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Volume 1, Number 4 November 2002 Home | MBW Index

Table of Contents

Kaveny's Bookshelf Bogstad's Bookshelf Laurel's Bookshelf

Shirley's Bookshelf Donovan's Bookshelf Cindy Penn's Bookshelf

Klausner's Bookshelf

Kaveny's Bookshelf
In this months Kaveny's Bookshelf, I will exercise my editorial prerogative and take an idea and run with. The reason for this is that my wife, Jan Bogstad, who is also the International editor for The Midwest Book Review, reminded me that I had just two days to come up with a paper proposal for "The International Conference on The Fantastic and the Arts" which takes place, as usual, in Ft Lauderdale Florida in early 2003 as it has for the last twenty or so years. In my April 2001, feature I reported on it, along with the paper I gave on J.R.R. Tolkien's concept of evil. But this coming spring I wanted to do something just a little different.

When Jan brought up the deadline for next year's conference, I found myself in an entirely different non-literary frame of mind since for the last ten days or so I have been madly selling books as fast as I can in order continue my lifetime project of outrunning my creditors. They sometimes appear to me in my dreams as a pack of wolves chasing me across windswept frozen Siberian rivers. Well I made it for another month and now the wolves are quietly asleep at my feet, or at least waiting for it to all start up again late next month.

I decided to utilize my wife's expertise as and advisor to several Ph.D. and MA candidates over the years, some here at UW Eau Claire. So I asked her to suggest some paper topics. Her suggestion was, since I review for five academic journals, including the New York Review of Science Fiction and of course The Midwest Book Review, that I examine some recent works on J.R.R Tolkien from a meta-critical perspective which means that I assume standpoint which allows me to make some general statements about trends in secondary works on J.R.R Tolkien. The horizon I chose was 1992 through 2002, with special emphasis on the more recent works, but also including the re-issue of certain items.

In a sense, the project is already underway since last month I mentioned the Annotated Hobbit, by Doug Anderson This month I will feature two items, one a collection of articles, the other a monograph a which deals with a very important aspect of Tolkien's work. (I also wish to add that I will broaden the focus of next months Kaveny's Bookshelf to include at least a brief report from World Science Fiction Convention last Month along with some interesting non-literary items brought to my attention by artist and friend Steven V. Johnson.

Choice A journal relied upon heavily as a professional selection tool for librarians, recently recommended J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy) -- George Clark (Editor), Daniel Timmons (Editor); Hardcover Publisher: Greenwood Publishing Group; ISBN: 0313308454; (September 2000) Price 62.00. (Hardcover, in Library binding and acid free paper). It is recommended as a purchase for public and academic libraries on all levels.

This recommendation based on at least three factors. First, Greenwood is one of the most respected publishers of literary studies. Second, the editors themselves are both very well thought of scholars within the field of the fantastic literature. George Clark is Professor Emeritus and adjunct in English at Queen's University at Kingston. He has published a book on Beowulf and numerous scholarly articles. Daniel Timmons is a Communications Instructor at Ryerson Polytechnic University who, along with his extensive literary work on J.R.R Tolkien, has recently produced a film project which examines the work of J.R.R Tolkien on the basis of its cultural resonances. Lastly, there is the quality and scope of the articles themselves, which is high enough to appeal to the both the literary professional, who might turn to "Versecraft in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings," by Geoffrey Russom, or a more naive, teenage reader, who might turn to "The Dragon-Lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Tradition," by Jonathan Evans, to get some neat ideas for his D&D game; Only to find out that there was more to know than he ever dreamed of.

Dan Timmons, in his introduction, effectively argues the need for a work like this in the early 21st Century to showcase and establish a benchmark of new Tolkien scholarship, not so much in terms of absolute standards, but more as an ongoing and dialogic process in which new players are always entering the field.

The best way to deal with this work is to go through the table of contents and highlight some of the articles with the interests of the potential readers in mind.

1. Tolkien the Bard: His Tale Grew in the Telling, by C.W. Sullivan III was one of my favorites in the collection if for no other reason than that he suggests a legitimate argument' for evaluating Tolkien's work by a different (perhaps more lasting) standard than we might a modern novel.
2. The Dragon-Lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Tradition by Jonathan Evans. I mention this article earlier as an entry point for many public library readers. I think in that sense it is a good choice because it will pique the newer reader's interest and move through the rest of the collection.

3. J.R.R. Tolkien and the True Hero by George Clark. I liked this article because it sheds light on the complex of the role of the hero in Tolkien's world of creation. Sometimes, heroism does not lie in the boldest bravest act, but in the consideration of the implication of the act for others.

4. Tolkien's Versecraft in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by Geoffrey Russom. For me was not an easy read. I usually do not like this sort of article on the technical aspects of versecraft, but in this case I felt like I was watching a master's chess game in the process of being annotated by another master. The conclusion I drew from it is that poetry is not a conceit or construction but has it roots imbedded in the depth of natural language. As a working poet myself, I feel a great deal of creative tension between the underlying structures which articulate poetic form and a certain ""unintentionality"" of my own poetic expression.

5. The Monsters Are Talismans and Transgressions: Tolkien and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Roger C. Schlobin. Roger Schlobin over the last 30 years has been a driving force in stretching the envelope of science fiction and fantasy criticism. He suggests interesting areas in which Tolkien's work on Sir Gawain and the Green Night and Beowulf set new standard for medieval literary criticism.

6. The Sins of Middle-earth: Tolkien's Use of Medieval Allegory by Charles W. Nelson. This is a quite enjoyable article in which Nelson suggests that each of Tolkien's major cast of characters may be viewed as exemplars of the seven deadly sins I leave it to the reader to find out how they matched up.

7. Is Tolkien a Renaissance man? Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy and J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" by Tanya Caroline Wood Here we are reminded of how fast things change. It made me feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle. It seems in the forty years since I first studied the Renaissance its dates have moved well over a hundred and fifty years towards the present. Who knows whether at some point my own lifetime in the 20th & 21st Century may be viewed as part of the very late Renaissance.

8. Weaving Nets of Gloom: "Darkness Profound" in Tolkien and Milton by Debbie Sky. This article is much too deep for me to reduce it to a few sentences, but I found the contrast between Milton's Protestant, and Tolkien's Catholic and Medieval view of the fall a brilliant insight into the nature of art, literature and theology. I am sure a monograph could easily be generated from this article. When I was an undergraduate in 1963, I had a world famous Russian Professor Michael Boro Petrovich who said that the two most import events for modernity from 1500 to the present were the Protestant Reformation, and the Russian Revolution. I agree, but one of them has fallen off the horizon.

9. Gagool and Gollum: Exemplars of Degeneration in King Solomon's Mines and The Hobbit by William N Rogers II and Michael R. Underwood. I am delighted to find that this article heavily draws from work done by my dear friend Jarod Lobdell, one of the few remaining Tolkien scholars who corresponded directly with J.R.R Tolkien. Actually I wish the collection contained an article by Jarod Lobdell.

10. "Joy Beyond the Walls of the World:" Secondary World-Making of J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis by David Sandner. I did not intend to say something about every article in this collection, but an article which ponders the depth and scope of two of the most significant secondary world builders of the last century is well worth reading.

11. Taking the Part of Trees: Eco-Conflict in Middle-earth by Verlyn Flieger. In spite of the rather turgid title of this article, which I think must have been applied tongue in cheek, this is perhaps the best article in the collection because it contests some of the more didactic readings of Tolkien's attitude by modern pro-ecology environmentalists. I love the way she draws on J.R.R's creation using Tom Bombadil's comments re: Great Willow? "His Heart was Rotten, but his strength was great." This remark demonstrates that Tolkien knew how trees actually grew, only the sapwood really being alive. I think this article proves that Tolkien perhaps more than his readers and many of his critics knew the difference between a forest and park.

12. Women Fantasists: In the Shadow of the Ring by Faye Ringel. I have had the pleasure of working with Faye Ringel elsewhere and I confess I find her work both incisive and in the case of a paper she gave on "Hell's Kitchen" at the Kalamazoo medieval conference in the year 2000, delightful. In this paper, she raise important issues involved as a selected group of women fantasy writers have struggled to escape from Tolkien's shadow. Since my own reading of Tolkien is at least non-traditional, I found this article particularly invigorating. It is interesting to think that nearly 40 years ago the release of the Ace Editions of Lord of the Rings led to an heroic expansion of the horizon of expectations of the common reader. These same expectations may now have in fact been encoded into a stupefying formula which I think would have appalled J.R.R Tolkien, since The Lord of The Rings really was not the story he most wanted to tell.

13. Loss Eternal in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth by W.A. Senior. This is a well thought out and carefully referenced article which identifies the debt that nearly all modern post J.R.R Tolkien fantasy owes to evocation of the concept of "loss and wonder" which permeated the scope of Tolkien's secondary world. I might add that perhaps the fatal weakness of most Post- Tolkien contemporary fantasy is the lack of authenticity of experience of many of its constructors whose works therefore blanch white and become flaccid and sentimental because they demand of the reader a level of response that the constructed literary situation does not warrant. Much as others may argue, I suggests that most of Tolkien's general readers care much more about the ring bearers than the quest itself. I am told it is the same in wartime, by those who have been there; one cares nothing about the cause but everything about their mates.

14. Orcs, Wraiths, Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil by Tom Shippey. Sadly, saving what I thought would be the best paper for last, I found Tom Shippey's paper to be a bit overworked and too much of recapitulation of his paper included in Tolkien Centenary (1992 Oxford proceedings) "Tolkien as a Post-War Writer." But I must add that being the brilliant scholar that Tom Shippey is, he may in fact find his own act hard to follow. I also have one other little quibble with this volume in that the editors place Shippey biographically closer to J.R.R Tolkien than was historically possible when one considers their birth dates, 1943 & 1892 respectively.

In a sense all of these papers are first among equals but my favorites were the papers by Veryln Flieger, Faye Ringel, Bill Senior, and (much to my own surprise), Geoffrey Russom. I think for more than any other reasons because they took me where I had not been before. I found the "Selected Bibliography" substantial and quite useful, and the fact that all of these papers where integrated by an overall index a wonderful scholarly tool of which I will make good use for comparative purposes.

I enjoyed the section on the background of the contributors but would have preferred a few more lines about each of them. My major recommendation is that this collection appears in an affordable trade paper format in about the $20.00 price range. Yes, I agree with Choice's recommendation and would add that in my opinion J. R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-Earth is a must for any library academic or public, and even at a over price of $62.00 worth every cent of the price as part of a personal collection. I've spent that much for lunch for three last month in San Jose at World Science fiction convention, but that was because I had to throw some of it to the wolves.

Kaveny's Bookshelf part two. Those of you who follow Kaveny's Book shelf you might have noticed that I missed the deadline last month. I always run things right up to the deadline with my very understanding Editor and Chief James Andrew Cox, but last month I misread the calendar and came out both a day late, and a dollar short so to speak. So from now on my self-imposed deadline for Kaveny's Bookshelf with be Midnight the 24th of the previous month. On a plus side I got so interested in the secondary works on Tolkien which I am reviewing that I have proposed am controversial paper to the annual conference of The International Association of The Fantastic and the Arts the abstract of which is included after my first review. I have also chosen to included some short review's of a number of highly worthy item's which have come to my attention

A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie
Verlyn Flieger Trade Paperback
The Kent State University Press
PO Box 5190, Kent, OH 44240-0001
ISBN: 087338699X; (December 2001). Price 17.95, 286 pages, 1-800-247-6553

I don't know why but I just keep putting off this review. I have been promising a number of folks a review of this book
for several months, but somehow it has been a question of finding my own time to get around to it.

Many years ago, when I worked in the field of building maintenance and housekeeping, a very grizzled maintenance mechanic named Irving Gillette shared a bit of his lifetimes' wisdom with me. Irv was born in 1920 and was a survivor of the first wave of the Normandy Invasion (1944 not 1066). Irv told me that (2 get a round tuit) was the thing everyone was trying to find, but it was very rare that they would (get around to it.)

Well Irv, gods bless you and your generation wherever you are, and thank you for the world you gave us boomers. I hope we can do the same for our next generations, who face a dark and horrific postmodern world.

It seems that reading A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie has taken its toll on me. I seem to be doing a bit of moving in and out of time on my own. Maybe reading A Question of Time seemed to make Irv rise up across time nearly from nearly a quarter of a century ago and jump into my mind looking just like he did the last time I saw him in 1977.

Interestingly enough, Irv had his own little trip into what may have seemed at lot like Faerie. He was one of the few American GI's who hung around for a handful of years in England after World War II, grew a beard and became a beatnik and went to school on The G.I Bill in England until the money ran out. Then he came back to settle in the small town of his birth, Belleville Wisconsin, which is about twenty miles southwest of our state capital of Madison, Wisconsin. He got back five years after World War II ended, and Korea was just about to kick in.

Verlyn Flieger's A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie is not an easy read by any means. If it were an easy read, then I think it would not be the fascinating book that it is. Verlyn Flieger is a professor of Comparative Mythology at The University of Maryland and a distinguished scholar who has had the full co-operation of the Tolkien family, which means access to the Tolkien archives. She's the editor or author of a number of significant works J.R.R Tolkien. I would strongly recommend you visit her website to find more about her. http://mythus.com/. In addition to this, she has two works of mythic fiction in print which I will deal with at a later date.

I think it was not an easy read for me because as a critic I tend to be a resistant reader as you might have noticed if you have followed some of my other reviews. I tend to wrestle with a text as a wrestler might approach his opponent, watching every move trying to find an opening looking for a weakness. Well that did not work. This book threw me three out of three times, so a few days ago after having read through it twice, I tried a different approach while I was waiting for movie at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Student Union.

I turned to Chapter 10: "A Dream of Light," and Chapter 11: "The Pitfalls of Faerie," and read them impressionistically, letting the words evoke my senses rather than my grinding intellect. Of course, it would be better if I had at hand all the works she cited and I may yet have to do this. But the images Flieger evoked first from various versions of Tolkien poem "Sea Bell" make me lust to read the original, because in them she introduces a horrific aspect of Tolkien's work that I think, before it was identified, only worked with me on a precognitive emotional level.

In Chapter 11, Flieger makes a link between J.R.R Tolkien's World War One Experience and his fiction. (Tolkien was a reserve officer at the first battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916). In this tragic and futile battle, Tolkien would see the affect of 60,000 British Soldiers killed or wounded in one day. This is nearly as many as the Americans lost in 2344 days of the Vietnam War. Her point is this: for Tolkien, and a generation of men like him, the Great War represented a trip into the darkest aspects of the secondary world of Faerie. Those who survived, Remarque, Hemmingway, Robert Graves, Pope John 23rd, and of course C.S Lewis, found themselves trapped in a story that they would spend their lifetimes trying to tell.

I came to similar conclusion in my own comparative study the American fantastic writer Kurt Vonnegut. In 1967 Kurt Vonnegut breathed life back into the seemingly dead embers of his literary carrier with the publication of his ground breaking novel Slaughterhouse five. By using the viewpoint character Billy Pilgrim who kept getting "unstuck in time". Vonnegut was able to put the untellable tale into words for the rest of us, as he articulated the horrific experience he faced as an American prisoner war, who survived the Allied firebombing of the German city of Dresden Feb 18 Th 1945 because he had been held prisoner in the deepest depths (by his German captors), of the an underground chamber of a slaughter house. I suspect that in doing so the soldier/ artist, becomes a voice for their fallen comrades, and the 120,000
German Civilians who died in the air raid.

I realize that I am working backwards though this book, but that seems the best way for me. Another very interesting aspect of Tolkien's work which Flieger foregrounds is the changes which take place in Tolkien's own work across time as he moves from the primacy of his experience to an almost theological approach to his work later in life. At this point, he is constantly revising in the attempt make the body of his work consistent, or in a sense square the theological circle.

This process did not stop with J.R.R Tolkien's death in 1973, and the advent of the Internet has only worsened the revisionism. I monitor and sometimes participate in the official Tolkien internet discussion list where I have watched even very respected Tolkien Scholars engage in discussions of monumental absurdity, much as scholastic theologians might have discussed the bible 800 years ago at Oxford University. For them, middle earth as real as the bible.

Moving toward the front of the book and towards the end of this review I must say that I am delighted in Flieger's use of sources. First, of course, the official sources of the Tolkien family to which so few have access. But perhaps move importantly, the unofficial sources and contemporary influences in J.R.R Tolkiens life.

The two Tolkien Reviews led me to offer this conference proposal for the following conference in 2003..

International Association of The Fantastic and the Arts the Conference: abstract

Philip Kaveny (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Emeritus)

A view from The Commanding Heights: The last decade of J.R.R Tolkien Criticism 1992-2002), with special emphasis On recovering apparently neglected popular, and horrific aspects of his work, as seen from a Metacritical perspective.

I will use a comparative, metacritical stance to look at the last decade of J.R.R Tolkien studies through its written documents, in order to identify some neglected areas, including, the horrific, the personal, and the almost accidental nature of his success. During the last ten years, a number of significant secondary works on J.R.R

Tolkien were released into the critical community. In addition, the twelve volumes of Tolkien's posthumous collection, History of Middle Earth, was brought to completion by his son Christopher Tolkien. The decade has seen the publication of at least a score of monographs dealing with his works, and the compilation of several conference proceedings. Yet to the best of our knowledge, no one has yet formally addressed the haunting question raised by noted medievalist Norman Cantor in his groundbreaking work Inventing the Middle Ages. In the chapter "The Oxford Fantasists" he addresses the merit of Tolkien criticism, asking whether this seeming ever expanding work done on J.R R. Tolkien represents an emerging field of legitimate academic studies? Or is it simply what Cantor describes as a cottage industry, which because restrictions placed by the Tolkien estate on access to primary source materials has produced a closed conversation rather than a critical dialogue open to all takers.

Biliography:

Cantor, Norman. Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century. Quill.February 1993).

Carpenter, Humphrey. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin Co; (June 2000).

Chance, Jane. Tolkien's Art: A Mythology for England. University Press of Kentucky. Rev edition (October 2001).

Flieger, Verlyn. A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie. Kent State Univ. (September 2001).

Hammond, Wayne C. and Christiana Scull. J.R.R Tolkien Artist & Illustrator. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston and New York. 1995.

J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth. (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy) by George Clark & Daniel Timmons, Eds. Greenwood Publishing Group (September 2000).

Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference, 1992: Proceedings of the Conference Held at Keble College, Oxford, England, 17Th-24th August, 1992). (January 1996).

Shippey, Tom. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Houghton Mifflin (March 2001).

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Doug Anderson Ed. Houghton Mifflin. Revised edition (August 16, 2002).

______________. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien, Eds. Houghton Mifflin. 1st Houghton Mifflin ed. (June 2000).

______________. Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One (The

History of Middle-Earth - Volume 10). Christopher Tolkien Ed. Ticknor & Fields(December 1993).

______________. The Peoples of Middle-Earth (The History of Middle-Earth - Volume 12) Christopher Tolkien Ed. Houghton Mifflin (December 1996).

______________. The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two. (The

History of Middle-Earth - Volume 11.) Christopher Tolkien Ed. Houghton Mifflin (December 1994).

Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on the History of Middle-Earth. (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, No 86)by Verlyn Flieger & Carl F. Hostetter, Eds. Greenwood Publishing Group (January 30, 2000).

For those of you who are still reading I am proud to say that I am a loose cannon as far the world of Academic Criticism, because among other things I am retired, and am not striving for or trying to protect tenure. Since this proposal is directed at a number of scared cows in my field in may not be accepted. In which case of course you will get to read all of it in The Midwest Book Review.

This is a section short reviews which I have promissed people for quite a while. Some of them go as far back as last spring"s International Association of The Fantastic and the Arts the Conference, most of them come from publisher contacts I made at World Science Fiction Convention at San Jose over Labor day weekend.

I was delighted to find my friend Dan Weiss owner of Black Plankton Press and his lovely daughter, who would be very embarrassed if I used her name right now, selling books in the dealer's room at World Science Fiction Convention. Dan Weiss is a mild manner middle school teacher in the bay area who reminds me a lot of Mister Rogers from Mr. Rogers neighborhood which is a good thing. Dan towers over me. I am about six feet tall and I suspect that Dan has about a half foot on me, and is about a double handful of years younger than me so I won't be playing him any one on one basketball, but since we both play chess I may have a game or two on the Internet. This his latest effort.

Snugglarea by Dan Weiss Tradepaperback Black Plankton Press.ISBN 096112363x 2002 price 9.95ording the one of the editors at Spectra one of the multinational owned publishing houses it was a perfect fit in the dead genre of humorous science fiction. So Dan published it himself though his own publishing house, and you can contact Dan through his webiste.http://authorsden.com/danweiss or email him at bplankton@juno.com

If you want more information about the several books he has in print.

The book does not look as if it is privately published it is handsomely and professionally packaged, with eye catching and distinct art work making it stand out among lots of the more mundane trade paperbacks. The book is funny very funny something like a mix of early Kurt Vonnegut and Edgar Allen Poe, I found a serious criticism of modernity but I won't spoil it by telling you too much about it. But I will include an excerpt from it from his website so you can get a taste of what it is about.

Life used to be so simple; there were only amino acids and the beginnings of slime. But now everything is organized to the point where there is a depressing lack of life in a world filled with billions of people. Sally--the person I dream about most--is in storage on Earth, while I'm stuck here in orbit, working for Entertainment--the most fertile field of our sterile world--struggling to broaden the horizons of titillation. A harsh beep, sent by the little, bell-shaped beige thinkulator at Kevin Henry's desk, indicated the probability that less than one percent of the populace would find his preceding thoughts entertaining."

Modern Pagans: An Investigation of Contemporary Ritual
John Sulak (Editor), Vale (Editor) Paperback
RE/Swearch Publications;
ISBN: 1889307106 List Price: $19.95, 212 pages, www.researchpubs.com

Pagan motto: Do what you will, but harm none.

I met John Sulak at a hotel party at World Science Fiction Convention at San Jose California over Labor Day weekend, where we talked for about three hours between 11:P.M and 2:00 A.M. somewhere between those two hours John admitted to being a writer. I admitted to being a book Review Editor, and we both admitted to being from the Midwest. At one time being practically neighbors, John leaving Rockford IL for the bay area about fifteen years ago, and my self spending almost the first fifty five years of my life in Madison Wisconsin until I moved 189 miles North to Eau Claire Wisconsin three years ago

The book is an investigation into one of the fastest growing spiritualities in the world, with numerous interviews of Pagans. Misunderstood as Satanism, Paganism is actually based on experience and knowledge, not on faith and belief-- and Pagans are diverse, eclectic and radical, just like Paganism itself. Their common goal is to heal themselves and heal the planet. They see themselves as being part of the natural world, not separate from it, and seek a fully-integrated, inclusive, healthy new society. There are no Pagan authorities telling Pagans how to behave or think, or what rituals to practice. Instead, Paganism is a process of self-discovery. Many Pagans have multiple lovers and worship multiple deities, but they are also raising kids, forming new kinds of families and building a growing, fascinating community.

Time and space do not allow me to do justice to this fine and fascinating book full of hundreds of photographs and nearly as many fascinating interviews, but there seems to be a very sensual even sexual thread which unify the diverse aspects of the very interesting reference book. I found the Pagan Glossary quite useful and it can easily be read either as unity or discursively moving form interview to interview as I did.

A Quick Guide to Book-On-Demand Printing, Revised Edition
Roger MacBride Allen
FoxAcre Press;
ISBN: 0970971184; $21.00, Paperback, 244 pages, http://www.foxacre.com.

This is a timely useful and informative guide which is full indexed to what is in the process of becoming the hottest area of the publishing industry where one can compete with the major publishers or lose there shirt car and home to Vanity Press optimism. This book is a practical goldmine of useful information for the perspective print on demand publishers. It gives you the kind of detail which if ignored can simply wreck your project for example on page 46 it explains the necessity of using a true four color ink jet printer which gives a true black ink rather than a murky blend of three colors. This is a hands on guide full of lots of cautionary information which tells takes you through every aspect of print media production whether your budget is two hundred, or twenty thousand dollars. If you are even thinking about this field this book is a must have

Swan Songs: The Complete Hooded Swan Collection
Brian Stableford
Big Engine Press UK
ISBN 1 903468 04 30 . Price in Pounds 16.99, http://www.bigengine.co.uk/index.htm

A welcome re-issue in one volume of a series that first appeared in the early 70's complete with a brand new introduction, for Brian Stableford's six Hooded Swan novels. For many including myself much of contemporary science fiction has become to self conscious and reads and seems to be written by sparrow fart English professors who are trying to justify their tastes to each other and are still a bit touchy about it. The late great editor Donald A. Wollheim, 1914 -1990 who originally commissioned Brian Stableford to do this series was of a different breed.

For well over forty years until his death Wolheim and his Imprint DAW books were a driving force in the establishing a science fiction Genre it is great to see the whole series back in print in one volume. It is well worth a trip to the Big Engine Website to checkout the score or so other S.F.and Fantasy Titles that they have available.and can be ordered from their U.K Website.

I met Dr. Thomas Martin by an accident of conference scheduling last spring At International Association of the Fantastic and the Arts at ft Lauderdale Florida which placed us in the same session together. Tom asked me if I would mind if he took a few extra minutes to read his well-structured and carefully constructed paper on Speaking Pictures in the works of C.S Lewis. Since I had been desperately writing my paper on Tolkien's concept of evil and at best count had maybe eleven minutes to present I breathed a sigh of relief, as I thought to myself you could have all the time if you want. But as it turned out both papers seemed to work together since in as sense we were both suggesting that literature had a moral dimension to it and that there was something like a field of moral education where literary classics could serve a useful function. It also turned out that we both had an interest in the nature of evil and had done work on C.S Lewis. It also turned out that Tom had edited the following collection of articles in book form on C.S. Lewis. Which function in chronological order as a lewis Approach to literary classics.

Reading the Classics With C. S. Lewis
Thomas L. Martin, editor
Baker Book House
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
ISBN: 0801022347; $24.99, www.bakerbooks.com

From the Back Cover "A Guide to Literature Reading the Classics with C. S. Lewis offers an in-depth look at Lewis's great love for literature and his monumental work as a literary critic. With chapters devoted to various genres and the major periods of English literature, this collection leads readers to a stronger appreciation of literature and a deeper understanding of Lewis as a teacher. "Even before C. S. Lewis established himself as a writer, he was drawing crowds of Oxford students to his lectures and illuminating English literature for them with his wisdom and his wit. . . . A group of experts explore this legacy in Reading the Classics with C. S. Lewis, enabling readers to share Lewis's delight in the literature he valued and wanted others to enjoy." -Harry Blamires, author of A Short History of English Literature "

I found all of the sections interesting and I thought the use of Lewis as an entry point into the literary classics both clever and innovative, Some detractors J.R.R. Tolkien for example towards the end of his life criticized Lewis for becoming "everyman's theologian". I think Lewis 1898-1963 would have been proud to be thought of as everyone's literature professor. Based on my own unpublished research it is clear to me that though Lewis literary world was the classics he did not shy away from modernity. I only wish his life might have been extended a few more years, so that he could have experienced more of the end of the last century, but perhaps he had seen enough.

I see that I have a little more time so I must admit to getting hooked on a couple books on tape. Which meant I watched a lot less television, which is a good thing.

Three Fates
Nora Roberts, read by Bernadette Quigley
Brilliance Corporation
PO Box 887, Grand Haven, MI 49417
ISBN: 1587886936; $TBA, Unabridged Audio Cassette Edition, 1-800-854-7859

My wife tricked me into this one, which start in 1915 aboard a doomed Lusitania seven miles off the coast of Ireland and about to be sunk by a German Submarine. This is historically accurate and literately compelling. I think most women who read this genre keep to themselves which is a shame because this is really a good book which cuts across eight seven years of history with a novel of romance adventure sex and some violence which will keep you at the edge of your seat waiting for the next thing to happen. The romance genre has certain conventions, which make it a romance, but Nora Robberts makes believable characters that you really get to care for. The Irish part of the story is very well done, but here character Cleo is the one you fall in love with. She could easily be the girl you loved who fell on hard times and had to do what she could with what she had. By the way romances have gotten steamy enough to make the average truck driver turn beat red.

How the Irish Saved Civilization
Thomas Cahill
Bantam Books Audio
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
ISBN: 0553502409; $TBA, unabridged audiobook edition, 1-800-726-0600

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe is a book I have been meaning to read for years but I know find myself listening to it non-stop in a handfull of sittings. It is a wonderfull book which makes the chaos of the last few decades of Rome's Empire come alive in a way that is nothing less than awe inspireing. The Image of the Goths coming across the frozen Rhine River, not as an unstoppable barbarian horde, but as a great unwashed mass much like that to the south of the US border under the cold gaze of the Roman Soldier s standing at parade rest brought a chill to my soul.

The narrator with a fine Irish Brogue seems to talk to you as much as read to you and seems almost a seamless spokesman for the authors. Best of all I can Thomas Cahill knows his history and how to make St Augustan Come Alive, and make the first of the Great 18th Century Historians author of The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon; published in 1776 come alive as if he were talking to us. I have been to many of the places Chahil referers to in England and Ireland and next month I will do a literary Anglo Irish Tavelouge

Philip Kaveny
Literary Editor
Midwest Book Review.

Bogstad's Bookshelf
Contemplations on Philip Pullman, other writers and Oxford, Oxfordshire, England (mid-July, 2002)

I was hoping to spend more time on some of the writers who've inspired my travels, one might even say, my quests. I don't usually travel around trying to see where authors lived nor where they are buried, have slept, drank tea or lager, but when they write about some geographically recognizable place, I like to visit that and soak up the atmosphere that inspired their creativity.

Oxford is a wonderful place for this, partially because writers of fantasy like J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman, writers of mystery like Colin Dexter and Dorothy Sayers, and many others, describe Oxford in their books and lived part of their lives among its curious mix of ancient, old and contemporary streets and buildings. I have visited Oxford often so I have my favorite places. As does Philip Pullman and as did J.R.R. Tolkien.

Now I admit I have several times made the pilgrimage to The Eagle and Child on Oxford's High Street. This is the pub where Tolkien, Lewis, Williams and a few others, met for many years to discuss their writing. On this last trip, I was able to visit and exhibit in the Bodleian Library's exhibits hall, celebrating 400 years of the Bodleian. Pieces on display included the original Gutenberg bible, Chinese, Arabic and medieval manuscripts, but also some original watercolor art that Tolkien used in Lord of the Rings. That exhibit is going to continue through the end of this year. Should you find yourself in Oxford, do check it out.

As you may guess, I LOVE Oxford. I usually spend two or three days there at the end of any trip to UK or Ireland because it is so easy to get to Gatwick airport. There are buses from a bus station on Gloucester Green, not far from the Train Station, that take you right to the passenger entries of both major London airports. They're cheaper than Taxis from London and you can even get 'frequent rider' tickets if you travel to Oxford more than once a year. Oxford combines the ancient and the modern, with trains, buses, roads, and fancy and simple hotels and many Bed and Breakfast establishments, of which every frequent traveler has their favorite. There are churches, rivers, pubs and eateries, many in easy walking distance to 'The High' and 'The Broad', major streets in most British cities. But there is also a string of Blackwells bookstores on The Broad that always attract my attention and my bibliophilic tendencies. I have spent many a happy hour browsing in the categorized basement of the main Blackwells (also the travel, art, children's, etc.) bookstores. The thing about the basement is that it's huge, on different levels, and is so well categorized that you can browse it like a library and fulfill some of your wildest dreams for book purchasing. Now I also like hunting up books on the web, but this is a totally different experience. It's an educational one, but in a visceral and highly tactile and visual sense. I recommend it even if you don't feel compelled to buy books.

Lately, I've also discovered antique shops and purchased a few Chinese artifacts that date from the period of my favorite Chinese empress Wu Zetian (for a novel about her time, see the highly fanaticized Flowers in the Mirror) in the 7th century of the Tang dynasty and from the mid-Qing, in the 18th century. But that's probably another story.

My mission during my most recent Oxford trip was to visit an old friend, Bill, who I met at a two-week course on British Libraries in 1989. But also to visit Jericho, the part of Oxford that appears in novels by mystery writer Colin Dexter (I met him in 1989 also, but he is since deceased) and the Botanical Gardens featured in Philip Pullman's recent trilogy, His Dark Materials. Bill, who directed me to the Bodleian exhibit also took me back to visit Jericho and showed me some of his favorite places. His ability to walk and his stamina put me to shame, as he is at least 15 years my senior. Jericho is a residential area that was formerly inhabited by workers at the now-closed ironworks and the Oxford University Press, which as also closed for a period but has now reopened. You've seen it, as well as the Bodleian Library, featured in the recent move, The Saint.

Now Philip Pullman, whose first famous novel was Ruby and the Smoke (1987), also lives in Oxford. He writes books for a range of young readers, from those that are heavily illustrated for the 10-12 year old set, to those that are, well, just 'heavy' for their older brothers and sisters. I first became addicted to Pullman's Sally Lockhart series, which beings with Ruby, but branches out to include many travels and adventures. The series so far is: Ruby and the Smoke, 1987, The Shadow in the North, 1988, The Tiger in the Well, 1990, and The Tin Princess, 1996.

More recently, he has gained wider attention for the adventures of a young girl, Lyra, who lives in an alternative universe linked to ours and to several others through small random 'portal's. This basic premise begins Pullman's tale of good and evil, daemons, witches and rewriting of religious and secular history, which he entitled His Dark Materials, published between 1995 and 2000. I've appended some remarks about the books in the trilogy, which I hope will catch your attention. They include: The Golden Compass, 1995, (Northern Lights, in Britain), The Subtle Knife, 1997, and The Amber Spyglass, 2000. In fact, I wanted to be sure and visit a spot in Oxford mentioned near the end of the third book. I won't give away the reason, but a certain bench near the marsh garden within the larger Botanical Gardens, becomes very important to the two heroes of Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. And I had to find it - now the bench, which was placed their as an endowed object dedicated by a couple of regulars after their death, is of course not marked so I was pleased that I could get advice from one of the ladies at the gate to the gardens off down past Magdalen College, and find the object of my quest. I got several good pictures and had a sit-down to appreciate Oxford, the gardens that are huge, varied, not to be missed, and have been around for hundreds of years, and the writing of Philip Pullman. Hopefully some of the remarks below will tell you what I like about him and his books. Don't fell like you need to read all of the entry below. If you just want an overview, the first two paragraphs will do.

Also, a note for those who like to listen to books as they travel: there are wonderful, full-text productions of all three available on cassette. I've read the books, but also listened several times to all the tapes and each was a rewarding experience. I am also looking forward to a movie or movie series in the not too distant future, as New Line Cinema has optioned the novels. Since they've done such a good job so far on The Fellowship of the Rings, I think both we and Pullman can contemplate their involvement with pleasure rather than fear.

His Dark Materials is about a young girl and her quest for adventure, knowledge, understanding and maturity. In the way of these things, she is also a very remarkable young girl who doesn't know her parents and is being haphazardly raised by the scholars at Jordan, a fictitious Oxford college. She is the only girl there, and one of the few females, the others all being housekeepers or tenders of some sort. Otherwise, as with traditional Oxford colleges up until the mid 20th century, Jordan is full of adult, male scholars. She first learns of a quest for the mysterious substance, Dust, when she and her daemon, an external embodiment of a person's soul, are eavesdropping on a meeting between the scholars and a famous explorer. Lord Asriel. She only knows because he has visited the college before and taken a casual interest in her development. Lyra sees the Master of Jordan College, whom she had looked on as a good man, trying to poison Lord Asriel, warns him, and is then taken into his confidence. However, his comments pique her curiosity about many things such as the church and her own history, which she has heretofore taken for granted. When other children start to disappear into the clutches of the mysterious Oblation Board, she becomes even more curious. One of kidnaped children is her friend Roger, and this spurs her to action. Then she finds out Lord Asriel is her father AND is being held prisoner in the North. She embarks on their rescue, traveling with a group of river-gypsies known as 'gyptians' who are looking for their lost children. The rest of the first novel is full of travel, adventure, rescue and heartbreak for the steadfast and loyal Lyra. With the second and third novels, she matures into a young woman, but with the help of friends like Will, whom she meets in The Subtle Knife, she retains her loyalty and learns to use he many talents. She also learns to see people in all of their complexities. The good people do bad things and the bad people do good things, and she learns that she will always ave to use her own judgment to distinguish actions as well as the character of those around her.

Lyra is one of the sources of fascination for readers of Pullman's series. Two other major interests are the settings in many parallel worlds and the daemons, which start out as avatars possessed by all members of Lyra's world, and, by the third book, are revealed, as is dust, to be part of all sentient beings. It's just that some beings can see daemons or dust, or both, and others can't. Thus both Dust and Daemons become literary devices to create a highly metaphorical picture of human strengths, failings and the human spiritual realm.

This Golden Compass is set in the city of Oxford for the first third of the book and the far North of the planet in the second and last parts. The Subtle Knife is set largely in a world that rests 'between' Lyra's alternative Oxford and our own familiar Oxford, home of the trilogy's second hero, Will. However, Lyra's Oxford is on an alternative earth, with humans whose souls are 'familiars' in the form or animals that live outside the bodies of their human counterparts. Each individual's daemon is closely linked to their human and symbolizes something about their character. At the same time, humans carry on verbal and mental conversations, even arguments, with their daemons, which are usually of the opposite sex and continue to change from one animal to another until the humans pass through puberty. At this point in a person's life, the daemon becomes fixed. When the person dies, it seems to disappear. The first novel follows the perspective of Lyra, first describing her unlikely home, in an Oxford college where the rest of the residents are adult male scholars of various ages. Through her eyes, we first see a few rooms in Jordan College and then the rest of her childhood world in the city of Oxford. The author intended this Oxford to be contemporary with ours, but a parallel world where technology and society have taken a different turn. The city is late Victorian in feel, with few electric (they are called Anbaric') devices available to the general populace and no hint of motorized transport. Steam trains are mentioned but they don't figure in Lyra's travel, which is by foot, boat, steamship and dogsled. Lyra is something of an adventurer who has not been subject to the discipline of a family or a primary school. Her education is spotty, being conducted by whatever junior scholar of Jordan College is available to take her on. This also means that much of the time she is left to her own devices, as one may expect Pullman himself was in his childhood. We thus see the streets, alleys, buildings and colleges from er perspective, but the wealth of detail makes them into a rich background and her adventuresome spirit is the author's excuse for portraying the roofs, dungeons, burial crypts, riverbanks and canals. To anyone who has been to Oxford, many of the descriptions are recognizable. What is missing is railroad stations, modern buildings, including the modern shops and department stores of High and Broad streets, automobiles and all the bustle we associate with contemporary Britain. Those are reflected in Will's Oxford of the second and third books

Soon after the novel begins, Lyra is taken from Oxford to London, to live with her newfound mother, the glamorous Mrs. Coulter. This is also a retrofitted London with a highly stratified social and economic system. Then she escapes from her mother because that same woman is a member of the Oblation Board, a religious institution that steals and harms children. Lyra hooks up with the gyptians, whose children are most at risk and then we are treated to another slice of alternative Britain. Finally, she journey's to north to Lapland with the gyptians hoping to rescue her friend Roger, and Lord Asriel, whom she discovers is her father. This is the device used by Pullman to introduce us to the many other civilizations of this alternative universe who live either in the fens on their boats (the gyptians), in small towns which are reminiscent of the 18-19th century, or in frozen huts in the arctic. Some of the arctic inhabitants are sentient bears whose 'souls' are their metal armor made from meteorites. While the settings begin with the familiar alternative universe Oxford, close to home for Pullman and known to many of his readers as a new city with very old roots and traditions, they become more and more exotic. The canals and fens on which the boat-bound gyptians live are almost like those of central England today, but they are in heavier use because of the absence of most other modern forms of transport. While she is with the gyptians, Lyra is able to observe details surrounding their rituals of decision-making and leadership, obviously developed over long generations of gyptians outcast status, giving the story more historical depth and an even more exotic appeal.

The descriptions of Trollesund, in the far north, evoke those of turn-of-the century Alaskan gold rush settlements as much as they do recognizable Lapland villages of our own far north. One can almost smell the wet mud of the streets and steaming, damp bodies in the public buildings. That these locations, a frozen north Lapland where fish are the major source of food, and where snow covers the landscape for much of the year, and wild Tartars roam around capturing children and killing other intruders, are also strange and frightening to Lyra only adds to the sense of adventure. Then, when she and her gyptians friends travel even further North to Bolvangar seeking the lost children, she is thrust into a familiar situation with a terrible haunting difference. Bolvangar is a remote settlement, boasting only an institution, which is a cross between a boarding school and a hospital. Pullman is able to meld the strangeness of the frozen landscape with the common experience readers have with this sort of concentrated collection of young humans. With an economy of words, he can evoke all the fear and frustrations, as well as the hopelessness that can attend to such settings

Pullman has been very articulate about his intentions for the three books of His Dark Materials. They are to be "A rewriting of Milton's Paradise Lost," for young adults, and the first novel is Lyra's story. In the second, he introduces another focal character and the third novel involves them both in an epic struggle. In this series, the good people, like Lyra and her friends, are on the side of the fallen angels and humans and against the established educational, governmental and religious institutions of her society. Indeed, Pullman has designated Lyra as "The New Eve," whose coming-to-knowledge is essential for the fulfilling, self-determined life of all humans.

When she sets out on her quest, Lyra is eleven years old and doesn't reach the age of twelve by the end of book one. The whole of the story chronicles the transition from innocence to experience, or the 'fall' from the unselfconscious grace of childhood into the self-conscious action of adulthood, but Lyra is still very much a child at the end of the first novel. At the same time, she has gone through several painful rites of passage, beginning with her confusion when the Master of Jordan college tries to poison her 'uncle', Lord Asriel, then gives her a gift from this same man, the precious Alitheometer. She cannot help a great deal of confusion when he insists that she hide it from Mrs. Coulter and doesn't tell her what it is or how to use it. Then she has to learn further distrust the glamorous Mrs. Coulter. Her newfound mother has dazzled her with rich clothes and elaborate social life, but intends to use her to capture children for the sinister 'Oblation Board' to use in their experiments. She discovers that gyptians, whom she had thought of as social outcasts, are really her friends and will help her with her father. She learns that the church, which she has always known as part of her social background, is evolving into an institution that abuses children for their own ends and seeks to keep the majority of people ignorant about the natural and social world so that they can be more easily controlled. She also rapidly learns to place much more trust in her own judgment at the same time as she comes to understand it is not infallible.

One symbol of her unconscious grace, her 'pre-fallen' state, is her ability to use the mysterious Alethiometer, a small, golden mechanical device that is covered with symbols. She learns quickly to sink into a meditative state in order to 'work' the machine, a sort of compass covered with symbols and an arrow pointing to them. She quickly learns it can be used to advise her about other peoples' true character, suggest possible future results of current actions and reveal facts that might not be obvious to anyone, much less a young girl. Another way Pullman has of signifying her innocence is that adult readers will recognize sexual innuendo among the adults, like Mrs. Coulter and her friends, the witches and the gyptians, who surround Lyra, but she herself does not recognize it. By the third novel, she is both aware of and experienced in love and sexuality as young women of about fifteen. Lyra acts independently and creatively throughout the novel, impelled by a strong sense of loyalty and responsibility and able to assess a number of ambiguous social and personal situations without hesitating about her place in the action.

While Lyra and alternative Oxford, as well as several parallel worlds, fascinate a reader for their imaginativeness, probably the most powerful and attractive symbol in this novel is the daemon, followed closely by the bears of Lapland. Pullman describes the evolution of external souls that differentiate Lyra's world from our own from the outset of the novel. This defamiliarizing device did not come with the original idea for the novels, but once he had it, the versatility of such a literary invention, which can also be a symbol for many aspects of individual character and of collective strangeness, became clear. Their symbolic uses, in a technical sense, will be described below. Their thematic value is also interesting. They represent a certain degree of determinism although Pullman resists this interpretation. When questioned, he associated the daemon with essential nature and inborn talent. He said: "The concept doesn't determine outcomes, it suggests a nature. But then that's just a picture of what we are like. We're not all gifted in the same way. . But the things we can do something about still remain within our path."

They also allow Pullman to work with subjectivity, symbolizing puzzling aspects of the human character, as one reviewer notes: "Turning to the question of subjectivity, it seems that the idea of the daemon allows you to explore those facets of a personality that never actually fit. We've been trained to think about the human personality as being unified and coherent and defined and the device of the daemon allow you to shift that concept around a lot." His well-developed concept of maturation is embodied in daemons but they are so engaging that one cannot contemplate adulthood in this society without extreme sadness."

Daemons form an essential thread in the complicated plot. This is another significance of their appearance. While Lyra's innocent adventures in Oxford make for a good story, the author gradually builds up our knowledge of their importance. For example, we follow her lively adventures in the crypts of Jordan College through Chapter Three. We learn that daemons disappear when people die, but in the crypt she finds coins with pictures of daemons on them wedged into the skulls of deceased scholars. When she switches them around, she receives ghostly visitors demanding that she put the coins back in the right places. Thus she and we begin to suspect the daemons, and their humans, still have some connection to the living.

The daemon is such an intimate part of each person's life that Lyra is immediately and inconsolably horrified to find that the Oblation Board is severing some children from their daemons. Thus they become a plot element that impels her actions for the majority of the novel. This intimacy was predicted by the episode with the deceased scholars but is reinforced regularly within the story. For example, she meets a severed boy on the way to Bolvangar and he has adopted a dead fish in exchange for his 'ratter'. She notices that the usurping bear-king, Iofur Raknison, has a human-shaped stuffed toy because he doesn't have a 'real' daemon. To her, this means they she may be able to deceive him as she could not deceive more 'natural' bears like her beloved Iorek.

Pullman's view on original sin is closely linked to this transition from innocence to experience he embodies in Lyra. It is not a simple transition and his message is clearly that many adults fall by the wayside, putting their own desires for power, status and wealth above that of moral responsibility to other humans. He sees original sin as the best thing that ever happened to us, the symbol of our becoming human and the entire three-book story is an attack on the rise of fundamentalist religions, which menace societies all over the world. As he says:

"I think the world today is in some danger of becoming medieval again. The rise of fundamentalist religion, I think, is the most dangerous aspect of late twentieth-century life, whether it is intolerance among Christian or Muslims or Orthodox Jews. I think fundamentalist religion is one of the greatest dangers we have ever faced. And so if there is a source of wickedness in the book, you can place it there. But when institutional religion tells us what to believe, and punishes us for believing something different, then its time to ring the alarm bells. (Scholastic)"

By the time you've finished all three books of Pullman's trilogy, you have entered an adventure worthy of the most accomplished and intelligent. You've also pondered, along with his young heroes, the nature of society, religion, the afterlife, life in other universes, and the complicated process of growing up.

Jan Bogstad
International Editor
Midwest Book Review

Laurel's Bookshelf
Diving Through Clouds
Nicola Lindsay
Dandelion Books
5250 S. Hardy Drive, Ste. 3067, Tempe AZ 85283
ISBN 1893302199, 165 pages, $16.95, paperback

Irish author Nicola Lindsay has accomplished what few writers could. She took an unlikely premise - a departed woman's spirit caught in Limbo - and created a beautiful story. Written in the first person, from the bewildered spirit-woman's perspective, Ms. Lindsay had me hooked from the first line of the first paragraph.

Kate is a fiftyish woman who dies after a long and dreadful illness. At her side when death comes is her flamboyant best friend, Veronica, and her coldly stoic husband, William. Absent from her life is Celia, a daughter who abandoned her parents' sham marriage eight years prior. Kate is definitely dead, but lingers in ghostly form to witness the lives and read the thoughts of those who loved her, as well as those who didn't.

William and Kate shared an almost totally loveless marriage for thirty years.
William hasn't looked at her, REALLY looked at her as a woman, since the early years of life together. Except for a too-brief period of infidelity with the younger Milo, who adored her, Kate's life has been bereft of joy.

With the aid and guidance of her guardian angel, Thomas, Kate hovers in and about the lives of her husband, friend, daughter Celia, and grandson Matt. Over time, Kate begins to understand that before she can progress to what Thomas assures her is a wonderful new place, she must address the awful mess that was her life on earth. Kate works at tying up loose ends, gaining wisdom and insight into the lives of those closest to her. An amazing end is wrought, with William, Milo, Celia and Kate drawn together in their struggle to save a dying Matt.

The beauty and wonder of Diving Through Clouds is experienced in the author's writing. I found myself awed by and envying her skill as wordsmith.
From Kate's self-deprecating humor, her sorrow and anger at revealed secrets, to descriptive passages that help the reader see and feel each scene, Ms. Lindsay's prose is pure, revelatory.

This is a book for adults and mature adolescents. I recommend it.

Spine
F.E. Mazur
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1588515710, 272 pp., $21.95

Spine is serious fiction, well-written to the extent that I had trouble believing the story was not true. F.E. Mazur chose a disturbing subject for his first novel, one that caught and held me to the very last page. As a one-time educator, he seems to write from harsh experience. Who fares better in the current education system, teachers with a spine who hope to make a difference, or those who coast through their days untouched by the chaos around them?

Grayson Lord is the main character of Spine. He's young, attractive, quietly cynical about the school system and quality of learning offered. Gray lives alone, interacts socially on a somewhat superficial level out of choice, and does his best to make English and Literature attractive to his students. With few exceptions, neither his students nor the school administration appreciate Gray's efforts

Gray treasures books and the written word, enjoys a well-crafted joke and drinks with fellow teachers after work. The new school year promises to be like every other, more of the same, until the Aftanas clan moves into the school district. Always the controlled and reasonable teacher-figure, Gray is at first perturbed and then provoked by the horrible behavior of Asa Aftanas. Asa and his equally brutal father share a dark secret from the past, and nothing Grayson Lord ever read or imagined could prepare him for their kind.
There are those who will label Spine a mystery-suspense novel. I consider it mainstream fiction. The teachers, students, administrators, school board members, and parents were realistically portrayed. The language and content were often harsh and profane, much as it is in real life. The futility of teaching those who prefer not to be taught was troubling, but true. The attempted character assassination of a once idealistic man was painful to experience from Gray's perspective. And the murderous Aftanas family was frightening to contemplate.

The subject matter of Spine was not pretty, but Mr. Mazur's writing style made the read worthwhile. This is not a book for children, sensitive adults, or those who like escapist reading. The story posed questions and scenarios that didn't have pat answers. That's why I liked it.

Death by Bad Magic
Violet Towe
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1591298148, 196 pp., $19.95, paperback

In her second novel, Death by Bad Magic, Violet Towe takes the modern world as we know it and transports us to a place where voodoo reigns. Don't expect the hokey sort of voodoo we've all seen in movies. I'm talking REAL voodoo, as it was practiced in the days of ancient Africa.

Sarah Benifield is a twice-married mother of two without so much as a parking ticket when suddenly she finds herself in jail for murder. Sarah's boss is dead, and she's the prime suspect, with two grown children living in another state, an ex-husband who ignores her, and a current husband who coldly turns his back when she's arrested. If not for a sympathetic and supportive lawyer - the best her money can retain - Sarah would be totally alone.

Sarah hires an old friend and private investigator to explore her boss's roots in Louisiana. He calls to say he's found proof that Sarah's boss was murdered, and that Sarah's life is in grave danger. When the judge grants her request to travel out of state, a skeptical Sarah is introduced to voodoo in its highest form. Priest Herbie is a kindly, compassionate master of vodun - good magic. He fears for Sarah and knows her boss was caused to die by an evil bokor - death by bad magic. Vodun serves a good and powerful God, the same God Sarah knows. When Sarah is kidnapped by the evil bokor, Priest Herbie and his followers set out to find her. Accompanied by an odd mix of law officers from Georgia and Louisiana and Sarah's devoted P.I., the powerful priest does battle for her life and spirit. Sarah has been injected with a zombie drug and Herbie is the only one who knows the cure. Deep in the swamps of Louisiana, Priest Herbie and his vodun followers combat evil with good. Sarah is saved. She and every person present are dramatically changed by what they see and experience in the swamp. But that is not the end of it. The Evil Bokor is not done with Sarah, her friends, or Herbie and his family.

I must confess to reading this book straight through. I devoured it, actually. The world of good magic came alive through Ms. Towe's prose. I learned the truth about zombies, the voodoo spirit world and the good God they serve, and how hexed animals are forced to fight on the side of evil.

Make no mistake. Whether it be a powerful vodun priest serving his Bon Dieu, or a devoted Christian serving a beneficent God, our world is torn by good and evil. The author handles this premise well, in an exciting story. I liked the book, and learned a thing or two while reading it.

An Eye for Murder
Libby Fischer Hellmann
Poisoned Pen Press
6962 E. 1st Ave #103, Scottsdale AZ 85251
ISBN 1590580354, 316 pp., $24.95, hard cover

In this first of a three-book series, Libby Fischer Hellman introduces Ellie Foreman. Ellie is a divorced mother with one daughter, a documentary video producer living on Chicago's North Shore. She has an ex-husband who is less than prompt with child support, a gardener she can't afford to pay, and a wardrobe sadly in need of replacement. Still, Ellie Foreman's life is quiet and predictable until a stranger's letter brings mystery and danger into her world. From that point on, Ellie is transformed from everyday woman to dogged heroine.

It all starts out innocently enough. An elderly Ben Sinclair has died, and his landlady finds Ellie Foreman's name among his few possessions. When Ben Sinclair turns out to be Ben Skulnick - Skull for short - and an old friend of Ellie's father, the mystery is born. The situation turns dangerous when Ben's landlady turns up dead and Ellie's home is searched. Ben's belongings are stolen. Who would want a few boxes of musty possessions hoarded by an old man? All that survives are two photographs from the W.W. 2 era. When one of those photos features Lisle, an old lover from her father's past, Ellie thinks the mystery might be worth investigating. The answers don't come easily or soon.

Ellie's mystery is shrouded by time, shadowed by past decades. As one clue is connected to the next, the only ones not on my list of suspects were Ellie, her sixth grade daughter, and Ellie's father. Was the Muslim gardener involved? How about the charismatic political candidate, Marian Iverson? And when Lisle's son, the handsome David Linden, makes his appearance, I suspected him also. The fact that he's a dead ringer for Marian Iverson's dead father enhances the suspense.

As Ellie and her crew film a documentary of Marian Iverson's political candidacy, the plot thickens. In swift order, a young friend of Skull's is shot and hospitalized in critical condition; Ellie's ex-husband disappears, leaving her to face an investment scheme gone awry; her father is mugged; and Ellie is kidnapped by vicious thugs. What do old photographs from the Nazi era have to do with all these happenings? Who exactly was the beautiful Lisle and what was her role in the mystery? What part did the dead Skull play? And is the handsome David Linden appealing lover or up to his snow-white eyebrows in intrigue?

You'll have to read An Eye for Murder to learn the answers. You won't be sorry!

Bronwyn - Book Two
Silk and Steel
Ron Miller
Timberwolf Press
202 N. Allen Str. Suite A, Allen TX 75013
ISBN 1587520664, 251 pages, $14.95, paperback

I didn't have the privilege of reading and reviewing Book One in the Bronwyn Tetralogy.. But if Silk and Steel is any example, I can easily understand why Book One - Palaces and Prisons - won the Silver Fiction Award as ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year in 2001. Book Two is a delight, and now I'm impatiently anticipating Book Three.

Early on, readers learn what the Princess Bronwyn and her fellow travelers faced in Book One as they now seek save haven. The defiant, crusading Princess has been transformed by evil, avaricious men into a fugitive and exile from her own land. Along the way, they come across wonderments of technology. Such wonders serve them well as their odyssey progresses.

Mr. Miller has created fine tuned characters, and the dialog was well-developed, to the point that I felt a part of every conversation. Bronwyn's friends became mine. I desired the changeling Gyven secretly, through her eyes, and trusted him completely. The giant, slow thinking Thud Mollocke protects his Princess with a to-the-death devotion I found quite touching. And the dapper Baron Milnikov, with his monied but fading charms, is sympathetic and supportive in her flight to safety.

The villains at the heart of Bronwyn's troubles are no less intriguing than her friends. The cruel Payne Roelt and equally vicious General Praxx have stripped Bronwyn's people and homeland of almost anything of value. The dim witted accomplice in their schemes is Bronwyn's dullard brother, Prince Ferenc. The pillage of Bronwyn's once prosperous country struck me as a social commentary, played out in a fantasy setting. Roelt and Praxx have created a corrupt state, then pitted it against an equally corrupt Church to gain power and riches. One of Bronwyn's trusted friends is in cahoots with the villains, but I'm not telling who.

Bronwyn is a princess of nubile and maturing beauty. Despite the horrid lot dispensed by enemies, she struggles with the first stirrings of female sexuality. A brief respite in the faerie kingdom brings those reluctant stirrings to a rolling boil in person of Spikenard. Faerie magic briefly traps her in Spikenard's spell. With gently beating wings and trembling antennae, the ever-so-masculine Spikenard attempts to make Bronwyn his. Only Thud's unintended blundering upon the scene prevents a faerie conquest. From that point on, Bronwyn's half forgotten memories of sexual awakening rest heavy in her thoughts. The writer states such feelings eloquently, as Bronwyn thinks she's "gained mastery of some powerful engine, and had no track on which to run it". That engine is not forced to run trackless for long, when Bronwyn and her friends are given sanctuary by the young and handsome Duke Mathias Strelsau.

The enamored Duke Strelsau will do anything Bronwyn asks, and she wants justice. She wants her country back and her brother deposed. She wants Payne Roelt and General Praxx eliminated, by hook or by crook. And she wants it done her way. The blossoming love of the Duke for his Princess, the disappearance of Thud, and an amassing army sets readers up for Book Three. As Bronwyn prepares for armored battle, the reader is left wondering if she and Thud will reconnect. And what of Gyven, left behind at his insistence to save the faerie kingdom? Will Spikenard and his magic join the fray? And who will Princess Bronwyn choose to love?

Whether you are a fantasy fan or not, Bronwyn - Silk and Steel is well worth reading. I enthusiastically recommend it to older teenagers and adults.

=====================================
Interview with Ron Miller:

I wanted to interview Ron Miller, author of The Bronwyn Series, because his skills are varied. Not everything Ron Miller does is writing related.

LJ for MBR: I barely know where to begin with you, Ron. Your accomplishments are many, and your projects-in-progress impressive. Let's start with your books.

I recently read and reviewed Bronwyn: Silk and Steel, which is book two in the Bronwyn Series. I called it fantasy and you labeled it as punk. Elaborate on that definition.

Ron: No, actually I called the series "steam punk". In SF, the term-- which is a take-off from "cyberpunk"--refers to books that are written to be pseudo-Victorian science fiction. That is, the authors are writing as kind of neo-Vernes or neo-Wells. Perhaps the first and possibly most famous of these was a novelette called "The Saliva Tree", which I believe won several awards. "The Difference Engine", a novel by Wm Gibson, is an excellent example of steam punk (written by the author who invented cyberpunk). Although the Bronwyn series is a deliberate tip of the hat to Jules Verne (with lots of in-references to Verne scattered throughout), it is unlike most other steam punk novels in that it includes a strong fantasy element.

LJ for MBR: "Steam Punk" was a new term to me, so thanks for explaining it.

In addition to the Bronyn Series, you've authored other novels, both fiction and non-fiction. When did you begin writing, and give us a rundown of your other books.

Ron: In addition to the Bronwyn series (which is a reissue of a trilogy that was orignally published by Ace about ten years ago, now heavily revised (as well as illustrated) and expanded by the addition of a fourth book), Timberwolf has also published "Bradamant: The Iron Tempest". This is a novel set in 7th century Europe, based on a character from a 16th century Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto: "Orlando Furioso". (I have a small website devoted to the book: http://www.black-cat-studios.com/bradamant/Page_1x.html) I have several other as-yet-unpublished or in-progress novels: A fifth volume in the Bronwyn series (that is very much more science fictional than the previous books), "Velda", a 1950s noirish mystery about a stripper-turned-detective (you can find out all about her here: http://www.black-cat-studios.com/velda/Page_3x.html), "The Conquest of Space", an alternate history novel about what might have happened if the German rocket pioneers of the 1920s had gotten the backing and support they wanted, "Return to Skull Island", a kind of sequel to "King Kong", etc.

I've always enjoyed writing, whether fiction or nonfiction. For instance, I've published dozens of magazine articles. Most of the other books I've done have fallen in the non-fiction category. Some of these are: "The Grand Tour", a traveller's guide to the solar system that I co-authored with astronomer William K. Hartmann, with whom I also did four other space books; "The Dream Machines", a massive, 750-page illustrated history of the spaceship in art, science and literature; "The History of Science Fiction" and "The History of Rockets", which are two young adult books; "Firebrands", a pictorial history of science fiction heroines (for which I did over 100 paintings and SF author Pam Sargent provided a splendid essay); "The Art of Chesley Bonestell", which, I'm delighted to say, won the Hugo for best non-fiction this year; and "Worlds Beyond", a series of ten books about the planets for young adults I've both written and illustrated. There are other books than these, but that gives you an idea. Next year I'll be doing two more young adult books, "The Elements" and "Special Effects in the Movies", as well as coffeetable book about space artist Bob McCall.

LJ for MBR: I'm happy you mentioned winning the Hugo award for The Art of Chesley Bonestell. Your website states you are associated with Bonestell Space Art. Tell us about that.

Ron: Bonestell Space Art was originally started in 1970 by William K. Estler and Bonestell to market a pair of fine art prints they had co- published. As Estler took over more of the management of Bonestell's work, Bonestell Space Art took on a larger meaning. After Estler's death, Fred Durant took over. After Fred's wife passed away a few years ago, he transposed much of the day-to-day management of BSA onto me, which I was glad to do. After the death of Bonestell's widow, Fred obtained all of the rights to Bonestell's work, along with a huge archive of letters, files, memorabilia, records, scrapbooks, albums, etc. This, added to the thousands of photos and slides we already had, has formed the basis for a definitive collection of materials relating to Bonestell's life--which in turn was the basis for the book. All of this material is now kept in a specially-air conditioned room in my house.

In addition to maintaining and upgrading these files (new items come in all the time as Bonestell gets better-known), I also oversee the licensing of reprint rights to Bonestell's work. His paintings are still copyrighted (which many people don't realize) and permission has to be granted by BSA before his artwork can be used--even on websites.

LJ for MBR: Your website mentioned a pet project - Pentizel. Tell our readers about Pentizel, what it is and how near completion it might be.

Ron: Pentizel is a film project I've worked up with Ron Shusett, the writer-producer of Alien, Total Recall and Minority Report. It is about a genetically engineered catwoman. While there is an excellent director associated with the project, there's no news (yet) about backing, though apparently there is some considerable interest. I don't feel free to say much about it since much of this is currently pending.

LJ for MBR: You have quite an impressive resume as illustrator in movies as well as books. You worked as an illustrator on "Dune", consulted on "Contact", and either are or have been the conceptual artist on a film about Mars. Tell us about your work in movies.

Ron: Back in 1983 my wife and I were sitting around wondering where our next cheeseburger was coming from when Tony Masters called from LA and said, "I'm the production designer on Dune. We saw your paintings of Mars in The Grand Tour and thought they looked just like Arrakis. Would you like to come and work for us?" I thought about it for about six seconds and said, "Well, yes!" A month-long probation period ("To see if we like you and you like us") grew into more than a year, where I not only did production illustrations but some production design as well, which was pretty cool. Later, I performed a similar function on the (unmade) Di Laurentiis version of Total Recall. Although I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of both experiences, my film work has been fairly limited. I've done some preproduction stuff for David Lynch, production design for Unified Film Organization films, some matte art and whatnot, my most elaborate involvement in recent years was when I designed and co-wrote "Comet Impact", a CGI show ride film produced by SimEx Digital in 1998.

LJ for MBR: If you could pursue only one branch of your career, which one would it be?

Ron: Interesting question! But since I consider my career to be that of an illustrator-writer, perhaps I'll skirt the question and say that's what I want to do most: be an illustrator-writer. Honestly, however, I enjoy doing both thoroughly--it wouldn't really matter (if I could still make a living!).

LJ for MBR: I'd like to return to an answer that intrigued me. Velda, the 1950's noir novel you mentioned, sounds like a book I'd enjoy. Is it completed and have you found a publisher for it yet? Or did I miss that on the Velda section of your website?

Ron: No, you didn't. The book is completed (in fact there is not only a novel but ten short stories! You can read one of the latter on the ThrillingDetective.com website), but there is no publisher yet.

LJ for MBR: Your career and accomplishments are so striking that this interview could easily go on ad infinitum. I'll end by asking if there is any question you wish I had asked, or if there is any other bit of information you'd like our readers to know.

Ron: Well, my ambitions are for the most part just more of what I'm doing now: I'd like to see all of my as-yet-unpublished novels published--for that matter I'd like to see all of the books in fat book idea file published, I'd like to see Pentizel produced (and speaking of films, there are a dozen classic SF stories and novels I'd like to be involved in the film production of--if anyone in Hollywood would ever have the wits to make them, fat chance), and someday I'd like to found a small press where I would produce small editions of good books finely illustrated by all of my artist friends . . .

LJ for MBR: Thank you, Ron. I appreciate you taking time for this interview. I'll end by reminding readers where they can find your latest book, at www.timberwolfpress.com and find your portfolio and other information at www.black-cat-studios.com.

=====================================
Interview with Carol Adler

Interviewer note: Carol Adler is the CEO of Dandelion Books. I wanted to interview Ms. Adler because Dandelion is a regional publisher with an international reach.

LJ for MBR: I appreciate your agreeing to an interview, Carol. Let's begin with some basic background information. When was Dandelion Books founded?

In November, 2000, I founded Dandelion Books, a full services publishing company as a subsidiary of my new corporation, Dandelion Enterprises, Inc. In August, 2002, Dandelion Books became an LLC, or independent company.

LJ for MBR: What is your philosophy as a publisher?

Our motto, "The Author's Publisher," delivers our philosophy. As a professional writer and editor myself, I feel it is a publisher's duty and responsibility to recognize and honor an author's needs and desires. Writers and artists are often the most neglected members of our society. Traditionally in the food chain of the book industry, the author is paid last. I like to remind book publicists, marketers and distributors who traditionally take the largest chunk of the profits before delivering any revenues to the publisher -- if it weren't for our authors, we wouldn't have any products to sell! Authors are, after all, our raison d'etre.

When I founded Dandelion Books, I determined to change this system. Thus, Dandelion Books honors its authors first. Through our on line on-demand system of promoting and selling our books, we collect our money as soon as a book is sold, and a portion of that money is earmarked as a royalty payment to the author. Also, we don't have "seasons" for a book. A good book does not go out of style. Even books on current events have a historic and academic value several years after they were written.

By the same token, we believe in quality. Over the past four years, I've been watching what I call the "fast food" dot.com vanity publishers that take an author's money, quick-print their books and leave them stranded with products that may not have market value. This is both shabby and unfair.

A manuscript must have market value before we will accept it. This means we believe a substantial number of discriminating individuals will want to read that work. And that leads me to quote our mission statement: "Dandelion Books is committed to producing quality books that are informative, educational, inspiring, entertaining, uplifting or enlightening, using the latest cutting-edge production and delivery technologies."

As a freedom-lover, I am also deeply concerned about censorship issues and practices. Dandelion is committed to making its books available to the general public even if they may be banned or "sandbagged" by personal interest groups or other entities. We are like the dandelion flower that grows everywhere because we celebrate democracy and diversity. I like to compare us to the famous Grove Press that brought forth Lady Chatterly's Lover and Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn after they had been rejected by all the major New York publishers because they were considered immoral, lewd and inferior in quality. Today these books are classics and D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller are hailed as two of the greatest writers of all time.

LJ for MBR: It's clear from that answer, and from the information on your website, that you strive for excellence. For example, you edit the books you accept for publication. That is a rare commodity. Tell us about the editing process with a typical Dandelion Press book.

First, perhaps I should qualify what I mean by "editing for publication." If a book is far from ready, we will advise the author to seek help either through a writing program, a writing tutor or enrollment in one of the many MFA programs in fiction or non-fiction writing. If I personally see extraordinary promise, I will take on that person as a student. Dandelion Enterprises, Inc. includes tutoring services for writers through the "Scheherazade Writing School." I'm also a college English and creative writing instructor with considerable experience. I almost feel I cannot not offer my services to a gifted writer who has a passion to dig into the work that needs to be done in order to bring a book to the point of being publishable. However, let me point out, there is no guarantee that a writer who is tutored by Dandelion will ever produce a book that qualifies for being published by Dandelion. My students know that in advance.

If the work merely needs line editing and most of it is in shape, we will accept it and do the work ourselves. After it is line edited, the author will then proof it and sign off on the changes.

If we feel a work is good, and even exceptionally written, but has little value to a larger readership beyond the author's friends, colleagues and family, we will suggest self-publishing. This will give the author a sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction as well as a product they can share with those who sincerely want to read this book for personal reasons. Dandelion Enterprises, Inc. also has a self-publishing division, Tiger Maple Press, that offers full services for payment by the author, including traditional distribution, if the author is determined to try for bricks and mortar bookshelf space.

A word of caution, however: The author must be prepared to pay a stiff fee to a professional publicist to launch a four-month campaign, or the author must be willing to pay fees for enrolling in a "grunt work" program that delivers all the guidelines to the author for launching the campaign but does little or none of the work. It is not inexpensive to self-publish and market a book through the traditional book industry system -- which is why most of the large, well-established publishers are owned by corporate conglomerates that pick up the tab and probably have already secured business interests in media and trade outlets, to insure the success of their books.

Back to your original question: The editing process for a typical Dandelion Books manuscript. We have no typical manuscripts! Each one is different and is treated as a unique work by the author. Even another work by the same author will be treated individually.

Perhaps it is this personal attention that sets us apart from other publishers as well.

I do not enjoy rejecting manuscripts, but that is part of the business. I can only ask authors to be willing to listen to suggestions and advice. We are not always 100% right in our evaluation - no editorial staff is, and the book industry is replete with stories of "misses" on the part of editors and publishing houses that rejected a book that turned out to be a best-seller or even a classic. But for the most part, we are accurate. We know when a book is ready to be published, and we also are experienced in determining when a manuscript needs more work.

LJ for MBR: You mentioned GoOff.com and I checked out their website. Are you affiliated with them and if so, what is your relationship?

We certainly are! GoOff.com is our new bookstore, which is also the hub website for our affiliates. It is GoOff.com and our network marketing program that makes us the hottest and most exciting publishing company on the planet.

GoOff.com, owned by PMC4, an internet consulting and marketing company. We are "leveraging the true power of the Internet," to quote Larry Kruguer, one of the PMC4 managing partners. "We've put together a web-based, one-click streamlined order operation. Our marketing and sales network is impressive and our promotion campaigns will reach millions of Internet users. Our on-demand printing and fulfillment company even has facilities in the UK and Europe. This will cut down on shipping costs for overseas sales as well."

PMC4 has had many years of experience developing similar delivery platforms and setting up the marketing and promotion for a number of other products and services. It also owns and manages several other corporate, e-commerce, international, portal and content websites.

Dandelion also has a free newsletter, Global News Net, which will have its own website shortly, linked to GoOff.com, where it will be archived. The newsletter has been coming out daily for almost a year and it includes articles by our authors and other reporters who write on the same subject matter of our books. We have a loyal subscription base. Anyone can subscribe: global_news_net_subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

In addition to GoOff.com and Dandelion marketing and promotion campaigns, authors also participate, and reap the rewards. Remember I said we are "the author's publisher". If they don't already have a website, and most of them do, we urge our authors to create a simple one, join the GoOff.com affiliate program and have all their friends, relatives and associates who have websites, do the same. They will then receive royalties for each book sold, plus a commission on each Dandelion Books title, including their own, that they sell through their website.

The order and fulfillment system is seamless and streamlined. One click leads to the print-on-demand company website that prints out the book that is ordered and ships it to the buyer within 48 hours.

Our books can also be found in bricks and mortar bookstores. If a person walks into a bricks and mortar bookstore and the book is not on the shelf, they can order it and have it shipped to them within two to three days, to pick up at the store. or have it drop-shipped to their door, based on bookstore policies. Libraries can order the books from Dandelion and we will have them printed immediately and shipped. We can also handle large print runs for wholesalers, bookstores, mail order catalogs, and other trade outlets. Delivery time for large print runs only takes a couple weeks.

Our books have no "season." They are always available. They are always in print.

Some authors are concerned that their book may be censored or sandbagged by the media other special interest groups. GoOff.com will be known as the website for uncensored truth - for books you may not find elsewhere.

LJ for MBR: Many authors have no idea what to expect when their books are accepted by a publisher. Just as an example, if a book was accepted by you today and was in pristine condition - no editing needed - how long is the process between acceptance and publication with Dandelion?

As soon we sign the contract with the author, we set to work. "No editing needed" is the author's perception. Often the work does need line editing, in addition to proofing. A manuscript, even though pristine, will still have to be proofed several times. The human eye does not catch everything the first, second or even third time around! If the manuscript really is in excellent condition, this process could take two weeks, for a work that is approximately 80,000 - 100,000 words.

When we feel the book is ready, we'll send it to the author for a final proofing. The time it takes for the author to do this proofing will be added into the production quotient.

After we receive it from the author, we will make the necessary corrections and send it off to design. If the cover needs to be fully designed, i.e., if the author does not provide any art work (this is optional. we welcome suggestions from the author) it may take longer for the pdf files to be returned to us for proofing. We can safely say that the entire process will take about three weeks, possibly less. We will proof the pdf files, send them to the designer for corrections and send the corrected pdf files to the author, as a "galley proof." On-demand publishing eliminates former blue-lines or galley proofs, so we use this final pdf file as a substitute.

If the author finds errors, these are corrected by the designer; we should allow about a week for this process, depending on the speed with which the author returns these galleys.

The final pdf files are then electronically transmitted to our on-demand printing company. Within 7-10 days, the book is set up for sales. At that point, GoOff.com downloads the files and sets up the book for sale. They will send out the necessary configuration to the affiliate websites, along with press releases and other promotional materials developed by Dandelion.

It is important to note that it may take amazon.com and other on line bookstores about two weeks to set up a book after it is ready for sale and they have received the files. GoOff.com probably will have the book up much faster, ready for orders.

Thus, the total estimated time from start to finish is about three months, plus bookstore set-up time. Measured against the usual method of book publishing, which delivers a time frame of a year-and-a-half, or 18 months - and then add on a possibly longer delay because of their "seasonal" way of publishing, "we've come a long way, baby!" With this archaic system, by the time a book on current events is ready for publication, it may already be out-dated.

LJ: Your website is quite explicit about submissions, and I encourage our readers to check www.dandelionbooks.net when they have the time. For now, tell us in your own words what qualities you look for in a potential book and who makes the decision to accept or deny.

The author must have something important to say and must say it well, in a voice that is unique. The work must have substance. Our submission form is a valuable part of the evaluation process.

Questions include: What is this book about? Why did you write it? What does this book mean to you? What do you think it would mean to your readers? Who are your readers -- who is your target market? How would you help to promote the book?

In other words: what does the author intend to express or deliver to the reader? And, according to the author's perception, who is that targeted readership? After all, the readers and not our authors, are the focus for this work.

Often an author becomes so self-absorbed in the process of writing, it becomes a power trip or an opportunity for self-aggrandizement. The reader does NOT want to know how clever the author is and the reader does NOT consider the author's life or the information the author is imparting, exciting, inspiring or significant, unless the reader can identify with it in some way.

Using these questions and this system of evaluation as a filter, the process of acceptance or rejection becomes straightforward.

An author frequently forgets two important factors: The reader, and the marketplace. Art for art's sake is wonderful and I'm a supporter of solipsism if it is joyful and self-fulfilling for its practitioners. By the same token, I'm running a business and I have to make sure our books will sell. That means they will be inspiring, informative, educational, uplifting or enlightening to their readers. There's the Dandelion mission statement once again. I also need to make sure there is a market niche for each book we accept.

For example, are many people hungry for books about death and loss, loneliness, grief, despair, job loss, career change, relationship issues, terrorism, powers that may be controlling their lives that they may not be aware of? You bet! Do people want to be better lovers, partners, employers, employees, parents, entrepreneurs? Do they want information that is not available to the public through mainstream media? Do they want their lives to be richer, fuller, more enjoyable. successful? Do they want to be lifted out of the mundane into the world of fantasy, humor or the bizarre? Books on these subjects are winners. if they provide fresh information in a new way. In the advertising world the buzz word is "sizzle." I'd like to add, ".if the author's heart and soul are in the work. That is something you simply know when you read it, and is perhaps the most important criteria of all.

By the same token, do readers want to know about Eunice Campbell's trip to Egypt, where and what she ate, whether the fish was fresh, whom she met from her hometown by coincidence, and what she saw? Do they want to read about the channelings of Madame Booboo in a past life, telling them she was the second wife of the third pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty? Do they want to know how clever Susan and Harry's grandchildren are, what their first words were and at what age their first teeth started coming in?

The most important question we ask when reading sample chapters and reviewing submission forms is "So what?"

If the author can provide an answer to that question, we know we have a work that may have potential for a readership, and for a specific market.

Ultimately, I make the final acceptance or rejection decision; thus I take full responsibility for a book that doesn't sell well. First, however, the work will have been read by a number of other editors - and readers. I consider myself skilled in this area because I've discarded - trashed -- so many of my own manuscripts. I've lost count how many! I'm hard on myself. The "so what" question is a big one for me.

LJ for MBR: You've provided some excellent guidance for authors with your answers, Carol. Before I bring your interview to an end, is there any question you wish I had asked, or any information you'd like to share with our readers?

Thank you, Laurel, for excellent questions. I'd just like to make sure that authors know Dandelion is there for them. We are not a large, cold-hearted group of individuals who are standing in judgment of them! After all, we are writers and artists ourselves. We celebrate writers, and sincerely wish to nurture their passion to write.and get their works published.

Laurel Johnson
Reviewer/Interviewer
Midwest Book Review

Shirley's Bookshelf
Stir Crazy With Insects & Animals: 20 Stirring Recipes For Children
Lily Erlic, BA
SynergEbook
1235 Shoals Rd., King, NC 27021
ISBN# 193154011X, 45 pages, CD-Rom $8.99 - Download $5.00, http://www.synergEbook.com

Do you want a book that is not only entertaining for your child but also a learning experience? If you do,
Stir Crazy With Insects & Animals is the book for you.

A cookbook with a new twist is what you will find inside the pages of this delightful children's book. Recipes for delicious treats such as Alligator's Alphabet Soup, Cabbage Butterfly Fritters, and Daddy Longlegs Pancakes can be found.And let's not forget the special birthday Cheetah cake. Sure to delight any child and adult as well! The book includes recipes for muffins and breads, dips, soups and cakes. Each recipe will bring a giggle to your child and a yummy from their tummy!

The author contributes useful information for each insect or animal that the recipe is named after. Did you know there was a butterfly that is actually drawn to the smell of cabbage leaves? Interesting! She includes kitchen safety and sanitary tips and activities that can be done corresponding with different recipes. I tried the Daddy Longlegs Pancakes with my granddaughter. Carefully we placed the licorice candy around to make our Daddy Longlegs breakfast complete.We even added a few dots of syrup to make some eyes, a nose and a smiling mouth. Great fun! Tickling to the tummy!

If you want a book that is educational and also a sharing experience with your child, this is the one for you. I highly recommend Stir Crazy With Insects & Animals!

The Rake's Reflection
Lesley Ann McCleod
Awestruck Ebooks
ISBN# 1587493446, Download $4.75 - Diskette $8.95, 10 Chapters, http://www.awe-struck.net

Is it true that fate plays a hand in how our life will be? Why did Miss Tyninghame decide to travel to London and stay with an old friend of her late fathers, whom she had never met! And was it really the fourth earl of Torgreave who extended this invitation to the beautiful Delia? I will tell you that was not so. Who then wanted her presence at the estate and why?

Arriving Delia is met by the fifth earl, Rupert Manningford who is anything but delighted to see her. Trying to reform his own life, and his relationship with his brother, he is not happy to have house guests, especially since he did not invite them. However, as he looks into Delia's face he sees his own. How could this be possible? Who was this woman that appeared on his doorstep and why was there such a strong resemblance to himself. Forbidden love begins to bloom between young Delia and Rupert, but can it ever be allowed to grow? They must find the answers, even if the truth breaks their hearts. You will hope their love is not in vain!

The Indentured Heart
Barbara Raffin
AweStruck Ebooks
ISBN# 1587493713, $4.95 download $8.99 diskette, 28 Chapters, http://www.awe-struck.net

How does a man feel when he is forced into indentured service for a crime he did not commit?

Looking ahead to fourteen years of his life being stolen from him ,at the sound of a Judge's gavel, would produce horror in any heart! I shudder at the thought! Royce Devlin is that man and this is his story.

Set in 1770's, in the Americans; It is here that Royce is bought by Megan McCall, the daughter of the late Shea McCall Shipbuilder and Plantation owner.
As the story goes, you soon find that Megan is crippled from a carriage accident. Not only was her physical body injured, but her emotional one as well; as she harbors the pain of the loss of her husband Peter Tallmadge and the child that grew within her.

Meagan is not sure why she bought Royce's ownership papers. Was this man the evil pirate that is penned about him, or the innocent victim of circumstances that he says he is?

Since the disappearance of her Father and his presumed death, and the untimely death of her brokenhearted Mother, Meagan is in danger of losing Hillhouse. She is determined to make a go at keeping her home . Deeply in debt, Megan desperately needs to sell the ship that is being built by her own specifications. But there is a sinister plan in place to undermine her success. Who is behind this plan and will Megan lose her life at their hands? That is their hope. But why? And what part does her hired hand Toombs and Peyton Little, the man who asked her hand in marriage, have in this saga? Are they friend or foe?

What really happened the night of her accident and who really is Royce Devlin, and what connection does he have with the lady who is willing to buy Meagan's ship? The questions never stop coming!

Share the emotions as Royce heals Meagan's lifeless limps and broken heart, only to be rejected at first, by a love he never wanted to feel!

Secret after secret is whispered in this novel by Barbara Raffin, as she brings two wayward souls together in a mishap love, hate relationship.Finally joining them together to battle the forces of evil afoot. You are not sure who the villains are until the very last. I know I never guessed! As the secrets unfold, you may find yourself gasping, as I did at the answers to so many questions.

I'll tell you this much, there is a happy ending, but not before you are taken on a ride of mystery and suspense! Good read!

Renegade
Judy Gill
Awestruck Ebooks
ISBN# 1587493403, Downloads $4.75, Diskettes $8.95, 10 Chapters, http://www.awe-struck.com

Have you ever dreamed of romance high on a mountain top, with a man who would be every woman's fantasy? Imagine being swept away in his passion under the star-lite night ,as the crisp mountain air causes you to cling tighter to the one you love. Breathless, your heart beats in anticipation of the love you are about to share.

Renegade, a Contemporary Romance novel by Judy Gill, will allow you to taste this fantasy and more. . Walk with Jacqueline and Renny Knight as they journey to find the love that was always there, but never allowed to surface. Come into the mystery of Jacqueline's life and try to discover why she so carefully guards her past.

Married for a brief time, for reasons that would profit both; they had gone their separate ways, until Renny Knight returns to the mountain and the woman whom he cannot get out of his mind? Why? He had to know!

Jacqueline knew Renny could never commit, and the pain she had felt when he left the first time, she did not want to feel again. Why had he returned, what did he want from her? She struggles with her emotions for the man she knew would never be hers, or so she thought! Renny Knight has a secret too, one that is far different from Jacqueline's. Why could he not shake her from his mind? His heart? Could this be love that was stirring in his being? And if it was, how could he ever convince Jacqueline, that he would be hers forever.

Renegade, a story of love and mystery. Settle back, kick your shoes off and enjoy this story of two hearts, searching for what the other has, searching to become one.

Blood In My Hairspray
Steven Schreibman
1st Books Library
2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington IN. 47404
ISBN 1403326150 , $4.95 - Ebook
ISBN 1403326169, $12.50 - Paperback
ISBN 1403326177, $21.50 - Dustjacket
277 Pages, 1-800-839-8640, http://www.1stbook.com

Meet Damian Shtup, owner and proprietor of Shtup Shtop The Beauty Shop in New York. Damian Shtup is a gay man who does not hold back on his opinions of all those who come in contact with him. Growing up with parents who decide to ignore his alternative sexual preference, Damian strikes out on his own, making his way through different situations, he finally goes to Beauty School, meets his future employees, Muff, Rosemary, and Girl From Canada, and decides to open a beauty establishment which caters mainly to New York's Mafia wives.

Mr. Schreibman uses a great deal of satire in this novel, in the development of his character Damian Shtup. Do you love him or hate him? I'm still not sure! The novel twists this way and that way as Mr. Shtup becomes a target of a stalker following the accidental death of Mrs. Marinara, a Mafia wife, in his shop. A shrunken horse's head on the end of a comb to spewing blood from Damian's hairsprays become the beginning of a mysterious adventure for Damian.

Many other facets are interwoven in this story. The discontentenment of parents over their child's choice of a gay lifestyle, Damians own insecurities as he seeks counseling from Dr. Scrotum, who by the way is not all you think he is. Officer Tiernan, who has a hidden agenda in his life besides protecting the good people of New York, and Damians social connection with Officer Edgar Ramirez. Let us not forget his association with Marjorie Higganbotham from General Foods Information Hot Line, nor his three employees who somehow keep Damian within normal limits. Each one of these characters is played upon by the author giving the reader a chuckle along the way. None are what Society would call normal, but each somehow fits into Damians lifestyle.

Damian goes through many situations as he and Officer Ramirez try to solve the mystery of his stalker. Why would someone want to stalk Damian Shtup and who could it be? Their identity will surprise you, believe me!

I believe if there is a downside to this novel, it would be dishonor given to Catholic Priests and I do feel that this book could be offensive to those of the Christian faith. I would not recommend it for Christians to read. However, Mr. Schreibman is a talented writer and Blood In My Hairspray is well written, humorous, and mysterious at the same time. Not all books are for all people, for some it would be a great read of satire and mystery. For others it would be offensive. That choice is up to you!

Tales From A Texas Christmas Tree Farm
Darrell Bain
SynergEbooks - 1235 Shoals Rd., King, NC 27021
ISBN# 1744302471, CD-Rom $8.99 - Download $5.00, 77 Pages, http://www.synergEbook.com

When I first received this book, I was not particularly looking forward to the read. After all, how exciting could a book be about a tree farm? I sat down to do my duty as a reviewer, however, I was in for a delightful surprise.

Darrell Bain took me on a journey of continual giggles, as he told the tales of their Christmas Tree farm. Who would have ever thought that there could be so much adventure found there? Not I! He tells you, in a fun way, the different aspects of tree farming and I was intrigued. I thought, as you probably do , that all you had to do was plant that seedling and sit back and let nature take it's course. That my friend is far from the way it is. The author tells you of uneven rows of trees, fighting the various insects, the problems of unwelcome weather changes, and the trimming of bottom branches, so you the buyer, can fit that beautiful tree that nature grew, into your stand. Who would have ever guessed? And this is only a few of the many challenges they face.

The saga continues as he relates stories of children being used to stand guard at a chosen tree, pets that were turned loose to run in the country, never to be seen again; as they made their way into the surrounding woods, that contained gators and other various wildlife. Double shudder! You receive a hardy chuckle over the story of the success of Betty's plum butter, that has made a hit among the customers and the constant answering of the same questions,about their business, year after year, after year! Perhaps a recorded message would help?

If you want a joyful Holiday read, this is the one for you! It might just make you glad for the profession that you have chosen! A must read before you venture out to a Christmas Tree Farm this Holiday Season! Great job Mr. Bain!

=====================================
Interview with Holly Huber - illustrator of "Rush, Rush, Stop!"

SynergEbooks
1235 Flat Shoals Rd., King, NC 27021
ISBN: 1-931540-76-4, Download $5.00 CD-Rom PDF - $8.99, http://www.synergebooks.com, 15 pages

Thank you Holly for allowing me to do this interview with you.

I have to say from the onset of this interview that I love your illustrations. You are very talented. Would you please tell us how long you have been an illustrator, if you have always been interested in drawing and if it is something you do as a full time job or just part time.

A: I have been illustrating for some 10, 11 years now. I have been drawing from the time I was a little kid. My parents were very supportive of my work. I work full time as an illustrator and as a teacher. Teaching allows me the time to do my illustration work and to show my students the different possibilities for jobs in the art field.

That's great Holly. In Ms. MacDonald's book "Rush,Rush,Stop!", how did you get the idea of what Amelia should look like? Did you work with the author, or were you allowed to develope her character's look on your own?

A: Margaret was wonderful to work with. She gave me full freedom to work out the illustrations for the book. The character I created for Amelia was patterned after my daughter when she was younger. Full of piss and vinegar and often running into walls.

Hee! Hee! Sounds like a few people I know myself Holly...Hum! Maybe that's me I'm talking about! Now, many artists have different ways they receive their work. When you are about to bring a character to life, does it come to you quickly or must you think about it for a while. I really like your style. Did you take lessons, or is your talent a gift?

A: Hard question to answer-some take a while and others just create themselves. Amelia created herself. I have several degrees in art, but I would like to think that there is a bit of a gift too. lol

I agree Holly, I think you truly have a talented gift within you!

Holly, lets ask some set questions here. Do you charge a set fee for illustrating a book, share in the royalties or work each job payment out with the individual authors?

A: Each author is different and so are the various publishing houses. Some are flat fees and other royalties and still others are a combination of both.

I am sure many of our readers would like to know, are you available to illustrate if our readers are
seeking such services?

A: Sure I will illustrate for most anyone, however, authors should check and see what their publisher's wishes are first.

That is great. I am sure once authors see your excellent work, you will be receiving calls from many wanting your talent! What advice would you give to a budding artist that longs to see their work come alive?

A: Get used to people telling you thanks, but no thanks, and keep on submitting.

Thank you for bringing up that point, that even illustrators must learn the pain of rejection!

Tell us, do you feel it is necessary for an artist to take art lessons?

A: Everyone gets lessons in some form or another, be it formal education or self-taught. It's like learning a computer program, you can have someone show you or read the manual. I prefer to have someone show me--tis faster.

Q: Some of our readers may like to know if you can do Portrait art? Please forgive me for not knowing the correct term, I am speaking of someone sitting in front of you, and you drawing them.

A:You got the term correct--and yes I do.

Q: Do you ever feel frustrated when you have an idea in your head as to how a character should look and are not able to draw it as such, or are you always able to bring your characters to life as you envision them?

A: When I was younger I could get frustrated with my work, now it's just my sex life that frustrates me.

Holly, I think I will not comment on the last of that answer! LOL!

Tell us please, how many children's books have you illustrated? Do you find most authors will give you the liberty to present their characters as you see them, and if not do you find it difficult to bring their vision to life?

I have illustrated 3! All the authors I have worked with have been wonderful and have given me full artist freedom so I really can't answer your second question.

Is there any other place that we may see your wonderful art work, other than Rush Rush Stop!?

A: Folks can go to my web site or look up The Santa Fe Tarot Deck on line (it's all over the net), or Green Knight Publishing had me do a number of illustrations (don't know if those are posted on line however), along with a number of other outfits on line. However, most everything I've done for folks is posted on my site.

Do you feel publishers are hard to work with? And do you send out portfolio's to publishers for future reference or do you just wait until an author asks you to do the work?

A: Some are, but for the most part, no. Both. But mostly publishers, as they are the folks that do the paying.

Authors are often frustrated by the many rejections they receive from publishers. Does an illustrator go through the same type of rejection?

A: Yes, one needs to learn the word no.

We have all heard the term 'starving artist'....with that in mind, do you feel there is enough work out there to support a person financially? Tell us, do you write as well as illustrate?

A: Yes, but you have to hustle! No, I do not write!

I'm sure this would be of interest to our readers. Do you have to copyright your work and have
you ever experienced anyone trying to steal it or use it without your permission?

A: I have common law copyright on everything I do. The publisher takes care of the rest. I really wish someone rich would try and steal my work!!

Hee! Hee! You are a Jewel Ms. Holly Huber! Articulate and imaginative! I can see why your illustrations are so alive!

One final question. As an artist what would be the greatest fulfillment of your life?

A: Winning the lottery!!

AND THE BEAT GOES ON!

I want to thank Holly Huber for this interview. She made me smile and I'm sure she did you too. Check out her art work, you will find one very talented lady. You can visit her web site at http://www.hollyhuber.com

Good luck to both Margaret MacDonald and Holly Huber!

=====================================
Interview with Alison Keehn - Associated Editor, Barefoot Books

Barefoot Books
3 Bow Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02143
http://www.barefootbooks.com
Producers of Children's picture books and anthologies of folktales and poetry.

Alison Keehn - As Seen Through A Child's eyes!

Hello Alison! Thank you for taking the time to give us this interview. I would like to say, that I found Alison to be one of the friendliest and kindness Editors I have ever had the honor to work with. I hope you all will enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Q: Please tell us what your job description is.

A: I acquire picture book and anthology manuscripts for publication and hire freelance illustrators to illustrate manuscripts. I work with artists and authors at all stages of book production to make the books the best they can be. I proofread all of our books, Americanize our UK manuscript acquisitions, and do anything else it takes to create beautiful books and help them to make their way into the hands of children.

Alison, that is a great responsibility and one I am sure is very rewarding when the finished project is set before you.

Q: Please explain how your company was started, what is the vision behind it and how long you have been a part of that vision.

A: Our company was founded in England by Tessa Strickland and Nancy Traversy in 1993. They have 7 children between them. I have been part of Barefoot mission for 2 years.

This is what they say about the company:

Barefoot Books is an independent children's publisher dedicated to creating better books for children. After nine years of publishing, we have a reputation for producing some of the finest picture books in the world. From small beginnings - we started the company from our respective homes in 1993 with no staff - Barefoot has grown into a robust international business with a team of 28 working out of busy offices in the UK and the USA.

Our mission statement:

At Barefoot Books, we celebrate art and story with books that open the hearts and minds of children from all walks of life, inspiring them to read deeper, search further, and explore their own creative gifts. Taking our inspiration from many different cultures, we focus on themes that encourage independence of spirit, enthusiasm for learning, and acceptance of other traditions. Thoughtfully prepared by writers, artists and storytellers from all over the world, our products combine the best of the present with the best of the past to educate our children as the caretakers of tomorrow.

Barefoot Books sounds like a wonderful company, bringing the children of the world closer together.

Q: Let me ask you this. When you get a submission, what exactly are you looking for in that child's book? Is it the writing style, the illustrations or the gleam that you know will be in a child's eye when he reads it? What is the first thing you look for?

A: Honestly, when I am reading a children's book manuscript, I am looking to fall in love. Whether that is with a unique idea, with a character, with an exceptional style of writing, with accompanying illustrations - it doesn't really matter. If I fall in love with any one of those things, then I will be willing to at least work with a manuscript, to see if it can become a book. Always, though, I am looking to fall in love with a book from that child's place within me - that place that gets excited about seeing the world in a imaginative new way that speaks to a child's experience.

But on a less emotional level, I often read with this question in mind; "Is there something remarkable about this story or this artwork?" So, I guess you could say that I am looking for something remarkable that will appeal to children.

The first thing I look for is originality. If there is something unique about the idea proposed in the query, or, if it is a picture book manuscript, if there is something unique in the story or the way it is told. Today, my interns and I calculated that we receive over 10,000 manuscripts a year. And oftentimes, I feel as though I am reading the same story over and over again. Therefore, I am always looking for something different from the crowd - something that feels fresh and alive - that I haven't heard before.

There you go authors, Alison could not have made it any clearer what she is looking for! Thank you Alison.

Q: Now, with that in mind, what will totally turn you off in a query?

A: When an author has obviously not researched Barefoot Books and what we publish.

Q: Do you have a set number of books you publish per year?

A: Not a set amount, but we really try to publish about 30 books a year.

Q: What age group do you target or is it a mixture?

A: We target ages 0 to 12, but, many of our anthologies are enjoyed by Young Adults and Adults too. We do not publish chapter books or novels.

Q: I see by reading your submission policy that you try to blend cultures from all over the world. Could you explain this more fully to us please?

A: I would describe Barefoot Books as a cross-cultural publisher. That means that we look for stories told by storytellers and artists from different cultures all over the world. But we look for timeless stories that can be understood by children anywhere, so that they can help educate and expose the children to different cultural traditions. We also publish folktale anthologies and poetry collections that feature stories and poems from all over the world, all centered around one theme. Reading these collections can give children the sense of "Wow! There are so many different cultures and story traditions. But still, we all have similar themes in our stories and poems. We are different, but alike as well!"

Q: That is truly wonderful Alison. Please tell me, do you have a line of books with accompanying story in song, I believe this is starting to really be a popular area. If not, do you plan something like this in the future?

A: We are publishing three books this season which come with Audio CD versions of their text in song-form. In essence, they are Book + CD packages. I definitely think we will be publishing more of these types of packages in the future.

Q: Where can we purchase your books?

A: People can purchase our books at bookstores - chain stores and independent stores -some gift stores and museum stores. They can also purchase our books online at our website, http://www.barefootbooks.com or from another online site like

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