Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 24

Happy (USA) Thanksgiving!

We already celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada, but I wanted to be sure to wish our southern neighbours a merry day of feasting as well. We need some kind of late November holiday up here, I think, because the stretch from October to Saturnalia is unrelentingly grey and grim. Of course, I say that every year, and the answer always seems to be, “Yes! Now organize something, Rachel!” And of course I don’t, due to being massively busy (and lazy, simultaneously).

However, in the spirit of the d...

Happy German book birthday!

Hurrah! Serafina – DasKönigreich der Drachen: Band 1 is out today! Here’s the beautiful cover:

I really think I should get come cake on these birthdays, don’t you? Hm… I should see about fixing that.

Don’t ask how I got here

Because I’m sure I don’t know. I think I was looking for spinet videos, as one does. I ended up at this, however: Handel and Scarlatti in a harpsichord duel to the death.

I assume the cheeky fellow with the moustache is supposed to be Handel, but I wouldn’t swear to it. I’ve never seen a picture of either of these gents with a moustache. The wigs, though. One wonders why those ever went out of fashion.

All right, one doesn’t wonder very hard.

The season of lists is upon us

And Seraphina has made ! It’s #13, no less, which I find highly amusing.

That particular article also lets you know which ones were John Green’s favourites, in case you were burning with curiosity about that (follow the link to Omnivoracious to learn what they all are).

I have to admit, I tend to read older books. I mean, I feel guilty reading newer stuff when I haven’t even finished my TBR list from the 80s yet. How can I have any pudding if I haven’t eaten my...

Congrats to Susin Nielsen, and others!

A big congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Awards!

As you probably already gleaned, this list does not include me, but y’know what? It’s fine. I read Susin Nielsen’s winning book, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, and I knew as I read it that here was a powerful contenda indeed. Here’s my review on Goodreads, and I really, really hope that the G.G. award leads a lot more people toward reading this worthy, painful, hilarious, wonderful book.

Goodreads Readers’ Choice nominee!

I was pleased and surprised this morning to see that Seraphina has made it to the semifinal round of the Goodreads Readers’ Choice awards! They put a lovely orange badge on the book page and everything.

“Pleased” is, I’m sure, self-evident. “Surprised” is because the book wasn’t on the main page in the opening round. If people wanted to vote for it, they had to write it in. Looks like a few people must have done just that. Thank you all so much!

And a lovely Wednesday to you!

I will say exactly this about the US elections: I’m glad they’re over! I couldn’t stand the suspense.

I am still in suspense about one thing, however: the Governor General’s Literary Awards. Here’s a lovely article at CBC Online profiling the five nominees for the English Language Children’s Text award.

The only other nominee I’ve read is Susin Nielsen’s The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would be perfectly content and feel there is justice in the world if I...

Excellent news Monday

Seraphina has been long-listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medalin the UK! I am so very pleased and honoured. What an encouraging start to the week!

Let the bum-in-chair-athon begin!

It’s November, darlings! Anyone doing NaNo this year? If you want to buddy me, I’m “amyunbounded”.

I’m only sort of NaNo-ing, though. To be perfectly honest, I’m cheating most egregiously. I’m not really counting words, because I’m revising and I CAN’T. I’m logging hours spent, only I have to convert them into words (through an algorithm of my own devising) or the graph won’t graph it properly. If I work for the (arbitrary) number of hours I’ve set for myself, I credit myself as having made pa...

My favourite musical creepsters

Blue Oyster Cult! As promised, here are some creepy classics from the oyster boys. First up, a great favourite in our household, a song we play every Halloween, “Harvester of Eyes.”

Second, as anticipated by Lisa in the comments yesterday, “Joan Crawford.” This is a fan video made from real clips of Joan Crawford, which I like much better than the official music video (even though that featured zombie schoolgirls; that sounds cooler than it turned out to be in execution).

And last, but far from...