Authors

Quote from Gilda Radner

/ still a dreamer

While searching for a suitable quote for a job I was working on, I came across the following. As an aspiring author and illustrator of children’s books and a fan, it struck a chord with me.

I always found Gilda Radner to be a fabulous and funny comedienne. She died too young at 42 from ovarian cancer.

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
~Gilda Radner

Love Is All You Need

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Through a long, circuitous route, I found such a wonderful video …

You know sometimes how your friend e-mails you something cool? Well, my friend Kathy in Maryland sent me this great quote from the movie Akeelah and the Bee. She didn’t know where it came from, so I looked it up. The quote is from the very well-known and wonderful metaphysical writer and teacher, Marianne Williamson. I have two books of hers, A Woman’s Worth and A Return to Love. As it turns out, the quote is from the latter, called Everyday Grace, right there on her website. (Go check it out – it’s perfect.)

OK, so now I’m on her site, which I love … I scroll down and there’s this video … after watching it, I go to the “offical” Starbucks site. What I learn is that, on December 7th, 2009 at 1:30 pm GMT, Starbucks invited musicians from all over the world to sing together at the same time to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa. In that one moment, musicians from 156 countries played “All You Need is Love” together.  Watch the video as musicians from all around the world come together and share this song. Starbucks has raised enough funds for over 14 million days worth of medicine – as of this date – for those suffering with AIDS.

p.s. Now does this remind me of my favorite guy, Matt, who danced all over the world just to bring people together through dance? Yes, it does, and if you haven’t yet gotten your fill of all those warm and fuzzy feelings, go visit Where the Hell is Matt? and watch Dancing 2008. It still brings tears to my eyes.

Scarecrow’s Dance – Jane Yolen and Bagram Ibatoulline

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

When I first planned on buying this book, I admit it was largely for the magnificent illustrations of Bagram Ibatoulline. I first came across Scarecrow’s Dance as a yet-unbound copy and part of an illustrating exercise at the NJ SCBWI Illustrators’ Intensive in 2008.  I was, and still am, utterly entranced by the rich, yet soft, colors at dusk, and the beauty Ibatoulline has created in the cornfields and farm setting. If you are an illustrator or one who appreciates excellence in illustration, this book is worth the cost of that alone. And the story, in the brief exposure I had to it at that time, was so touching as to bring me to tears, and it still does.

I eagerly awaited it’s publication with my primary interest in the art. It finally arrived so I could appreciate both story and text. Jane Yolen is the author of Scarecrow’s Dance, and recipient of the Caldecott Medal for Owl Moon, and many, many other awards in her rich and extensive writing career for children. As I examined this book more closely, several thoughts did cross my mind … as beautiful as I found the illustrations, would they appeal to the target age group, 4 – 8? Would a child that age lose interest in the dusky light’s subtlety on page after page? Would a barn described “as red as blood” be disturbing to a small child? Might some parents find both a child and scarecrow kneeling and praying to God a predominantly Christian message they may not wish to read to their child in a picture book story?

I don’t actually know the answers to these. I found the overriding message to be of the greatest importance, and that is finding who we are and knowing our place in the world to be unique and one of value. I think a parent reading this story to a child with the feeling Yolen has put into it, will easily impart that as the primary message, and it is very beautifully done in both word and image.

I visited Jane Yolen’s web site, and found a wonderful section just for us writers – lots of sound advice to guide us on our journey to becoming not just published, but still sane when we get there. Kathy Temean, the RA of NJ SCBWI, also posted 20 Yolen writing tips as transcribed from the recent SCBWI Conference in New York. All great stuff.

And then, Bagram Ibatoulline. I kiss the ground this illustrator walks on. His work is simply magnificent. In addition to Scarecrow’s Dance, he has done two books by Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane and Great Joy. He illustrated a beautiful book, Crow Call, by Lois Lowry, The Serpent Came to Gloucester, and many, many others. Next time you’re in a bookstore, I highly recommend you take a look at Ibatoulline’s work.

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

/ still a dreamer

I’m trying to figure out – why didn’t I love this book?

I thought The DaVinci Code was terrific as was Angels and Demons, yet something was missing in The Lost Code for me. What Katherine Solomon was studying and what “The Word” was really all about are right up my alley, but was there too much of it? Was there more information about the Freemasons and the Masonic symbolism than was needed to keep the plot moving briskly?

As always, once I was reading, it was hard to put down, but away from it, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t wait to get back to it! Most strange. I still say that Brown has an excellent way of jamming suspense and intrigue into a very short timeframe in which the novel takes place, and for that I enjoyed The Lost Symbol. But something wasn’t right.

While I never saw it coming who Mal’akh actually was, I also found him to be somewhat of a 2-dimensional character. Yes, he was a psychopath at this point, but I don’t know if I was given ample reason to understand how he got that crazy considering his background. I also don’t recall the interior dialogue of characters in italics in previous books, though I just may not be remembering, and I’m not sure that I liked it.

I was fascinated by the information about the Washington Monument and the surrounding buildings and their architecture, but did so much factual information pull me away from the storyline? Was there just too much? Next time I’m in D.C., I will look at the buildings described in a very different light, no doubt, but I think I was being overwhelmed with non-fiction in a fictional account. I believe Dan Brown has a message – an important message about man and his future – that he wants to share. I like the message. I guess I’m wondering if Brown is conveying it in the most accessible way.

I’m puzzled. But then, who am I to criticize? These are just my perceptions, and I wonder if others share them or feel differently.

Fast, Riveting Read – Moon Called

/ still a dreamer

Sometimes I like to read literature, read in my field, (children’s books), something enlightening and inspiring, or perhaps a good, complex novel. I like a variety of things.

Sometimes I am in a place where I want to read something totally engaging which sucks me in hard and doesn’t let me go until I’m done and all but spits me out.

And that’s what I got when I read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. A writer friend’s husband thought I might like this, (how did he get my number?!), and lent it to me. Was he right! Now I wouldn’t have actually sought out a book written in first person by a woman who’s a Volkswagen mechanic and who’s also a coyote shapeshifter, and whose life is intertwined with werewolves. I wouldn’t have known it existed. But now I do.

What a fast, fabulous, can’t-put-it-down novel! The storyline is solid and very well told with just the right amount of factual information woven in about werewolves to keep the plot moving along, but never leaving me feel like I was being educated. Our heroine, Mercedes Thompson, a.k.a. Mercy, is a well-developed, engaging character. The pace is very fast, and wrapped around Mercy’s friend Stefan, a vampire, a witch who is a “cleaner”, and some involvement of the local fae, it’s totally absorbing.  The backdrop is the local werewolf clan, headed by Mercy’s next door neighbor and pack Alpha, Adam.

I realize as I write this, that Moon Called could sound almost hokey, but truly, it’s not. It’s a complex story in the nature and motives of the characters and very well-written. So much so, that you’ll see that the book I am now reading is the next in the Mercy Thompson series, Blood Bound. I can only hope it’s as good!