Saturday, May 22, 2010

Independent Book Places for Kids

Visiting Kansas City? Take a wander out to 'mellifluous' Brookside and visit The Reading Reptile.

This is a wonderful bookstore for children and parents alike. Take a few minutes to simply stare in amazement at the walls and ceilings (no... sorry, you'll have to see it for yourself) before browsing the amazingly large book selection.



Illustration by Lisa Campbell Ernst


If you're in the Chicago area, please don't miss a visit to The Magic Tree Bookstore  in beautiful Oak Park. A great place for the young and adults alike.



And don't forget Women & Children First on North Clark Street. The wonderful women who run this store are a national treasure.  Go... visit, browse, chat, buy a book.... Please.







If you're in Milwaukee, please don't pass up The Rainbow Booksellers on Vliet Street. This is another treasure in the world of independent bookstores. A great selection of children's books in a relaxed  atmosphere.




Our last stop today is in Indianapolis at Kids Ink Bookstore on North Illinois Street. The link will take you to their Facebook Page.

A lovely little shop crammed full of children's books and goodies. Definitely worth a visit, or tow, or more.


Monday, May 17, 2010

Friday Fish Wrap: The Late Edition

File this under Farking Insanity and Complete Stupidty


Arizona  (Yes... This is a link, so click-it)


I'm with Tammi on this one. Whatever you folks have been smoking down there, it's time for detox.


BlogWarts



I'm a fantasy writer, (Yes... one of  them) which often puts me on the wrong end of the argument with the SciFi crowd.


There are plenty of people out here in the real world who will opine that fantasy fiction isn’t “real writing.” Science Fiction authors complain that fantasy writers too often take the 'fluffy-bunny' approach to writing, which is their way of saying we use too much 'magic' in our work.


The complaint is that Fantasy, or if you prefer 'Speculative Fiction' depends far too much on 'crutches' to work around a problem.  If a character gets in trouble, they simply reach into their bag of tricks.


What's in the bag(man)?


Nothing up my sleeve.


Not again,Bullwinkle!


Reaches into hat and.... TaDa! A fluffy bunny.


OOPS!!! Not exactly.


Remember the old tales about St. Nick and his magic bag?


I'd bet even money Harry Potters room-of-requirements came from inside of it, as did Patricia Wrede's magic pack (Talking to Dragons) that dispenses whatever one just happens to need.


Then there's Diane Duane's wizards (Kit & Nita), who always have a "'pocket' of temporal space" handy in which one can conveniently store a lot of things far too large for ones own pockets that, like J.K.Rowling's sword in the sorting hat, might just come in handy.


But always with the caveat that it gives you what you need - and not what you want.


... Next Time: The Fluffy Bunny, Part II


Meanwhile, you can catch the latest news at:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

And Another Thing...

I've been thinking of starting an a organisation to promote the death of dead mother books. You know the kind I mean. 

The 'why' of dead mother books has long been debated and there are many theories on the subject of their creation.

The most absurd one I've ever read goes along the lines of "Disney hated powerful, independent  women.

Whether or not that is true, lets just dump that theory on the garbage heap and set fire to it now because Disney didn't write the stories for the animated movies his studio produced in such prolific quantities

They were all old fairy tales... many of which were already in the Public Domain, which meant no royalties to pay and no relatives to seek script approval from and no authors to nag them if they took liberties with the plot or the characters.

The other theory, which may or may not be more credible is the theory that the protagonist would not have gone off on his or her own and done such great and wondrous things if their mother (or parents) were still alive. 

The people who thought that one up never had a nosy grandmother or an irritating monster-in-law. 

Then again, maybe they did. 

'Hey kid! Run for your life.' 

Getting eaten by a dragon is a far better fate than gaining an evil queen with a penchant for poisoning relatives as a mother-in-law.

Seriously though, there is something to the theory, but it's really about self-empowerment, about taking charge of your own life and making, rightfully or wrongly, your own decisions.

The problem occurs when the 'adult' authors motivation is to work off their own angst about a dead or missing parent (or parents).  The result is six to sixteen year old child protagonists suddenly expressing adult angst and portraying adult emotions and neuroses.  

Hey world!  Get with it. People like librarians and even the author-perpetrator are busy trying to make kids read this stuff. They're dumping their angst/guilt onto younger generations as a form of psychotherapy... and getting paid to do it.

V.C. Andrews wrote about the obsessions of her time (rape, child abuse, incest). Today its cancer, drugs, and not being able to deal with adult issues, like death, as an adult because they were never prepared for it or refused to accept it.

... but by the gods they're going to make their children and everyone else's children neurotic as well, even if it kills them.

As a result, children are becoming increasingly neurotic at an ever decreasing age. 

Psychologists and psychiatrists have never had it so good, and the pharmaceutical industry is making a fortune on children.

It's time to End-The-Trend.