Now that the last Tolkien book has been completed by Tolkien’s son (oh, horrors and blasphemy!), the Guardian reports that it has actually bumped Harry Potter from the top seller space at Amazon, which is bizarre when you consider that a.) the newest HP hasn’t even been released, and isn’t due for another three months, and b.) Tolkien died in 1973, and this is the first Tolkien book in 30 years. 
It is a truly strange world, but I’m having a good chuckle at the idea of Tolkien gently elbowing Rowling from beyond the grave.
Cynsations has posted an intriguing interview with Ysabeau Wilce (isn’t her name just fabulous?) and word is, her book, which is on my TBR list before June, is also fabulously intriguing. The full title of Ms. Wilce’s recently published novel is Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog. And here is an excerpt from this fantastically titled adventure.
(Cynthia also reminds us to stop by Vampress and register to win a free copy of her latest novel Tantalize.)
Not Your Mother’s Book Club, is celebrating the May 1st release of Dramarama, by e. lockhart and giving away three books, two books-on-CD, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Poets, lyric writers and general witty types, get on over and find out how to play!
A couple of fun Bay Area National Poetry Month events can be found at Poets.org. A screening of a documentary film on the life of Nobel-winning poet Pablo Neruda, narrated by Chilean author Isabel Allende happens tonight, but if you, like me, aren’t there, you can still enjoy one of his poems.
The weary one, orphan
of the masses, the self,
the crushed one, the one made of concrete,
the one without a country in crowded restaurants,
he who wanted to go far away, always farther away,
didn’t know what to do there, whether he wanted
or didn’t want to leave or remain on the island,
the hesitant one, the hybrid, entangled in himself,
had no place here: the straight-angled stone,
the infinite look of the granite prism,
the circular solitude all banished him:
he went somewhere else with his sorrows,
he returned to the agony of his native land,
to his indecisions, of winter and summer.
– Pablo Neruda
I am loving your National Poetry Month selections, by the way. I need to jump on that boat…But first, tomorrow’s cartoon…
Dramarama rocks, and it rocks HARD.
If you like The Keys to the Kingdom series and fantasies set in worlds which seem like ours but blend some contemporary dialogue with old-fashioned methods (you’ll see what I mean when you read it), you’ll like Flora Segunda.
thanks so much for sharing the pablo event, which went great earlier this evening, standing room only! for more info on the film and our projects, plesae visit http://redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php
we’re trying to raise $14K to have some of the bay’s finest filmmakers cut us a new reel of the new version of the documentary, write a new treatment and grant proposal, with which we’ll get final funding to get pablo love spread all over the world. your support is greatly appreciated
paz,
mark
Mark, THANK YOU. How cool to get an invite for more films. Pablo-Love is a GOOD thing; thanks for sharing the wealth!