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At the Firefly Gate is a simple romantic ghost story that seamlessly connects past and present, and age and youth together.

Henry, 11, is not happy when his parents move from London to the village of Crickford St. Thomas. His first night there, he sees a man standing at the garden gate, smoking a cigarette and with a cloud of fireflies flying around him, appearing to look straight at Henry.

The next day Henry and his parents are invited to tea by their neighbor Pat, whose daughter Grace is a little older than Henry. Also living there is Dottie, Pat’s elderly aunt. Henry and Dottie immediately feel the strangest connection to each other, despite their age difference.

That night, Henry dreams that he is at a mobile café, buying doughnuts and coffee, helped by a pretty girl who was flirting with him. And he knew the guy with him was his best friend, Rusty Dobbs. Yet, nothing about the dream made sense to him and, despite its vividness it slips away from him when he wakes up.

Henry begins to settle into his new surroundings. He is often invited to Pat’s home for tea and becomes friendlier with Dottie, bonding with her over games of Scrabble. All that spoils this is Grace telling him that Dottie is dying.

Meanwhile, Henry meets and becomes friends with Simon, who he will be going to school with. One hot Sunday, Henry and Simon go over the stream to cool off. They get lost along the way and discover an old, long abandoned airfield, which Simon recognizes as the one where his great-granddad was a pilot during World War II. He tells Henry the story about how his great granddad was in sick bay the night his entire crew went on a mission over Germany and never came back. Henry is stunned to learn that Simon’s great granddad’s name is Rusty Dobbs.

The past and present continue to overlap in Henry’s life, even as carves out a spot for himself in Crickford, making new friends and adjusting to life there. Dottie finally clarifies the identity of the man, explaining that he was also named Henry, a navigator in the RAF and best friends with Rusty Dobbs. He was also the love of her life and, after he didn’t return from the mission that saved Rusty’s life, she never was interested in marrying anyone else.

Newbery’s well developed Henry is a sweet, sensitive character, a rather ordinary boy who suddenly has this extraordinary experience. As pieces to the puzzle of the past present themselves, Henry increasingly becomes more determined to figure it all out. Dottie’s mind is still that of a feisty girl, even as she is physically limited simply by her age. She seems to bring out a confidence in Henry that wasn’t apparent before, acting as a catalyst for Henry’s ‘coming of age.’ Even sullen, angry Grace is well-drawn in her desire to become an RAF pilot against all the odds.

Though I thought the story started out rather slowly and with just a touch of confusion, in the end I enjoyed it very much. I think Linda Newbery has written a very nice refreshing book about friendship between generations that is unusual in books for young readers, where so often these age groups are at odds with each other instead.

The Book Cover: The cover of a book matters and can often influence a reader's decision about reading it.  In this case I think the cover is quite lovely.  The trouble is that on the book I read the details are so dark are hard to make out.  I made the picture of the cover a litt

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Lauren Oliver has made quite a name for herself with her two young adult novels, Before I Fall and Delirium, a book I love almost as much Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which is high praise. I was intrigued to learn that Oliver had written middle grade novel, especially after reading the author's note at the beginning of Liesl & Po. Oliver shares that she wrote the book in burst in 2009  

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I went out to lunch yesterday with a great writing pal. And I surprised her.

As most of you know, I love a good ghost story. It was October of 2008 when I decided to get my feet wet and epublish The Kindergarten Ghost [$1 for 1 thousand spook-filled words], the most popular of my fictional ghost stories, on Amazon. Back then the epublishing world was a like the Wild West to me. You could fight Indians all day, but no one would know about it. Epublishing was THERE. I just knew I wanted to try it out.

I learned some things. I made mistakes. First of all, I forgot about it. [stop laughing] It was only after having lunch with a dear friend yesterday that I remembered I'd even published it. She smiled big and said she couldn't wait to download it. Back in 2008 ereaders were, well, a bit scarce. My friend had just received her iPad for Christmas and gushed about reading novels on the device. I'm afraid I'm a bit old school. I haven't read a book on an ereader yet.

Patty downloaded the story last night and crawled into bed with her daughter. They read the story aloud together in bed. Like the commercial says: Priceless. She said she wanted more. Maybe I'll turn the story into a novel.

So, today I beat around the bushes of my cobwebbed DTP account on Amazon and looked into the numbers. I've sold mostly to people who live outside of the US & the UK. How do I know that? The royalties are different. 70 cents for the US & UK. 35 cents for the rest of the world. I thought that was very interesting. Heck I thought it was interesting that I sold anything considering I'd forgotten all about it. But now that conversations in the writing/publishing world loom large around epublishing and what it will mean for us all, I can say there is one of my little ghost stories in the Wild West of the ether that's been read by folks around the world. Sure. It might be 64K on the bestseller list. But, like I said, I forgot all about it. Maybe it will shoot to the moon in the near future. I love possibility.

Any of you gotten your efeet wet?

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Is There Life After Death- A Ghost Story “Hon, I promise I am not gonna do anything to ya. I won’t try to scare ya.” “I swear to God, Richie,” she persisted. “if you touch me…” she let the words hang as she usually did. That was enough of a threat for him not to [...]

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The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy, illustrations by Tom Percival, despite the fact that it is currently only three books long, has had three different cover designs as well as a title change since book one, Scepter of the Ancients (the new title of the first book in the series) was published in 2007. Since I often judge a book by it's cover, this phenomenon caught my eye right away.

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Based on my feelings about violence and our growing desensitization to it as a nation, there is no way I should have read and loved Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book as much as I do.***polemic warning***Since I began studying and practicing Buddhism several years ago I have become more thoughtful about and sensitive to media violence.  The other night I popped in a movie, Brendan Fraser's The

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Loved the Point Sur Lighthouse Halloween tour. And, because the stories were so good there, I had to share one with you. And, because of the HORRORS of satellite Internet, I'm unable to upload any more photos for a while because I've exceeded my shared use quota. Ah....the pleasure of remote living. [they are many]. But, do check back. When I travel to a wireless location I'll upload some spooky lighthouse photos here. Now...on with the show...

[This is paraphrased from a tale told by the actor who portrayed a Head Keeper of the lighthouse, who told us many a spooky tale last Sunday night.]

"Go back"

The Point Sur Light Station sits upon a volcanic rock about 700 feet high. It's only been in the last forty years that the ocean didn't completely encircle it during high tides and strong storms. In order to create a space for the buildings that would house the four keepers and their families, the top of the rock was blasted with dynamite to carve a narrow, even sliver of land. In 1889 a Head Keeper and three assistants and their families staffed the lighthouse and fog signal 24 hours a day and lived an isolated life. The coast lands below are still used for cattle grazing as it has been for centuries, since it belonged to Spain. Nothing much has changed. The lighthouse's last keeper left in 1974.

The kids of the light station often played on the tramway cars. The tramway had been constructed to hoist supplies brought by land, most often by sea, up the cliff to the residences, lighthouse and blacksmith shop. Three-hundred-and-sixty-four stairs were also available for the trip. One day, a little girl hopped in one of the cars to ride it down. But, the car wasn't secured as it should have been. The little girl went flying down the cliff. She survived the fall but had been tossed into the sea. As a result of the exposure to the icy Pacific the little girl came down with pneumonia and died in her bedroom on the top floor of the Tri-level house, still standing on the property today. Sailors tell tales of the little girl standing on the rocks during storms with a warning, in a small clear voice, "Go back," she says, "Go back." Those that heed the little girl's cry make safe harbor. Those that don't never see their loved ones again for the seas swallow them whole.

Interested in what ghost hunters found at The Point Sur Lightstation? Go to Ghost Explorers.

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Cornelia Funke is a diverse writer who began her career as a children's book illustrator and went on to write her own picture books, beginning chapter books and the best selling, epic Inkworld Trilogy as well as the very popular Dragon Rider and Thief Lord books for young readers.  The Ghosthunters series represents her foray into the world of chapter books, with the specific intention of

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Angie Sage, creator of the magnificently magical world of Septimus Heap, book 5 of which was just published, has also authored a series for younger readers. The Araminta Spookie books are perfect for the reader who wants something a little different from the usual Magic Tree House and Junie B Jones. Araminta is brilliant, brave and has a different bedroom for every day of the week!   She's not

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Half-Minute Horrors, edited by Susan Rich, is a compilation of over 70 snippets of creepy, gruesome, ghoulish, spine tingling fun with a website the encourages readers to submit their scary stories. I wish I could list every contributor here, but it would take up the whole review. Authors and illustrators are all listed on the back of the jacket and in the brilliant index that lists page

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Letting Your Illustrator into Your Storyline

by Linda Thieman

When I first approached an illustrator to do five illustrations for Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story, a chapter book for ages 7 to 10, the illustrator suggested I add a nasty neighbor boy to the story who could make fun of Katie and taunt her. That was my first indication that said illustrator was not getting the gist of my little story of love, healing and empowerment. I decided to wait for the right illustrator to come along.

One day, when I was online on an alternative health group, there was a request for information from a woman named Kim. Kim, Mrs. Kim Tharp, as it turned out, was a nurse who was also interested in alternative health and healing. I sent her the information and a friendship was born. But we both had a secret that we dared not share. She was a talented artist who dreamed of doing illustrations professionally, and I was a children’s book author, carefully guarding my precious little healing stories and desperately in need of an illustrator who would understand what I was trying to do.

After several months, Kim read the first book and decided to join me. Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story is the story of an almost-nine-year-old girl, Katie, who moves into an old house out in the country with her family. Katie immediately begins to suspect that a friendly ghost is living there, too. Katie plays detective to find out who the ghost is and she learns that her name is Kimble, the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. The two meet, and Katie and Kimble then set off to try to discover what happened to Kimble’s mother.

As Kim and I worked together on Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story, we spent a lot of time getting the look down. I tried to convey to Kim what I wanted each picture to portray and where it would be located in the book. We spent much of that first collaboration getting to know each other’s style and process.

By the time we started doing the illustrations for the second book, Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, we had all the basics down. I hadn’t given much thought to the illustrations for the second book, so Kim had a lot more freedom and input in that book. I’d say, for example, “I need a picture for chapter four and I’d like the picture to include Katie’s mom.” Then Kim ran with it and just blew me away, each time, with what she came up with. The illustrations are so moving. They tug at the heart strings of every human being who has ever longed for a mother, and by my calculation, that’s just about everyone, no matter your age.

But Kim surprised me even more after I thought we were finished with the book. In the second book, Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, Katie and Kimble find a coupon for a magic wish in a box of Magic Wishes cereal. They can wish for anything, but the wish will only be good for two days. After much discussion, Katie and Kimble decide to wish that Kimble could be human for two days. The wish works and Kimble fully embraces her humanity, going enthusiastically overboard in eating and riding a bike, and is largely accepted into Katie’s family, for at that point, she’s impossible to hide or explain away.

When the two days come to an end, Kimble disappears and Katie and her family are devastated. Kimble thinks she will come back in ghostly form, but since this has never happened before, no one really knows for sure.

At this point near the end of the story, I reached a transition. The dark, rainy, gloomy atmosphere that mimicked Katie’s mood was about to change with the dawn of a new day. So I asked Kim to draw a picture of the old oak tree out in the backyard with the sun coming up over the horizon.

I got my picture all right, but unbeknownst to me, Kim had decided to add an empty swing hanging from the tree. As often as the big old oak tree was used as a setting, nowhere in either book was a swing mentioned. But that image of the empty swing was so powerful, so compelling, so representative of the loneliness everyone felt at Kimble’s absence, that I decided to revise the book.

I thought that adding a swinging scene would be perfect in two ways. First, it would be one more humorous way to show Kimble going hog-wild with glee, adding swinging to eating and riding a bike. Second, I thought it would be an excellent way to extend Mr. Russell’s environmental consciousness. So I did some research on how to put a swing in a tree without using nails and without harming the tree, something Katie’s dad would be excited about and would be very glad to do for the girls.

I feel truly blessed to be able to work with an illustrator who genuinely understands the emotional and healing components in the Katie & Kimble books. At this level, in the early chapter books, young readers still need pictures and the pictures enhance the story immensely.

Children’s book author Linda Thieman writes the Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story chapter book series for ages 7 to 10, and runs the Katie & Kimble blog. http://www.katieandkimbleblog.com

She is a former English language teacher who has created a set of reading skills activity packets and classroom materials that teachers and homeschoolers can download free of charge from the Katie & Kimble blog. These materials are guided by the national standards set for third grade reading and language skills. Linda lives in Sioux City, Iowa. She hopes to publish Katie & Kimble: The Golden Door in 2009.

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Let me introduce you to my NaNoWriMo project: THEATRE OF CURIOUS ACTS.

Oh, and by the way – I’m cheating.  The ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ is a set of intertwined stories set over a century – three novellas and two short stories – all heading toward the same conclusion.  The basic premise is:

The Grim Reaper is a girl, her name is Olivia and her pale horse is a pirate ship.  When Daniel Cole, a shell-shocked WW1 soldier, is transported to the surreal otherworld where she resides, he ruins her and her sisters plans for the coming apocalypse.

So we have:

Part One: Shrapnel From a Broken Smile

A ghost story. It’s 2008, the once glorious ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ is derelict and provides the perfect playground for a boy out to impress a girl.

Part Two: Paper Dragons

In 1918 a group of WW1 Soldiers head out to the Theatre of Curious Acts for a fabled ‘Paper Dragon’ show.  They are transported to a surreal otherworld where Daniel Cole and Swan Ecklund are beguiled by two sisters – Olivia and Blanche.

Part Three: (The man with) One Yellow Shoe

It is 1985 and Harvey Cadell (one of our soldiers from ‘Paper Dragons’) has returned to the theatre, which is now a cinema, to catch one last performance before he dies. And in the hope he will find a door back to that otherworld and some of his lost friends. Instead he meets The Collector of Memories and finds himself trapped in a movie.

Part Four: Monstrous Interlude

It’s 1955 and during the showing of a B-movie a monster escapes. It is up to ‘The Collector of Memories’ to put it back.

Part Five: Anticipating Pitchforks

Daniel Cole returns from the otherworld just in time for Armageddon. Oh, and he’s arrived on Olivia’s pirate ship and her sisters are following in their own transport: a zeppelin, a battleship and a train.

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***Before we get into the review today, I just want to remind you to leave a comment on the interview with Jessica Day George, the review of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, and/or the review of Dragon Slippers for a chance to win a signed book by Jessica Day George. Contest will close Wed. at midnight. The more comments you leave, the better your chances.***

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