squeetus

All about Brad

I've just put together that one person is responsible for three of my absolute favorite animated movies of all time:
The Incredibles
The Iron Giant
The Family Dog (this was an animated short that appeared on Amazing Stories like 20 years ago, and my family has the entire episode memorized. Seriously. Every word.)

The man's name? Brad Bird. Super genius, apparently. If you haven't seen The Iron Giant, this is one worth owning, a fun and lovely story of boy-meets-giant-robot. Great family flick. And if you know much of my husband, you'll see the particular appeal a giant robot story has for us.

Now if we could somehow scheme to add rapunzel's revenge to his list of stellar productions...

Pottering around

Happy Potter Day everyone! I think this should go without saying, but please, please, please do not post any spoilers here. Nothing. Not even something you learn on the first page. Let us make this a spoiler-free zone. And please do not email me about it. Some 15 hours after book 6 came out, I was getting emails saying, "Can you believe that -- died?!" At that point, I hadn't even read book 3.

Some of you have asked me about my own Harry reading habits. I read the first two books a few years ago. I liked them, especially Rowling's witty turns of phrase, but I didn't go on to read the rest. I usually don't read many books by the same author because I have so many books waiting for me and not enough time for them all. I didn't think I'd ever go back to Hogwarts, then after I had Maggie I was ravenous for audio books, since I could read hand's free while I held, rocked, nursed, sat-up-at-night with her. My husband had the series on audio, so I started on book three and loved them. Jim Dale is just so spectactular as a reader. I will be listening to book 7 this week, hopefully getting the story on my own before others blab in my hearing.

My friend Mike sent me this link to an article in the Guardian that asks, Would Jane Austen get published today? Amusing and disheartening.

Cooking lessons

K, writing a graphic novel is HARD. Writing a graphic novel for young readers is VERY, VERY HARD. It is so hard. I've never had it so hard. Did I mention it's hard? I know there are people out there who think that it must be easy to write for kids and easy to write something that's illustrated. Ha! Double ha-ha! This one is kicking my hinny. rapunzel's revenge didn't burst from my head in full armor. There were many rewrites, many hours of frustrating discussions of plot, many times I wanted to throttle the script and scream, "Why won't you work right?!" But we got it eventually. I am ridiculously in love with it.

But now the sequel is saying, "You thought rapunzel's revenge was a challenge? I laugh in your face! Triple ha-ha-ha!" I don't know if I can describe why getting any story to where it needs to be is so challenging. I think most people who have gone through this process have had the same experience, but for people who don't, I think it's difficult to understand. When you read a book, it seems obvious that this had to happen in order for this to happen, or that character had to be a certain way or the writing style had to be thus in order for the story to work. But when you're writing it from scratch...well, the only way for me to describe it is through metaphor. It's like saying to someone, "You know how to scrabble eggs, make chocolate chip cookies, and chili. So obviously you know how to cook. Now I want you to make chicken pompeii. It should taste like this. There's no recipe, and I can't tell you what's in it or even show you a picture of what it'll look like when it's done, but you'll find what you need at the grocery store. Also, there are live alligators at the grocery store. Good luck!"

Goth girl

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
Northanger Abbey

Myrna asked in a recent comment, "You don't really dislike Northanger Abbey, do you?" Thanks, Myrna. You're not the only one wondering about this, so I should probably clarify. It seems I've earned a reputation as a Northanger Abbey hater because of a line in austenland: "Sure, Jane had first read Pride and Prejudice when she was sixteen, read it a dozen times since, and read the other Austen novels at least twice, except Northanger Abbey (of course)." Though I didn't anticipate this reaction, I can understand why people might think I'm bashing the book, so let me explain.

The truth is, I very much like Northanger Abbey. I took a class in college where we studied gothic romances, sentimentalism, and the emergence of realism as the dominate literary style. It was fascinating, my favorite literary theory class of all time. Northanger Abbey is a parody of gothic romance, a very popular style of novel in Austen's day. As a general rule, I'm a big fan of parody. I also love Austen and highly enjoy gothic romance, so all that adds up to a book that is quite my cup of tea. It doesn't hold my heart as securely as Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice for sheer reading pleasure, but I'm quite fond of it.

So why that line in austenland? Because if you were to take a broad poll of non-scholarly readers of Austen, those who read her for fun, the one book that most of them won't have read or else won't have enjoyed as much as the others is Northanger Abbey. (Quite often I find they will have started it but never bothered to finish.) I am not Jane Hayes, my main character. As much as some of her personality intersects with mine, we're very different. Just as I am quite different from Ani, Enna, Razo, Miri, Sileph, Ungolad (let's hope, anyway)...And I'm also not the authoritative voice of the austenland narrator, who bandies about opinions I don't always agree with. I didn't write this book in order to subject the reader to my personal opinions. I wrote it...well, so I could laugh. The line was supposed to be funny.

Now my mind is racing ahead, wondering what I can write in my next book to outrage large special interest groups...

"Everyone knows," said Susan as she unloaded the groceries, "that Shakespeare is a fraud and a poser. I sprinkled some vinegar on my copy of The Tempest and used it to clean my windows."
"Good call," said Charlotte. "Are we going out to eat at The Olive Garden tonight? You know how I love supporting those chain restaurants. Let's drive all the ma & pa diners out of business."
"High five me on that, sister!"

(P.S. That last bit was a joke.)

Glammin' it up

I got an email that austenland would be featured in Glamour magazine in August. In a section called "Reviews you can use: 8 things you'll love this month," they have a cover shot of austenland and a brief and lovely review. This is a magazine I never, ever imagined to find my name in. Cool, I wanted to scream. That is so freakin' cool!

When I read the email, I was wearing capri sweat pants and a t-shirt splattered with baby food. I hadn't left the house in two days, partly because on Monday I had a pre-cancer spot removed from above my lip and am sporting a band-aid that resembles a faux-Hitler moustache. (So I also hadn't done my hair or put on any make-up -- really, what's the point when you have band-aid in mustache position?) Because of the surgery, my upper lip was swollen to three times its normal size and seemed more beak than mouth. I had eaten 2 (two) chocolate cake donuts and spent much of my time cleaning up various child-related messes from the carpet.

That's me. 100% Glamour.

If you're looking for summer reading...

Blackbringer is the first book in a new fantasy series, Faeries of Dreamdark, by Laini Taylor. It's the last book I blurbed before I decided to take a hiatus (perhaps a permanent one) from blurbing, and I'm so glad I got to attach my name to it before it's everyone's new favorite book. That makes me look wise and discerning, see? Aren't I clever? But seriously, run to your local library or bookstore and check out this terrific adventure.

For the little ones, Yellowbelly and Plum is Nathan Hale's new picture book. It's fun and gorgeous to boot. He's doing the rapunzel's revenge art, so I might be just a tad subjective when I assert HE'S THE GREATEST ARTIST WHO EVER LIVED.

Also, a reminder about the wonderful nominations for the Teens' Top Ten. These books published last year were selected by groups of young adult readers across the US. The idea is to read as many as you like then vote on your favorites during Teen Read Week (in November). Only teens can vote, and the winners are announced as the 2007 Teens' Top Ten.

I've been too swamped lately to do much blogging, but here are some recent-ish interviews:

Deseret Morning News

Another Deseret Morning News

Book Divas

Estella's Revenge

And now...normal life

Yes, the austenland tour is over. I have one more event this Saturday in Provo, but no more airports or taxis until the book of a thousand days tour starts in October. It was fantastic. So wonderful to meet such fun, intelligent people everywhere, so great to tuck myself into all those wonderful bookstores. Truly the best way to travel is to hop from bookstore to bookstore.

Fun news keeps coming in...austenland mentioned in Newsweek, princess academy paperback on its third week on the NYT bestseller list, 9th (I think) on the Booksense list, Max brilliantly sweet and uber-active despite a fractured foot, Maggie winning all baby contests hands down. And someday here soon, I'm really going to tackle that Bayern 4 first draft. Seriously.

I have my camera at last! Thanks to Nikki for tracking it down. Here are a couple of photos from the King's English party:

My sister and I pose with the guest of honor. Yes, that is Colin Firth there in two-dimensional perfection. My friend Laura Middleton (of limerick fame) made him especially for the party. He now lives in my bedroom. Except when he's staring out the sliding glass door into the backyard. It's pure joy. I've taught Max to say "Hello Mr. Darcy" politely whenever he passes. Max has found nothing odd in this new housemate, has never asked a question about it. Makes me wonder just how normally odd our home is. And doesn't my sister look fantastic? She pulled off the Regency lady much better than I did.

Here's a scene from the karaoke fun. Jessica and Mark headed up the show. The only outfit we could find for Mark was a George Washington gig, but it included the essential breeches and gave him the appearance of a noble Regency servant. Which we then exploited all night. Such a good sport. See another gorgeous Regency lady on the left? She won a costume prize. It was quite a swingin' party, if I do say so.