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I’ve had lots of people ask me how my sister Katie is doing.

If you haven’t met Katie, or are new to this blog, I have a sister who’s spent the last 4 years kicking a very rare, fast-growing cancer–leiomyosarcoma–and now she’s fighting leukemia, too.  If you want to learn more about her, you should watch this video:

Here’s a recent picture of her family:

Aren’t they the sweetest??

It’s been nearly a year since the fundraiser–which turned out amazing (here’s the blog post about it)–and it’s been a rocky road getting the stars to align.  The doctors were insistent that she not have any new tumor growth for 6 months, and even if that happened, because the odds weren’t great, we didn’t think the insurance would cover it–and without it, the bone marrow transfusion would be over a million dollars (!!!!!!!!)

Around Thanksgiving last year, the doctors broke some bad news.

Katie’s leukemia was getting pretty bad.  She would have to have some intensive chemo for several months in the hospital.

She checked in Thanksgiving Day.

She couldn’t see her family much because if anyone of her kids brought a cough home from school or something, she might catch it and she wouldn’t have an immune system to kick it.

They all missed each other.

Katie’s not the type to lie around though.

Every morning, she’d get up and walk the halls, up and down.  She counted and realized going up and down 7 times = 1 mile.

The doctors got nervous about her wandering the halls like that, so they got her an exercise bike to put in her room.

She learned the harp.

She taught piano to her kids via skype.

She crocheted some seriously awesome sock monkey pants.

Katie was able to come home and be with her family for Christmas, and guess who got those seriously awesome sock monkey pants??

YESSSSS!!!!

They are the best thing I’ve ever owned.  I’ll post an instagram picture sometime.

A big holdup in all this was the leukemia doctor.  When he saw what cancer Katie had, he refused to approve a bone marrow transplant…he didn’t believe for a second she’d be able to fight it, and he even told her so (!!!)

And Katie was like, well my plan is to get the bone marrow transplant and kick this cancer!

And that darn doctor was like:

It was a fight for months.  That doctor couldn’t believe how well Katie was responding to all her chemo’s, and he kept dragging his feet in approving that bone marrow transplant.

My mom–you know she’s someone you don’t mess with–started praying for this doctor, and even put his name on the temple prayer roll.

(My mom has unshakeable faith.  She really is an amazing woman.)

Only a few weeks ago, this doctor had suddenly changed his tune:

And ever since then, he’s been firmly in her corner!

He was the one to pitch Katie’s case to the insurance.

…along with a lot of other doctors!

It didn’t seem like there’d be much of a hope that the insurance would cover it…Katie’s leukemia was pretty far advanced.  But I’ll be darned…we got news just 2 weeks ago that the insurance was gonna do it!!!!!*

*I have absolutely no doubt my mother’s prayers had something to do with this.

SHAMELESS MONKEY PANT DANCING

Now we just had to decide whose bone marrow it was gonna be!

I was a match…and so was my sister…and so was my other sister.  (The perks of having a big family!)

Well sister #1 is training to be Zuster Dixon in the MTC…so that’s out.  (She heads to the Netherlands in just a few weeks…we have a whole list of distant relatives there for her to convert mwahahahaah)

So then it was me, my sister, and our thumbs!

…she won.

Katie left just a few days ago for the hospital, where she’s now prepping for the bone marrow transplant.  On the morning she left, we heart attacked her lawn!

This was Katie’s face when she saw it:

It was a good moment :)

Katie has a long battle ahead of her.  Right now she’s in a hospital prepping for the transplant, and there’s have been some rocky days already.

Any prayers or thoughts you could send her way would be deeply appreciated…She’s a fighter.  You watch and see :) :)

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The post Bad to the Bone Marrow appeared first on Story Monster.

Quote from Cold Service, a Spenser novel by Robert Parker: "As I matured, my taste for manufactured hysteria [on television] was beginning to decline."

Last Monday I spent part of the day at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It was pretty amazing to see the range of works by women. One of my favorite pieces was an accordion pop-up book on landscapes that included poems on every page. Sadly, it was in a glass case and hard to photograph.

One of my favorite paintings was by German artist Gabrielle Münter. It is called Breakfast of the Birds.

Extremely excited to get home today and find a package with a handwritten PGP return address as that could only mean that the amazing Adam Robinson had sent me an Advance Review Copy of Stephen Dixon's forthcoming novella, Beatrice! It's a stellar combination: I love the work of Stephen Dixon; I love novellas; I have loved the vast majority of what I've read that was published by Publishing Genius Press. Adam Robinson has a great eye--makes the books he publishes great objects. Can't wait to dig in.

It begins as many of Dixon's works do--with a succinct sentence of action: "Someone rang his doorbell." More on this title soon.

I think I may have witnessed our eagle laying an egg!!

The behavior was something I hadn’t seen before.  When I arrived, the female was sitting on the back edge of the nest facing me.

As I watched, she turned.  Her body straightened. Then she cried out sharply, once, twice.

She did this a couple of times.  I was too far away to see what might be happening, even with my camera. But I didn’t spy any predators, or the mate.

Eventually, she turned back around to face me.

She began picking at the nest, before slowly making her way into it  . . .

and sitting in the position I know so well.  On the eggs!

I went back an hour later and she was still sitting low on the nest.  The eggs are here!!

I’m in one of those annoying middle times that happens now and then where I have finished a number of books close together and then find myself in the midst of many things but close to finishing nothing. That means no reviews to write and much effort spent wracking my brain to find a topic to blog about that isn’t terribly repetitive or boring.

I did start reading Jane Eyre last week. I have read it at least twice before, maybe three times, I can’t remember for sure. The last time I read it was twenty years ago. What is so wonderful is that it feels familiar enough still that I have the pleasure of anticipating certain events. It has also been long enough that I don’t remember everything. Then there is the fact of having lived twenty years (plus a few) and experiencing the story differently than I did in my early twenties. Add to this that I am still making my way through Fiery Heart, the new biography of Charlotte, in which the author points out different events in Charlotte’s life that end up being reflected in Jane Eyre. It makes for a rich reading experience.

I am racing through a book to review for Library Journal on Melville and his affair with Sarah Morewood. Both of them were married at the time. I never knew much about Melville’s biography other than that he spent time at sea and all that, but I always pictured him as a proper sort of fellow. Far from it! He was a very bold, party-loving kind of guy and during his sailing years he spread his love around among the South Seas ladies. His novels pre-Moby Dick garnered him a large and fawning fanbase of women groupies who imagined exciting and exotic romantic situations with Melville the sailor! I am having a hard time adjusting my picture of the man.

My eyeballs are also giving time to The Creative Tarot by Jess Crispin of Bookslut fame. Part of me wants to forget reading everything else and devour this book. I have a collection of tarot cards and have a tattoo of the strength card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck. The book is not about fortune-telling but about using the cards for creative inspiration. I am very much enjoying it.

There are many other books I am in the midst of right now, most of them I’ve had going for quite a while and have mentioned them numerous times. But these are my main squeezes at the moment. Very soon I get a four-day weekend for Easter and I am looking forward to spending the time reading, gardening and cycling with reading top on the list. I am very much looking forward to that. I might even be recovered from the change to Daylight Savings by then too.

Album: Glass Boys
Year: 2014

It’s always tough to write about a song I love this much that’s only been in my life for a couple of years. I don’t have any real perspective on it. Will I love it this much 5, 10, 40 years from now?

Let’s just start with the facts: the first time I heard “Sun Glass” I fell instantly and deeply in love. As it stands, it’s easily one of my top 2 songs of the millennium (just behind “The Swish,” which we will get to soon enough.)

How’s that, Jim? I’ll swear on a stack of Ramones albums that “Sun Glass” is as powerful as “Holidays In the Sun,” as multi-layered as “Complete Control” and as beautiful as “Celebrated Summer.” It’s like Fucked Up somehow synthesized all of my favorite punk rock songs into a single ever-burning fireball.

Starting off with a shimmering acoustic guitar and a feedback swell that almost instantly explodes into the main riff via a Damian Abraham scream, the verses of “Sun Glass” are a dance between Abraham’s hardcore call and (overdubbed) backing vocalist Jonah Falco’s gorgeous response.

Slow motion streaks of colour scream and bloom
(Sun glass!)
Rejuvenations ocean spume perfume
(Sun glass!)
Amber statues, precious baby rubies
(Sun glass!)
Forever sacred diamond eyes look through me
(Sun glass!)

And it’s exactly at this point where an amazing rhythm guitar swoops in from New Day Rising and completely obscures everything else in my mind with its sheer power. Half the times I hear “Sun Glass,” I’m singing “Sun glass!!” and the other half, I’m singing that guitar part.

Either way, I don’t even care if the words of that opening verse aren’t all that coherent. Because with music that sounds like this, who needs coherence?

“Sun Glass” doesn’t really have a chorus, but it does have a bridge that’s is coherence. The music quiets just a tiny bit, and Abraham sings:

We all get replaced
Retconned and upstaged
Life turns a page
When we turn away
The kids aren’t the same
New ways to vibrate
I can’t hear it
I can’t relate
I can’t change again

And as Abraham’s voice nearly falls apart singing “I can’t change again,” he’s rescued by a psychedelic shred guitar and the backing vocals, both of which guide him into the end of the song, and while Abraham was singing “sun glass” at the beginning of the song, he’s now only doing the calls.

(Sacred young)
Feel the sun
(Feel the sun)
Vermillion
(Vermillion)
Avert your gaze
(Avert your gaze)
Be afraid
(Be afraid)
Can’t look away
(Can’t look away)

The coda of “Sun Glass” is equal parts fury and beauty battling battling battling until the whole thing just falls apart into a series of overdubbed echoy drum beats.

In a weird way, that I can still love songs like this in my 50s just goes to show how much my brain was permanently rearranged in my 20s, as I will never ever not be seduced by songs that find this much balance between pure aggression and shameless beauty.

Can wait to find some punk rock song to love this much in my 80s.

Also: I love this video, which captures the essence of the song

Official video for “Sun Glass”

Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.

Check it out!

Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)

Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page

The post Certain Songs #480: Fucked Up – “Sun Glass” appeared first on Booksquare.

Hellboy in Hell marked the return of creator Mike Mignola‘s interior art to the Hellboy Universe. The character has been in Hell since 2012, but the mini-series concludes with issue #10 four years later. EW has reported that Mignola doesn’t have an immediate follow-up to the present day version of the character. Mignola previously revealed […]

It's been an on-off situation but there has been some advancement in re-writing "Old Soldiers." The characters, first introduced in a short story a while ago, caught my imagination and over the years the quartet of senior service veterans have participated in many theatrical scenarios. However - it's always the 'howevers' in life that get you - somehow there has been a lack of direction as to how their story should play out.

The necessity or impetus for turning it into a play was to enter it the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition a few years ago. The undertaking was made even more challenging since the medium of radio requires sound effects to accompany the dialogue, in place of visual movement. It was a challenge and in spite of a successful conversion, the play didn't win or receive recognition. Still, when it's all said and done or written, it was an interesting pursuit but probably something I will pass on in the future.

My philosophy in as far as rejections are concerned is to moan/groan and agonize the reason for them not recognizing genius when they read it, following which to forget about it for a while. This allows time for introspection and objectivity upon re-reading the play in preparation for the editing process.

To this end, some decisions have or are in the process of being made as to the story line. In the original version submitted to the BBC competition, there were physical transitions to various locales, which were plausible given the medium, whereas the story now takes place in one place being the pub or bar for the entire play.

- in the initial short story,  the main character, Joe McKenna had a dog, which has been added in the updated version - so far. The rationale behind including a dog is that as a lonely, elderly and cantankerous service veteran, the dog would be his reason for his existence.
- although most of the original characters remain, a few newcomers are joining the quartet: a food/drink inspector who comes to do a regular inspection of the bar premises, a small group of young punks who take an dislike to the old soldiers, especially Joe

Here is an abbreviated version of the synopsis, which supplies some background on the characters:

"As an ex-army man and soldier, eighty-eight year old Joe McKenna is a man of habit. A widower, he lives in a small apartment with his only companion, a 12 year old dog, Daisy. The aging process is taking its toll physically and emotionally, turning him into a bitter man full of resentment towards society and what he perceives to be life’s injustices. He is a lonely soul with too much time to think about the past and knowing that the future will leave him dependent on the kindness of others.

Yes, it's fiction, but you still need to do your research.

http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2016/02/guest-post-shawn-stout-on-historical.html

Telltale games cemented their place in comics with the release of The Walking Dead: Michonne – A Telltale Miniseries. Set directly in the world of Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book series, the game explores Michonne across a three episode miniseries event. It’s one of the prime examples of how transmedia can add to the cannon of its source material. […]

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is proud to announce the recipients of the 2016 Golden Kite Awards and Sid Fleischman Award.  These awards, which are the only ones of their kind to be judged by a jury of author and illustrator peers, are given for excellence in six genres:  YA Fiction, MG/YR Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Book Text, Picture Book Illustration and Humor (the Sid Fleischman).

“The SCBWI is gratified that the Golden Kite Awards have achieved such high visibility in our community and in the public eye,” SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver stated.  “Our hope is that by recognizing excellence, these books will prosper and live to influence a generation of readers.”

Golden Kite Award Winners

FICTION: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (HarperCollins)

Caden Bosch is on a galleon that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Alternatively, Bosch is a brilliant high school student dealing with schizophrenia…and as fantasy and paranoia begin to take over, his parents have only one choice left.  

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG READER FICTION: The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan (Little, Brown)

Based on the extraordinary true story of America's first-ever female detective, this fast-paced adventure recounts feats of daring and danger, including saving the life of Abraham Lincoln!
 

NONFICTION: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle (Atheneum)

In this poetic memoir, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells the story of growing up as a Cuban-American child, balancing two different cultures during the Cold War. 

PICTURE BOOK ILLUSTRATION: Marvelous Cornelius by John Parra, written by Phil Bildner (Chronicle Books)

In this inspiring book about a real garbage man, John Parra depicts the story of a humble man and the heroic difference he made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

PICTURE BOOK TEXT: Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley (Macmillan)

In this stunning debut, author/illustrator Jessixa Bagley explores the subtle and deep emotions associated with loss in a heartwarming tale about a boy, his mother, and the boats he carves for an absent father. 

SID FLEISCHMAN HUMOR AWARD: Teddy Mars: Almost a World Record Breaker by Molly B. Burnham (HarperCollins)

Told in short sections for young readers, this hilarious new series is about a determined ten-year-old boy from a big family who dreams of making it into The Guinness Book of World Records.

Golden Kite Award Honor Books

FICTION: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (Dial Books)

Seventeen-year-old Minnow Bly has spent her enitre life in a wilderness cult in Montana, until the community is mysteriously burned to the ground. Now in the outside world, she must come to terms with her secrets, her crimes, and the lies she was taught since childhood.

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG READER FICTION: Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow Books)

When Apple's friends turn on her, and life gets weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music in this heartfelt story.

NONFICTION: Mesmerized by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Candlewick)

This rollicking glimpse into a fascinating moment in history shows the early development and practice of the scientific method.

PICTURE BOOK ILLUSTRATION: Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation by Stacy Innerst, written by Peggy Thomas (Calkins Creek)

Thomas Jefferson was more than a president and patriot. He was also a planter and gardener who loved to watch things grow!

PICTURE BOOK TEXT: Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Julie Morstad (Chronicle Books)

An enchanting look at the most famous prima ballerina of all time.

LEE BENNETT HOPKINS POETRY AWARD

The SCBWI is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, a new award that recognizes the publication of an excellent book of poetry or anthology for children and/or young adults. The award is given every three years.

WINNER: Forest Has A Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (Clarion)

Forest Has A Song is a collection of lighthearted, lyrical poems celebrating owls, frogs, woodpeckers, and the other natural voices of the forest. VanDerwater is also the author of Every Day Birds, a book of poetry that introduces children to the birds of North America. You can find out more at amyludwigvanderwater.com.

HONOR BOOKS:

Dear Wandering Wildebeest by Irene Latham (Millbrook)

Dear Wandering Wildebeest features fifteen lively poems about the different species of animals that congregate around a Kenyan watering hole. Latham writes poetry and fiction for both children and adults, including the recent middle grade novel Don’t Feed the Boy. You can find more of her work at irenelatham.com.

Feeding the Flying Fanellis by Kate Hosford (Carolrhoda)

In Feeding the Flying Fanellis: And Other Poems from a Circus Chef, Kate Hosford imagines meals for a whimsical family of jugglers, strongmen, and trapeze artists. She has authored three other picture books, including the award-winning Infinity and Me, which can be found at khosford.com.

The winners were chosen by Lee Bennett Hopkins, renowned poet and anthologist of nearly 200 collections, including Amazing Places and Jumping Off Library Shelves. He holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s most prolific anthologist of poetry for children. To learn more about the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry award, visit: scbwi.org/awards/grants/for-authors/lee-bennett-hopkins-poetry-award.

Before you check out Apples and Robins, an amazing picture book if there ever was one, check out the winner of two Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians author signed books. Each reader who commented was assigned a number, beginning with the first comment posted. (reverse order of there placement). Using Random.org ‘s generator, the …

Comics publishing has hit a bit of a slowdown, as I've noted a few times, and Kickstarter seems to be picking up the slack for a lot of publishers. Comicker's Dave Acampo wrote a piece looking at this is mostly about his own Kickstarter for Comicker, but has some general observations and a pie chart of where the money goes prepared by Comicker publisher Sean Williams:

Fat kid pulls a clever trick over his old man, with wacky results.

The post ‘A Prank Time’ by Jaime Rodriguez appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

With Marvel Studios Civil War just around the corner, Lego Marvel’s Avengers game released their own versions of the characters we’ll see in the film. This add on content is free for fans who own the game. Included in the pack are new versions of Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, […]

Entertainment Weekly unveiled the cover for Liane Moriarty’s upcoming release, TRULY MADLY GUILTY. Moriarty is the author of the bestseller BIG LITTLE LIES which is now in production as a limited series for HBO. TRULY MADLY GUILTY releases on July 26 and this is the tiny snippet we have been given for the plot:

“Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?”

Can’t wait to see how the story unfolds…

In the wake of The Walking Dead‘s on-going (and growing) success, AMC is gearing up for what it hopes is its next big comic book success. Here’s hoping they find it in Preacher, their adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s critically acclaimed DC/Vertigo series. The series pilot is set to debut on Sunday, May […]

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Upstart Crow client Andrew Brumbach over at the Literary Rambles blog, where we discussed the release of his debut novel, THE EYE OF MIDNIGHT the harrowing submissions process, and the joy of getting “the call”. Pop over the blog for the full interview, and do be sure to put THE EYE OF MIDNIGHT on your “to read” list today!

 … [more]

After being interviewed by Esquire prior to the release of the magazine’s Men and Women issue for April 2016, Emma Watson has interviewed Tom Hanks (who features alongside her on the cover) on films, family and feminism.

Starring in The Circle together, Hanks and Watson make a great duo, and their talk about the HeForShe campaign is enlightening and shows just how needed the campaign is.

Emma Watson: Are you a feminist?

Tom Hanks: Yes I am. We are in the Third Millennium. We have thousands of years of human history under our belts. If we are not continuously moving towards equal rights, equal opportunities and equal freedoms for every member of the human race — not just that half that is male — then we have squandered all we have learned.

On  gender equality and listening to women:

“The women I have worked with and those I seek inspiration from have had different perspectives on all there is to have an opinion on in this world, and I have always learned from listening to them. My support of those women and those in my family has been the same as it has for any man or any of my sons.”

On gender binaries, sexuality, love and why inclusivity is so important:

EW: You have been very supportive of same-sex marriage. I spoke a lot in my speech to the UN about the importance of seeing gender on a spectrum instead of as binary, and being inclusive of where everyone fits on that spectrum. Would this be something you would like to speak about? Is there a connection there?

TH: Look at us human beings! Each of our fingerprints is unique. Our eyes are just as varied. Just as no two snowflakes are the same, neither are we. We are as singular as those lines and ridges on our palms and fingers. Our gender is defined the same way. We love who we love, we are passionate for those who stir us. The directions our love takes us in are infinite. Not just two boxes marked EITHER and OR.

On why he supports the HeForShe campaign (aw):

EW: Why did you agree to support the HeForShe campaign by appearing on the cover of Esquire?

TH: I find Emma Watson as fascinating as she is accomplished. Time spent with someone as dedicated and as smart as she is is time well spent. 

The final question related to Emma Watson’s own interview with Esquire, and her answer about unequal treatment of women in the film industry. Hanks gives an eloquent and balanced response:

EW: You are no stranger to working with strong women. One of your most famous films, Big, was directed by Penny Marshall and you starred in A League of Their Own alongside Geena Davis, who founded the Geena Davis Institute to campaign for gender equality in film. But Hollywood is far from equal, on screen and off. Of the top films in 2013, women accounted for only 30 per cent of all speaking characters. Female characters are almost four times as likely as males to be shown in sexy attire in G-rated [family] films. Or look at the Oscars. The LA Times reports that Academy voters are 76 per cent male, 93 per cent white, with an average age of 63. Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. No woman of colour has ever been nominated. Why does this matter?

TH: Because the art form of cinema becomes less of an art, and no longer holds the mirror up to nature when women are reduced to being only hot or nurturing. The great films make us all recognise ourselves up there on the screen, even when the characters are women from a different time and maybe speak a different language. When rules of gender and character dictate what stories are told and by whom, when women are required to be only hot or only nurturing, they no longer are full dimensional humans. That’s not art, and it brings less enlightenment to the world. The economics of motion pictures makes faith in voodoo equal to those in a Vegas casino. Bets on making money are made on hunches, odd rules and track records. “Men have a certain touch with material, you can tell by the T-shirts they wear!” “Women directors play with different instincts because they often have babies!” Outliers come along much more often than are admitted. Television is a different matter. There are more women in starring roles, writing and running shows, and even in executive suites. The movies will catch up…

Read the full interview here, and read Emma Watson’s interview here!

Hi, YABCers! Today we're super excited to celebrate the cover reveal for THE SCOURGE by Jennifer A. Nielsen, releasing August 30, 2016 from Scholastic. Before we get to the cover, here's a note from Jennifer: When you hear a title like, “The Scourge,” I’m guessing your first thought probably isn’t, “I...