About Elf and Bear

One fine day in 1980 or so, when I was sitting around in my Junior English class, having finished my work early, I was doodling around on some lined paper when I came up with the drawing above. Something about the characters of the figures appealed to me, although I later realized that they were way out of proportion to each other (the Bear was way smaller than he should have been and of course the Elf way larger; their scale, I later determined, should be more a Baloo-and-Mowgli type thing). I kept drawing sketches of the two over the years, both separately and together, and began to have a more solidified idea about their personality and surroundings.

Finally when I decided to at last sit down in earnest and write a book, I chose these two as a jumping off point. I had read the famous advice (I cannot remember right now who first said it; Dumas?) that if one persevered and wrote just one page a day, by the end of the year you would have a book of 365 pages. I decided my book would not be epic, but episodic, each month would be one adventure in one chapter. So I persisted, and by the end of little more than a year I did have a book.

Then my mother suddenly died, and I was sunk in a profound gloom. I had dedicated many years of my life to taking care of her, and now a great reason to strive keep going seemed lost. One of the factors that helped pull me out of that gloom was my brother Mike volunteering to help me transcribe and edit my handwritten notebooks into a more presentable state.

We had finished that task when not long after Mike passed away suddenly, leading to more depression and terrible inertia. I had to sell the old family house and get a job in town to help support the charity I was now living on from my sister. In the meantime, the format that we had saved the book on had gone out of style, and every time I almost transcribed the printed pages, some new computer crash would come along and wipe out whatever work I had done. At least I had the foresight before the last crash to mail the completed chapters to my brother John, and so only the lost the bulk of the chapter I had been working on. I am now going to try going back to task again, and in the meantime mean to put the story up here, a few pages at a time, to see what people (if anyone actually reads it) think of it. I'll probably start putting it out there later today.

It turns out to be a kind of book that doesn't get written much these days; the closest analog I can think (to compare it to something much greater) would be The Wind in the Willows. Elf and Bear have developed into the two sides of me, a sort of Fantastic Odd Couple if you will. Although I had no idea where I was going when I started, an overarching theme developed and is worked out in the last chapters, if we can stick to them for so long. Meanwhile, I hope it will be a pleasant ride, full of incident and accident.

One thing we could never settle on was a good title for the whole story. For years we just called it Elf-and-Bear; in the revisions Mike suggested we should really call it Bear-and-Elf. Anyway, if anyone can think of a better title I'd love to hear it, because I'm stumped.

More Bad Luck

Well this Monday I had what was diagnosed as a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) or mini-stroke that started as a pain in my left eye and led to numbness and tingling all down my right side. After a couple days observation at the hospital I came home, very wobbly and a little weak, especially in my right knee. But I'm overall still basically strong and have no droop, and the therapists say I should improve over time (if I don't have another stroke). So I may be a little slow for a while, but I'm going to try to hang in there. It ain't good, but it could be a lot worse.

Holding A Place

Just a short note to say what's been up.

Lately I've been fighting a cold, and it's made me a little slack in applying myself to this blog. However, tomorrow is another day.

One thing I have been reading with absorbed fascination is this site: Television Tropes and Idioms at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage . Go check it out.

I leave with this quote from Samuel Butler: "Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."

New Slew Review

In this past week I've got a slew of new books, some from Amazon, some from Hastings, some from Half Price, and some from Bargain Books. Here follows a list with short comments on each. Books in BOLD are hardback, those in italics are softcovers.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, Robert E. Howard
Boxing Stories, by Robert E Howard
More in my efforts to own the complete works of Texas' authentic Fantasy original.

The Solitudes, by John Crowley
Volume I in The Aegypt Cycle, originally titled Aegypt, now edited and issued with the other three volumes in a uniform format.

The Knights of the Cornerstone, by James P. Blaylock
A good read, but seems to me to be almost a Tim Powers story as written by Blaylock. Modern Templars try to protect their secrets from greedy interlopers.

Boxen, by C. S. Lewis and W. H. Lewis
A new issue of the Boxen stories, with added material not in the original Boxen. Excellent color reproductions of the schoolboy pictures by the Lewis brothers.

Kwaidan, by Lafcadio Hearn
Japanese ghost stories written by the American expatriate and illustrated with traditional-style Japanese woodblocks. I have some of the stories anthologized in other volumes; this is the book itself.

In The Suicide Mountains, by John Gardner
The tale of Chudu the Goat's Son, Armida the beautiful but enormously strong blacksmith's daughter, and Prince Chistopher the Sullen, who all want to destroy themselves, and why they don't.

Christ the Lord: The Road To Cana, by Anne Rice
The story of how the Vampire Queen Rice returned to Catholicism is one of the unexpected turn-ups in the land of literature. This is Volume II in her series on the life of Jesus.

Collected Short Stories, by Robert Graves
Stories by the "mad Irishman with a bee in his bonnet" about myths, who wrote the I, Claudius books.

The Magician's Book, by Laura Miller
Subtitled, "A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia", this is a genial look at the Narnia phenomenon from a non-Christian's viewpoint, and she finds much to admire. An evenly balanced assessment and a fresh angle on the books.

Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, by "Newt Scamander"
Quidditch Throught The Ages, by "Kennilworthy Whisp"
Two slim volumes by J. K. Rowling, faux books from the Harry Potter world. I've come to a sort of peace with Harry Potter now that the main phenomenon has settled down.

The Sandman: Book of Dreams
Book of short stories in The Sandman mythos, edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer.

Merlin: Shaman, Prophet, Magician, by John Matthews
Profusely illustrated look at the cultural phenomenon of Merlin and his image. I once started a xeroxed collection containing many of the images contained in this book; it's gratifying seeing someone carry this to its' conclusion.

English Myths and Legends, by Henry Bett.
Old Lore galore.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, by Thomas Kirk
Classic monograph from the 17th Century; the author was said to himself been taken by the fairies at the end of his life.

Chaucer, by Peter Ackroyd
Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, by Peter Ackroyd
Ackroyd is a wonderful author, but his factual biographies and histories read better than his novels.

The Ode Less Travelled, by Stephen Fry
A book on appreciating and writing poetry by the man perhaps best remembered for portraying the mad Lord Melchett. His factual books also read much better than his novels, for some reason.

Fabulous Feasts, by Madeleine Pelner Cosman
Medieval Cookery and ceremony, with many recipes for cooking authentic dishes from the Middle Ages. Contains the recipe for Hippocras, which some readers of this blog may remember. I've wanted a copy of this book since high school.

Fast Away The Old Year Passes

Well, the last hours of 2008 are ticking away, and as usual here in Texas we weigh the joys of fireworks with the fear of grass fires in a drought. If we could trust our drunk, carefree, joyous, stupid neighbors to be as responsible as we are, we would have a lot less worry, but then again, whuddyagunnado?

The year is ending; the long holiday slide from Halloween to New Year's is coming to a close, and ordinary life is beginning to assert itself. For the past few days I've been pestered with thoughts of reform, re-organizing, and new projects. This has probably been fueled by the post-Christmas clean-up. Just today I've been doing a few things I've been meaning to do for a while, like opening The Year Without A Santa Claus action figures I got months ago. The idea of clearing the decks and starting anew is in the air.

I have a couple of new features I've been pondering for the blog for a while, and hope to implement them soon. In the meantime, a Happy New Year to all.

I Got Nothing

Well, that's not technically true. I have things, but it's all kind of trivial, and I really have no impulse to rant, pontificate, or enthuse on any of it. So here's just a list of recent stuff, with maybe a note or two along the way.

Action Figures:
Wounded Hellboy, with Bird Cage and Samaritan
Hellboy, includes Cat, Six-Pack, and Samaritan
Dr. Henry Jones, with Umbrella, Portmanteau, Grail Journal, and Grail
Beetlejuice, with Snakes and Guide For The Recently Deceased
Dr. Weir, with a bunch of Stargate junk and a Copy of War and Peace
*That's three new books for the action figure library!

Books:
China and Japan: Myths and Legends, by Donald A. Mackenzie
Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald A. Mackenzie
Medieval Beasts, by Anne Payne
The Wordsworth Dictionary of the Underworld, by Eric Partridge (thieves' patois, and such)
The Sea: Myths and Legends, by Angelo S. Rappoport
A Treatise On Angel Magic, ed. Adam McLean
Charles Dickens, by G. K. Chesterton
We Remember C. S. Lewis, ed. David Graham
Giants, Monsters & Dragons, by Carol Rose.

That seems like a lot, but I got them all from HalfPrice Books and Bargain Books. Giants, Monsters & Dragons I found to be a particularly good book; it's encyclopedic, scholarly, and interestingly illustrated with old and unusual pictures. I was also glad to find a Chesterton I don't have; I mean there's a lot of his books I don't have, but to find one is so rare.

I suppose this is Christmas kicking in; I just want to go along with the season. locking down under the cold, watching Christmas shows with the kids, and eating rich food until violently ill. Giant tamales today, very popular about this time in Texas! I can feel the boigle beginning already.

By the way, is anyone else outraged about the diminishing number of chocolate covered cherries to a box?

Odds and Ends 2

We had to remove a baby raccoon from under my nephews room this week. We released it down by the creek at the bottom of the hill. Hopefully it will be too scared to come back.

The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort came in. I dipped into the first chapter and found the prose style very tortuous. Its hard sometimes to see what he's getting at, but he builds up to his point with a sort of slap-dash intensity, till you get an impressionistic idea of what he means. This might have something to do with the fact that he was largely self-educated and a journalist. Still, he has a kind of crackpot charm that comes through, and he makes you think about what he's saying while you try to crack what exactly that is. Charles Fort: The Grampa of the Paranormal.

Saw an article about a study someone did on intelligence using the members of Mensa as a study group, and they found out that among the male members the smartest had this thing in common: they all had very hairy backs. By this criteria I must be freakin' Einstein.

My fortune cookie this Sunday: "The weather is wonderful." I think this is an opinion, not a fortune. Unless it's meant like, you know, metaphorically. I almost felt like asking for my future back.

Hail To The Mail

The summer doldrums are setting in, and nothing battles them better for me than a big ol' box o' books. And that's what the mailman dropped off for me today at 11 am, a package from the great and wonderful Bargain Books, a remaindered book company helmed by Edward R. Hanilton, Bookseller. Among its newspapery pages, printed in teeny-tiny eye-strain-o-vision print, you may find marvelous books at reasonable prices (well below bookstore prices), all shipped for one low $3.50 shipping fee.

This is what I got today:

The Lisa Book. A volume in The Simpsons Library of Wisdom, books zeroing in on one individual Springfield character and their view of the world. On one sample page: a look at Lisa's blog, entitled Up On My High Horse, subtitled Lisa Simpson's Blogosphere of News and Opinions...But Mostly Opinions. Originally priced at $9.95, bought for $3.95.

Gahan Wilson's Monster Collection. A collection of the macabre cartoonist's best cartoons. Long before there was The Far Side, there was Gahan Wilson. One sample: a doctor chases away a vampire from a patient's bed with a cross, while a fellow physician says, "Well, there goes my diagnosis of severe anemia!" Original price, $19.90, bought for $4.95.

Rumpole Misbehaves, by John Mortimer. The latest novel in the adventures of the curmudgeonly English barrister, most famously embodied by the late, great Leo McKern. I've lately got and read three omnibus volumes of the Rumpole tales, and really enjoyed again their combination of mystery story and social comedy. This latest volume by the over 80 Mortimer was priced at $23.95, and bought for $15.95.

Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism, edited by Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs. The third volume in a series of essay collections, I got the first volume back in the late '70's. Some essays reprinted from the first volume, but some new material, as of 2004. I have got a lot of books on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. A lot. But I can seldom resist a new one. Published at $25, bought for $5.95.

Ordered but not shipped yet: The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort.

A lovely batch for summer reading, that may last me to the end of the week.