Flashback Friday: Daniel Pinkwater (and a suggestion)

Alright, I have a Flashback Friday this week, but before I get to it, I have a proposal...

How do you feel about a musical blogfest? I know a lot of people are inspired by music when they write. I'm thinking the fest would involve you either posting a scene inspired by a song (can be a brand-new scene or a scene from your WIP), or a scene that somehow involves music, or just post a scene from your WIP and the song that is on your WIP playlist that corresponds to it. You can post the actual MP3 or the lyrics. Thoughts? If there are more than two people on board (because that was the overwhelming response I got on Twitter when I tweeted the idea last night...I rule at life) then I'll create the link list and post tomorrow! I'm thinking later in April for the date so as not to run into Anne Riley's totally awesome murder scene blogfest on April 10, which you pretty much need to sign up for yesterday. So...April 21? (And don't worry, I'm really good at being annoying, so I'll give plenty of reminders.) 

And if you think this idea is really lame, you can just not respond at all and I can pretend like you never read this entry, k? K.

Alright, now it's time for FLASHBACK FRIDAY!!!! Flashback Friday is hosted by Jacki at Lovely Little Shelf. It's a chance for everyone to highlight one of their favorite books/authors from childhood. I don't participate every Friday, but lately I've been thinking about Daniel Pinkwater, and I wanted to share his awesomeness with all of you.

Daniel Pinkwater is the author of amazing titles like Lizard Music, The Worms of Kukumlima, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death (and the sequel, The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror), and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. His books range from picture books to YA to adult novels, and all of them are witty and bizarre in a way that only Daniel Pinkwater can be.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Driver, introduced me to him, and I will never forget how taken I was with him. I checked his books out of the library so much that librarians would comment on it. I identified with the misfits he wrote about and longed to join them on their crazy adventures. For my reading class, we even had to make a board game out of a book, and I chose The Worms of Kukumlima for the project. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wrote what can only be classified as fanfiction about Kukumlima; a short story about two girls who travel there and befriend the worms and end up living there for the rest of their lives.

Now that I'm all grown up (relatively speaking), I can listen to Daniel Pinkwater on NPR and feel really awesome. He also has some books for adults, one of which I've read and thought was pretty enjoyable. But nothing will ever compare to the joy I found discovering his books for the first time, sneaking out to the movies with his characters, going on African safaris, and more.

If you want to participate in Flashback Friday, visit Lovely Little Shelf and leave a link to your Flashback Friday post.

Flashback Friday: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

Flashback Friday is hosted by Jacki at Lovely Little Shelf. The goal is to highlight a book you loved as a kid or teenager.

I won't be participating in Flashback Friday every week, but after my post Wednesday on creating kick-ass female characters, I realized that many of you might not know one of my most favorite characters and books in YA fantasy literature. And that just won't do. So, ladies and gentleman, may I introduce you to The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is a four-book series by Patricia C. Wrede, whose name was recently in the news for the controversy surrounding her exclusion of Native Americans from her new book, The Thirteenth Child, which takes place during the American Colonial period. But long before any of that happened, Wrede was winning the heart of a young Heather with these tales of Princess Cimorene, who would rather learn fencing and Latin than how to behave like a lady.

In Dealing with Dragons, Cimorene, tired of living in the palace and dreading being married to her betrothed, decides to run away to the Mountains of Morning to make it seem as if she's been kidnapped by the dragons. The fiesty dragon Kazul takes an interest in her and agrees to take her in, allowing Cimorene to organize her library and make large batches of cherries jubilee for her. Eventually, the two become friends. There are also wizards, some evil dragons, very cool ideas about where magic comes from that made me want to reach into the air and see if I could pull on a thread of that magic myself, and places like the Caves of Fire and Night. Plus a sassy witch and her talking cats.

Each book is fun in its own way. Dealing with Dragons will always be my favorite, but I like the others almost as much. Talking to Dragons, though often presented as the final book in the series, was actually published several years before the others. The first three books are prequels.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles was my first introduction to fantasy literature. I checked it out from the library so many times that eventually my sister got me the boxed set for Christmas. I still have all of them, except the first one, which I gave away as a gift to complete a set I gave the girl I was babysitting (I was reading the books to her and she was about to move away. No local bookstore had the first one, so I gave her my copy.) It was my bridge to books like the Dragonriders of Pern series, and, eventually, the Harry Potter books. I'm sure I would have picked up Harry Potter eventually, but my love for wizards, magic, dragons, and fantasy created by Wrede made that happen years sooner than it otherwise would have (and I therefore got to enjoy years of anticipation, midnight releases, and speculation about what would happen next).

If you'd like to participate in Flashback Friday, visit Jacki's blog for more info!

In other news, I'm approaching 100 followers! And you know what that means...contest time! As soon as I hit 100 followers I plan to give away some great YA books. And it will be the easiest contest you've ever entered. So spread the love and help me hit 100!