Tag Archives: Peter S. Beagle

Published: September 17, 2010

Fanmail Q&A: YA Recomendations

Hello, Pat!

Today, my 10-year-old daughter, Becca, came home from school with a book pressed to her nose. This is nothing unexpected; she’s been addicted to books for nearly as long as she’s been able to speak!

But today, I had a little smile when I noted the title that she’d selected from her school’s library: “A Wrinkle In Time.”

I recently read your blog post about your early experience with the book, and it gave me pause to think. I had one of those thoroughly “mom” moments, suddenly picturing my redheaded, freckle-faced, bespectacled, skinny 10 year old as a grown-up with a career!

I hope I don’t sound dreadfully stage-momish when I say that I’ve long guessed she would end up being a writer. She thinks differently from other kids. She’s never been afraid of spiders or robbers, instead, her real-life fears include the concept of infinity and people one day traveling at the speed of light. Many nightmares over the size of the universe. She’s bizarre, but pretty darned cute, so it balances. ;)

(Editor’s note: She is pretty cute.)

Writing all that down probably seals her fate as a future tax accountant!

So, here begins my question to you… She’s read all of the usual suspects for children at her age, including Harry Potter and the Narnia series. She also spent a whole month reading every BabySitter’s Club book she could scrounge up! (She is a little girl, after all!!)

But finding books that really challenge and appeal to her as a voracious reader has been a years-long sprint to stay ahead of her curiosity! She adores fantasy, but a LOT of fantasy novels are just too sexual, or too violent for her, at this age.

I’ve loved your recommendations of books over the years, and I wonder if you could think of a list of books that little budding geeks would adore? …a geekery primer, as it were.

Thank you so much for sharing your time and talent with the world.

-Carrie

Well Carrie, I won’t lie to you. You do sound slightly stage-mom. But at least you’re aware of it. Knowing is half the battle, after all.

I have a lot of control-freak tendencies myself. (I think some of it comes from being an author.) But so far I’ve managed to reign in those elements of my personality when it comes to planning Oot’s future.

Sarah constantly wants to speculate about what he’ll be like when he grows up. What job will he have? Will he be right handed? Will his hair be curly or wavy? Will he be gay or straight? What will his secondary mutation be?

I decided early on that I don’t care about any of that stuff. I only want two things from him when he grows up.

He must:

1. Make the world a better place.

2. Be happy.

That’s all I require of him. He can even do them in whatever order he likes. Concurrently or consecutively. Everything else is meaningless detail as far as I’m concerned. (Though it would be nice if he was a bit of a reader, too.)

But yeah, back to the point of your letter. Let me see if I can think of some good YA reads for you….

The first thing that leaps to mind is:

  • Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books.

I don’t really feel the need to sell these books to you. If you know anything about fantasy, you know who Terry Pratchett is. You know he’s great.

On the off chance that you don’t, I’ll simply say what I’ve said before: There may be authors as good as Terry Pratchett, but there are no authors better. And the Tiffany Aching books are as good as anything he’s ever written. I just pulled one down off the shelf and right now I’m having to actively fight my desire start reading it again.

In order, they are: Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith.

The fourth book in the series, I Shall Wear Midnight, is coming out in less than a month. I plan on reading it the day it’s released.

Side note: I’d probably recommend *any* of Pratchett’s books as a safe YA read. They’re all really good, and by opening that single door, you instantly add more than thirty exceptionally high-quality books to your reading list.

  • Neil Gaiman’s Coraline

Again, I don’t feel like I need to push you very hard about this book. It’s Neil Gaiman. You know how good he is.

Side note: The audiobook version of this is really excellent. I just listened to it for the third time about two weeks ago. Gaiman reads it himself, and does an absolutely brilliant job.

  • Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn.

Again. I rave about this book all the time, so I won’t go on and on. I didn’t read it when I was a kid, but I can’t help but feel that it would be a great YA read.

Secondary Recommendation: There’s a movie too.

  • The BFG by Roald Dahl.

I remember reading this one as a kid and loving it. Dahl has the rare gift that I’ve come to think of as The Divine Ridiculous.

You see, anybody can be goofy. Anybody can just make up some silly bullshit. But true inspired ridiculousness can’t be forced. You cannot strive for it, for in striving you fail. It’s like Nirvana. It’s like the eternal Tao.

Some authors manage to touch this odd piece of our Jungian collective consciousness, and when they do, they write things that are genuinely delightful and bizarre. Douglass Adams brushed up against it occasionally, as do the guys over at Penny Arcade.  Dahl kinda lived there. I remember reading his books as a kid and thinking the kid version of, “WTF?”

That’s a good thing for a kid to think, in my opinion.

Secondary recommendation: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is pretty good, too.

  • The Fledgling by Jane Langton.

Honestly. I can’t remember much about this book except that I read it when I was a kid and I loved it. When you asked this question it was one of the first books that sprung to mind, that says a lot, considering it’s probably been 25 years since I’ve read it, and usually I can barely remember to put on pants before I leave the house every day.

  • Zarah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor.

I’ve interviewed Nnedi Okorafor on the website before, and talked about some of her newer books. But this was her first book, which I read years and years ago. I really enjoyed it, and have given away many copies as gifts. Not only does it have some cool non-western worldbuiding in it, but the protagonist is a clever, capable young girl.

I could go on and on. (The Hobbit, The Princess Bride, Podkayne of Mars or other Heinlein juveniles, Peter Pan, The Little Prince…) but I think I’ll stop there.

Feel free to post some of your childhood favorites in the comments below. Discuss and disagree. That’s one of the joys of threaded comments.

However, I do expect things to remain civilized. If you you don’t think a book is appropriate for kids, feel free to say so. Feel free to explain why. But don’t be a dick about it. Typical internet asshattery will result in suspension of posting privileges, the scorn of your peers, and my terrible, terrible wrath.

pat

Posted in Neil Gaiman, Oot, recommendations, Sarah, Young Adult | By Pat486 Responses
Published: December 16, 2009

A Plethora of Signed Books

This is a Worldbuilders blog.

That’s right. I said plethora. You want to make something of it?

Today we have even more delicious books as prizes for the fundraiser. All of these have been donated by the authors themselves. This means two things:

1. All these books are signed.
2. These authors are cool as hell.

Oh sure, I know. You’re thinking that ALL fantasy and Sci-Fi authors are cool as hell. And yeah, that’s pretty much true. But these folks have taken it to the next level. They’re doubleplus good. They’re hoopy. They’re, like, Fonzie cool.

Alright, on to the books:

  • Two copies of The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances by Peter S. Beagle. Signed by the author.


Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a huge fan of Peter S. Beagle. This is a collection of some of his short fiction, including one of my favorite short stories of all time, “The Rhinoceros who Quoted Nietzsche.” Man, just thinking of that story makes me want to go and read it right now….

Locus describes this book as, “a definite must for Beagle fans and lovers of fine fantasy.”


This collection includes the Hugo Award-Winning story “Two Hearts,” which is a sequel to The Last Unicorn. If you haven’t read it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

I’m not the only one that’s gushy over Beagle. Ursula K LeGuin herself says that he’s “…An expert on those heart’s reasons that reason does not know.”

  • Two copies of We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle. Signed by the author.


Want a few more Beagle Quotes? Fine. Here you go…

“Peter S. Beagle has both opulence of imagination and mastery of style.” – New York Times Book Review

“At his best, Peter S. Beagle outshines the moon, the sun, the stars, the entire galaxy.” – Seattle Times

If all that doesn’t convince you to give him a read, I don’t know what will…


I’ve known David for a while, and talked about him and his first book at some length in a blog called, How David Anthony Durham Saved my Life.

But if you don’t care what I think, (and why should you, really?) then you can trust Kirkus when they say that The Other Lands “boggles the mind and transcends genre.”


I’ve gotten to know Jean Rabe pretty well over the last couple years. In addition to being a truly prolific writer, she runs the writer-track programming at Gen-Con in Indianapolis. There’s some great programming there with some authors that I’ve really come to love over the years.

This book is something special, as it’s Andre Norton’s last book. Jean and Andre were frequent collaborators, and Jean says “This was an honor–to finish Andre Norton’s last manuscript.”

  • A copy of When the Husband is the Suspect by F. Lee Bailey with Jean Rabe. First edition hardcover signed by Jean Rabe.


Something a little outside our normal Fantasy and Sci-fi bounds here. Jean notes that “This was my first true-crime endeavor with F. Lee Bailey!”


Jean Rabe says, “I had great fun plotting this with Andre. I picked the Wisconsin place-she picked the historical setting.”

  • A set of Martha Wells‘ series, The Fall of Ile-Rien: The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods. First edition hardcovers, signed by the author.


Locus says that Martha Well’s books are, “Fascinating…A vastly entertaining and refreshingly different fantasy adventure with a surprisingly satisfying conclusion.”

  • A copy of The Words of Their Roaring by Matthew Smith. Signed by the author.


From the back of the book: “London is now a city overrun by the zombie hordes. Most of the human survivors live from day to day, scraping together an existence among the ruins, avoiding the shambling, flesh-hungry undead that still stalk the streets. But for others this gruesome situation is an opportunity, a chance to establish a power base within the capital, now that authority has collapsed. For gang lord Harry Flowers, the plague is his chance to finally rule the city unopposed.”

  • A set of Wanderlust and Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre. Signed by the author.


National bestselling author Sharon Shinn says that these books are, “An irresistible blend of action and attitude…”

  • Two copies of the Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. First and second edition copies, both are signed by the author.


I met Cindy out at Comic Con this year. And she was very helpful during this year’s fundraiser, helping me to spread the word to other authors who then donated books. Silver Phoenix is her first book, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

Booklist gave her a starred review, and said: “If the cover image of a fearless Chinese heroine reminds readers of such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that’s intentional; the story inside will too. Pon’s writing, both fluid and exhilarating, shines whether she’s describing a dinner delicacy or what it feels like to stab an evil spirit in the gut.”

  • A set of The Onyx Court series: Midnight Never Come and Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan. Signed by the author.


I haven’t read these, but after checking out these two blurbs, I think I might wander over to Amazon…

“Stunningly conceived and exquisitely achieved… Brennan’s myriad fantastical creations ring as true as her ear for Elizabethan and faerie dialogue” – Publishers Weekly

“…firmly rooted in real history, set in a convincingly-constructed Elizabethan England, but with a secret faerie court existing beneath London … a political thriller, with conspiracies, spies and shady machinations…” – SFX Magazine, four-star review

  • A set of the series Doppelganger: Witch and Warrior by Marie Brennan. Signed by the author.


Dave Duncan says, “Doppelganger is a great read. The characters are admirable people, the magic is unconventional and unobtrusive, the pace never flags, and the plot will keep you turning pages right to the wholly satisfying finale.”

  • A copy of The Clockwork King of Orl by Mike Wild. Signed by the author.


From the back of the book: “There’s a whole world out there, and it isn’t ours! The words of her mentor inspire Kali Hooper to explore the lost places of Twilight, unearth the secrets of the past, and discover the fate of the vanished Old Races. Including the mysterious construct known as the Clockwork King of Orl.”


Child of Fire was on Publishers Weekly “Best 100 Books of 2009” list. And Sherwood Smith says that, “Harry Connolly’s story jets from 0 to 60 in five pages and never lets you brake for safety. He’s a fantastic new voice.”

  • A copy of Terribly Twisted Tales edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg. Signed by author Kelly Swails.


Kelly is one of the authors I know from the Gen-Con writer’s track. Notw only is she a complete sweetheart, but Tor.com has called her writing “ingenious” and “thoroughly inventive.”

  • A set of the Blue Kingdoms anthologies: Shades & Specters, Buxom Buccaneers and Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms. Signed by Kelly Swails.


How can you not want a book with the word Buxom in the title? It’s just a fun word. Say it. “Buxom.”

These Blue Kingdom anthologies are full of award-winning fantasy authors like Lorelei Shannon, Robert E. Vardeman, Kathleen Watness, Marc Tassin, Paul Genesse, Jean Rabe, Stephen D. Sullivan…. and, of course, Kelly Swails herself.


Publishers Weekly weekly says that Kessler and Kittredge, “create a dark world where the narrow line between hero and vigilante is defined by corporate interests […] Jet and Iridium’s multifaceted relationship will appeal to all who have come to want more from their superheroes than good vs. evil and mindless battles.”

  • A set of Doctrine of Labyrinths: Melusine, The Virtu, The Mirador and Corambis by Sarah Monette. Hardcover first editions signed by the author.


Jacqueline Carey says that Malusine is, “A lush novel, rife with decadent magic, dehibilitating madness, and dubious deeds.”

And in a starred review, Publishers Weekly speaks highly of Monette, calling her, “…a highly original writer with her own unique voice.”


From Publishers Weekly: “Monette reconstructs the traditional English ghost story—insinuated horror, no gratuitous sex or violence—with a decidedly modern-day approach in this laudable collection of 10 necromantic mystery stories featuring introverted museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth. […] Cerebral, ethereal and stylishly understated, this entrancing collection will appeal to fans of literary horror, dark fantasy and supernatural mystery.”

And remember, if you like Monette’s stories, she’s donated a signed manuscript of four uncollected Booth stories to the fundraiser. The auction is over later today, so if you don’t bid soon you’re out of luck…

  • A set of Kristen Britain‘s series: Green Rider, Rider’s First Call and The High King’s Tomb. Signed by the author.


In addition to donating a handwritten page of her fourth book’s manuscript to the auctions, Kristen has given us a signed set of the first three Green Rider books. (The auction ends later today [Dec 16th] so if you’re interested you’d better hurry…)

Anne McCaffrey called GREEN RIDER “a stunning first novel,” and this trade edition of Green Rider features a 10th Anniversary introduction by the author.

Remember folks, for every 10 dollars you donate to Heifer International, you get a chance to win these books and hundreds of others like them. Plus there’s the whole helping make the world a better place thing. That’s nice too.

And don’t forget, I’m matching 50% of all donations made. So why not head over to my page at Team Heifer and chip in. Trust me. You’ll feel great afterward.

Or, if you want to go back to the main page for the Worldbuilders fundraiser and read all the details, you can click HERE.

With thanks to our sponsor, Subterranean Press.

(Did I mention Subterranean is printing a new book of mine? I think I did…)

Posted in Heifer International, Subterranean Press, Worldbuilders 2009 | By Pat11 Responses
Published: December 3, 2008

Peter S. Beagle’s donations.

Peter S. Beagle is one of my favorite authors. I read The Last Unicornabout once a year, and every time it just breaks my heart. It’s the sort of story that I know I’ll never be able to write.Peter and his friends at Conlan Press have donated some cool stuff to the fundraiser.

Check it out:

This 72 page chapbook contains three new stories by Peter S. Beagle, inspired by the singular artwork of Lisa Snellings. According to Neil Gaiman, “Lisa’s sculptures are frozen stories.”
The Green Man Review gives us a bit of background and praises Peter’s work: “All three stories were begun by Mr. Beagle in the space of a single hour, while sitting on the steps of his late parents’ house, as his business manager held a stopwatch to his head. It’s a genesis as unique as the stories themselves, with the sly humor, humanity, and awe of beauty that are characteristic of Mr. Beagle’s writing. “
  • A 6X8 photo of Pat and Peter. Signed by Peter and soon to be signed by Pat.
Here’s a picture of Peter and me both wearing our Serious Writer Expressions.Undoubtedly, one of the major perks of being a published writer is getting to meet people I’ve admired for a long time. Earlier this year, I got to meet Peter and talk with him a bit. Terri at Conlan Press managed to perform a miracle and take a picture of me that actually looks halfway decent. Believe me, this is a true a rarity.

  • A full set of Last Unicorn prints by Rebekah M. Cox. Signed by the artist.

We’ll be giving each of these out as separate prizes. So you have twelve chances to win.I really can’t say enough about these prints. Words fail me. When I saw them for the first time down at DragonCon, I was stunned. Absolutely stunned. They’re gorgeous.

About Moon Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle says, “This is, for me, the most stunningly lovely vision in Rebekah’s portfolio. It is at once the picture I always held to, laboring endlessly over the book; and yet it is something more, as well – something that I don’t think I could have articulated in words then, and never may. All I know to say now is, yes, that’s what I had in mind, yes, though I never expected I would ever see it outside the boundaries of my own imagination.”

If you want to browse them more closely, and hear what Peter has to say about them, you should really take a look OVER HERE. If you’d like to buy your own copies, or any of Peter’s other works, you can do that HERE.

Want to know how to win these and other fabulous prizes while making the world a better place? Check OVER HERE for the blog that describes it all.

Later all,

pat

Posted in Heifer International, meeting famous people, Worldbuilders 2008 | By Pat8 Responses
Published: July 12, 2008

On not being a winner

A week or two ago a fan wrote in with the following:

Mr. Rothfuss,

Sorry to hear you didn’t win the Locus award for Best Debut Novel of the year. Still, I hope you got to rub elbows with the famous people and wear a tux at the Locus awards.

I’d already had a handful of people send me their condolences about not winning. Some were gentle commiserations, while other folks were frothy with rage, upset at the sheer injustice of me not winning every award in existence. Even the ones that were given out before my book was published. Even the ones that were given out before I was born.

Regardless of the tone, all the messages were sweet. And I told them the same thing: the winner, Heart Shaped Box, was a good book. A really good book, actually. I enjoyed it a lot. (Though I did something I rarely do, and listened to it as an audiobook without actually reading the paper version first.)

For the more morally outraged folks, I explained that Joe hill has actually been writing short stories for a while, so he had a bit of a pre-established readerbase even before his novel came out. Plus, he writes in the thriller/horror genre, which tends to have a bigger readership than epic fantasy. Both of those things, I explained, couldn’t help but get him more votes, and that’s the cool thing about the Locus Award – everyone gets a vote. It’s like a democracy or something.

Plus, Hill’s acceptance speech was very gracious. He mentioned all the other nominees, myself included. That’s classy.

As for the Locus Awards themselves – they really weren’t a tuxedo sort of affair. They’re more of a Hawaiian shirt deal. Which, personally, I found kind of refreshing.

I also didn’t get to do much elbow rubbing while I was out there. I had some sort of strange fever that left me exhausted and sweaty. Really sweaty. There were occasions where I was literally dripping, and that’s not the best way to make a good impression on folks. So, for the most part, I just hung out.

I did get to hear William Gibson talk, which was pretty cool. And I got to hang out with Peter S. Beagle for a while (for reasons that I will discuss in a later blog.) That was terribly exciting despite the fact that I didn’t feel very well. My only anxiety is that I looked like I was having the worst panic attack ever. But sweaty exhaustion aside, the fact remains that getting to talk with Mr Beagle made the whole trip worthwhile.

And that, I thought, was the Locus awards in a nutshell.

But it wasn’t. Just a couple days ago, someone sent me an e-mail saying it was a shame about the awards. I was robbed, etc. etc.

I bounced them back the same response: Lost to a good book, established writer, classy speech.

Then the fan replied and said, “You do know that they changed how the votes were counted after the polls were closed, don’t you?”

To which I said, “What?”

So he sent me a link or two explaining what had happened.

For those of you without the inclination to click and read the details on your own, here’s the short version. After the polls closed, Locus apparently decided to count their subscriber’s votes twice when tallying things up.

Which changed the results, obviously. Cory Doctorow’s story collection Overclocked would have won first place if everything was even. But after they weighted their subscribers votes double, he came in third.

And, apparently, if they hadn’t changed things, I would have won in my category.

So now I really don’t know how I feel. Honestly, it would be way easier for me to form an opinion if my book weren’t one of those affected by the change. (or should that be “effected?” I can never remember….)

Changing the way the votes are tallied after the polls are closed looks pretty dodgy though, no matter how you shake it. It makes it seem as if things got counted up, then folks started saying, “Hmmmm…. Well, how does it turn out if everyone who lives in New Hampshire gets two votes? No. Not what we’re looking for. How about people with a GED only get three-fifths of a vote? Still no good. Starbelly sneeches get ten votes? Yes. Perfect. That works. Let’s go with that.”

I don’t really have a good note to close on. The fact remains that Hill’s book is still great and his speech was still classy. If I didn’t mind losing to him before, logic says that it shouldn’t bother me now.

On the other hand, winning awards is cool. Aside from the warm fuzzy, it creates publicity, and that helps spread the word about the book.

Plus, this award was a plaque of some sort. I could have used that for all sorts of things. Obviously it would be useful for decorating the barren walls of my house and intimidating my enemies, but that’s just for starters. I could have also used it for serving drinks when company comes over. It also looked pretty heavy, so I could have used it as a projectile in the eventuality of a zombie attack.

Meh. That’s all I’ve got. I should get back to working on the book.

Later all,

pat

Posted in awards, conventions, recommendations | By Pat39 Responses

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