Tom Kepler's Blog, page 14

Book Review: The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame

"The Reluctant Dragon" was published in 1983 as a children's book. The story came originally from Kenneth Grahame's collection of short stories Dream Days, published in 1898. The book edition is illustrated by Michael Hague, who also illustrated publications of The Wind in the Willows, also by Grahame, and The Secret Garden, authored by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The publisher was Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

I found this grand book at our local public library.

The tale is one full of whimsy about a lazy and easy-going dragon, a boy, and St. George. For children (and for adults who need the learning), the lesson is that differences can coexist, and that it's a lot more pleasant getting along than fighting. A secondary lesson is that reading and scholarship can be useful.

Michael Hague's illustrations are lush and full of medieval extravagance. Children can view them and not be bothered with all the realism that Chaucer chose to include in the Canterbury Tales. The colors are gilded with the aura of times gone by, and the detail just begs for taking the time to look closely.

Hague's romanticism and lightness also lend themselves to a dearth of realism. For instance, the Boy reads in a bedroom entirely too elegant for a shepherd's soon, both in size and decor. Also, although perhaps appropriate for a children's story, the dragon is not, as it states, one of the earnest dragons. Hague's illustrations paint the dragon as entirely avuncular. That's the only word that fits.

This book, though, is a friendly tale filled with humor in both text and illustration. It's a world any child or adult can enter, and upon leaving, exit with a light step and a happy heart.

Saying Goodbyes to Mom

Bags packed, I'm traveling to Sacramento today and then back to Iowa tomorrow. 
Saying goodbyes is sometimes perfunctory but not when goodbyes are to someone 91 years old. 
We never know if we'll see someone again, even with the most everyday partings. Our hellos should always be full of joy and our goodbyes full of appreciation. What is that expression? There is no joy in the small.
Let our hearts be full and the new year blessed with many appreciations of those whom we share our lives with. 
A Day Out with Mom
(Written on iPhone)

Rediscovering Wattpad--via my iPhone and apps

I'm traveling and writing and blogging and marketing with my iPhone 6+, I'm installing new apps for my phone, including a Blogger app for this website. I've found the apps more limited than when using my laptop, but if I stay within the limitations of the app, I can do the job. 
I've started using my Wattpad account again after a three hiatus, and the Wattpad and Wattpad Covers apps for iPhones help a lot. 
I don't compose on the Wattpad app; rather, I compose on Google Docs and then paste what I have to Wattpad. I'm more familiar with Docs and can use it on several platforms. It will be fun interacting with readers with my short stories, and I intend using the short stories as marketing leads anyway. 
I was surprised and pleased to discover Wattpad Covers since my phone didn't have the apps I needed. With WC, I can quickly create e-covers for my writing. The app also has a goodly image library. There were quite a few images of starlings in the search function--even a murmuration.  

I found the apps right up my alley--intuitively simple and straightforward, yet cumbersome and intrusive in unexpected ways. 
At least, though, I can work while on the road, even if it's rough work. 
Here's the URL for the current portion of the Wattpad story I posted: http://w.tt/1Zyvew5. 
We'll see if this app creates a link. If not, please copy and paste! And by the way, always add the images dead last. 
(Composed on my iPhone 6+)

Writing with My iPhone 6+

When I was actively writing poetry, I drafted all my poetry with a #2 Ticonderoga pencil. Love those pencils! The feel of the pencil lead across the paper’s surface was a creative writing prompt all in itself. The movement of the hand to create the words and the visual experience of the poem manifesting on the page in my personal scripting--these qualities of writing by hand were integral to the creation of each word and verse. 
Oddly enough, composing on my iPhone 6+ shares a flavor of the old pencil-and-paper experience. Perhaps it is the hand-held quality of the task, the device in hand and the experience of touch. 
I certainly know that the deliberate, slower rate of translation of idea to word to symbol is a characteristic common with writing by hand. 
Is this generational? Will my grandchildren compose through dictation without ever lifting a pencil or striking a key? Actually, dictation may also have much in common with writing by hand--gathering the words in the mind and then in the mouth before speaking, hopefully making the words sing. 
In the end, it is not the technology but the consciousness of the writer, the speaker, that counts. Technology has certainly streamlined the writing process, and I appreciate that a great deal. 
It doesn't hurt, though, to sometimes slow down and savor the rise of thought and word from silence. Sometimes I miss the clack-clack of writing on my old Royal manual typewriter, punching those keys and feeling the letters implanted on the page. Right now I’m pecking away at the iPhone’s touchboard. My thoughts are flowing, albeit at an amble, not a run. 
Our lesson to remember, no matter what the medium, is that even though the creative impulse is always in a dynamic hurry to burst into actuality, even in that essential hurry, we should never rush. 

"A Murmuration of Dragons," Maybe the 6th Beginning

I've written before that my writing process is to write the beginning many times until the tone and vision coalesce. 
Well, it's still true. Here is the new beginning of my evolving story. 

Supplicatory to the Order of ThomThomikos Novitiate Gnossos
Seeking acceptance as a Novitiate, I am by tradition and rigor adjured to write a compelling testimony of my journey to the Studium at Thomikos.
Four years now I have lived and learned at the Order’s orphans’ school, and as Supplicant tell my story. My chronicle is fantastic but as true and sincere as my desire to dedicate myself to knowledge. 
My earliest memories are of the streets, for I grew up a stray on the streets of Ostrand during the time of coughing sickness. Many died then, drowning in their own phlegm, I suppose my parents among them. I got by like any street rat, by luck, quick hands, and quicker mind. I was a clever lad, I suppose; I did survive. 
During this time, an herbalist known as Old Jin grew rich with his healing cures--and his mixes and decoctions did cure, at least for many, unlike charlatans who bottled any bitter to sell to the desperate sick. I grew and did not die, grew lanky tall the year of my teens, and grew proud of the name the younger children gave me--Fingers, an apt name for an adept cutpurse. Gathering herbs was not enough for me. I knew Old Jin would soon bar me from his business and ramshackle shed adjoining it where I and a few other boys resided, and I didn’t care. I was Fingers, and nothing and no one could touch me. 
I liked the roof on Old Jin’s place. It was high on the Hill, not as high as Dragon’s Head, but still high enough to see the sky when the sun was going down and gulls in from the sea looking for bugs. Starlings wheeled the darkening sky on their way to the woods to roost, wheeling and wary of hawks. 
(Written on iPhone 6+)

Mom's in Charge

It's obvious that Mom's mind is still sharp. 
When I mentioned the possibility of her living in Iowa, she said, "Well, I'm easy to get along with. " There wasn't any difficulty in processing the idea. 
I've offered the idea, but it is obvious that her connection with Oroville and with my brother Pat is very strong. Nothing wrong with that. My brother is also progressing rapidly. It's also true that the idea of having a purpose is important, and that helping one another gives meaning. 
It's very possible, perhaps even probable, that Mom will be staying here in Oroville. I have introduced the concept of life in Iowa, though, and that's important because it lets both her and my brother know there are possibilities. 
What's in the future is not clear right now, and that's OK. It's Mom's life and choice. She has that ability and right to choose. 
Of course, I also have choices--such as coming back in a month to visit, rather than waiting three or four months. Give everyone a chance to mull over possibilities--but not too long away. 
Nature organizes. 
(Written on iPhone)

My New Morning Routine

Here I am bonding with Mr. Coffee. Then it's bacon and sausage and eggs with toast for the crew. 
This morning I take Mom to the doctor and then my brother this afternoon. 
Mom and I will visit Dad's and my sister's graves this morning. She wants to put some of our favorite Christmas ornaments on each site, which I think is both thoughtful and creative, sweet too. I got all choked up when she was explaining her idea. 
My laugh yesterday was that I couldn't find a bag of clothes that I store here. Then when I was helping Mom with the ornaments (She got them out of the closet herself. I found her halfway through the project.), I saw a paper sack. 
"What's that?" I asked. 
"Oh, just some old clothes I'm going to throw away. "
It was my lost sack of clothes. Mom and I laughed at that. 
It looks like there's a good chance Mom will be coming to Iowa to live with us and the family. We just have to get my brother  able to get along on his own. 
I wonder what adventures today's day out with Mom will bring?

Conversation with My Mom 1

"When you were just a baby, Aunt Helen came over with your cousin Lorie. Aunt Helen started taking off your diaper. I asked her what she was doing, and your aunt said, 'I want to show her what a boy looks like. '

"Another time Grandpa Kepler was opening your diaper. 'What are you doing?' I asked. 'I just want to see if he's got everything he's supposed to have.'
"I was so embarrassed," Mom said. 
She's not the only one!
(Posted with my iPhone while visiting Mom.)

WTF? My Short Story Morphs Again, This Time to First-Person POV

Jordan Kerbow @ deviantartI suppose there's an easier way to write, like planning, like outlining, like sketching.

I've even done it a bit. However, this story keeps plugging along, and then something starts bothering me, something just isn't strong enough, and then I see a new way--and it's . . . okay, start over.

Actually, I love the process, but I would like to finish this short story by the end of the year!

I realized, waking in the middle of the night, that I didn't want to tell the story from the third-person limited point of view. I needed another character to witness the event and to tell how it happened.

So, hello Fingers, the pickpocket, who told me this morning:

I like the roof on Old Jin’s place. It’s pretty high on th’ hill, not as high as Dragon’s Head, but still high enough t’ see th’ sky when th’ sun’s goin’ down, gulls in from th’ sea, lookin’ for bugs, starlings on their way to th’ woods t’ roost, watchin’ out for hawks.

He's told me a bit more, and I've got a few things to tell him. And this, at dawn this morning, is all I have to tell you.

Book Review: The Desert and the Blade

I've read all of S.M. Stirling's Emberverse novels, and The Desert and the Blade is the second of the series that I've awarded a "five-star" rating. The other novel was the first of the series, Dies the Fire .

The Desert and the Blade is a novel where Stirling finally achieves "epic" status in the novel's tone, action, and pacing. A large book, the hardback being 612 pages, the action covers conflict on land and sea. New (or old) cultures are described, some first seen in the recently published short story anthology set in the Emberverse.

The magical realism in this novel, which follows the third generation heroes after the Change, is believable and powerful because of its understatement. The laws of nature have changed, and manipulations can be achieved by those adept--carried out with equal measures of purity of intent and clarity of consciousness (in the case of the protagonists). The evil sorcerers are just plain possessed.

New alliances are formed in this novel between the East and the West, a new quest follows, and there is a satisfactory sense of closure at the end of the novel, even though more novels and adventures will continue. This is a pleasant change from The Golden Princess, which was mostly backfill and set-up for this novel.

I would suggest for those reading this novel to read the anthology The Change , stories written by Stirling and others. Stirling has adopted some of the characters from these stories and incorporated them into this novel to good effect.

Besides Stirling's intrigue and battle action, his description of Generation Three of the Change is especially pleasing to read. It is a new world, folks, and Stirling fills the pages with verisimilitude. Dies the Fire was peopled with real characters from the late 20th century who were dealing with understanding and surviving the Change as best they could, with bravery and intelligence. This novel brings new challenges and mysteries, and its characters use new tools fit for a new world.

Enjoy the journey, and be sure to bring your sunscreen.