Ooligan in Publishers Weekly

Our plight affects the larger sphere of book publishing. Read this short article in Publishers Weekly to learn more about how my beloved graduate program in book publishing is at risk. Please spread the word and help write letters of support.

 

Help Spread the Word

Please help spread the word about Ooligan Press by sharing the information at the Save Ooligan website (http://ooligan.pdx.edu/?page_id=3558) with your friends, family, and network. Hey, share it with complete strangers, even! My thanks,

Karen

A Plea for Publishing

Everyone: the Publishing Program (from which I received my graduate degree) is in danger. We need your help. If you care about the literary community in Portland and beyond, visit this site and lend a hand. Please. Nothing I have ever posted on this blog is more worthwhile, important, or urgent.

Help save the Portland State University Publishing Program and Ooligan Press: http://ooligan.pdx.edu/?page_id=3558

This is just a message to get the word out. I will post updates as often as I can.

Graceling

When I was a girl, I pretty much wanted to be Katsa. I ran around in the woods with pointy sticks, thinking about how awesome it would be to protect the good and defeat the bad. I was going to ride a horse and shoot arrows and wield a sword and bust down doors and thwart evil. I’d travel all over the land, getting into trouble but always finding my way out of it. I would make plots and schemes to help people, and I would be strong and clever and save the day.

So you can imagine the glee with which I immersed myself in Kristen Cashore’s Graceling. Katsa is just my kind of heroine: wild, strong, determined—but full of mistakes and inner conflict. Her transformation provides an excellent lesson in self-knowledge and self-mastery. Graceling ranks among the books young women and young men should read.

What is the book about, you ask? In my excitement, I kind of forgot to explain. The Seven Kingdoms are ruled by monarchs, some wise, some foolish. Magic exists in this world in the form of gracelings, people born with superhuman skill. A graceling might, for example, be an exceptional cook, or an adept swimmer, or the best tree climber you have ever seen. Revered or feared for their gifts, gracelings live difficult lives.

Katsa has a killing grace. Her ability to hurt and maim is feared throughout the kingdoms; her uncle, King Randa, uses her to advance his ambitions. But Katsa does not wish to kill, and her inner impulse to control her grace—to do right—sets in motion a complex, suspenseful, satisfying story.

I love the characters; there are many of them, yet I never felt overwhelmed or forgot who anyone was. I love the settings: wild places vividly described. I love the plot, which paints a full spectrum from horror and sorrow to tenderness and triumph. And, though I understand now that being Katsa is a much greater challenge than I had imagined, part of me still wants to be her.

Words for the week: November 22

The continuing saga of my trying to contribute to my blog once a week, no matter what.

1. envelope
2. folios
3. approximately
4. text
5. weather patterns
6. a longing for Jupiter
7. coffee ice cream
8. beep
9. morning
10. star

Words for the week: November 15

I will try to post a book review this week, but, in the meantime, here are more words.

1. chiesa
2. negozio
3. разговор
4. anew
5. what?
6. promises
7. whirlwind
8. mocha
9. drenched
10. reconciliation
11. typography
12. resilience
13. Apollo 1
14. reinforcements
15. responsibility
16. time

Words for the week: November 8

1. deadline
2. thiol
3. heavy metal
4. notes
5. cautious
6. concentrate
7. impossible
8. benign
9. quotation marks
10. fire
11. apples
12. feedback
13. bromide
14. hyphenate
15. sent
16. four
17. e tanti auguri
18. accomplishment

Drilling an Ice Core in Greenland

As proof of my continuing existence, I would like to post something today. Recently I learned of the The North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project, the purpose of which is to obtain core samples of ice from the Eemian, an interglacial period that ended over 100 thousand years ago. (I’m having trouble finding out exactly when the Eemian occurred. Any geologists out there?) Anyhow, the point is to reach back in time, with use of ice core samples, and learn more about changes in Earth’s climate. The drilling is scheduled to finish next year, at which point over 2 km of ice core will have been obtained. Sounds like fun!

Writers, editors, and success

I’ve been thinking today of the old and odious lie that editors are failed writers. I hear this from time to time; someone once said it to my face. Anything is possible: so I imagine there could be editors out there who failed as writers. Just as easily there could be writers who failed as editors!

First of all, professional editors excel at writing. They have to know how to write in order to recognize and refine good writing. They simply (gasp!) prefer to be editors. Likewise, many writers are excellent editors. Writers of quality understand the need to edit, and they do carefully revise their work.

Second, why continue the tired campaign of pitting writers against editors? We are of the same flesh: the written word.

Finally, why imagine this one’s or that one’s failure when, clearly, so many successful and happy authors and editors dwell in the world? I know this goes against the stereotypes of the miserably creative writer and the self-righteously cranky editor but–guess what?–those are myths, too. Ok, we might have the occasional problem with earning enough to feed ourselves, but so does everyone. The point is that we like what we do, and we are good at our respective professions.

So now I am going to get back to editing a research paper about martian geology and climate. I am going to do it well, and I am going to do it with a smile on my face.

Reference Reverence

Reference lists are a marvelous study in the art of conveying information clearly. Different ingredients make up reference lists, and each ingredient needs to enter the recipe at the right time and in the right manner. Generally, these ingredients are

• author names,
• date of publication,
• title of publication,
• page number or numbers.

Other embellishments are optional—or required, depending on your taste. These include

• article or chapter title,
• abstract title,
• volume number,
• publisher,
• publisher’s city.

Each element is distinct, so it is important not only that all of them appear but that they appear in a way that sets them apart from each other. Thankfully, we have the usefulness and beauty of punctuation.