7 posts tagged “authors”

Striving to pass on the trivia in my noggin, I wrote another blog for Dayton Metro...books by people famous for other things...you probably know about some of these:

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-wrote-book-about-what.html

Gotta love Jaime Lee Curtis's children's books...but must laugh at Judge Judy writing a book (on many levels, her titles are worth a giggle in and of themselves).

I sometimes post these things and then give 'em the eyeball later (hard to believe...some of these blatherings have been edited, I know). I was planning to add to and maybe punch up my entry of a scant hour ago...but the author of the book I was touting had to go comment on it! Yeah, I know I could make it private until I get back to it, but with pre-alzheimers I'd have a blog of half-finished, invisible entries.

And ooo! John Scalzi and Cynthia Lord have been here! Aren't you in good company. (So has Julie Ann Peters, but you wouldn't know that. She wrote me rather than commenting).

SO...I stand corrected. "Agent to the Stars" IS available on-line free to read. Here: http://scalzi.com/agent/ You should rejoice & read! Now I can get my Dad to read it...he who is glued to his computer screen. Who enjoyed "Old Man's War" which I gave him for Christmas a couple years back (and have since bought fer myself).

What I was gonna add to the post which appears below is that I discovered John Scalzi through his oft-read-aloud(in our house) movie reviews from the sadly defunct "Official Playstation Magazine" & was gratified to find he wrote in my favorite genre. Also, I actually had to work to get this copy. See, Bradford library is in our "consortium." (That's in quotes because it seems so silly for our little system to use such a big word). However, Bradford won't share its new books which rankles our patrons. (They complain to the staff who must try to explain this system of apartheid which makes for grumbly staff). Anyway, I requested we purchase the book. It was out of print. So once the year-long limit on declaring something "new" was up, I whined until Dayton Metro's administration asked Bradford to share. They did. :-) The five or six people on the hold list in front of me and the two after me joined me in prancings of happiness.

Of course none of us knew we could still read it online. {I've never successfully made it through a book on my computer...I still have the pdfs of "The Plant" by Stephen King mostly unopened on my hard drive}.

Oh, And John Scalzi is (obviously if you've been to his site, blog, or spoor there-of) local which is a big reason Bradford had his book...it has a "Local Author" sticker on the spine :-) 

Madeleine

One of the greatest writers of our time died last Thursday. I read her Time Trilogy (expanded to a quintet...but the two newer books just weren't my cup of tea) in fifth grade, and I fell in love. No characters at that point in my life had ever seemed more real to me than the Murray family. I so wanted to join them in their home in the New England woods near the star watching rock. Later I reread (something I don't often do) the books in high school & loved them all the more...I've reread them several times in adulthood & their power over me has not diminished.

If you have read them and loved them, you must listen to her read them. She recorded the Time Trilogy in the early 90's. Listening to her read them was like discovering them again for the first time. The books recently came out with beautiful new covers. Buy a set for the kids you love best. They are perfect.

You'd think I would have learned by now that despite my being in the backwater (sorry Vox) of the Internet here & being a complete nobody, when I put stuff out there it does get read.

Authors have googled themselves and contacted me...I have discovered thanks to "footprints" and the like that even further authors have viewed my various websites...This isn't a bad thing--someone is reading my blather--but now I feel like I can't say anything bad about anyone or anything--OK, I guess if you read enough, you'll see that doesn't extend to elected officials or the public in general or my Union (he he) sigh

I hate having an over active everyone-must-like-me gene. Helps in some ways in adhering to that step upon the Eight Fold Path "Right Speech" in Buddhism. Which is an analogue (for the uninitiated among you) for what your mother always used to tell you: "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."

I should be used to my words being out there...I've been quoted on book jackets fer gee-golly sakes! (of course it says VOYA or Kirkus instead of my name...but publishers obviously like some of my words).

So in the interests of getting contacted by people I really wish would contact me (David, Erik, Cynthia, Ginny, F Paul, Judith you aren't on the list because you already HAVE contacted me ;-) here's a list of the people I want to talk to--so google yourselves already:

Neil Gaiman,

Sheri Tepper (Sheri Eberhart, E E Horlak, A J Orde, B J Oliphant gotta cover all the pseudonyms)

Michael McDowell (hey! I'm not ruling out the dead!)

Alice Hoffman,

Mare Winningham,

Elvira,

Nana Visitor,

Meredith Ann Pierce,

Stephen King,

Joe Keenan,

Julie Anne Peters...

I'm an equal opportunity fan :-)

I am, of course, joking...but I love you all :-) I seriously think I need to get out more.

I got my copy of "The Margarets" yesterday & can't wait to read it! Sheri Tepper has been my favorite author since I read "King's Blood Four" in High School.

If you have been reading these entries...you really should get out more...you know I say that about a couple people:

The Gate to Women's Country

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett most notably. However, Sheri is tops and it's been four years since her last (which I got to review "The Companions" for VOYA...surprise it got a glowing review). I was hoping they would send me this one...no dice. But I am ever happy to buy a Tepper. I just wish it hadn't taken so long.

Her "Gate to Women's Country" should be required reading in senior high...it's a post-apocalyptic fusion of thriller, mystery, and science fiction--blended with Greek tragedy (the characters enact an imaginary play "Iphegenia at Illium" at their festival) and of course what everyone calls "feminism." I loved that and "Grass" and "After Long Silence" and

Here's to the Newly Dead

"Awakeners." And "Gibbons Decline and Fall" is one scary piece of literature--you'd swear you were reading headlines--until the aliens.

With Tepper I had the extra added bonus of discovering around 1991 that she also wrote mysteries under two pseudonyms...and I suddenly had six or seven (at the time) mysteries under the names Oliphant and Orde.

I just need to finish the very fun and funny (though spooky for reasons I will pinpoint in a mo') "Miracle Wimp." It's spooky because the character keeps reminding me of myself at his age. That's good.

I wondered at the start of all this (when these posts were a Xanga page) why anyone would read my blather--

Then I was shocked when I found that Jane St. Anthony or someone at her publishing house logged on to my Xanga after I mentioed her book--

I was further shocked when author Jenny Han did the same (and I felt bad about the tone of my comments about her book).

Finest Kind

Now something similar has occured...Seems Cynthia Lord among others read the post on April 3rd...and I just got a letter from the author of the fabulous book "Finest Kind" Lea Wait thanking me for mentioning her book and championing it on the committee. Well it is a great book. My Dad reads science fiction (he loves Andre Norton) and physics textbooks (he has a deep and abiding love of Feynman) for fun...but he started reading the books that I was giving to my nieces and nephews (when stuck in Raliegh with nothing else to read) and his two top picks are "Penny From Heaven" and "Finest Kind." So not only did it win over a historical fiction curmudgeon like myself, it got the Dad of the curmudgeon.

Upshot: good prezzie for the historical fiction lover on your gift-giving list! Page-turning action, fine writing, & characters you feel you know by the end. No easy answers & set in a little explored time in history. Jake Webber is left to prepare his mother and his disabled brother for the harsh Maine winter when his dad (who until lately was a banker) goes off to work as a logger. Jake learns the value of a good neighbor & how to tell which ARE good.

Here's a fun story: I got the ARC of this book and thought "ooo! Maine!" (we've established, I love Maine). I was on my way out the door for work. I flipped through the book quickly--and something caught my eye, the first line of a chapter, and I hooted with laughter. The line was: "Does Granny McPherson ever go to Wiscasset?" This is funny because Trent's grandmother is a McPherson...(he HAS a Granny McPherson)...and she lives in Presque Isle, Maine. I propped the book open to that page with a post-it under the line & wrote "Well, DOES she?"

OK, maybe we should get out more. We laughed. And I loved the book.

SO I log on and peek at the "footprints" whatever the hell they are. As far as I can tell it just shows me where

The Summer Sherman Loved Me

someone was when they looked at this boring rant about nothing...and there are two from Minnesota! And I can see there is a site listed that refered the user to my site...and it was Google...and I can see the search--someone who searched "Jane St. Anthony" and then "The Summer Sherman Loved Me" looked at my site--Minnesota is where Jane St Anthony is from--great, now the poor lady knows I think her book was lame.

Is that bad Karma? I didn't mean for her to find out. I never woulda said it to her face. Ane now I've basically said Joseph Bruchac's new Skeleton Man book was toilet paper...so my Karma is heading South.

But you have to be able to have opinions, right? You have to be able to call a spade a spade (or am inferior book an inferior book)...so maybe my Karma's safe. I think I'll keep it up until Buddha or Pema instruct me otherwise--being honest about my opinions, not saying bad things about people's creations.

Feeling a little better today. STILL haven't heard about the job, but I am in a better place about that. I don't NEED it. I know I would do well and enjoy parts of it, but if it is time to move on, it's time to move on.

Just in case any other authors look in here, I liked "Shug" (but, Jenny, I think she's too young to think "The Color Purple" is her favorite book & though her mom is a forward thinking lady...would she really name her daughters after two lesbians? Still...great first book, I hope you write tons more & you are wicked cute! Say hi to David Levithan, another wicked cute author who I see you know.) Ruby Lu was cute (the dreaded C word!) and Bringing Ezra Back was quite enjoyable.

The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery

I am WAAAAY behind in my reading & I better get back to Enola Holmes there. Besides the cat wants to go outside & it always brightens my day to clean up a little barf. (For you dog people: cats eat small quantities of grass to make themselves sick and clear out hair balls)

I wish I could attach more than one thingie-picture whoosis. I am listening to a fun CD from 1996 "Pee Shy"

TTFN