BW22: U is for Unicorn Pegasus Kitten

Clash of the Geeks

Funny how life works out sometimes.  Friday night I was just about to go to bed, but before I did, checked my stat counter and found I had gotten an extreme number of hits in a couple hours for an old post I'd written back in 2010 about a painting created by Jeff Zugale for Wil Wheaton (remember Wesley of star trek fame) and John Scalzi and a fan fiction contest. Check it out here and watch their hilarious video. It'll give you some insight into their minds. Anyway, when one of my posts suddenly starts getting lots of hits, somebody's mentioned it somewhere. So I followed the various worm trails until I discovered that Wil had tweeted while doing storytime at the Phoenix Comicon being held this weekend in AZ:

@Wilw If you're in the theater for Story time, look up the Unicorn Pegasus Kitten painting now. It's important.

My post came up # 1 on the google search over Wil Wheaton or John Scalzi. Odd but true and I kind of got a kick out of that. What he should have said was look up www.unicornpegasuskitten.com while I give a reading out of the book. Well, I figured it was just the universe talking to me, because I was in the midst of brainstorming "U" ideas.

Honesty, I had totally forgotten about the painting and the book created as a result of the contest. The end result is Clash of the Geeks with offerings by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, Catherynne Valente, Stephen Toulouse, Rachel Swirsky, Scott Mattes, Bernardette Durbin, and John Anealio. All the proceeds benefit the Lupus Foundation of America.

The book is available in ebook format on the Clash of the Geeks website for free with voluntary payments strongly encouraged which will go to the Lupus Foundation. Check it out and you are all on the honor system here. If you choose to download it, be sure to donate. I did. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

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BW 21: T is for Trevor

William Trevor
May 24, 1928

Today I'd like to introduce you to Irish author, William Trevor.   On May 24, he will be celebrating his 83rd birthday.   He was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland.  Coincidentally my great grandmother was from County Cork as well.   Hmm...  I wonder!   He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin with a degree in History, worked as a teacher and sculptor until becoming a full time writer in 1968.  He emigrated to England in 1954 and today resides in Devon, England. 

His first book, written in 1958 "A Standard of Behavior" met with little success, however after writing short stories, his next book "The Old Boys" won the 1964 Hawthornden Prize for Literature.  He has won a number of prizes over the years for his works including the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction, Whitbread Book of the Year, and Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002 for "The Story of Lucy Gault."

Story of Lucy Gault

According to Maureen Corrigan of NPR in her article about "William Trevor: A Short Story Master's Life Work and his most recent volume of short stories called "Selected Stories, Trevor is

"a master of capturing those small shifts in consciousness that shatter someone's world. Because he's an Irishman living in exile (Trevor has lived most of his long life in England) and because so many of those aforementioned epiphanies take place oh-so-discreetly, the comparisons to James Joyce have been inevitable. But as the 48 recent stories in this volume attest, Trevor has a more developed taste for the macabre than Joyce ever did. It creeps up on a reader slowly: the awareness that so many of these tales are about being trapped, buried alive, thwarted at every turn of life's labyrinth. And, yet, the signature response of Trevor's characters to their bricked-in situation is a fatalistic shrug garnished with Black Irish humor."

Selected Stories

In an interview with Mira Stout of The Paris Review, Trevor says of his writing:

 "I think all writing is experimental. The very obvious sort of experimental writing is not really more experimental than that of a conventional writer like myself. I experiment all the time but the experiments are hidden. Rather like abstract art: You look at an abstract picture, and then you look at a close-up of a Renaissance painting and find the same abstractions."

In response to her question why he's never created a hero in any of his stories:

Because I find them dull. Heroes don’t really belong in short stories. As Frank O’Connor said, “Short stories are about little people,” and I agree. I find the unheroic side of people much richer and more entertaining than black-and-white success.

Read the whole interview here for more insight into William Trevor, his writing, Irish writers and heroes, politics and more. It's rather insightful.

For more information on William Trevor, his book list and a critical perspective, go here.

Happy Birthday, William Trevor


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BW20: S is for Stereotyping

Chimamanda Adichie

In my Humanities class this week, we are discussing world literature and stereotyping of different cultures One of the authors we talked about is Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie.  She gave a very interesting talk about "The Danger of the Single Story" and how the single story creates stereotypes.  I wanted to share it with you today.

Her talk is well worth listening too and also made me curious about her and her books which fit in well with our armchair traveling mini challenge.

Purple Hibiscus

Half of a Yellow Sun

The Thing Around Your Neck

She's an interesting woman and I look forward to reading her books and the start of my armchair traveling through the continent of Africa.  Speaking of which, how is your armchair traveling going?  Visited any where interesting lately?

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

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BW19: R is for Roxanne

Roxanne St. Claire

Hello my darlings!  I'm on vacation this week and have been reading the latest series by one of my favorite authors, Roxanne St. Claire, who wrote the romantic suspense series "The Bullet Catchers."  Her latest series is "the Guardian Angelinos."

"The Guardian Angelinos are a Boston-based family that flies under the radar of the law to  solve crimes, save lives, protect the innocent, and take down the guilty. This team of rule-breaking, risk-taking, wave-making siblings and cousins aren’t afraid to get into the face of criminals as one of the toughest, grittiest security and PI firms around. This close-knit clan of protection, investigation, law enforcement, technology, weaponry, and legal experts all have one simple creed:  The good guys win and the bad guys get the holy hell kicked out of them."

I'm loving the characters in these stories just as much as I adored the tough bullet catchers in her other series.

She's a multifaceted writer with great imagination and very interesting characters.  Check out her booklist here.  A free prequel is available for Edge of Sight which tells the history of Sam and Zach's story in Taken to the Edge.


I hope each and every one of you have a Happy Mother's Day.  My mother's day present this year. Getting to spend it with my mom who we almost lost to a stroke a few months ago.  She is recovering and I'm so thankful I get to share the day with her.  So hug your mom close today and tell her how much you appreciate her, because you'll never know when she could be taken from you. 

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.