Writing

Thanks to Emily …

/ still a dreamer

How happy is the little Stone
that rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn’t care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears —
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity —

–– Emily Dickinson
Poem 1510

Another Reason I Love Summer

/ still a dreamer / 10 Comments

Reading.

One of the wonderful things about summer is that the light lasts so much longer. OK, that can mean more time to get things done, but it also lends itself to sitting outside and reading for awhile after one is done those very things. Another wonderful reason to love summer? NOTHING on television. Repeats, silly reality shows, (except Master Chef), not one thing to make one want to curl up and engage with some characters on a good drama or have a good chuckle. All that adds up to?

Reading.

I just finished Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, another excellent book. And, like The Last Templar, it’s a novel which offers insight into an historic period/series of events I’ve known little about, the internment of the Japanese during World War II. This is a beautifully written novel. It is, all at the same time, a story about the cultural differences of an American and Japanese who fall in young love, a murder mystery told through a courtroom drama, aspects of life on San Piedro island – the men who make their living fishing on the ocean and those who cultivate the land on strawberry farms, the experience of some of the islanders who fought in the war and the aftereffects, and the rounding up and shipping off of the island’s Japanese residents and the conditions they were forced to endure.

Sounds like a pretty tall order, but Guterson is a wonderful writer and he captures it all. The snow, the cedars, the ocean, strawberries – all are practically characters in their own right. I’ll be holding my breath, but am going to get the movie.

And now I’ m reading a children’s book, Holes by Louis Sacher. Holes was the American Library Association’s 1999 Newbery winner. Awhile back, I decided to start reading what is considered the best in children’s literature and made a list – those that I wanted to read selected from among the Newbery winners. However, I  prefer this list – the ALA Newbery medal winners AND the Honor books chosen – many not-to-be-missed books were right behind the medal winners.

Hoping you’re finding some time to read whatever you love while the daylight lingers ….

Medieval Murder Mystery

/ still a dreamer

The Last Templar by Michael Jecks caught my eye at the annual library sale because the London Times jacket notes said “The most wickedly plotted medieval mystery novel.”  I am drawn to medieval times, particularly the music and Gregorian chants, (and the Cloisters in NYC!), but I couldn’t recall ever seeing a mystery of any kind being written in this time period. I was intrigued.

I also have just enough information about the Templars – very little, that is – to want to know more. Let me say this. How this book is written is everything we are told in our workshops, critiques, etc. how not to write. It is all tell, and rarely show. Jecks wrote this in 1995, however, and I believe writing style was quite different then. This is also his style. For me, there was a bit of overkill throughout in how the bailiff, Simon Puttock, contemplated and worried about the murders of the town farmer and the abbott, Oliver de Penne, and had to consider Sir Baldwin Furnshill as a suspect.

And yet … I kept on reading! Why? The Last Templar had a pretty good plot and the mystery surrounding the murders was a good one. I was also enjoying the descriptions of medieval life and learning new words of the period. I enjoyed getting background on what was happening at the time with the Templars, the Pope, the Church and the Inquisition. It was a way of taking in some new history as well as solving a mystery!

One thing I really would have liked, as the main characters did a bit of traveling around England, was a map. This seems like a minor point, perhaps, but when in a new environment where locations are critical to the evolving story, I find a map invaluable. I love that the Mercy Thompson series has a map of the area of Washington State in which the story took place and that there is also one in Snow Falling on Cedars of San Piedro Island. Who lives where, where boats come in, what part of the island who grew up on all become intricate parts of the story. I like maps; I find them helpful in cases such as these.

Would you like The Last Templar? I think the writing style might not be for everyone, but if you like a good murder mystery ….

 

 

 

Books vs. Movies – Part 2

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

I’ll be honest – I started this post on June 3, shortly after  I had seen the movie The Bridges of Madison County and compared it to the book. There’s no time like the present, someone once said, so I’m finally the getting this up as a post. As I look at the novels I currently have waiting to be read, I must admit I am often drawn to those where I could watch the movie version as well.

However, when I think about other books that I’ve read and their movie counterparts, the results are mixed. I’ve listed a bunch, and again, these are very personal preferences reflecting what I like to read and which movies I’d go see.

The Shipping News – Annie Proulx – both movie and book excellent!

Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King – really liked both

Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris – book so gripping I couldn’t put it down, movie was also gripping, but not quite as good, though truly terrifying

Red Dragon – Thomas Harris – Book was excellent – the prequel to Silence of the Lambs; movie a huge disappointment, and almost nothing like the book

Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo – both excellent, book still a bit better

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd – book excellent, movie really quite good

Lord of the Rings – R.R.Tolkien, Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling,  Narnia Series – C.S. Lewis – I lump these together – perhaps unfairly – because they are all series, fantasy and of epic proportions in film. I loved the books that I read from these series, and that was not always all of them, but I really loved the movies, too. Either way, you can’t lose.

White Oleander – Janet Fitch – Outstanding book, couldn’t put it down; the movie not really even worth seeing

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick – I like the storyline, but it wasn’t a favorite book of mine; Martin Scorsese really brought the story to life. Preferred the movie.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthue C. Clarke –  Movie by Stanley Kubrick – One of my favorite movies, and I feel it far outshined the book, but I’m real biased on this one.

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan – an amazingly complex and engrossing book; the movie couldn’t possibly carry the book’s  richness. Book better by far.

The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger – Here’s a case where the movie was just fabulous and fabulously funny. I got the book after seeing the movie and was disappointed.

The Horse Whisperer – Nicholas Evans – I saw the movie first on this one and it was excellent, so I read the book. Also excellent and I’d recommend both.

 

Well, that’s my two cents. Do you have a loved book that was made into a movie and a thought or two about it? Or a great movie and the book you read later? Let us know!

It Helps If You’re Famous

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

As I was perusing last Sunday’s Parade magazine, I noted a small mention of a new children’s book – The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by TV’s Glee star, Chris Colfer, (he plays Kurt Hummel.) At first, I sighed. It sure helps if you’re famous, I thought. This is not to say that Colfer’s book isn’t fabulous – it may very well be – but the road to getting published for the rest of us is a long one, it seems.

I couldn’t help but wonder … with so many celebrities being published in children’s books  …  can they all really be such talented writers? Or I am just experiencing a moment of weariness on my own path?

Here are just a few of the celebrities who have published children’s books – Jay Leno, Queen Latifah, Jamie Lee Curtis, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim McGraw, John Lithgow, Jeff Foxworthy, LeAnn Rimes, Ray Romano, Brooke Shields, Jerry Seinfeld, Henry Winkler, George Forman, Will Smith, John Travaolta, Katie Couric … and the list goes on.

It almost makes me wish I were famous, too, but for one thing …

There is one glowing gem in all of this … my journey to being published is just that … a journey. It’s been a road with delays and frustrations at times, it’s true, but also one with an endless and continuing richness of experience in the children’s book world, the company of friends and colleagues along my path, and a constant and evolving education on what constitutes a great children’s book. I know, when I am published, it will not be because I’m famous; it will be because I have written and illustrated something that is truly worthy of being in the hands of a child.

And that really counts for something.