Ingo

Many, many thanks to my friend Parki for proofreading my manuscript before I send it back to my agent. I'm also working my way through the entire mss again myself, this time reading everything out loud. Sounds silly, but I find it difficult to proofread my own writing after I've worked on it for so long otherwise. I find the read-aloud method also useful for checking for sentence flow.



I've decided to shut down Blatherchat for good. I've been getting way too much spam, and UBB's interface only lets me delete posts one at a time...a major pain when I get two dozen spam posts in one day, or come back after a vacation. I already had to delete a number of forums because the hard disk space was costing me/us too much on Samurai.

Anyway, if you'd like to post comments, please do so under the appropriate post in Livejournal. I'd also be interested in hearing from any non-LJ out there who have comment boards re: spam control. So far, the only way to control spam comments seems to be a moderated comment system but that also seems to be a major pain to me, having to approve every comment that gets posted. Suggestions/advice welcome! For now, I think I'll just stick to Livejournal comments.

Just finished reading:

Ingo by Helen Dunmore (Harpercollins, 2006). I recently picked up this new novel for young people from The Flying Dragon. An engrossing read (I got hooked right away), and the world that the author has created is entirely believable. I'd rather not say more about the book because I don't want to give too much away. Hm...just noticed that Ingo doesn't seem to be available in the U.S. yet, just Canada, perhaps because it was first published in the UK (?). There are clear British language references throughout the book, like "crisps" instead of "chips" and "Mum" instead of "Mom." Anyway, I look forward to the next book in the series!

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John Howe, D&D and The Time Traveler's Wife

Thanks again to Bruce Adelsohn for letting me know about the John Howe talk last night; Bruce had seen it in Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog. I usually check this blog regularly but have fallen behind in blog-reading lately because of current writing and illustrating projects. John Howe, for those of you not familiar with the name, is one of the illustrators who helped inspire Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. His famous Gandalf painting is one of my favourite desktop images on my laptop.

Allison and I had dinner at Queen Mother Cafe on Queen Street before heading over to the Learning Annex, where we picked up our "Preferred Seating" wristbands and were told to go to the MuchMusic building at 8 pm. I had been in the building a few times over the years: once when I won a Breakfast Television Valentine's Day contest and had to drag Jeff along to the show, once when my friend Helen and I went to see Joey DeVilla play his accordion on MuchMusic for Accordion Awareness Month, and probably one or two other times.



Upon arriving, we had to check our belongings and waited in a holding area while other audience members arrived. After a washroom run, we were all led through the corridors to the Bravo! studio, passing other studios along the way. I was surprised at how small our studio audience was: perhaps 20-25 people, with half a dozen crew members sitting in as well; this made for a much more intimate setting than the last time I had seen John Howe, which was in a large auditorium at an sf convention. One of the women was a librarian for North York Public Libraries and remembered Urban Tapestry from when we performed there over 10 years ago!

The front of the room had been set up with two comfy-looking armchairs for John Howe and Caitlin Sweet (a Toronto fantasy author), with a giant relief map of Middle Earth as a backdrop. During the talk, samples of John's work were presented on large monitors on either side of the stage.

Caitlin Sweet was a good interviewer, with much more interesting questions than the usual artist interview. And though John Howe claims he doesn't really like public speaking, both Allison and I found him to be remarkably eloquent, with a wry sense of humour. He talked about his work with the Lord of the Rings movies, but also about his early influences, how he got into art, his philosophy of art, his opinions of digital art and manga. There was an audience Q&A session afterward. The show is supposed to air this fall on Canada's Learning Channel (thanks to Allison for the link!).

It's been fun seeing how many other roleplaying geeks there are out there, with some still involved in roleplaying. I loved some of your first character names, like Meliah Foulbreath and Leila DeLuxe. :-) For the record, I -did- own the very first D&D set with the stapled manuals, which I ordered by mail. I have no idea where it is now, though. I've also played Rolemaster and Heroes.

Recent read:

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I bought his book on Allison's recommendation, and I loved it. I've always been a big fan of time travel stories. I'm sure cynics will point to the this story and sneer, "It's been done before!" but y'know, there are only so many basic plots out there...the challenge for writers is to add their own unique twist. Audrey Niffenegger certainly succeeded, in my opinion, and I also loved the romantic aspect.

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Pride Toronto, Flatmouse, and the end of my reign as BBQ Queen

Above: How NOT to get published...

During a chat with my friend Craig yesterday, I discovered that Pride Toronto is this weekend. Jeff and I have always been away on Pride Toronto weekends, so this will be my first chance to see the Pride Parade. I'm having dinner tonight with Craig, and then we're going to check out some of the Pride events downtown.

Walter came over to help Jeff hunt for the hole the squirrels used to get into the house. The only hole they could find was a very small one near the kitchen, so they've plugged this up. Hopefully this will prevent a a tragedy like the one earlier this week from happening again!



I am no longer BBQ Queen, sadly; Jeff and Walter have informed me that I have been cleaning the bbq incorrectly all this time. I've been using a wire bristle brush on the grid while the grid warming up because that was what All The Newbie Grill Instruction Books seemed to indicate, but apparently this is a bad thing. Wire bristles have been falling out of my brush and collecting at the bottom of our bbq. Apparently I'm supposed to clean the grill while it's cold, not warm, but I'm finding this tougher on my arm tendons; as much as I like our new bbq, I'd rather not have a tendinitis setback because of it. :-( J & W also told me that I've also been putting on too much oil, which has been accumulating in a grunge-like fashion (as in dirt, not the rock music) along with the wire bristles. This was also a result of my research: I've been brushing a bit of oil on the grid each time before I start cooking but apparently this isn't really necessary either.

One good thing that has come out of all of this: Jeff has kindly agreed to do the bbq cleaning from now on. :-)

But I'm still curious, because of the misinformation in various books I've seen: if you're a bbq owner, how do YOU clean your grill? Every time you cook? If so, while the grill cold or warm?

Finished another book last night:

The People of Sparks by Jeanne Dupreau. This is the sequel to The City of Ember. I enjoyed this book just as much as the first one. Dupreau takes a familiar setting (post-Holocaust) but gives it her own unique twist. I'm very much looking forward to third book in the series, The Prophet of Yonwood.

And finally, some exciting news...



I occasionally mention Flatmouse, an old childhood toy of Jeff's. Flatmouse is, as his name indicates, a flat mouse. Jeff isn't sure how he got so flat. He does look as if he was meant to somewhat flat, but has gotten flatter over the years.

Anyway, the exciting news is that my author/illustrator sister Ruth is going to be featuring Flatmouse is one of her upcoming books! Flatmouse has been spending the past few months working with Ruth in her office as a model and source of inspiration. After all the attention he's been getting at my sister's place, I suspect he's a tad disappointed to be coming back home, but I'm sure his spirits will pick up once he sees himself in print.

:-)

Speaking of Ruth, Today's Parent magazine recently posted a review of Ruth's book, Clara and the Bossy: ""Clara loves triangles, tuna and the colour purple. She also loves the idea of her new best friend, Madison, until she finds herself swapping triangles for stars, tuna for ham, and purple for yellow...because Madison said so. At first intimidated by Madison's bossiness, Clara soon realizes that the only way to be happy is to be herself. Ohi's warm illustrative style invites readers to share Clara's victory."

I have such a cool sister. :-)



Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Europe trip, KJB daughter update, and Dr. Who

Above: Some of the books that Jeff and I have borrowed or bought in preparation for our trip to Europe. And yes, I'm trying to learn French and Italian at the same time. Right now I'm alternating days: one day French, next day Italian, next day back to French. I'm remembering more of my high school French than I expected, but then again my expectations were pretty low. I'm also finding that the German I've learned keeps popping into my head at inopportune moments.

"Sono stanca," I recite in Italian, which means I am tired. But then "Je suis fatiguée" pops in my head, which is the French translation. And, completely uninvited, "Ich bin müde" jumps right in there as well, confusing things immensely. I'm sure I'm spelling some of those phrases incorrectly, but right now I'm trying to focus on pronunication.

I post things in my Livejournal from time to time that I don't post here in my Blatherings, usually if they're very short or I'm hoping for a quick answer. Recently an entertainment writer asked if I knew the words to "Wreck of the Imperial Death Star", which I didn't...but I suspected someone in my LJ readership would. Many thanks to those who responded, including Tom Smith (who volunteered to write the song if we couldn't find the real lyrics :-D ), hvideo (who had a hardcopy of the lyrics) and tigertoy (who kindly typed the lyrics out from his copy of Kantele #7).

In my post, I mentioned that the lyrics-seeker was the first American writer to contribute material to the BBC series "Doctor Who," which immediately sparked speculation about his identity and the nature of his contribution in the LJ comments section and in my private e-mail. For the record, I know nothing about Dr. Who, sorry. As I posted in Allison's survey about what fandoms people didn't entirely understand, I never got into this series, though I did see one episode of the new series and was intrigued. And after reading KJB's story below, I am sorely tempted to rent the series from the first season and watch the Whole Thing.

Anyway, Ken Bussanmas has responded in that LJ with a clarification of his involvement. I found his story so interesting and well-written that I felt compelled to post it below.

KJB also wants to thank those who posted supportive comments in my LJ re: his missing 15-year-old daughter. He writes:

"Thank you all so much for the nice comments. They are very much appreciated. Still nothing as far as getting her back but a very good lead has cropped up in just the past few hours, so keep your fingers crossed! - KJB"

UPDATE: Ken's daughter is back safely! He thanks everyone for their support.

Anyway, for the interest of Dr. Who fans out there (and heck, non-Dr. Who fans...I loved this story as well :-D ), here is an excerpt of what KJB added to the comments section of my original LJ post. Please see the comments for his full post.

...As for my involvement with "Doctor Who" - I was the first American to submit story materials for the actual series, starting back in 1978 (IMDB has it as 79, which is a year off). When I say that I submitted story materials, that means I didn't write any full scripts which also meant that BBC never had to actually pay me but *did* mean that I was the first American to actually write something for WHO and have some version of it make it to the screen. Here's how it came about: In 1978, I was 14 years old and had managed to sell a few pieces of short fiction. I had been a huge fan of a series that ran on PBS in the early 70s called "Doctor Who", which seemed to be about this white haired bloke that worked for a secret agency and defended the Earth from all sorts of nasty aliens. Oh, and he always seemed to have a cute "assistant" in tow wherever he went. The series was on every day and I loved it. One day, the series just stopped. A few years went by but I was still thrilled to see "Doctor Who" back in the television schedules. I eagerly tuned in at 10:30 PM on the specified night to watch my dearly missed series, only find that some curly haired whack job with a 12 mile long scarf was now calling himself "The Doctor". Needless to say, I was underwhelmed but I continued to watch. Having become a "professional" writer in the years between local broadcasts of "Doctor Who", I decided that I could probably write for the series. One afternoon after school, I found the phone number for the local PBS network and rang them up. After about an hour of being passed from one person to another, I finally wound up someone in Programming. The poor guy was perplexed by someone calling to write for one of their programs. As far as he could remember this was the first time it had happened. He was polite and sent me all the material they had for "Doctor Who". A week later, the material arrived in the post. Inside were a number of 8X10 black and white photos from the series and a large, color slide of a very cartoony piece of artwork that featured a caricature of Tom Baker as The Doctor and most of the villains from that era of the series. In addition to all of that, the package had printed folder that included episode titles and synopses from every story in the package. Flipping the folder to the back, I discovered that the series was being distributed in the US by Time-Life. The back cover also had a list of names and telephone numbers to contact about the series. Since I had no idea where to start, I decided to start with the name at the top of the list. That name was Wynn Nathan and he was the President of Time-Life Television in New York. Mr. Nathan and I had a wonderful chat about the series, how it was doing in the US, his recent lunch with Tom Baker and how the fans truly despised the Howard DaSilva voice-overs at the start of nearly every episode. I mentioned that I'd heard about "Doctor Who" books being available in the UK. "I've got a few of those," he told me in a very matter-of-fact voice. "I can mail them to you if you like." Still not realizing that this man ran the bloody company, I offered to reimburse him for the books and postage but he wouldn't hear of it. A couple of weeks later, I was the proud owner of paperback versions of "Horror at Fang Rock", "Face of Evil" and "The Second Doctor Who Monster Book". The most important thing Mr. Nathan gave me from that confirmation was the direct phone line to the BBC's "Doctor Who" production office. Now this posed a little bit of a problem. Calling Time-Life or PBS after school wasn't a problem but England was on a 6 or 7 hour time difference, which meant that the earliest I could phone the office was at 9PM, UK time. Fortunately, I had an early morning study hall and the teacher for those study halls had no problem writing passes to use the pay phones in the hall. Getting one of those passes, I gathered my notes and proceeded to make my parent's phone bill skyrocket. By charging the call to the home phone, I wouldn't have to carry 3 tons of change in my pocket and anyone I talked to at BBC would just assume I was calling from my desk. Trying to explain myself to the various people at BBC was a lot like the circus I found at the PBS station. Finally, I got forwarded to the "Doctor Who" production office. The man I was connected with was genuinely surprised that a writer in the States had any interest in working on their series. We talked about various ideas and it wasn't unlike a standard pitch session. The man I spoke with seemed genuinely impressed with some of the ideas. "I'd probably be able to refine some of the ideas a little more if you could send me a copy of the writer's guide," I explained. The man hemmed & hawed a bit before admitting that "Doctor Who" had never used a writer's guide and probably never would. He promised to get something out to me that covered any changes in the series from the episodes that were running in the US and those that had only run in the UK. As we were signing off (he had an appointment and I had English class), I realized that I had never gotten his name. He laughed a bit and said, "Doug. Doug Adams." Over the next several weeks, Doug and I would have regular phone meetings. At one point his "writer's guide" finally arrived. It was two pages, typewritten and weighing about a pound thanks to the amount of liquid paper on them. It wasn't so much a writer's guide as an explanation as to why they *didn't* have a writer's guide. Years later, producer John-Nathan Turner would send me the "official" writer's guide, which turned out to be Doug's writer's guide with a few errors corrected and JNT's signature at the end instead of Doug's. Anyway, citing the difficulties of having the kinds of meetings that would be required for me to pen a script from start-to-finish, none of my full scripts were ever produced but a fair number of plot elements from my work made it to air. Some of the more significant ideas were the Key To Time (mine was a 6 part episode that involved the Master) and, later, Kamelion (which I try not to claim too loudly as that damned robot was a complete piece of crap). If anybody has any other questions, feel free to ask." KJB

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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Above: Jeff and our friend Ray, in Sugar Cafe (942 Queen St. W. 416.532.5088) Sunday morning.

Went for my first run of the season! I LOVE running in this neighbourhood. No inhaling of exhaust fumes from traffic under the Gardiner Expressway. Trees and houses instead of skyscrapers and concrete. And no more dodging of cigarette smoke as I run past clusters of smokers frantically getting in a few puffs during their sidewalk breaks during the day. It's also much hillier than my old neighbourhood; I could feel it in my calves this morning. I wasn't nearly as sore as I expected, though, so I guess all the power walking I did during the winter paid off. :-)

Looks like spring's on its way! Check out the new sedum in our garden:



And buds on our white lilac tree:



This time last year, we had signed the papers for the house but still didn't have possession yet. We had two official "visits" to the house for measuring, etc., and each time I remember walking around the garden, drinking in as much as I could so I could take the memory back with me to our condo.



So last night I read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which was written by Kate Dicamillo (author of Because of Winn-Dixie) and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, a book lent to my one of my nieces. I had seen the book in The Flying Dragon bookshop but wasn't that intrigued. The premise, after all, sounded cliched and uninteresting: a toy rabbit gets lost and has adventures.

When I started reading it, however, I was immediately captured by the author's lyrical style. Then I got pulled in by the story and especially by the main character. Yes, the rabbit.

Warning: this is not a particularly happy book, and I would hesitate about recommending it to very young children. It's the type of book that would appeal to an adult on a far different and potentially deeper level than it would to a child (though my 11-year-old niece quite enjoyed it as well).

I found the writing is so beautiful and story so compelling that I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. Something about the characters and the truths discovered by the rabbit in the story affected me pretty deeply; I found myself crying (and I mean crying, not just getting teary-eyed) by the end. A friend of mine read the book, however, and wasn't all that moved; clearly the story will affect people in different ways.

A SURVEY: Has a book ever made you cry? If so, what was the last book you read that made you cry?

Three days until FilKONtario!

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