Chance to Win a seat in Beth Barany's "Plan Your Novel Course"

November's NaNoWriMo is coming up.  To help you prepare, Beth Barany is running an awesome course "Plan Your Novel" beginning October 1st.  And she is making one seat available for free!  WOO HOO!

If you would like more information about the course and the opportunity to win the free seat, check it out here.

While visiting Beth's site, be sure to sign up for her newsletter and other offerings (such as Blab chats and other fun events!).

Linkage (LOL)

February 16, 2015 -- 065 to 068

Book 065

Originally titled "Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" Doris Pilkington's Rabbit-Proof Fence is as much history of the relations between Europeans and Aboriginals in Australia as it is a story of how three mixed race girls (aged 8, 11 and 13) ran away from the government school they were sent to and walked home again -- a 1600 km trek.

ICFP (It Came From Peter) -- A YouTube video about Station X (Bletchley Park) and the efforts to break the Enigma codes.  This was part one of four parts ... and did not mention Turing at all!  

The recent movie about Turing sparked a short discussion on Facebook about the inaccuracies about Turing's life -- and a few people were surprised to learn that the Enigma encoding machine had been built pre-WWII and was sold it to businesses across Europe.  The German military saw its potential and decided to use it.  The German military made changes to the machine that made breaking its encoding more and more and more difficult.

A great book on the subject is Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939–1943 by David Kahn.

 

Book 066

 

Okay, it has been around for a few years and really did not interest me.  Peter mentioned it the other day -- I don't know where he saw the title but he mentioned it.   It was available through OverDrive so I decided to give it a whirl.  Thus Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  by Seth Grahame-Smith found its way to my computer and found itself being played.

There is a preface where the author admits to getting a call from someone at his publisher's office (or was it his agent??) -- anyhow, the caller says "Let me toss an idea at you.  What do you think of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?"  Seth says he envisions blood and guts and lots of fun.  He figured the Austen fans would hate it for the zombies and zombie fans would hate it for the Austen stuff.  The main criticism he has gotten, he says, is "not enough zombies."

I shouldn't admit it -- since I was supposed to have read the book for a college course but did not -- I have never read Pride and Prejudice.  And maybe that is why I did not click with this book.  

Peter wanted to take a nap and he wanted a wake up call in two hours.  Seemed like the perfect reason to pause (um, more accurately -- quit) this book and find something the right length to use as a "timer listen."  Two items became those timer listens:

Not really books but I'm numbering them anyhow.  They are both Thalia Kids' Book Club interviews.

"Book" 066 is the interview with Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson concerning their fourth installment in their trilogy prequel to Peter Pan.     

The Starcatcher's Series came about through a short series of events but started when Dave Barry was reading Peter Pan to his daughter, who interrupted to ask how and when Peter had met Captain Hook.  Book four of the trilogy is Peter and the Sword of Mercy.

"Book" 067 is the interview with Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series of books.  He grew up in Liverpool during WWII and the first time I  had listened to this interview a couple of years ago, I was surprised that I was surprised to learn that besides London getting bombed during the blitz, Liverpool's docks were bombarded too.  Jacques says, "The first thing kids always ask me is 'when did you decide to become an author?'  You can't answer this.  But I always say, 'Ha ha!  I remember the very morning I leapt out of bed and said, 'Ha ha!  Today I shall become an author and I will auth and auth and auth and auth'."  **grin**

 

Book 068

So after the interview, what could I do but return to the Peter Pan prequel that I had first listened to five or six years ago.  Peter and the Starcatchers, Starcatchers series book 1, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, answers the question where and when did Peter first meet Captain Hook and tells us where Tinkerbell came from.

February 15, 2015 -- Book 064

Alex Flinn rewrites fairy tales to set them in modern times.  Previously I had listened to Cloaked and A Kiss in Time.  I figured this book would be just as good.  Told by the male character, Kyle, Beastly did justice to the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale but maybe not as well as the other two had reset their stories. 

February 14, 2015 -- Book 063 -- A "Ho! Ho!" Better than Santa's!

Edmund Crispin should get the credit.  He wrote it.  But it is the narrator who deserves the credit.  Philip Bird's narration is good.  But it is a very short part of this book, The Glimpses of the Moon, that brings me back to it.  First, I do have to admit that of all the Fen mysteries I've listened to, this one has him at his least obnoxious.  But the part that makes me return to this murder mystery is the vicar's laugh, his "ho ho ho!"  The series of fiasco events leading up to that laugh from the vicar are enjoyable but the tone of that 'ho ho ho" makes me listen the entire book just for that moment of levity ...

February 13, 2015 -- Book 062

Once again, Terry Pratchett comes to my rescue with Jingo.  When the island surfaces, it is time for war to find out who owns this piece of stinking "land" ...