Summer Vacation, Sponsored by My Great-Grandmother’s Sewing Machine

What does summer mean to you? I love the warmth, the brightness, the freedom. The way the whole world seems to open up and bask. When I was a kid, summer was a time for friends, activities, and travel. Lots of swimming and riding my bike and randomly knocking on friends’ doors. I always loved school, but summer was for living. When I was older, I worked in summers, too, but usually outside so I could enjoy the sun.

Now that I’m a college professor, I love teaching but still look forward to summer. It arrives on my doorstep each May like the world on a platter, and a small voice asks, What will you do with this gift? How will you earn its worth? I try my best; it’s my duty.

This year was one of my best summers yet. It started with the trip to Key West that I talked about in my last post. And then, in June, my big road trip began.

1938 Singer Sewing Machine now at The Birmingham Museum in Michigan

The idea for the road trip started with a sewing machine.

My brother dug out a sewing machine that used to belong to our mother, and our grandmother before her, and our great-grandmother before her. It was a shiny black 1938 Singer, preserved in a box with its original bill of sale. My brother contacted a museum in Michigan where my great-grandmother was from, and the museum wanted to add it to their collection. I volunteered to drive it up. So my wife and I hit the road as a sewing machine delivery service.

 

While in Michigan, we stopped by Detroit and caught a Tigers baseball game.

Go Tigers!

 

 

We stopped by the German-themed town of Frankenmuth and watched the mechanical dancers come out of the glockenspiel tower for a noon performance of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.”

The Glockenspiel Tower in Frankenmuth. When the clock strikes, the mechanical figures appear and perform the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The moral of that story is “pay your pest control technician or else.”

 

In Traverse City, we spotted a copy of Wonders of Shadow Key at the delightful Horizon Books.

Wonders of Shadow Key at the Horizon Books store in Traverse City!

 

Chairs contemplating the sunset in Traverse City

We hiked around Sleeping Bear Dune on the Lake Michigan shore. The dune gets its name from a sad story told by the Anishinaabe people. In the story, the sleeping bear is a mother bear who watches over her two cubs who drowned in the lake. Those cubs are a pair of islands now known as South Manitou and North Manitou.

 

Perfect day at Sleeping Bear Dune

Sleeping Bear Dune. It’s a long way down to Lake Michigan, and if you can’t make the climb back up, you’ll have to pay thousands of dollars for someone to rescue you with a boat.

We spent a day on Mackinac Island, where cars are prohibited and the only way to get around is by foot, bike, or horse-drawn carriage.

To get to Mackinac Island, you take a portal to another century.

Here’s the portal

We climbed waterfalls at Tahquamenon Falls.

Tahquamenon Falls

We visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and learned about the dangerous storms that sent many ships to the bottom of the cold lakes.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum features some eerily lifelike mannequins. Would you visit at night?

 

We kayaked up close to the Pictured Rocks National Seashore and spent the 4th of July in Munising, Michigan.

Pictured Rocks National Seashore

Pictured Rocks National Seashore

My wife waited patiently while I checked this cave for buried treasure.

Pictured Rocks National Seashore

So we did up Michigan. But that’s not all!

We then drove across North Dakota and visited the brand new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, where a computer dropped us into scenes from Teddy’s life.

Enjoying my presidential inauguration

Bully!

“Driver, convey me to the Treasury, lickety-split!”

We visited our son in Boulder, Colorado and went hiking.

If you ever have a disagreement, come to Boulder and consult this sculpture.

We visited my sister in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and watched a rodeo.

Steamboat Springs rodeo

We visited my wife’s mother in Texas and played with her cat, Maisie.

Maisie the Rummikub disruptor

 

Texas sunset

 

But wait, there’s more!

My daughter’s first romance novel was published this summer, so I surprised her at her book event in The Strand Bookstore in New York City.

Hayley’s book event at The Strand in NYC

After that, my son and daughter were in Tampa for a week. We went tubing on the Rainbow River and, maybe the craziest thing of all, my daughter and I swam with mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs. We are both working on novels that feature mermaid performers, and the mermaids at Weeki Wachee were so kind and helpful. They showed us around the spring and gave us the scoop on being a mermaid, including how to breathe through a hose underwater!

Getting fitted for a mermaid tail at Weeki Wachee Springs. They had to scramble for an XL.

As you can see, I did a lot. I feel extremely privileged to journey through the country in the warmth of the summer sun, just as I am now extremely privileged to return to the classroom and help my amazing students on their writing journeys.

I’d love to learn about your summer if you drop me a note. Meanwhile, I hope you all have a wonderful start to your school year. I’ll be back soon.

“It’s alive! It’s alive!”

Wonders of Shadow Key is alive!

Dr. Frankenstein gets excited

“It’s alive! It’s alive!” cries Dr. Frankenstein in the original Frankenstein movie, and I’m just as excited to say that Wonders of Shadow Key has been zapped into existence by the publishing world, courtesy of Regal House Publishing. However, unlike the monster in the Frankenstein book or any of the Frankenstein movies, Wonders of Shadow Key will not break into your house or hide in your shed or climb your windmill. You’ll have to go get it from your local bookstore or library or order it from your favorite online store. And then, pinky promise, it will absolutely not throw your sister into a pond.

Saving the World at Tombolo Books

I celebrated the release of WSK with a couple of wonderful events. I met with some young readers at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, then headed down to Key West to meet with school groups at the Key West Public Library. One class read it as part of their book club and went to lunch to discuss WSK beforehand. They had great questions!

“How to Make a Writer” presentation at the Key West Public Library

The young readers at Tombolo brought their spectacularly good ideas for saving the world. Everyone got stickers and book marks!

The Wizard is revealed! Thank you, Toto!

By the way, in future blog posts, I’m going to discuss some fun things about WSK, such as where the idea for the setting came from, and the characters and their names, along with some other things I hope will give you insight into the creation process for WSK. Like Toto in The Wizard of Oz, I will pull back the curtain and reveal all.

On the way to Key West, I stopped off at the Shark Valley Observation Tower in the Everglades. I’d missed the tram, so I rented a bike for the 15-mile round trip. Remember, I’m still recovering from my Achilles tendon rupture, so I hadn’t ridden a bike very far in months.

Shark Valley Tower

The day was brutally hot, and I had visions of collapsing on the path and having vultures peck at my liver until someone came along to rescue me. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. I pressed on and reached the tower, which looks like some sort of outpost from Avatar. You walk up the ramp and, wow, spectacular view of the Everglades in every direction. Shark Valley gets its name because the water there flows into the Shark River, where bull sharks go to give birth. The water is fresh, so I did not see any sharks. I did see alligators, herons, ibises, and other birds, but no vultures to eat my liver. One of the alligators had its nose sticking out of the drainage pipe that went under the path like a scaly troll demanding payment from passing travelers. He didn’t take credit cards, so I just booked it back to the visitors center.

Key West was a delight as always, and my wife and I rode bikes all over the island, ate fistfuls of good food, and floated in the motel pool. I picked up a couple of great Key West books at Judy Blume’s Books & Books bookstore.

WSK in the wild at Books & Books Key West

While I was there, I signed copies of WSK, and the staff took a photo of me for their social media pages. Now that I’ve read the books I bought—Carl Hiassen’s Wrecker and Jennifer L. Holm’s Turtle in Paradise—I highly recommend both, especially if you ever plan to go to Key West, but even if you just like a good story in a fascinating place.

Also in Key West, I visited a couple of very cool museums. The first is the Fort East Martello Museum. I went there to visit Robert the Doll. You can read all about this supposedly haunted doll online. You’re supposed to ask Robert’s permission before you take his picture unless you want bad luck. I was carrying my phone in my hand and discovered that I’d already taken a video of Robert without knowing. Coincidence? Or Robert’s way of telling me it’s okay to capture his image? I decided on the latter, and took lots of photos and videos, and now Robert and I are buds. The museum also features some amazing, quirky metal sculptures by well-known local artist Stanley Papio, “The Junkyard Rebel.”

Robert the Doll will haunt your dreams, my friend

Metal sculpture by Stanley Papio

The second museum I visited was The Shipwreck Museum, which is down in the most touristy area by Mallory Square. There you can learn about the Key West shipwrecking business. In the 19th century and before, whenever a ship wrecked offshore of the keys, the wreckers would race each other to the ship in order to claim its property. This was allowed by maritime law, and it made Key West the wealthiest city per capita for a while in the 1800s. A special court was created to make rulings about who got to keep the goods. Sometimes those goods included gold and jewels, so we’re talking about major wealth. The main character in Carl Hiassen’s Wrecker is a descendant of one of the wreckers. The museum experience gave me an idea for a novel of my own. I wrote a page just to try it out. I’ll jump back in and keep exploring the idea later this summer.

The Key West Shipwreck Museum

For now, my wife and I are off on a four-week road trip. I’ll update you on our travels at the end of the summer and, as promised, reveal all the secrets that went into making WSK.

Meanwhile, if you’re off from school, I hope you’re having a fantastic summer that includes reading good books. And if you’re not off from school, I hope summer school is as summery as school can be.

By the way, if you haven’t signed up for the JJ’s Jams newsletter, you can do that any time. The first issue included Weird Weather, Monster of the Month, and other jams. If you sign up, I’ll send you the first issue so you can catch up on the jams as you make your own. Jam on.

Books I Recommend: SISTERHOOD OF SLEUTHS by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Last summer, my wife and I were traveling through Asheville, North Carolina, so of course we had to stop at the famous Malaprop’s bookstore, where I came across Sisterhood of Sleuths. I recognized the author as my former student at St. Mary’s College of California, Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. Jenn was a wonderful writer at St. Mary’s, and she’s made a great career in children’s books, authoring many popular books including the New York Times bestselling Book Scavenger series.

When I went to check out at Malaprop’s, the bookseller told me she’d read Sisterhood of Sleuths, too, and loved it, especially the author’s fresh take on the Nancy Drew series. I was proud to say I knew the author. Back at the hotel, I immediately dug in and couldn’t stop reading.

As you can guess, Sisterhood of Sleuths is a mystery. The main character, Maizy, discovers an old photo of her grandmother tucked into a collection of Nancy Drew books that someone left at her mother’s thrift store. As Maizy juggles friendship troubles and a big school project, she investigates the photo and the origin of the books. Her sleuthing turns up lots of very interesting facts about the Nancy Drew series, including its origins and how it changed over the years.

As a character, Maizy is a delight and worthy of the Nancy Drew legacy. In addition to the mystery, the book addresses friendship across generations. Because it’s a mystery, I’m not going to give away its plot. Let’s just say it’s full of twists and turns and surprises—everything you’d expect from a good mystery.

I read some of the Nancy Drew books with my daughter when she was young, and I wish I’d had Sisterhood of Sleuths to read with her back then!

If you’re a Nancy Drew fan—or any kind of mystery fan—Sisterhood of Sleuths is a must. Even if you’re not (and even if you’ve never heard of Nancy Drew), you’ll find this book fresh and fun. Give it a read!

Hard news, but things will get better…

Since I last wrote, things have happened. Some are good things. Others, not so much. This post is about a couple of those “other things.”

I was having a great Christmas week visiting family across the state in West Palm Beach. My father and brother live there. My other siblings, kids, and nephews all flew in for the big holiday get-together. We opened gifts, ate good food, celebrated my daughter’s engagement, and played marathon pickleball matches on the nearby public courts.

       Pickleball. What could go wrong?

At the very end of one of these matches I heard a pop like a big rubber band snapped in two. I was rushing the net, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.

I knew exactly what had happened because it had happened once before. Twenty-six and a half years earlier, I was playing tennis in California and heard the same sound and found myself in the same position on the court. I’d ruptured my Achilles tendon.

If you’re a fan of Greek myths and legends, you know that Achilles was the great warrior in Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. When Achilles was born, his mother wanted to make him immortal by dipping him in the River Styx. Fine, but in order to accomplish this, she grabbed him by the ankle and dunked him like she was making a tie-dye god. Problem is, she forgot about baby Achilles’ ankle where she’d been holding him. So he was tie-dyed with immortality everywhere except his ankle. Kind of a problem, because 99% immortality is not immortality, especially if your sworn enemies find out. Spoiler: they did. Achilles was killed in the Trojan War when an arrow pierced his ankle.

                       But Ma, you told me I was immortal!

I have never considered myself immortal, and a fierce game of pickleball is as close as I’ll get to fighting in the Trojan War, but I can confirm that rupturing your Achilles tendon does feel a lot like someone shot an arrow into your ankle.

The first time it happened, twenty-six and half years before, my wife was eight months pregnant with our daughter. When she went into labor, I was still on crutches after surgery, and my wife had to carry her own bag into the emergency room. The ER nurse took one look and shook her head. “Pathetic.”

This time, I went straight to the ER, got the diagnosis confirmed, then had to return to Tampa to see an orthopedic surgeon, have surgery, and begin the looooong recovery. Splint, cast, boot, and months of physical therapy. Worse, it’s my right ankle this time, so I can’t drive for now. I use a knee scooter when possible and crutches when necessary.

As soon as I got crutches I ordered black foam pads and a pouch. Understated yet stylish.

 

My high-performance knee scooter. All my house is now a race track.

 

My pretty blue cast

 

Anyway, that’s one thing. If there’s any bright side, it’s that I have a lot of time at home to do things like write this blog post.

The other “other thing” that happened is that our beloved cat Weezie, aka Queen of the Underworld, passed away. She had been weak and eating less, though not in any pain. I think she knew it was her time. I opened the door to the patio one morning, and she trotted out as usual. She lay down in the sunlight, and when I found her a few hours later, she didn’t stir. Weezie came to us as a stray 16 years before. She chose us by parking herself on our doorstep and not leaving until we let her in. She was an important part of our family for all those years. We were very sad to lose her but could not imagine a more perfect way for her to go, basking in the sun and listening to the birds as she loved to do. And if she is truly Queen of the Underworld, as we have long suspected, she has simply returned there to resume her rightful throne. Rest in peace, Weezie.

 

                           Queen of the Underworld

 

Thank you for reading. I have more to share and promise there’ll be better news in my next post!

Books I Recommend: MY ANTARCTICA by G. Neri

I’ve always been fascinated with remote places. When I’m procrastinating at my desk, I sometimes bring up Google Maps and zoom in on cold, distant islands, dense jungles, or vast deserts, trying to imagine the landscape and the lives of the few who live there. For a while, I wrote a social media post each day about a different remote island and its sometimes strange history. I love imagining places and researching them to understand them.

I also love a good adventure story, and for armchair adventurers like me, there are few adventure stories better than Ernest Shackleton and crew’s journey to Antarctica aboard the Endurance. Their ship got stuck in the ice in 1915, leading to hardship and heroism almost too crazy to believe. You can see a timeline of Shackleton’s journey here: https://www.swoop-antarctica.com/shackleton-endurance/

Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

G. Neri went on his own adventure to Antarctica and thankfully did not get stuck in the ice. Neri is the Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author of many books for children, including Concrete Cowboy, which was made into a movie starring Idris Elba. He’s written biographies of Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, Harper Lee and Truman Capote, and the artist Cristo. He also happens to live in my neighborhood here in Florida!

Neri visited the cold continent as part of a National Science Foundation program for artists and writers. He got to hang out with scientists and researchers, not to mention penguins and seals. He got to climb down a tube to view the ocean under the ice. He took a helicopter over the endless white landscape and camped next to a glacier. He learned a lot while living out his childhood dream of being an explorer. And then he came back and wrote a book about it.

My Antarctica is written for kids but appeals to anyone with a childlike wonder of nature and adventure. It’s a gorgeous book, filled with postcard photos, two-page spreads, Neri’s words (sometimes in voice balloons), and illustrator Corban Wilkin’s drawings cleverly superimposed on the photos throughout. You’ll learn about the life and landscape of Antarctica and the research community at McMurdo Station, where Neri stayed. There’s a great section of lists of things Neri encountered during his stay, including Sports and Recreation, Toilets of Antarctica, and “Weird Things” he saw. The book is a lot of fun to read, and it’s a keeper—a beautiful coffee table book to flip through while you sip hot chocolate by the fire, proving once again that you can travel the world (and beyond) with a good book.

Check out his G. Neri’s website here: https://www.gregneri.com/. There are links to order his books. Happy exploring!

Summer is for Writing!

Here’s a map of Florida drawn by my friend David Hazouri for my book Fearsome Creatures of Florida.

I started this past summer working on three books. For a while, I worked on all three at once—an hour or two per day on each one. One of them is a book of “literary tours” of Florida that I’m editing for University Press of Florida. It’s not your typical tour guide. Instead of the usual descriptions of travel stops, the “tour” features original poetry, essays, stories, and comics that take place in particular locations around the state. It’s a unique approach that will offer new ways of looking at Florida through the creative minds of the state’s many talented writers. I’m drawing from works previously published in Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art, the literary journal I founded at the University of South Florida twenty years ago. That book is expected to be published in 2027. Stay tuned.

I also worked on two novels, one for adults and one for middle graders. The adult book is a dark and mysterious novel about Elvis Presley’s time in Florida while he was filming Follow That Dream in 1961. I began this novel years ago, set it aside, rediscovered it in my files (as I talk about here), and have been working toward a final draft. Midway through the summer, though, I paused the adult novel to focus all my attention on a new middle grade novel.

Here’s Elvis at Weeki Wachee Springs. He went there to visit the mermaids.

The middle grade novel is one I actually started a long time ago. With WONDERS OF SHADOW KEY coming out next spring, I decided to return to it and get it finished.

Hmm, how much do I reveal? This is an uncomfortable decision for many writers. Some writers don’t like to talk about their work at all until it’s complete (and some don’t like to talk about it even then!). The reasons aren’t just superstitious. When you talk about your work, you inevitably reduce it to sound bites. That not only minimizes the work, it take some of the magic away. Writing for me is a process of discovery. I only have vague notions about what the characters will do and say until I actually write scenes on the page. That’s part of the joy of writing. So if you talk about a work-in-progress too much, the joy of discovery loses its effect. When someone asks me what one of my books is about, I want to tell them just to read the whole thing and see for themselves! Because what a book is “about” is really in the mind of the reader.

So what is this new middle grade novel about, you might ask, because you’re insistent like that.😜Well, despite what I just said, I can tell you a few things. That’s mainly because the book is very far along, and I’m hoping to finish a final draft this fall. The working title is ALEX KRAFT AND THE BUBBLEWORLD. The plot begins with a middle school guy named Alex Kraft taking a shortcut to school. He doesn’t know it yet, but the shortcut takes him through a portal into a “bubble world” that looks almost exactly like his school with one big difference: the school bully named Trevor Womple, who has been harassing Alex all year, is suddenly nice. In fact, he wants a hug.

Screenshot from the live feed of my scriptorium, where monks transcribe my words into a manuscript. Despite his name–Wilhelmus the Wild–he really has fantastic penmanship.

That freaks out Alex more than anything. And it’s only the beginning. Who made the bubble world? Why is it there? In turns out that there are secrets about his own world that he never imagined, a world that includes dreamlords, a secret laboratory of illusions on an isolated island, a Dream Council under a glacier in Labrador, and a villain trying to free himself from the Deep Earth Quarry, a prison for the “very worst.”

After many years of drafting, last week I finished what I think of as the semifinal draft. Now summer is over, and I’m back to teaching my wonderful creative writing students at the University of South Florida. I’ll take a couple of weeks off to let the draft settle, and then I’ll get back to it.

I’m so close! Wish me luck!

Books I Recommend: THE CURSE ON SPECTACLE KEY by Chantel Acevedo

 

I learned of The Curse on Spectacle Key just as I was finishing the manuscript of Wonders of Shadow Key. I heard about it the way I hear about a lot of good books—from my wife.

My wife is a media specialist (a.k.a. school librarian, a.k.a. Book Lady, a.k.a. Mrs. Library Teacher) at an elementary school near Tampa. Each year, she organizes the SSYRA Battle of the Books program at her school. Maybe you know of this or have participated in a Battle of the Books event. For Battle of the Books, a team of readers from each class participates in a quiz show, where students have to buzz in and identify books based on quotes from those books. To win, they’ll need to know the books on the SSYRA list almost as well as the authors do! It’s a fun celebration of reading, and the kids get very into it.

SSYRA stands for Sunshine State Young Readers Award, a Florida program for students in grades 3 through 8. Each year, a committee of school librarians selects a variety of excellent books for the program, and in 2023 one of those books was The Curse on Spectacle Key.

“I think this one is right up your alley,” my wife said as she prepared questions for Battle of the Books.

She was right, of course. I mean, The Curse on Spectacle Key takes place at a haunted lighthouse on a Florida key! There are ghosts! There are mysteries! Even a creepy doll!

Heck yeah, people.

Also, I had met Chantel Acevedo back in 2018. At the University of South Florida I founded a magazine called Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art and serve as its advisor. In Saw Palm’s special “Florida-Cuba Connection” 10th anniversary issue, we published three of Chantel’s poems about a Cuban version of Oz (Dorothy is Dorotéa, and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow make appearances). The poems are filled with the kind of beautiful longing that Cuban-Americans have for their homeland. Later, at the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Tampa, Saw Palm held an event, and Chantel read some of her work in person.

Anyway, I was predisposed to like The Curse on Spectacle Key, and it absolutely did not disappoint. The main character, Frank, moves with his family into a lighthouse on Spectacle Key. Frank is a big fan of horror stories (he has a dog named Mary Shelley—author of Frankenstein), so at first you might think he’s imagining the supernatural happenings at the lighthouse. But he meets a ghost girl who seems real enough, and she tells him about a curse on the island. With the help of a local medium, Madame Z, Frank investigates the mystery behind the island’s curse and another ghost they call “the Snuffler.” And then, at the thrilling climax…

What, did you think I was going to spoil the plot? No chance. You’ll have to read it yourself. You’ll also learn some fascinating things about Cuban culture along the way.

If you enjoyed Wonders of Shadow Key, you will definitely enjoy The Curse on Spectacle Key. Give it a read! Then pretend you’re in Battle of the Books and buzz in for the win.

“The Poodle Library”

As promised, I’m releasing another children’s story from the DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE collection. Rainbow Terrace is a fictional town where strange and magical things happen. This is the collection I wrote for my kids many years ago, and it’s inspired by Carl Sandburg’s ROOTABAGA STORIES. The stories in DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE are designed to be read by adults to children, though older children can also read them on their own. FYI, the online Hemingway Editor says “The Poodle Library” is suitable for 3rd grade readers and “The Day of the Floating Fathers” is suitable for 9th grade readers. I tried to make the language fun for all ages.

“The Poodle Library” takes places at the town’s Poodle Library, where poodles of all kinds can be checked out by kids and adults. Mrs. Bowers, unlike most librarians, prefers her library to be loud with barking and playing. When two girls named Marci show up hoping to check out a rare, bouncing Shaboozle, they struggle to locate it in the stacks, and Mrs. Bowers joins the search. It turns out that the Shaboozle is on the loose, bouncing around the library, knocking over shelves and denting the ceiling as it bounces. Mayhem ensues as they all try to chase down the Shaboozle. But that’s okay, because mayhem is just another day at the Poodle Library.

“The Poodle Library” is the one story from DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE I attempted to publish by the traditional route. I signed on with a children’s book agent, took author photos, including some with stuffed pink poodles. Do I dare reveal them?

Okay, okay, here’s a couple:

             

Maybe you can tell that my daughter was obsessed with pink poodles for a while.

Before the agent actually started sending “The Poodle Library” out to publishers, he quit being an agent. That happens a lot in the publishing industry, unfortunately. So “The Poodle Library” never found a publisher and sat idly in my computer files until today. I’m glad to finally get it out into the world.

Here’s a link if you’d like to purchase the story on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents:

For more on the first release from DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE, “The Day of the Floating Fathers,” see my previous blog post.

Did you know that there’s an annual Poodle Day in Carmel, California, that includes a Poodle Parade and Poodle Playtime at the Beach? You can read about it here.

Happy Poodling to All!

Books I Recommend: MAYBE THERE ARE WITCHES by Jude Atwood

 

Every once in a while, I’ll post a short book review here. Mostly middle grade books, but maybe some others, too. I’m going to begin with Maybe There Are Witches, a novel for middle graders by Jude Atwood.

The short review: it’s good; get it and read it—especially if you like creepy stories!

The slightly longer review:

This book hooked me with the first sentence: “When Clara woke up Saturday morning, the dolls were staring at her with their cold, lifeless eyes.”

Creepy dolls aren’t for everyone, but I happen to love old humanoid things like dolls and lifelike robot toys, especially when they’re in a state of decay. Such things open up what’s known as the “uncanny valley”—the gap between something that’s human and “almost human.” It’s as if your brain leaps back and forth across that valley, unable to decide if the thing is real or not. That dark little pit of uncertainty gives you the creeps.

Anyway, it turns out that the creepy dolls came with the creepy house that Clara and her mother just moved into, in a little village called Biskopskulla, Illinois. (Fun fact: I looked up the name of the fictional town and discovered that it means “bishop’s hill” in Swedish, even though it sounds like a “skull biscuit” in English, which is surely the worst kind of biscuit in the world.) What I really like about Maybe There Are Witches is that it’s both a horror story and a mystery, with a little adventure thrown in. It’s a page-turner.

I’m not going to summarize the whole plot, but let’s just say there are family mysteries involving a great-great-great grandmother of Clara’s who was accused of witchcraft and hanged a hundred and forty years ago. Clara finds an old diary that seems to talk to her. With the help of a couple of new friends, she starts uncovering secrets about the town, her ancestors, and herself. And hear me out, just maybe, maybe, there are witches!

The story’s climax is thrilling, dangerous, and ultimately satisfying. The supernatural elements serve up some genuine frights. The plot features two timelines—the creepy present and the mysterious past. And there’s a scholastic bowl tournament in the present that adds another fun and interesting layer. It’s all beautifully and concisely written.

If you like a creepy mystery, I really think you’ll love this book, which won the Kraken Prize for Middle Grade Fiction. And I’m honored to say that the author, Jude Atwood, gave me a wonderful blurb that appears on the cover of Wonders of Shadow Key.

Pick up Maybe There Are Witches wherever you like to get your books—the library, your local independent bookstore, or any other bookstore that works for you. Happy reading!

Here’s a link to Jude Atwood’s author page, where you’ll find more info about the book and the author: https://judeatwood.tv/

Writing Buddies: Muses vs. Familiars

Lots of writers have animals that keep them company while they write. Some call them Muses, after the Ancient Greek goddesses who inspire artists, writers, and scientists. Some call them Familiars, after the medieval supernatural animals who protect and assist witches. After all, writers are a kind of witch when you get right down to it. They cast spells with their words and make us see things and feel things we didn’t expect. I suppose what you call your Writing Buddy depends on the type of writer you are and the type of writing project you’re working on. It also, of course, depends on the animal.

Here’s a very dramatic muse on a monument to Frédéric Chopin in France.
She’s clearly inspiring him to write a beautiful piano piece–or vowing to swoon if he doesn’t.

Here’s a witch and her familiar. She’s working on a love potion,
and the black cat is warning you not to interrupt. Good kitty!

Cats make great writing buddies—most of the time. My own cat, Weezie, likes to sit on my lap while I type. She helps me by keeping me in my chair. It’s harder to get up and check the mail or get a snack or do laundry if a cat is purring on your lap. Is she a Familiar or a Muse? Well, sometimes she likes to lie on the keyboard or stand in front of the monitor or stick her butt in my face. On the whole, though, she prefers my lap, and her purring is both calming and inspiring, so I’m going with Muse.

Weezie will pretend to be sad if I don’t write.

I’ve had other writing buddies. I had a parakeet named Cookie who would fly around my apartment and land on my shoulder. He wasn’t particularly helpful because he’d screech in my ear and bite my hair. That screeching sounded to me like a witch casting a hex. Definitely a Familiar.

Cookie looks askance at a poorly-worded sentence.

For a while, I had a little jumping spider who lived by my desk. I’ve read that jumping spiders are among the most intelligent arachnids, and this one was definitely curious. He would crawl around the edges of the desk and up onto the top of the monitor. He’d stare at me for a while, wiggling his little pedipalps, then move on to get a better angle. His staring gave me an audience and made me feel guilty if I stopped writing, so I’d say he’s a Muse.

“Hey. Whatcha doin?”

My desk sits in front a window that looks out on my storage shed. An oak tree’s limb hangs low over the shed, almost touching it. Recently, I’ve been visited by a squirrel that climbs out on the oak limb every morning. She jumps down onto the storage shed roof and sprawls out Superman-style in the morning sunlight, eyes closed, soaking up rays. It’s her regular morning nap. Even though she draws my eyes away from my screen, she reminds me that there’s a whole world out there to inspire new writing projects. Definitely Muse.

squirrel lying down

“When I wake up, I will have wings like the flying squirrels of legend.”

How about you? Do you have a Muse or Familiar? Does your Writing Buddy inspire you? How does your writing change when your Writing Buddy’s around?