I just read The Invisible Child: On Reading and Writing Books for Children, a collection of speeches by Katherine Paterson, one of my favorite children’s authors. Of course, now I want to write children’s books. The problem is that when I read Tolkien I want to create a fantasy world, and when I read Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie I want to write murder mysteries. And when I read poetry, I want to become a poet. When I read a really good blog entry, I even want to become a really good blogger.
I’m such a copycat, and no one wants to be a copycat. I know that wanting to write, and being a writer who does the real work of a writer are two very different things. I simply can’t help feeling that I might actually be able to do the work if I disciplined myself and did it. However, I’m also afraid that whatever I wrote would look like a pale imitation of whatever I read last. And such derivative writing wouldn’t be worth the time and energy it took to do it.
So, for now, my inner writer remains mostly invisible. Except here on this blog.

Do you remember Gallant and Goofus? (Hint: Highlights magazine) The model for Gallant died this past week.
I think Highlights was/is a fantastic magazine. I never had a subscription when I was little, but I used to read it somehow. (In the doctor’s office? Old copies from somewhere?) I remember all those questions on the back page that got progressively harder and harder. And I remember reading lots of Baba Yaga stories out of Highlights magazine. Baba Yaga, for those who were deprived of the experience, was a Russian witch character, and for some reason Highlights had a whole series of fairy tale stories about her. And I liked them.

The following people share a birthdate with our vice-president:
Ann Taylor, author of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, b. 1782
Barbara Tuchman, author of one my favorite works of historical nonfiction, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, b. 1912
Walter Savage Landor, poet, b. 1775

Finis
I STROVE with none, for none was worth my strife.
Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art:
I warm’d both hands before the fire of life;
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

Angela Margaret Thirkell, author of about 30 books about English village life during and just after WW II.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, b. 1882
Lloyd Alexander, b. 1924, author of fantasy based on Celtic mythology

In honor of Mr. Alexander, I give you some of my favorite fantasy worlds. Can you name an author/creator and at least one book title for each one?
1. Middle Earth (easy)
2. Narnia (easy)
3. Prydain (should be easy)
4. Valinor
5. Earthsea
6. Pern
7. Land between the Mountains
8. Wonderland
9. Oz
10. Shangri-la
11. Westmark
12. Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Land of the Houyhnhnms
13. The 100 Acre Wood
14. Dictionopolis and Digitopolis
15. Asteroid B 612

Actually, most of these should be easy. And did you know that George Macdonald and his family read Lewis Carrol’s “Alice story” and encouraged him to have it published?

The redeeming aspect of being sick is that I get lots of time to read. So while nursing a rotten cold, I finished off two very different books today. The first involved an evil queen, a princess with a fairy’s curse, a troll with a penchant for mangled cliches, and a young hero who doesn’t know who he really is but is about to discover who he wants to be. Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris made me smile, and that in itself is worth the time I spent reading it. If you enjoy fractured fairy tales, you should try it. You’re still wondering about the mangled cliches? Here are a few examples:
“That didn’t amount a hill of figs.”
“Don’t you know we’re up against a creek with no paddles?”
“Personally, he thought Chris was barking up a dead tree.”
“I hate to be a wet blanket in the mud.”
And my favorite, “it’s always darkest just after the lights go out.”
Oh, and the princess and the hero communicate via p-mail (pigeon-mail). I like that, too.

The other book was also a YA novel, a bit more on the serious side. Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor is chock full of very obvious Christian symbolism and doctrine, and at first I didn’t know how it got to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a mainstream secular publisher. However, this from the author’s website seems to explain:

Mr Taylor, 43, from Cloughton in North Yorkshire, did not begin to write until he was middle-aged.
When he completed the manuscript for Shadowmancer, he was advised that no publisher would be interested in a parable about Christianity and black magic set in the 18th century.
He decided to ignore the doubters and published it himself for £3,500.
The novel’s popularity spread by word-of-mouth as parishioners, friends and neighbours recommended it to fellow readers.
The film rights for Shadowmancer were recently sold for £2.25m, taking the vicar’s total earnings to £6m.

As for the book itself and my opinion of it: it takes place in 18th century Yorkshire, along the coast. The world of Shadowmancer seems to be rooted in reality; the author mentions smugglers and dragoons, John Wesley, the names of real towns and villages in Yorkshire, Africa. But this world is also populated by boggles and witches, thulak and hobs, and other even more dangerous and evil creatures. If you’re uncomfortable with a book that includes, practically celebrates, the supernatural, both demons and angels, skip Shadowmancer. That’s not to say that the demons are glorified in any way; in this book good is good and comes from God, and evil is evil, even though Satan (Pyratheon) may be disguised as an angel of light. Three young people struggle against the powers of evil and darkness, and eventually, of course, the Light overcomes the Darkness. As the angel Abram says to Pyratheon (Satan):

“. . . your own anger deceived you, your lust for death engulfed you. A light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it. See, he is coming, the bright morning star shines upon the earth and your days are numbered.”

I wouldn’t say that this book rises to the level of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, but it is well written and action packed. And it does embody truth.
Raphah, the main Christian character, on demonic powers:

“It’s as if they are on loan. He (the evil priest Demmurral) can use them, but they do not belong to him. He is deceived into believing he has the power, when in reality he too is a puppet. People who use these forces never really understand the true energy behind them. They think they are the masters when in reality they soon become the slaves. Pyratheon gives them what they want . . . until he wants them.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. May we all be protected from the deceptions Satan uses to enslave.

On January 25, 1984, Apple Computer released the first Macintosh to replace the Apple II. The new Macintosh sold for $2495.
We have two Macs in this house and two “other” computers. We like the Macs best. They’re more reliable. About 12 years ago our Macintosh looked like this: