Substitute teaching: the reason my junior high dream of having twelve kids will never come true.
I’m now catching up with the news that has bypassed me while I was being proactive and bright and smiley and telling everyone Good Morning!, instead of grousing into my morning tea and hacking out my novel — first, today, an unpublished poem written by Sylvia Plath will be published in an online journal. The discovery of a student, this poem was written while Plath was in college, and looks like it was actually a writing exercise, as they include two versions of the poem. Check it out!
Also news to me is that Garrison Keillor has opened an independent bookstore. I am SO JEALOUS. He is stocking only his favorite books, which, if you’re famous and already financially secure, you can do. See I wanted to do this. I wanted a bookstore called Bluestockings. I envisioned shelves carrying slim volumes of Sarah Orne Jewett and random titles from Kate Chopin, Maureen Johnson, Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula LeGuin and Garrett Freymann-Weyr, and others who write compelling, interesting, risky novels. And now Mr. Keillor has stolen my idea. Pffffft.
While I am reading some really great novels for the YA Cybil (and I am LOVING what I call St. Cybils’ Day — the UPS guy dropping off a daily load of review copies of novels from publishing houses), I am a teensy, tiny, tidge bit wistful that I’m not reading for the Sci-Fi books. I love Neil Gaiman, and I’m a bit jealous that someone else is getting to review his newest book. The New York Times reviews Gaiman’s latest, and discusses his penchant for adding dreams and dreamscapes to his work. Which makes me smile, especially because dreams, in fiction, can either really work — or really not work, and my agent has about sixty reasons why they do not. At any rate, Gaiman’s dreams definitely work! Speaking of work…My Cybils novels are calling me, as is my NaNoWriMo story, so it’s back to my REAL job! Yay!
Glad that the RCs are rolling in. Fortunately the nominations are tapering off a little bit… Impressive pace of reviewing the books, too, especially given that writing thing!
I’m sorry that you didn’t get to be on the fantasy/science fiction committee; maybe next year. But don’t feel too jealous; no one has nominated Neil Gaiman yet. The closest we’ve had so far is the introduction that he wrote for The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar.
Good luck with your NaNo story!
I only wish we were even getting review copies for Graphic Novels!! They’re not always easy to find.
On an only marginally related topic, speaking of bluestockings, have you ever seen the Bas Bleu catalog? Fun.
Ooh, yes, I have — and I love Bas Bleu! It’s dangerous — all of those books and book-related things…
I had a feeling getting the graphic ones would be hard — the ones we’re having the worst struggle with are the ones that are self-published, oddly enough. Or maybe not so odd…