Autumn has arrived! While some see this season as a time for slowing down, it is a season filled with energy. The air is crisp, sunsets golden, and in only a few days Diana Peterfreund's new book Ascendant hits the shelves.

As you all know, I love mythology, fantasy, and a good story with a medieval twist. Back for a second tale, is Astrid Llewellyn, a young woman with a mind of her own, who is not afraid to be herself. Previously, readers were introduced to the ancient and very secret order of young unicorn hunters who, for hundreds of years, protected the world from the not-so-fluffy single-horned creatures. Trust me, these are not the soft, cuddly creatures won at the carnival midway. In Ascendant, Astrid continues to struggle with her commitment to the cause, as well as her commitment to do what's right. Along the way, she struggles with the balance between science and nature, well-meaning activists, and the personal choices that so many young women must make-career, school, romance, family, and which weapon also earns points as an accessory.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, Rampant, and I have to admit, Ascendant is even more thrilling. The story weaves a tale as rich as the tapestries that hang in the ancient Italian abbey where the story begins.

I desperately don't want to give anything away, yet I can tell you I was completely engrossed in this story; so much so, I read it in two sittings! Mystery, romance, fantasy all conspire to keep readers turning pages. Appropriate for young adults, the heroine appeals to anyone who is young at heart...Astrid is ageless.

Ascendant hits bookstores on October 1.

       With the strains of  "It's a Small World" still playing in my head from my stroll through the park last night, I registered for the writer's convention, procured my packet and tote bag, and sat down to schmooze.  Within five minutes, I found myself being introduced to a writer from~of all places~Paducah, KY (located halfway between Possum Trot and Monkey's Eyebrow).  Well, after the guffaws and hugs, we sat down to a proper chat. After all, its not everyday, one meets somebody from one's hometown.  

  

     Having said that, so often, I find myself face-to-face with people whom I know, or who are part of that whole six-degrees-of-separation phenomena.   My husband is cursed (or blessed) with it.  We've been strolling in NYC, and have heard his name called; have been in line at Universal, and have run into co-workers.   A few months ago, someone read his name and immediately asked, "Do you have a brother named 'soandso'?"  This man had made  a connection between my husband and his brother.  In New Jersey.

We live 1500 miles from New Jersey.  

I was once in an airport out west, when I heard a familiar voice, and turned around to see a former coworker.  She was there with a tour.  I was there catching a connection.  Even more bizarre...the woman had grown up near my mom  (once again, hundreds of miles from where we lived).  

Stranded in Wales, doing research for a book, I ran into a road construction worker to lent me his phone to call home to the states.  I turned out this guy's mother who lived in northern England, was also an historical novelist.  Go figure.  After I spoke to my husband, the construction worker called up his mom and we had a fine chat.    

      

      We once stopped for gas at a hole-in-the-wall station in Mississippi, only to run into my parents~who are not from Mississippi.   They had stopped for gas, too.   Seriously.

Oh, the stories I could tell!

        Consider just how small the world is.  Walt got it right, somehow, all those years ago.  As did my husband's grandfather when he told his kids, "Remember, no matter where you go, there will always be someone who knows who you are."  In this age of Face book, Twitter, Blogspot, and Skype, it seems we are making the world ever smaller. 

So...talk to me.  How many of you have run into someone you know in the most unlikely places?  Have you found yourself in the 3rd, 4th, or 6th degree of separation?  What cosmic quirks have you experienced? 

       

What color is your rainbow?

Color can set mood, denote emotion, incite action, or non-action. 

 

   This week,  two movies have set my mind whirling about the importance of color.

I went to see Eclipse, as did numerous others.  I was struck by the simplistic color scheme.  Brown and grey were the predominant hues throughout the movie, with the exception being Victoria's red hair (no spoilers).  Although the season is spring, the cinematographer did  a wonderful job of presenting a quilt of scenes that are just a touch off black and white...thereby giving the audience that sense that there is a hint more to good vs. evil in this tale.  

   Having contemplated this, I sat down and watched The Village this weekend, as well.  M. Night Shyamalan is a genius for his ability to take something simple and turn it into something unsettling, or horrifying, depending on your perspective.  In The Village, the predominant colors are gold (all things bright and beautiful), and red (all things alarming and dangerous).  While the sets, costumes, and lighting are neutral, these two colors which he brandishes like flags set us on edge, pulling us into the emotional turmoil, into the panic.  

   Many years ago, a book hit the racks with a white cover.  Ghost Story was a hit, and part of that might have been the strategy of the cover.  Few books at that time had such a stark cover, but for this one, the color caught the reader off guard. Ghostly figures and white just seemed to go together.  It worked.  Sales hit a high; ultimately the story headed to Hollywood and became a feature film.

   When my daughter was young, I discovered that she responded negatively to red. It was just too bold for her, and her perpetually calm sense of self would suddenly react fretfully to the brightness of the color when she found herself in a room or store where red was the main color.  Likewise, when I did work for the public affairs department of a hospital, we helped develop a color scheme that emphasized neutral shades of mauve, spruce, blue, grey, purely for their calming effect.

   I've read that some studies show that men respond favorably to the color red.  I know someone who gets headaches from the color orange.   Some people look better in pastel colors, others in gemstone or dark colors.  Some choose earthtones for their statement.   Marketing personnel know how important color is to packaging. Color affects sales.  

   What colors inspire you to buy? What colors turn you pensive?  What hues brighten your day? Give you a headache? Make you want to get up and dance?  Go look at your living room, your closet, your car, your favorite sweater.  Then tell me, what color is your rainbow?

School's Out for Summer!

Summertime!

Well, it's here.  School is out, kids are headed to beaches, amusement parks, and summer camps.

For me, well, it's time to commune with nature.  But only after an ample supply of mosquito repellant and zinc oxide (forget that 30 SPF stuff) have been liberally applied.  [Yes I recognize the redundancy of the previous statement~ and I embrace it.]

For me, embracing nature, also means embracing my own true nature.  It means sleeping in to get the full eight hours of sleep my body yearns for nine months of the year.  It means being able to eat when I want, and what I want (good, healthy stuff), versus the slew of fast-food-on-the-go things that I invariably snarf on my way to a meeting I'm already five minutes late for because if I don't grab something now, I won't get another chance until Thursday.  

And summer means being able to find a forest, or a lake, or a pond,  feed the ducks, listen to the birds and frogs, and  take a bit of time to just relax.  Read.  Write.  Read some more.   Traveling, visiting, touring are all wonderful, and they are part of my-own-true-nature self nurturing regimen for the summer.  However, when my legs are weary, my wallet is light, and I am faced with the mild inconveniences of day-to-day life, I can always escape in a book.  As I have told students for more than ten years now,  "With a book, you can go anywhere, be anyone, experience anything."  

Therein lies the magic.   

I am planning to go back in time and study the history of Wales, and maybe do some frolicking with Christopher Moore's  Jester (medieval, satirical...what's not to like?)  And then there's always that stack in the upstairs study that grows by a  book or two every conference or bookstore I hit.  TMB TLT  (too many books, too little time).

Enough of my rambling.  It's summer and somewhere,  daylight is waning!  Grab a tale, take a load off, and find your own moment of respite.   Any favorite reads, or hope-to-read tales on your summer reading lists?   Do tell.  

   

Layering. We layer our clothing and we layer our cakes. Are we ourselves layered?

Several years ago I watched a movie called Layer Cake. Daniel Craig spent the better part of two hours trying to maneuver through the layers of a plot that was almost Hitchcock-ian in its multi-layered plotting.

More recently, I have become a fanatic for LOST, which comes to an end this weekend after six years. The show, and its complexity, have given me a basis for some self examination.

I adore books and shows with complex plots. I have never thought of myself as a particularly complex person, yet if friends and relatives were queried, I suspect they would laugh at me and reveal me to be one of the most complex individuals on earth.

A simple plot is boy meets girl, they fall in love, they live happily ever after. Or Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, fell off, and died. (For those of you who follow the theatrical thread of my thoughts, that would be a Shakespearean tragedy). Now while we all love a happy ending or a truly dark tragedy, the fact is that such simplicity is, from a dramatic point of view, not entertaining enough to keep us reading or watching or even listening (books on tape).

My life is simple enough (somedays I'm the girl with the happy ending, somedays I feel a bit like HD). But for entertainment purposes only, I'll take the complex plot everytime.

Consider just about any story by Charles Dickens. What a monumental knot of duplicity, secrets, surprises, love-lost, and treasures revealed. Sprinkle in a little tragedy, madness, and a smidge of true love, and there is enough to entertain everyone. The same is true of Diana Gabaldon's books. Layers, hurdles, mysteries.

And don't even get me started on Twin Peaks.

Years ago someone did a survey and discovered that young urban professionals with high-stress jobs loved Telly Tubbies at the end of the work day because it was simple, mindless, comforting. They could let their brains and bodies rest and just absorb the simplicity of childish play, bold colors, soft sounds. No pressure. No conflict. No stress over characters' tribulations.

For me, Lost (which could have turned out to be a dramatic cross between Gilligan's Island and Knot's Landing), epitomized the concept of plot layering. The simplicity of people trying to survive the plane crash morphed into Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, retold with a modern twist. My brain spins with the concepts condensed into the few short minutes that the writers feed the audience each week. Alternate realities, good vs. evil, morality, mayhem, Mythology, espionage, and the classic love triangle.

Complex plots challenge us. Like crossword puzzles, chess, Jeopardy, or Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me (NPR), complexities generate our brains to use grey matter that I suspect doesn't get used on the daily drive to work.

So, as Lost comes to an end, and Law and Order fades into the sunset, give me some feed back. Do you like your stories simple and soothing? Or, do you live vicariously by suspense, multiple plot lines, and the one who got away...

       Alright, folks,  it's a culture check.   I recently introduced students to classical music.  I opened by querying their knowledge of different types of music.  Yikes...so many knew so little about various styles.  I was surprised to realize that my household seems to be an anomaly.  

       In my house we heard everything from 20's style ragtime to classical, to blues, to rock-and-roll, to country, to spiritual...it was all good.  Likewise, my husband grew up knowing his Bach from his Bluegrass.  

       I remember the day my eighteen-month old shouted from the car's back seat, "This is jazz!"  Never a prouder moment~sigh.  I didn't even know she knew jazz.

       I encourage parents to surf the radio for various music styles and play games with your captive audience  (spouses, kids, and pets), for the duration of the drive.  Challenge each other to learn about the different styles of music.   While not every style appeals to everyone, it is safe to say that one song does not a music genre make.  I've heard Christian Rap I  thoroughly enjoyed, and mellow Beatles songs that left me cold (pretend you didn't read that last one, and I'll pretend I didn't write it).  

      As I try to instill in my classes.  Learning about the art, and analyzing it (or enjoying it), tells us something about the culture that produced it.  Music is such a fine example for this.  From the lilting waltzes of Strauss, to the compelling, nature-inspired works of Aaron Copeland.  We can look through the eyes of the composer, and "hear" what they saw.  

Break out of the bonds of conformity, find a composer or a style that is as foreign to you as a new language, and immerse yourself in the wonder of its melodies.   Blues, Opera, Baroque, Celtic, Tribal, Bluegrass, Country, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Spiritual, Rock-n-Roll, Show Tunes , New-Age, Contemporary, Movie Scores, Folk music, Salsa, Classical, Big Band/Swing, Tin-Pan Alley...orchestral, chamber, garage-band.  

Did I mention I learned the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, as did my Eighth-grade classmates, by listening to School House Rock?  Talk about cross-curricular instruction! And don't get me started on Les Miserables.  From history, to literature, to musical composition~what's not to like?

Do you wander up and down the dial?  Do you dabble in music diversity?  Or does your stereo only have one station?  Rise up, take up the charge, and change your tune.  You might like the beat of a different drummer.  

Imagine...not

Where has imagination gone? It is surely on the endangered list.

Remember when, as a child, you would play for hours on end in the front or back yard, using little more than imagination, and perhaps an old spoon from the pantry?  

My father used to stack hay bales together to build me a clubhouse.  Inside my cave of straw, I could pretend that I was hiding from outlaws, or that my prison was a castle turret.  Close by, in our small woods, I kept company with the likes of Robin Hood, faeries, and the creatures from Jungle book, or pirates from Treasure Island (yes, I was an only child).  

Our property had once been a drive-in cinema, which held such promise for an imaginative child.  The overgrowth of bramble, the trees with bowing limbs, the dark crevices of the cistern shed, all were portals for adventures. These were the beginning of great tales.

I have seen people who had a difficult time with classic tales because the characters were fantastic (face it, beavers do not talk in real life, and rabbits do not wear vests).  Thus, such people cannot enjoy the Tales of Narnia, or Alice in Wonderland, or anything that exists “outside of the box” .   Why I know students who cannot entertain themselves if they do not have a visual aid (television or videogame) in their hands.  They will not read. They cannot daydream. They cannot make up stories.

I did a show recently where I needed mermaids.  The local store had mermaid tales that were tailored and all the same color.  My life probably would have been easier if I could have used them~alas, I could not.  They were too much like cookie cutter costumes.  Instead, I used sequined scraps, and the flouncy skirts from old dance costumes to make billowy fishtails for four mer-princesses.  Each mermaid was unique...and beautiful, and proud.

Encourage children to use imagination and ingenuity.  I once had students make 3o-demensional books with their favorite story scenes coming out of the book.  Some of them were wonderful~ribbon spools became clock faces, birdhouse charms became flying houses, cotton became clouds. One student, however, spent money instead of time, going to the craft store to buy a pre-made book, a wooden pre-cut pig, and a plastic spider.   

Not one item in the project was made by hand; the text had been copied from a printer; and the margins were perfectly set.

Comparatively, another child, had a hot air balloon she had made from a real balloon, glue,and tissue paper, had built a house of foil and ribbon, and had used an old worn and discarded paperback novel, painted and bound for the base. 

Without imagination, scientists would never have found subatomic particles, or a cure for smallpox.  The Eiffel tower would not be a landmark, and a mouse would not be an ambassador for children everywhere.  Without imagination, the telephone would not have been invented, and we would not be able to view the ponderences of people sitting halfway round the world.

What will we do as a society, when imagination becomes extinct?