The glass pendant is a round shape 1″ in diameter.

Handmade and signed in the back.
Comes in a cute little yellow gift box.

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This spaceman is out on the loose with his ray gun.
Glass square tile is measured 1″ x 1″, 25.4mmm
Adjustable silver band for small to medium sized fingers attached firmly to base with resin.

Comes in a cute little yellow gift box

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The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister
By Charlotte Agnell
middle grade
(151 pp with some b/w illustration)

I won the advance arc for this book on Sarah Laurence's website and eagerly awaited its arrival. My youngest daughter is a serious Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody, Flat Stanley, Geronimo Stilton, you-name-the-series-she'll-read-it kind of kid. I wondered if India would fit the bill.

She more than lived up to my expectations. One of my pet peeves with series books these days is the flatness to the characters. This is not to say they don't have their own quirks, but rather, that they all seem to come from the same amorphous, fictitious middle America neighborhood. It's a great marketing ploy, but gets a little boring after a while, at least for me.

Which is what drew me into this book immediately. India is a adopted from China. Her parents are divorced. Her dad is gay and in a relationship with another man. Her mom is a self-sufficient artist (that really sealed the deal). India lives in a real place, Wolfgang, Maine. It is not middle America. It is a little town with a forest where you can get lost! There is so much texture to this story and its characters. The adventures India has are regular kid adventures. She has a boy who is her friend but not her boyfriend, Colby. He has a crush on a girl India cannot stand. India and Colby sleep out in a field to watch for UFOs. India spends time with her elderly neighbor next door. And all around these adventures is the enticing flavors of real setting, modern day family, and real life.

Go India!

Add to that the gentle illustrations with which Agnell enlivens the pages, and it's a winning combination. I cannot wait to read more.

For more adventurous tales, hop over to our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's blog!

On a tangentially related note, I got to see the inside illustrations for my upcoming picture book, ROPE 'EM, that comes out in March 2011 with Kane Miller. Gorgeous (author swoons).

I'm in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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They knew they were lost.  On December 12,  2008,  the man and wife took a wrong turn just a little past Norman, Oklahoma.  They found Highway 9, which would take them back to Highway 44, and as they drove along, the wife saw something in the sky.  She pointed it out to her husband, who saw an object with white and orange lights.

The man stopped the car to get a better look.  He saw that the object was triangle-shaped, with an orange light at each point and a blue-white light in the center.  A military helicopter was flying between the UFO and the witnesses.  Then the couple saw another object: Appearing and disappearing, there were six round, orange objects on the horizon.

The husband looked at  his watch and realized that he and his wife had lost 48 minutes of time.  Had they been abducted aboard the triangle?

Here is another encounter with a triangle UFO that happened back in 2000 in Illinois.  On the night of January 5,  Melvin Knoll drove to his miniature golf course to make sure everything was okay.  When he got there, Knoll saw what he thought was a bright star on the horizon.  However, when it started getting closer, he knew it was something else.

Knoll guessed the triangle shaped object to be twenty feet high and as long as a football field.  He drove quickly to the Highland Police Department to report what he had seen and to get another witness.  A Lebanon, Illinois, policeman spotted a bright object that was hovering in mid air at about 4:15 AM.  Officer Craig A. Stevens of the Millstadt Police corroborated this sighting.

During the week ahead,  Millstadt was getting as many as twenty reports per day.  People in Dupo, Shiloh and Lebanon were also seeing UFOs.  The objects over Illinois have never been explained and have been the subject of several TV documentaries.

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They knew they were lost.  On December 12,  2008,  the man and wife took a wrong turn just a little past Norman, Oklahoma.  They found Highway 9, which would take them back to Highway 44, and as they drove along, the wife saw something in the sky.  She pointed it out to her husband, who saw an object with white and orange lights.

The man stopped the car to get a better look.  He saw that the object was triangle-shaped, with an orange light at each point and a blue-white light in the center.  A military helicopter was flying between the UFO and the witnesses.  Then the couple saw another object: Appearing and disappearing, there were six round, orange objects on the horizon.

The husband looked at  his watch and realized that he and his wife had lost 48 minutes of time.  Had they been abducted aboard the triangle?

Here is another encounter with a triangle UFO that happened back in 2000 in Illinois.  On the night of January 5,  Melvin Knoll drove to his miniature golf course to make sure everything was okay.  When he got there, Knoll saw what he thought was a bright star on the horizon.  However, when it started getting closer, he knew it was something else.

Knoll guessed the triangle shaped object to be twenty feet high and as long as a football field.  He drove quickly to the Highland Police Department to report what he had seen and to get another witness.  A Lebanon, Illinois, policeman spotted a bright object that was hovering in mid air at about 4:15 AM.  Officer Craig A. Stevens of the Millstadt Police corroborated this sighting.

During the week ahead,  Millstadt was getting as many as twenty reports per day.  People in Dupo, Shiloh and Lebanon were also seeing UFOs.  The objects over Illinois have never been explained and have been the subject of several TV documentaries.

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Be sure to check out the final entry in our 2007 Winter Blog Blast Tour: Blake Nelson at The Ya Ya Yas.

Here's a bit from Blake's bio on his web site:

How did you know you could make a living as a writer?

I didn't. I just hoped for the best. My dad convinced me to go to Law School when I first graduated from college and I was going to do it--for about an hour. Then I went back to being my weirdo self and writing goth songs on a two string guitar. I mean, if you're a freak, you're a freak and you gotta do what freaks do.

I love this guy.

Also Sherry Early of Semicolon emailed to let me know that she has an interview with JB Cheaney up at her blog. Here's a bit:

I was introduced to Shakespeare in my backyard, age 10. The best way to meet him is NOT by reading him, which can be deadly–the plays were meant to be performed. My sister and I used to put on a play for our birthday party every year (we’re four years apart, but born in the same month), and that year she decided we’d do a version of Julius Caesar. We wrote our own, relying heavily on Richard Armour’s Twisted Tales From Shakespeare (Armor was a humorist popular at the time), but also using a lot of lines directly from the play. The experience gave me a certain chumminess with Shakespeare I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

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Probably the highest compliment I can pay a nonfiction book for children is that while it sat on my dining room table every adult who entered the room casually paged through it and quickly became fascinated by the story. Author Loree Griffin Burns' entry in the Houghton Mifflin Scientists in the Field series is an amazing look at pollution in the world's oceans. The amount of research she conducted for this book is awesome but more impressively the way she shares the work of the scientists she spoke with is a lesson in how to make science writing both scholarly and engaging. Tracking Trash is the perfect jumping off point for anyone - of any age - with an interest in marine science and global pollution. It will raise numerous questions about how we live and what happens to the many things we discard and in case you think I'm being melodramatic, consider that there is an enormous floating garbage patch that is twice the size of Texas floating around in the Pacific between Hawaii and San Francisco. I found this fact to be appalling and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the reality of its existence.

Loree had a lot to say about the Garbage Patch, ghost nets and thousands of lost rubber duckies and sneakers. She is a sharply smart writer and a fascinating author interview. I enjoyed her book thoroughly and look forward to reading the many other projects she is working on in the future. Now here's the interview:

How did you come to write a book on this specific subject? On all the marine bio subjects out there, trash is not the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about the oceans. How did you decide to write about it?

I learned about Curt Ebbesmeyer and his quirky research program from a newspaper article in spring 2003. The story blew me away: a shipment of 28,000 plastic tub toys had fallen into the Pacific Ocean in 1992 and scientist were now expecting some of them to wash ashore in New England. This astounded me. Who knew plastic ducks would float in the ocean that long? What route did they follow into the Atlantic? How was it that scientists knew precisely when to expect them in New England? And why, pray tell, were scientists interested in the ducks at all? I was intensely curious, and did a little research …

My original instinct was to write a picture book. The drama of a shipping accident, the silliness of the tub toys, a grown man whose job was to chase toys around the ocean … it seemed a perfect combination to share with very young readers in picture book format. (As it turns out, Eve Bunting and David Wisniewski had already done that in Ducky, published by Clarion in 1997.) The more I learned about Curt and his work, however, the more I leaned toward a format that would allow me to really delve into the science. Curt’s work is the perfect example of how science can be quirky and fun and solid all at the same time … older readers (um, anyone over the age of ten!) are a great audience for this message.

I remember that article on Curt and the ducks - I think I read it on the internet (which wouldn't be surprising). And living here on the Pacific Coast just north of WA, this kind of news shows up from time to time in the newspapers. After you decided to write about him was it your general research that led you to the other subjects like the garbage patch and ghost nets? And how did you find the right people to talk to on these subjects? I'm curious as to how you came to meet them - and what they thought of participating in a science book for children.

I read about Charlie Moore’s work (he and his colleagues are the ones out in the middle of the Pacific quantifying how much trash is in the Garbage Patch) in Beachcombers’ Alert!, a newsletter that Curt Ebbesmeyer puts out quarterly. I came across the other scientists, believe it or not, on NPR. I blogged about this fortuitous development here.

As to how they felt about contributing to a book for children, to a person the scientists in Tracking Trash were marvelously supportive. Each of them took time away from busy schedules and important work to help me understand what they were doing and what their work meant—and what it didn’t mean. They got that the science needed to be solid and could not (would not!) be “dumbed down”. I love that!

I learned a crazy amount from this book - in fact it was on our dining room table and my husband ending up reading it over breakfast one morning and then started telling everyone he knew about the big floating garbage patch. He was blown away (we are still blown away). What part of the book surprised you the most during research? What made you really stop and think?

To be honest, the environmental part of this story snuck up on me. I was still very focused on the science of ocean currents the first time I interviewed Curt. At some point during that interview I asked him how many containers fall off of cargo ships each year, and his answer shocked me: between one thousand and ten thousand. Ten thousand! That was the moment I began to wonder how much trash was actually in the ocean, and the direction of my research changed dramatically.

You met so many fascinating and committed people while writing this book. Whose research really piqued your curiosity and inspired you to learn more?

Honestly? Every one of them. What inspires me most is people of passion … and each scientist I profile in Tracking Trash — Curt Ebbesmeyer, Jim Ingraham, Charles Moore, Jim Churnside, Tim Veenstra, and Mary Donohue — is passionate about the ocean. That collective passion fueled the entire project, and I still feed off it today.

How do you feel about science books for young people? Do you think enough of them are written and subjects that appeal to teens and younger? What other subjects would you like to write about for this age group?

I am quite fond of science books for young people (surprise, surprise!). Are there enough of them written on subjects that appeal to teens and younger audiences? This is hard to answer. But I do think that books in this genre need to do more than just appeal to readers … they need to engage readers in the scientific method, too. My favorite science books for young readers do this in incredibly creative ways: The Boy Who Drew Birds, by Jacqueline Davies and Melissa Sweet; Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian, Snowflake Bentley; The “Giants of Science” biographies by Kathleen Krull.

My works-in-progress are all on science topics. I am writing about a man who spent the last forty years of his life watching insects in his backyard and performing simple experiments to understand the behaviors he observed. I’m also working on a book that explores the odd creatures scientists use in the laboratory (microscopic worms and fruit flies, among others) and another that profiles the dream team of scientists who are frantically trying to figure out what is killing our nation’s honey bees. Fun stuff!

How long does it take a book like this to be written and what kind of travel did you do? It reads as something effortless, but it's clear that you must have traveled to a lot of different places to meet people and witness their work first hand. How much of a project was Tracking Trash and how personally invested in it did you become?

Effortless? How I would love to tell you writing this book was effortless, Colleen. The truth is that bringing Tracking Trash into the world was one of the most intense, gratifying, and terrifying experiences of my life!

I submitted my proposal to Houghton Mifflin in June 2004 and was offered a contract—my first—in August. I had estimated it would take me six months to write the book, but since Tracking Trash was going to be part of an existing series (Scientists in the Field), it was assigned the next available publishing slot … Spring 2007. At first I was disappointed at what I thought would be an overly long timeline. But when my single research trip grew into three trips, and the realities of photographic research and editorial exchange finally dawned on me, I was oh-so-glad to have that extra time.

It was impossible for me not to become personally invested in Tracking Trash. I began the project because of my own interest and passion for the story, and I have spent the past year bringing it into classrooms for the very same reasons. I am constantly amazed at how completely students of all ages get the environmental issues at play in the book, and it is a joy to share with them the things I have learned about protecting the ocean. My entire family has become involved in The Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (we are running a cleanup event in Massachusetts next weekend!), and this involvement is a direct result of having worked on this book.

From your book I know you have a PhD, but the author info states it is from Univ of Mass Med School (I'd just like to interject here "Go Red Sox"!). Do you have a general science background and is that why you are drawn to writing on such a variety of scientific subjects (from Tracking Trash to your works in progress)? What do you think a science writer needs to know to write books for kids?

Oh, I love my Red Sox. Especially this time of year and especially when we get to this time of year and my boys are behaving themselves!

My background is in biochemistry and molecular biology, of all things. Every bit of my research was done inside a laboratory, much of it with single-celled yeasts. (I’ve got a book planned about them. They are super-interesting and useful buggers, you know!) While I enjoyed doing basic bench science, I struggled with the intensity of focus required. That is, I knew an incredible amount about a very small subject (the regulation of gene expression in yeast cells) … and there was not much time left over for exploring the fascinating science going on in other areas. And I was always drawn to other people’s fascinating science.

And, so, I did some freelance work in my free time (my graduate advisor thought I was a nut!) for the public affairs office, interviewing scientists at the university and writing about their work for a lay audience. In hindsight, this was the beginning of my move away from focused research and toward a broader mission of exploring (and sometimes explaining) science for a general audience.

What do science writers need to know to write books for kids? I think meeting kids where they are is important. This does not mean “dumbing down” content, it means making the content, the science, relevant to their lives.

You mentioned going to classrooms - what has the response from students been to Tracking Trash? What parts of the book seem to capture their attention the most?

I’ve had good response from kids as young as Kindergarten and as old as eighth grade. The part of the book that grabs their attention is the same part that seems to grab adults: the Garbage Patch. The kids hate the very idea of it, and most want to do something about it. I always leave schools humbled and pleased with the environmental ethic that seems natural to this generation of kids. The hard part (and this is not just hard for kids, it is hard for ME, too) is making the connection between what outrages us about Tracking Trash and the very difficult lifestyle changes that will be required for us, as a world community, to correct those problems.

You can read more about Loree's work at her site and also see a recent article on a possible clean-up of the Garbage Patch in the SF Gate.

[Post pic credit to "Courtesy NOAA Fisheries" - and the little guy is a Monk Seal!]

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Here's you Friday Winter Blog Blast Tour schedule:

Loree Griffin Burns at Chasing Ray: "At some point during that interview I asked him how many containers fall off of cargo ships each year, and his answer shocked me: between one thousand and ten thousand. Ten thousand! That was the moment I began to wonder how much trash was actually in the ocean, and the direction of my research changed dramatically."

Lily Archer at The Ya Ya Yas

Rick Riordan at Jen Robinson's Book Page: "I was a very reluctant reader until I hit middle school. I remember other kids being excited about reading incentive programs in elementary school, like 'read twenty books and get a gold sticker!' That just left me cold. I liked comic books and looking at photos in nonfiction books, but the idea of reading a novel was just too daunting. I would get bored easily. Nothing grabbed me. In middle school, I discovered the Lord of the Rings, and that was the first thing that I read for pleasure, but I couldn't find anything else as good."

Gabrielle Zevin at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Dia Calhoun at lectitans
Shannon Hale at Miss Erin
Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple at Shaken & Stirred

Alan Gratz at Interactive Reader: "That said, (ahem) the voice I developed for Horatio was a deliberate homage to noir fiction, particularly Raymond Chandler. I know teenagers don’t really talk like that and act like that. My intention was never to write an “authentic” teenage voice for Horatio. Horatio talks and acts like I wished I had when I was a teen. He always has the right snarky comment at the right time, and he always knows what to do when the blank verse hits the fan. In my defense I called Something Rotten “aspirational fiction,” because we all aspire to be that cool, even though we know it’s impossible. Horatio is as impossible as Philip Marlowe, or James Bond, or Veronica Mars. Could any teen ever be as cool and smart and confident as Veronica Mars? We only wish."

Lisa Yee at Hip Writer Mama

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David Mack enjoys an enormous amount of popularity (with dare I say a cult following?) in the comics industry. He is best known for Kabuki, his long running series of stories about a female operative, Kabuki, who works for the Noh, an organization that polices business, politics and organized crime in Japan. There's a lot of intrigue, kicking butt and double dealing in her world and in the current series, Kabuki: The Alchemy, our heroine has left the Noh behind to try and find a new life, and the truth about her herself and her old life, while hiding out in America.

Along with the Kabuki books, David has also worked on Daredevil and did all the cover illustrations for the amazing series, Alias. (Do not confuse this with the tv show! It's about Jessica Jones, formerly a superhero who had a horrific run-in with one of the bad guys and left the cape world behind to become a private detective. It's not about super powers at all and it was so deeply and thoughtfully written by Brian Michael Bendis that I was blown away by each and every issue. So of course it got canceled. (Of course!) Seek out the trade collections on this one; you won't be disappointed.) For a full list of all the many many titles David has worked out, check out his amazing site, David Mack Guide.

In Issue #3 of Kabuki: The Alchemy, David included the entire text of a children's book, The Shy Creatures, that Kabuki recalls from her childhood. That book was released this Fall and is a charming story about a little girl who is dreadfully shy but hopes one day to help all the mythological and legendary creatures of the world when they get in trouble and need a friend. I reviewed it last month and just loved it. It's both sweet and funny and with all the creatures involved will appeal equally to boys and girls. I'm concerned though that even though David is well known in the comics world, that librarians and booksellers might not know him and thus might pass The Shy Creatures by. I very much wanted to include him in the WBBT so I could help spread the word about his latest endeavor and also find out just how he went about working his picture book into Kabuki. Here's what he had to say on all that, plus Alice in Wonderland, drawing in comics versus picture books and how he came to include the Pushmi-pullyu and Cyclops in the same story:

Thank you so much for participating in the Winter Blog Blast Tour. I have been a reader of the Kabuki series for years, and am also a fan of your work on Daredevil and the late lamented Alias (still one of my all time favorite characters and she doesn't get nearly enough coverage in New Avengers!). I'm very much looking forward to learning more about how you came to write your new picture book after so much work in the comics field.

I wondered if you could explain what came first, The Shy Creatures or the inclusion of a picture book in the Kabuki storyline.

The inclusion of picture books in the Kabuki storyline came first. The Kabuki volumes have always had children’s literature as a theme that runs through them. The first volume is a retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Each of the characters in the story matches to a character in Carroll’s world and each corresponds to a piece on the chess board.

I had created another picture book that became a book within the story as well called My Invisible Friend. The Shy Creatures continued with these themes. The book within a book motif gives me a way to show a whimsical kid’s perspective of how to read the surface
themes of the story.

Did you know that you were going to integrate a book into the much larger Kabuki story or did it evolve as you were already writing the picture book that you wanted to include it in Kabuki?

I planned for the current Kabuki story to include children’s books inside it; inside the context of the story. I wrote The Shy Creatures as a part of the script. I wrote it when I wrote the current KABUKI: The Alchemy storyline. I just wrote it as a piece of the 3rd chapter of the larger story. But once I wrote it, I realized that it could stand on its own as well as a real life artifact of the story.

I thought it was interesting that you included all of The Shy Creatures in issue #3. Were you worried that your adult readership might not enjoy that - or did its relevance to Kabuki's new path dovetail perfectly with the story you wanted to write?

I never worried that the adult readership would not enjoy it. Adults read kids’ books too and appreciate them if they are done well. The trick was to tell it well. And to make it work on its own, and in the context of the larger story.

It is about imagination, and it is about helping outsiders in a way that is complimentary to their uniqueness. And most of all, it is about connecting all of those unique characters together, so they have their own sense of belonging and culture. All three of those things were what the surface story of that issue of Kabuki was really about, and I thought The Shy Creatures could clue readers into that in a charming and whimsical way; to continue the childlike sense of wonder in what is happening in the adult world of the story; the discovery, and imagination, and excitement about this network of interesting characters that is not easily catagorizable and exists outside the cookie cutter template.

As I read The Shy Creatures I couldn't help but notice a whimsical style that seems to echo the work of Dr. Seuss. Was he an influence?

I wanted to use a very simple and spontaneous style for The Shy Creatures. I needed the book within a book to contrast in tone to the story outside of the book which was often painted with watercolors and used collage. So I drew The Shy Creatures in a very whimsical quick style using a brush and ink. And I wanted it to kind of continue where my memory of kids books left off, which was in the Seussian age.

How hard was it to change your style so very much from that you are known for? I'll be honest - I never expected to see The Shy Creatures as it turned out. I was expecting more of a collage-type work. Did you purposely try to distance yourself from what you have done in the past?

I tend to do each book that I write and draw in a different visual style and story tone. I enjoy cultivating a new art style for each project. So I tend to invent a new look for each volume of Kabuki and I tend to use different mediums and a different rhythm for each.

I start with the story first. And then I ask myself what will be the best visual look to most powerfully communicate that particular story. So it is all story oriented. The art becomes another tool of the writing, in that I have a varied arsenal to choose from. And I enjoy inventing a new look for each comic book project that I work on.

I was also surprised by some of the mythical creatures you chose. Bigfoot, the Unicorn, the Loch Ness Monster - all of them are mythical creatures that most children would expect to have some knowledge of. But Cyclops and the Chupacabra? And including both aliens and the Pushmi-pullyu? This is not a group that the average writer would bring together.

How did you decide what creatures to include and where did you learn about them? How did you decide to present them (the Dragon seems to harken back to Asian studies of the animal depicting great power and strength while the Loch Ness monster is extremely harmless by appearing in a bathtub) the way that you did?

I’m glad to hear that it surprised you! And that it seemed beyond average! That is great to hear. Hopefully that means it worked. I enjoyed pulling from a very international selection. The creatures all come from a variety of cultures and a variety of myths, some ancient, and others more modern, and others from literature old and new.

I was very interested in all of these creatures as a child. I used to read books from the library about Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, aliens, and later the Chupacabra. I enjoyed bringing these more modern legends to the book to mix with the Greek and Chinese myths.

Finally, what are you thoughts on writing a picture book for children versus a comic book for adults? Is one easier or more relaxing to do than the other? Was there anything you learned about writing and illustrating a picture book that surprised you after so many years in comics?

Writing and drawing a children’s picture book is actually very relaxing and enjoyable. Doing a comic book is far more labor intensive. Comic books take much more time to do. I love the more concentrated and spontaneous approach of the kids book. There are far less words and images in the kids picture book, so you have to make your words very concentrated and distilled. It is much more about what you leave out.

In comic books, the reader is filling in what is happening between each panel. And you have lots of panels. So in a kid’s picture book, there are no panels, so you have to find a way to still leave much to the reader’s imagination in other ways. Much of that is by the distillation of words, and simplicity of drawings.

I love both mediums and I will continue to do both!

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Sorry about the delay on direct links to the Wednesday entries - general business and birthday wonderfulness kept me from the computer. I will likely be delayed on Thursday links as well as I'm off to Seattle. Should all be caught up by Friday though! As for why it is a Sherman Alexie quote that headlines this post (again) that is because the more I read about him and by him the more I love him. The guy is just cool, and coolness must be spread far and wide in these days of global insanity. Go read more Alexie at Jackie's post today.

And now, here is your Thursday Winter Blog Blast Schedule:

David Mack at Chasing Ray: "The Kabuki volumes have always had children’s literature as a theme that runs through them. The first volume is a retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Each of the characters in the story matches to a character in Carroll’s world and each corresponds to a piece on the chess board."

Paul Volponi at The Ya Ya Yas
Elizabeth Knox at Shaken & Stirred
Ellen Emerson White at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy

Jack Gantos at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: "The Jack Henry stories are based on my life. I kept journals when I was young and wrote down the odds and ends of my days. I never threw my journals away, or lost them, and years later I pulled them off my shelf and reread them. Then I plucked out all the incidents and themes and characters and emotions which seemed to define my life and rewrote them."

David Levithan at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Micol Ostow at Bildungsroman
Laura Amy Schlitz at Miss Erin

Kerry Madden at Hip Writer Mama: "I guess I want my own front porch. When I was stung by yellow jackets last summer in North Carolina, I was in pain but trying to mask it, and the woman at the Stop & Go who sold me Benedryl said, "Bless your heart." I almost burst into tears."

Sherman Alexie at Interactive Reader: "The simplest answer is this: the two funniest groups of people I've ever been around are Indians and Jews. And so there must be some inherent connection between genocide and humor. I haven't spent a lot of time around other genocided peoples, but I assume they're funny, too."

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I discovered Christopher Barzak's work earlier this year when reading the Small Beer press anthology Interfictions. "What Happened to the Lost Families of ___ House" really and truly blew my mind. As I wrote in a post at the time, I was struggling a bit with my writing and Chris pretty much blew me right back into action. Since that first story I have sought out more of his work, most of which can be summarized in a post I wrote that celebrated the release of his first novel, One For Sorrow.

I think what makes Chris' work unique is the poignancy he brings to his stories; his characters have a lot of heart and seem to embrace the worries (and sorrows) of part of the world. They feel much - in both good and sad ways. The happily ever after part of these worlds might not be what a reader hopes for, but it is always what the story demands. Chris's work has a lot of emotional integrity and has never failed to touch me in some way.

I was really pleased that Chris was willing to chat a bit about his novel and some of his stories. I hope that readers who might not be familiar with his work will seek it out - especially those who are looking for something that will appeal to teen audiences. I think high school students will find much in the work of Chris Barzak that appeals to them - that speaks to them - and should know that he is out there, and has so much good writing to offer. Now on to the interview!

I read your post about the inspiration for Sorrow with great interest. I wondered when I was reading it if there had been a news story that had inspired the story but this ended up being far more emotional than I expected. I wondered if you had been inspired by real world events (or places) for any of your other stories (a real haunted house perhaps?). Also, a few reviewers have pointed out that the murder remains unsolved in the novel and see this as a negative (Booklist mentioned this most recently). I never really saw solving Jaime's murder as the point, but did you purposely plan to leave it unsolved from the beginning? Was that partly due to the real murder or as a way to keep the book from becoming more of police procedural?

I do sometimes take inspiration from real world events, places and personal experiences, or observed experiences, for stories. For example, "The Flood", was inspired by the horrible destruction in New Orleans. In my next novel, part of it is told from the perspective of a member of a suicide club in Japan. While I was living there, I came across an article in the newspaper about the rise in suicide club participation, and grew interested in the phenomenon, looking up more information on it. Eventually I used a lot of that for parts of that novel.

As for the couple of reviewers of One for Sorrow who found it a negative thing that the murder remains unsolved, you're right, Jamie's murder isn't necessarily the point of the novel, but the thing that sets some of it--not even all of it--into action. I did purposively leave it unsolved from the beginning, for a couple of reasons. I had read The Lovely Bones, which I enjoyed reading, but felt that the death of the murderer in that book was sort of easy and more a case of wish fulfillment, how conveniently it was done, without anyone actually having to do anything for it to happen, and also I grew up on shows like "Unsolved Mysteries" and even have a good friend whose cousin's murder was featured on that show, and her murder has still never been solved. A lot of people go missing or are murdered every day, and only some of them are found, and only some of their killers are found and brought to justice. What happens when a murder or kidnapping isn't solved, though? The reality is we have to live with it, and carry it around with us. I wanted to write a novel in which that was the case, the thing the reader has to deal with, rather than giving that very satisfying feeling we've grown used to in fiction about murders that we can know everything, can discover everything necessary to bring a perpetrator to light and justice. That's a sort of comfort fantasy of detective fiction, and One for Sorrow isn't a police procedural. Its narrator is a fifteen year old boy who has no clue about a lot of things, as well as a lot of family troubles. He's trying to keep himself together in the midst of a world of chaos, and that's more the point, I think. The real murder that only partly inspired the murder of Jamie Marks (it was mostly a sort of emotional backdrop from my childhood that informed the novel) actually was solved, and rather quickly, due to one of the murderers having tried to claim a reward with information about the murder that no one but, well, someone who had been involved would have known.

One of the characters who really blew my mind in Sorrow was Frances. She was so angry - such a furious (and rightfully so) ghost that I thought she stole every scene she was part of. Where on earth did Frances come from? Was she a difficult character to create and write?

Frances comes from two places. One is from a real ghost story in my hometown. And that's the name the kids used to call her. But the story has changed over years, and the true story of Frances (who, in reality, was a girl named Frances Maria Buel) is a little different from the one I wrote in One for Sorrow. She was a young girl abused in all ways by her step father, Ira West Gardner. In one newspaper account from the time she lived, which was actually in the 1820s and 30s, not the 1900s as I made it, she had to jump from a window of her house to escape his unwanted advances. She had gone to a neighbor's to live after that, but Ira said he wouldn't bother her anymore and begged her to come home, so she did, and he stabbed her in the yard right in front of witnesses in August 1832. It seems that Ira might have been having sex with her, and she told him no more, and so he killed her. I found it the most horrible ghost story I'd ever heard in my life when I was fifteen and a friend told it to me, and drove me past the family cemetery. I couldn't believe there were kids who actually went there and performed the "Fuck You France" ritual, as if it were a game like "Bloody Mary". The headstone is very tall and includes a long poem someone in town wrote for Frances about her death. And over the years since her death, she has inspired much poetry and many stories by townspeople. I have a friend who has written a historical novel entirely from her point of view. In my novel, I wanted to give her a chance to exact some revenge in fiction that she did not have in life, and so she became a sort of Lizzie Borden character.

Sorrow seems like a lot of your short stories in that it has supernatural elements but is also primarily about very common human problems (loneliness, despair, fear, etc.) Why do you write these kinds of stories?

Oh, that's a hard question. I don't always know why I write what I write, but I do know this: I grew up surrounded by stories with supernatural elements in them, and we're saturated with the supernatural from an early age. Even if you grow up in an atheistic household, your world is saturated with God, this being that many people believe in but cannot be seen or heard, except by those who report that they have. And we're surrounded by ghost stories too, even if we don't believe in ghosts. And other sorts of fantasies as well, and superstitions. I have a friend who says she doesn't enjoy reading fiction with supernatural elements in it, but she's also a devout Christian, and reads from the Bible every Sunday, and doesn't have a problem with the supernatural elements in it. The witches and warlocks and Christ rising from the dead. I've never asked her, because I imagine she'd be offended, but I wonder if she doesn't enjoy those parts of the Bible either. I tend to write about common human problems like loneliness and despair and fear because they're real, and at times in my life when I experienced one or all of them I would somehow, miraculously, come across a book that helped me move through them and find hope. So one of the things I hope now is that my stories may do that for someone else someday.

In "Little Miss Apocalypse" you have written one of the most romantic and sad ghost stories I have read in a long time. Relationships seem to be thwarted a lot in your work (Sorrow, "Realer Than You"). You don't seem to be the "happily ever after" kind of guy in that sense (ha). Is this a conscience decision or just where the stories take you?

I think stories are about the human experience of the world, and happily ever after isn't the experience a lot of people have of it. To purposively not write about the darker, sadder aspects of living, as if they were not worthy of being looked at and contemplated, would be to lie about our experience of living. But this is not a conscious decision on my part. I usually just go where a story takes me. Sometimes they take me into dark places, but always lead me out with a little light, something to make the road home a little brighter.

"What We Know About the Lost Families of _______ House" is one of the best haunted house stories I have read in ages (and I love haunted house stories). It has a very unorthodox format - how did you come up with this and did the story come easier or harder because of it?

There were several haunted houses in the little township where I grew up in Ohio that I actually blended together in "What We Know About the Lost Families of -- House". One of the ways I made them all into one house was by placing each of their individual stories into the same house and also by placing them into a historical time line. I started that story when I was twenty-four years old, and finished it when I was twenty-seven. I wrote half of it at twenty-four, and then stopped because at the time it was hard for me to hold it all in my "story space", which is how I think of the imaginative space I write from, a place that has grown over the years. The more I read and write, the bigger it gets, and the more able it is to take on different shapes. At the time I started writing "What We Know" I got only so far before I felt I didn't know how to take it any further. Years later, after writing a lot more stories, after I had finished writing and rewriting One for Sorrow and also the first draft of my second novel, I was able to finish this story. It came very easy to me then. But I think if I'd tried to force myself to finish it at twenty-four, I would have made a huge mess of it. The format of it made it hard to write, definitely, mostly trying to figure out how to make the story feel all of a piece, and as if it moving a reader through all the same story but made up of these various threads from various time periods and various families--it was a lot to keep track of and to keep that feeling of movement for the reader. So it started off hard, but when I came back to it years later it was much easier. I think mainly because my abilities as a writer had gotten better over time.

What can you tell me about the new book? Will it be aimed at adult audiences as well? Have you tried to crossover over to YA audiences? (I think it is happening with Sorrow rather organically - but would you like to direct a book at teens?)

The new book is called The Love We Share Without Knowing. It's set in Japan, and told from multiple perspectives about characters whose lives are connected and part of the same story, though they themselves are unaware of it. Like One for Sorrow, it is a contemporary setting, and draws on both realism and the supernatural for its story. It will be aimed at adult audiences as well, though I must admit, the first and last chapters have or are appearing in YA anthologies. I love teen voices, and don't separate teenage characters from adult characters as some do. It seems to me that many people think that as soon as a teenager appears in the pages of a story, it means it's YA. But for me I just see a teenage character. I know some people, adults, who say they don't really care for stories about teens and kids, and think that's too bad, because they live in a world with teens and kids in it, and I think their stories are just as valid and and important as stories about adult characters. There's just no dividing line for me. Teens and adults live in the same world together, and so I represent their perspectives in the same book often, and specifically I do that in this next book.

I have never purposively tried to cross over into YA audiences, but I think you're right that it is happening with One for Sorrow on its own, and in its own way. Recently, though, I wrote a story for a YA anthology called The Beastly Bride, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, called "Map of Seventeen" and when I finished the story I had all these ideas for what happens to the narrator of that story and other members of her family after her story finishes, and I think I want to eventually write that novel. But I have a third novel to finish before that one--I'm about a third of the way through it--and then I'll have to come back and see if the impulse to write that other novel, which would specifically be YA, I think, is still there for me.

You can read Christoper's short story "The Guardian of the Egg" in last summer's issue of the Journal of Mythic Arts. "What We Know About the Lost Families of ____ House" is in the Interfictions anthology. I reviewed it earlier this year at Bookslut. "Realer Than You" appears in the anthology Coyote Road. "Little Miss Apocalypse" was printed in the August issue of Realms of Fantasy. Chris was also interviewed yesterday at Shaken & Stirred, where he talked a lot more about his next book. (And yes, I can't wait to read it!) The post picture of Frances Buel's memorial is taken from Chris' site.

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I reviewed Lisa Ann Sandell's first book, The Weight of the Sky, a contemporary tale set in modern Israel over a year ago and was impressed by how effectively she fit one teenage girl's personal concerns about growing up into the larger picture of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Lisa followed that title up with a surprising look at King Arthur in Song of the Sparrow. This time around her heroine is none other than Elaine of Ascolat - otherwise known as the Lady of Shalott. Here's part of what I had to say about it in my Bookslut review two months ago:

Sandell has succeeded brilliantly in writing a gripping tale of equally strong male and female characters. It is a compelling thriller and first class story of love, battle and betrayal with familiar characters filling their roles in a much deeper and fascinating way. This is a side of Arthur that few readers have had a chance to explore and seeing him and his men on the battlefield, through the eyes of someone who cared about them, makes him less a mythic figure than a man and a leader who struggled to do the best thing for his men and his people. Sandell wanted to humanize these figures with her story, and she has done that. Song of the Sparrow is a great place for teens to discover just what Arthur’s life might really have been like as he sought to build a peaceful world. We all think we know the story of Camelot but as the author shows here there is so much more to this story yet to be discovered.

I think Lisa Ann Sandell is very close to being a breakout YA author. She is taking chances that few other authors are willing to consider and proving how much further the boundaries of YA literature can be stretched. I heartily recommend both of her books although I have to confess, it is Song of the Sparrow that I especially hold dear. LIsa and exchanged several sets of emails as we talked about Arthur, war and women in literature. There's also a bit about Clive Owen here - I hope you all will forgive us our mutual fascination! Now on to the interview......

Why didn't you focus the book on Morgan or Gwyn - the more well known female members of the Arthur legend?

The idea for this book, for writing about Elaine, came about after one rainy afternoon in London, when the sky was heavy and grey, and I, a poor college student at the time, wanted to find a warm, dry place. So I went to the Tate Museum. I was strolling through the corridors, looking for nothing in particular, when suddenly I turned a corner and
stumbled across the most luminous painting. It was John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott (1888)

, and it was arresting. In it a young woman—the lady of Shalott—sits in a boat, cushioned by a lush tapestry, her long red hair flowing down around her white gown. On her face there's this look that stopped me; it's a look of haunted sorrow, but in some way, it's serene, as though she has come to terms with an awful fate that awaits her. It's gloomy, but not depressing,which fit the weather and my mood at the time. I fell in love with that painting. When I got home, I went back to my books of Arthurian legend and read about the character Elaine of Ascolat, on whom the painting is based. There was something fundamentally unfair about how she was cursed and doomed to die for no other reason than her naive love for Sir Lancelot. She stayed with me through the years, as I always wished I could give her a better story, a better ending.

Do you think it is unusual for a writer to hold on to a character for a long time like this - do you think it is a unique situation for you? And why do you think no one else has stepped forward and rewritten Elaine's legend?

I don’t know if other writers do the same, but I carried around Sarah, The protagonist from my first novel, The Weight of the Sky, with me for years, also. Although it may not be the most efficient way to work, it does give me lots of time to get to know my characters really well.

And as for the second part of your question, I can understand why Elaine’s story hasn’t been rewritten by any contemporary writers. First of all, she is a woman in a universe inhabited almost entirely by men. And those men happen to be very compelling characters (Arthur and Lancelot, just for starters), so that focusing on a young girl who is merely nursing a broken heart seems rather silly. Second, for centuries, Elaine has been largely associated with that broken heart, a romantic quality to be sure, but also a very passive one, in an era that seems to be dominated by action. I think this tragic and pretty dour perception of Elaine has made her a somewhat unfit heroine for modern authors. I’m happy to have released her from these shackles, however briefly.

How much research (and where) did you do for the depictions of the battle scenes and life in the camp?

In writing a historical novel, it was extremely important to me to get everything as accurate as possible. This, I soon discovered, was a challenge; after all, they don't call these times the Dark Ages for nothing, and Arthur, despite his illustrious legend, may not have even existed at all. I looked at many sources, but there's not a whole lot from this time. Still, I became obsessed with the details of camp life and war. I spent quite some time, for example, learning about the different herbs—yarrow and comfrey, feverfew and marigold—that Elaine would have administered in her healing. I also paid attention to the lore of Arthur's battles and learned that Arthur allegedly fought twelve great battles. The eleventh one—the battle at Mount Breguoin—is the opening battle in my book, and the final one—the one at Mount Badon—is the battle depicted in the final chapters of Song of the Sparrow. I pored over maps, trying to pinpoint where these locations might have been. Finally, however, I had to stop researching and sit down and write the book, which is good, since I was beginning to scare myself by how deeply I was getting into all of this ancient war stuff.

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The Winter Blog Blast Tour schedule for Wednesday but first, in case you are wondering just why we are doing this project, go read Sherman Alexie's interview at Finding Wonderland. It's everything I hoped to achieve in the WBBT - smart questions, thoughtful answers, insightful conversation. That's why we are here and that's why the lit blogosphere is a good place to be.

Lisa Ann Sandell at Interactive Reader

Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray: "What happens when a murder or kidnapping isn't solved, though? The reality is we have to live with it, and carry it around with us. I wanted to write a novel in which that was the case, the thing the reader has to deal with, rather than giving that very satisfying feeling we've grown used to in fiction about murders that we can know everything, can discover everything necessary to bring a perpetrator to light and justice. That's a sort of comfort fantasy of detective fiction, and One for Sorrow isn't a police procedural."

Julie Halpern at The Ya Ya Yas
Micol Ostow at Shaken & Stirred
Rick Yancey at Hip Writer Mama
Jane Yolen at Fuse Number 8
Shannon Hale at Bookshelves of Doom
Maureen Johnson at Bildungsroman

David Lubar at Writing & Ruminating: "I think titles for novels are hugely important. A perfect title is clear, interesting, and layered with depth. It shouldn’t be puzzling when spoken. It should also not bring up eighty similar hits when you search for it online. After Hidden Talents came out, I discovered that was the title for a Judith Krantz novel. When I was waiting for Dunk to come out, I was terrified that Walter Dean Myers would come out with a book with that title first. "

Sherman Alexie at Finding Wonderland: "My strongest tribes are book nerds and basketball players, and those tribes are as racially, culturally, economically, and spiritually diverse. And, like Arnold, I also belong to a hundred other tribes, based on the things I love to read, watch, do. Ever since 9/11, I have worked hard to be very public about my multi-tribal identity. I think fundamentalism is the mistaken belief that one belongs to only one tribe; I am the opposite of that."

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Here is your Winter Blog Blast Tour Schedule for Tuesday!

Lisa Ann Sandell at Chasing Ray: "I didn't set out to write violence. But, as Elaine's world came to life, and the grittiness of military life became more real to me, I began to realize that violence was very much a part of this story."

Perry Moore at Interactive Reader
Christopher Barzak at Shaken & Stirred
Autumn Cornwell at The Ya Ya Yas

Jon Scieszka at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: "I miss hanging out and growing up with a group of second graders. It is absolutely mind-boggling to see what those little guys learn in a year. I don’t miss faculty meetings. It’s equally mind-boggling to see what doesn’t change in a year."

Gabrielle Zevin at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Judy Blume at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Erik P. Kraft at Bookshelves of Doom
Clare Dunkle at Miss Erin

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In my top ten list of books I flat out adored this year, Laika by Nick Abadzis holds a particularly special place. This graphic novel about the first animal in space is so touching - so emotionally raw- that I defy anyone to read it without feeling an enormous amount of sympathy for the dogs used in the Soviet space program. What transcended it beyond a weepy melodrama though (and it is far more than that) is the amount of research Abadzis did into his subject and the way he so effectively expressed the conflict felt by many of the people involved in Laika's training and eventual death. There is a wealth of space history to be found in Laika, as well as some serious questions about just what it is that humans want and the lengths we are willing to subject other living creatures to pain and misery in order to achieve those goals. In the wake of the recent fiftieth anniversary of Laika's launch, many news programs stated that her flight paved the way for the first human launches. Simply put, that is not true and her sacrifice must remain at the feet of Cold War politics and nothing more.

Nick was kind enough to answer several questions about how he came to write the book and the way he developed the story. It should be noted that Laika is another stellar entry in the First Second line, some of the best books (of any format) being published today.

I earlier wrote about my reaction to Laika here, and also commemorated the anniversary of her death with a more formal review a few days ago. I will be including Laika in my December Bookslut column as well. Now on to the interview!

I understand from reading other interviews that you had an interest in Laika's story for some time. Can you explain when you first learned about her and why you felt this was a space story (as opposed to being about a heroic astronaut or cosmonaut) that would resonate strongly with YA readers?

I’m not sure if I ever felt it was a ‘space’ story as such. I’d wanted to do a story about the Soviet space program for a time but saw it more as a historical piece. There’s an overlap there, of course – and yes, I was attracted to the whole cosmonaut thing – but I kept going back to Laika. I’d been both fascinated and horrified by her story as a kid and I’d read a news story in 2002 about her that had shed new light on her fate. I couldn’t tell you exactly when I first came across her story – it was as a very young child – but it certainly stuck in my head. To a certain extent, you tell a story for yourself, and I think creating this book was almost an answer to my child-self, distant in time but still wondering about Laika’s fate. I realized that if I was still wondering about it, others might too. That was the genesis of the whole idea, but initially I thought it might make a good short story or suchlike. How wrong I was: as I began to research it, the story just grew.

While the real characters in the book have very powerful parts, it is Yelena that is truly the story's moral center. Was there any research that directed you in creating this character or is she purely fiction?

Originally she was loosely based upon a woman who began working at IMBP, the Institute of Aviation/Space Medicine around 1960, 1961. This woman was a veteran of the Soviet State Circus and had been involved with training dogs there; she had a real affinity with them. I didn’t feel that it was too much of a dramatic stretch to say that someone like that could’ve been working there earlier and that’s really where the idea of the character of Yelena came from. But, very quickly, the character I created moved away from that original template and became my own creation (or so I thought – but more on that later). There was no research, as such, that caused me to create her other than what I’ve mentioned above, but I felt very strongly, instinctively, that this kind of a person would’ve been around and would’ve actively been involved in the cosmodog program.

It’s a deductive thing where you’re weaving together the threads of the story, your own story with real history and you take leaps of both logic and faith to fill in certain gaps. Yelena fulfilled a function like this and, as it happens, after the book was published, I had a conversation with another author, Chris Dubbs who had written a factual history of animals in space. In his book, there was a photograph of a woman who looked very like Yelena who was a dog handler at IMBP around the time my story was set. It felt like a case of truth being stranger than fiction; one of those weird incidences where you’re following your nose and then proof arrives that such an incident or person as you’ve imagined really did exist.

What prompted you to write the imaginary conversations between the dogs and Yelena? These moments were a bit of a surprise for me as the book follows historical fact so strongly. Were you planning to have the dogs "speak" all along, or was this a surprising development for you as well?

I’d done a piece of text artwork very early in the creative process where I showed Laika and another dog talking and as soon as I’d finished it, it felt wrong. Thereafter, I never planned for the dogs to speak, or, at least, took a decision to be extremely careful about how this would be portrayed. I was now against anthropomorphizing them at all, but it seemed to make sense that one of the characters might do this, as that is what we humans tend to do with animals we become fond of. We project our human personas and foibles and whatnot upon them, and they begin to ‘speak’, so this seemed like a viable narrative device to use. I wouldn’t say it was any more surprising a development than any other character moments that came to me during the creation of the book as a great deal of this always feels surprising. If you’re following the line of a character and you’re doing it truthfully, they begin to ‘speak’ to you anyway, to tell you where they’re going or want to go. It’s a constant process of discovery. I tend to work in a very instinctive manner; I’d done my research so when the idea for that scene presented itself, it fit extremely well and I just went with it.

It seems every human being in the book is struggling with some sort of moral conflict - from the dog catchers to Yelena to Oleg Gazenko to Korolev himself, who alternately hates and loves his government, the humans are all struggling with deep issues of right and wrong. In the end, a lot of the story seems to crystalize in how they each feel over Laika's death - if they think what they did to the dog was right or wrong then it reveals a lot about their character. Was this a message you were trying to convey or am I perhaps reading too much into the story? Is Laika about the prices we ask others to pay without their consent, even when those others are animals?

No, you’re not reading to too much into it; you’re picking up one of the overarching themes of the book, which is that of abuse; cycles of abuse and how we as human beings can be trapped by these if we don’t recognize the patterns and free ourselves from them. We’ll normalize them and perpetrate them upon others, whether they’re animals or other human beings… some of the characters in the book are beginning to understand this; others aren’t. And yes, one of the things the book is about is how we, as the ‘dominant’ life form on this planet, tend to bulldoze through other lives in our attempts to make happen what we wish to happen, without worrying about the wider implications and effects. This, as a theme, isn’t intended as a retrospective criticism of the Soviet Space Program at all, it’s simply an observation upon how human beings tend to behave in technologically advanced societies; how we’re all under pressure to conform and behave in a certain way. Thinking freely isn’t something that a society gives us as a norm, it’s something we learn when we decondition ourselves from certain rules and learned responses.

How do you feel about Laika's legacy? Do you think enough people, especially young people, know about the hard beginnings of the space race and the truth behind the "noble sacrifice" of the dogs (and in the Americans case, chimps) who were part of it?

I’m not sure that people, far and wide, young and old, know enough 20th century history at all. I can’t speak for here in the USA, but in the UK I worry that history isn’t taught in schools enough, not in a way that captures and stimulates the imagination or, at least, the investigative instincts of children. I’m not saying that there aren’t imaginative history teachers out there – of course there are – but I worry that the curriculum isn’t set up in such a way as to make history, sciences and arts attractive to kids. As to the “noble sacrifice” of the animals in question, well, hopefully this graphic novel and James Vining’s First In Space will go some small way to interesting people and making them want to investigate further the issues raised in the book. I know we may be the first to retell their stories, but we probably won’t be the last. I want Laika to be remembered and that was certainly one of my reasons for doing this book.

I was surprised to see both of these books come out this year and in the graphic novel format. It seems that First Second in particular is dedicated to doing some impressive and unique work for young adult readers. Do you think stories like Laika's and Ham's [as told in First in Space] resonate stronger with readers when accompanied with illustrations?

I think part of it is that they're both very strong, true stories and part of it is the fact that both Jim Vining and I are are exploring what can be done with these sorts of stories using the language of comics. I can't override my own storytelling instinct, which is why I've been careful to point out that Laika is historical fiction albeit fiction heavily interwoven with established fact. Jim's a bit braver than I am and didn't embroider a thing but I do think we're starting out from the same place. Jim Ottaviani is another comics author who is experimenting in this area. But I'll emphasize that it's comics grammar that helps us retell these stories in a powerful way: I think it's an incredibly flexible medium of expression and communication.

After all the research you did, and confined by the specific length of this graphic novel, were you able to tell the story you wanted to tell? Is there something about Laika that you wish you had room to share?

It’s always easy to look back over a work and wish that you had done things a little differently. But a book is kind of like a song in that, once performed, it’s not your own any more. It takes on meanings to people who hear it, perhaps ones never intended by the original author. A book is the same, it’s not your own once it’s been read by others, and that’s as it should be. I can’t really lay claim to Laika’s story anyway, I just expanded upon the known facts and interwove my own story with real history. A lot of people have stated that they were unprepared for how the final pages of the book gripped them emotionally. But, in many ways this is how a lot of people around the globe responded to the news of her plight at the time, and Eisenhower himself stated in his memoirs his bemusement about the fact that the news of her fate almost overshadowed the technical achievement of the mission. Personally I find this a good thing; that our emotions aren’t so switched off by technological advancement that we can’t have an emotional reaction. We need to control our emotions, certainly, but if having an emotional reaction gets us thinking and debating too then that can only be a good thing in the long run.

Is it only now do you think - with the passage of so much time - that we are able to look at the suffering of these animals (and the deaths of so many of them) with more cynical eyes? Did it take this long to see space flight as less than heroic?

Is it cynical? I'm not sure that it is. Maybe it's just realistic. Any piece of history or the way that it's been written is going to erode under examination from the present. We have the benefit of hindsight, which always allows us a wider angle on viewpoints held at the time of a historical event such as this. Looking back is also going to provoke a whole collection of modern and still-evolving viewpoints, which I think is healthy. It allows us to grapple with complex moral questions, to think about stuff that we might otherwise avoid or that might've been not been possible to consider at the time. But it's important to do this; to try to think about these kinds of moral problems from the vantage point of fifty years later or whenever, because if we all put our heads together we might eventually come up with some sort of workable solution to the issues it throws up that would actually help make us into better people and a better worldwide society. Perhaps that sounds a bit pompous, I don't know, but I believe that this is one of the purposes of history, to allow us a debate so we can learn from both our successes and our failures.

You can read my review of James Vining's First in Space here, and also my review of Jim Ottaviania's Wire Mothers as well. Both books are very well done. James has a web site and Jim not only writes comics, he also runs GT Labs, a great gn press that includes a lot of science history titles.

[Post pic is of Laika in her capsule - this picture never fails to hurt my heart.]

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Your WBBT schedule for Monday, November 5th. I will be adding direct links and quotes as the day progresses.

MONDAY

Perry Moore at The Ya Ya Yas

Nick Abadzis at Chasing Ray: "I’m not sure that people, far and wide, young and old, know enough 20th century history at all. I can’t speak for here in the USA, but in the UK I worry that history isn’t taught in schools enough, not in a way that captures and stimulates the imagination or, at least, the investigative instincts of children. I’m not saying that there aren’t imaginative history teachers out there – of course there are – but I worry that the curriculum isn’t set up in such a way as to make history, sciences and arts attractive to kids."

Carrie Jones at Hip Writer Mama
Phyllis Root at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Laura Amy Schlitz at Fuse Number 8
Kerry Madden at lectitans
Tom Sniegoski at Bildungsroman
Connie Willis at Finding Wonderland

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Here is the Winter Blog Blast Tour Schedule. A few of the authors participated in two interviews, but the bloggers involved were all careful to make sure that questions were not duplicated. Also, we have about a half dozen interviews still out there that will hopefully be trickling in this weekend (not that we're going down to the wire or anything....) As they show up, I will add them to the list. And as we did for the SBBT, everyday all the participating blogs will run a short list with links to the interviews that day, so you don't need to worry about missing anything.

Speaking for myself, this has been a lot of fun to do and so very interesting. The authors I exchanged emails with were all fascinating people and I've enjoyed learning more about them. I look forward to seeing what everyone accomplished as well.

MONDAY

Perry Moore at The Ya Ya Yas
Nick Abadzis at Chasing Ray
Carrie Jones at Hip Writer Mama
Phyllis Root at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Laura Amy Schlitz at Fuse Number 8
Kerry Madden at lectitans
Tom Sniegoski at Bildungsroman
Connie Willis at Finding Wonderland

TUESDAY

Lisa Ann Sandell at Chasing Ray
Perry Moore at Interactive Reader
Christopher Barzak at Shaken & Stirred
Autumn Cornwell at The Ya Ya Yas
Jon Scieszka at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Gabrielle Zevin at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Judy Blume at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Erik P. Kraft at Bookshelves of Doom
Clare Dunkle at Miss Erin

WEDNESDAY

Lisa Ann Sandell at Interactive Reader
Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray
Julie Halpern at The Ya Ya Yas
Micol Ostow at Shaken & Stirred
Rick Yancey at Hip Writer Mama
Jane Yolen at Fuse Number 8
Shannon Hale at Bookshelves of Doom
Maureen Johnson at Bildungsroman
David Lubar at Writing & Ruminating

THURSDAY

David Mack at Chasing Ray
Paul Volponi at The Ya Ya Yas
Elizabeth Knox at Shaken & Stirred
Ellen Emerson White at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy
Jack Gantos at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
David Levithan at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Micol Ostow at Bildungsroman
Laura Amy Schlitz at Miss Erin
Kerry Madden at Hip Writer Mama

FRIDAY

Loree Griffin Burns at Chasing Ray
Lily Archer at The Ya Ya Yas
Rick Riordan at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Gabrielle Zevin at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Dia Calhoun at lectitans
Shannon Hale at Miss Erin
Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple at Shaken & Stirred
Alan Gratz at Interactive Reader

SATURDAY

Blake Nelson at The Ya Ya Yas

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In the past week or so I've read lots of posts at my usual lit sites and blogs that have informed me on all sorts of rumors and bits of news (always welcome on the literary front) and yet also have delved deep into a lot of areas that while certainly worthy of a blog post or two seem to have developed into multiple posts, tons of comments and a lot of time suckage.Are short stories dead (or at least dull?) Is Middle Grade a viable category of children's fiction? Can Alice Sebold write anymore? Is Raymond Carver's widow evil? And what to do with Jessica Seinfeld and Oprah and that darn book?

I read some of this stuff (who could read all of it?) and then in the middle of it I started seeing posts at Reuters and CNN and MSNBC not only for the California wild fires but also from our dear Vice President saying that Iran was an obstacle to peace.

Let's all pause for a moment and wrap our heads around that one - Mr. Cheney referred to someplace else - to someone else - as an obstacle to peace. The irony that such words should come from him makes my head want to spin clear off. I'm not trying to start a political argument here (perish the thought) but to read yet again speeches that are clearly saber rattling - that are meant to terrify and intimidate and come on the heels of our President suggesting the possibility of World War III - well it has made me wonder just what the heck we are all doing here.

What am I doing with my time and this space?

I'm not sure if I get to call this an existential crisis (don't even suggest referring to it as a mid-life crisis), but I did stop and think. Of course the impressive Robert's Snow multi-blogging effort organized by Jules has helped alleviate a lot of this personal angst, but still. I don't want to waste my time or anyone else's. I want to accomplish something.

Truth be told, I've always wanted to change the world.

It's crazy a bit, I know, to think so deeply about the motivations of politicians but spend any time studying history and you just go nuts over the things that our elected officials say. And it does bother me; it bothers me a lot. But I'm not a political writer or columnist, and I know that what I don't know is vast - that I'm just sitting here in the cheap seats making comments but I'm not doing the heavy lifting of getting the facts and figures on every single aspect of international relations and current conflicts in the MIddle East and Central Asia. I'm just somebody trying to understand and trying to find a place for myself in this world I'm living in.

It's so totally NOT a mid life crisis.

The short answer to all of this is that in two weeks the same group that brought the blogosphere wonder that was the Summer Blog Blast Tour will be back for more author interviews with the Winter Blog Blast Tour. It might seem like an odd leap to make: politics to literature, but this is the one place where I can do something; the one way that I can change things just a little bit. I can help some great writers be heard by others; I can help to share some good books with people who don't know they are out there; I can try to sway the national conversation away from destruction to a place of creativity and wonder.

I can make us all care about something that is not war for just a little while.

It's just some author interviews, I know. Just some conversations between people who love books and those who write them. It won't be controversial or intense; it won't seek to solve those lingering questions of genre or age group. But that's not why we all are taking part in it - that's not why so many of us have sat down with authors like Jane Yolen and David Mack and Shannon Hale and Rick Riordan (and on and and on and on). We just want to do something good.

And maybe that's the answer. What I can do everyday is something good.

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As requested in the comments yesterday by Sara, here is the nuts and bolts on the SBBT and how long it took to put together:

Honestly, it took a lot less time then you might think. First I contacted about a dozen bloggers I knew and told them I was thinking of doing a multi blog author tour and got their feedback on some other sites to include. From there the new group then threw out names of people they would all like to interview. I came up with a lot of the names this last time as everyone was a bit unsure of how it would go (I came up with Brent for example) but we got a healthy number and then I just put together a basic form letter and started sending it out. Some of the authors I knew from interviewing or reviewing in the past so I could be less formal (Brent, Justine, Justina, Chris, the Hooblers, etc.) but either way I got in touch with everyone I could who had a website. From there I started contacting publishers to get the others. There were four or five authors we wanted that we didn't get (Scott Westerfield was in a deadline crunch, Mark Zusak was never tracked down, etc.) The PR folks at the publishers were really great though and helped a lot (that's how we got Hilary McKay and Gene Yang for example - I got Shaun Tan by tracking him down through his speaker's bureau).

And then I matched authors to bloggers. A lot of them had given me a preference for who they wanted if we got them (Hilary was Leila's dream and Betsy thought Shaun would be "impossible") and for the rest of the authors I sent out an email saying "here's who I got - who wants them?" and that was easy to figure out. (Everyone wanted them - we just had to work it out so no one was overburdened!)

So I don't know - four/five hours of work in getting to that point probably and then everyone was on their own to contact and interview authors. They just had to let me know when an interview was done so I could be sure they were happening. When all the interviews were done I spent about an hour or two putting together the final schedule we worked from - I wanted to make sure everyday was fairly even and that kind of thing. (When you used to schedule airplanes, pilots and routes for a living, something like the SBBT was cake!)

And then....then I sent out an email to every single publisher who had an author in the tour and referred them to my post of the general schedule. This was important as it gave the pubs a chance to see what we were doing. I heard back from all of the pubs except the comics guys. I didn't hear back from Image or DC which I thought was odd - especially DC who are trying to break into the YA market.

But they will learn!

So that was a couple more hours. I also emailed several friends with sites in the lit blogosphere to ask them to mention the SBBT and from those mentions it kind of took on a life of its own.

And then I just did what everyone else did and posted my interviews and linked to everyone else's. I spent a lot less time on the interviews then other folks did, I think. I'm "graphically challenged" so I didn't have any of the awesome illustrations other bloggers did - I'm hoping to change that for the next round.

Altogether I want to say I spent around ten hours maybe on oganizing this whole thing. I need to say again and again how much everyone else came through on this. There were originally two more bloggers who had to drop out for personal reasons (no time) and that was fine. But I said from the beginning that it was my credibility going on the line - I was the first point of contact for all these authors - so if someone couldn't do an interview they needed to let me know asap. I wasn't looking for people I had to "hand hold" or that kind of thing in this project; I don't have a martyr complex! I knew this was going to be great for all of us and I wanted bloggers who recognized that and were willing to to do their share of the heavy lifting. I can't stress enough how impossible the SBBT or our future projects would be without the other great people involved. Those interviews are outstanding - I could have organized all I wanted to but if the interviews were crap then no one would have cared.

So don't give me a lion's share of the credit; the SBBT was totally a cooperative effort.

I hope this does answer any questions about how it was organized though. I tried to be smart, careful and comprehensive - and made sure to let everyone I know what we were doing. That's something I will continue to do for our future efforts as well - it will be much harder to dismiss the lit blogosphere as amateur hour if the industry and writers are aware of our efforts to do something constructive out here. (And for other examples I would point to the creation of Dzanc Books and their efforts towards publishing books in translation, Ed's amazing podcasts, Kelly's continued publication of The Edge of the Forrest and Scott's Quarterly Conversation. And Bookslut, of course - just in case you're wondering what else is going on in the lit blogosphere!)

Really, I don't think my ten hours (or so) was much at all when you consider what I got in return. The SBBT is proof that with just a bit of hard work and effort in the beginning, something really wonderful can be the result. And I'm sure because it succeeded so much, our Recommendations Under the Radar series and the WBBT will be that much easier to organize. Here's hoping everyone enjoys them just as much!

I will be gone between Sunday and Thursday - off to the boonies with no internet connection so I can work on this blasted AK flying memoir. (Many thanks for the positive response to my Dead Body Contract entry - that helped a lot!) I do have posts sceduled for each day so there will be new content at Chasing Ray; I'll just be a bit behind on comments and emails. See you Thursday night!

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I began organizing the Summer Blog Blast Tour a couple of months ago, for reasons I explained earlier. I had hopes that it would introduce readers to authors they have not been aware of and give them some insight into how some of their favorite books were written. I envisioned lots of jumping from site to site as readers followed the daily link lists and became more and more interested in what the SBBT was trying to accomplish. I thought I might hear from some authors or publishers who found our work to be worthwhile. I thought we might connect with a few people - I hoped we would.

But really - I had no idea we would hit this one so incredibly freaking far out of the litblogosphere ballpark.

Okay, I'm being a little over-the-top there, but I can't begin to explain how gratifying it was to see the whole tour succeed on every level. All the interviews went up when they were supposed to. All the interviews were interesting and funny and inspiring in their own way. Nothing was redundant - everything was new. The best part though was that it wasn't boring - every interview had something to contribute, something to make a reader smile or frown or take pause. A couple of my favorite quotes came from Ysabeau Wilce and Kirsten Miller. I mean really, here's the hint Wilce gave us for her sequel to the wonderful Flora Segunda:

I suggest (but do not guarentee) that FLORA REDUX will contain: Loud rock bands. Revolutionary riots. Secret passages. Attacking tentacles. Many chores. Flynn. Oubliettes. A demonic bouncer. Magickal vortices. Udo’s new hat. A Bear Headed Girl. A shootout. A horsecar shaped like a dragon. An amusement park that turns dangerous after dark. The Huitzil Ambassador. Bugles. A hedge maze Tomb. The Warlord’s Birthday Party. An indoor snowstorm. Phosphorescent bullets. A Dæmon from the Abyss. Sneaking. A swan boat. Glamorous disguises. Bullies. The Perfume of Invisibility. Magickal sigils. A Plushy Pink Pig With Very Sharp Teeth. Waffles.

And here's what kind of thing we learned fascinates Kiki Strike author, Miller:

When I’m reading, there’s nothing I like better than discovering a tantalizing snippet of information tucked into the text. That’s why I try to base many of the more bizarre elements in my books on fact. If anyone bothered to investigate whether there’s really a castle in the middle of the Hudson River or tunnels under Chinatown, she might be pleasantly surprised by what she found. I suppose it’s a way of making detectives out of one’s readers.

If you know a kid over the age of ten who has not read these two books then get yourself to the nearest library or bookstore posthaste. Boy - girl, doesn't matter. They will love them both, I promise.

More than the many great quotes though, I think with the SBBT we have hit on a formula that just might begin to shift the tide of litblogger credibility. One of the things that has annoyed so many of us recently is the instances where print reviewers dismiss litbloggers as idiots, or idiots in pajamas, or idiots who live in basements (actually that was author Richard Ford - not a critic), or idiots with 18 cats or maggoty idiots. I have responded more than once to this foolish and continued use of ridiculous generalizations but responding here, on my blog, to people who agree with me is really only one small way to effect change.

The better thing to do is to show them how wrong they really are.

So the SBBT goes up a week ago and proves itself to be a smart, witty, efficiently run multi blog author tour that has done something no print reviewer could ever - could ever - accomplish. You just can't coordinate on this level and engage with your readers in this way in print. Doesn't mean we're better, just means we're not the same. And in the case of the SBBT, the whole thing also means we're very very good at doing what we set out to do.

Maggots my ass.

What I've learned in the past week is that the best thing the lit blogosphere can do is bring fresh content to its readers and do it on a daily (M-F) basis. The SBBT worked because we had so many different interviews at so many different sites - and every site involved was more than willing to point their readers to what everyone else was doing. Also, we have to follow through on what we promise - we said there would be over 50 interviews and there were. No one failed to show up. You also have to be eclectic about the literary topics (and books) you discuss. If readers came to my site yesterday and weren't interested in what Tim Tharp had to say, then I directed them to several other interviews they might prefer. This way I didn't lose any readers - they still came to Chasing Ray looking for some good literary conversation and I was sure to provide them with lots of options.

That's something we all need to think about.

I think coordinated multi blog efforts are going to be a big part of the way the lit blogosphere affects major change to the literary landscape. The Lit Blog Co-op started all of this of course; we're just tweaking their ideas and making them work better for us. Upcoming projects include a Winter Blog Blast Tour in early November and a week long look at books that haven't received the notice we feel they deserve. That should be in late August - I'll keep you posted. I do think with the SBBT that we have found a formula of cooperation and love for literature that will enhance not only the lit blogs involved, but everyone else who actively participates in the larger lit blogosphere. And really, that's what I want to see happen more than anything.

Those folks who think I have nothing intelligent to say because I am only a lit blogger can kindly step back and watch this space. I'm done responding to their attacks; from now on, they can try to keep up with us.

And trust me, that isn't going to be easy.

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