Tome's 500 page book challenge

From a fellow blogger -- Chose a book with 500 or more pages to read during the month of May.  I know I'm getting this to you all a bit late, but that just means you have an alibi to not be quite finished by the end of the month.  ;)

I wasn't sure what book to choose -- I thought about re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife, but Marion Nestle's What to Eat has been on my shelf for a while, so I think I'll pick that up.

Blogging for Cathy -- Portia and Julian are my friends.

 My friend Cathy has promised to share occasional writing prompts/blogging ideas with me in an attempt to blog vicariously.  

Her recent question(s): 

What book(s) would you like to see a sequel, series, or see the series continue and why.   Is there a chance the author might write one?  Have you read fan fiction or other books that continue the series but not by the author?   Do you like them?  Would you want to write one?

I didn't promise her I had any instant answers or ideas to these specific questions but I do want to ponder them.  It's probably a good exercise to try to answer something that doesn't come instinctively.

A series I've enjoyed as a child and again as a parent is Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away, both by Elizabeth Enright.  They are just so lovely.  My daughter is six and I'm guessing that, between reading them on her own and being read to, she's gone through them at least 5 times each (though I'm a terrible estimator).  I believe they were first published in 1956 -- the year my mother was born -- surely not a coincidence.  The illustrations are by Joe and Beth Krush who seem to have illustrated quite a few children's books in that era.  Two main characters, cousins Portia and Julian, spending summer vacation together.  Sadly, Elizabeth Enright has died, so there will be no more stories from Gone-Away by the original author.  I often find spin-off books written by other-than-the-original authors disappointing.  But if I was going to choose an author to try for more Gone-Away  (which feels sort of like choosing what actor one would like to play Jamie Fraser) the first name who comes to mind is Jeanne Birdsall who has written two books about the Penderwick family.

{Thinking of you, Snozz} I was prepared to say that I can't imagine there is fan fic out there.  But with a minimum amount of searching I found a review (of Return to Gone-Away) on Amazon that ponders the age-old questions of how close the Villa Caprice (one of the houses surrounding Gone-Away Lake) was to the Four-Story Mistake (the house in the Melendy Quartet, also by Enright) and goes on to suggest some crossover fan fic.  There are just days when you have to love the world you live in, aren't there?  

I would be interested, in another year or so, to see what kind of spin-off stories my daughter would write about Portia, Julian, Foster, Uncle Pin and Aunt Minnehaha.

On the subject of fan fic in general, my only experience is with Harry Potter fan fic.  I read a lot of it for about 6 months or so and enjoyed it.    

Well, I feel like this is an incomplete assignment, but I think I'll stop for now.  How'd I do, Cathy?  :)

Blame the Goat

Blame


I wrote such a beautiful book for you
'Bout rainbows and sunshine
And dreams that come true.
But the goat went and ate it
(You knew that he would),
So I wrote you another one
Fast as I could.
Of course it could never be
Nearly as great
As that beautiful book
That silly goat ate.
So if you don't like
This new book I just wrote-
Blame the goat.


~From A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

For many years now, my friend Tamie and I have used this poem as an alibi to excuse the quality of our writing -- to say that it would've been this amazing and marvelous thing if it just hadn't been for that darn goat!  

I find myself thinking of Shel's (he and I are on a first-name basis, did you know?) words whenever I lose an e-mail or a document, especially one that I've particularly toiled over and/or one that was fairly emotionally wrenching to get down in the first place.

Amy, this is the long way of telling you that I wrote such a beautiful facebookmessage for you but that goat went and ate (you knew that he would) so I'm off to try again -- I'd made it all the way up to 1992, too!