Nate the Great vs Emily Strange update

For those who have been reading my Rosamunde/Emily Strange posts, apparently the author and illustrator did NOT know about the uncanny overlap between Emily Strange and Nate The Great text and illustration.

Marc Simont writes:

“Thank you for your interest in the Emily the Strange caper, which I just learned about a few days ago. Marjorie Sharmat, the author, and I have referred it to the legal department of the publisher. We have not had any contact with Cosmic Debris. Marjorie has the rights to the text and I have the rights to the illustrations. The illustrations are copyrighted in my name.”

Kudos to Chelsea of You Thought We Wouldn't Notice for writing to Mr. Simont and letting him know.

Whatever comes of this, hopefully sales of the Nate The Great series (which I loved as a child, by the way) will get a boost from all this publicity.

Scaling back Christmas revisited

Thanks for the feedback in response to my Scaling back and cutting costs at Christmas post. Here's what some of you said:

From Sib:
"I used to make things myself … I started out with handmade calendars some years ago, then made people CDs for Christmas (mostly with poetry I read, edited and then put together in individual variations that I hoped were to the taste of the recipient) but those didn’t seem to work too well … I don’t know if I gave them to the wrong people or poetry just sinks inevitably, or I am just really not good at this, but I don’t think people liked them. … so this year I am a bit stuck for ideas. I think I might go back to calendars, but those are not exactly cheap, so it’s not a good way of saving money. I don’t know yet!"

From Peter:
"I’m not scaling back this year, because my economizing and scaling back all dates back to the winter of 1999 when my ex’s and my debt issues hit the wall. We got serious about economizing and living within our means, and getting rid of $30,000 of credit card debt–and I continued living that way ever since.

My ex, being one for absolute solutions, declared that we should just stop giving gifts entirely. I wasn’t so quick to cut off my family from gifts, but it was pretty clear that something in the giving had to give. So I went for some guy-baked treats. So now I give everyone in my family a batchelor-recipie goodies (peanut butter chocolate-chip rice krispie treats) and a home-made music CD. It costs maybe a couple of bucks per person, but it gives the illusion of being a “personal gift from the heart,” rather than just cheap. A win-win solution!

Now things have loosened up a bit, and I could afford to buy something useless from a mall, but it’s a tradition now, and time spent creating (if you can call stirring a pot of molten marshmallows “creating”) is more pleasant than the same time wandering through crowded stores with a deer-in-the-headlights expression, wondering what the heck to buy for family that I see less and less frequently as the years pass."

From Sherman:
"I've always found that homemade, personal gifts are the best, no matter the occasion. A friend from college almost every year has sent a gift package with handmade ornaments. THAT's lovely, to my heart."

From Allison:
"I’m hand-making a bunch of my gifts for this year, too. Like you, I just settle in for an hour or so (in front of the TV in my case) and work on stuff. I made up a list of the gifts I need to make and I’ve just been systematically going through it. I enjoy doing crafts anyway, and it will definitely save me money, as I’ve already bought the craft materials, anyway. I will add some tea, coffee or chocolate to the hand-crafted items and voila! Gifts will be done."

From Jeff K:
"Personally, I don’t think gifts need to be given to anyone outside of the immediate family, but it would be a waste not to take advantage of all of the marketing and pick up fancy Christmas gadgets and items, so we usually drop a few thousand around Christmas on ourselves and wrap the stuff up just to play along."

From Julie:
"Between them, my two kids have 41 classmates, plus four teachers (not to mention neighbourhood friends and family friends). Last month I decided that, instead of giving anyone more plastic cr*p, I would do something different.

So I’m packaging up the dry ingredients for shortbread along with instructions and popping them inside little drawstring bags that I have inexpertly sewn from cheap fabric. This way, the everyone get a unique gift, an activity to do, a yummy treat, and a bag to keep treasures in. It’s taking time, but like you I’m doing it in batches in the evenings. I think the cost is $0.50 (US) per piece. Could be even cheaper if you have a fabric and ribbon/yarn stash."

From Vixy:
"I am, frankly, feeling panic whenever I think of Christmas. There is so little money… but there is also so little time. Everything that I know how to do takes time and emotional energy that I don’t seem to have. And yet I need to do something, and the longer I don’t decide what to do, the less time there will be. (Yes yes, I know all the arguments about feeling obligated, but there it is; I have a large and close-knit family, and I can’t bring myself to just not do *anything*.) If I keep up like this I’ll wind up just running my credit card up beyond what I ought… :/"

Christmas: scaling back and cutting costs - and a survey

In light of recent economic events, I thought I'd remind you all of a great site run by a friend of mine: In-Debt Net: Fighting Your Way Out Of Debt. It's not just for those in debt but for anyone who's trying to save money. Annie Walker offers advice with experience and a wry sense of humour.

I immediately zeroed in on Cutting The Cost Of Christmas since I'm about to head into Christmas prep full steam to avoid being caught doing my gift shopping at the last-minute again (and inevitably spending more).




This year I'm trying to make as many gifts as I can. It's time-consuming and needs planning, but I'm trying to do a little each evening. I put some music on, brew myself a cup of tea (last night it was tea I picked up in Germany a while back after having some at Ju Honisch's place), and then work on gifts. I won't be giving out as many gifts as I usually do.

What about the rest of you? Are you doing anything differently this year to cut costs? Or do you have any holiday season cost-cutting tips in general? If so, please do post them here -- I'll compile them and post them all in an upcoming Blathering.

Meanwhile, do check out Annie Walker's blog!

Emily Strange and Rosamunde Strange

Images above from Youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com

I'm not sure how many of you read Inkygirl, my blog for freelance writers, but if you're familiar with either Emily The Strange and/or the Nate The Great children's book series, you might be interested in the following posts:

First post
and
Rob Reger response to my post

Thanks to my friend Ray for pointing me to the post where I first found out about all this.

Graphic novel update: Pencil and Ink

As I mentioned before, Beckett Gladney and I are working on a graphic novel proposal. For those interested, Beckett's just posted a fascinating entry about her artistic process, with photos and images.