Look on its works, ye writers, and despair...

[rj_anderson]

Janet Ursel, a fellow fantasy author who was kind enough to accompany me to my first school visit in Ottawa last week, posted this on her blog and it is well worth watching -- if for no other reason than to find out how a book gets put together. But really, the idea of books-on-demand is simultaneously thrilling and harrowing, don't you think? Behold, the Espresso Book Machine:

And here's a couple of pictures of me talking to the crowd at that school visit -- 200 kids at Knoxdale Public School, on April 27th:





When I looked at these photos my first thought was, "Wow, that's a lot of kids," and the second was, "Man, I have really terrible posture." Do they still have those charm schools where you learn to balance a book on your head?

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a lot of kids! And I don't think your posture is bad; it's hard to avoid stooping when you're speaking to people smaller than you, isn't it? Especially when they're sitting on the floor.

As for the espresso book machine, what I want to know is: where can I get one? Self-publishing! Yay! Four-color illustrations! Oh, well - they probably cost tens of thousands of dollars, not to speak of the paper and ink. But maybe a bunch of writers could conspire to share one? Power to the people!

(We wants it, we wants it, precious!)

BTW, I got my hands on Knife read it in a day, and have posted a review on the library's myspace and on amazon. I'm going to be passing it on to a couple of kids I know for their input, and I think they'll love it. )

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the great review!

BTW, I like crows too, and in a way I felt sorry to make them the villains. But I needed a bird that was clever, large, carnivorous and common enough to be a persistent threat rather than just an occasional one... and owls, of course, only hunt at night.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

True. In our area, a red tailed hawk would fit the bill nicely (pun not intended!), but large raptors are not so common in England. I did wonder about the "carnivorous" bit, though. Of course, crows rob nests and kill nestlings, but it seemed to me a grown faery would be a bit bigger than that.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked the review. I liked the book. )