Maybe next year....

This time last year I enthusiastically signed on to Benoit Lelievre's Smoth Criminals fiction challenge.  The idea was to read seven books in various genres--a hardboiled classic, for instance, and a book with a psychopath at the center. (I was going to read Dexter Darkly Dreaming, the first in a series of novels on which the cable series is based.) Alas, I did not complete even one of the books I'd planned to read. But having been presented with the challenge, I now have my reading cut out for me next year.

I did however, take part in Brian Lindenmuth's 365 short story a day challenge. Four more days...I've actually read ahead, so I only have two more to read and write up. I made a decision to only feature one story per writer, which forced me out of my comfort zone. (I could have posted 365 stories just by Stephen King and Ray Bradbury.) I read some tremendous stories. The two that stood out for me were W.D. County's "Plastic Soldiers" and Ken Liu's "Paper Menagerie." Both stories are about children and they couldn't be more different.

Call yourself a reader? Publisher's Weekly picks the "10 Most Difficult Books"

Of course James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake is on the list. smack dab in the middle as it happens. I've read it, but all I really remember is Molly Bloom's soliloquy and the only reason I remember that is I saw Fionnula Flanagan's fabulous one-woman show, James Joyce's Women. Also  on the list--Virginia Woolf's To a Lighthouse, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen, and Women and Men by Joseph McElroy, a book I've never heard of that PW dubs "a post-modern meganovel." You can see the whole list here.

Alice Rivlin is my heroine

Sometimes in Hollywood it seems like women become irrelevant the moment they hit 40. By 50, they are invisible, with the exception of Meryl Streep. In Washington, though, a woman is just hitting her stride in her 50s. And they don't have a mandatory sell-by date. A smart woman can work forever and be taken seriously, and be listened to. Alice Rivlin will be 82 in March and there she is on MSNBC explaining her take on the fiscal cliff. Once an advisor to President Clinton, she's now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of President Obama's debt commission. In another generation, Ms. Rivlin would have been sitting on a front porch somewhere crocheting a comforter. Now she's trying to fix the economy. I love living in the 21st century. I look forward to being 82 and still having a voice. 

Help Dennis Lehane find his dog...

And he'll name a character after you.
Get the 411  here on TMZ.

Ellen Datlow needs your help!

She's raising money for her next anthology, Fearful Symmetries, via a Kickstarter campaign. She wants to raise $25,000 and she's a little over a third of the way done with 13 days remaining. She's offering terrific rewards at all levels of the campaign, and you can support this project for as little as $5.
If you read short stories--particularly in the speculative fiction/science fiction/fantasy/horror genres--you have read  one or more of the anthologies edited by Datlow. Her birthday is next Monday (New Year's Eve), so why not give her an early birthday preesent and pledge a little cash?
Watch Datlow talk about the project here.

No More Mr. Bad Cat--an Orange Julius Adventure

Photo by Vavoom 09

I've been thinking about writing a series of children's stories about a bullied kid and the stray cat he adopts. I really don't know what I'm going to do with the stories, but here's the first one.

No More Mr. Bad Cat

An Orange Julius Adventure

By Katherine Tomlinson

Brian was sitting outside the principal's office when his mom got to the school. She gave him a worried look and a quick kiss on the head before Mrs. Shimura opened the door and said, "Won't you come in Ms. Oakley?" which is what she called Brian's mom instead of "mom."

Brian got up to follow his mom into the office but Mrs. Shimura looked down at him and said, "I need to talk to your mom alone just a moment," she said. "Why don't you wait out here?"

Brian looked at his mom. She mother nodded at him to let him know it was okay. "I'll be right back," she said and then closed the door behind her.

When the door opened again, Brian's mother looked upset. "Let's go home," she said to Brian, so he got up from where he was sitting.

"I'll see you tomorrow Brian," Mrs. Shimura said and Brian mumbled "Okay," even though his mom always told him not to mumble.

John Milton: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

Photo by Magic Marie

Possibly the best course I took in college was a seminar on John Milton taught by the late poet/novelist Reynolds Price. One of the first things we read was Milton's Christmas poem, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." It was written in 1629 when Milton was 21.

My favorite verse of the poem (love the rhyme of "whist" and "kissed")  is below.You can read it in its entirety here on Bartleby.

But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light
His reign of peace upon the earth began.
The winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kissed,	65
Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.