Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Today's Wanderings are a bit more literal than usual... the Ninja Librarian is on vacation, collecting new photos to share, but probably not writing. As I write this a few days before my departure for Hawai'i, I just want to throw out a few thoughts about the end-game on bringing out a book (for self-publishers). Death By Adverb is on track for release next Wednesday, and here are some of the details I needed to get in order before leaving for my trip: --Final versions of Kindle, Smashwords, and Createspace (paper) books. This includes the last-minute proofing corrections and all the formatting and separate extra bits for each version. --Making sure the cover is the right size for the final page count. --Uploading all those files and sending for a proof copy of the paperback. --Lining up some release-day bloggers and getting them all the info (I'll post a schedule and links next week!). If you want to get in on this, let me know and I'll send you the info on Monday. --A...

I have long had a love affair with children's historical fiction. It probably began with The Little House in the Big Woods, which I first read when I was what? maybe 6 or 7 years old? Looking back at it, nothing much happens in the book, but it didn't matter, because everything the Ingalls family did was strange and exciting to me. In the years since, I have read children's books set in periods from ancient Greece to the 1970s (anything since then hardly feels "historical" to me!). The vast majority of these books were interesting, apparently well-researched, and added something to my random pool of knowledge. Of course, you do need to bring some critical judgement to it--the Little House books, for example, are rife with the racial prejudices of the author's time  (something that more contemporary writers do a better job of addressing, since they are usually conscious, at the least, that such prejudices aren't acceptable. When Laura asks awkward question...

  Title: Wintersmith Author: Terry Pratchett Publisher: HarperTempest, 2006. 323 pages. Source: Library I don't have the gall to review Terry Pratchett. But I'm happy to share the musings I've had while reading Wintersmith , the 3rd of the Tiffany Aching books. I'm happy to find there is one more. I shall savor the pleasure. I am a huge fan of Pratchett and his Discworld, and like to think about how he does it, whatever "it" may be. Here, in no particular order, are some thoughts engendered by Wintersmith . 1. Third Thoughts. Pratchett proved his genius when he came up with this one. We all know what Second Thoughts are. I'm going to eat a quart of ice cream. No, on second thoughts, that might not be a good idea. Third Thoughts stand outside the head and study it all, and probably argue with the first and second thoughts. Not everyone gets to have them, but I'm thinking that for a writer, Third Thoughts are the editor that can actually decide that the ...