Category Archives: My Reads

Jam on biscuits, jam on toast, jam is the thing that I like most

My Reads

Jam on biscuits, jam on toast,
Jam is the thing that I like most.
Jam is sticky, jam is sweet,
Jam is tasty, jam’s a treat–
Raspberry, strawberry, gooseberry, I’m very
FOND… OF… JAM!

From BREAD AND JAM FOR FRANCES by Russell Hoban

I’m home sick today, eating jam and toast and drinking tea and thinking how very, very much I love Frances.  I especially love that she’s a badger.  Don’t see enough badgers in kid lit these days!  Lots of bears and rabbits and pigeons but a dearth of badgers who jump rope.  Alas!

Looking at things we can’t have – a good idea or not?

Antics, My Reads

From my own dog-eared, oft-read copy of THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (one of my all-time favorite books):

It was a picture of a ship–a ship sailing nearly straight towards you.  Her prow was gilded and shaped like the head of a dragon with wide open mouth. She had only one mast and one large, square sail which was a rich purple. The sides of the ship–what you could see of them where the gilded wings of the dragon ended–were green.  She had just run up to the top of one glorious blue wave, and the nearer slope of that wave came down towards you, with streaks and bubbles on it. She was obviously running fast before a gay wind, listing over a little on her port side…  And the sunlight fell on her from that side, and the water on that side was full of greens and purples. On the other, it was darker blue from the shadow fo the ship.

“The question is,” said Edmund, “whether it doesn’t make things worse, looking at a Narnian ship when you can’t get there.”

“Even looking is better than nothing,” said Lucy. “And she is such a very Narnian ship.”

Sometimes I wonder if I’ve done myself a great disservice by reading fantasy novel after novel about sword fighting, dragon riding, prince kissing, and other exciting things unlikely to ever happen in my real life.  What about you? Are there things, characters, or experiences you obsess over?  Are there “six impossible things” you really, really want?

UNWIND by Neal Shusterman kept me up way too late last night. Disturbed my dreams.

My Reads, ,

Wow.

Scriva Michelle suggested that I read UNWIND because Neal Shusterman uses multiple third person POVs and I’m working on a similar approach for Angel Punk.  (For more on Scriva assigned reading, click here.)

Wow.  I had to say it again.

First, reading it made me feel good about my POV decisions in Angel Punk.

Second, I have never read a dystopian novel with such a novel premise (not class warfare, not zombie virus, not environmental collapse).

Third, kudos to a writer who’s willing to take on an explicitly political (and explosive) topic (prolife/choice) in a young adult novel.

Fourth, double kudos to him for never, ever taking the easy/expected way for his characters.  How brilliantly he puts them in the vise and squeezes them tight.

I’m impressed.  I’m inspired.  And yes, I’m deeply disturbed.

P.S.  The Bookshelves of Doom were also overwhelmed with wows upon reading UNWIND.  Bet you will be too.

Love LOST? Adore THE OFFICE? Immerse yourself in THE ART OF IMMERSION by @Frank Rose

My Reads,

I’ve been book-talking this fabulous book by Frank Rose to anyone who will listen.  If you are interested in the psychology of story-telling, the creative genius behind LOST, THE OFFICE, or THE DARK KNIGHT, or the way media is rapidly changing– read this!

A few tidbits:

“People don’t passively ingest a marketing mesage, or any type of message.  They greet it with an emotional response, usually unconscious, that can vary wildly depending on their own experiences and predispositions.  They don’t just imbibe a story; they imbue it with meaning.”

“Dickens fashioned tales with cliff-hanger endings to keep readers coming back. … More significant, however, was the way he improvised in response to readers’ reactions. … On occasions when a story was faltering, he paid much closer attention to what his readers were saying.  … Scholars have come to see such give-and-take as crucial to Dickens’s method. … In Dickens’s own time, serialized novels were hugely controversial. … The format seemed dangerously immersive.”

“In a mid-sixties discussion with Jean-Luc Godard at Cannes, the idiosyncratic director Georges Franju became thoroughly exasperated with [his] unconvential techniques.  ‘But surely, Monsieur Godard,’ he blurted out, ‘you do at least acknowledge the necessity of having a beginning, a middle, and end in your films.’  To which Godard famously replied, ‘Certainly.  But not necessarily in that order.'”

“For a whole generation of Hollywood writers in their thirties and forties, Horowitz [executive producer on LOST] quipped, ‘Star Wars was a gateway drug.'”

“The most dependable way to forge a link, whether to a colleague in a new job or to strangers on Twitter, is by relating information–a process that often involves telling a story. … Storytelling is a simple act of sharing. We share information. We share experience. Sometimes we overshare. But why do we share at all?”

OK – if those snippets, all from the same book, haven’t convinced you to read THE ART OF IMMERSION by Frank Rose, you’re on your own!

Never doubt that your story matters. It maintains the past AND creates the future.

My Reads, Writing, ,

This morning I stumbled from my bed to the coffee maker, turning on NPR along the way.

The first story to penetrate my brain was about President Obama’s upcoming trip to Asia.  The reporter began, “The narrative President Obama is going tell…”  He went on to describe how the future of the US economy lies in Asia rather than Europe.  So our president is going to tell a story that he hopes will create the future for the US that he desires.  You understand me?  Stories can create the future.

The second piece was from Story Corp, a project beloved by me because it collects and values the stories of everyday Americans.  In this segment, Frank Curre, a Pearl Harbor survivor, tells the story of that attack.  He describes helping with the rescue efforts and concludes by saying,

I still have the nightmares, never got over the nightmares. And with God as my witness, I read my paper this morning — and right now, I can’t tell you what I read. I can’t remember.But what happened on that day is tattooed on your soul. There’s no way I can forget that. I wish to God I could.

Frank Curre may wish that he could forget, but I, for one, am glad he can’t because his story maintains the past.

Finally, let me share with you a bit of science.

In THE ART OF IMMERSION (an amazing read), Frank Rose describes the research of Demis Hassabis, a game designer and PhD neuroscientist.  He studied the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory.  If memory works by assembling the bits and pieces of the experience during recall (rather like a puzzle than vs. a video tape), then he supposed the processes of memory and imagination should be linked.  He found subjects with damage to the hippocampus and put them through a series of visual suggestions (e.g. imagine yourself on a beach).

The results were amazing.  People who had damage in the memory center of their brain could not dredge up complex imaginings. In other words, the same part of Frank Curre’s brain that remembers the bombing of Pearl Harbor is also capable of creating the future.

We are hard-wired for story.  And it MATTERS!

Getting jazzed about telling great stories in new ways

My Reads

On Wednesday, we launched Angel Punk Issue #1 at Things From Another World on Sandy.  It was a killer party!  And I particularly loved watching the guys flourish those shiny sharpies over Val’s fantastic covers.  I can hardly wait until I’m the one with pen in hand, but before that happens, a whole lot more words need to get on the page.  Come to think of it, the team is making me do the heavy lifting in the text production department.  What’s up with that?

Anyway, at the party, I was talking to one of our early supporters and telling him about the great response we had to the transmedia presentation we gave at KidLitCon 2011.  Our panel, widely talked up in the kidlit blogsphere, was called “epic” among other nice things!  We also got a short write-up in School Library Journal and invitations to speak to the publishing program at Portland State University as well as the Youth Services Librarians for Multnomah county.

But back to the party… Our mystery man asked me what people were most excited about—The story? The character? The means of telling?  Good question!  There’s no doubt that a kick-ass heroine who’s trying to do the right thing (even if her perspective is a little warped at times) is a huge draw to the Angel Punk universe.  I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of epic struggles and the hero’s journey.  But among the kidlit in-crowd, the idea of interwoven yet stand-alone stories is what fires the imagination.

None of us think that the traditional book form is really going to die (in spite of dire reports) because humans love good stories well-told.  What is changing is the way in which fans want to participate in the experience of the story.  Here’s the traditional model: (1) troubled writer alone in garret fights madness by writing stories, (2) writer is discovered and can afford alcohol again, and (3) story travels a one-way, straight-line path to the reader’s head.

In the transmedia model, we want to make story delivery less linear and definitely not uni-directional.  Angel Punk has an inner circle of creators but once the bones are in place, that circle will widen to include enthusiasts of the universe.  This is a model that can evolve with changing technologies not be made obsolete by it.  Books will change—how they look, how we get them, and how we read them—but good storytelling sticks around.  And not all stories are best served by a traditional book.  Some are so visual that comics or film are better media vehicles.  Others require a distinct audio component.

Ultimately, I think the kidlit bloggers were excited about Angel Punk because it leaps beyond current forms of storytelling and promises to engage reader/fans on many levels.  With that… I’m back to work.  And don’t worry, I’m not fighting madness or drinking myself silly.

 

 

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

My Reads,

This book is an absolute must-read!

I don’t care if you say that nonfiction is not your thing.  This book is your thing. Rebecca Skloot has written riveting story of both family and science.  You won’t be able to put this book down.  I promise.  Now get thee hence to a bookstore and BUY it because part of the proceeds go to help the family of Henrietta Lacks. Her cells changed the face of medicine and science and yet her family lives in deep poverty.  They deserve better.

And Rebecca Skloot deserves every one of the hundreds of accolades for this book.  She worked her butt off for ten years, risked her own safety, and pushed far beyond her own comfort zone to research and write this book.  She is a master storyteller!

 

Tom Thumb: A Man in Minature

My Reads,

I love nonfiction!

Here’s a book you won’t want to miss. Not just a book about smallness, it’s a big story of a remarkable man, who happened to be small.  He also happened to make a hell of a good thing out of a less than rosy set of circumstances.  Thanks, to George Sullivan, for telling the story of Tom Thumb: A Man in Miniature with skill and respect.

If you want to read a killer review/analysis of the book, check out the blog of the divine nonfiction writer, Laurie Thompson.

More on writing the unexpected…

My Reads, Writing

In Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly, readers get smacked in the face by the unexpected premise: angels are bad.  We think they are good, but they invade our world and suck the life force out of humans, who are, as they are decimated by angel burn, beg for more.

This promo photo for Witches in Bikinis is another great example. Witches?  In Bikinis? Who wouldn’nt want to see that show.

My point is the same as last post: write the unexpected.  It works.

 

 

I have horse on the brain

Antics, My Reads, ,

Last week, I took care of my neighbor’s horses while she was out of town.  I woke wondering if they were ready for breakfast.  I wrote in my office with one eye on the weather darting over the coast range.  I watched for sun breaks and the chance to ride.  For a week, I smelled like hay and stalls and horse sweat.  I pulled the rhythm of my days into that of snuffling breath and eager hooves.

My reading choice: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry.

Whenever the horseboys raced their horses beyond the city gates, Sham outran them all.  He outran the colts his own age and the seasoned running horses as well.  He seemed not to know that he was an earthy creature with four legs, like other horses.  He acted as if he were an airy thing, traveling on the wings of the wind.

Then I thought of this lovely poem by Allen Braden, which appears in his book A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood.

Detail of the Four Chambers to the Horse’s Heart (excerpt)

Listen. The last time I saw my father
alive, he spoke of horses, the brute geometry
of a broken team in motion. He tallied
the bushels of oats, gallons of water
down to the drop each task would cost.
How Belgians loved hardwood hames the most.
Give them the timber sled at logging camp
any day, the workable meadows in need
of leveling, tilling, harrowing, new seeding.
We could’ve been in our dark loafing shed,
cooling off between loads of chopping hay,
the way he carried on that last good day.
With the proper encouragement, he said,
they would work themselves to death.

I must confess that this horse-less week is much more crazy and much less full.