Fusenews: An Increase in Little Blue Guys is Always a Good Thing

• I was invited to a lovely little Terry Pratchett lunch yesterday, in celebration of his upcoming fall release YA novel Nation.  Got into an interesting discussion with my boss when I returned over whether or not the book could also be considered children’s.  Technically there’s no sex or much in the way of swearing (foul-mouthed parrots and their old-fashioned dirty mouths aside).  We eventually decided, however, that since it is a coming of age tale, that technically shoots it outside the old 0-12 age set.  I highly recommend it just the same.  If I had to read a YA novel, this was the one for 2008 (Little Brother fans may now pelt me with stinky fish in response).  In any case, my mission at this lunch was clear since my mother had charged me with this question not long ago: Will there be another Wee Free Men book?  Over a flan sporting a spoon made entirely out of sugar (the restaurant was named 8 1/2 but I saw no evidence of Fellini’s influence at the time) I asked and found out that Mr. Pratchett does believe that he will be able to write the final Wee Free Men installment.  So there you go, mom.

• Speaking of Wee Free Men, I don’t know what this says and I don’t care.  Quite simply, it is awesome.

• Oh goody, goody, goody!  Christmas came early this year, kids.  Editorial Anonymous is talking about morals in children’s literature!!  Whoopie!  Of course I only read pieces on other peoples’ blogs in the vain hope that I will encounter the word "sociopaths" at some point.  Often I am disappointed, but not today!  My favorite line then was, "Children do not become sociopaths –nor avoid becoming sociopaths– because of the books they read. A million times more powerful in the shaping of a child’s moral outlook is (a) their brain chemistry and (b) the example their parents set for them."  I myself am a fan of moral ambiguity, something I tend to look for in kids books’ villains. 

• Yes, I am a nerd.  But I also have a kind of OCD personality when it comes to addictive things.  Not reading, though.  I don’t actually believe it’s addictive.  I can quit anytime I want!  Honest!  No, things like the Sid Meier game Civilization, brownies in the house (I just can’t have them around or I eat them all), Facebook/Friendster/MySpace (Goodreads apparently doesn’t count), and online gaming.  Which is the sole reason why I am NOT creating a character at the Elfish Gene website.  A clever idea, though.  Get people to create characters for something that is essentially a tie-in for your book (in this case, a Dungeons and Dragons memoir).  I scout eternally for interesting marketing.  One Mr. Mark Barrowcliff gets today’s award.  Thanks to Galleycat for the link.

• Hornbooks.  Sexy sexy hornbooks.  Would I kid you?

• Daily Image:

Oh good.  Now I have something to complement that truly horrific elf ears posting I linked to the other day.  This week’s crazy trend?  People who manga up their eyes. 

I actually knew a girl in college who looked like this naturally.  Then she moved to Japan.  This is true.  Wonder whatever happened to her…  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

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