three random kidlit items

1.  Robert Clyde Bulla died last week, according to Publishers Weekly children's newsletter. He was 93, and had published 60 books. Our family favorite growing up was The Moon Singer (with another picture here), which is sadly out of print. Pictures by Trina Schart Hyman. A lovely book about being yourself in the wilderness rather than changing to fit the queen's big-city audience.

2.  My medievalist husband was doing research on medieval writing and holy people the other day and ran across the story of a real person named Lucy of Narnia. I know, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is dedicated to Lewis's goddaughter Lucy, but if Lewis was a medievalist, surely he was aware of this other Lucy, right? Kind of like the Viking chess pieces he sneaks into Prince Caspian.

3.  I haven't gotten much sleep lately. Thanks to last night's work, I went at it today and got another chapter finished, so five for May. It's shorter than the others, since I need to insert a lot of football play details. But I think I have the heart of the chapter, a turning point for the MC. Since the next chapter is largely written, things are moving along quickly. It's going to be a pile of dreck when I'm done, but it will be a shorter pile of dreck, and it will have taken less time than last time to produce. Since no one has seen my emerging first draft, I can still be excited about it, right?

German festivals

Germans have a lot of holidays and festivals. A common spring/summer festival is the beer festival. A lof of hillsides in Bavaria have these hobbit-like tunnels in the side where they store beer, and once a year they pull it out, set up the familiar green and orange picnic tables, and have a festival. This involves waaay more than just beer, though. It's much more like the county fair, only without the livestock and vegetables. Just the exciting stuff--food and rides. So today we went to one in the area, and here are some pictures. First, the massive Ferris wheel (Riesenrad, or Giant Wheel). My husband wanted to go on it, but it's actually one of the biggest ones in Europe, and the rest of us were too scared to go on it. Can you imagine bringing your two-year-old on this? I can't.

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