Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 122

Toads in the Pond

We have toads in our pond.  Several generations of toads, to be precise.

To clarify why this is a wonderful and exotic thing, let me explain.

Spadefoot Toad on Our Marsh

First, where I live is exceptionally dry.  Although the Rio Grande river is not that far away – just a couple  miles’ walk in a straight line east – when judging proximity to water, we might as well be on the Moon.  Okay.  Maybe not the Moon.  But take it from me, it’s dry.

Second, calling the water-feature in my backyard a “pond” is a grand over-glorification.  Our pond is a black plastic shell that holds maybe a hundred and twenty gallons.  And that would be its maximum capacity if we didn’t have anything but water in it and filled it all the way to the brim.

Instead, we have plants in our pond – a dwarf water lily, a blue pickerel weed, and an ornamental plantain that has flowers like baby’s breath.  Between them, the blue pickerel weed and the plantain have created a little marsh firm enough to hold the birds that land to drink.  We have aquatic mint growing around the edges (and into the water, whenever it can).

We have a pump that displaces a couple of gallons.  And a school of goldfish, three generations, all descended from feeder fish we rescued from the pet store.

So there’s not a lot of water there.  But it’s enough water to attract toads.

Our toads are spadefoot toads, specifically, New Mexican spadefoot toads, which are the state amphibian.  Spadefoot toads can live without much water at all.  Using a special digging toe on their hind legs, they burrow underground, emerging when there is water to lay their eggs.  Because usually all they have are puddles, spadefoot tadpoles develop very quickly – often going mobile in as little as forty-eight hours.

I have a friend who makes a point of transferring spadefoot tadpoles from puddles that are drying up to ones that still have water.  I know she has occasionally wondered if this is at all helpful to the toads.  I can now reassure her that a few hours can make a big difference.

Spadefoot toads usually dig backwards, excavating behind them, then backing in and closing the hole after them.  This can lead to startling encounters for those who share their territory.

One year, I noticed that an alyssum I’d planted where it would artfully spill over the edge of a flowerbed had apparently turned triffid and was preparing to go walkabout.  After I gently moved it and prepared to widen the hole and replant it, imagine my astonishment when I looked down and saw a toad looking up at me reproachfully.  It had found a nice, damp piece of real estate, complete with floral ornamentation for the roof.  Now I was messing everything up!

Needless to say, I moved the alyssum to one side, and both toad and plant had a happy summer.

As the years have gone by, we have progressed from the occasional toad sighting, to our current thriving colony.  There’s the toad who lives near our back porch door, waiting to dine on the insects that are attracted by the light spilling out from the kitchen.  There is the toad that lives down at the western edge of the bean netting, doubtlessly enjoying the dampness of the soaker hose we use to water the beans.  There are the toads we see as evening gathers (spadefoot toads are nocturnal) hopping their way from various points in the yard to have a splash in the pond before going hunting.

Last year, we had a transitory turtle spend some time in our yard.  In hopes of encouraging it to stay, we put a shallow dish of water out so it could have something to drink and a splash if it so desired.  We don’t know if it ever used it, but we did see little toads sitting in it, shyly requesting we ignore that they were there so they didn’t have to pretend to be scared and run away.

Most of the year, spadefoot toads are quiet cohabitants.  However, this time of year, they are quite noisy.  Their call is hard to describe.  It’s deeper than you’d expect from such a small creature (most of our toads could sit comfortably in the palm of my hand, many could sit on a quarter).  It’s all on one long, somewhat harsh note, a sort of elongated sound like “cat” without the “C” and with the “T” barely audible.

I’m not sure it’s exactly a “pretty” sound, but Jim and I really like it because it’s a sign that our yard is a vibrant, living organism.  Our cats (who are “indoor only” cats) find it fascinating.  One evening, as a toad was warming up, the toad would go “aaat” and Ogapoge, our big, sixteen pounder, would call back on almost the same note.

We’ve had a relatively damp (for New Mexico), relatively cool (for New Mexico) spring, and the toads are loving it.  So, as you can probably gather, are we.

FF: Some Very Odd People

I feel as if I���m missing something, but for now this will have to do.

Just in case you don���t know��� The Friday Fragments feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week. ��Most of the time I don���t include either short fiction or magazine articles.

Ogapoge Snags My Books for Himself!

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website��under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex.�� Audiobook.�� Really enjoyed this.�� It walked the delicate line between silly and intense.�� Kids and adults alike will enjoy the quirky characters.�� Adults will get a kick out of the commentary on the value system in the modern U.S.�� Recommended by Chad Merkley, a reader of the Friday Fragments!�� Thank you, Chad!

Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones.�� This one came up when Alan and I were writing about Diana Wynne Jones for the Thursday Tangents.�� I had to re-read.�� Translating the gods of Norse mythology into modern England makes for some very odd characters.

In Progress:

Dune by Frank Herbert. ��A re-read, but probably not for at least ten years…

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones.�� Audiobook.�� Just started.�� It���s short, so I���ll probably be done tonight.

Also:

Lots of�� research and the usual beginning of the month magazine deluge.

TT: In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit

JANE: So, Alan, now that you���ve been retired for a few months, have you done anything interesting with your spare time?�� (Other than writing Tangents, of course.�� Writing Tangents is always interesting.)

Alan’s Photo of Bag End

ALAN: Yes ��� Robin and I went to Hobbiton. It’s been built in a field near a small town called Matamata which is almost exactly in the middle of the North Island. It can’t be exactly in the middle because the exact middle is occupied by a huge volcanic lake…

There are more than 40 hobbit houses in the village along with the Green Dragon pub where visitors can drink specially brewed hobbit ales. And the village green still has the remnants of the decorations that were hung there for Bilbo’s eleventy first birthday party.

JANE: Oh!�� Neat!�� I���m going through the pictures you sent us.�� It looks wonderful.�� What loving detail!�� There���s a big tree in one of the shots.�� Is that a real tree or one constructed to be the Birthday Tree in the movie?

ALAN: That’s a real tree ��� almost all of them are. But the oak tree growing above Bag End is completely artificial. There is a lovely pine tree growing nearby which was originally intended to be the oak tree, and so the special effects people stripped the pine needles and started painstakingly wiring oak leaves to the branches. But the pine needles grew back faster than they could wire the oak leaves on, so they had to give up on that idea and build the oak tree from scratch.

JANE:�� That���s just plain crazy.�� Why not go with the evergreen?

I notice that most of your pictures are exterior shots.�� Can you go into the houses?

ALAN: No. Except for the Green Dragon pub, the structures are just facades. There isn’t anything behind the round doors except scaffolding and other support structures. All the interior shots in the movies were filmed in studio sets. Visitors to Hobbiton are allowed inside one of the hobbit houses, but it isn’t very interesting. All you can see is a wooden frame.

JANE: Ah����� That must be the picture with the modern equipment in it.�� I���d wondered.

ALAN: The story behind Hobbiton is quite fascinating. Do you want to hear it?

JANE: Absolutely!

ALAN: When Peter Jackson was first looking for places to film the Lord of the Rings movies, he was a relatively unknown director. He quickly found many places where he wanted to build his movie sets, some on private land and some on council-owned land. All he had to do was get permission to film…

A lot of negotiations took place with the various land owners and eventually contracts were signed. But they all had one thing in common ��� nobody thought the sets would have any lasting value. Strange fantasy films made by a director best known for his amusingly gory video-nasties? Obviously the whole thing would soon be forgotten. Therefore, all the contracts specified that when Peter Jackson finished filming, the land had to be returned to the same state it had been in when he first found it. So all the film sets were temporary structures made of polystyrene and plaster, and they were all demolished when they were finished with.

JANE: Oh, sorrow����� Some of those were lovely.

ALAN: And then something amazing happened. The films became a worldwide sensation and international tourists flocked to New Zealand searching for the authentic Middle-Earth experience. Guide books were published detailing all the places where the movies had been filmed and untold thousands of people came to stare enthusiastically at empty fields full of slightly bewildered cows and sheep.

JANE: ���Humans are very odd,��� think the cows and sheep.�� And they���re right!�� But something must have changed.

ALAN: By now, everybody was kicking themselves ��� if only we had kept the movie sets in place, they moaned with wise hindsight. Then we could charge the tourists a fortune to see them. If only…

JANE: I���m sure the cows and sheep felt otherwise.�� So what happened next?

ALAN: When Peter Jackson returned to Middle-Earth to make The Hobbit movies, the attitude had changed completely. When he went back to the farmer on whose land he had built the original Hobbiton, the farmer insisted that this time the set should be built of permanent materials.

Jackson was more than happy to oblige and now Hobbiton is a permanent structure that will last for a century or more. There is a whole infrastructure in place to take care of the tourists. Regular coaches arrive from all over the country. There’s a souvenir shop full of hobbitiana, and a cafe where you can order and eat a second breakfast. It’s all terribly commercial and judging by the prices they charge, somebody must be making a fortune.

But nevertheless, it’s Hobbiton! And it’s real! And it’s throat-catchingly magic. I loved it.

JANE: I really enjoyed it, even just via your snapshots.�� What really impressed me were the small details. ��Someone is working very hard to make sure the flowers are fresh, the laundry remains on the line, and paint is bright.

ALAN: They have a large staff who spend their days doing exactly that. The level of detail is quite amazing. There are ornaments in the windows, and the paint is flaking on the doors of the hobbit holes in the poorer parts of the village.

One thing that really stood out for me was just how old and lived in everything looked. Even the fences around the houses looked as if they had been solidly in place for hundreds of years, the wood was well weathered and covered in moss. Apparently, when the fences were built, they were smeared with yoghurt to encourage the growth of bacteria which quickly gave the fences their ancient aspect. I thought that was a really clever trick.

JANE: Nice trick, indeed!���� There were only two odd things ��� not seeing any hobbits and seeing visitors in modern dress.�� I found myself wishing that ��� like in Diana Wynne Jones���s novel The Darklord of Derkholm ��� the tourists were required to dress appropriately.�� The setting seemed to demand cloaks and tunics.

ALAN: I agree ��� that would have been very atmospheric. There was a cloak for sale in the souvenir shop (only one!). It cost $400 so we didn’t buy it. We were hoping that we’d be able to buy hobbit feet slippers, but to our great disappointment, the shop didn’t have any. Somebody missed a great marketing opportunity there. We ended up buying a ���No Admittance Except On Party Business��� notice which Robin has attached to the door of her office.

JANE: That sounds very suitable.�� Now that you���re both retired, all business is ���party business.���

ALAN: Of course, none of this could ever have happened if the films hadn’t been such a worldwide success, and the films would never have been made at all if it hadn’t been for the enormous effect that Tolkien’s novels had on the reading habits of a generation. Perhaps we can talk about Tolkien’s huge influence next time?

JANE: I���m definitely in favor of that!�� I warn you����� I���ll have some tough questions for you!

Patchwork of Images

Color One, Shades of Green and Gold:

Thanks to those of you who took advantage of the sale for Changer in e-book form.�� On April 30th alone, over 1,400 copies were sold, just on Amazon.com.�� This enabled me to recoup my advertising investment with a little left over.

Shidoni’s Timeless Gardens

However, even more important to me was that now more people know that both Changer and Changer���s Daughter (previously released as Legends Walking) are available.�� For those of you who prefer print books ��� as I do myself ��� they���re also available as trade paperbacks via Amazon Create Space.

I was particularly thrilled when, on their own initiative, both Charles deLint and Terri Windling helped push out the signal.�� Since they���re pretty much the gods of Urban Fantasy (old form), this was the sort of shout-out guaranteed to leave a smile.

One thing this adventure into advertising taught me is how hard it is to get out the word that a book exists.�� Over and over again, via both social media and e-mail, people thanked me for making Changer available again ��� as if this was a newly released reprint.

The thing is, I first released Changer as an e-book back late in 2011.�� It has been there for the searching but, like so many things, out of sight, out of mind.�� The advertisement brought it back into sight ��� although, apparently only for a short period.�� Although discount continued for a couple more days, the bulk of the sales were on that first day.

Then, I guess, it drifted back out of sight.�� An interesting experiment, but definitely not a way to keep people buying���

Color Two, Bright and Multi-hued, with Buttons:

What else did I do this week?�� Hmm����� I finished the rough draft of a short story.�� I���ll tell you more when it���s not rough.�� I���m a bit superstitious that way.

I also wrote an amazing amount of non-fiction on topics as widely varied as elves and dental implants.

Color Three, Bronze and Bright Orange:

I spent a day in Santa Fe, celebrating Jim���s birthday.�� We went with friends out to Shidoni foundry.�� They pour bronze sculptures and have an amazing sculpture garden.

There���s an associated glassblowing studio.�� We were lucky enough to arrive just as one of the artists was beginning a piece.�� Although the studio got pretty hot, we stayed for a long while, watching molten glass turn into a vase.�� While I watched, I thought about Kai Wren, the protagonist of Lord Demon, one of the two novels I finished for Roger Zelazny.

I thought a bit about Roger, too, since the first time I went to Shidoni was with him, nearly twenty years ago.�� Shidoni is a sort of timeless place.�� Hard to imagine so much time has passed.

Color Four, Business Casual Meets Santa Fe Style:

Later, Jim and I got dressed up and went to the grand opening celebrations for the new Drury hotel in Santa Fe.�� Jim had been in charge of the archeological clearance for the site, in the course of which he and his crew found, among other things, remnants of one of the oldest roads in Santa Fe, pre-dating 1680.

I was pleased ��� although not very surprised, since I have a high opinion of Jim ��� that everyone we met whom he had worked with greeted him with enthusiasm and wanted to chat.�� It became obvious that, among all these hard-working, dedicated, and talented people, Jim stood out as something of a magician.�� They were remodeling a landmark building into a high end hotel.�� He was pulling the past out of the ground and making them see the shadows of events gone by.

Quilt Completed:

Out of this busy week, I patch together a quilt, a bit chaotic in pattern, and yet, as I spread it out and study the elements, a very attractive array indeed!

FF: Where Have All the Hours Gone?

News Flash: The sale on the e-book of��Changer for only 99 cents is winding down. ��Sale ends May 2.

Lots of catching up and friends visiting from out of town, so I didn���t get nearly as much time to read.�� But I���m writing ��� including a new short story ��� so I can���t complain.

Just in case you don���t know��� The Friday Fragments feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week. ��Most of the time I don���t include either short fiction or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Time Racing By!

Once again, this is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones.�� Audiobook. ��Although there was good closure, I found I had questions.�� How did the Pinhoes manage to hide their secret so long with Chrestomanci Castle so near?���� Had Gaffer Farley done something new?�� What did I miss?

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan issues 20-24 by Hiroshi Shiibashi.�� Manga.�� Not one of the most innovative as to plot and characters, but the inclusion of a wide variety of supernatural creatures and tie-in to past history keeps me interested.

In Progress:

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex.�� Audiobook.�� Just started.�� Recommended by Chad Merkley, a reader of the Friday Fragments!

Also:

I haven���t gotten to the The Tao de Ching.�� Too tired by the time I get to bed.

And lots of scattered research for three different projects!

TT: Inside Out and Backwards

News Flash:��The e-book of��Changer��is on sale today through May 2 for 99 cents.

JANE: Last week, I mentioned that I had a theory as to why Diana Wynne Jones did so much with parallel universes.�� I should have added that I think her gift for magic that works oddly, and with, in general, a logic that doesn���t fit the usual, may be owed to the same source.

Would you like to hear my theory?

Merlin and Hammer

ALAN: Yes please.

JANE: Several weeks ago, as I mentioned at the time, I read Diana Wynne Jones��� novella, The Game.�� I always read the jacket copy and author biographical material.�� Here, for the first time, I came across a bit of information I had not known before.

Diana Wynne Jones was dyslexic.�� The jacket copy mentions that she knew she wanted to write stories from the time she was eight, but it took her until she was twelve to figure out how to work around her dyslexia so she could do so.

Now, from my adult perspective, four years doesn���t seem much, but put it in terms of her life to that point!�� Four years is a third of her life!�� Amazing determination.

ALAN: That’s incredible ��� what a strong will she must have had.

JANE: I agree���

Being me, I decided to put on my researcher hat and see if I could get confirmation for my theory.�� I was handed off by various friendly people (Sharyn November suggested I talk to Neil Gaiman, Neil connected me to Tom Abba who went to Dr. Butler).�� After talking with Dr. Butler, Tom Abba sent me the following section of an interview by Dr. Butler of Diana Wynne Jones as printed in Reflections on the Magic of Writing, an autobiographical work by Diana Wynne Jones.

With full credit to the source, and many thanks to the many people who helped me find it, I share it with you:

CB: I know you���re dyslexic and left-handed, and in both those ways you���re coming at things from a slightly unusual angle, and I wonder if you feel that has had any relevance to the way you see and therefore write about the world?

DWJ: It probably has, but the trouble is you see that it���s normal for me. All it is is a struggle to try and keep level with right-handed ways of going on. I wouldn���t know about that, because the way I see things is, to me, normal. But I think you���re probably right and I think it probably does.

CB: I was thinking of that part in The Merlin Conspiracy where it turns out that Grundo���s magic is at ninety degrees to the magic of the universe he lives in.

��

DWJ: Yes, he does everything back to front. Yes, that was the bit where I thought, well, there are quite a lot of people who are dyslexic: let���s give them a champion, as it were.

��

One thing it���s very good for, actually, being dyslexic, is solving anagrams. It ought to make me a past master at Scrabble, but it doesn���t ��� but I���m very good at anagrams in crosswords, because I think my brain stores things scrambled as opposed to ordinary brains.

CB: The unscrambling muscles must be quite well developed.

��

DWJ: I think they are, yes. Though I did fail a driving test purely through dyslexia, because every time he told me to turn right I turned left. And we got lost. The examiner was furious, seething, and he failed me on the spot. Which was reasonable, of course. Goodness knows where we ended up. It was a completely strange part of Oxford to me, and obviously to the examiner as well. He couldn���t wait to get out of the car when we finally worked our way back to civilization.

ALAN: Reflections on the Magic of Writing is an autobiography, cobbled together after Diana Wynne Jones died, and made up of various articles and speeches that she published during her life. By its very nature, it is a little repetitive (she said similar things in many speeches), but it paints a fascinating picture of her development as both a person and a writer. I recommend it very highly.

JANE: Thanks for the recommendation.�� I���m definitely going to look for it.�� Was there anything in it you found particularly interesting or insightful?

ALAN: Oh, there are lots of wonderful anecdotes in it, but one that particularly struck me was that Diana Wynne Jones��� father was a schoolteacher and so he was well aware that children needed books. But he was also a skinflint. One day he came upon a second-hand set of Arthur Ransome’s children’s novels (known generically as the Swallows and Amazons series). For the next twelve years, at Christmas, he gave his children one volume from the set to be shared between them. Diana records that she was well into her university studies before she received the final volume…

JANE: Skinflint, self-centered adult characters who think they are kind and generous are a recurring motif in Diana Wynne Jones��� works.�� One who springs to mind immediately for me is Duffy in Dogsbody.�� Kathleen finally tells Duffy off, quite eloquently.�� I wonder if the author was letting loose a life-long desire?

Were there other anecdotes you found interesting?

ALAN: Actually, there was an interesting sequel related to Arthur Ransome. During the war, Diana and her siblings were evacuated to the Lake District where the Swallows and Amazons books are set. Arthur Ransome lived nearby and became very annoyed at the noise the children made while they were playing and he stormed into the house to complain. This was how Diana first learned that writers were actually real people. It was a little bit of a shock to her.

She also met Beatrix Potter, of Peter Rabbit fame. Diana records that Ms Potter was a crotchety old woman who smacked Diana’s sister for swinging on her front gate.

JANE: She must have been convinced that all writers are permanently bad-tempered.

ALAN: You mean they aren’t?

JANE: Ahem!�� Pray continue while I go find my sledgehammer so I can bludgeon you!

ALAN: When Diana Wynne Jones died, she left behind an incomplete novel. It was called The Islands of Chaldea. Her sister Ursula Jones couldn’t bear to leave it unfinished and even though she’d never done anything like it before, she decided to complete it on her sister’s behalf. It was published in 2014.

In an afterword, Ursula records how she scoured the text again and again searching for clues as to how Diana might have wanted the story to go. Eventually she found a small hint, early in the manuscript and she sat down to write the story. She says:

When I started to write, it came easily. It was almost as if Diana were at my elbow, prompting, prodding, turning sentences around, working alongside ��� and then it was finished, and she was gone again.

I’ve read (and loved) the novel, and trust me, you simply cannot see the joins. Ursula did a wonderful job of channeling her sister. I have no idea what this means in terms of the nature versus nurture debate as to whether writers are born or made. But I’m sure it must mean something.

JANE: I���ll need to read it and see if I agree����� But I���m so glad that writing it was a happy experience for Ursula.

Now I think we should probably stop nattering about her words and turn our readers loose to enjoy the works of this wonderful writer!

Kids and Critters

News Flash! April 30th through May 3, the e-book of Changer will be on sale at most major e-retailers, including Kobo and I-tunes.���� Don���t have an e-reader?�� Changer is also available in trade paperback (although not on sale) from Amazon Create Space or directly from me via my website bookshop.

Now to our regularly scheduled Tangent���

The questions I get most frequently asked in interviews is why I write about animals so often.

Kel and Nora

My automatic response is, ���Why wouldn���t I?�� Animals are fascinating and a lot more complicated than humans give them credit for being.���

This past weekend, we had an excellent illustration of just how complicated animals can be.�� Nora Bartel, age six, loves animals and was very eager to meet our cats and guinea pigs.�� We explained to her that our cats don���t have a lot of contact with children, so she should be prepared to have them be shy�� and take time to warm up to her.

Nora understood.�� At first the cats were a little shy, coming up to sniff, but backing away when Nora tried to pat them.�� Then Jim went and woke up Kel, who had been napping in the back.�� Kel is a gentle soul, but she doesn���t put up with any nonsense.�� However, she warmed to Nora very quickly.

Soon I saw Kel inviting Nora to play, prancing away a few steps, them pausing and looking back over her shoulder in an invitation for Nora to follow.�� We explained to Nora that Kel didn���t want to be chased fast, but that she wasn���t running away scared.�� Within a very short time, Kel had flopped down and was inviting Nora to pat her.

Nora was delighted to oblige, and soon they were great friends.

I found myself wondering why Kel had such a different reaction than the other three.�� Kwahe���e is very social, but he was content to watch and take an occasional pat.�� Persephone, who, at age three, is the most likely to fling herself into the middle of things, didn���t shun Nora, but she was definitely more cautious.�� Ogapoge eventually decided Nora was great, but not until Kel broke the ice.�� So why was Kel���s reaction so different?

Then I remembered.�� When Kel was a kitten, our nephew Christopher came to visit with his mom.�� Like Nora, Christopher was very interested in getting to know our cats.�� As with Nora, Christopher was told that he���d probably need to wait until the cats got to know him before they wanted to be patted.�� He showed superlative restraint, even when Kel (who was an impossibly cute fur ball) came right up to him and put her paws on him.

We told him it was okay to pat her, since she���d ���patted��� him first and before long they were great buddies.�� A six-year-old (especially one who loves baseball) will patiently throw balls for a kitten to chase for much longer than even indulgent adult cat lovers will do.�� Kel would play until she literally fell asleep on her feet.

However, this was a long time ago.�� Christopher is now in junior high.�� Kel is seven.�� Kel���s encounters between with small children have been limited.�� But, based on her behavior, she remembered that a small child could be a lot of fun.

Yet ���everyone��� ��� including scientists who study animals ��� will tell you that animals have no long-term memory.�� That certainly a few days in the life of kitten Kel would not be remembered seven years later.

Oh����� And despite the widely believed ���fact��� that cats are anti-social and only care about humans as sources of food and comfort, all four of our cats spent the evening hanging out with us in the living room.�� All four looked to interact, including settling into bits of furniture to be part of the party.�� They didn���t need to be fed or indulged.�� They just wanted to be there.

One thing I think gets in the way of people writing about animals is that even those who live with animals often don���t really see them as they are, they only see the human-imposed stereotypes of behavior.

Cats are standoffish, selfish, and aloof.�� Stereotypes applied to dogs vary and are often highly contradictory.�� Some of these are because different breeds behave differently.�� This really complicates the picture when the traits bred into one breed are applied to all dogs.

The same is true of wild animals.�� Human-imposed stereotypes are applied, as if animals are instinct-driven computers.�� The worst thing is that these stereotypes are often highly incorrect, based on insufficient information and a generalized series of behaviors.

A great example of this is the hyena.�� Everyone ���knows��� that hyenas are filthy, cowardly scavengers.�� They don���t hunt for themselves.�� Instead they skulk around, eating what lions leave behind, and carrion when other animals drop dead.�� They laugh slyly and, despite being cowards who don���t hunt, are ��� oddly enough ��� often represented as highly dangerous.

Guess what?�� Just about all of this is completely wrong.�� High-tech studies using devices that could capture animal behaviors on film, even at night, provided a completely different dynamic.�� Interestingly, initially, the studies weren���t of the hyenas, but were of lions ��� because lions are (in human stereotype) the dynamic ���king of the jungle.���

Turns out that the scavengers aren���t the hyenas����� It���s much more likely to be the lions.�� Hyenas have long front legs and shorter back legs.�� They have heavy heads, especially around the jaws.�� The combination of these traits make them seem to skulk when human body-language is imposed on them.�� Leaving out human prejudice, they���re actually excellent hunters.���� Lions (especially those noble ���kings���) are more inclined to get a meal the easiest way possible.�� Because lions live in groups (prides!), they can chase the hyenas from their kills.

And the evidence was there all along, but was ignored, because it didn���t fit the superimposed pattern.

Fascinating stuff!�� The fact is, most animals, even those we assume we know ���well,��� including domestic animals, are very different from the stereotypes imposed on them.

The same is true of children.�� It seems a pity to me that children are so rarely included in fiction, unless that fiction is written for children.�� If children are included in fiction written for a presumably adult audience, far too often, the child characters are treated much as animals are ��� not as three-dimensional characters, but as collections of stereotypical traits.

Those traits have much more to do with adult perceptions of children than the reality.�� The other day, a friend solemnly explained that most boys bond with their mothers and girls with their fathers.�� Certainly there are ���mommy���s boys��� and ���daddy���s girls,��� but the reverse is as often true or those terms wouldn���t exist at all.�� We���d just accept the pattern as normal.�� In fact, there are plenty of kids who aren���t either.�� They find traits in each parent that create a bond.

I don���t know why it is that many people ��� including writers, who I would like to think should be a bit more observant ��� find it so much easier not to see what���s around them and to instead choose to impose simplistic patterns.

Me?�� I���ll keep writing about animals and including children in my adult novels because, despite the adult human prejudice, animals and kids are as much ��� or more ��� a part of life as adult humans!

FF: Traveling and Reading

I was on the road this past weekend.�� This gave me a lot of time for stories ��� both via audio and in print.

Just in case you don���t know��� The Friday Fragments feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week. ��Most of the time I don���t include either short fiction or magazine articles.

Pack Me, Too!

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website��under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draanen.�� Mystery interwoven with over-the-top junior high politics.�� Both were well-resolved.�� The author is showing a talent for sneaking in ���messages,��� without ever preaching.�� This time, the consequences of smoking were featured.

A Boy Named Shel by Lisa Rogak.�� I knew Shel Silverstein had written rock and roll lyrics, as well as the strange children���s books that are perhaps his most prominent current legacy.�� Had no idea he wrote ���A Boy Named Sue,��� or that he lived in the Playboy mansion or����� Well-written look at a very eclectic and diverse artist/writer.

Howl���s Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky by Diana Wynne Jones.�� Audiobooks.�� Inspired by Alan Robson and my recent Tangents, Jim suggested we listen to these during our drive.�� Both are very enjoyable; Castle in the Sky is not a ���sequel��� in the traditional sense to the first book.

Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper.�� Fourth in her ���Dark is Rising��� sequence.�� I���d read before, but enjoyed the revist.

Naruto issue 69 by Masahi Kishimoto.�� Manga.�� Continues the climax to the storyline.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan issue 19 by Hiroshi Shiibashi.�� Manga.�� Contemporary horror/ dark fantasy.

In Progress:

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones.�� Audiobook. I left this one at home, so I haven���t quite finished.�� It���s interesting, though.�� The Egg of the title has been found, but that���s clearly not the only Pinhoe secret.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan issue 20 by Hiroshi Shiibashi.

Also:

I���d like to re-read The Tao de Ching.�� Maybe make that bedtime reading?

And research has just gotten more complicated.

TT: School Daze and SF Adventures

JANE: Alan, last time you pointed out that most of Diana Wynne Jones’ books stand alone. Did you know that one of the books we discussed, The Dark Lord of Derkholm, actually does have a sequel?

Fantasy and SF

ALAN: Yes, I do. It’s called Year of the Griffin. I must confess I was surprised when I came across it because I always felt that The Dark Lord of Derkholm stood alone very well indeed. What did you think of it?

JANE: At first I was hesitant, because, like you, I thought the prior book stood alone quite nicely.�� However, when I read the jacket copy and learned it was set eight years later, I was tempted.�� I soon found myself completely absorbed.

Year of the Griffin is a fine novel in and of itself, but it also provides Diana Wynne Jones an opportunity to take a swipe at a form of Fantasy novel that, especially at the time this novel was written, was being seriously over-done.�� By this I mean the Wizard School Story as popularized by Harry Potter, and imitated repeatedly, usually without J.K. Rowling���s flair.

ALAN: School stories are a very old English tradition which both J. K. Rowling and Diana Wynne Jones adopted, and then adapted to their own uses. Another one of her books based firmly in this tradition is Witch Week, which is one of her Chrestomanci stories. The novel is set in a boarding school in southern England in a world where many people have magical powers. The story begins with a teacher’s discovery of an ambiguous and disturbing note. Should it be taken seriously or not? The note says: SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH…

JANE: Ah, yes����� I���ve read that one.�� It���s very good.

Now, I enjoyed the Harry Potter novels, but Hogwarts always seemed boringly homogenous to me.�� Not so the school in Year of the Griffin.�� Students include a dwarf, a half-marsh dweller/half-human, a pirate, a youth from the vast deserts, and Elda, the griffin of the title.�� Elda, by the way, has perfectly human parents.�� Only Diana Wynne Jones could make this work, but she does.

ALAN: Well of course she does. She is Diana Wynne Jones, after all!

JANE: And in the course of weaving her wild tale (which includes assassins, armies, rogue monsters, an animate coat rack, and a trip to the Moon), Diana Wynne Jones manages to make some pretty cutting comments about educational systems that seem to exist for no other reason than killing the imagination and graduating students who are fit only to perpetuate the system.�� Oh, yes, and providing venues for bored professors to teach as little as possible, because all they really want to do is research into their pet projects.

My only complaint was that I felt the novel could easily have been a third longer without the least bit of padding.

ALAN: What an unusual complaint! For the vast majority of modern fantasy novels, the reverse opinion applies. Most of them need to be considerably shorter since they consist mainly of padding! But there you go ��� Diana Wynne Jones always refused to fit the mould.

Did you know that she’s written SF as well as fantasy?

JANE: I do indeed.�� In several of her books ��� Archer���s Goon, A Sudden Wild Magic ��� Diana Wynne Jones melds the two quite successfully.

ALAN: Yes, she does happily cross backwards and forwards between the two genres. But A Tale of Time City is definitely SF. It tells the story of Vivian Smith, who is kidnapped while being evacuated from London during World War II. She gets caught up in a struggle to preserve history and, as always, Diana Wynne Jones handles the ideas of time paradoxes and causality very cleverly and wittily.

JANE: I like A Tale of Time City for many reasons, not the least of which is how well the characters ��� some of whom are children who have acted impulsively, some of whom are adults who (in the hands of a lesser author) would simply nag and reprimand.

ALAN: One of the things I really like about Diana Wynne Jones is that the relationships between the adults and children in her books are often very healthy ones based on mutual respect. It gives her characters a maturity that seldom exists in books by other writers. But back to specifics!

The Homeward Bounders, like the titles you mentioned above, sort of straddles the borderline between SF and Fantasy. It is a parallel worlds story (a concept that Diana Wynne Jones seemed to find fascinating. She returned to it again and again).�� The parallel worlds are game boards for strange beings that use them to play war games. When 12-year-old Jamie discovers the game that is being played with his home world, he is extracted from the game and made a Homeward Bounder. He must travel between the worlds, searching always for his own, original world. If he finds it, he will be allowed to re-enter the game. But until he does, he is forbidden from playing.

And so the stage is set for a picaresque tale in which Jamie has lots of exciting adventures. He encounters the Wandering Jew, the Flying Dutchman and other semi-mythical beings. The ending is bitter-sweet. I won’t spoil it for you, but it is yet another example of Diana Wynne Jones’ ability to be both poignant and very moving and one and the same time.

JANE: Thanks!�� I think I missed this one.�� I���ll need to put it on my list.

ALAN: Some of Diana Wynne Jones��� protagonists are quite young children, and the books in which they appear seem to be written to appeal to a younger audience. Two particularly good ones are Wild Robert and The Game. Both are very short, novellas rather than novels. I suspect this is because they are intended for a younger age group. But there is never any feeling of ���talking down��� in the prose, and she makes no concessions in terms of the complexity of her plots. Consequently this 65-year-old child enjoyed them a lot!

JANE: I haven���t read Wild Robert.�� Can you tell me about it?

ALAN: Yes indeed. It tells the tale of Heather who lives in a stately home. She hates the constant stream of tourists and, in order to escape them, she plays on an old burial mound hidden away in the grounds. There she accidentally conjures forth Wild Robert himself. He is arrogant, spoiled, powerful, and 350 years old. For Heather’s sake, he plays pranks on the hateful tourists so as to drive them away. Although Heather is nominally the protagonist, once Robert appears, he seems to take over the book from her! His practical jokes are clever, funny and always very appropriate. It’s a wonderful wish fulfillment story.

JANE: I need to add that one to my list.�� I did just read The Game, but I���m betting our readers have missed it.�� Why don���t you tell them about it?

ALAN: In The Game, we meet Hayley who lives with an Aunt in Ireland. There, she and the other children play a game in a world they call the mythosphere. The name gives the plot away. The novel is simply (simply? Diana Wynne Jones books are never simple…) a re-telling of many Greek myths in much the same way that Eight Days of Luke was a re-telling of the Norse myths. But because this is Diana Wynne Jones, there’s rather more to it than that.

JANE: Funny, I found there was a lot more to the mythosphere than simply Greek myths����� I���ll leave it to our readers to decide for themselves.�� Meanwhile, you mentioned above that Diana Wynne Jones finds parallel worlds a fascinating concept.�� I have a theory as to why this might be so.�� However, maybe we should save that for next time!

A Small Part of the Picture

News Flash! To celebrate that Artemis Invaded is now available for preorder both in hard cover and audio, we���re doing a contest on Twitter to win a signed ARC.�� Just retweet the announcement pinned at the top of @ JaneLindskold.�� Contest ends 4/26/15.�� Open only to U.S. residents.�� Want to know more about the Artemis Awakening series?

And now to our regularly scheduled Wandering���

Antelope.�� Buffalo.�� Armadillo (all dead at the side of the road).�� Enormous wind farms.�� Sheep and goats. Lots and lots and lots of cows.�� Horses, including a higher than average number of pintos and palominos.�� Country music as backdrop in most stores and restaurants.

Driving the Thin Dark Lineand restaurants.

Guessed where Jim and I were last weekend?�� Yep.�� We were in Texas.�� We were visiting Jim���s folks, who live in Keller (which is near Fort Worth).�� Because they wanted us to take some stuff home with us, we chose to drive, rather than fly.

Ever since I moved to New Mexico in 1994, I���ve come to realize how few people, especially those who live ���back East,��� have a sense of just how great the distances are in the American West.

My favorite example of this was when my mom moved to the Phoenix, Arizona, area.�� People kept saying, ���How nice that your mother has moved closer to you!����� And I���d say, ���Well, she���s certainly closer than when she lived in Washington, D.C., but I wouldn���t call a seven to eight hour drive (most of which is done at 75 mph) exactly ���close.����� You could make it from D.C. to Ohio in that time, and I don���t think you���d call that ���close.������

People would look very puzzled, as if I couldn���t possibly be right.�� I think this is because maps are deceptive.�� If you look at a map, New Mexico doesn���t look all that much bigger than the larger East Coast states like Pennsylvania.�� However, you can drop two of Pennsylvania into New Mexico with room left around the edges.

All of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut�� could be neatly fit inside New Mexico���s borders, a couple of times.�� Texas could take all of the above plus Maine, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, without squishing, if you fit it in on a diagonal.

If Jim and I had done the drive to Keller in one shot, stopping only for lunch and fuel, we could have done it in about ten hours.�� However, that would have left us fairly useless when we got there, so we stayed the night in Quanah, Texas, which enabled us to arrive at Jim���s folks with energy to go out and have fun.

Visiting Quanah is a little like going back in time.�� Except for where the interstate goes through town, most of the houses we saw were older.�� Some of the residential areas had brick streets.�� The total population was listed as under 3,000.�� We didn���t meet all of them, but I will say that those we met were very friendly.�� On Thursday, we had dinner at the Depot (which had been constructed from two old train depots).�� We chatted with the owners, learning that they���d only recently reopened after a nasty fire, which had necessitated a lot of interior remodeling.�� Sadly for Jim, who loves model railroads, it had also destroyed the ���G��� Scale railroad that used to run around the rooms.

When we checked in at the Best Western, the front desk clerk was mopping the store with the help of her five year-old son.�� He went with her behind the desk and solemnly repeated all the check-in instructions before proudly handing us our key.�� We were urged to come out and take advantage of the fresh cookies she had in the breakfast room oven right then.

The next morning, the same woman was back on duty, after only a four hour break, but was just as cheerful.�� Despite the limited options available in Quanah, especially on a Sunday night, Jim and I thought we���d stop there again if we were out that way, this time making sure we arrived in time to visit the historical museum.

Another thing that maps just can���t show is how empty parts of the west are����� We���d drive for hours through nothing but pastureland.�� Keeping an eye on the gas gauge was crucial.�� Our vehicle gets good mileage, but when the next gas station is a hundred miles away, you���d better not let the tank get too low.�� Running out of gas is a non-trivial event.

One thing I really enjoyed about the drive was watching the surrounding landscape change.�� New Mexico���s rocky, arid landscape is very familiar, but I have never ceased to enjoy its sculptured quality.�� The plains can be hypnotic, in the way that monotonous flat areas are, but on our way to Texas, several storms were brewing and made for amazingly dramatic clouds.

The further we got into Texas, the more green and lush our surroundings became.�� By the time we arrived in Keller, if I���d just been shown a photograph, I���d have assumed we were in southern Maryland, not Texas.�� The season seemed to get later, too.�� In Albuquerque, we were just out of apple blossom time.�� In Texas, roses and other summer flowers were in full bloom.�� This seemed all the stranger, since back home we were still concerned about a late frost (which we got, but so far it doesn���t seem to have hurt anything, too severely, except, maybe one crepe myrtle).

Now we���re settled back into our dry home state, where cotton from the cottonwoods is swirling through the air.�� Next trip.�� New Mexico through Colorado, up into Utah for Conduit in Salt Lake City over Memorial Day weekend����� Once again, the map will only be a small part of the picture.