I was hyper-efficient about finishing that draft -- finished by 12:30 or so and sent it off to Melcher. Then I started burning CD's; four down, quite a few to go. It seems to work better if I'm *not* using the computer for other stuff, so I took the opportunity to treat myself with some reading -- re-reading, in fact, Lloyd Alexander's
Westmark. Marvelous kids' book, reissued as part of the new Firebrand line. This is actually work, since I'm reviewing the first four books in the line for
SH, and in theory, am getting Chris the review by Friday. He's not imposing that crazy deadline on me -- I just don't want to be lugging all four books around the Bay Area with me, so I'd rather have the review done with. And
Westmark only took me an hour to read, so I suspect I'll have no trouble finishing the others in spare minutes here and there.
Not that I want to rush it too much. Reading that book reminded me how very much I love kids' lit -- it made me want to write a children's book that does the same thing for kids that Alexander's books did for me. The Taran Wanderer books helped me grow up, y'know? And they had moments of such joy... I don't know if encountering these books as an adult has quite the same thrill, but they're still good, still very readable. And they're just flat-out terrific for kids, I think. Even Harry Potter is showing signs of developing some sort of real moral sensibility -- and by that, I don't mean an easy morality imposed on the kids, but an encouragement to consider moral/ethical issues, to struggle with them, as the characters do. Good stuff!
Shower, dress, off to campus. But first I thought I'd share Shmuel's suggestion for a heraldic device:
Methinks, Your Majesty, that an esthely blue goblet, filled to the
brim with wine, would be a pleasing and fitting feature for a standard.
Mayhap it could be flanked by a lion on one side and a dragon on the
other, but that might be too cluttered. Hmm.
A dragon *and* a lion seem excessive...but a dragon and a goblet? Or a lion and a goblet? The idea is tempting, though of course, it is impossible to depict the exact shade of esthely blue. But perhaps a similar color, such as cobalt, might stand in for it, symbolically? (I vaguely remember from SCA that there are some limitations on acceptable heraldic colors...anyone know what they are?) We shall ponder the matter further.
