Over at Becky’s Book Reviews, Becky is hosting the Celebrate the Author Challenge.   The basic idea is that each month of 2008, you read a book by an author born in that month.  Go to the post I linked earlier for more details.

Here’s my tentative author list:
January - Lloyd Alexander (hopefully ALL of the Vesper Holly series)
February - Meg Cabot
March - Libba Bray
April - Micol Ostow
May - Scott Westerfeld
June - Annette Curtis Klause
July - Christopher Golden (born the day after me but a few years earlier)
August - Piers Anthony
September - Melissa de la Cruz
October - Gabrielle Zevin
November - Holly Black
December - Stephanie Meyer

I found this through a quick googling:

There weren’t any chimneys, but that caused no gloom,
for Santa came in through the Florida room.
He stopped at each house….stayed only a minute,
emptying his sack of stuff that was in it.

Before he departed, he treated himself
to a glass of papaya juice upon the shelf.
He turned with a jerk and bounced to the car,
remembering he still had to go very far.

You can read the whole poem here. 

Most people think Christmas requires cold and snow, but for me a temperature of no lower than 60 degrees seems just about right.

One year, the thing I wanted the very most for Christmas was a navel orange.  Santa brought me one, and it was the most beautiful orange ever.  I refused to eat it, it was so beautiful.

It molded.  That was less pretty.

Still, I fondly recall my Christmas orange.

2008 is The Year of Ambition for me.  I am going to take my dreams of various sorts and see what I can do to make them become reality.

One project I've had rolling around in my brain for three or four years now is a blog/website devoted to portrayals of the ancient Mediterranean in modern media.  My favorite part of teaching Latin is helping students make connections between the ancient world and the modern world, and I lovelovelove taking part in movies, books, video games, and music that reference the ancient world.  So I've wanted for a long time to bring that interest online.

I've set up a blog for this purpose and titled it in media res.  I thought it was a clever pun.  Here's the mission statement for the blog:

In a numbered list, no less!

1. My reading goal for the year was 30 books.  I’ve already surpassed that, if audio books count, and am at 34 right now.
2. Today I bought Twilight as my airplane book for my Saturday trip to Florida.  (I’ll be there a little less than a week.)  Thanks to everyone who expressed opinions on it and other books.  I’ve been meaning to read it a while now, and the library wait is quite long, and it was just looking at me there on the shelf in Target at $2 off cover, so, now it is mine.
3. Re: Last week’s bad day - it was mainly because of a sinus infection I was developing, which today was diagnosed and antibioticized.  So in a few days I should be having much better days, both because the sinus infection will be clearing up, and I’ll be on vacation in the best state in the union.  i. e., Florida.  The Sunshine Except For That Thunderstorm At 3 PM State.  Thanks for all the bad day book recommendations.  I think I ended up just getting in bed, sadly.

I’m having a bad day.  What do you like to read when you’re having a bad day? 

It's a Theatrey weekend for me. Tonight I'm going to see The Little Prince, and then tomorrow it's Damn Yankees. I thought in honor of the festivities I'd post some theatre-related poetry. I googled "theatre poetry," and it gave me Poetry Theatre:

Our mission is to continue the oral tradition utilizing modern technology. Poetry Theatre presents actors performing their favorite poems, a glossary of terms and a biography of the poet. Its website gives poetry to everyone to inspire, to enjoy and to learn. 

I don't have time to explore the site now, but it's exciting, isn't it?  And Tandy Cronyn is the artistic director.  I had the privilege of seeing her star in Wit.  She was phenomenal.  (And brought Hume Cronyn around the theatre; the boyf got to meet him but had no sense of the magnitude of the event.)

From their selections, I chose one by one of my favorite poets, John Donne.  (I'm actually in the process of writing a John Donne cento as a gift for aforementioned boyfriend.)

GO and catch a falling star
by John Donne

GO and catch a falling star,
   Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
   Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
   Or to keep off envy's stinging,
            And find
            What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
   Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
   Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
            And swear,
            No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know,
   Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
   Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
            Yet she
            Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.

It’s been more than a couple of weeks since I last posted.  I’ve been in a non-litty headspace.  But after a conversation with the boyf today about what I do and don’t like, and what is and is not important to me, I may be ready to come back.

Today I was discussing with my students what things were “Roman” pursuits and what things were “Greek” pursuits.  We’ve been reading about this in their text.  We reviewed the “Roman” activities: building roads and bridges; farming; fighting wars.  The students agreed that these were “physical” pursuits, “work."  We then reviewed the “Greek” activities: sculpting, painting, reading.  I said, “And what kind of activities are these?"  I was thinking “intellectual” here, as that’s what folks generally oppose to the physical.

Their response?  “Boring." That just made me sad.  After further discussion, I realized that the students know being able to read is important; they simply didn’t value it as a leisure pursuit.

Of course, that’s just one class.  In a different class, we could have booktalks just about every day.  They’re almost all heavy readers in that class.  At any given time, at least a third of the class has a novel to pull out in case of free time.  So that was reassuring.

So, yeah.  Reading is important.  I get it, universe.  I’m with you.

I just finished reading The Golden Compass.  What have you been reading?

…

The other pursuit that takes up my time and often keeps me away from the kidlitosphere is craft.  My preferred craft is crochet, though I love to read about others.  Fortunately, a relatively new blog has united these two realms.  Children’s Lit ’n Knit is written by Shelly Hattan, an engineer, knitter, and reader.  Shelly’s lit-knit began with a Captain Underpants she made for her nephew, and has continued with various other suggestions.  She’s soliciting ideas for the blog, so if you’ve got a brilliant idea for a toy/book pairing, drop her a line!  My favorite entry is Where the Wild Things Are.  I am all about crowns and cat hats.

…

See you soon, I hope!

 

I'd be interested to know what their methodology is for that.  It's appropriate, though, as I spend most of my time attempting to communicate with high school students.

I've noticed on my friends list a lot of author types and others returning from NCTE.  That's thrilling, and it makes me wish there would be authors and kidlit bloggers at the American Classical League Institute, though I don't imagine there are.  We should really get Rick Riordan there, you know?  And several others.

About a year ago I took up reading paranormal romance of the chick-lit variety; clever vampire women or perhaps wiccans with vampire boyfriends.  I had a lot of fun.  Then I went on my YA run, and that's been my primary reading material for the past several months.  I'm currently reading The Golden Compass in hopes of finishing it before the film is released.  (My time is otherwise spent working, playing with website design, and finding other ways to avoid working on my NaNoWriMo novel.  I'm almost 20,000 words behind now, I think.  But I have not given up yet.)

Anyway - and I know this is my reader place and not my writer place, but the two do overlap, of course - I have considered joining SCBWI, but there is not a lot of local SCBWI activity, while the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers are very active.  So I was thinking, "How do I write something, or position myself to be interested in/planning on writing something, that helps me fit in with these people?"  Because, quite honestly, I only seem to be able to write teenaged protagonists.  (I tried a grad student last year.  I think I got about 2000 words in.)

My NaNo this year is not even a little bit a romance - there has, in fact, been no mention of a romantic interest of any sort for any character, unless you count the main character's parents as romance interests for one another.

I have been thinking, however, that there is the category of Young Adult Romance.  And further, there are subdivisions in that which include Fantasy, Sci Fi, and Paranormal.  So.  Once I finish Golden Compass I am going to head over to the library and start reading that genre to see how I like it, starting with Lisa Jane Smith.

Anyone who has recommendations to offer in this genre, please do so.  They would be very welcome.  My tastes tend to run towards stories where the MC is a headstrong female.  Things should be either incredibly gothicly serious or have a strong sense of humor.  If I think of more, I'll let you know.

I’ve seen a lot of folks posting Thanksgiving poems today, which makes sense as it is the last Friday before Thanksgiving.  So I am going to post my own, here.

Now, this is not a proper haiku: it contains no reference to the seasons and it is distinctly lacking in nature-metaphor.  But it fits the syllable scheme, so we’ll call it a Haiku anyway.

Thanksgiving Haiku
by Kimberly aka lectitans reading

My little sister,
Oh do not fear the turkey:
I will eat him.  Yum.

(My sister has an intense fear of turkeys.  At the NC Museum of Life and Science they used to let their turkey wander free all over the farm, and when she was about 3 or so, it chased her all over the farmyard.  It was bigger than she was.  Apparently, being the mean and evil sister I am, I was too busy paying attention to my 4-H lambs, Scooter and Skeeter, to help her out.  So now I am spending the rest of my life making up for this betrayal of her.  Making up for it BY EATING TURKEY.  Is there a better way to pay back a debt?  I think not.  Also, now they keep the turkey penned up, so I guess it scared some other kids, too.  Probably a different turkey these 18 years later, now that I think about it.)

This is going to be a stream-of-consciousness entry.  Consider yourself warned.

In the past few weeks, a few of the kidlit bloggers have been reconsidering their intentions for their blog.  I was in this same place as well, but not talking about it so much.  But I think today I am ready to talk about it.

I came into this back in March full-tilt.  Over my spring break I tore through several books and blogged about them.  Over the summer I participated in the Summer Blog Blast Tour, and since then have been a part of many events.  But in July, I started moving away from this blog for various reasons, and though I tried to renew my dedication in August, work got in my way.

I began this blog as a place to explore my own reactions to books.  And it has grown into my part of the larger conversation.  But I have become so overwhelmed by other parts of my life that I am not really participating in the conversation anymore.

So it is important that I bring this blog back to its origins:

This is my place to talk about my own feelings about what I am reading, have read, or will read.

Its purpose is for me to have reactions and reviews.  I haven’t reviewed a book in a long, long time, because I got scared.  I started to worry too much about the review content.  It is silly.  I am not going to do that anymore.

So, here is what I will be doing:
1. Participating in group activities and memes as I am comfortable.
2. Writing up my own responses to books, as I originally intended.
3. Other things as I feel moved to do so.

Anyway.  Yeah.

So that’s where I am, in case you were wondering.