wonderful topic pairs that can be made using SPECTACULAR SCIENCE AND SCIEN-TRICKERY, including the poem Magnet by Valerie Worth with the poem Push Me, Pull Me by J. Patrick Lewis, as well as the poem Under the Microscope by Lee Bennett Hopkins with the poem Buggety Buggety Boo! by J. Patrick Lewis.
Science Verse, written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, is a collection of science poems that parody poems by Joyce Kilmer, Lewis Carroll, Ann Taylor, Robert Frost and others, as well as nursery rhymes and childhood songs. It begins:
On Wednesday in science class, Mr. Newton says, "You know, if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything." I listen closely. On Thursday, I start hearing the poetry. In fact, I start hearing everything as a science poem. Mr. Newton has zapped me with a curse of SCIENCE VERSE.
I love this book because it makes reading (and singing) about science FUN and uses poetry to do it! Could there be a better way to learn about the food chain, water cycle, and more?! Here's an example
Food Chain (Sung to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad)
I've been working in the food chain, All the livelong day. In the middle of the food chain, I've got no time to play.
Can't you see the green plants growing? That's energy, okay? Consumer eats up the producer, Predator eats prey.
Who's for lunch today? Who's for lunch today? Don't you just wonder, who's for lunch today? Predator or prey. Predator or prey. Eat or be eaten, that's the only way.
The book ends with our young hero waking from a dream, cured of his Science Verse. While I can't imagine any student sleeping through science class, this is one book that will surely keep a sleepy student's attention!
Nonfiction Picture Books
Smart-Opedia Junior: The Amazing Book About Everything, written by the Editors of Maple Tree Press, is the perfect book for kids who love to ask questions. The following seven chapters are divided into more than 90 topical pages:
Our Bodies
A House to Live In
In the City
History
A World of Plants and Animals
A Big, Wide World
The Universe
The bookopens with an introduction that describes the features of the book. Beyond the information presented on each topic, readers will find these five fun additions (as described in the book).
Figure It Out! - Have fun with puzzles and games. Spot hidden animals, read Egyptian Hieroglyphics, make movie sound effects.
What About You? - You are a very special person. What are your favorite colors? What's your birthday? What was the first word you said?
Did You Know? - Eye-opening facts about animals, plants, people, and places add more information -- to make you even smarter.
Number Time! - Discover the size of a lion, how many blocks in a pyramid, and the speed of your sneeze!
Kids' Question - Why does the Moon change shape? How do fish breathe underwater? Why are leaves green? Find answer to real questions like these, asked by kids just like you.
Here is a sample spread showing the What About You? feature. (Click to enlarge.)
The book covers a lot of ground in 192 pages. It includes an extensive table of contents and index. It starts small with an introduction to the child's world, and then branches out to include the community and larger world. The section on Our Bodies provides a nice introduction to many of the questions kids ask about human growth and development, as well as parts of the body and illness. The section on A House to Live In can be a bit hard to follow, with some of the individual pieces seemingly unconnected. It begins by looking at the physical structure of the place ("How Do We Get Electricity, Water and Gas?" and "Who Built the House?") and then goes on to look at "One Day at Home" (lots of chronology and time-telling) and "What to Wear?", which looks at clothing and seasons. Next comes nutrition with "A Good Breakfast for Holly", and "Linked In Living Room", which looks at all the ways we use technology to keep us connected. It ends "In the Bathroom".
The next section, In the City, looks at the community and all it offers. The section on History is only 20 pages long, so the areas highlighted need to reflect the interests of readers this age. Need I say more than inventions, dinosaurs and pirates? The choices all make sense for the target audience. A World of Plants and Animals includes information about farming, domestic and wild animals, plants, habitats and life cycles. A Big, Wide World focuses on continents and the biomes found in them, as well as the people who live there. The final section, The Universe, examines space exploration, the solar system (correctly ending with Neptune and describing the dwarf planets of Pluto, Ceres, and Eris), and living in space.
The colorful cartoon drawings and simple sentences make this an appealing book for young readers. There is much here that curious kids will love.
I learned two particular things from doing this book. The first is that there isn't anything in existence—not a thing that—isn't amazing and interesting when you looking into it. Whether you are talking about how the universe began from nothing, or how each one of us is made up of trillions of mindless atoms that somehow work together in agreeably coordinated fashion, or why the oceans are salty, or what happens when stars explore, or anything at all—it is all amazingly interesting. It really is.
After the Foreword readers will find these (loosely constructed) chapters. (There are no definitive stops between sections that mark them as such in the text, only how they are organized in the Table of Contents).
Lost in the Cosmos
The Size of the Earth
A New Age Dawns
Dangerous Planet
Life Itself
The Road to Us
While the chapters vary in length, each topic in a chapter receives a double-page spread that combines lively text with illustrations and (sometimes) photos. Together, all these things combine to create a vastly understandable and engaging treatment of a range of science topics. The scientists who made many of the discovers that have helped build our understanding of phenomena today are included, helping readers to understand that science is a human endeavor.
Here's an excerpt.
Finding Earth's age
By the late 1700s, scientists knew very precisely the shape and dimensions of the Earth, its distance from the Sun and planets, and its weight. So you might think that working out its age would be relatively straightforward. But no! Human beings would split the atom and invent television, nylon and instant coffee before they would figure out the age of their own planet.
After this introduction are subsections entitled Mountain-climbing shells, Neptune versus Pluto, A heaving Earth, and A new science. The side bar on the right side of the double-page spread contains this tidbit.
Geology - the study of rocks, soil, and all the materials that make up our planet, how they formed and changed—all this would transform our entire understanding of the Earth.
The final chapter, The Road to Us, ends with the sections Humans take over, What now?, and Goodbye. Here is an excerpt.
Goodbye
I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep of record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job.
The best there is However, we have been chosen—by fate or providence, or whatever you wish to call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme achievement and its worst nightmare at one and the same time. ...
The fact is, we don't have any real idea how our present actions will affect the future. What we do know is that we have just one planet to inhabit, and we are the only species on it capable of deciding its future.
Bryson doesn't shy away from controversy in this book. He tackles the topics of age of the Earth and the theory of evolution and addresses them directly without any waffling. If you teach in Kansas, Texas, or a state in the midwest in which these ideas are controversial, this may not be the book for your classroom. However, if you're willing to share just pieces, you won't be disappointed. Bryson's gift for storytelling and making difficult science understandable will most certainly spark the interests of your students.
Additional Resources I'll wrap today's post up with links to a few (not all!) of my favorite science sites. (Please note that as much as I like BrainPop, it's not free. You'll only find free resources listed below.)
Ology is the science web site for kids sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Kids can explore all areas of science here, including astronomy, dinosaurs, genetics marine biology, and more.
TryScience is a site with resources for kids, parents, and educators that encourages active engagement with science concepts and ideas. Connected to more than 400 science centers worldwide, TryScience invites kids to investigate, discover, and try science themselves.
The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception located in San Francisco, California. The Explore, Play, Discover section has all kinds of great science-related topics to investigate.
Chem4Kids is a terrific introduction to chemistry, providing information on matter, atoms, elements, the periodic table, reactions, and biochemistry. (This is the Andrew Rader site that started it all. Since then sites have been added for Cosmos4Kids (astronomy), Geography4Kids (earth science), Biology4Kids, and Physics4Kids.)
The Why Files is a site that explores the science behind the news. While probably not appropriate for use in most elementary classrooms, curious teachers will find all kinds of answers to their questions here.
Tomorrow I wrap up this National Poetry Month celebration with the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science and thoughts on authors you must have in your collection.
0 Comments on Science Poetry Pairings - Assorted Science in Poem and Verse as of 4/29/2014 1:37:00 AM
Another poetic form challenge, another round of great reading–and tough decisions! The problem with these form challenges is not finding 10 great poems, but limiting it to 10–and then, choosing a winner. But that’s what I did, and I’m super happy with the winning poem: “The Thinnest Wall is Often the Thickest,” by Joshua Michael Stewart.
Here’s the winning triversen:
The Thinnest Wall is Often the Thickest, by Joshua Michael Stewart
The blue jays are eating the cat food
that flung to the ground
when I slipped on the icy back step.
I caught myself by grabbing the rail,
but the Meow Mix in the plastic cup
scattered among grass and pinecones.
I didn’t know it at the time,
but my neighbor was dead by then,
blood from his mouth staining his sheets.
The hallway between our apartments
began to reek of rotten eggs
tinged with a sickly sweetness.
The building manager came with a key,
and opened my neighbor’s door
to a silence that spread the news.
Maintenance is in there now
ripping out the carpets,
and I haven’t seen the stray cat all week.
******
Get the National Poetry Month Kit!
Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!
The Thinnest Wall is Often the Thickest, by Joshua Michael Stewart
Nowhere, by Sherry Toland
My “Self,” by Statten Ell
Hidden Love, by Tracy Davidson
The Eulogy, by Daniel Roessler
Grandpa’s Knee, by Joshua Michael Stewart
The Birds Scan the Birders, by William Preston
Pushing 50, by Laurie Kolp
Divinum Mysterium, by Jane Shlensky
For 370, by Bruce Niedt
Congratulations to Joshua and everyone in the Top 10! And congrats to all who participated and wrote triversens with abandon! There were many other poets who made the short list before I narrowed things down to a Top 10 list, and it was all great reading.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. He plans to write more triversen in the near future. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
Each year, the University of Chicago Press awards the Gordon J. Laing Prize, “to the faculty author, editor, or translator of a book published in the previous three years that has brought great distinction to the Press.”
“Tracing the cultural and scientific history of our understanding of memory, Winter introduces readers to innovative scientists and sensationalistic seekers. She draws on evidence ranging from scientific papers to diaries to movies in order to explore the way that new understandings from the laboratory have seeped out into psychiatrists’ offices, courtrooms and the culture at large. Along the way, she investigates the sensational battles over the validity of repressed memories and shows us how changes in technology—such as the emergence of recording devices and computers—have again and again altered the way we conceptualize and even try to study, the ways we remember.”
Winter, in turn, was kind enough to let us publish her remarks from the Laing Prize reception earlier this month; read them in full after the jump below.
***
From left: Alison Winter, associate professor of history; Garrett P. Kiely, director of the University of Chicago Press; and University President Robert J. Zimmer celebrate the University of Chicago Press awarding Winter the Gordon J. Laing Prize for 2014. Photo by: Robert Kozloff. Courtesy of: UChicagoNews.
Thank you. First of all, I want to say that it matters enormously that this decision was made by my peers. I have won a few prizes for previous work, but this is the one that means the most.
I want to thank my editor at the University of Chicago Press, Christie Henry, and also to remember the person who introduce me to the Press, the wonderful editor of my first book, Susan Abrams, who sadly is no longer with us. This award gives me a great opportunity to underscore just how engaged the Press is with the university, and with the intellectual life of the university. I was involved in a conference on the history of science two weeks ago, and several editors from the Press not only came to the conference but asked questions. People attending the conference from other universities, all with their own presses, remarked on how unusual and impressive that level of engagement and attention was.
The rest of what I’d like to say on this occasion is about the University of Chicago itself:
I came to the University of Chicago with this book project in the works. I had some notes, but nothing actually written. I had a topic, but I also had enormous deficits of expertise. My background was in Victorian history of science, while the material that would eventually become Memory was of a different period, a different country, and, to understand, required expertise in numerous areas about which I knew essentially nothing.
But the University of Chicago is the perfect place to be if that’s your problem. It is the ideal place in which to act according to what my husband, Adrian Johns, calls the “principle of hot pursuit”—the term comes, of course, from police chases that cross state lines, but what he means is a license for academics to stray into other disciplinary turf in pursuit of a hot topic. That was where I found myself: pursuing many fascinating topics that pulled, me, in hot pursuit, over various disciplinary lines.
Finding myself for the first time in a large history department, I knew I could draw on the advice of my Americanist colleagues like Jim Sparrow, Kathy Conzen, and Jane Dailey. But I also found it amazingly easy to connect with faculty in farther-flung fields, in a way that would have been much more difficult at some other institutions. When I began to encounter a lot of legal cases in my research, I found my way to Geoffrey Stone, and then to Emily Buss, who gave me a lot of guidance over the next several years. I got extensive advice from several colleagues in psychology, including Howard Nussbaum, Amanda Woodward, and Susan Goldin-Meadow, while Dan Margoliash helped me with many questions relating to the neurosciences. And when I wanted to figure out how to explore the history of moving images and recording devices as a central part of my project, James Chandler, and, especially, Tom Gunning, helped me in ways that changed the way I thought not only about the history of cinema and media, but about the history of technology, and the history of the human sciences.
That intellectual assistance is indicative of the kind of multidisciplinary engagement and collegiality I found at Chicago, a type of engagement that is fundamental to the way this university works. It thrives partly because the culture of the institution is in a general sense intellectually welcoming–or at least, I found it to be. But there is also a structural reason: the committees, centers and workshops that thrive in the interstices of departments intensify cross-disciplinary connections, in a way that I think is incredibly healthy intellectually. It certainly has been for me. I don’t think I could have written Memory without it.
I’d like to close by expressing an appreciation of one of those committees in particular: the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, with which I have been affiliated since I came here. As I looked over the list of Laing Prizes that have been awarded in recent years, I was struck by the fact that three out of the last four have gone to CHSS faculty. CHSS is perhaps the smallest graduate program in the university, but one of the things I love about it is that it embodies one of the biggest distinctions between Chicago and some other universities, namely, this commitment to meaningful engagement among faculty from many different fields. I feel very grateful and lucky to be here.
On the final day of the annual portrait conference, I sketched Robert Liberace and Rose Frantzen as they painted a two-hour head study of a bearded model.
Rose worked with incredible energy, beginning the painting with a phthalo green oil crayon. The strong color kept flooding into mixtures as she went along.
She's impetuous, dynamic, and experimental, very exciting to watch. She and Robert Liberace got great results, but I failed to take a photo of their paintings. Can someone send me scans of the finals? ----- Rose Frantzen Video footage provided by Scott Burdick Portrait Society
0 Comments on Final day at the Portrait Conference as of 4/28/2014 5:19:00 PM
Winner of the 2014 One Caribbean Media (OCM) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Robert Antoni, said he will share the US$10,000 prize money with the other finalists.
Antoni was announced as the winner from the top three writers for his book As Flies to Whatless Boys at an awards ceremony at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port of Spain, on Saturday.
Three days, and we’re done with this year’s challenge. Speaking of challenges, this is my last reminder of the Remixing the World’s Problems challenge I’m running. Top prize is $500 with a May 15 deadline. Click here to read the guidelines.
For today’s prompt, write a settled poem. Settled can be a good, relaxing thing; settled can be an accepting something that wasn’t your first choice thing; settled can be coming to a stop; settled can be pioneers in a strange land; and so on. With only three days left, don’t settle for less than your best.
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Get the National Poetry Month Kit!
Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!
the boy picks up a stone
holds it loose in his hand
studies the smooth surface
for just a brief moment
before drawing hand back
and casting the stone forth
the stone cuts through the wind
taps the water’s surface
before pushing airborne
again and then again
five skips total before
slipping beneath the thin
skin separating air
from water and the stone
twists awkwardly against
liquid and bounces off
the wet bottom finding
a new place to settle
*****
Today’s guest judge is…
Sandra Beasley (credit: Matthew Worden)
Sandra Beasley
Sandra is the author of I Was the Jukebox, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Theories of Falling, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. Recent honors for her work include the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize, Cornell College’s Distinguished Writer fellowship, Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Writer in Residence position, and two DCCAH Artist Fellowships.
Her most recent book is Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a memoir and cultural history of food allergy. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is on the faculty of the low-residency MFA program at the University of Tampa.
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. He’s grateful to today’s guest for endorsing his book. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
Morning, folks! I do believe my comments feature is busted at the moment, so please don’t be alarmed if you can’t get anything to go through. It’s frustrating for me as well. Feels like an echo chamber in here. Hm.
Well, as you may have heard, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy will not be continuing here on the SLJ blog network. Liz Burns posted her final post just this past Friday. But fear not! This is not the end of Tea Cozy as we know it. Liz has a new site so update those bookmarks and RSS feeds and get thee over there. Her post on the We Need Diverse Books Campaign should start you out right.
Speaking of fellow SLJ blogs, I admit that I don’t often read the excellent Adult Books 4 Teens since the topic isn’t really in my wheelhouse. Still, recently Mark Flowers had a great post up on The Problem with Stories About Amnesia Solved by Robert Glancy and Jason Bourne. He gave a nice shout out to my husband’s blog Cockeyed Caravan in the post saying, “Anyone who cares about narrative, movies, or both should be reading Matt Bird’s Cockeyed Caravan blog. He spends most of his time there deconstructing the narrative structure of Hollywood movies and explaining how and why movies do (and don’t) work. But while he only discusses movies (and usually big-budget Hollywood ones at that), his insights are invaluable for anyone interested in the way narrative works in any kind of fiction. I’ve cited his ideas many times over on my personal blog and in conversations with other book lovers.” Love you, Mark! Thanks!
And since I’m just on a bloggers-discussing-bloggers kick, I was so pleased to hear that Sue Bartle, Mary Ann Cappiello, Marc Aronson, Kathleen Odean, and Myra Zarnowski are restarting the excellent Common Corps blog Uncommon Corps. In an era where so many people are desperate for CCSS info, we’re all desperate for intelligent conversation on the topic. This blog provides that, as well as amazing curricular tie-ins you might not have otherwise known about. Read Compare & Contrast for a taste of what I mean.
Awww. The Moomin characters are now regular dining companions of lonely Japanese restaurant attendees. I’d be game for eating with one. Just don’t seat me with Little My. I don’t trust that gal. Thanks to mom for the link.
Hm. Maybe it’s a good thing I’ll be missing out on this year’s Book Expo. Granted, it’s exhausting even in the best of times, but I still get a bit of a kick out of it. Of course, this year there’s been a bit of a brouhaha with BookCon (which I have never even been aware of before). One of the problems with the internet is the fact that when controversies arise, few are willing to recap the troubles. Fortunately the Melville House post Wear shades to BookCon, it’ll be blindingly white in there tells you everything you need to know. And more!
“When white writers come to me and ask if it’s OK for them to write about people of color, it seems as if they’re asking for my blessing. I can’t give them my blessing because I don’t speak for other people of color. I only speak for myself, and I have personal stakes in specific kinds of narratives.” Since author Malinda Lo co-founded Diversity in YA she’s been getting a lot of these questions over the years. Her piece Should white people write about people of color? is your required reading of the day. Many thanks to Phil Nel for pointing it out to me.
By the way, in the course of looking at Malinda’s work I discovered the blog Disability in Kidlit which, somehow, I’d never run across before. Since it’s been around since June 2013 it’s hardly new, but I’m still going to call a New Blog Alert on it, since I’ve only just discovered it myself. It’s a blog about “Reviews, guest posts, and discussions about the portrayal of disabilities in MG/YA fiction.” There are a couple books out this year that I’d love their opinion of.
Oh! This happened. So I’ll admit that I’m more of a podcast listener than a radio listener. And when NYPL’s lovely PR department asked if I’d be interested in talking on the Leonard Lopate show, I confess I didn’t quite know who he was. Fortunately I learned pretty quickly, and even was lucky enough to meet his replacement Andy Borowitz instead (whom I had heard of since he moderated the National Book Awards the year I got to go). Our talk is up and it’s called Our Favorite Children’s Stories. Mostly a lot of talk about classics, but I was able to work in some shout-outs for three more recent books. The comments section is where the recommendations and memories are really hopping, though. Good stuff is to be found there.
Take a gander at this article on WWI librarian uniforms and one thing becomes infinitely clear: Librarians during The Great War has it DOWN in terms of clothing, man. Look at that style. That look! That form! Oh, what the heck. Let’s bring them back! At the very least I’d love an ALA-issued arm patch. Thanks to AL Direct for the link.
That they are seriously considering making a film out of A Monster Calls is amazing enough to me as it is. That it may potentially star Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson? Having a harder time wrapping my head around that one. Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link!
Whoo boy. The term “mansplaining” just seems loaded to the gills. That said, this piece from Inside Higher Ed tackles the definition itself with a look at the film version of The Wizard of Oz. I always liked the Scarecrow best too, and assumed that when Dorothy grew up she’d end up with Hunk. Feel free to pick apart the various ramifications behind that bit of childhood matchmaking, if you will.
I don’t usually quote from the Cynopsis Kids newsletters, and technically neither of these have much to do with children’s books, but there were two recent pieces that concerned children’s entertainment that I thought you might like to know about as much as I did.
Get ready for Hulu‘s first original kids series. Debuting this Friday is Doozers, the Fraggle Rock spinoff produced by the Jim Henson Co. that packs a full 52 episodes and will be available advertiser-free on both Hulu and Hulu Plus. The preschool series revolved around an animated gaggle of kids called The Pod Squad– Spike, Molly Bolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel–who learn to design and build different objects. Other Hulu Kids content includes Fraggle Rock, Pokemon and SpongeBob.
In a move more in line with kids’ bedtimes, beginning Tuesday, April 29, new eps of Syfy‘s original series Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge will air at 9p vs. their current 10p Tuesday slot. The competition series features 10 aspiring creature creators competing to out-imagine one another in challenges where they will build everything from mechanical characters to whimsical beasts. The stakes are high. Winner walks with $100,000 and a contract working at the world-renowned Creature Shop.
Daily Image:
I think my brother-in-law Steve sent me this one. Don’t know where it’s from but I sort of adore it. Wouldn’t mind one of my own.
5 Comments on Fusenews: Never Forget, last added: 4/30/2014
If you are looking for excellent informational books for your kids, I recommend the Robert F. Sibert Medal winner and Honor books. The 2014 winners include Parrots Over Puerto Rico, the 2014 Sibert Medal winner, which was written by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore and illustrated with the collages of Susan L. Roth, who also coauthored and illustrated Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books. For more information about the 2014 Medal winner and the four intriguing 2014 Sibert Honor Books, see my article about the 2014 Sibert award winners. What are some of the informational books your kids like? Click on "Comments" below and share your recommendations.
I hope everyone’s having a great time with the challenge; I know I am! But I’m already looking ahead to what’s happening on the blog in May and beyond. I’ve interviewed more than 100 poets on this blog, discussed dozens of poetic forms, and covered other topics. But I’m not done yet; so this is my one-time call for queries related to poet interviews, guest posts, or other ideas. If you’re interested in being interviewed, providing a guest post, or have another idea, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with the subject line: Poetic Asides Blog Idea.
For today’s prompt, write a monster poem. There are the usual suspects: zombies, vampires, werewolves, and mummies. But monsters can take any form and terrorize a variety of victims. So have fun playing around with this one, because we’ve only got a few days of April left.
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Free up your poetry with constraints!
Learn how putting constraints on your poetry through poetic forms, blank verse, and other tricks can actually free up your poetry writing skills and enhance your creativity in Writer’s Digest’s first ever Poetry Boot Camp. It will include a one-hour tutorial, personalized Q&A on a secure “attendees-only” message board, feedback on three original poems, and more. Click to continue.
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Here’s my attempt at a Monster Poem:
“Clones”
I don’t know where I stand on cloning
but sometimes I think it would be helpful
to have two of me, especially for administrative
work, which I always seem to foul up.
I’m not advocating a Frankenstein’s Monster approach,
more like The Twilight Zone, thought without
the twist at the end that makes me realize
it was a bad idea, because that would be
such a buzz kill. No, I just want the version
of me that cooks and cleans and transports
the kids to do all that stuff while the other
version of me that writes and edits and blogs
does his thing, and we both get extra rest
at the end of the day. And maybe both
versions will hang out sometimes
because they both should have similar
taste in music and movies and write
poetry. But then a third version will emerge
that wants to get outside more to run
and hike and swim and bike. A fourth
will flirt day and night with the ladies,
and a fifth just hangs in the basement
playing old school Tetris. Eventually, my selves
will have drama and a reality TV show
and everyone will complain about that guy
who is actually a bunch of guys
and he/they never get along, and anyway,
I still wouldn’t have time for administration.
*****
Today’s guest judge is…
Jeannine Hall Gailey
Jeannine Hall Gailey
Jeannine recently served as the Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington, and is the author of four books of poetry: Unexplained Fevers, She Returns to the Floating World,Becoming the Villainess and The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, upcoming in 2015 from Mayapple Press.
Her work has been featured on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac and Verse Daily.
Her poems have appeared The Iowa Review, American Poetry Review and Prairie Schooner.
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. His book includes a few monster poems, from man-eaters to fathers. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
News Corp announced today that it has agreed to acquire romance imprint Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corporation, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. News Corp will make Harlequin a division of its subsidiary HarperCollins Publishers.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words come to mind when you think of Marceline? 
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Starlin basically gave Thanos to Marvel. He provided for them their go-to big cosmic threat that’s served the comics for decades and is set to be the heavy in (likely) Avengers 3 which will rake in billions.
And the character premiered in the early 70s so I doubt Starlin gets much if any royalties. You’d think the least Marvel could do after all that was let the man use Adam Warlock in a comic book story.
Freelancers that publicly complain about a client stand a chance of losing that client.
Thankfully, there are more options to get your work in front of readers than ever if you’re a creator.
“which was nice since Brubaker created the whole Winter Soldier character”
Bucky Barnes? No, I’m pretty sure that was Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Brubaker at most created his arm, not the whole character.
Also, “Dreadstar”, not “Deathstar”.
Brubaker did not create Bucky Barnes. You are correct. Brubaker did create the Winter Soldier.
Am I confused, isn’t Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier? I stopped reading the Brubaker comics early on, and haven’t seen the movie, so maybe I missed something.
DREADstar!!!
Jeepers creepers…
Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon did not create the Winter Soldier however. Ed Brubaker did.
Just like while Marv Wolfman did not create the character of Dick Grayson, he and George Perez are solely credited with creating Nightwing.
“…[Starlin’s] frustrated because there’s something he wants to do that he can’t do at the moment, ON A SERIES THAT WAS NEVER APPROVED…”
If this is accurate then… wow.
Yeah, I always thought that Nightwing credit was a little ridiculous. I was actually wondering the other day if, when the title is relaunched as GRAYSON, if Wolfman and Perez will keep the creator credit. They created the “Nightwing” name (actually borrowed from an old Superman identity), and the original Nightwing costume (which is pretty much completely different now), but if there was any creator participation and credit to Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson in the Dick Grayson character, they’d deserve it as much whether the character is called Robin or Grayson or Nightwing or whatever. This is a side issue to the bigger injustice that there’s no creator participation and credit to Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson.
I still think saying Brubaker created the “whole Winter Soldier character” is weird. He created the name, I guess. Presumably someone else (Epting?) created the costume. But the “whole character” surely includes Bucky Barnes.
If there’s a story where Bucky shows up at SHIELD HQ in civilian clothing to pick up his robot arm which is being repaired, is addressed only as Bucky by Dum Dum Dugan, and then foils a Hydra invasion without changing into costume and using only his Kirby&Simon created arm and legs, is there anything in the story created by Brubaker?
It’s worth noting that Brevoort wasn’t responding to what Starlin said, but to a fan’s telephone-style misconception of what Starlin said. The fan thought NOBODY was allowed to use Thanos, instead of some sort of freeze on Warlock (possibly because there are plans in the offing) making Starlin’s Warlock/Thanos story unworkable.. (This misconception was largely due to another site on the Internet deliberately misconstruing what Starlin said so they could run an inflammatory headline.)
I wish cartoonists flipped out every time someone else made more money off of their creations than they did.
It’s amazing how quickly these types of situations turn into Jr. High grade sniping instead of professional conversation. These people aren’t pretty enough to be on TMZ so I don’t know what they hope to accomplish behaving like this.
I’m speaking of both the creators and the editors here. Keatinge’s is a little more justified in my opinion because he only wants to be credited for work he actually does and DC appeared to have altered their agreement. However, the key to that situation is to address it directly with the company and if they are unresponsive then don’t work with that company anymore…or if you have to work with that company then lower your expectations of their professionalism.
If you’re an editor who is working with an unreasonable artist as the editors’ responses imply, then you ask the person to meet directly to clear up the situation and if they aren’t responsive then you don’t work with them anymore. The solution is not to go on the internet and say “oh, didn’t know you were a jerk, bro.”
Regardless of what’s actually happening behind the scenes, the mature response for all involved isn’t to jump on the internet with a tell-all tweet.
This is why we can’t have nice corporate comics!
Starlin basically gave Thanos to… .. ..Brubaker at most created … ..They created the “Nightwing” name .. . ..they’d deserve it as much whether the character is called Robin or Grayson or… .. created the name, I guess. Presumably someone else (Epting?) created the… … .. .. .
>>
I jus’ hope none of you bastards forgot who created LIBBY IN THE LOST WORLD !
To me its far more telling where the fan asked about Thanos and Adam Warlock, and Breevort only mentioned “Oh no Thanos isn’t going anywhere” completely sidestepping Adam Warlock at all.
That to me says there is more truth going on then he’d like to admit. Because Breevort knows by now its really about Adam Warlock, not Thanos and has made it seem like Starlin is being ridiculous by only talking about Thanos. And then go “I’m only answering what the question was?” He’s well aware of what Starlin is saying, because I’m sure he checked to see what Starlin’s actual statements were.