Fusenews: Cephalawesome

• On the theatrical front, lots of news from PW’s Children’s Bookshelf caught my eye (how could it not?) but this piece was particularly interesting:

"London’s National Theatre has produced several works for children over the years, most notably Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and Jamila Gavin’s Coram Boy (which transferred to Broadway). Now comes word that Terry Pratchett’s YA novel Nation will be an NT production in November. Nation , about two children from different cultures coming of age on a desert island, is being adapted for the stage by Mark Ravenhill, a playwright best known for such controversial works Shopping and F***ing and Mother Clap’s Molly House. He has also written plays in the National’s Connections program of work for young people." 

I love the idea of an adaptation, but was I the only one who read the playwright’s other works and was reminded of Troy McClure?  "Hi!  My name’s Mark Ravenhill.  You may remember me from some of my earlier plays like Shopping and F***ing and Mother Clap’s Molly House."  It’s like keeping Phil Hartman alive.  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the information.

• 2009 Books I Want: Lucy Long Ago: Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From by Catherine Thimmesh.  Though honestly, after reading Team Moon she could write a book about small inarticulate rocks and I’d still want to read it.  Thanks to Chasing Ray for the heads up.

• Harry Potter fans have The Leaky Cauldron.  Twilight fans have The Twilight Lexicon, or whatever the heck it is.  What do Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans have?  Just a query for a cold day.  In the meantime, enjoy looking at this glimpse into Jeff Kinney’s notebook, which shows how he gets and "organizes" his ideas for Wimpy Kid books.  Mind slowly boggling.  Thanks to Mishaps and Adventures for the link.

• Editor Cheryl Klein needs your help.  She will sometimes give a talk called The Art of Detection: One Editor’s Tips for Revising Your Novel.  Now she’s been hired to write an article based on the talk and she needs feedback.  Your feedback.  Says she: "If you’ve read the talk, have you tried any of the techniques? Did any of them seem particularly helpful, or NOT helpful? Anything I should push further? Drop altogether?"  If you’ve a mind to, let her know your thoughts here.

• Daily Image:

The first few comments on this site are fairly inane, but I did like the person who said of it, "I’m stuck between ‘WOW!’ and ‘HEATHENS!’."  It’s a site of collected photographs where books are used above and beyond the whole "reading" thing.  Here are just two or three images.  You’ll need to seem them all, though.

Thanks to Kate and Duane for the link.

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