Midnight for Charlie Bone, by Jenny Nimmo

This was kind of a wild guess, and it worked out. And yet...

I can't recall how I wound up with this - a gift, maybe? I didn't like the title, or the cover, and the beginning of the book didn't move me, but I needed something to read that both the boys (3 1/2 years apart) would enjoy me reading to them at bedtime. It hit the spot.

From my perspective, however, the story felt thin. It's hard to not compare two books about a timid, adolescent English boy with magical gifts escaping his unhappy home situation by entering a dangerous and fascinating magical academy. Unfortunately for Jenny Nimmo, Janet Rowling is a terrific writer, and Harry Potter casts a long shadow.

I don't think Nimmo meant to derive from Rowling's books, and there are certainly no wands or explosions, but Charlie is missing one parent, in mysterious circumstances, has unmanageable hair, and quickly makes two friends and one dreadful enemy at the magical academy.

What actually bothered me about the book was that it felt washed out, paler, thinner. It was like being in the shower when the hot water starts to run out. It's not cold, exactly, but you remember how warm it was just before.

None of the conflicts grabbed me viscerally. I felt bad for Charlie, but in a passing way. And when his uncle Paton (the most interesting character in the book) begins to exert himself, it was never heroic, or startling, just kind of a relief, that someone in the story seemed to care.

I think another unfairness in my impression is that I read the book out loud. It's a slightly different experience, and some books fare better than others. Jeanne Birdsall's Penderwick books feature very small events writ large in the characters' consciousness. In Nimmo's first Charlie Bone book, somewhat the opposite seems to have happened. Portentous events slip by, unappreciated.

As a wannabe writer, I pay attention to this, which may be why, as a reader, it makes this much difference to me. The kids certainly liked the story, and are looking forward to the next installment.

My older son just woke up and confirmed that he loved the book, and it wasn't boring for a second. So there. 

Anne R. Allen's Blog: 12 Dos and Don'ts for Introducing your Protagonist...

For writers, this is worth reading: a short and crisp to-don't list for final-drafting your main character's introduction. I don't just understand the points, I feel them.

Now if only I could write my darned book!

Anne R. Allen's Blog: 12 Dos and Don'ts for Introducing your Protagonist...: I've been dealing with an evil computer virus which first attacked my desktop and now seems to have killed my laptop dead. They're both old ...

update on no updates (blaming an author)

It's not Lesley Hauge's fault that I haven't written about her rewarding and fast-paced book Nomansland. It's a great read. I am looking forward to the sequel. If you want something postapocalyptic about as fresh and creative as Jeanne du Prau's The City of Ember and its sequels, and are willing to get a little more grown up in the topics and treatment, this is an excellent choice. Big ideas. Absorbing characters. Fast pace. Definite room for sequels.

I can't wait.

But I have to. It's George R. R. Martin's fault. (R. R. = Ronald Reuel?) I am losing sleep over A Game of Thrones. If by any chance you have a vague liking for medievalish fantasy, can handle multiple characters and occasional ladlesful of information (mostly doled out in teaspoons), and if you like losing sleep, this is highly recommended. It's got to be about five times as long as Nomansland, and it's definitely for grown-ups, even though many of the characters are quite young, and they don't get spared.

Come to think of it, that's probably really why it's for adults. It's not the sex, or the violence, or the serious matters of state. It's that kids are in the middle of it, in one way or another. (Kids who do read the book will acquire useful vocabulary, including portcullis, bastard, gremkin, and saddle-sore. Only two of these terms are involved in sex, at least in the first 200 pages.)

Frankly, I picked up Martin's book despite the HBO series advertised on the cover, and I'm dreading seeing the adaptation. (I'm safe for now, mostly because I don't have cable.) The book is so absorbing this far that the drama is almost sure to sicken me with disappointment.

missing "e" complaint

It's raining.

Herman Cain is the Republican favorite.

Steve Jobs is dead.

What am I complaining about? (Warning: I am about to complain.)

I am complaining about a missing "e" in a comic.

I followed a link from deviantart to the amazon page for a comicker I didn't know - Andrew Dobson. His new series Formera has two volumes out, and in the first, the "look inside" sample has a misspelling on the third page included. (It's probably page 2, but I can't tell if the first is a title page, the cover, or page 1).

The error? Boy falls from sky into water. Reaction? "I can't breath!"

Come on. There are twenty words to a page in this comic. Six editors had to have looked at that. The text editor for blogger (TM) highlights misspelled words!

Fer cryin' out loud!

a "makers versus takers" type email

I was distressed that a friend forwarded this email:

Subject: FW: FREE STUFF....

Worth reading.

>  
>
> I have never heard this said as plain or as well.
>
> Class war at its best.
>
> The folks who are getting the free stuff, don't like the folks who are
> paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free
> stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own
> stuff.
>
>  
>
> And,
>
>  
>
> The folks who are paying for the free stuff, want the free stuff to stop and
> the folks who are getting the free stuff,
>
> want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting.
>
>  
>
> Now... The people who are forcing the people who Pay for the free stuff,
> have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who
> are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
>
>  
>
> So, the people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need
> to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff, by the people who are
> forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free
> stuff in the first place.
>
>  
>
> We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more
> people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.
>
>  
>
> Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide
> somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The
> voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by
> electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in
> exchange for electing them.
>
>  
>
> The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 231 years ago. The
> number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the
> free stuff. We have one chance to change that in 2012. Failure to change
> that spells the end of the United States as we know it.
>
>  
>
> ELECTION 2012 IS COMING
>
>  A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves.
>
>  I'M 100% for PASSING THIS ON.
>
>  Let's Take a Stand.
>
>  
>
>
>  Obama: Gone.
>
>  Borders: Closed.
>
>  Language: English only.
>
>  Culture: Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
>
>  Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before Welfare.
>
>  NO freebies to: Non-Citizens.
>
>  We the people are coming....
>
>  
>  Only 86% will send this on. Should be 100%. What will you do?
>

And I had this response:

People who do not pay income taxes (because they have little or no income) pay sales taxes. Many of them get “free stuff” in the form of temporary aid. Some of them get “free stuff” in the form of temporary aid that lasts a long time. This is a problem because they are consuming and not producing.

People who do not pay income taxes (because they have a lot of money, and spend a small portion of it to shield a greater portion from taxation) pay sales taxes. many of them get “free stuff” in the form of access to roads and bridges, fire and police protection, clean water, hurricane warnings and the like. This is a problem because the system that everyone else pays for allows them to benefit enormously without contributing to the system.

People who do pay income taxes make up the majority of Americans. They also pay sales taxes. Their tax payments educate the vast majority of the future doctors, engineers, and construction workers – of all of us. Their tax payments allow governments to build and maintain roads and bridges, test cantaloupes for dangerous bacteria, and inspect cost-cutting/profit-maximizing airlines’ planes before takeoff. They also own the airwaves that the government they pay for licenses to broadcasters. This is good because the people who pay the taxes by law make the decisions, however indirectly, in government.

This is where it gets interesting. The people who don’t pay income taxes (because they have enough money to shield their money) own a lot of broadcast media. They do it as individuals, as corporations, and as interest groups. They are a bit scared of the people who do pay most of the income taxes. They have a choice: fight us (hard) or co-opt us (not quite as hard). They have tools for fighting (bloody) and tools for co-option (less bloody).

I’m glad they chose the easier, less bloody route of telling you what to think. Now I am still alive to tell you what I think. I think they are filling your head with misinformation.

If there’s a class war, who won? The people who are out of work and hopeless and still sitting on their hands, or the people who are comfortable and well-fed and in control of media and government? Or, to use the original writer’s metaphor, the wealthiest are the wolves.

I have to get back to work if I’m going to continue supporting public education (my kids are in school right now), the interstate highway system (how I get to work and how my food gets to the grocery store), the public utilities commission (which helps keep electricity rates down so my boss can keep the lights on), et cetera, ad nauseam.

Stay well,

Steve

---

I think I was very diplomatic. Now I really have to get back to work!