3rd grade alchemists

I wrote this on my personal facebook four years ago today and, looking at it, cannot think why I did not post it here. So I shall now correct that error:

"Never thought I would say this, but I think a few of the 3rd grader may be reading too much Fantasy. Yes, I actually just said that and only partly in jest 🤫 See, a girl had a nosebleed today and naturally a drop of blood hit the blacktop, so what do the other girls do when their friend is taken in to get cleaned up? They instantly used chalk to draw alchemical symbols around the drop of blood as if it were a blood magic altar!"

Seriously, who starts these rumors?

So a student comes up to me today and asks, "Mr. Adler, is it true you've read every book in the world?"

I burst out laughing, then answer, "Oh gosh no! A person could read every moment from the day they were born to the day they die even if they lived to over a hundred, and still not have read the barest fraction."

Student: "Really? They're that many?"

The scary part is that in no point during this conversation was the kid anything less than completely earnest, and was legitimately surprised when I replied "an incomprehensible amount, and that does not even include books that have been lost" after which I told them of the tragically lost Library of Alexandria.

Then, later, a different pair of students asked me if I had read every book in the library, or just most of them. Naturally I told them neither, though I could claim a decent amount of the Fantasy section.

 

For the record, I never did or said anything that could have planted the seeds for these (or past somewhat more fantastical) rumors. I tell riddles and like any good librarian make book recommendations.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

Naturally we still do not know for sure if this is a prequel or sequel. (Unless I missed something). Regardless, exploring Shamir's homeland will be fascinating. Gosh though...hearing Sothis' voice and her theme... And this enemy... a new foe or the Dagdan branch of those who slither in the dark?

Authors are not in charge

Whoever said authors where in charge of their characters was not an author, because the best characters, the ones we all remember and cherish, become real people not only to us but to the author too. People with hopes and dreams, personality quirks and idiosyncrasies, tragic pasts and hopeful ones, hobbies and loves and hates...everything that makes us human (even if, in Fantasy, not all characters are human). Therefore whenever we authors create a character we cede some control over our world away, for a well-made character will act as they will according to their nature and a good lets them do just that. We build the world, set the stage, and certainly have some control, more the more we write, the deeper we delve into our worlds, the more we find that we are just following the characters. It becomes not unlike being a Dungeon Master in Dungeons & Dragons: the DM controls what happens in the world, but not the players characters.

As Patricia A. McKillip once so wisely said, "Like water, tales find their own paths; they go where they are needed." Goodness knows that was my experience writing The Dragonkin Legacy: as a general matter I knew what was going to happen, but I was often barely a half-step ahead of my characters and then watching their reactions. Still, one need not take my word for it. I yield, as ever, the floor to J.R.R. Tolkien. 

"I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlorien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horselords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fanghorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystefied as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22." – J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to W.H. Auden, June 7, 1955

In a different letter, he also noted that Faramir's appearance toward the end of The Two Towers startled him no less than the readers, saying: "I am sure I did not invent him. I did not even want him, though I like him." Case in point that authors are not in charge, for if the measure of greatness is creating something with a life of its own then the stories/worlds given life end up calling the shots.

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

An inveterate Magic: the Gathering player, I pay close 
attention to the lore and THIS STORY,  Not for a Stranger, 
is the one for this month. A toast to Huatli and Saheeli.

"Hail royal June, sun-bright with poppies crowned" said John Cowper Powys, the English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet. But I echo that hail today for another reason in addition to joyous Summer. It is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and with it let me continue to offer my undying support for the LGBTQIA+ community and reiterate the role Fantasy literature plays in supporting them by, to start, inviting people to read my LGBTQIA+ in Fantasy page. As I state on the just mentioned page, I personally am not LGBTQIA+. However, I have students who are and one year I told them – quite truthfully, by the way – that I was writing a Fantasy book in which one of the key characters is lesbian. Their eyes lit and they were on their feet in less time than it takes to say it. But it is the moment when I told them that the character is a Queen that I shall forever remember, for the glow on their faces out-shown the lights on the ceiling by a leap and a bound. They began questioning me about the character, wanting to know her name, what she looked like, all about the land she ruled and, most importantly, when the book was coming out. To this last I gave them a disappointing answer, for an unfinished rough draft of a 500+ page book is naturally years away from publication, and they asked me how they were supposed to wait that long for a book with a gay Queen. They want to see the rough draft as it stands and one who has some artistic skill began drawing this Queen based on my description. The moral of the story? Representation matters, people. Seeing yourself in literature matters in a huge way. Indeed, when I found these students they were eagerly pursuing the school library's LGBTQIA+ Pride Month book display.

Moving on, permit me to quote in full this article from The Hill titled In an era of book bans, sci-fi and fantasy offer an LGBTQ refuge for young readers:

Science fiction and fantasy are providing an oasis for young readers craving LGBTQ characters they can relate to as activists and wary parents increasingly clamp down on material they find offensive. Books featuring LGBTQ content are disproportionately targeted for bans in U.S. schools and libraries, with the most challenged titles regularly including “Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” But while those memoirs and realistic coming-of-age stories take the hits, superheroes, space travel and dragons often escape mainstream notice — and the heat that comes with it. Author TJ Klune told The Hill he knows some schools have at least a few of his magical, queer-themed works, including “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” “Under the Whispering Door” and the young adult “Extraordinaries” trilogy. Klune said the “Extraordinaries” series, which centers on a gay high schooler in a world where superheroes are real, has been mentioned in book-banning conversations before, but he hasn’t seen the full onslaught faced by other writers.

“It’s strange: Those young adult books are very sex-positive, in that it has discussions on consent and boundaries and protection and best practices for younger queer people. Why those have slipped under the radar, I have no idea,” he said. “I believe, at least in part, that it has to do with privilege. I am a cis, white, queer man. Many of the book challenges are from queer/trans authors of color. If you don’t think the color of my skin is playing a role in this, you’d be mistaken.”

The American Library Association says last year saw the highest number of books banned since it started keeping track of the issue 20 years ago. There were 2,571 unique titles censored in 2022, compared to 1,858 the year before. There is no clear formula for certain books getting banned over others, but reasons behind challenges can include genre, prior media attention and even the directness of a title, said Kathy M. Newman, a professor of English literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University who pointed to Maia Kobabe’s memoir “Gender Queer.” 

“It’s very explicitly about nonbinary identity in a way that some of these fantasy young adult novels are about a lot of different issues,” Newman said. Fantasy works can require significantly more effort to sift for LGBTQ content. “The House in the Cerulean Sea” could be about nearly anything based on its title; it just so happens to be about a found family of magical creatures with a gay romance at its center. Newman said activists go through public records and news articles to get ideas for what books they should target, regularly hitting ones they’ve seen censored elsewhere. She also pointed out that sci-fi and fantasy books for younger readers are often not “taught explicitly in the classroom.” “It might be under the radar,” she said. Lisa Jenn Bigelow, an award-winning author who writes children’s books with queer themes, hasn’t heard of her works — which include “Hazel’s Theory of Evolution” and “This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us” — specifically getting banned but said it is important to note the concept of “soft censorship” in the library world.

“That’s when gatekeepers might decline to purchase or include a book in classrooms and libraries because, sometimes, they disagree with the content themselves, but more often, even they’re worried that the content could provoke a book challenge from the community. And so rather than take that risk, they just say, ‘Well, we’re not even gonna bother. We’re not gonna go there,’” said Bigelow, who also works as a librarian. David Geiger, a gay middle school English teacher in Virginia, said too many people treat anything queer-themed as inherently sexual in nature.

“Some parents think that because a book has LGBTQ characters or is by an LGBTQ author, they’re automatically inappropriate. I disagree with that,” he said. Geiger said his school has LGBTQ offerings in its book club, and he offers some in his classroom reading, specifically praising, among others, Bigelow’s “Drum Roll, Please.” He said he gives parents a list of books students are allowed to read in his class, and if they object to any, he gives the student an alternate reading assignment.

“I know not to pick books that get into sexually explicit content,” he said. Geiger said he hasn’t had any problems with angry parents, emphasizing that LGBTQ representation is particularly important for young readers. “I try and make sure that as many students can see themselves in the literature as possible,” he said.

While authors and schools have been forced to the frontlines of the book ban issue, some are not concerned about the pushback they could receive. Bigelow said she expects her titles will come under the microscope sooner or later, “especially since the book-banning movement is getting more aggressive and is targeting more

On that note, let me also reiterate that I utterly condemn such people as seek to ban books, and they feel the full force of my contempt so hard it ought to frost their windows. So if you are anti-LGBTQIA+ and are reading this, do not even THINK of commenting on this or any other Stars Uncounted page or post spouting your intolerant drivel, because I will take one look and delete it. It will never appear, and I will lose no sleep over it. Rather, I will be laughing at how you are so insecure that you feel the need to rant on a Fantasy blog while reflecting on the truth of a Mercedes Lackey quote: "Make someone a devout, fanatical anything, and his brain turns to mulch." Then I will stop laughing and forget all about you, because I categorically deem anti-LGBTQIA+ people as a class of idiot so utterly unworthy of respect that I will not waste any more minutes thinking about you. You are a mosquito whose comment was a bite on this blog, and I will flick your comment away with as little thought or care as I would an actual mosquito misguided enough to try to get at my blood. Less care, actually, since, unlike true mosquito bites, deleted comments do not itch after the fact. Speaking of, I mentioned once that I like using AI to see if it can make good library posters and the results have been amazing, the above image being, I think, proof of that (and, since it is AI and thus not subject to any copyright protections, feel free to use it to your hearts content.) 

My father and I just finished The Season of Flames, the first of Anna James' Chronicles of Whetherwhy

My father and I just finished The Season of Flames, the second of Anna James' Chronicles of Whetherwhy.

Thirteen years have passed since Juniper and Rafferty foiled a dark cult in Stormgrove, yet the magical balance of the island of Whetherwhy is still off. How to fix it? One has heard of running to the circus before, but away is the direction Elio and his friends must go to evade the scheming Queen's inspectors and discover the secrets of his pendant, missing mother, and the curious town of Firehollow. Friends new to Elio but old to us as they found the answers they sought but... Well, I have never been fond of deceptive tyrants willing to kill to gain the power of Dragons. Fortunate that Summer arrived the nick of time, but dark times lie ahead, and not only for the Thistledown Academy of Enchantment. I only hope Elio gets to Dragonsrest before the knot of trouble becomes to large, to violent, to untangle.

I have started Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin

I have started Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin.

"The rules here are simple: Don’t look in the trees. Don’t whistle in the woods at night. Don’t answer if you hear your name called. And remember... everything wants." Including a magician who, decades prior, arrived at the old mining town of Foxfire in the Appalachians, taking things other than coin for his services. People always talk about witches' curses, but now it is up to Verity Vox, witch-in-training, to break the one binding the land around an ancient mountain in hunger, isolation, and desolation. Preferably before this fell magician adds her to the list of those who have vanished seeking him.

This has been on my reading list for months and my original intention was to hold off until October for obviously seasonal reasons, but the glamour of the book already had me quite bewitched and, now that I have begun, I am quite content to stay that way. Foxfire calls.