The Swords of the Ancients

Yeah, we actually have one of those. It’s also Beverly Cleary‘s birthday. The woman responsible for giving the world Henry Huggins and his neighbor girls, “Beezus” and Ramona. In honor of her, I’d like to invite all of my readers to follow D.E.A.R. guidelines for at least half an hour today. Not “Drop everything and run!” as Ramona once blurted out in her usual boundless enthusiasm, but Drop Everything and Read. Read with a loved one, or a close friend, or even just by yourself. Shut down your computers (after you finish reading this post!), turn off your cell phones, and dedicate a nice, quiet half an hour (or more, if you like) to reading a good book.

I’d like to jump up on my soapbox for a minute (and hope it’s one that I’ve not turned into a car) and mention something that bothers me. No, it doesn’t bother me, it infuriates me, frankly. I hate book banning. I’m of the opinion that books should never be restricted, just because it has some things in it that one person might find offensive. I know that I don’t write what I do to please everyone. If I did, I’d never sell anything. I don’t write just for the sake of controversy either. I’m looking at you, Dan Brown. Put the pen down and step away from the paper, slowly. Thank you.

If there is one thing that I’m truly passionate about in my life, it’s books. I spend my days surrounded by them. I edit them. I try to write them. I dive head first into them and hope that they don’t forget to let me go at the end. Some people, however, decide that it is up to THEM to protect the innocence of everyone else by banning a book that they personally find offensive, and attempting to prevent anyone else from reading it. First of all, this only makes people want the banned stuff even more (remember a little thing called prohibition?). Second, it raises the anger level of anyone with a relatively normal amount of common sense. People, these books were written the way they were for a reason. They need to exist as is. Have you heard that they’re attempting to reprint Huckleberry Finn without the use of the word “nigger” in it? Are we attempting to gloss over racism and act as though it never existed? I call bullshit. I intend to fight the banning of books until my dying day. Anyway, I’m going to step off of my soapbox now (the brakes are starting to give way, and I’m on a bit of a hill…), but I’ll leave you with this. Have a list of the most recently challenged books.

If she were here, I’d read a book with my significant other, but we both have work that we need to do. At least we had the weekend to spend together, visiting family, bowling, and whatnot. Anyway, I plan to use the time as a distraction from my ever ongoing job hunt, my need to finish my taxes (they’re done, just need to be filed, don’t worry), and my attempts to actually be productive with my own writing and editing projects (sorry, V, you know how I do).

I’m building a pantheon. The gods of this world are fun to create, especially in their descriptions. For example, the head of my order of gods is a goddess, atypical for most “mainstream” pantheons. Does that make my gods and goddesses hipsters? Yikes…Imagine Zeus, or even better, old one-eyed Odin, with the hipster glasses and a case of PBR at his side. Well, despite not being mainstream, per se, I think it’s better. The queen of the gods is a badass lady, beautiful and terrifying at the same time, and wielding a large glaive against her foes. I’m tempted to make death and a god/dess of the harvest into a single character. I dunno. Too many options present themselves at the moment. Time to go hide in a bookstore for a few hours.