Fusenews: A Single Solitary Unfortunate Event

Huge news coming at you two days late.  We knew that Harper Collins was in trouble, but I never suspected that they’d take it out on Bowen Press.  Yet according to Galleycat "the publisher decided to close Bowen Press. The press’ founder, Brenda Bowen, has departed from the company."  Arg!  They were just getting off the ground.  They had a lovely little blog.  Things were clicking!  This Publishers Weekly article says more about it.  As someone who had just picked up a Bowen Press book to read next (The Year the Swallows Came Early) this depresses me but it isn’t terribly surprising considering the scary news we’d heard rumored earlier this week.  Still.  Narf.

• From Cynopsis Kids, we see that Gaiman has just nabbed Lemony Snicket’s collaborator:

Sure the movie adaptation of author Neil Gaimen ‘s graphic novel Coraline opened last Friday, but this spring the story will also debut as a musical in New York City, per the Playbill.com.  A MCC Theater production, 9-year-old Coraline will be played by adult actress Jayne Houdyshell.  With a book by David Greenspan and music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt, Coraline the musical goes into previews on May 7 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, where it will run through June 20.

• Though there are many many impressive interviews on The Brown Bookshelf this month, the one with Pat Cummings particularly caught my eye.  This is because I once ran into Ms. Cummings at an Authors Guild event.  Which is to say, I didn’t run into her at all.  I endeavor to explain.  The event was held in one of New York’s social clubs and I knew only one person there in total.  It was one of those awkward situations where you stand on the side of the room and think about striking up conversations with strangers and isn’t that the most fun in the whole world?  Two women started up a conversation next to me and I had several moments where I thought about jumping in.  I didn’t.  Later I discovered that one of the women was Pat Cummings.  Ipso facto, she is now "the one that got away".  I’ll talk to you someday yet, dearie!

• Kudos to author Laurel Snyder for bagging an intro.  Ms. Snyder is proud to announce that she’ll be providing the intro to the new edition of E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It.  Makes me ponder my dream intros and what books I’d love to precede.  Some Edward Eager, certainly.  From the public domain point of view I wouldn’t mind doing fellow Nesbit title The Phoenix and the Carpet.  Dunno.  It’s not a easy choice, certainly.  Thanks to Shaken & Stirred for the link.

• Sort of a non-story.  The New York Times has only just now realized that the Scholastic Book Club sells things other than books.  Certainly it’s a little disheartening to read the part that says that, "14 percent of the items were not books, while an additional 19 percent were books sold with other trinkets like stickers."  But I can’t say as I’m too terribly surprised.  It was headed that way when I was a child.  In a bit of a twist, they actually end with a more than intelligent statement from a school principal named Naomi Kirkman who, as far as I can ascertain, also finds this a bit of a non-story.  "I would prefer that they only have reading material in the catalogs, but it’s just one piece of a child’s life . . . My hope is that parents are able to filter out what they think is inappropriate for their children.”  Bookninja has a different take (and children of his own, which is key).

• I would like to nominate a blog post for Best Written and Titled Post of the Year.  And I would like it to go here.  Argue the point with me if you like.  It will not budge in my estimation.

• Daily Image:

I owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Susanna Williams for introducing me to the site Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos.  I figured that it would consist of images I’d seen before, but this is by no means the case.  From the terrific to the horrific, this site has it all.  Lemony Snicket tats.  Harry Potter quotes.  Some are even heartbreaking.  The only image I’ll include here, however, is a useful tat that every children’s librarian could find a use for.

It’s in the wearer’s own handwriting.  Teaching letters couldn’t be any easier.  Nor could figuring out the whole u-v-w-x bit of the alphabet (that’s the sequence I have to run through when shelving).  Thanks again to Susanna Williams for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews