Category: Uncategorized

It’s the Story, Stupid

The New York Times excels in hand-wringing about non-issues.  That’s not a slam; it’s just how I see things.  Doesn’t stop me from reading, but sometimes you just gotta shake your head.  One recent eye-roller focused on the “power” of YA…

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Taking Care of Business

This is not a sexy post.  No video, no glossy photos. This post is about taking care of business, and unless you’re into that kind of thing, this is about as exciting as toe fungus. Now, if you’re like me,…

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SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Hey, guys: Tomorrow, I’ll be at the SE WI Festival of Books in Waukesha with other fabulous authors and editors like Alex Bledsoe, Matt McElroy, Kelly Barnhill. A couple panels, my two cents on YAs. If you’re around Milwaukee at…

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My Brain, Off-Grid

So my husband’s dragging me away this afternoon (it’s Thursday morning), and I’m thinking, shoot, I don’t want to go anywhere, not even to spend several days off-grid, in the woods, tramping around, getting all dirty and smelly and feeling…

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May 2012 Recommended Reads, Listens and Looks

Oh, you noticed that I didn’t have any recommendations for April? It’s true. There was nothing: not a book, not a movie, nothing that caught my fancy. This past month was an interesting one in that I read mostly nonfiction:…

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Enjoying the Ride

If you’ve been out of town or off-grid for the last few days, then you probably missed hearing about Neil Gaiman’s commencement address to graduates of the University of the Arts.  Even if you’ve heard about and/or listened, it’s a…

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The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer

When my husband wants to drive me crazy, he reminds me that computers don’t live in our world.  Instead, we live in theirs.  I balk at that, but then I remember the irony of that last scene in The Social Network where…

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Sticks and Stones . . . and the Kobayashi Maru

News flash: All of life revolves around Star Trek.  Everything you ever needed to learn, you can learn from that show, and this is nowhere more self-evident than the (in)famous Kobayashi Maru scenario.  For all you neophytes, let me briefly…

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Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books recommends DROWNING INSTINCT

And a lovely review, it is.  Gotta love that last line: Bick, Ilsa J. Drowning Instinct. Carolrhoda Lab, 2012 343p Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-7752-8 17.95 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-8726-8 12.95   R Gr. 9-12 When the policeman asks Jenna how she fell through the ice and nearly…

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The Undiscovered Country of Our Imaginings

You remember Hamlet, right? That “to be or not to be” soliloquy? Or maybe you’re most familiar with its incarnation as the subtitle for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where the evil Klingon General Chang, played with giddy abandon…

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