PUGGY'S HILL

I am deeply in love with my Hollins MFA students - a 2nd year Seminar of 6 wonderful women!  Watching them learn & write together is miraculous - like watching leaves unfurl from seeds in those time-lapse photography films . . . And about as quickly, since an entire semester is crammed into 6 weeks!  This week (#4) was notable for being the first time I felt I could tease any of them, secure in the sense that everyone felt safe & supported together, and all laugh without risk!  Wonderful, for me - and, I hope, for them.

Today I had 3 back-to-back one-on-one conferences, during which we did everything from discuss whether starting a new novel is harder than revising a broken one, to playing "The People Game" (asking direct questions to a character until we both felt we knew her well).

Yeah, I'm missing REadercon - but I'm basically getting the same high:  Talking About Writing all day!  (This will continue this weekend, when we go up into the mountains visit Tiffany Trent - with the added bonus of getting to see her chickens! You don't get that at Readercon, baby!)

So here's my question for YOU:

One of my students is writing a middle-grade SF novel about Earth kids who visit another planet (kind of a work-study program, only Top Secret).  I love her work, but was surprised that the SF elements feel very retro - kind of 1950s-style - since she's so young.  I finally found out from her today that while she LOVES SF film & TV, she has read virtually no actual SF novels.  We're going to fix that.

I realized that, in order not to reinvent the wheel - and to catch up to current publishing standards - she needs a crash course in YA/MG "interplanetary" SF!

Which I am sadly deficient in.

On the spot, I remembered (and recommended) John Christopher's TRIPODS trilogy (OK, it's not Interplanetary, but I remember its being very powerful), and some William Sleator. I'd already recommended Panshin's RITE OF PASSAGE, which is thematically along the lines of what she's doing (she's interested in Colonialism - and also in Morality:  What makes a good human being?) . . . . And then . . . I kinda fell off the map.

Can you help?

I'm looking for work that starts with contemporary(-ish) Earth kids, who then encounter either Space Travel or Aliens - either classics or recent much appreciated.  Suggestions?

**Andre Norton's great, but did she ever start with that premise?  And here's where I blush to said I never read a Heinlein juvenile - which is the right one, if any?  Is anyone still writing this sort of thing....?

I will be putting up much more stuff of mine to auction, very soon, I promise. Swordspoint stuff, Bordertown stuff . . . stuff you want.  (Any special requests?)

Meanwhile, do not miss delightful things like Caroline Stevermer's offer to handwrite a personal letter from Kate of Sorcery and Cecelia . . . Patricia McKillip's hand-written draft of her poem from Welcome to Bordertown . . . . an original song by Emma Bull . . . . a ms.critique by the stellar reader/teacher/critic Sherwood Smith (not that I'm biased or anything, but ahem!) aka sartorias . . . . and of course, signed copies of my dear Joel Derfner's amazing books, along with a litttttle something extra . . . . 

All of which is to say:

If someone were to offer to write, say, a fanfic about Alec in Bordertown - well, I would surely bid on it.

Wouldn't you?

For details on how to bid and how to offer something to the auction (and what it's all about, anyway), go here.

Every dollar raised is a bone for Tilly!

Hollins' library has a wonderfully quirky Children's Books collection; in it I found:

THE BLACKSMITH OF VILNO by Eric P. Kelly (1930)
Yeah, it's the guy who wrote THE TRUMPETER OF KRAKOW, a book I loved when I was a kid, which my mom had also loved (one of the few things we could agree on; that, and THE SECRET GARDEN - which was the focus of the lovely student-run Francelia Butler  (wotta gal! And also, it turns out, a Clevelander! and Oberlin grad) Conference here yesterday!  So now I get to read speaker Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's Norton Critical Edition of same, and get more gossip on FHB.  At the Conference Silent Auction, I also managed to snag a copy of SARA CREWE, OR WHAT HAPPENED AT MISS MINCHIN'S  [1895].  I already own at least one [courtesy of friends who know my passion for Sara], but this one is inscribed in a fine hand: "Margaret E. Schniehl, from Papa, Dec. 17th , 1896" and on the facing page, in another, I suspect later:  "The Little Unfairy Princess" dramatized version of "Sara Crewe" - Milie James as "Sara Crewe".  It's pretty beat up; but if you desperately need it, let me know. I like to keep spares for just such emergencies.) 

My father's mother, my Grandma Rose, was from Vilna so I'm jazzed about reading this.  It is the perfect summer's day lie around with a bowl of local peaches (which we also happen to have!) read - even though it does contain the sentence:  

He could not vision it, but had he possessed that power of intuition which brings to man's imagination the pictures of actuality that pass upon the screen, he would have seen this drama evolve.  

Can't win 'em all!  And what he fails to vision is the teenage queen of Poland not wanting to marry him, because "It was her life, not theirs." Short, and to the point.

Books I acquired through other means:

LINNETS AND VALERIANS by Elizabeth Goudge (1964)
The most perfect book in the world.  Found it in Malvern(? or was it Sussex?) school library when I went to daycamp there in 3rd grade, lost it for awhile, then found again and never let it go.  This copy - deaccessioned library hardcover! -  courtesy of my Cousin Els, who sent it here as a birthday gift to Delia.  ETA:  Els writes about it here for Tor.com.

WHAT WE KEEP IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT WILL STAY by Amanda Cockrell (2011)
Brand-new! By the director of the Hollins Children's Lit program!  Sooooooo good!  She wanted to call it THE UNTIED CHURCH OF DOG , but the publisher thought that might lead to confusion.  Launched a discussion on the power of books that imply magic without actually crossing the line into hardcover fantasy....  And the family dog in it is named The Todal.

THE KINGDOM ON THE WAVES:  THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION: VOLUME II   by M. T. Anderson (2008)
2008?! Can't believe this has been out this long and I managed to miss it!  I was wracked with cramps of unfulfilled yearning when I finished Book One!  So distractable.  Volume 2 has been stop-and-start for me, but when he hits it, he hits it hard & true.  Some gorgeous passages in here that I'd love to type out and share with you in their entirety.  But why don't you just go read the book?

And now, books you can't read yet but trust me you'll want to:

THE INQUISITOR'S APPRENTICE by Chris Moriarty (October, 2011)
Cory Doctorow told me I would love this, and he was so right!  A middle-grade fantasy adventure about a Jewish kid from a working-class family on the Lower East Side (that includes Talmud scholars, radicals, playwrights & traumatized pogrom victims) ca. 1900 that is full of Big Love for old New York, and crazy magic, including powerful families named Morgaunt & Astral . . . and plays totally fair with the institutional bigotry that was the social norm then.

SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman* (2012)
I wish you could read this right now!!  It is soooooo good!  I don't want to torture you by telling you how good it is when you won't be able to read it til next year!  But tomorrow I will pull myself together and write a blurb for it, and then maybe I will post that to whet your appetites.
*(Yes, she is also the author of the comix Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming  and Return of the Mad Bun.  Which I only just realized.)

Yesterday's NYTimes ran an article on the swift and dramatic rise in e-book sales of children's and YA titles - pretty clearly tied to the surge of e-readers given as holiday gifts to kids. And apparently, some kids don't really differentiate between different kinds of Screen Time, and find themselves reading instead of watching TV.

All of which makes me very pleased to consider that all my novels are currently available in a number of e-book formats (platforms? whatever) . . . and so are deliasherman 's delightful, delicious "New York Between" kids' books Changeling and The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen. MMoMQ hardcover is also currently on Big Dog Sale right now...plus Kindle.. Come buy, come buy!

 I am astonished at how many of you have read the Upfield books - I'd never heard of them til Henry thrust a couple into my bag.  Speaking of which, I was just over to his place (on tony Madison Avenue - and on my old rustbucket of a bike, which to my utter amazement, still runs, despite the winter it spent out in the courtyard - I just need to find some duct tape for the split vinyl on the seat, that's all . . . but had a glorious ride through Riverside & Central Parks!! no, Mom, I'm not riding in NYC traffic - not much, anyway) - and am now the proud borrower of his biography, Follow My Dust! (I'm not making this up, you know!).  1 glance at a random sentence makes it perfectly clear that he did, indeed, write it himself.  It's Alice B. Toklas all over again . . . kind of.

All of which is to say:  Went over to Henry's, signed a bunch more The Man with the Knives chapbooks, most of which are going to Readercon, next weekend to be sold at the Small Beer Press table, because Gavin Grant is a real stand-up guy.  Henry also mentioned that he'd left a stack to be sold on commission at St Marks' Bookshop here in NYC (E.Village), and had either sent some or was about to, to McNally Jackson (SoHo). I think there are about 100 left floating around, if you want one.  I'll be taking a handful with me to Finncon (July 18) & Aussiecon (Sept) - if you'll be at either one, and you want one with your name on it, please let me know to reserve (and schlep) for you.

Oh. My.  

We took what was essentially the redeye back from London to Newark last night, arriving around midnight (5 a.m. UK time) - add 1 hour to get through passport/baggage/customs, and another :30 to get home . . . . I slept some on the plane, but also took great joy in staring out the window at the hours & hours of sunset over the clouds - if I were mathematically inclined, I would have a nifty little formula for how our speed relative to the earth's meant that sunset lasted 5+ hrs . . . . Woke up to see a crescent moon posed precisely over the evening star right over our wing with a streak of pale blue &  a flush of pink on the horizon below.  Sometimes I am one very lucky human being.

Also read all of Katherine Langrish's Dark Angels (published here as The Shadow Hunt), which is just amazing (thank you, Terri, for the perfect parting gift!) - and this is also a good place to recommend her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, which is smart & thoughtful & deep about the sorts of things we really care about.

Woke up at 6, but to my amazement, went back to sleep 'til now!  Hurray, body - I think you're finally getting the hang of this International Travel thing.  Of course, feel like creamed chipped death on toast . . . . I guess I'll catch up on all the e-mail I missed in the past 24 hours.  It's hard being back from the country, but Riverside Park is gloriously full of the scent of blooming linden - I could even smell it as we came up from the West Side Highway at 1 a.m.!

One thing I do know:  I'm having SUSHI for lunch!

First of all, thanks to all the lovely wonderful people, old friends & new, who came to celebrate with us on pub day for The Man with the Knives, my new chapbook from Temporary Culture.   (I'm going to get your names/tags wrongs, so please do "sign in" below so I can thank you personally!.)  Here's everyone partaying at the elegant James Cummins Booksellers on Madison Avenue (full of delectable rare books - yes, that is a first edition of Keats' poems under the glass case) while I slave away signing books:

  

And here is the Thing Itself - the first copy I held in my hand - note the raised type of the cover, which is real embossing [check the back - see? raised!], and the page with the number count  (only numbered in the hand-bound version - note Henry's red fingerprint [one in every book, even the paperbound]!)

                 


There are still plenty of books left, so click here to find ordering information.  

And if you'd like your book signed and/or inscribed, I'll be happy to do that for you if you let Henry know before Saturday noon (when you order), as that's when I'm seeing him next.  I inscribed about 8 of them today to people who'd pre-ordered - you know who you are - and thanks!  If you don't like the story, you can simply enjoy the Beautiful Object you will soon be holding in your hands.  The weight & surface of the paper . . . the texture of the cover . . . the interior illo's . . . . ahhh!  Bliss in 32 pages.

OK, yeah, I do remember dimly now posing in that Chinese restaurant on St Marks' Place with a wee teddy bear & copies of my books which I then signed with something rude about saving breasts . . . mind you, there was a lot of tea-smoked duck involved, and those crunchy little sweet-and-sour lotus roots I love, and maybe some pea shoots . . . . but, yeah, photos were taken, books were signed . . . and now they are being offered for auction to raise money for Avon Walker Lisa Spodak, who, with her minions, have made it their business to gather photos (and books & signatures) from People We Love, including Jasper Fforde, Ellen Datlow, Pat Rothfuss, Lev Grossman &  David Anthony Durham (same night! same restaurant!), N.K. Jemisin, Idina Menzel, Vanessa Williams (just saw her in "Sondheim on Sondheim" - what a performer!), Jim Butcher, & Amber Benson.   Go, Priscilla (who took my photo)!  

Please bid early & often, friends, for this cause.

KesselsKramer's New Tapestry is an updated version of the Bayeux Tapestry, a huge medieval work of art showing the current affairs of its time. Where the Bayeux Tapestry told the news stories of 1066, New Tapestry tells the news events of 2009. It's 30 meters long and illustrated by 44 international artists.

"My" artist, Ilene Winn-Lederer, who did the glorious cover & illustrations for my book The Golden Dreydl (see Userpic), is Weeks 14 & 15: "The Blessing of the Sun" and "Galileo Galilei." (And, yeah, I do wish they had run a pop-up of the actual names of the artists who were good enough to contribute art, don't you?)

While we're on the subject, Winn-Lederer's newest book is Between Heaven and Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary (Pomengranate Press). Pure glory. Take a look at this Slide Show, and you'll see why it's the perfect wedding/ba(r/t) mitzvah gift forever.

Or maybe you'd prefer her self-published The Alchymical Zoodiac: A Celestial Bestiary ?

I also want to thank her for generously contributing some really nice spot art to the all-new, all-revised IAF website.

The Interstitial Arts Foundation's Shameless Commerce Division (well, OK, it all goes to support a non-profit dedicated to tearing down genre boundaries, but I couldn't resist), headed by Auction Guru ktempest Bradford, is making an offer you'd be mad to refuse:

1. Browse the images of art and jewelry we’re auctioning off and pick 1 – 3 favorites. Then share these favorites on your blog or social network of your choice. Tell your friends and family why you chose the pieces. Don’t forget to include a link back to IAFAuctions.com.

2. To enter, post one comment in the AUCTION'S POST HERE (not my LJ post) for each of the places you mentioned your favorite pieces.

3. Recipients of the free books must promise to review them (honestly & without bias) on their blogs/websites.

For more details, links & instructions: Read the Fine Print in this Auction post - and while you're in there, check out all the amazing pieces coming in every day!