Notes From All Over

Greetings! The long silence was due to the frantic finishing of the Cybils requirements, but now that my top 10 is in the bag, I am resting up for the wrangling ahead. Okay, I'm lying. Actually, I'm jonesing for another book... it's seriously frightening, now that I don't multitask with a book on my lap while doing everything else (eating dinner, watching TV, doing the bills, listening to the sermon) I don't know what to do with my hands. I may have to start reading the paper when it comes and even knitting again, horrors! Just another two weeks before we can happily drop this Cybil stuff in the laps of the judges... and may I say to you, dear ones, be prepared? You have a lot of long conversations ahead of you. Already the YA group is trying desperately to figure out how to narrow our list of books down...

I've been meaning to share something I read in the paper. Did you know that according to German scientists, if you're feeling bad about yourself, you should not read mysteries? No, seriously. If you're already feeling kind of stupid, apparently you should just read something... else. Something with no twists at the end to trip you up.

Hmm.

And, if you can figure out the plot of the mystery you're currently reading? Does that boost self-esteem and cause you to cut people off in traffic with an air of superiority? Does this explain SUV's?

Can I give a little snivel of self-pity? Via Book Moot we learn that yet one more of our favorite comics, Foxtrot, is going off the "air" except for Sundays. Waa! My mornings will not be the same without Paige and Jason's squabbles. Jason is the child I shall never have... much like Calvin was the other child I shall never have. Man! All of the very best comic strips leave before I'm ready for them. The Far Side was one of the first. Yet I'm pretty sure the weird serial manga stuff our paper carries now on Sundays is going to be something nobody remembers ...tomorrow.

While noshing on the ever-available cookies, I browsed a tabloid-esque paper to discover that there's something new in lit'triture. In the beginning there was audio... I think. Maybe. Or maybe it was movies. But nowadays, the big thing isn't necessarily to have your book made into a movie, or to have an online chapter-by-chapter adaptation of it. Now to be really cutting edge? You have to break into graphics. Or so it is said by those fans of Stephen King, who are excited that his Dark Tower series is being unveiled with Marvel Comics on February 7th.

In more news, Disney has got its fingers on Enid Blyton's classic Famous Five series, and reactions are pretty mixed. Some are cheering, but I'm not sure how great it is that once again folks aren't looking for new creativity, but trying to recreate the wheel, which is rolling along just fine. Of course, the new Five are going to be the offspring of the original characters, and the series will allegedly be cartoonized, but one wonders if Mickey + Enid Blyton = Better Blytons or make them better or worse than some people already fear they are.

Via Fuse #8, you now have everything you need to write an epic novel -- huzzah! You know you want to begin one right now, during the school break! Of course, should you actually manage to write one including ALL of these fine stock characters, I will be ever so interested in reading it! Probably no editors will be, but hey -- you take what you can get, right?