A to Z Theme Reveal For 2022

 Time for this year’s A to Z reveal. And this year’s theme is…Shakespeare’s plays! 

Shakespeare - Public Domain

If you have been following this blog for a while, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of the Bard, and have been since I was about twelve, at which age I first read Julius Caesar. I found my sister’s copy, which she had studied in Year 10, and opened it up to read. Next thing I knew I was reading it aloud, declaiming speeches all over the house. I had never before been so excited by anything I had read! 

Then there was Wayne and Schuster’s comic skit, Rinse The Blood Off My Toga. My father and I listened to a recording and quoted bits to each other. I’ll talk more about this further down the track, but meanwhile, you can see the visual version on YouTube if interested, along with other Wayne and Schuster skits. 

I’ll be talking about plays, characters, productions, actors and what films and books have been inspired by Shakespeare.

And, like every year except last year, when I did Greek myths, I will have a hard time thinking of something starting with X.

Oh, well. See you in April.

If You Want Blog Promo…

 In the last couple of weeks I have had several inquiries about doing reviews of self published books. I don’t usually do that, but I did offer guest posts for all those whose books fitted this blog.

I got one response. I published the guest post a few days ago, as you will know. It was an excellent post which got some impressed comments from you, and I hope will have made some sales for Hans since then. 

I’ve also had inquiries from people whom you would think would have paid attention to the blurb, or at least had a browse through some posts before emailing me. 

I said no. The most recent was from a woman who spent her entire blurb making her book sound like a romance with some adventure,  and not a YA one, which I could have considered. When I explained that it didn’t really fit due to this blog being about children’s, YA, historical, crime fiction and true crime, she said it was so a crime book! That might be so, but if she wanted to draw my attention to that, she should have said so in the first place, instead of all the romance stuff. Which told me she hadn’t checked out the blog, despite saying she had read some posts - I did ask which posts, and she didn’t answer that.

At least she didn’t claim to love my blog as did some of the others. 

So here are some of my suggestions to people inquiring about blog reviews. Firstly, check your market, just as you would a publisher market. If your book is self published, of course, you don’t have to check out publishing markets, but review markets are important too, whether or not your book is traditionally published. (And you will still have to do that, if you sell a book, because publishers are not helpful in that regard as I discovered when my one novel was published). Don’t send your inquiry for a children’s book review to a blog that writes about true crime or movies. 

Well, unless your children’s book is a true crime book, anyway, and even then read some of the posts first; it may still not be suited. 

If there is a contact name, use it; I have had too many inquiries that were obviously one of a hundred inquiries copied and sent everywhere, so I don’t reply to those that don’t use my name. I do understand, but half the time it’s for a book that doesn’t fit here, yet the author claims to love my blog.  

Which leads me to the next issue: absolutely don’t say you love a blog you haven’t read. The lie doesn’t flatter the blogger and just suggests you are using it to get their attention. And you do, but in the wrong way.

Interestingly, nobody who says this in an inquiry has ever answered me when I say, “Really? That’s great! What do you love about my blog? Any particular posts?”

Just a general suggestion to self published authors using marketing companies: be aware that they will charge you quite a lot of money just to send the same email to several hundred blogs, whether or not they suit your book. Better to do that yourself and spend the money on a good quality editor, especially if it’s your first book. And I don’t mean asking your family and friends to be beta readers; they will tell you what you want to hear so as not to hurt your feelings or lose your friendship. (The one time I was a beta reader for a friend, she ignored ALL my suggestions. I was lucky she didn’t take me off her Christmas card list. Never again!)

I do know someone who doesn’t bother with editors for her self published books, but she knows what she is doing, and has sold enough stories in the regular market to be allowed to join the Science Fiction Writers of America. And even so, I remember her sneering at the very idea of doing research for a fantasy novel. Fortunately she mostly writes SF.

Anyway, if you want to be reviewed or guest posted on a blog, and not offended by a reply, please do read the blurb and at least a few posts on the chosen site. 

I hate saying no to an inquiry! And I bet other bloggers do too.

Retro Review: Honk If You Are Jesus by Peter Goldsworthy

 

I read this novel when it first came out, and later heard the author speak at my school about a book the Year 12 students were doing for English. 

He did mention this one, though, and described it as his Jurassic Park book. 

Which it was, sort of. No dinosaurs, but certainly referring to bringing back extinct creatures…

I reread it recently, in ebook, and while I had thought it might be a bit dated, it wasn’t, really. There will always be something, of course. The Internet was in its infancy when this book was published, and not everyone had, or could get, a mobile phone, so certain things might have been different if it had been published more recently.. But the rest was not at all bad. 

For example, there has recently been talk of bringing back the thylacine, aka the Tasmanian Tiger. This novel, published in 1992, had a Tiger brought back, plus dodos. It even suggested that a thylacine might be started in the pouch of a Tasmanian Devil, later in an artificial pouch. 

The heroine, Dr Mara Fox, has been in a job where she does not much beyond abortions, though she is an expert in reproductive medicine. One day she gets a call from a Bible college in Queensland, run by American televangelist Hollis Schultz. She can be a Professor, in charge of an entire department in the college’s hospital, plus have whatever advanced equipment she wants. 

Suspicious - there has to be a catch - she accepts anyway and moves to Queensland’s Gold Coast. There, she meets youthful genius William Scanlon, who brought back dodos and has more recently revived a thylacine. 

But more is planned, much more, connected with all those religious relics being brought to the college from overseas; the thylacine is just a test run, though a very exciting one.

It’s pretty obvious from early on in the novel what the religious nut Hollis Schultz has in mind, but I didn’t mind; it’s great fun, if silly, an easy read for the beach. 

You may need to get this one in ebook if interested, but worth checking out. It’s available in both Kindle and Apple Books.

Guest Post by Hans Kullberg!

  

The author and his daughter Aviva

Recently, I received an inquiry from Hans Kullberg about promoting his new children’s book written in honour of his late baby daughter. I invited him to tell us about it himself rather than review it, as I think it’s more appropriate in this case. 

I will add links to purchasing sites after the post. 

Take it away, Hans! 

A father’s life is completely changed the moment he holds his child for the very first time.  Fathers receive a new outlook on the fragility of life while he cradles his tiny child in his arms.  Time becomes a precious commodity and the things we thought were important are re-prioritized. A father’s new priorities entail a well-nourished baby, clean diapers and a schedule that accommodates for naptimes. Even though we get less sleep, we are awestruck by the miracle that is life, and we start dreaming about our child’s future: her first words, her first day in kindergarten, her college graduation and watching her grow up into a thriving adult. 

But what happens when that dream ends? What does a father do for his child when the unthinkable happens?  After enduring the catastrophic tragedy of my daughter's death at 10 months of age due to an undiagnosed illness, I held her in my arms and promised that I would share her story with the world.  Losing my precious daughter at such a tender young age has cut short that future I had envisioned for her.  Aviva was full of life, love, laughter and had a contagious personality that lit up the room.  Her story was cut too short.  Knowing that such a force of life was taken from my hands far too soon has been beyond devastating.  However, as a father who still believes in giving his daughter the best possible future, I’ve been motivated to share her life’s story with all the children that never got a chance to meet her with the hope of inspiring others.  

The main orangutan protagonist in the book, Baby Aviva Orangutan Diva, embodies my daughter’s personality and characteristics including courage, joy, charm, fearlessness, teamwork and grace.  Relying on her vivacious spirt, musical melodies and can-do attitude, Aviva the Orangutan Diva’s quest for golden bananas leads her to confront dangerous encounters and overcome obstacles for the benefit of her community.  The uplifting children’s book on jungle animals teaches kids many important lessons including overcoming fears, adapting to new environments, the importance of teamwork and staying true to oneself.  By remaining true to own’s most authentic self and finding strength from within, almost anything in life can be accomplished and anything is possible.

As a heartbroken father and first-time author, my simple goal for the book is to spread my daughter’s joy, charisma, personality and love with all the children she would have met around the world.   Although I can no longer hold her in my arms, I look forward to the day this book brings smiles and joy to children reading it with their parents all over the world.  Perhaps it will even bring fathers closer to their own daughters, knowing nothing should be taken for granted in this life.  Through this, my daughter Aviva will live on, and her legacy will continue.  Even though she's no longer physically here, it is my simple hope that her legacy can have an enduring impact on many others around the world.  As a father who has lived through the unthinkable, my dream for my daughter never ends:  I still believe she can have a positive and impactful future and I’m excited to see how Aviva’s story unfolds.  By turning the page, her story is just beginning. 

Thanks, Hans! 

And here is where you can buy the book.

Amazon Link for Baby Aviva Orangutan Diva:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GG8SYD2

Barnes & Noble URL:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/baby-aviva-orangutan-diva-hans-f-kullberg/1140165959?ean=9781736986714

On Teaching Writing

I have never taken writing lessons, I just write. I’ve sold 14 books, including some that have still not been published(but paid for)and many articles, but not because I took writing lessons. It worked well for me. Nobody has ever told me to “write what you know” or “show, not tell” - well, one editor on my novel for Random House Australia did suggest this at one point, but I explained that in this case, “showing” would take up several pages while telling just took a paragraph, and left it up to her. She didn’t argue. I would have done it if she still wanted me to, though.

However, I did once have to teach Creative Writing. It was an elective for Year 9 and 10. The Principal simply told me “You’re teaching Creative Writing next year.” I had no idea what to do. There was no curriculum for it. He assumed that as I was a writer I could teach it.

So, I had a think about my approach. Nobody cared how I handled it, so that gave me flexibility. In the end, I was the only Creative Writing teacher in the three campuses who actually taught it. I only got in about ten minutes discussion with one of the others, who, I’m pretty sure, ended up turning it into English Extensions. The other one told me that his group were such poor writers, he changed it to a film appreciation subject. Which wasn’t what the kids signed up for, but hey! 

I told my students ahead of time that this was not going to be about how to write an essay.  

 The small group who chose to do my subject did it because that was what they wanted. Not all of them were good - one boy chose it because his friend was doing it. I ended up giving him a template with questions that let him write a short autobiography. I even discovered from it that his brother was a Bollywood actor! But he wrote something. That made him feel good about himself.

I subscribed, for that year, to a magazine that published teenagers’ work, in case any of them wanted to try. 

We read a short story every week before we began the writing, and discussed it. That gave them some idea of how these stories work. 

I showed them a variety of books in the first lesson and asked them to guess what they had in common - two of them were The Outsiders by Susan Hinton and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. What they all had in common was that they were written by teenagers. I did this so I could show them that you don’t have to be an adult to get published. 

We did something different each week, though I also gave them time to finish their WIPs. Once, when we were all tired, we did a round robin. I gave them a choice of opening sentences and they had a couple of minutes to write a paragraph. Then we passed it on to the next person to continue. It was hilarious when we read them out loud. It worked! 

Another time we discussed fairytales. I pointed out that Cinderella is the basis of pretty much every YA romance they might have read. Then they got to do fractured fairytales, which they loved. I was chuffed to overhear one student say to another, as they headed for the computers, “I wish so and so was here!” because her friend would have loved it.

Once, I passed on some advice from a writing book I had read. If you absolutely can’t think of what to write, start off with “I remember…”. One girl ended up writing a wonderful piece about an incident in her own family, one of the best pieces that year.

Another good one was a picture book text about a hat that was blown off a man’s head and flew to various places before returning to his head. If there had been time I would have seen if there was a publisher who might be interested. It was, I thought, publishable stuff.

We had one student who joined us a bit late because he couldn’t afford the fees for the Foods elective. We all made him welcome. A couple of weeks later, when the welfare teacher came to tell him he could now do Foods if he wanted, she had arranged it, he said, “No, thanks, I’m fine.”

I had some students who had been in my History or English class the year before, so it was nice to know they still wanted to be with me. In fact, the girl who had done the hat story, who was one of them, told me at the end of the course that she had really enjoyed it. She also told that to her older sister, who passed it on to me as well.

I put the stories together into a book at the end of the year, with artwork from the Internet, and handed them to the students, as well as putting a copy in the library. 

So, a successful year and I had a curriculum I had worked out myself to repeat the next year…but it didn’t go on, because the school scrapped every elective that didn’t lead directly to a Year 11 subject. That included Horticulture, and I was sad to see the Horticulture garden pulled up after many years.

Still, it was a year I was proud of - and I, as a writer who had never taken lessons, was teaching them! 

Who would have thought? 

Some Film Music And Me!

 

Album cover. Fair use

I love film music. I always have. I got my younger brother interested too, and I remember him saving his pennies for a double album of Star Wars - records, not CDs - which he still has. 

At one time, I could tell you which film composer had composed a tune, as long as I had heard their work before. I have favourites, mostly composers for historical films, such as Miklos Rosa, Erich Korngold, Elmer Bernstein and Alex North. Did you know Alex North, who did the music for Spartacus, also composed a score for 2001: A Space Odyssey? It’s true! The score we know now, a mixture of classical tunes, starting with Thus Spake Zarathustra was meant to be just a filler, to give some idea of what the producers wanted. They decided that worked really well and scrapped Alex North’s score. I believe you can still buy it. 

Elmer Bernstein, who composed the amazing score for The Ten Commandments, also did the theme tune for Arthur Of The Britons, a British children’s TV series about Arthur as a British leader living in a village with his adoptive father Llud and his foster brother Kai. I’m sure there is a story behind this gig, but I don’t know it. He certainly did The Ten Commandments before Arthur Of The Britons.

Erich Korngold was a famous Hollywood composer of historical film music, such as The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and The Prince And The Pauper, but also a composer of concert hall music. You can hear some recognisable film tunes woven into his concert hall music, and why not?

Who can forget Bernard Herrman’s score for The Day The Earth Stood Still, with an eerie theremin playing? That tune at the start is a favourite of mine.

These days, it’s John Williams, who wrote music for Lost In Space, as Johnny Williams, well before his glorious symphonic scores were connected with Star Wars and Harry Potter. Howard Shore, a composer in the style of Williams, made Lord Of The Rings come to life for me. 

Ennio Morricone was another favourite, but my first experience of his music was not a spaghetti Western or The Mission, but a TV mini series called Moses Lawgiver, with Burt Lancaster in the title role. I haven’t seen it in years, but I’m still humming Morricone’s music, long after forgetting the story details.

Film music is a vital part of the stories told in film and TV. Without it, the emotions, the excitement and drama, even the humour, just wouldn’t be the same. I know, there are films complimented for background silence, but either they are made especially to work without music, or they just don’t appeal to me. I have a friend who says she doesn’t notice film music, which is fine, because it’s there to enhance, not dominate, but she would certainly notice if it wasn’t there. 

As you probably know, I have been catching up with the Marvel universe, and that includes the music. Recently I have re-watched two of the Disney+ series, Hawkeye and Loki.

The series Hawkeye was about the most relatable of the Avengers, their archer. He did do some dreadful things in his grief at losing his family in the Blip, when half the world’s population was wiped out(he got them back at the end of Avengers: Endgame). But there is no secret identity, though nobody knows he was the vigilante known as Ronin. When a young woman, Kate Bishop, gets hold of his Ronin costume he has to find out what is going on…and then keep her from being murdered. And she is a huge fan of his who was inspired to learn archery by seeing him fight during an alien invasion. 

He just wants to go home to his farm to spend Christmas with his family. 

The mood of Hawkeye’s score, written by Christophe Beck and Michael Paraskevas,  is playful and humorous, mostly consisting of Christmas-themed tunes, including a very sinister-sounding version of “Dance Of The Sugarplum Fairy” when the villains were driving towards the good guys! It even includes a song, “Save The City” by Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman, supposedly from a Broadway musical about the Avengers, Rogers: The Musical. The first episode showed a bit of the song being performed on Broadway, then the full song as a post-credits scene after the last episode. It was hilarious! I actually wanted someone to write that show for real, though it was deliberately silly. 

The score fitted the series beautifully. It was set at Christmas, hence the Christmas songs, and while there were some serious bits, it was meant to be fun. The music enhanced that. 

The score of Loki, by Natalie Holt, though there is some humour in the story, is a lot more serious, as is the series itself. Natalie Holt has just been shortlisted for an award for this score, so I thought what-the-heck and bought the download, which I played as a background for my writing.

Each episode ended with an existing song that comments on the story of that episode. I didn’t get those songs with the download, maybe a copyright issue, but they were all well chosen.

There is one song on the album, in Norwegian and English, “Jeg Saler Min Ganger”, written for this episode, in the style of a folk song, by Benedicte Maurseth and Erlend Nodtvedt. In the show, it is an Asgardian drinking song, sung on a train by the drunken hero, with an English chorus and Norwegian verses. He is leading the passengers in the song, and teasing the beautiful Sylvie, the woman he has just fallen in love with. 

Natalie Holt uses different styles of music, whether something jazzy or symphonic - and a theremin is used several times. Various pieces of classical music are slipped in and, in the fifth episode, a 32 person choir is added.  

My favourite track on the album was the sweeping symphonic tune that is played when Classic Loki, played by Richard E. Grant, is distracting the cloud monster that guards the citadel at the end of time, to allow our hero and heroine to enchant the creature and get through. As he sacrifices himself for them, he builds a duplicate of his much-missed home, Asgard, towers and all, to a tune that begins with “Ride Of The Valkyries”, very appropriate for these Norse gods, even if it was written by a German. 

Do you have any favourite film composers or music? 

Book Blogger Hop: January 2022

 This week I will write on some topics suggested by the Book Blogger Hop. This month’s list include asking if there is a genre you haven’t read, but would like to, whether you have any bookish posters or artwork on your walls, the average number of books you read a month or whether you have attended a book signing. 

None are really questions for an entire post, for me, so I will answer them all, briefly. 

If there is a genre I’d like to read, I just read it. What’s stopping me? So no. I read SF, fantasy, historical fiction and non fiction, biographies, quirky non fiction, true crime, mysteries(preferred cosies) and others. About the only things that don’t interest me are mainstream adult fiction, and I might even read that if it’s funny. I do read mainstream YA and children’s fiction. Sometimes. I’ll give anything a go, once. 

I have some posters, more likely to be film than bookish, but the film is probably based on a book, eg Lord Of The Rings. See? One sentence.

I have no idea how many books I read. I don’t keep track, unlike a student I once had who used an exercise book to note what she had read. (It was July and she had read eighty already). At any one time I am re-reading as many as I’m reading for the first time. So - I haven’t a clue. Right now, I’m re-reading The Grey King by Susan Cooper and A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold and making my horrified way through Van Badham’s QAnon And On: A Short And Shocking History Of Internet Conspiracy Cults. I’m still reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic collection, Preludes And Nocturnes. Morpheus, Death’s younger brother, who has spent seventy years imprisoned by a crazy rich family, is now trying to get back his stuff from various people who have helped themselves to it while he was locked up.

Thing is, I have a lot of books I just had to buy, still on my TBR pile. I have started reading them all. 

Finally, of course I’ve been to signings, many over the years - which booklover hasn’t, if they had the chance? 

Mind you, there is a difference between straight signings and book launches. Signings are often by well known authors who are in town, maybe for a convention(at which they do more signing). Book launches are by anyone who has just had a book published. I do sometimes attend those if they are easy to reach by public transport and I know the author, either personally or whose books I enjoy. I don’t often get my books signed these days, because by the time I get to the launch, I have already bought the book in ebook, or I don’t know if I want to keep them. 

Of course, I do have some books signed by the likes of Terry Pratchett or Frank Herbert. I got those either at a convention or at a bookshop signing. Those I will certainly keep! 

The problem I have with books signed by people I know, especially when it’s their first book, is that they invariably - and I do mean invariably! - sign the damn thing “To Sue, thank you so much for your support,” even if I haven’t done anything except buy the book. I find it irritating, I’m afraid. 

I’d rather have my book either signed without my name, which enables me to give it away later, or just “To Sue, hope you enjoy it!” That’s what I do when I sign, unless there is a special reason to do it differently. And they usually have it signed before I can make my request.

Fortunately I mostly buy ebooks now. You can’t sign those! 

So, which of these questions interests you? Genres? How many books you read? Posters? Book signings? 

Just Finished Reading…Digging Up Dirt by Pamela Hart. Sydney: HarperCollins, 2021

Poppy McGowan works for the ABC as a researcher for a children’s TV program. She is renovating an old house she has just bought when bones turn up under the floorboards. Until it has been decided whether they are human or animal she can’t continue, and it’s not a good idea to call the police unless the bones are human, so she decides it’s time to call on the archaeologists from the museum to find out. 

Unfortunately, the only one available is Dr Julieanne Weaver, an old enemy, and though the bones are those of sheep, she wants to slap a heritage order on it, making it impossible for the renovations to go ahead. 

When Julieanne’s dead body is found in the house, there are several suspects, beginning with Poppy and Julieanne’s gorgeous boyfriend Dr Tol Lang. Is it Poppy’s own boyfriend Stuart who did the deed? What about members of the Radiant Joy Church which is behind the Australian Family Party, for which Julieanne had hoped to be preselected as a candidate? 

Will Poppy ever get her house back?

This cosy mystery is the first of a series by Pamela Hart(also known to her readers as  children’s author Pamela Freeman). It is great fun and the author certainly seems to know about how television programs work. The children’s show for which Poppy works is not unlike the ABC’s Behind The News, though with themes rather than news.

The regular characters of future novels in the series are introduced in this one, starting with Detective Chloe Prudhomme and her sidekick Steven Martin(and yes, he winces when he has to introduce himself). I think they will do well, though I’m hoping Chloe gets to do more than groan and sigh when phoned with new information. She does come through when needed, though, and possibly will trust Poppy more in the next adventure, when they know each other better.

Though the novel is humorous in style, Poppy herself is kind and decent; she finds herself pitying the victim, whom she disliked when she was alive, and finds sympathy to a badly treated teenage girl who is part of the family of one of the suspects.

Sydney, where the novel is set, is almost a character in its own right; the author makes it a part of the story without being just an exposition. 

Highly recommended if you enjoy a cosy mystery! 

As a recently published work, it should be easily available in all the usual places, including Amazon.

To My Followers - A Brief Info Post

Yesterday I got an email from a friend following this blog by email, asking me if my blog had been hacked as it arrived under “follow.it”. I did sign up with follow.it when Google removed its connection with Feedburner. I am a bit surprised as I thought this would show up earlier. But yes, you can safely click through. If you aren’t comfortable with this, just open my blog itself when you get an email. But there is another blog I follow, which also comes via follow.it and I haven’t had any problems opening that. Happy 2022!

Comics And Me!

 

Fair Use 

When I was a child, my mother wouldn’t let me have comics in the house. There was something ironic about that, because she told me that she had had comics as a child, till her brother-in-law threw out her collection, sneering, “Really, people going to the moon? What nonsense!” Well. It was the 1930s… and the other day, she remarked how wonderful it was to be still around in such an amazing era as ours.

I didn’t argue with Mum, I just read some Superman comics with my best friend, Denise, whose family owned a boarding house. The boarders placed their soft drink bottles in cases at the back of the house and we took them to the local milk bar, where we exchanged them for the deposit money you got in those days for empty bottles, and used it to buy ice cream, more soft drinks and Superman comics. We took it all home and curled up with our booty to eat, drink and read. 

Those comics were a treasure, and had some real information in them, apart from the stories. For example, I read in one comic the actual name of Roman Emperor Nero. In another, Superboy cheated on his school exam, by asking to go out for water and time travelling to ancient Egypt, where he saw the ancient Egyptian version of the Cinderella story(it’s in Herodotus’s Histories, in case you are curious. Her name was Rhodopis). Superboy used the information to pass his exam.

After those delightful years, I grew up without comics. It wasn’t that I had anything against them, but by the time I was an adult, comics were terribly expensive and graphic novels even more so, and my thought was that I could get a regular novel for the price of a graphic novel and have more bang for my buck.

It was different when I was buying for my library. I bought plenty of graphic novels. Admittedly they were graphic versions of actual  novels and even Shakespeare, so required good readers, something many schools don’t seem to realise when they sneer at them.

Now, here I am in middle age and finally catching up with the comics I missed out on as a teen and young adult. And I’m loving it! The comics are being reprinted with stories under single covers, so you don’t have to try hunting up the originals on eBay or ABEBooks.

Reading the bios of comic book creators(see previous posts) I have discovered some of the fascinating storylines of their creations and decided to look them up.

Right now, I’m enjoying Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, beginning from the very start, in which a crazy millionaire tries capturing Death for the power it will give him, and instead captures Morpheus, the god of sleep, Death’s younger brother. I believe this is going to be filmed for one of the streaming services. I do hope so, but must finish the stories. 

I’ve downloaded other comic books, such as Agent Of Asgard and Vote Loki, both of which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. The former I’ve been reading about in those bios, the latter I was curious about after the character known as President Loki turned up in an episode of the Loki TV series. The comic book character was a lot nicer than the one on TV, by the way. 

I’ve recently discovered the TV series of Hawkeye, which is wonderful, being about a superhero who has no super powers, no magic and only as much tech as he can create. In one scene, he gets stuck in a giant Christmas tree and has to be rescued. But he does it all anyway, something admired by young Kate Bishop, his new apprentice. 

Thing is, there are things I would have known if I had been a comics fan. Pretty much all the characters come from the comics, even the minor ones, as do most of the stories, though fiddled with. One character in this series is presented as a possible villain; if I’d read the comics, I’d have known they were not remotely villainous. 

There is also Hawkeye’s comic book costume which he refuses to wear in the TV version, at least till near the end, when it has been made for him by a bunch of people who are into costuming and fights. I have been looking up on YouTube some of the animated shows made by Marvel in the 60s and there he is, wearing that dreadful costume! 

Just before Christmas Eve I went out to buy some Jolabokaflod reading. I got that biography I mentioned in my last post, about King Oswald of Northumbria, at Dymock’s bookshop, then went to check out the newly reopened Minotaur Books, which specialises in comics, and bought two. One was a collection of short graphic stories about various Marvel characters, set during the various eras from the 1940s onwards. Captain America stuffs up, though well-meaning. Peter Parker, in the very long queue to see the original Star Wars, has to lose his place in the queue to be Spider-Man during a robbery, but gets in to see the movie after all.

Early Fantastic 4 cover. Fair use

The other book, which I haven’t started yet, is some of the early Fantastic 4 stories which I bought because they were by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

By the way, I finally managed to finish Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Klay, his novel about two cousins in the 1940s who create a hugely popular comic book series. Highly recommended if you haven’t read it! 

Do you have some memories of comic books of your early years? Did you discover them early or late?

  

Jolabokaflod 2021!

A couple of years ago, I did my compulsory pre-Christmas post on the subject of Jolabokaflod, the Icelandic custom of spending Christmas Eve reading new books. Here is a link to it.

https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com/2018/12/compulsory-pre-christmas-post-happy.html

It’s such a nice custom! You get a catalogue of all the new releases for that year, in time to do your Christmas shopping. You give - and receive - new books, and settle down on Christmas Eve to read your new goodies, maybe with Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band playing Christmas themed songs, as I did the other year. What could be more perfect? 

Thinking about it, it’s a great way to support the local publishing industry, though perhaps it might be a bit impractical in a country of around 26 million people - Australia - to be sending out a publisher catalogue to every household. Still, a nice idea. 

I’m afraid my Jolabokaflod read this year isn’t Australian, and last time I read Miranda Kaufman’s Black Tudors, a wonderful book, but not Australian. Next time, though… perhaps Peter FitzSimon’s next Australian history book? I do love reading history books.

Here is this year’s choice. I did visit my local SF bookshop, Minotaur, which has recently reopened in another venue after the last lockdown, and am looking forward to reading some Marvel Comics, but I’m cracking this one open tonight. 

For those who celebrate it, a happy Yuletide, with plenty of books!

Just Been To See…Dune!

Film poster. Fair use

 I have been to see the latest version of Dune, at my local cinema, and I have to say, I enjoyed it very much. The film only covered a small part of the novel and the next film won’t be out till 2023, but I had been warned and accepted it. It’s a long book, and you really can’t fit it all into a single film.

I read the book many years ago, and my copy is signed by the author, Frank Herbert, who came to Australia for a Perth SF convention and dropped into Melbourne, where I live, on his way home. There was a science fiction bookshop, Space Age, in the Melbourne CBD, and after 5.00 pm, when the shop closed, we got to meet Frank Herbert, who signed books and answered questions. He looked like Santa Claus at the time(later he shaved) and was just as jovial.

He was very much a plotter rather than a pantser, and said he had done a huge stack of research before he wrote a word. It really shows in his writing; the world building is brilliant. 

I confess I have never read any of the sequels, but this novel is a classic. If anything can be compared to Tolkien’s work, just for the world building, it’s Dune. 

It is thick as a brick, and if you want to read it, you need to focus. Dune is not something you can read in a sitting or two. If you haven’t read the book, you can just go and see the movie to get the flavour. Really. Don’t try reading it before the movie if you haven’t already.

It is about the adventures of a boy called Paul Atreides, son of a Duke, whose family are ordered to go and take over the planet Arrakis, aka Dune. Arrakis is a desert world where people wear stillsuits that recycle any water you sweat or pee out. On Arrakis, which has local tribes called the Fremen, if someone spits at you, it’s a compliment, because they are sharing their body’s water. That’s how dry it is! But it is also the only place in the universe that produces this stuff called the spice, which makes space navigation possible. Spice is produced by the giant sandworms. As you can imagine, anyone who runs this world is going to make a fortune, and the family leaving is not pleased. 

I won’t go any further, to avoid spoilers, especially because it ends about a third of the way through the novel, but it certainly, in my opinion, is true to the spirit of the book. The visuals are stunning, as is the music. The sandworm that shot up out of the desert sands was truly scary.

 The role of Paul is played by Timothee Chalamet, whom you have probably seen in other roles, such as Laurie in Little Women, and Henry V.  He is a bit old for the role(Paul is 15), but convinces, and I guess Paul really has to be played by someone older than 15; there is too much he has to do to give the role to a teenager.  On the other hand, his father, Duke Leto Atreides, is played by Oscar Isaac, whom you will have seen in Star Wars as Poe Dameron, the dashing rebel pilot. He is maybe a bit young for the role, but they did a good job of making him look somewhat older. 

There are some familiar faces here. Duncan Idaho, working for the Duke, was played by Jason Momoa, whom you may have seen in  Game Of Thrones as the Dothraki leader, or the title role in Aquaman. Another character, Gurney Halleck, was played by Josh Brolin(Thanos in the Avengers films), though without his musical instrument, the baliset. Dave Bautista, of Guardians Of The Galaxy fame, is Beast Raban, one of the baddies.

I have to admit, I had forgotten how much of the story was dominated by men until I watched this film. There are strong female characters, but not many women in general. There is the Reverend Mother of the order of the Bene Gesserit, who are a lot more than a bunch of space nuns. There is Paul’s mother Lady Jessica, trained by the Bene Gesserit, who is passing on her skills to her son. There is the (future) love interest, Chani(played by Zendaya), who is a tough Fremen fighter. (Liet Kynes, the scientist, was a male character in the book). Apart from these, I can’t think of any women who get more than a line or two. 

Still, whether you have read the novel or not, it’s well worth seeing. Get your ice cream and popcorn and settle down for a great ride! 

Just Finished Reading…Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David And Colleen Doran

 

Stan Lee, born Stanley Leiber, started life in a very poor Jewish family in New York and ended it hugely famous, a major part of the comics and comic films industry. He did a cameo in every film, right to the end. He even made a brief appearance in an episode of Agent Carter, a TV show about Peggy Carter, a British- born agent working in the US after losing her beloved Steve Rogers (aka Captain America). Lee was in one scene where he was at a shoe shine stand and asked for a newspaper. 

I discovered this book at my local library and couldn’t resist. And very good it was, too, artwork by Colleen Doran and co-written with Peter David. Peter David started as a novelist, and I have read  two of his fantasy books. He went on to write an early episode of Babylon 5 and many comics. This is very suitable for the memoir of a comic book writer, and the book is, also appropriately, in the form of a graphic novel, and I have to say the artwork by Colleen Doreen is great, reflecting the humour of the story.

And what a delightful graphic novel it is! It’s presented as a talk by Stan Lee to a crowded auditorium, in which he shows his life as a sort of PowerPoint, from his childhood through his first job writing comics and the war years when his writing skills were used for army films warning about VD, his first meeting with his beloved wife(love at first site - he was supposed to go on a blind date with someone else!) and his career that followed. The book was written just about the time when The Avengers: Age Of Ultron was about to be released. 

At one point he visits his child self to inform him that he will never achieve his dream of becoming President…

My favourite scene was when his daughter and a friend are passing his study where he is dramatising a scene from a comic aloud. The friend asks what’s going on. The daughter says that’s her Daddy and he is working. The friend says her father is an accountant and much quieter! 

I’m guessing this is written for younger readers as he has written a regular memoir. That’s fine with me! 

It’s available, along with many of his other books and comics, in all the usual places. It’s even available in audiobook.