Colleen Mondor's Blog, page 30

When you hear "Alcatraz" do you think of pelicans?

I have just finished Winged Wonders by Peter Watkins & Jonathan Stockland and find myself deeply impressed by how the authors managed to pack so much information about their subject into such a compact, perfectly sized package. There are chapters here on sixteen different birds (from owls to ravens to wrens) and along with a look at state birds, bird illustrators and birdsong the whole book is just barely 200 pages. It is the perfect title for those with curiosity but not a lot of time (the chapters lend themselves to easy bathroom reading) but I'll be recommending it in my June column as an excellent teen read for budding ornithologists (along with a new bird watching guide from HMH).

There are a ton (a ton!!) of references in Winged Wonders (if you are writing any sort of book that requires such information you must grab a copy as a resource) and I kept flagging certain passages merely for my own amusement. There are numerous examples of saints and birds, the whole history of doves = good while pigeons = bad (even though they are the same) and the long perception of eagles as symbols of greatness and nobility (Shelly, Arabian Nights and Zeus all name-dropped in only two paragraphs on that bird). But here was something that truly blew me away:

Thus the great Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, as he charted the great sweep of the bay of San Francisco [in 1775], discovers that dangerous rock and, on behalf of his avian deliverers, named it La Isla de los Alcatraces ('The island of the Pelicans'). Many years later the name was shortened to 'Alcatraz' or just 'The Rock,' the most notorious prison in the United States.

de Ayala's ship was spared from colliding with The Rock in a deep fog when a flock of pelicans suddenly "explodes from beneath the very bows of the ship". The ship was swung away from the birds, avoided the rock and everyone lived. But who thinks pelicans when they think of Alcatraz? Fascinating, isn't it?

There is also Charlemagne's mother as Mother Goose, the peacock as a symbol of immortality, the origin of the "Lady's Hawk" (which made me want to watch the movie immediately) (oh how I love that movie!!!) and, well, I could go on and on. Wonderfully smart writing and I think a true companion for literary-minded bird watching aficionados.

It wasn't easy being an explorer's wife

1. New issue of Bookslut is up including my review of POLAR WIVES and my new column (#81!!) which is all about domestic dysfunction and basically, the tragedy of not getting to choose your family. (Not all tragic really; some definite humor in there as well, promise.)

2. Emailed three reviews to Booklist over the weekend which ends a remarkable run of eight (I think) books read/reviewed for them in the past six weeks. As these books covered everything from post-Katrina New Orleans to a Latina author's memoir to dog training it's really all quite head spinning. Sometimes I can't believe I really have professional gigs reading such remarkably different books.

3. Yesterday we planted flowers. It was a good day.

4. I have finally (!!!!) nailed down my columns for June and July. It's odd to be noting the new May column when I know I need to write the entire June column in the next week or so. (I want it done!) Most of the books are read and include birds, taking pictures and making art. I need to gather them all in one place so I can see if they really make as much sense on the table as they do in my head. (I wish this whole process sounded more impressive then it does but I swear, the column thing truly does get bashed into shape some months.)

5. I have two books read for July already, and I'm in the middle of a few others. I'm also reading books that have nothing to do with July's column which is probably not the best use of my time but it happens. (It actually happens a lot.)

6. Here are books I am currently reading for potential review in my column: So Shelly by Ty Roth, The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller (there is for sure a column on books set in schools in my future), Small Damages by Beth Kephart, Winged Wonders by Watkins & Stockland (for June column), At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson (July column maybe), The Book of Blood & Shadow by Robin Wasserman (July column), The Artist's Eye (and the two books in the "Learning to See" series) by Peter Jenny (June column), Ghost Wave by Chris Dixon (June column maybe) and Ichiro by Ryan Inzana (July column maybe).

7. That list is insane and don't I know it.

8. I'm also reading Inukshuk by Gregory Spatz (it's about a lost Arctic explorer - did you think I could resist this?) and Shipwrecked by Jon Wells (about Seattle Mariners' baseball because it is so awful). (The Mariners are awful not the book about the Mariners!)

9. And for personal books, I am reading The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac. This is his first book, written about growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts (he fictionalized it, but it's Lowell).

10. Kerouac is, by the way, the greatest French Canadian writer to ever come out of New England. The fact that few people seem to think of him as a French Canadian mill town author is very very sad for French Canadians everywhere but especially those of us with ties to New England.

11. I write tiny things, I plot many things, I hope for more writerly things. Summer is coming and today I have an appointment at the gym; I hope I'm still smiling when I get home. :)





This cover is a stunner, don't you think?

On cod and bees (and those who love them)

1. Found this short piece in Nat Geo Traveler about a Newfoundlander turning to her island's history and culture to save the economy and was immediately impressed. Here's a bit:

I'm very concerned for Fogo and many other places suffering a flattening of culture, the loss of a sense of self. It happens when you're ripped away from home, from the natural world, and from your ancestors: people from Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, working out west as economic refugees in Alberta. As this happens, a little bit of us dies. I hope to help us remain shorefast on our rock. A shorefast is a tether that joins a cod trap to the shore and a metaphor for communities realizing the importance of holding on to physical place and tradition.

They are saving their small piece of the world which is, I think, one of the best things you can do for places you love and for yourself as well.

2. Amanda Palmer is exposing the music world to a new creative paradigm. Lots to think about here but it should be stressed that she has put years into building a trusting relationship with her fans - this kind of support doesn't show up overnight. (I am a fan and supporter.) I can't help but wonder about small presses and the "Amanda Palmer" example though. Could crowd sourcing be a way to bring more literature (overlooked by major pubs) to the masses? What a wonderful thought.

3. Are you reading The Contextual Life blog? I adore it and if you're thinking about some interesting new titles in pb then check out the latest entry. This is the first I've heard of Nom de Plum by Carmela Cluraru a book I now must read.

4. Kij Johnson finally (FINALLY) has a story collection coming out. It's from the fabulous Small Beer Press (of course!) and I'm thrilled to pieces to have an advanced copy. If you haven't read her short stories then you are really missing something. At the Mouth of the River of Bees includes all kinds of wonderful and I can't recommend Kij's stories enough. Just check out this cover - does it jump off the shelf or what?! More on this as I review it.....somewhere. I'll keep ya posted on that.

What would Hemingway do without a newspaper to work for?

1. In the midst of all that Story Siren plagiarism drama, this article on the impact of diminishing newspapers on writers over at The Millions is all the more timely. The proving grounds for writers are becoming fewer and fewer; we are becoming a nation of hobbyists who call ourselves writers.

2. Amanda Palmer took no prisoners on Kickstarter yesterday. (I happily supported this project to get a CD; love her music.) And don't forget Kate Milford's Kairos Mechanism novella, now 65% funded and still needing some backers. (I contributed to that one last week!)

3. Speaking of Kickstarter I might be putting together a project involving indy publishing, some great Alaska history lots of folks might not know about and, well, something that no one else is doing and a good friend and I think maybe we will. I'll keep you posted on how it develops.

4. I haven't mentioned it in a while but the Summer Blog Blast Tour will be happening in early June. More info to follow as we get closer but expect the usual suspects with a ton of interviews with many cool authors.

5. I am reading about ten books right now which is crazy, even for me. But the summer columns are eluding me and I've been picking things up and putting them down with ceaseless abandon. I think I'm going nonfiction for June - not a summer escapes column but more of a "get the heck outside" column. July will be adventurous reads and August....well August still eludes me. But I'm working on it.

6. I'm also outlining my next book and for those of you who were wondering it will be set in AK again, it will be nonfiction about flying again, and it will be quite different from MAP. The first fifty pages to my agent by early Sept and a ton of research to do this summer.

7. Also writing something totally different that is fiction and about missing family history and missing explorers and missing memoires and a wee bit girl detectivish. Nothing more on that as it is so different it would only startle everyone. Plus it's like a deer in the woods right now; I'm afraid if I talk about it much the story will disappear.

8. It won't be a teen book though.

9. AND MY OFFICE IS STILL A MESS. I'm so annoyed about this.

10. Three reviews going off to Booklist by the end of the week (New Orleans, dog behavior and philosophy), two reviews for future columns to write. This is manageable.

11. And finally, the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou SR High School in Washington DC ends tonight, at midnight PST. All ordering info is here. Please join in and help us make a difference!

Innocent Objects

Due this fall from Abrams, it has everything* I love about old cities, history, culture and how we remember the places we know best. I love heavily illustrated books - if I could live surrounded by coffee table books, I would be delighted to no end.

*It's nonfiction, it has many photographs - both current and vintage - and it's full of the sights and sounds of Istanbul. What's not to love?

Deconstructing a disappointing effort

Last Monday we unveiled the Powells wish list for the Guys Lit Wire book fair with great excitement. This was our fourth year of running a book fair for a struggling library in the US and we have always done astonishingly well. Between past efforts for incarcerated juveniles in LA County and schools on the Navajo and White River Apache reservations, plus last year at Ballou SR High School in Washington DC, supporters have purchased more than 2,100 books off our wish lists and had them sent to the respective schools. Last year at Ballou we busted all records with 800+ in the spring book fair and another 150+ in a smaller holiday fair in November.

You can understand how hopeful we were last week to do this wonderful project all over again.

As I explained in my post at Guys Lit Wire, we elected to stay with Ballou because this school is literally building a library from the ground up. Last year they had less than one book for each of their 1,200 students - only 63 in the fiction section. Through our efforts and others, they had two books for each student this spring. (The American Library Association standard is ELEVEN books for student in school libraries.) Ballou was suffering from donor fatigue however - most of their support has disappeared but their need remains the same. The library is an incredibly vital part of the school (chess club, manga club, poetry club and on and on meet there), and we want to help them make it the crown jewel it deserves to be.

We are all book lovers after all - how could we walk away when the job was not done?

So we put 525 books the list with the advisement of Ballou librarian Melissa Jackson and we started the book fair with great optimism. Our outreach this year was without parallel; I am not exaggerating when I say that hundreds of thousands of people heard about the book fair via blog mentions, facebook updates and countless tweets. I was frankly stunned by how much help we received in spreading the word. Folks started buying books immediately and it looked like we were set for yet another sellout.

And then everything just slowed down.

As of today we have sold 117 books off the wish list. We are in the middle of the second week and seeing number similar to the second day for the past book fairs. I have honestly no idea why this has happened. Some people have suggested we held the fair too close to tax day, but that has never been an issue in the past. Some have suggested the Powells wish list, which requires you to manually type in the school's address, is too complicated. As we have always gone through Powells and strongly support independent bookstores, we just don't see how to change that and hope it is not an issue this time.

Some have suggested that the economy is a factor but as we are economically in better shape now than at any point during the previous book fairs, that is a hard one to accept. Additionally, many of the books on the list are less than $10, even with shipping, so the cost of helping is really quite small. Some have gone so far to suggest library fatigue and honestly, that one is just too painful to imagine.

One former donor told me she did not contribute this time because she preferred we choose another library and not give more than once to Ballou. While I certainly respect her choice to not help us, this one really hurt. We want to stay with Ballou partly because so many others have walked away and left the work unfinished. We thought we were doing the best thing possible for the school and students by not quitting now and yet I can not help but think that if I had another school with a fresh compelling story it might have gotten more support. But honestly, who knows.

This is all, quite frankly, enormously frustrating.

In the end, we will never know why the response to the book fair this spring has been so flat. As an author who has been urged by one and all to participate in social media to increase my own book sales, I have to say I find it fascinating how so much online activity can result in such little concrete action. It is the easiest thing in the world to hit "retweet" but actually taking action is a whole lot tougher. Maybe we are just becoming a world of passive donors - we think by spreading the word we have done enough. That doesn't put books on the shelves however, and those real books in the real hands of kids in DC are what this whole project is all about.

The book fair continues through the weekend and we would certainly appreciate your suport. We will be back in the fall, still with Ballou, to try again. Maybe it will take many more small steps to reach out goal but we'll keep trying. Somebody, after all, has got to fill those damn shelves and if it's not us then who will it be? That's why we can't walk away; there's no one else behind us that is willing to do the work.

On a wing

My friend John Hitz was twenty-eight when he died, nearly twenty years ago, in a snow machine accident. I don't always tell people this when I show his picture because the part of his story I'm telling then is about flying out of Fairbanks up to Liberator Lake in a Cessna 206. I tell the part of his flying story that fits with the larger narrative of Alaska aviation I am sharing. I wrote a book, I put together a slide show, I talk to people about the "dangerous game of flying in Alaska". I show this picture of my friend John and the 206 he flew one beautiful winter afternoon and every time I show it, I miss John all over again.

But I rarely tell anyone that.

John was working as a co-pilot for a company called Brooks Airfuel when the picture was taken. They flew fuel in DC3s, DC4s and a DC6 to villages across Alaska. The planes were new during World War II but durable fifty years later in a way that few other aircraft are; they still fly all over the world. John used to talk about the switches and levers in the cockpit, the complexity of operating the huge radial engines. The job was dirty and the hours were long and in the cold it could be miserable but John enjoyed flying for Brooks just like he enjoyed flying at the Company which is when we met.

The flight to Liberator Lake was about a mine operation in need of fuel. The lake was the landing strip and the DC4 weighed 40,000 pounds empty. John was sent out in the 206 to test the ice and make sure it was strong enough to handle the big plane. He told this story to us later always aware of the absurdity of the flight, the danger, and its immense appeal. "Of course the ice was strong enough!" he always said. "Of course!" And the weather was good and the plane flew well and sitting on the wing, gassing up to go home, someone took his picture. We found it later, packing up his apartment for his parents. We made a dozen copies, one for each of us, so we would never forget him.

As if any of us could.

John's picture is at the end of my slide show, part of a group of pictures of friends on the job that I click through while reading from my book about why we all come north, why we ended up at the Company, why we stayed. I'm 43 now and when I tell these stories they are about who I was then, my distant wayward youth. But John is forever 28 and smiling back at me as only he could; as only he ever will.

Nine months before he died, John bought a brand new Nissan pickup, fire engine red; he called it Roy. When his parents came up from Nebraska to claim him, the truck posed a problem. Getting it out of Fairbanks in January was difficult and expensive. So in the days after we met in the worst possible circumstances, I bought John's truck from his parents. Through nearly fifteen years of marriage, through four dogs, a son and now a book, John's truck has been as constant as his photo. Last week my husband, who knew John before me and carries his own memories, told me it looks like the transmission might be shot*. This is long overdue; at twenty years old and with 130,000+ miles, John's truck is long past this sort of expensive repair. The rear bumper was damaged years ago when I was in Florida and the bed is rusted through in areas where John loaded his snow machine on the day he bought it. The truck is no longer shiny and new, yet I can not imagine my life without it. It's mine, but still it's his and together it's every moment we all had in Alaska.

John would have sold the truck long ago I'm sure, purchased something newer with room maybe for a family. He might even have lost the snapshot of Liberator Lake. Putting a small part of John's story in my book and keeping his picture in my slide show are, I know, quiet little acts of futility. I can not bring back my friend. Let me write that again so I believe it - I can not bring him back. John Hitz is gone on the Mitchell Expressway in Fairbanks, in a snowstorm, in a collision with a truck and a driver who never saw him. He's gone. I know this; he's gone.

But, here I am, like always, writing about him again.

When I show this slide and tell the Liberator Lake story everyone laughs. It is, in many ways, the quintessential Alaska flying story. John thus continues to be part of the larger tale I'm telling, about pilots and planes and the myths that often keep both in the air in the face of a harsh aviation environment. I do not always tell an audience John is gone and so together we can believe that he is up there still, north of the Brooks Range, looking for ice thick enough to bear a heavy load. We all live happily ever after that way and most importantly, the legend of John Hitz continues. Maybe more than any other reason that is why I wrote my book - so all of them would live forever. Or maybe it's just for a moment like this, where I have an excuse to talk about my friend John one more time.

If you knew him, you would write about him too.

*He was wrong! It wasn't the transmission but the clutch that needed work. He did the whole thing in an afternoon and for less than $100. Roy lives!

Because this is what I live for

We're still working hard on the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou High School in Washington DC. It's gotten off to a slow start this year and as we close in on 100 books bought, we are still only 20% through the list. If you have $10 to spare, there are many titles that could be bought for that reasonable amount (and even cover shipping). Please take a look at the GLW post and do what you can to help us get this library one step further to reaching the ALA standard of eleven books for each student. (There are currently two books for each student at Ballou.)

This book fair is a daunting task and a great challenge. We are in for the long haul with Ballou though and want to stay with them as long as they need us. This is a moment booklovers should live for - to change the world for some teens who are desperate for books and need our help to acquire them. Please step up to the plate with Guys Lit Wire; we'd love to have you join us on this project.

On college and secret societies and mysterious deeds

What I'm reading now:

The Case of the Missing Deed by Ellen Schwartz. A MG mystery that looks to be a standard summertime adventure with a pack of cousins at grandma's who discover nefarious deeds at work. I've just barely started it and am hopeful it will hit just the right note. (It also, apparently, includes recipes!) This could fit in my "summertime thing" column. (June or July)



Permeable Borders by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. A short story collection from an author I have some affection for and sporting a lovely cover from Fairwood Press. I'm dipping into it slowly, finding what I love and hope to review it sometime this summer. It might have crossover appeal and show up in a column; too early to tell.



We Shall Not Be Moved: Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina by Tom Wooten. For Booklist - I've read quite a few books on Katrina so I'm looking forward to this one. (Although they are very nearly always gut-wrenching.)

Do Dogs Dream? by Stanley Coren. Also for Booklist - a nice format of questions & answers about dogs. I have found out why one of my dogs can watch television which is actually far more technical and scientific then you would expect!

Zeuglodon by James Blaylock. This is one of the more delightful MG adventures I have read in ages. Blaylock gives us three preteen adventurers, a mystery, two villains, a mummified mermaid, a missing parent who was researching the hollow earth, and the Guild of St George which basically investigates all the things you think are not true but might be. Kate is a budding cryptozoologist, her cousins are smart and occasionally annoying (it happens) and her great uncle is Dick Van Dyke circa Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's the bomb, seriously! To be reviewed in either summertime thing column or unusual adventures column. (And man - another fantastic cover!)

Burton & Swinburne in the Expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon by Mark Hodder. I'm a fan of Hodder's earlier two books in this series but I have to admit that thus far this one is rather daunting. There is a lot going on here and while I appreciate he is trying to tie up all the loose ends it's still pretty overwhelming. I'm hanging in there out of my great love for Burton & Swinburne but we'll see how it goes.

What I've Recently Finished

An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer. This is the story of Naomi Feinstein who grew up in an intellectual household with an ailing mother and a father who was a bit obsessed with the Kennedys. She's a curious child with a unique perspective on the world and seems intent on moving in the path directed by her father - to Wellesley and a career as a physician. But in college she struggles to find her footing and then falls in with the Shakespeare Society and all sorts of intrigue develops between her classmates and Naomi slowly finds herself finding her own way - whether she wants to or not. This is quite simply, a coming-of-age novel set in college which is something I love and wish there were ever so many more of. I found it challenging, curious, interesting, funny and deeply affecting. Review to follow - I'd like to do a column on books set in boarding schools and/or colleges but I'm still waiting to get a few. I've requested Year of the Gadfly (not sure if it will crossover) and I'm starting The Mockingbirds and I have another couple on request (I think). We'll see where the reviews end up.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit. For my next book research and honestly I wasn't sure if any of it would apply or not but I'm a fan of Solnit's essays so I decided to give it a go. It has proven to be a wealth of ideas, has made me think in all sorts of ways about Alaska and flying (which are not part of the book at all) and also about why we want to get lost sometimes. Here's a quote:



Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.

Finally - more on the book fair for Ballou High School over at Guys Lit Wire. Please help if you can. Things have gotten off to a slow start and we really could use the support.

Catalogging HMH fall 2012

In the past two weeks I blazed through more than a dozen fall catalogs taking notes, plotting future columns and emailing requests. This is the most concentrated I have been about a season's catalogs and organizing columns in a long long time. Partly it is an experiment - I want to see if I really can pull this off as effectively as I'm planning - and partly I just wanted to immerse myself in the joy of the fall's offerings. I ended up requesting more than three dozen books from a rash of publishers (I still have about a half dozen more catalogs I'm waiting to see). Here are the ones that caught my eye from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Children's catalog:

Noah Webster and His Words by Jerri Chase Ferris. A picture book on Webster (yes, how I will fit this into a YA column means some serious creativity but it's more of a MG picture book then a wee child one). I am a sucker for Webster and the whole notion of creating a dictionary. I just love the idea of someone deciding to do this and accomplishing it. (I hope Catherine Reef one day writes a bio of him!)



Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane's Musical Journey by Gary Golio. JOHN COLTRANE!! Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez, for MG readers. They had me at John Coltrane.

The Bronte Sisters by Catherine Reef. Has Reef written a bad biography? She does such an excellent job with these books, walking the fine line between informative and compelling, that I've bought more than one for adults. I very much look forward to seeing how she deals with all the Bronte dramarama.

Wild Horse Scientists by Kay Frydenborg. I have yet to be disappointed by the "Scientists in the Field" series and this looks like another stellar offering. Wonderful illustrations, great information - another series that I have found adults to enjoy as much as younger readers. These have potential for anyone over the age of 8.

Delusion by Laura Sullivan. Not a huge fan of the cover (It's a photo) but the description is so different, I couldn't resist. It's WWII, two teenage stage magicians (from a long line of performers) are sent to the country for safety and meet a secret society of real magicians and illusionists. There's a rush to save England from the Nazis which all sounds very Bedknobs and Broomsticks to me (in the best possible way). Love the setting and the idea; very excited to give it a shot.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde. I think this is an unfortunate title because it makes me think of the Dragonslayers of Pern and a zillion other high fantasies when the description is very different. From the creator of the quirky Thursday Next series, this book one in a new YA series. Here's the skinny:

In the good old days, magic was powerful and unregulated by government, and sorcerers were highly respected. Then the magic started to fade away. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, a magic employment agency. Work is hard to come by, and unexciting: These days, sorcerers find work unblocking drains, and even magic carpets have been reduced to pizza delivery. So it's a surprise when the visions start. Not only do they predict the death of the last dragon at the hands of a dragonslayer, they also point to Jennifer. Something is coming. Something known as Big Magic

It promises the same amount of wit as the Thursday series and should be so different from everything else out there; I'm hopeful of this one.

Broken Lands by Kate Milford. I loved the rural fantasy The Boneshaker very much and this is Kate's follow-up, a companion to the first title (not a sequel) set in NYC (and Brooklyn & Coney Island) in 1877. She had me at this line:

Few crossroads compare to the one being formed by the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River, and as the bridge's construction progresses, forces of unimaginable evil seek to bend that power to their advantage.

The ultimate crossroads!!! (And don't forget Kate's kickstarter novella.)

Suburban Strange by Nathan Kotecki. I've been hoping to get a column of school-based novels for some time. This one is a blend of school drama and horror where Celia attends Suburban High and meets a group of outsiders named "The Rosary". My inner Catholic swooned at that one, the addition of near fatal accidents and a battle between good and evil were just icing on the cake!

I also wanted to note that Circus Galacticus by Deva Fagan is due out in paperback. I missed it the first time around but I'm determined to read it now. (Circus space opera!!)