A little bit of "awwwwwwww!!" for your Tuesday evening

Isn't that the sweetest?  *melts a little*

Unfortunately the likelihood of one of my own furbabies being kind enough to reproduce such a shot is pretty minimal. The cats use my piles of books about the place as their own personal dominoes (which is at least a vast improvement from peeing on them) while the bunny will chew anything I am stupid enough to leave in her sphere on nibblyness - including on top of but ever so slightly overhanging the coffee table (and of course it was a library book).

Authors are my rockstars - 2012 edition, volume 1

It's no secret I adore authors - their bravery and courage to confront a blank page, fill it with words then send it off out into the world to be read/judged/enjoyed/hated or the dreaded indifference.  It's always a total thrill for me when I get to meet an author in the flesh and I couldn't have been more excited when I heard international best selling author Helen Brown was touring the country to promote her latest book After Cleo: Came Jonah.

So on Thursday afternoon my (under sufferance) partner and I headed up SH1 to Auckland (via Little and Friday for delicious baked goodies and coffee) to the Takapuna Library to hear Helen talk. What  a delightful, warm person she is! Really, what you read in the books (which I love) is exactly how she came across in real life.  She spoke about her book, dropping juicy titbits to entice those among the audience who hadn't yet read it about her battle with cancer and daughter Lydia's ambition to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. I was delighted to hear about the forthcoming movie of the book Cleo: How an uppity cat helped heal a family, that Lydia is writing a rebuttal of sorts to her mum's book, and of course anecdotes about the star of her latest story, the "drag queen in fur" Jonah.  

Then I just about burst apart with happiness when it came time to get my books signed.  I know it's totally uncool to be so excited, especially at my age, but it really is a case of me meeting a hero and I couldn't disguise that if I tried. And then imagine my euphoria when Helen knew who I was because of my review!!!  *Total fan girl squeeeeeeee moment* 

Lastly, I must heap praise on the wonderful team from the Friends of Takapuna Library for putting on such a wonderful event.  What an awesome crowd braved the chilly evening - I counted roughly 120 guests (including legendary TV3 journalist Bob McNeil) and what a pleasant surprise to have simple but delicious canapés, wine and juice served too.

Twilight zone moment

At the moment I'm reading Sarah Quigley's most excellent novel The Conductor on eBook but I had to borrow the treebook version from work because it comes with a CD of the music mentioned in the book and I really wanted to hear it.  My tablet is charging at the moment so I decided to try and find my place in the treebook and read from it for awhile.  I picked it up just now, opened it at a random page, looked down and it was the exact place I am up to in the eBook.  

Freaked me right out.

Bookie things I'm loving right now...

1.   This piece from the New Zealand Herald full of uber awesome quotes from the extremely successful Auckland Writers and Reader's Festival held last weekend. Gems include:

"I have to remind myself that I survived Virginia Andrews; they'll survive Twilight." - New Zealand writer Emily Perkins on the importance of encouraging children to read widely, recalling her own teenage fascination with Flowers in the Attic.

- in case you are wondering though Virginia Andrews is long dead, there are still new books coming out under her name including two released this year. And don't even try to pretend you didn't read them when you were a teenager- it's practically a right-of-passage :P

"I have three little brothers and they gave me all the inspiration I needed [for the monsters in Artemis Fowl]. It was very therapeutic because I get to kill them in every book." - Eoin Colfer

- Ah, sibling angst, it's universal (and great writing fodder!)



2.  Speaking of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival I am so delighted that it saw record ticket sales this year - in fact a 10% increase on last year! I think that shows the awesome organisation in creating the event and more importantly, the incredibly high calibre of authors - both from here and abroad - who spoke.  And (finally!) the pride Kiwis are taking in our book industry. Naturally I am kicking myself that I didn't go and unless the Mayans are right, I will most definitely be there in 2013. 



3.  It's not fact yet but internet giant Amazon are apparently about to announce a new Kindle.  While it will still use e-Ink technology, it will have an inbuilt front light so you can read in the dark without having to use a light/lamp/candle.  Chances are pretty slim my 10 year old nephew will read this so I will say that this is the model my manic book reader Jakey (takes after his Auntie) will be getting for his next birthday and I've chosen it especially so he can read clandestinely after his mum says "lights out." The modern day equivalent of hiding under the blankets with a torch I guess.



4.  Back to the #AWRF again.  I've been incredibly vocal in my disappointment in Witi Ihimaera's 2009 plagiarism scandal in The Trowenna Sea.  Plagiarism is a dirty, lazy excuse for writing and has no place in literature, as it has no place in academia - things Mr Ihimaera would know well as a former Professor, and Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature at the University of Auckland and this country's most prominent Maori writer.  So I was really pleased to read Bookman Beattie's account of Witi Ihimaera's session in conversation with Dame Fiona Kidman at #AWRF where he talked in depth about the plagiarised excerpts, apologised profusely and even said the long promised corrected edition was being worked on with his publishers.  I think when you make a mistake (and this was a fairly hefty one!) it's important to own up as soon as possible and then correct it as soon as possible which is why the latter point is so important to me.  Maybe I'm being overly harsh but his and publisher Penguin's apologies seem more than a bit disingenuous until they (finally) put their money where their mouth is and print a corrected edition.  My dear friend BookieMonster summed up the situation much better than I can in this awesomely grumpypants post from 2010.  Hopefully with Witi's full and frank discussion about it at the fest and the new edition there will be some healing in the bookie community, I know I am.  *climbs down off soapbox*


5.  And lastly, let's end on a cheery note - this totally made me lol today :)

Clifford + Paddington = happy "stroll down amnesia lane"***

I loved Clifford the Big Red Dog as a little girl. Not only was it because I was as animal mad then as I am now, but more importantly, the main human character had a double-barrelled first name like me.  As a child of the 80s when such things were last "cool", my parents not only gave me a hyphenated first name they insisted everyone use it - family, school teachers, friends - right up until I went to university.  I hated it, and since I'm being truthful, still do. It's long and cumbersome, not terribly pretty and I remember it taking ages to learn how to write it.  And then I had a middle name to content with and a truly hideous surname as well.  Yep, I totally lucked out in the name stakes.  

So the kind hearted and sweet heroine of the Clifford books, Emily Elizabeth, became someone I could identify with. Plus I always secretly knew that if my parents could just give me a dog of my very own, I could love it so much it would grow ginormous just like Clifford and I could ride around on him as well. (It didn't happen, I got rabbits instead and so began a life-long-love affair with bunnies...but that's a story for another day).

ANYWAY... I say all this by way of introduction to the fact that I was more than a little chuffed to see The Hollywood Reporter announce Clifford is coming to the big screen in a live action/CGI hybrid.  The company behind the recent (lovely) adaptation of Dr Seuss' The Lorax will also work on Clifford.  I know I'm about 25 years to old to be the target market but I can't wait! 

And then I just about BURST when a SECOND childhood favourite was announced as getting the silver screen treatment.  The beloved Paddington Bear from darkest Peru - I love that line! - created by Michael Bond will get the same live action/CGI treatment as Clifford.  It will be produced by David Heyman, famed for his work on the Harry Potter movies franchise. I love Paddington Bear so much it was the only name I would consider for my first furchild, a handsome ginger and white SPCA cat who I call Paddy for short. He doesn't like marmalade sandwiches though :P 

As a random aside, the first Paddington Bear stuffed toy was created by Shirley and Eddie Clarkson and the prototype given to their children Joanna and Jeremy......Yes that's *that* Jeremy Clarkson - Top Gear host/motoring journalist/author/purveyor of fine foot-in-mouth moments.   

***virtual chocolate fish to the first person who can correctly say which movie this reference comes from.  Actually this whole blog post could be renamed "totally showing my age here..." Sigh.

Maurice Bernard Sendak (June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012)

True confession time: Where The Wild Things Are scared the crap out of me as a child. Okay if I'm honest, a little bit of that hangover into my adult life too.  Big fat fraidy cat? Why yes I am.  

My weird hangups aside, I can still very much appreciate what an amazingly talented man the author Maurice Sendak was - not only a children's author but illustrator as well.  And if authors are my rockstars, author/illustrators are my demigods.

I hope you're having many amazing wild rumpuses wherever you are Mr Sendak.

I'll leave you now with these two all-kinds-of-awesome images of (a very animated!) President Obama reading Where The Wild Things Are. Even the most powerful man in the world (arguably) is captured by the spirit of this iconic story and illustrations.  The pictures are courtesy of one of my absolute favourite tumblrs, Awesome People Reading (go add it to your RSS feeds - you can thank me later). 

*edited to add: if you google "Obama reads Where The Wild Things Are" you get more equally hilarious pics. I think it's fair to say Mr President is a Sendak fan :P

*want*

So there I was, idly surfing Amazon when my eye was caught by only the best board game ever!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present BOOKOPOLY.

That's right - it's all the goodness of Monopoly mixed with the awesomeness of books!

Here's the website blurb:

Book-opoly A Novel Property Trading Game Celebrating the Classics. Open a book! The world awaits you! Book-opoly allows a look inside the many worlds contained in classic literature. It's a traditional trading game where players buy, sell and trade their way to fun with family and friends. Interesting facts about the books and the authors are printed on the back of each property deed. Roll the dice and advance to READ. Collect Book stores and trade them in for Libraries. Who knows! You may soon be elected President of the Book Club --- or you may be tossed out of the game for three turns and sent to WATCH TV! Whatever happens, you are going to have fun - and perhaps learn a little something too! Tokens include fly, carousel horse, worm, whale, glasses, clipper. For 2 to 6 players, Ages 8 and up. Begin at "Goodnight Moon" and "Where the Wild Things Are" and end with "The Great Gatsby" and "The Grapes Of Wrath".

Needless to say I *want* this muchly. Sigh. Why must shipping internationally be so prohibitive?