Reflections Collections -- 2/15/11

What a busy few weeks! Some activities listed below will be discussed in this blog post, some in other blog posts. Watch for the links. (Check back in few days for some items that are not yet posted. I will edit this page by adding links when these are posted.)

Alien ©julien tromeur - Fotolia.com
Licensed for use only by Valerie Coskrey

• A committee is working on setting up the newly incorporated RFF, Inc. Mission, goals, bylaws, projects, officers--all must be finalized. Look for an official report on all this activity soon when the Board of Directors authorizes a press release.
• Dave Anderson took part in a couple of book give-aways to young readers. In one, he gave 40 books to a kindergarten class, commenting that it was hard to find this many quality books of speculative fiction for this age group. All in all, he has recently donated 119 books to 3 kindergarten classes. He claimed to have learned that a ratio of just slightly more than 2:1 books per child seems to work best.
• Links to lessons using science fiction are in the first post of the new series "Teaching with Science Fiction." To introduce the series, Andy Love sent links to his educational essays;  Michael Kingsley sent a link to a short paper on Steppenwolf, the Rogue Planet; and Dave Anderson instructs us in what not to ask during a lesson.
• Several conversations at the rff Yahoo! Group, called Talking RFF, produced additional information of interest, including a booklist, opinions on what to call science fiction, how to decide what to recommend to youth, and personal opinions on numerous books. Read about them in the linked individual blog posts.
• A friend sent in a book review on The Grandmother's' Hive, a book suitable for youth written by new member Donna Barr.
• A new series of blog posts called "To Share or Not to Share" continues the search for a rubric began last month.
• David Brin sent an excerpt from his new non-fiction book in a topic called "Skeptical Environmentalist".
• Facebook links were highly informative, as always. Read the FB Reports for 2/3/11 and 2/18/11.
• Review the stats for this blog and the RFF Facebook page.
• Finally, there are additional snippets of historical information contributed by Dave Anderson and by Andy Love and others.

Snippets of History

Dave Describes the Past and Present of RFF

Reading for the Future enters our sixteenth year. RFF, Inc is meeting on line working on bylaws and nonprofit status. RFF, Inc is made up of the old guard and the young turks.

In 1995, Dave Brin, Greg Bear and Gregory Benford were the Killer Bs or young turks who wanted kids to read science fiction. I joined RFF in 1997 when Dave was CONduit's writer guest of honor who asked us what were we doing to get science fiction to the kids. CONduit is Utah's spring sf convention.

RFF will always be a grassroots organization with a common mission. I am giving a Kindergarten 40 pass-it-along books Monday..Friday I gave two Earthsea books to a sixth grader. Not all books are sf. The first word in RFF is reading. So if a kid reads Ender's Game that I passed it along to him -- success. Will he read more sf? Chances are good.

David-Glenn Anderson

Andy Asks for another Hugo Award Category

Andy Love sent a copy of a letter sent to WorldCon a while back. He provided Talking RFF with a copy of the letter during a recent discussion.

Andy Love

Who was Hal Clement, Really?

Some of our members of Talking RFF attended sci fi conventions with Hal Clement, author of numerous SF books suitable for youth; some worked with him on convention projects; some know him personally. Some of these RFFers provided us with this information.

Hal [Clement] used a different name for his teaching life, his writing life and his art life.

Hal was once LGoH, FGoH, & AGoH at the same con using his different names. :-)

Hal's real name was Harry Stubbs.

George Richard was his name as an artist.

One of the organizations with which RFF works closely is the Golden Duck Awards committee of the organization Duckon. Along with the Golden Duck Awards presented annually by Duckon is the annual Hal Clement Award for YA science fiction.

In a message to the RFF member who is also active in Duckon, Dave Anderson offered this snippet of history:

"I presented the Golden Ducks at Conucopia, the 1999 NASFiC on Friday,Aug 27. [http://www.99.nasfic.org] The two real Golden Ducks advocates were at Aussicon Three, Mebourne Australia. Attendance at the presentation included Hal Clement."

Thanks to Dave, Jim, and others.

Stats

Reflections Collections Stats for 2/10/11

Pageviews for last month, January 1011: 160
Pageviews since creation, October, 2010: 889.
Most Popular Post: Wake, Far-Seer and their author Robert J. Sawyer (December 2010)
Second Most Popular Post: Reflections Collections -- 11/7/10 (November 2010)
Third Most Popular Post: Krysia Anderson, A YA herself, Writer and Poet... (November 2010)

Reading For the Future page on Facebook Stats for 2/11/11

214 monthly active users; 20 since last week
325 people like this; 7 since last week
20 wall posts or comments this week; 20 since last week
90 visits this week; 40 since last week

'Til next time~Valerie C.

Book Review: The Grandmothers' Hive by Donna Barr

I explored Donna Barr's works at Lulu.com after reading her comments on self-publishing. Low and behold, I found a book written for children with an intriguing description. I immediately schemed to get a review of the book. June Vigants, a fan of Barr's and an artist herself, agreed to write a review for this blog.

I could not get the photos from the passworded sites to work, so I copied the one below from Donna Barr's DeviantArt album. The image is not from the book, but is in the basic style of the book's cover as pictured at Lulu.com.

Donna Barr has given permission for me to use what images I can retrieve for use in a review of her book. ~ Valerie C

This image of Donna Barr's is available at DeviantArt

June Vigants Reviews
The Grandmothers' Hive by Donna Barr

I first happened upon the work of Donna Barr in 2008 when my dear friends at the comics shop in my hometown of Manchester, Connecticut (Buried Under Comics) referred me to her successful series The Desert Peach. It was love at first sight, and I haven’t looked back since. The historical context of "The Desert Peach" lured me in, but it was Barr's artwork (which is something entirely unique) that kept me hooked. Two years later over Winter Break, the same comic shop friends introduced me to yet another of Barr's masterpieces: The Grandmothers’ Hive.

The Grandmothers’ Hive is a visual wonderland which people of all age groups would find captivating. An impressive amount of detail is put into every texture, patchwork, shading and border. From the clever design of each page to Barr’s own whimsical handwriting, The Grandmothers' Hive is nothing short of inspirational and sensational.

One feature of the tale which readers and listeners alike will find entertaining is the poetic narrative perspective and tempo maintained throughout the story. As if Barr's unique design of the text itself was not alluring enough, the lyrical words are delightfully reminiscent of classic fables.

All the artistic skill aside, the plot itself is very alluring. The Grandmothers’ Hive tells the tale of a young boy named Ben and his adventure through what seems to be the neighboring “Haunted House". Led by a mysterious girl by the name of The Rat, Ben soon learns that this seemingly Bedeviled Abode is actually a Magnificent Mansion occupied by The Rat's eccentric Grandmothers. One feature I greatly enjoyed was that each grandmother comes from a different cultural background, a detail mirrored in each grandmother's actions and speech. Included in the back is an index explaining what the grandmothers reference, information which I found to be stimulating and educational.

The Grandmothers' Hive is a story about facing your fears and trying things new to you. It is a tale suitable for children of younger ages with wonderful illustrations which will delight older audiences as well. Every aspect of the work points to one thing: If you do not have a copy in your library, you are missing out.While The Grandmothers’ Hive is suitable for younger audiences, older youth brackets and young adults may enjoy Barr’s other series, “The Desert Peach” and “Stinz”, both of which have their own unique flavor--being great additions to the Barr collection. Needless to say, it was The Grandmothers’ Hive which really made my WinterBreak magical.

About June Vigants

June Vigants currently attends the School of Visual Arts, studying Animation. She possesses a deep passion for history and comic books and more than often, these two collide. This past November, she launched her first comic series “Benny and Fritz”- which takes place during the First World War and tells the tale of two soldiers who have left their bodies but not quite left Earth, and their trials and tribulations in the trenches. Her blog can be followed here, where there will be updates on the comic as well as other artwork: http://theargylearmory.blogspot.com

Donna Barr Speaks Out on Self-Publishing

Donna Barr, author of The Grandmother's Hive, is self-published. She has these words to say about her experience in the industry. With permission, I quote her comments on Facebook in response to a posting on the Wall of author Steven Barnes.

"...Self-publishing is more and more an option out there. Lulu.com, Createspace.com, and those are just two of the major ones I use. It's NICE to dip into Paypal or my checking account and ask, ..."Where the $$!#! did this money come from?" (I feel like my Multiple Associative Syndrome friend whose alters keep opening new bank accounts). After awhile you have to cruise around and harvest the money from the sites, because it keeps dribbling in all over the place. Start posting your stuff at AssociatedContent.com; the teeny payments don't get hit with fees at Paypal (bwa ha ha)."

And continued in another 2 comments: First, "Once it's up, you just steer people there. By yacking on facebook, putting up links -- people want to go see what you've got up. What? You can't type out an OpenOffice document, simply format it, slap up a photo you want to use for the cover (or hire me to PAINT it, hint hint), upload that puppy and get out of the way? Then tweak the format for the next site (these are PRINTERS, not publishers, so you get to put it up anyplace you want). Then again, I've been in drawn books and we LED the charge into being able to make our own money and not fool with distributors or publishers (the technical term is 'Going to the dark side'...)"

Second, "While I'm at it, it's Schiller time: http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach Sonia, Haven't tried Smashwords -- but it's another option! They've all got advantages and drawbacks, so you find the one you like. Small recommendation: Lulu for customers & retailers to buy wholesale. Createspace for not fooling with distributors and buying a few copies at wholesale when you need 'em. I'm waiting for the day a big online distributor to say "screw this" about charging paper prices for ebooks, slapping up an open format, and thumbing their noses at the rest of the sinking market. Barnes and Noble, by the way, is beginning to gurgle and splash the way distributors do when they're in trouble: they owe me money and WILL NOT PAY THEIR BILL. I'm not saying stop swimming with them but you might want to get a boat or two."

Finally,in response to how writing what a publisher wants, she replied, "AND.... that's why I've been in self-publishing so long. Because otherwise it's ALL pimping."

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=193927350621620&id=604520909

Visit the website of Donna Barr: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com

To learn more about Donna Barr, visit her Wiki bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Barr

At lulu.com the description of The Grandmother's Hive (©2008) is, "An old house is the source of fear and suspicion for the neighborhood children; one small boy discovers his fears were standing between him and the funnest family he's ever met. Beautiful illustrations and ornate poetry will delight both children and adults."