A Teeny-Tiny Library of Awesomeness

Last month while I was in the UK, my boyfriend David and I took a little visit to Windsor Castle. While I thoroughly enjoyed the day--watching some jousting and falconry, visiting the State apartments, seeing the beautiful blue silk wall papering in the dressing room, and Marie Antoinette's personal clock, there was one thing I wish I had gotten to take a closer look at: Queen Mary's amazing dollhouse.

I just hadn't known of that desire at the time... But this morning, I woke up to a link from David, telling me all about the doll house and its extraordinary construction:

Among the highlights of a visit to Windsor is Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, the largest, most beautiful and most famous dolls’ house in the world. Built for Queen Mary by the leading British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens between 1921 and 1924, this most magical of residences is a perfect replica in miniature of an aristocratic home.  

The house is filled with thousands of objects made by leading artists, designers and craftsmen, nearly all on the tiny scale of 1:12.  From life below stairs to the high-society setting of the saloon and dining room, no detail was forgotten. Among the most striking features of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House are the library, bursting with original works by the top literary names of the day, a fully stocked wine cellar and a garden created by Gertrude Jekyll. The Dolls’ House even includes electricity, running hot and cold water, working lifts and flushing lavatories. 

In the adjoining display two remarkable French dolls, France and Marianne, are shown with part of their extensive wardrobe of clothes and accessories. They were presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth for their daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, by the French Government during the 1938 State Visit to France. The dolls’ clothes and accessories were designed and made by the leading Parisian fashion houses, including Worth, Lanvin, Cartier, Hermès and Vuitton. 

See the original post HERE

What I'd like to draw your attention to today is THE LIBRARY. Yes, it gets both caps and italics--it's that awesome.

Located on the second floor of the four-story masterpiece, the library has more teeny tiny books that I've ever seen. Over two hundred, in fact! Upon its shelves are real, original, handwritten books custom-authored by authors such as Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

There are even hand-illustrated books among the collection, one of which was even reproduced to a full-size, readable version for sale in April 2012, according to The Daily Mail:

 

A tiny children's book created for a royal doll's house is to be published in human scale. 

With pages scarcely bigger than a postage stamp and intricate drawings by a celebrated cartoonist, the miniature volume is a prized object in the Royal Collection.

But from next month youngsters everywhere will have the chance to read the story about a fairy called Joe Smith and his adventures when he falls out of fairyland and lands in London. 

The hand-written book measures just 1.6in by 1.4in and is one of 200 volumes in the miniature library of the dolls' house created for Queen Mary, consort of King George V, in 1922.  

See the original post  HERE

Bloggess Madame Guillotine gives a little more detail of the room:

This was Princess Marie Louise’s personal project when the house was being put together and she took great pleasure in commissioning books and art work from well known contemporary artists and writers for the room. There are three hundred tiny books in the library, all specially made and bound for the room and including a Koran, the complete works of Shakespeare, a dictionary and three Bibles as well as works by Sir James Barrie, Thomas Hardy, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who contributed a Sherlock Holmes short story), Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, Siegfried Sassoon, M.R. James and H. Rider Haggard. In fact the only writer to refuse and ‘in a very rude manner’ to contribute his work was George Bernard Shaw. What a misery guts. 

The library also contains seven hundred tiny paintings by well known artists of the period, many of whom were members of the Royal Academy such as Dame Laura Knight, Sir William Nicholson, Munnings and Sir William Russell Flint, their works being stored in small folios in special cabinets. There are also musical scores by well known contemporary composers such as Gustav Holst with Elgar being the most notable exception – like Bernard Shaw he sent the committee a very rudely worded refusal to participate, claiming that the royal couple were ‘incapable of appreciating anything artistic’. 

Read the entire post HERE (It's great, btw!)

One word: WOW.

More YA Coming to the Silver Screen

Hollywood is really hitting the nail on the head right now with adapting some of my favorite recent YA novels. The next "Hunger Games" flick, Catching Fire, comes out in a few months, Divergent is releasing in 2014, then there's The Fault in Our Stars after that.

But sneaking into the mix now is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. While not as recent as the others I just mentioned, it's still one of my faves. How I didn't know this was in the works is mystifying. Especially since it's releasing in November 15 of this year!

Twentieth Century Fox, the film's production company, has just released the trailer, too. And I've got to say, it looks brilliant. With director Brian Percival at the helm and a cast including Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, I'm going to definitely be hitting this one up in the theater. The young Sophie Nélisse seems like she's got the role of Liesel down pat, as well. The trailer, in fact, gave me chills.

Kickstarting a New Adventure

When I was a kid, I used to love reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series. It was such a great way for a budding writer and editor to learn about storytelling, story structure, and more, all while having a blast. The interactive element of the series made reading a fun and different experience for someone like me who devoured "normal books" left and right. It was all the rage...

But now, in 2013, my little sisters have never even heard of Choose Your Own Adventure. And it makes me kind of want to cry.

I'm not the only one, it seems, who wants this concept back in front of the childlike eyes of this new generation. According to GalleyCat, CYOA's publisher, Chooseco, is launching a Kickstarter campaign to try their hand at a new endeavor--Choose Toons:

Chooseco, the official publisher of Choose Your Own Adventure books, hopes to raise $130,000 on Kickstarter to finance a new cartoon app. 

CEO R.A. Montgomery and publisher Shannon Gilligan launched the campaign for “Choose Toons,” a project that would adapt Choose Your Own Adventure books for 5 to 7 year old readers in a new format. Here’s more about the project: 

Our first episode is based on the title Your Very Own Robot, where YOU put together a robot named Gus out of discarded parts from your parents’ robot lab. Gus gets you into a lot of trouble. This first episode has 20 story branches with11 possible endings, with more than 30 minutes total of animation … $130,000 will fully fund one 32-minute app in what we plan to eventually develop into a series of cartoons. This amount funds the animation, voice acting, and programming of the choice points within the app. The script is already complete. We developed the demo seen in our video ourselves and our Vermont-based team has experience writing scripts, working on film projects, and developing software. 

See the original post HERE

Chooseco also released a video about the project:



If you like what they're doing, head on over to their Kickstarter page and pledge a little something to get Choose Toons up and running. The campaign ends September 12, 2013.

Friday Fun with Ice Cream Flavors

Apparently July is National Ice Cream month. This was news to me, though I wish it hadn't been (I would've spent my month celebrating with some chocolate chip cookie dough.) But now that I know, we're going to travel a little ways back in time to a post by Quirk Books, featuring Ben-&-Jerry's-inspired literary ice cream flavors. Whee!

It's National Ice Cream Month! It's also July, and it's also very, very hot. And while we love all the regular kinds of ice cream just fine (you can pry Chubby Hubby from our still-warm, heatstroke-dead hands), we wondered what would happen if worlds collided and books became ice cream (not literally, though, because that would be gross). Get your hybrid freezer/bookshelves ready, because here are six tasty samples! 

Berry Potter and the Container of Secrets: Muggles rejoice!  Inside this container you'll find a magical blend of butter beer, Bertie Bott's Strawberry Flavour Beans and chocolate frogs.  No need to employ the Dark Arts.

  

A Clockwork Orange Creamsicle: A concoction made with milk-plus direct from Korova so disturbingly delicious you won't have to force it down!

  

Oliver Twist: Indulge in this mix of rich dark chocolate and simple vanilla flavors with a smattering of English Toffee.  Eat sparingly, for a combination like this begs you to ask "Please, sir, I want some more."

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish 

Make a wish, look inside your dish

Inside your dish, there's candy fish

Candy fish in chocolatey goo

inside the goo are marshmallows too

All this combines for the perfect snacks

The perfect snacks to share with a Zax

War and Peach: An ambitious, sweeping, and impeccably detailed frozen treat of truly epic proportions, with so many ingredients that you'll forget most of them existed by the time you're halfway through your cone. Not easy to get through without a headache, but if you make it, you can brag about finishing it for the rest of your life.

Whirled War Z: Nothing is off-limits during the impending zombie apocalypse. Gummy worms crawl through a swirl of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream.  Beware of the random splattering of cherries.  You'll want to stockpile these rations when the uprising occurs.

See the original post (and fun comments!) HERE

This is so much fun. Way to go Quirk Books--I wish I could try all of these flavors! I would also do a little add-on myself: Love in the Time of Chocolate. Just imagine all the chocolatey goodness that could hold!

What would YOUR favorite literary flavor be?

HUNGER GAMES Summer Camp? Yep. It's Real.

When I first read The Hunger Games, I have to admit I was as disturbed by the concept as I was intrigued. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the series and Suzanne Collins's writing, and I do believe that her themes, while disturbing, are important commentary (and a cautionary tale) on today's society and its values.

As such, I was able to overlook the shivers the idea shot up my spine, though I did still carry some concern regarding how the books' young adult audience would take the lessons. And it seems there was some reason behind those shivers. According to the Huffington Post, there is now a Hunger Games themed camp open for children:

Ever dream of becoming Katniss Everdeen? Well, now you have a chance to be just like her in real life. Sort of. 

According to the Tampa Bay Times, kids at a "Hunger Games" camp in Logo, Fla., can now channel their inner tributes by participating in athletic and intellectual activities inspired by the hugely popular series.

[Watch the video news report HERE]

The camp, however, has raised concerns, as children were reportedly describing how they would "kill" and "stab" each other. Susan Toler, a clinical psychologist, called the camp "unthinkable," while Julie Miller of Vanity Fair described it as "disturbing."

After noting that the "violence the kids had expressed was off-putting," the camp announced a change to the rules: Instead of "killing" each other, campers would "collect" lives. Still, during a recent tournament, one crying 11-year-old claimed that he was kicked and "stepped on." 

"I’m not entirely sure that isn’t normal kid behavior," writes Rebecca Pahle at The Mary Sue. "All I really know about kids is that they’re little humans and that I used to be one. I never pushed anyone to the ground and stepped on them... " 

See the original post HERE

Over at The Mary Sue, Pahle also shared some exchanges between children at the camp:

“I don’t want to kill you,” [Rylee Miller, 12] told Julianna Pettey. Julianna, also 12, looked her in the eye. “I will probably kill you first,” she said. She put her hands on Rylee’s shoulders. “I might stab you.”

This story was also retold in Pahle's post:

Alyssa Stewart, 12; Alexis Quesada, 13; and Julianna formed an alliance. After nabbing a few flags, they paused in a safe zone, a green picnic bench under a tree, to get a drink in the shade. 

There, the girls added Andrés Kates, 11, to the alliance. But the second he left the safe zone, they grabbed his flag. “Hey!” he yelled, stumbling backward. 

The girls ran off, first across the basketball court, then through the grass, between buildings, by the water fountain, past the body lying on the ground . . . 

The body lying on the ground. CJ Hatzilias, 11, face-down, in the grass. He was crying. “They stepped on me,” he said. 

Someone went for help. “CJ, what happened?” Gillette asked. 

“They stepped on me,” he said. 

D’Alessio knelt down. “I’m sure it was an accident.” 

CJ shook his head. He said some boys had knocked him down and kicked him.D’Alessio got him up, wrapped an arm around him, walked him over to the camp offices.

I don't know about you all, but I shudder at the thought. I'd love to know what the owners of such a camp were thinking when they came up with this idea (if anything other than dollar signs). I'd also love to know Collins's opinion of the scenario. 

While the camp has been revamped to focus more on "gaining lives" than "killing" after all the backlash from parents and the media, the fact that it even began as modeled off the violent side of the book initially is beyond mind boggling. 

Literary Quotes on Notes

As I watched the news here in jolly ole England this morning, I learned that the Bank of England has decided to honor a new famous figure on the 10-pound note. I had been expecting them to say "new royal baby, Prince George!" given the news of the week, but to my surprise, a literary legend was named instead: Jane Austen.

According to the Guardian UK, Austen will replace Charles Darwin on notes starting in 2017. The note will also feature a quote from Pride and Prejudice: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"

The Guardian tells us more:

Photograph: Bank of England. VIA Guardian.co.uk

Jane Austen has been confirmed as the next face of the £10 note in a victory for campaigners demanding female representation – aside from the Queen – on the country's cash. 

Sir Mervyn King, the Bank's former governor, had let slip to MPs that the author of Pride and Prejudice was "waiting in the wings" as a potential candidate to feature on a banknote, and his successor, Mark Carney, confirmed on Wednesday that she would feature, probably from 2017. 

"Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes. Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature," the new governor said. 

He also announced that the Bank would carry out a review of the process for selecting the historical figures who appear on banknotes, to ensure that a diverse range of figures is represented. 

"We believe that our notes should celebrate the full diversity of great British historical figures and their contributions in a wide range of fields. The Bank is committed to that objective, and we want people to have confidence in our commitment to diversity. That is why I am today announcing a review of the selection process for future banknote characters," Carney said. The review will be overseen by the chief cashier Chris Salmon, whose signature appears on banknotes. 

Carney's announcement was aimed at quelling a three-month storm of protest unleashed when King announced that the only woman to appear on an English banknote other than the Queen – the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry – would be replaced by Winston Churchill, probably in 2016. She and Florence Nightingale are the only two women, other than the Queen, to have appeared on English banknotes since they started portraying historical figures in 1970. 

Campaigners threatened to take the Bank to court for discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act and launched a petition on the campaign site Change.org which secured more than 35,000 signatures. 

Caroline Criado-Perez, co-founder of feminist blog the Women's Room, who led the campaign, and was called in to discuss the issue with Salmon, said the Bank's announcement marked a "brilliant day for women". 

"Without this campaign, without the 35,000 people who signed our Change.org petition, the Bank of England would have unthinkingly airbrushed women out of history. We warmly welcome this move from the Bank and thank them for listening to us and taking such positive and emphatic steps to address our concerns," she said. 

"To hear Jane Austen confirmed is fantastic, but to hear the process will be comprehensively reviewed is even better." 

Campaigners said that the £13,000 raised to challenge the Bank's banknote decision in court would now go to women's charities, including Rape Crisis. 

Austen will take her place on the £10 note in 2017, the bicentenary of her death, replacing the 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin, who has been on the notes since late 2000.
Criado-Perez conceded Austen was not top of her wish-list as the next woman on a bank note but that she was a particularly apt choice given the context. "She was an incredibly intelligent woman. She spent her time poking fun at the establishment. All her books are about how women are trapped and misrepresented. It is really sad that she was saying that 200 years ago and I am still having to say that today," the campaigner said. 

Stella Creasy MP, who helped organise a letter from 46 Labour MPs to David Cameron in support of the campaign, said: "Britain has many women in its history of whom we should be proud, and today's decision is part of creating a culture of expectation that there will be many more in our future too." 

Under the current process, members of the public put forward suggestions on who should appear on banknotes, although the Bank only considers figures who have made an "indisputable contribution to their particular field of work". It takes into account the list of public suggestions, but the governor of the Bank has the final decision. 

As well as a portrait of Austen, the new note will include images of her writing desk and quills at Chawton Cottage, in Hampshire, where she lived; her brother's home, Godmersham Park, which she visited often, and is thought to have inspired some of her novels, and a quote from Miss Bingley, in Pride and Prejudice: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" 

See the original post HERE

I've gotta say...this is kinda awesome.

Pseudonyms: J.K. Rowling style

Oh, pseudonyms. Sometimes I don't understand why people use them, and other times, I do. Sometimes it's about a day job versus writing career, other times a difficult to pronounce/remember name. Then there are those times where writers just want one (that's what I'll never understand LOL).

But, I think, the trickiest time to figure out the most beneficial move when it comes to a pseudonym is when an already established author wants to write in a completely different genre. Do you use a pen name so that your audience doesn't get confused, or so people who might not read your other genre will still pick up your new book? Or do you say to hell with it and try to use your clout and name recognition to pull in readers?

For example, J.K. Rowling.

This morning, news broke that the Harry Potter author has published a crime novel under a different name (even a different gender, might I add). When the info came to light, her sales increased by 1000 percent.

BCC News tells us more:

The Harry Potter novelist published the book - The Cuckoo's Calling - as Robert Galbraith. 

The book had sold less than 500 copies before the secret emerged in the Sunday Times, according to Nielsen BookScan's figures. 

Within hours, it rose more than 5,000 places to top Amazon's sales list. 

The digital version is now also at number one in the iTunes book chart. 

The book was published by Sphere, part of Little, Brown Book Group which published Rowling's first foray into writing novels for adults, The Casual Vacancy. 

Little, Brown's David Shelley confirmed to The Bookseller the publisher had ordered an "immediate reprint" with the number not yet confirmed. 

Rowling said she had "hoped to keep this secret a little longer". 

The author described "being Robert Galbraith" as "such a liberating experience". 

A spokesman for bookseller Waterstones said: "This is the best act of literary deception since Stephen King was outed as Richard Bachman back in the 1980s." 

One reviewer described The Cuckoo's Calling as a "scintillating debut", while another praised the male author's ability to describe women's clothes. 

Crime writer Peter James told the Sunday Times: "I thought it was by a very mature writer, and not a first-timer." 

Fellow crime author Mark Billingham, who reviewed the book ahead of its publication in April, said he was "gobsmacked" at the revelation. 

The fictitious Galbraith was supposed to have been a former plain-clothes Royal Military Police investigator who had left the armed forces in 2003 to work in the civilian security industry. 

However a clue that Rowling was behind the novel was that she and Galbraith shared an agent and editor. 

In previous interviews, Rowling has said she would prefer to write novels after Harry Potter under a pseudonym. 

Another Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith is in the pipeline, to be published next year. 

See the original post HERE

While I'll agree it's a surprise that Robert Galbraith is, in fact, J.K. Rowling, I think the reaction people are having is a little overboard. Why would anyone assume a creative of any kind can only thrive in one specific format or style? Just because someone is a painter, doesn't mean they can't sculpt. It doesn't mean they can, of course, but no one would simply assume they can't. Personally, I am thrilled for Rowling and applaud her reaching outside the media's perceived comfort zone to write something she really just wanted to write.

But the news leak does beg the publicity question--was writing under a pen name really the best move for the book itself? Rowling had already breached the gap between children's lit and adult fiction with Casual Vacancy, so why the need to be so secretive all of a sudden? Some might speculate that the intention may have been to create a publicity stunt in the first place with an intentional pseudonym leak. Or maybe she really did just want to see how her book would do on its own merit, without any preconceived notions.

I guess we may never know.

What do YOU think?