Well, folks, wish me luck. Today I give my presentation to the good people of Hamline University, and we’ll see whether or not they find my talk too short, too long, or too nerve-wracked (the smart money’s riding on the last). The weather, as it happens, is perfectly perfect here. I am, however, a little unnerved when folks continually make eye-contact. Don’t they know that eye-contact is a dangerous habit that can lead to death, disease, and dysentery? Or is that just in NYC? Moving on . . . .
- The other day I was recommended a middle grade novel I had not heard much about called A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. The cover did nothing to make my heart pitter-pat any faster (it’s sort of using a faux David Frankland silhouette technique) and the title? Haven’t we done enough fairy tales? But then I saw the blurbs inside. Laura Amy Schlitz? She doesn’t blurb anything. Jack Zipes? One of the best children’s literary academic scholars out there. So I gave it a read, and you should too considering how hard I fell for it. We’ve got ourselves a new amazing debut author, folks. Salon ran a fun article on blurbing as well, that you might enjoy. It’s called Beware of blurbs and makes a lot of sense. Still and all, had I not seen the blurbs (and gotten a personal recommendation from Monica Edinger) I might have missed the book altogether. They do have their uses. Thanks to @neilhimself for the link.
- Says author Philip Womack, “When I started to write children’s books, most people would nod sagely and opine, ‘they’re the hardest audience to write for – very picky, children’. This is a cliché which is almost monstrously wrong. The vast majority of children (and by “children”, I mean anybody in those prepubescent years who has yet to make the leap to Jane Eyre and Great Expectations) have the literary sensibility of a dead snail and will read any old rubbish.” As opposed to adults who are all discerning in their tastes, I suppose. Womack then goes on to equate Stephenie Meyer to J.K. Rowling, which may explain why this article goes by the subtitle how to write a children’s best-seller, and yet the author is, himself, a relative unknown. Ah well. When I say that I just sound like the snarky commentors. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link
- You can take the girl out of Kalamazoo but you can’t take the Kalamazoo out of the girl (Kalamazoo, in this case, being a town and not a dreadful disease with a catchy name). Little did I know that author/artist Mark Crilley was a Fine Arts major at Kalamazoo College. That and other interesting facts about the man come up in his recent spotlight piece at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Later he goes on to say, “For whatever reason, I just don’t seem to show up on people’s radars as an illustrator for hire. The happy exception was Little, Brown’s recent re-issue of 9 Comments on Fusenews: Areas of my expertise, last added: 7/17/2010
Note that John Hodgman refers to himself as “a minor celebrity.”
Re the cover of A TALE DARK AND GRIMM, the cover of my first professional book (the hot title FANTASY LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM), has a similar silhouette that seemed very Rackham-like to me. A default fairy tale look evidently.
re: George on Seinfeld … don’t miss Maureen Dowd’s column in the NYT today – very funny back story on the Steinbrenner presence on Seinfeld.
Connie, love it! I vividly remember poor fictional George working for the Yankees as well as larger-than-life Steinbrenner in his glory days.
In regards to Womack’s article, I would say that the way in which children are picky is that they won’t put up with long, self-indulgent passages of description or of characters’ thoughts and feelings. They expect the plot to move forward.
It worries me a little how much this writer deprecates his chosen audience, however humorously. I think authors should respect their readers, especially kids!
We loved having you at Hamline, Betsy. Your talk was engaging and informative, and your presence is so wonderful up there. Thank you for coming!
Thanks for your kind words about my “Seven Impossible Things” spotlight! Yes, the new version of “The Enormous” is still available (I ordered a box just the other day). Thanks again for the mention!
Mark
The Enormous *Egg* — clearly I need more coffee!
Tale Dark and Grimm not yet out for the general public (until November 10!)
I suggested it for my library, and will wait impatiently.