How to use this Page

More great reviews of my husband's book, The Dark Dreamweaver have been posted:

Edwyne Rouchelle at curled up with a good kid's book said: " This is storytelling that takes us back to a time when there was real wonder in a fantasy world without the need for science-fiction based contraptions. I will wager that it will keep the young - as well as the young at heart - riveted and spellbound from beginning to end." Read the entire review

Devyn at The Faerie Drink Review said: "With a delightful array of characters The Dark Dreamweaver is a wonderful book for all ages." Read the entire review

The bloggers over at the Parent Bloggers Network have been reviewing The Dark Dreamweaver. Read what they're saying about it so far.

The Dark Dreamweaver is highlighted this week at Reader Views Kids; you can read their interview with author Nick Ruth.

Many thanks to everyone who has reviewed the book. If any bloggers would like a review copy, please email me at [email protected].

As I write, it's Friday afternoon 7/20/2007 and we’re driving through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, heading toward Utah. It’s difficult to write, though, not only because the views are stunning up here at 10,000 feet, but also because the narrow roads are snaking back and forth through the valleys and are making me queasy. More about Colorado in a bit. First, I’ll bring you up to date. Karen helps out—she’s in a different font.

GREEN CHILLI AND GATOS, GATOS, GATOS IN NEW MEXICO

MARK: New Mexico is truly one of my favorite places on earth. I spent a summer in Albuquerque in 1994 and fell in love with adobe houses, pow-wows, green chilli, and the Spanish language. I met Karen the following spring and I think my introduction to the Espanol of New Mexico played a role in my early spark with her – Karen’s family is from Argentina, and from the very beginning I was eager for her to teach me Spanish, which is why I can speak it today.

I think every state has its own unique personality, but in my humble opinion there are probably none so distinct as New Mexico’s. When you’re there, you know it. “The Land of Enchantment” (that’s the state nickname) just looks and feels different from anywhere else.

SANTA FE

KAREN: Santa Fe is beautiful. We spent most of a day walking around the town center. We visited the Georgia O’Keefe museum which was very interesting and gave us a good look into her life and why she loved New Mexico so much. Then went for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Tomasitas, where they were amazingly kind to us. Ignatios Patsalis, the owner/manager, showed us the royal treatment by giving us a tour of the restaurant. He took us into his the kitchen and showed us how they make Sopapillas. (MARK: A sopapilla is kind of a deep fried New Mexican donuty thing that, unfortunately, I can’t get enough of.) KAREN: Here is Ignatios showing us a barrel of red hot chili peppers. (MARK: Unfortunately, Lucy decided to stick her finger in and touch one, prompting Ignatios to have us wash her hand with soap immediately, before any of the spiciness got in her eye and burned her. Ahh, life with Lucy…) KAREN: Yes, even Evan ate the red and green chilies! It was the best Mexican food ever!! Thanks Ignatios and Tamasitas!




GARCIA STREET BOOKS

Santa Fe is the home of Garcia Street Books, a charming independent bookstore just a short walk from the center of historic old Santa Fe. They host quite a few authors. Here I am with bookseller Adam Gates, a recent transplant from the east coast. :-)


OUR FIRST STRING OF HOTELS

So far on our trip, we’ve been fortunate to be able to stay in the houses of generous friends and family on all but one night. In Santa Fe, though, we started a string of evenings where we actually had to spring for hotels. :-( But the good news is that we’ve been running into terrific people wherever we’ve been. Here we are with Vince, Heidi, Nick and Sam Battelo of Redland, CA. We met Vince, Nick, and Sam at the Holiday Inn swimming pool. Nick took this underwater picture of Evan as he jumped into the pool. Way cool! Great to meet you, Battelo Family! :-)


YOUTH HOSTELING, CATS, AND A CHURCH-GOING BIKER GANG IN TAOS, NM

Just outside of Taos (which we loved!) we stayed overnight at a youth hostel called “The Abominable Snow Mansion.” It was warm so we had the window open. All night long a parade of cats kept walking in and out through the window, and I kept getting up to shoo them out. I’m allergic to cats. Lucy loved it, though. She has since said those cats were one of her favorite parts of our trip so far.

Staying with us at the hostel was a fun gang of bikers from the Ft. Worth, Texas area. Here we are with Dwight Wilson, Scott Dishnow, Malcom “The Dukester” Duke, Craig Bearden, Jeff McDonald, and Noel Yandell. They told us they are all from the same Sunday school.


MOBY DICKENS
Taos is the home of the fantastic Moby Dickens bookshop. In addition to having an excellent selection of new books, they also order and research rare and out of print books. Another draw to the store is Ruby the Cat, who appeared at the store’s door in 1995 and has lived there ever since. Ruby apparently has a slew of fans who visit the store just to see her. Here I am with Mary Raskin, Carole Vollmer, Elizabeth Shuler, and Susan Hilliker. I didn’t catch the name of the gorilla. :-)


LIVING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN COSTILLAS, NM

KAREN: On our way from Taos to Denver we stopped by to meet Linda Louden a friend of my cousins Bernie and Liz of NYC. Linda is an artist who dropped everything in her high-flying New York life to move to a one-bedroom white adobe house in Costillas, NM with her dog Daisy. Now in her backyard she has a re-vamped trailer that she converted into a studio. When you walk into her house you feel an immediate sense of tranquility, and she is surrounded by her art and the art of her friends. There is nothing in the town except for a few houses…it made me appreciate Georgia O’Keefe’s reasoning to go into the New Mexico Desert to create art. Here we are with Linda, who gave us osha, a new Mexican root that is rumored to heal just about anything, and some hot cheese & jalapeno bagels. Thanks Linda! You are an inspiration!




UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO

MARK: By two days ago, when we came to Colorado, we’d been traveling for 22 days. We passed the 5,000 mile mark in Denver—which is why I upgraded my total-mileage estimation from 9,000 to 13,000. I think that’s why yesterday we all seemed to crash a little. We were tired. We needed a down-day. We’ve recovered now, but our little dip in energy meant that we didn’t do full justice to Denver. I’m sure it’s a lovely city – and what little that we saw of it (see below) was very nice – but we definitely benefitted from lazing around the hotel room and staring at the boob-tube. All better now. :-)

OBSERVATIONS ON TRAVELING IN THE LEMONADE MOUTH VAN WITH THREE KIDS

A yellow van that says “Lemonade Mouth” in big, bold letters seems to sometimes confuse passers-by. Here’s a guy in Denver who came over to ask if we had any lemonade for sale.


Sorry, overheated Denver guy. No actual lemonade here.

BTW: We’ve christened the car Penelope.

Another thing, we’ve been seeing so many amazing sights for so many days now that I think the kids are starting to get a little jaded. Example from this morning: “Look, Lucy! Have you ever seen such an interesting-looking bridge? I know I never have!” Lucy momentarily glances up from her Barbie laptop and in a bored singsong monotone says, “Whoah. That certainly is an interesting bridge.” Then back to Barbie.

As I type, we’re still driving through the Colorado mountains toward Utah. I’ll ask the kids what was their favorite part of the trip so far and report it here. Here are their answers:

LUCY: When the kittens slept with me. (MARK: That was at the youth hostel in Taos, NM).

ZOE (Note that she and I only speak to each other in Spanish): ?Te acuerdas el caballo mecanico? (MARK: Translation – “Do you remember the mechanical horse?” She’s talking about a horse ride in the center of Taos, one of those rides for little kids where you put a quarter in the slot and the horse rocks back and forth for a minute or so. I wish I’d taken a picture. She really did love it.

EVAN: Burger Beach in Fort Worth. Remember? The big pool with all the diving boards and swings?

Okay, so not exactly the o-beautiful-for-spacious-skies answers Karen and I were hoping for. Still, I know that they really have enjoyed themselves so far. We all have. And they’ll always remember this long road-trip discovering America with their family. At least that’s what Karen and I keep telling ourselves. :-)

THE TATTERED COVER

No book-lover's trip to Denver would be complete without a pilgrimage to The Tattered Cover. It's the second largest independent bookstore in the country. And it is huge. Sidney Jackson and Judy Bulow and met us and showed us around. Their Colfax Street location is in an old building that used to be a theater, and it still has the curtain, the lobby, the orchestra pit, etc. It’s way cool. Here I am with Sidney. Thanks, Tattered Cover!

THE BOOKIES

The Bookies is a smaller but absolutely amazing bookstore away from the center of town. They specialize in books for kids and also teacher resources. Karen is a high school Spanish teacher, so she immediately got absorbed by the Spanish teaching resources and ended up buying a pile of loot. Here I am with Suzi Fischer, Vicki Hellman, and Mary Lou Steenrod. Such nice people!


HOTEL FROM HELL
Our hotel in Denver wasn’t that great. It was cramped, one of the beds actually broke when we sat down on it, and the TV didn’t work very well. Then as a final farewell just as we left, the toilet overflowed and ran out all over the floor. Lovely.

Goodbye, gushing toilet from the Hotel from Hell! :-)

THE BOULDER BOOKSTORE

This morning we went to The Boulder Bookstore, another big independent that makes you want to lose yourself in its many comfy, shelf-lined rooms. Arsen Kashkashian met us and was very kind. Tonight is the big release-party for Harry Potter 7, and the Boulder Bookstore is having live owls, an actual wizard, and a lot of other fun stuff including this gigantic papier mache sorting hat!



TAJIKISTANI TEA WITH LUCY

While Evan, Zoe, and I went to fetch the car from our distant parking spot, Karen and Lucy had tea at The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, which is a big ‘ol fancy Tajikistani tea room in the middle of Boulder. Apparently the barista, Rama Kho, did magic tricks with Lucy and gave her a complimentary hibiscus flower tea.


TROUBADOR BOOKS
Troubador Books is a lovely independent bookstore outside of the center of Boulder. It specializes in new books and books on performing arts. Deb Evans and Julie Leonard really went out of their way for us, including providing lemonade and helping us figure out our route to Utah. It’s amazing how friendly booksellers can be! Here I am with Deb and Julie. Thanks, guys! :-)


HERE AND NOW

As I type, it’s 6:42 PM and we just got out of a lengthy traffic jam on Route 70 heading toward Grand Junction, CO. I took this photo of the Starbucks in the mountains because it seems very Colorado: half coffee-place, half camping store.


Next stop, Utah!

--Mark
LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Today, guest blogger Nick Ruth checks in with a review of Three Grin Salad, which was written by Aja King when she was ten years old.

Title: Three Grin Salad: A Kid’s Recipe for a Happy and Healthy Life
Author: Aja King
Illustrator: Lisa Taron
ISBN10: 0-9780710-1-8
Publisher: ICAN Press
Website: www.threegrinsalad.com


A musical group named Crosby, Still, Nash & Young used beautiful harmonies over 35 years ago, pleading that we “teach our children well.” Whitney Houston echoed that theme 15 years later asking that we “teach them well and let them lead the way.” Aja King’s parents obviously believe that “children are our future” as reflected in their 10-year old daughter’s first book, “Three Grin Salad,” which lays out a path to health and happiness in a way that can only be seen through a child’s eyes.

I will gladly admit that I found myself smiling as I read “Three Grin Salad.” No one likes a lecture, and Aja wisely keeps the focus on herself as she lays out the benefits of healthy eating and exercise accompanied by Lisa Taron’s colorful illustrations. I thought about spitting out my Twinkie® as I read her observation that if something in your food has a name so long you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t eat it.

“Three Grin Salad” was an “Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist” and I can certainly see why. Aja sprinkles the text with whimsical recipes for growing up healthy and happy, including the recipe for the book title. These little recipes serve as nice breakpoints for each chapter, and I liked the fact that at the end of the book Aja includes thought-provoking questions and space to write your own answers as she “leads the way” with her words.

But all is not peaches and cream in the observations of a child. We all know exercise and good eating go hand in hand and it’s great to see a child take that lesson to heart and want to spread the word, but in some places I find that Aja" seems to have trouble believing what she is enthusiastically teaching. When she asks, "What makes fast foods taste so good? I can’t help but imagine that she isn’t craving some french fries as she picks at her salad, and I would respectfully disagree that children who enjoy computer time should give it up for outdoor activities. My son is about Aja’s age and has his fingers glued to a keyboard a lot of the time but he still likes to ride bikes, climb trees and scale rock walls. No single recipe can please every palate.

I can’t forget to mention the “Three Grin Salad” theme song, which can be found on her website www.threegrinsalad.com. A great little marketing gimmick that I think more books should explore. It’s one more way to put a grin on your face and get your toes-a-tappin’.

Aja’s book is a great introduction to good eating and exercise that will get your kids thinking about what they put in their bodies, how it affects them, and how they can make better choices. It’s amusing and instructive, and it’s hard to bring those two things together in one book. Aja has done it. Check it out.

With only about 2-1/2 weeks to go until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, excitement is building and speculation is rampant. While waiting for Harry Potter, you may want to read one or more of the plethora of books offering analysis, commentary, and predictions about the Harry Potter series.
Today, guest blogger Nick Ruth discusses two such books:

Title: MuggleNet.Com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End
Authors: Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull, Jamie Lawrence with Laura Thompson
ISBN10: 1-56975-583-3
ISBN13: 978-1-56975-583-9
LOC: 2006907934
Publisher: Ulysses Press

Title: The End of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries That Remain
Author: David Langford
ISBN10: 0-765-31934-9
ISBN13: 978-0-765-31934-0
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC (TOR)

There are many ways to identify a classic work of literature such as bestseller lists, awards, Amazon.com ranking, and blogworthiness and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series certainly measures up in all these areas. How many books actually beget hundreds of other books whose sole purpose is to treat the source material like sacred texts, examining every word and scene for hidden meanings and deep philosophical underpinnings? The members of that group would be very small but I think Harry Potter fits in very nicely with the likes of the Bible and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and while the first six books generated plenty of high flying discussions, it is the 7th book titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that has kicked in the literary afterburners.

How does a fan of the series prepare for the sure to be exciting conclusion? A real fan rereads the first 6 books ( over 2800 pages) timing the last book so that the last page is read while standing in line at midnight on July 21st, 2007 when book 7 is unveiled. The two books above (410 pages) invoke their own divination spells to save the reader the heavy lifting and summarize the main plot points, while attempting to mind meld with J.K. Rowling and guess how the story will conclude. MuggleNet’s What Will Happen (WWH) and The End of Harry Potter (EHP) are literary detective novels, and while there are some similarities in their conclusions, the paths they follow are very different.

The first thing that struck me when reading these books was the tremendous amount of planning that J.K. Rowling has put into her plot, and the second thing that struck me was the tremendous amount of effort that has been expended trying to unravel those plans by WWH and EHP. Every plot point raises dozens of questions. Did Snape kill Dumbledore on the tower? Was it really Dumbledore? Is Dumbledore one of the living dead? Why does the killing curse fling Dumbledore off of the tower? Both books explore these questions and so much more that I have begun to wonder how J.K. Rowling keeps it all straight in her mind.

The MuggleNet team has been at this game for many years and puts together all the clues in a very easy to read book that lives up to its title. The authors examine each of the major characters in the series and most of the minor ones and provide all the major clues to support their theories on what will happen to them in Book 7. Who will live and who will die? It’s all here but it’s almost maddening as you read this book to make a decision for yourself. I found myself nodding my head in agreement as the book argued for a particular point of view, and then found myself nodding again as it argued the opposite point of view. The book argues that there are no easy answers and that J.K. Rowling wants the reader to walk the halls of Hogwarts with Harry Potter. I think I’m ready for Book 7.

The End of Harry Potter is a little bit more puzzling to read as it doesn’t seem very interested in how the series will end. David Langford takes a much broader view of the Harry Potter universe and examines the clues as literary devices. EHP was not as enjoyable to read, and although the author tries hard to keep the prose light and funny, I found myself skimming through it looking for interesting insights. EHP touches on many of the same areas as WWH like Horcruxes, curses and patronuses but it’s a struggle to read when you’re dealing with chapter subtitles like ‘The Wonder of Onomastics’ or ‘Infodumps and McGuffins’.

Both of these books will prime the reader for Book 7 and both of them will make you want to read the whole series again, but to my mind the MuggleNet book is the is the one to get and it will be a lot of fun to compare the predictions with the true outcome when the Deathly Hallows ties up all the loose ends. My predictions: A great read and Voldemort dies.

I just wanted to share a couple of items of news about my husband's book, The Dark Dreamweaver:

• My son David created a Dark Dreamweaver calendar at Zazzle.com, using images from the book that he had colorized using Paint Shop Pro. We got an email today that his calendar was selected by Zazzle.com as one of "Today's Best!" The calendar appears on the home page for today, and after that it will stay in their "Today's Best" gallery. There's even a cool little award ribbon that appears on the product page. Click here to see the calendar.
  
• Aja King at Reader Views gave The Dark Dreamweaver a great review! Aja said, "If author Nick Ruth wanted to keep me up at night and have me spend every available moment with my nose stuck in his amazing book, “The Dark Dreamweaver,” he totally succeeded!" Read Aja's review here. 11-year-old Aja is also an author; her book is Three Grin Salad.
  
• Now you can get The Dark Dreamweaver as an ebook for free! It's available as a free, advertising supported download from Wowio.com. (If you were at BEA, they were the people on Segways outside the Javits center). Click here to download The Dark Dreamweaver.
  

Two great reviews of my husband's book, The Dark Dreamweaver, have been posted during the last week:

• Carrie Spellman reviewed it for TeensReadToo. Carrie gave it five stars and called it "A great fantastic adventure that seamlessly weaves a good story in with important lessons." Read the review here.
  
• S.M.Duke reviewed it on his blog, The World in the Satin Bag (which is also the name of his YA fantasy blog novel, which can be read on his blog). Mr. Duke called it, "...a powerfully driven tale with swift and well drawn action, interesting puzzles, and a well paced plot." Read the review here.