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It's one thing to read about censorship in a news article; it's another to become aware of the threat at a nearby library or school. For Banned Books Week this year, we reviewed hundreds of documented appeals to remove materials from a local public library, school library, or course curriculum. Below are 30 books that [...]

Todays illustration was submitted by Barbara DiLorenzo who was featured on Illustrator Saturday April 14, 2012. Barbara is an author/Illustrator and her first picture book titled Renato and the Lion will be released by Viking in 2016. Very Exciting. Congratulations, Barbara! www.barbaradilorenzo.com  

David Caruba sent me an note saying that PW reported that one of the publishers will be publishing J.K. Rowland’s commencement address at Harvard University in book form. He looked it up on the Interent and her speech is on You Tube (it’s posted in its entirety) and it’s really great. Funny, moving, shocking, sincere–everything that makes her a wonderful author. Thanks David for sharing your find.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Todays illustration was submitted by Barbara DiLorenzo who was featured on Illustrator Saturday April 14, 2012. Barbara is an author/Illustrator and her first picture book titled Renato and the Lion will be released by Viking in 2016. Very Exciting. Congratulations, Barbara! www.barbaradilorenzo.com  

David Caruba sent me an note saying that PW reported that one of the publishers will be publishing J.K. Rowland’s commencement address at Harvard University in book form. He looked it up on the Interent and her speech is on You Tube (it’s posted in its entirety) and it’s really great. Funny, moving, shocking, sincere–everything that makes her a wonderful author. Thanks David for sharing your find.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Fairy tale is a country of the mind where there are many inhabitants stretching back into deep time, and we're like people before Babel, we speak a common tongue: fairy tales exist in a symbolic Esperanto, with familiar motifs and images and characters and plots taking on new shapes and colors and sounds. One of [...]

J. K. Rowling's new book is a little like Harry Potter — if Hagrid never came to collect Harry and instead the novel focused on the dysfunctions of the Dursleys and all their neighbors. That being said, The Casual Vacancy still possesses Rowling's uniquely addictive storytelling, and you'll soon find yourself needing to know what [...]

After reading about so many rejected famous authors, I thought you might draw enough inspiration to keep writing and illustrating and continue to submit after reading this post.

REJECTED:

Author Dick Wimmer passed away on May 18, 2011, at 74 years old. He received 160+ rejections over 25 years! He spent a quarter of a century being told “no.”

He could have quit after 20 years, or 150 rejections, and no one would have blamed him. But he kept submitting. Maybe he had his own list of famous author rejection letters to keep him going!

Finally, his novel Irish Wine (Mercury House, 1989) was published to positive reviews. The New York Times called it a “taut, finely written, exhaustingly exuberant first novel.”

REJECTED:

Dr. Seuss got rejection letters, too. Here is one:
“too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.”

Here’s a rejection letter for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK:
“The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.”

Madeleine L”Engle’s A WRINKLE IN TIME was turned down 29 times.

Jerry Spinelli was rejected for 15 years, before getting his first book contract for SPACE STATION SEVENTH GRADE.

THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT was turned down so many times, Beatrix Potter initially self-published it.

Rudyard Kipling received this: “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” Editor of the San Francisco Examiner.

H.G. Wells had to endure the indignity of a rejection when he submitted his manuscript, “The War of the Worlds” that said, “An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would “take”…I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book’.”

And when he tried to market “The Time Machine,” it was said, “It is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough enough for the scientific reader.”

Here is a rejection letter for Harry Potter:
30 June 1997

Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms./Miss J.K. Rowling:

At this time, we must decline your submission of HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE. Unfortunately, the manuscript reeks of being completed on a manual typewriter. For heaven’s sake, it is 1997. Do you own a computer?

The second major problem with this manuscript is its sheer length. Who do you think you are, Charles Dickens? We don’t pay by the word here. Plus, how do you expect parents to muddle through 309 pages to explain the characters, plot, subplots and themes to their children? What if the child has to do a book report on this thing? Can you imagine how long the CliffsNotes would have to be? Also, if parents and children spent time actually perusing the book together, the hours they would be stuck in the same room would be agonizing. Bringing families together is not something you would like to have on your conscience, I guarantee it.

In addition, the subject matter of HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE leaves a bit to be desired. Why would children want to read about a dorky, bespectacled tween’s experiences with the world of wizards and magic? And what about the lightning bolt on the main character’s forehead? What does it mean? How did

Twenty years ago today, Harry Potter was lying on the floor of an old lighthouse, counting down the minutes to his eleventh birthday, when the magic began. Today, millions of his fans worldwide are eagerly counting down the minutes to midnight, when the magic will begin again. For all of us.

We potterheads will always remember when we crashed Pottermore before it even started.

I'm a big fan of novels which make me laugh. It could be something that happens in the story, like the excellent funeral scene in Neil Gaiman's, Anansi Boys, (if you get a chance, I thoroughly recommend the audio version, narrated by British comedian, Lenny Henry).
 
It could be something a character says. Terry Pratchett writes some hilarious dialogue for his characters. I think he's especially good at having people misunderstand another person's words with amusing results eg: In Wyrd Sisters, when Nanny Ogg sniggers at the word 'thespian' which causes Granny Weatherwax to declare in a condescending tone that Ogg 'doesn't even know where Thespia is.'  

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