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So, here’s a cool thing: Tasha from Truth, Beauty Freedom and Books and a couple of her book blogging cohorts have this project called Book Bloggers International, where they post interviews with book bloggers around the world, as well as general book blogging tips and things. It’s a nifty idea, the interviews are super enjoyable, and the latest featured blogger is me. So, check that out for a bit of rambling about my childhood reading and…nothing that should come as a surprise to anyone, actually.

As for new content here…I’m in a bit of a reading drought at the moment. This is a thing that happens, I know, but it always makes me feel kind of guilty and bereft. Like, reading is so easy; why don’t I just do it. And what else am I going to do, anyway?

I probably should have known this was coming, because I hadn’t wanted to read anything but fanfiction for a few weeks, and that’s a pretty good sign of incipient reading fatigue. Oh well. I’m alternating between trying to power through it and waiting it out, and eventually one of those things will work.

A new Thicklebit

My interview with graphic novelist George O’Connor about his latest Olympians book, Poseidon: Earth Shaker

“Gum Chewing May Improve Concentration” says Scientific American.

Sound familiar?

Still recovering from LET THE SKY FALL's launch week (thank you ALL for the love and support) so once again I have no MMGM. But I promise I will have a feature next week. And in the meantime, I have the links!

- Michael Gettel-Gilmarten is sweet on ALMOST HOME. Click HERE to see his review. 

- Barbara Watson is cheering for PLASTIC POLLY--with an ARC giveaway! Click HERE to see her review. 

- Mrs. Heise is caught up in BOT WARS. Click HERE to see what she thought. 

- Sue Heavenrich is singing praises for A VOICE OF HER OWN: THE STORY OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY, SLAVE POET. Click HERE to see her feature. 

- Katie Fitzgerald is spreading the love for MY SUMMER OF PINK AND GREEN. Click HERE for her review. 

- Flash, the Feline Extraordinaire, (and Professional Mews to Cindy Strandvold) recommends CAPTAIN NOBODY. Click HERE to see what that's all about. 

- Faith Hough is championing NAVIGATING EARLY. Click HERE to see what she thinks. 

- Kim Aippersbach is fan a new fan of THE OGRE DOWNSTAIRS. Click HERE for her feature. 

- Brennan and Meyrick Murphy are gushing about POWERLESS: DANIEL CORRIGAN #1. Click HERE to see what these two middle grade readers thought of it.   

- Laurisa White Reyes is the next stop on THE CHRONICLES OF EGG blog tour. Click HERE for all the fun (and a GIVEAWAY). 

- Alex Baugh is reviewing THE TERRIBLE THING THAT HAPPENED TO BARNABY BROCKET. Click HERE to read more. 

- Chelanne Green has fallen for FAIREST. Click HERE to see why.

- Rosi Hollinbeck has a guest post with author Joyce Magnin--with a GIVEAWAY. Click HERE for details. 

- Joanne Fritz always has an MMGM for you. Click HERE to see what she's talking about this week.     

- The Mundie Moms are always part of the MMGM fun (YAY!). Click HERE to see their newest recommendations. And if you aren't also following their Mundie Kids site, get thee over THERE and check out all the awesome!    

- The lovely Shannon O'Donnell always has an MMGM ready for you! Click HERE to see what she's featuring this week!

- Karen Yingling also always has some awesome MMGM recommendations for you. Click HERE to which ones she picked this time!   

- Pam Torres always has an MMGM up on her blog. Click HERE to see what she's spotlighting this week.    

- Michelle Isenhoff is always part of the MMGM fun. Click HERE to see what she's talking about today.   

If you would like to join in the MMGM fun, all you have to do is blog about a middle grade book you love (contests, author interviews and whatnot also count--but are most definitely not required) and email me the title of the book you're featuring and a link to your blog at SWMessenger (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Make sure you put MMGM or Marvelous Middle Grade Monday in the subject line so I see it)

NOTE: I used to not have a cut-off time for adding links to the post, but with how insane my schedule is right now, if you don't email me by Sunday evening (usually around 11pm PST is when I put the links together) I can't guarantee I'll have a chance to add you. BUT, you are welcome to add your link in the comments on this post so people can find you!

*Please note: these posts are not a reflection of my own opinions on the books featured. Each blogger is responsible for their own MMGM content and I do not pre-screen posts ahead of time, nor do I control what books they choose. I simply assemble the list based on the links that are emailed to me ahead of time

This week on Strange Horizons, we're launching a new reviews department feature: Short Fiction Snapshot, where every other month we'll be dedicating a full-length review to a piece of short fiction.  Here is my editorial explaining my goals and hopes for this project, and here is the first installment, discussing Charlie Jane Anders's "Intestate," from Tor.com.  One of my hopes for this project

DING DONG THE DEADLINE OF DOOM IS DONE!!!!!

Yes, that's right--according to my editor, LTSF #2 is now officially done (well, until copyedits and first pass and stuff--but I'm not going to focus on that!!!!)

BUT, I didn't finish until Friday and then had a TON of junk to catch up on so, ALAS, I have MMGM today. I WILL have something awesome next week. But today, I just have links.

- Mark Baker is back with a feature on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. Click HERE to see why he loves this classic.

- Andrea Mack's heart is soaring for SPARROW ROAD. Click HERE to read her thoughts.  

- Kim Aippersbach is cheering for STOLEN CHILD. Click HERE to see her review.  

- Shari Larsen is spreading the love for CRACKING THE CODE: Spreading Rumors. Click HERE to read her thoughts.  

- Gina Carey has fallen in love with MAY B. Click HERE to see why.  

- Danika Dinsmore is championing THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIS BURDICK--with a GIVEAWAY. Click HERE for details.  

- Jennifer Rumberger is spotlighting DESTINY, REWRITTEN--with a GIVEAWAY. Click HERE to learn more.  

- Susan Olson is featuring THE TIME TRAVELING FASHIONISTA ON BOARD THE TITANIC. Click HERE to see what she thought. 

- Flash, the Feline Extraordinaire, (and Professional Mews to Cindy Strandvold) recommends THREE TIMES LUCKY. Click HERE to see what that's all about.  

- Michael Gettel-Gilmarten is giving a shout out to THE LIONS OF LITTLEROCK. Click HERE to see his review.

- Laurisa White Reyes is highlighting BAD KITTY GETS A BATH. Click HERE for her review.  

- Rosi Hollinbeck is interviewing author Kathryn Fitzmaurice and giving away an autographed hardcover of her new book. Click HERE for details.

- Michelle Isenhoff is always part of the MMGM fun. Click HERE to see what she's talking about today.  

 - Joanne Fritz always has an MMGM for you. Click HERE to see what she's talking about this week.    

- The Mundie Moms are always part of the MMGM fun (YAY!). Click HERE to see their newest recommendations. And if you aren't also following their Mundie Kids site, get thee over THERE and check out all the awesome!    

- The lovely Shannon O'Donnell always has an MMGM ready for you! Click HERE to see what she's featuring this week!

- Karen Yingling also always has some awesome MMGM recommendations for you. Click HERE to which ones she picked this time!   

- Pam Torres always has an MMGM up on her blog. Click HERE to see what she's spotlighting this week.      

If you would like to join in the MMGM fun, all you have to do is blog about a middle grade book you love (contests, author interviews and whatnot also count--but are most definitely not required) and email me the title of the book you're featuring and a link to your blog at SWMessenger (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Make sure you put MMGM or Marvelous Middle Grade Monday in the subject line so I see it)

NOTE: I used to not have a cut-off time for adding links to the post, but with how insane my schedule is right now, if you don't email me by Sunday evening (usually around 11pm PST is when I put the links together) I can't guarantee I'll have a chance to add you. BUT, you are welcome to add your link in the comments on this post so people can find you!

*Please note: these posts are not a reflection of my own opinions on the books featured. Each blogger is responsible for their own MMGM content and I do not pre-screen posts ahead of time, nor do I control what books they choose. I simply assemble the list based on the links that are emailed to me ahead of time

• If you’re making fallacy-packed statements like “I can ask them to open their mouths, turn on their brains, and share their ideas with the rest of the class” and “A student who is unwilling to stand up for herself and tell me that she does not understand the difference between an adverb and a verb is also less likely to stand up for herself if she is being harassed or pressured in other areas of her life,” then no, I don’t care how many books you’ve read about introverts, you really don’t understand them AT ALL.

(Smart, thoughtful commentary on the frustrating Atlantic post here and here.)

• The Dragon Box app turns algebra into a seriously absorbing game! Big thanks to Karen Edmisten for calling it to my attention. Everyone from the 6-year-old to the 44-year-old here is hooked.

• Beautiful.

“Everywhere I turn these days the message is to be anything but ordinary. Be Epic! Be badass. Be daring and wild. If it isn’t hurting, you aren’t living. Platitudes and the anti-platitudes. Add a filter to make the picture hipper and cooler because the way it really is isn’t hip or cool enough. Make it larger than life and maybe then we can be friends. Go big or go home.

“In last night’s late hour, I felt the value of ordinary. I didn’t want my sister back so she could do amazing, inspiring things with her life. I didn’t want her back so I could join her on epic, wild adventures. I wanted her back so she could love me. So I could love her.”

• Adding to the TBR pile:

“Susan Hill, Howards End Is on the Landing (1/22) — Susan Hill may be a dark, cutting novelist, telling stories full of nasty doings and the horrors that mankind can get up to — I’ve never read her novels, so it may be so. But, on the basis of this book, I highly doubt it. Hill spent a year reading only books that she already had in her (apparently large and wonderful, thoroughly English country) home, and wrote this book about the experience. There’s quite a bit about the books she loves, about writers now forgotten, about the Great Books, about the joys of re-reading, and various other booky topics. There’s also a few bits of autobiography, mostly concerned with Hill’s very early days in the literary world — her first novel was published in the early ’60s, when she was a 19-year-old college student, and I’m afraid she does talk about how nice all of those older literary gentlemen were to poor young her without seeming to realize why they were so nice — but she does stick to her topic most of the time. And she’s entertaining about it, if quite English in an old-fashioned sense: country, Anglican, serious, pull-up-your-socks kind of English. This is exactly the kind of book you’d expect from a sixtyish British female novelist writing about the books she likes to read, and, as long as that’s something you’re likely to enjoy, Howards End Is on the Landing is delightful.”

More links that caught my attention here.

“We knew then, beyond reasonable doubt, that this was Richard III,” he said. “We’re certain now, as certain as you can be of anything in life.”

Methinks it’s time to reread some Josephine Tey.

…in my sidebar (and elsewhere). One hitch with the sidebar list is that we don’t often discuss them, and usually when I’m sharing something it’s a post or article I’m keen to talk about. I share a goodly number of these same links to Facebook (but by no means all), and often lively conversations ensue.

So—anything in the most recent batch grab your attention? Anything you want to gab about? You know me, I’m always up for a discussion.

• “There Once Lived A Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, And He Hanged Himself: Love Stories,” By Ludmilla Petrushevskaya – The Rumpus.net.

(This one’s not in the Caught My Eye list; I flagged it for my TBR pile.)

• For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine.

“But, peering intently through his windscreen in search of a landing place, the pilot saw something that should not have been there. It was a clearing, 6,000 feet up a mountainside, wedged between the pine and larch and scored with what looked like long, dark furrows. The baffled helicopter crew made several passes before reluctantly concluding that this was evidence of human habitation—a garden that, from the size and shape of the clearing, must have been there for a long time.

“It was an astounding discovery. The mountain was more than 150 miles from the nearest settlement, in a spot that had never been explored. “

• lizbrown: From The Stag Cook Book: Written by… | Maud Newton.

A recipe for lemon filling for layer cake. If you insist.

• Chasing Ray – ALA Midwinter report that is all about what I saw, what I ate, who I met & why Harper Collins is still the bane of my reviewing experience.

“10. Most Uncomfortable Moment #2: Five minutes in the Harper Collins Kids booth waiting to be noticed. Taking notes, tweeting, the only person in the booth with four reps who talked to each other and never spoke to me. After I walked out I received a tweet from a blogger friend who sent me to the HC Adult booth with the name of a rep to ask for. She was very nice, walked me to the kid side and introduced me to a rep (who had been standing there all along). I asked about Bennett Madison’s upcoming September Girls and was quickly given an ARC. That’s when I mentioned I had reviewed some of his other books, was a fan of his work, and….. she said nothing. “Have a nice day,” she chirped, and walked away.”

• The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed with our brains (part I) | Empirical Zeal.

“And it’s not just Japanese. There are plenty of other languages that blur the lines between what we call blue and green. Many languages don’t distinguish between the two colors at all. In Vietnamese the Thai language, khiaw means green except if it refers to the sky or the sea, in which case it’s blue. The Korean word purueda could refer to either blue or green, and the same goes for the Chinese word qīng. It’s not just East Asian languages either, this is something you see across language families. In fact, Radiolab had a fascinating recent episode on color where they talked about how there was no blue in the original Hebrew Bible, nor in all of Homer’s Illiad or Odyssey!”

• 102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories from 2012 | Byliner Anthologies.

“These projects afford me the opportunity to read as much impressive nonfiction journalism as any single person possibly can. The result is my annual Best of Journalism List, now in its fifth year. “

• A ‘Creeping Homogenization’ in Fiction? « Kenyon Review Blog.

“But more and more Arab novelists have been infusing larger stretches of their books with colloquial Arabics: first the dialogue and then beyond. Indeed, a number of adult books are written entirely in colloquial, although children’s books still seem to hold the line.”

• The primes of the story « Snarkmarket.

“So increasingly, this is how I judge a book: does it leave me with at least one truly durable image? Is there one moment I can see again in sharp detail two months or two years later? If so, I call that success. As Zachary Mason says: in the long run, as stories get told and re-told in different languages and different formats, it’s probably the images that keep a story alive. It’s probably the images that last.”

Via Sarah @ Knitting the Wind

• Habit Fields · An A List Apart Article.

“Look for natural splits between work and leisure activities, or between creating and consuming things. If you already keep these activities separate, then you might only need to make a few adjustments. If you’ve been trying to do everything from one place and one device, then you may need to make a conscious decision to divide different modes of behavior.”

• Dad’s Idea – Jack Cheng.

“I don’t want him to ever stop asking me about it, because every time he asks, it’s a reminder. To make next week longer and more memorable than this one. To make each subsequent year slower than the one before, by going off the rails, opening myself to richer memories. Every time Dad tells me his idea, it’s a reminder to step away from the machine and pay attention to the world.”

• The Neverending Bagel – Jack Cheng.

“But when it comes to novels, what gets you is the gap between describing the idea and a bunch of people reading that description. Once a book is sold in to a traditional publisher, it can take 18 months (sometimes even longer!) before the book is released. That’s after it’s been written. How long does it take to launch a startup these days? According to incubators like Y Combinator, three months. And it’ll likely be quicker going forward.”

• Home of Baggott & Asher & Bode: A Love Letter to my Husband who Wittingly Married a Writer.

“What I want you to know is that my work is better for your love of it. My process has had to become one of abandoning each novel in some way once it’s done, and you hold on to them. And I’m thankful that you do what I don’t have the heart to or the stomach to… “

• Upstairs, Downstairs, Downton: What Downton Abbey Can Tell Us about Class in America Today | Working-Class Perspectives.

“I am a fan of the show, transfixed by the class differences represented in the series which tries very hard—from the dialogue, the sumptuous costumes, and the setting—to be about another time and place. But is it? Let’s look at a few of the myths that swirl around Downton Abbey and consider what we can learn about the real history behind the show— and about ourselves.”

• Forget the Standing Desk; You Just Need to Move Regularly.

“Sit to do computer work. Sit using a height-adjustable, downward titling keyboard tray for the best work posture, then every 20 minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE. The absolute time isn’t critical but about every 20-30 minutes take a posture break and move for a couple of minutes. Simply standing is insufficient. Movement is important to get blood circulation through the muscles. Research shows that you don’t need to do vigorous exercise (e.g. jumping jacks) to get the benefits, just walking around is sufficient. So build in a pattern of creating greater movement variety in the workplace (e.g. walk to a printer, water fountain, stand for a meeting, take the stairs, walk around the floor, park a bit further away from the building each day).”

• The Keyframe Bias – Jack Cheng.

“I think that’s why merely reading a lot won’t make you a great writer, just like listening to a lot of music won’t suddenly make you a piano virtuoso, because reading emphasizes the drawbridge words. On the flip side, writing a lot without reading much leaves you all backwind and no drawbridge, trying to get from point A to point B without stopping to admire the view. It’s only by doing both reading and writing that you start to understand how to string the different words together.”

• The Slow Web – Jack Cheng.

“A great example of a Slow Web product is Instapaper. Instapaper takes the process of discovering a long article and reading it on the spot (real-time) and breaks it apart, deferring the act of reading until later, when we have an extended moment to read (timely). “

(I know; a lot of Jack Cheng in this batch. He’s a new discovery for me, via Kyrie Mead, and I’m enjoying his thoughtful articles.)

• College Degree, No Class Time Required – WSJ.com.

“Wisconsin officials tout the UW Flexible Option as the first to offer multiple, competency-based bachelor’s degrees from a public university system. Officials encourage students to complete their education independently through online courses, which have grown in popularity through efforts by companies such as Coursera, edX and Udacity.

“No classroom time is required under the Wisconsin program except for clinical or practicum work for certain degrees.”

New Thicklebit today!

Dorothy Parker and Julianna Baggott books for $1.99 on Kindle today.

San Diego folks, don’t miss the big event at Yellow Book Road this Saturday: Give a Book on Behalf of Sandy Hook. Some very fine children’s book authors will be there:

Today's tour will be all about links. So sit back, click, and follow some fun. In honor of the upcoming Caldecott Award announcement on Monday, I'm putting in my vote for favorite picture of 2012. It is The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce.

Oh, reached into the ol’ thesaurus for that one! Still fighting a cold so let’s be linky today.

According to EarlyWord, sales of Richard Blanco’s poetry books have zoomed up the Amazon ranks. Yesterday Looking for the Gulf Motel went from 1255 to #34. I just checked and it has now slipped to #74. Still, how awesome is that? The number of holds at my public library have also increased from three, when I put in a request for the book a couple weeks ago, to twenty today. Woo! If only things like this were a regular occurrence with poetry titles.

Blanco is forty-four and has been writing since he was a young man. You have to start young, right? Now and then we hear of people past sixty publishing their first book and it somehow seems cute. But seventy-five-year-old Natsuko Kuroda isn’t going to take any guff. She won the Akutagawa Prize for her story “ab Sango.” She is the oldest person to ever win the prize. Upon receiving her award she said, ” ‘Thank you for discovering me while I am still alive.’ ” Using age as an excuse for why I can’t become a writer is no longer valid. I’ll have to try to think up some new and more creative reason.

But then, maybe if I take writing lessons from W.G. Sebald (via) I will zoom onto the bestseller lists. Not likely since I don’t think Sebald was a bestseller. He is highly regarded though (if you have not read him he really is marvelous) and isn’t that what we want more than the money? Who am I kidding, I want the money too! Why does it need to be an either/or proposition?

Maybe it’s because so many children’s books are sexist, portraying females as indoor passive observers that has stinted me. Granted, the study was of Malayasian children’s books but I don’t doubt a similar result would be found in a study of my childhood reading or even current children’s books in the U.S. Then if you are a science fiction or fantasy fan, there are the sexist books covers to contend with. But fantasy writer Jim Hines has started replicating the poses of the sexed up women on book covers to pointed and hilarious effect. Then there is The Hawkeye Initiative which challenges the portrayal of women in comics by swapping male and female characters usually substituting Hawkeye from the Avengers for the female. The idea being that if Hawkeye doesn’t look stupid in the female pose then it probably isn’t sexist. The website will get your blood boiling and make you laugh at the same time.

Ok, that’s should do it for this evening. Hopefully my brain will be up for more coherent thoughts tomorrow. Assuming, that is, my brain had coherent thoughts to begin with.

A very apt Illustration Friday prompt for this week, as the snow begins to fall. Below if my contribution. Check out the others by clicking on the link above!

Not feeling all that able to draw today. This is kind of what it looks like outside presently, minus the fox.

This is the final iteration of a piece I did for Illustration Friday a few weeks back, using the word-prompt “tree”. It went from a boy and dog in a tree, kids in a tree, SNOWmen in a tree, and now back to the first idea. And when I thought THAT was done, I added the boxes, bulbs, and ribbons. I think it’s finished. I have not had the urge to fix or change anything. A good sign! And now I’m using it for one of my Christmas cards this year. Merry Christmas!

A reworking of an image/card from two years ago. This one is on my December promo postcard. Sure is a lot of fun to change this up from time to time and add new angels and animals, etc. My personal favorites are the dog-angel, cat-angel and mouse-angel!

My contribution to this week’s Illustration Friday prompt, “Glow”. The coloring is messy and ugly, but the idea was fun to try and pull off quickly.

Hi everybody! I have a few things that are out in print this month so I wanted to get them up on the blog.

First up is a spread I did for the Jan-Feb ’13 issue of Chirp magazine. This was a lot of fun to assemble and figure out, to have characters applying and wearing body paint. I learned a lot about the art form just doing research. Some samples of the spread are below. Thank you, Owlkids, for the fun project!

Closer…

Closer again.

A slight re-working of an old illustration. I dropped the temperature on the thermometer and added his breath-cloud. Or whatever that’s called.

Don’t go out, little squirrel!