Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part six

What is your fantasy?
After lunch Jenn Martin (@wateryone) led us through a series of small groups discussions on the various Fantasy titles we had read prior to coming to the seminar. We approached our reading from the viewpoint of Nancy Pearl's 'doorways' of language, character, setting, and story/plot and considered our expectations of reading a Fantasy title versus the actual experience of the one we read. the bottom line was to consider the appeal of Fantasy to our library clients.
This was a fun session, highlighted by Vassiliki's (@vaveros) reading of Urgum the Axeman who keeps trying to die heroically only to be constantly foiled by the gods he worships who want to keep him alive as he is their last believer and without him they would perish and be forgotten. For Vassiliki reading this was all about character.

Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part five

Ellen Forsyth from the State Library of NSW (@ellenforsyth) spoke briefly regarding the Stock Quality Health Check (SQHC) - a project to develop a practical tool which enables public libraries to undertake an assessment of the relevance, depth and range of collection stock in relation to the communities they service.


Sound fancy?


Actually, I think this is a fantastic project and one I can really see the usefulness of in my workplace. To be honest I'm quite excited about this project - compiling an indicative list across numerous AF genres which can then be used to gauge the coverage of the library's collection is such a useful and practical idea. I'm also looking forward to parts 2 & 3 - nonfiction and junior/ya fiction

Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part four

Just before we broke for lunch at Dragons in the Metcalfe we were introduced to Sophie Morales sophiam@galaxybooks.com.au , who runs a paranormal romance book club at Galaxy Books (where she also works) introduced us to some of the sub-genres of Fantasy, plus a bit of a look at what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s going to be hot over the next 12 months. A delightful presenter with an amazing generosity on sharing what she knows, Sophie again reinforced the advantage of having presenters from Book Shops at these seminars – she really knows her stuff.

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Subgenres of Fantasy

Dark – Stephen King : Eyes of the dragon
Merrvyn Peake - Gormenghast trilogy
Michael Moorcock
Fritz Leiber – Our Lady of Dark
James Clemens – The Witch series
Stephen Leather – Nightfall / Midnight
Kate Griffin – In the Midnight

Comic – Terry Pratchett (the ever poluar and the best!!)
Terry Brooks

Urban – tied to setting – Jim Butcher (suggest that libraries should get all his titles)
Simon R. Green
Patricia Briggs
Ilona Andrews
Epic – Robert Jordan
Joe Abercrombie
Patrick Rothfuss

Heroic –

Historic ? – Guy Gavriel Kay - Ysabel

YA – Tamora Pierce
Kirstin cashore
Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games series
Julie Kagawa – The Iron Court series
Holly Black
Melissa Marr – themes of dark faeries / tattoos
Gail Carriger – steampunk, Victorian, very cool

Upcoming themes ? – mermaids, zombies, minotaurs

Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part three

Next up at Dragons in the Metcalfe were the ever popular Lightning Talks – 5 slides in 2 minutes.

Martin Mantle – Armidale Library – Non-western motifs in Fantasy fiction.
· Raymond Feist / Janny Wurts
· Western / European
· Japanese
· Middle East
· India
· Sophie Masson – Mulsim / Hindu / Buddhist – a local Armidale author! –
· Graphic comic book - the Ninety-Nine / The 99 – al-tisa’a

Heather Thomson – Monavale Library – Holding The Book : using kindles in reading groups
· 1 purchase allows 6 copies
· Catalogued kindles to allow issues/returns
· Portable / storage / clarity (of screen)
· Blandness of reading experience

Anne Duffield – Ultimo Library - @Edwirinia – What are you reading?
· Listening to others (staff) talk about books
· Broadening knowledge
· Getting to know who reads what, what titles/authors are out there

Martin Mantle – Armidale Library – Disability in Fantasy Fiction – a fantastic talk, left everyone wanting more!!
· Impairment vs Disability
· Impairment – Body, Mind, Senses
· Disability – Environment, Technology
· Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever – has leprosy
· Garth Nix – asthma of main character is what enables him to enter fantasy world

Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part two

Dragons in the Metcalfe exposed public library staff to some interesting speakers.

Following on from Brent Weeks, Rowena Specht-Whyte - @Rowena-SW - spoke to us next about her role as an Aurealis Awards judge and #specfic (Speculative Fiction / Fantasy) in particular. The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications specifically “to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers”. The awards cover five categories: science fiction, fantasy, horror, young adult, and children’s fiction (ages 8-12 years, added in 2001). The YA and children's categories cover works in all three speculative fiction genres. These categories each have two separate awards, one for novels and one for short fiction. To qualify an author must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and have published an appropriate title during the set period (currently 1st Nov through to 31st Dec of the following year). It is up to the judges’ discretion as to which category a book fits into.

So what does an Aurealis judge look for in a Fantasy novel?
· World building
· Character
· Supernatural / ‘fantastic’ element
· Consistency


Some winning authors:

· Sara Douglass
· Isobelle Carmody
· Juliet Marillier
· Garth Nix
· Traci Harding
· Patricia Wrightson
· Sean Williams
· Kim Wilkins
· etc
· etc
· etc



Rowena is a passionate reader whose enthusiam was an inspiration for everyone!

Dragons in the Metcalfe - #ra2011 - part one

Back on March 9th I had the fun of participating in the annual Readers Advisory seminar at the State Library of NSW – Dragons in the Metcalfe. It’s taken me some time to compile my thoughts on that day, but here they are…….. (this may take a while .............)

Following on from an Intro from Ellen Forsyth & the Executive at NSL, we launched straight in to a fabulous Skype session with American Fantasy Author, Brent Weeks - @brentweeks - the author of The Night Angel trilogy and The Black Prism (first title in the Lightbringer series). Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe at 12 yrs old, Weeks was comforted by the language and sense of kindred spirit he found in reading books – and noted that Librarians have the skills necessary to give the right books to the right people!!

After a beautiful description of his relationship with his older brother, Weeks explained how he came to write The Black Prism – a book about brothers and what happens when the “rules” for fighting are broken. In any novel you use the people around you to inspire characterisation. In The Black Prism, Gavin & Dazen have a love / loathing relationship (like many siblings). The use of Kip as ‘the fat kid’, the outsider who is necessary for success is pertinent to this story. It’s about keeping secrets and complicated love – “the human heart in conflict with itself”. Personally, it’s absolutely brilliant!

Weeks went on to talk about Fantasy as a genre as some authors he regards as being important to the genre. Whilst Tolkein popularised the genre it did not start with him. Rather Lester Del Rey had a bet with other publishers which led to the genre becoming commercially viable.
* Terry Brooks and his Sword of Shannara promoted the genre and really kicked it off.
* Robert Jordon’s Wheel of Time series shows the sheer scope of huge Fantasy (epic at 13 books with Book 14 due out in 2012).
* The 1990’s brought us George R. Martin and the concept of Fantasy without the Romanticism (A Song of Ice and Fire series).
* Joe Abercrombie’s Fantasy is gritty (UK, First Law series).
* Whilst Scott Lynch is described as “oceans meets Fantasy”.
* Brandon Sanderson, currently finishing Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, writes very fast, has a number of YA titles already (including Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians), and is bound to be as big as George R. Martin.
* Peter V. Brett – The Painted Man;
* NK Jemison – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms;
* Nnedi Okorafor – Who fears death?;
* Paolo Bacigalipi – YA, exploring political / social issues; Sci-Fi / dystopian future;
* Pat Rothfuss – The Name of the Wind, has beautiful prose and is literary Fantasy, will be a best seller.
*For YA / Urban fantasy try Gail Carraigher – Soulless, Blameless, Nameless (light Victorian vampire novels), and
* Jim Butcher (huge!).

So why did Brent Weeks choose to write Fantasy? Fantasy as genre is huge, like a playground without fences. The sky is the limit for imagination – the author creates the world, presents the unfamiliar, and allows readers to see things with new eyes. In reading about the ‘thugi’ in India during the period of British Imperialism (ambushed travellers by joining merchant caravans and at an agreed spot would strangle merchants and disappear with the goods – they did not believe in spilling blood), discovers how hard it is to untangle the truth of history, where our own perspectives influence how we view the events / or the import/impact of the events. Writing Fantasy allows authors and readers to break away from this and create a sense of magic exploring new cultures – telling stories with lots of action and moral dilemmas.

I was impressed by Brent Weeks’ presentation, especially when our webcam went a little skewed and whilst we could still see him, he lost all sight of us and got a lovely shot of the ceiling!! Presenting via Skype isn’t easy but he was an absolute joy to listen to and so open and forthcoming with his viewpoints and ideas and oh so generous in giving of his time to talk with us as he did.

On a personal note. I first read The Night Angel trilogy and decided that I had found my new favourite Fantasy author. I was re-inspired to read more and to get closer to this genre which is already one of my favourites. Reading The Black Prism I was completely blown away by Weeks' capacity to create this amazing, believable world and characters that I simply needed to know more about.
I had always read light fantasy stories about dragons and faeries and the like as a child but I was first introduced to Fantasy as a very young teenager when someone handed me The Lord of The Rings and I did not sleep until I finished it (yes, 3 days is a very long time, thank goodness I started it on a Friday evening!), closely followed by Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever. From that moment I was hooked on Fantasy. The Night Angel trilogy and The Black Prism has brought me back to that point and I am inspired once again by this fantastic genre!

February's #readit2011 and #heartreads

The NSW Readers Advisory Group is running another reading challenge during 2011 - #readit2011.

The challenge this year is to read a particular theme each month and either tweet about it using the #readit2011 tag (http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23readit2011) and/or add your reading list to the RA wiki (http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/2011+Librarian%27s+Reading+Challenge).

During January the theme was Horror, reflecting the Summer Reading Club’s “scare up a good book” theme, using the twitter tag #suagb.
For February the theme is Romance, linking in with Library Lovers Day / Valentine’s Day, and using the tag #heartreads.
March’s theme is Fantasy (or speculative fiction) to tie in with this year’s RA seminar – Dragons in the Metcalfe.
And so on, you can go to the readit2011 blog to find out more - http://readit2011.wordpress.com/

This is not a reading challenge just for fiction lovers nor just for books, this is a chance to read, listen, perform, and even play games all based around the theme for that month. So why not challenge yourself and join #readit2011 today.

#suagb resources

I was browsing the reference shelves this morning and stumbled on titles from the Read on series from Libraries Unlimited.

Most pertinent to the current #readit2011 challenge and January's theme of Scare Up A Good Book (#suagb) was the title: Read on... Horror Fiction by June Michelle Pulliam & Anthony J. Fonseca. Each chapter covers a particular appeal characteristic - Story, Mood & Atmosphere, Setting, Character, Language. Plus an appendix for Horror on Film, another for Series, and one for Genreblends (including Splatterpunk). It's my new favourite resource!

Thinking about the upcomong RA seminar in March (Dragons in the Metcalfe), I also grabbed Read on... Fantasy Fiction by Neil Hollands. This title again includes chapters on Story, Character, Setting, Mood, and Language. Plus an appendix of Suggested Trilogies and other Series, and another of Award Winning Fantasies.

#readit2011

From a recent PLN e-list post:-

After a very successfull 2010 Librarians Reading Challenge, the NSW Readers Advisory Group are inviting library staff to take part in our 2011 Librarians Reading Challenge.
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/2011+Librarian%27s+Reading+Challenge
and to join the Twitter Reading Group so as to engage with the broader online community.

2011 Librarians Reading Challenge
Each month in 2011, we are encouraging librarians to read items on a set theme and to then post their choices to the corresponding month on the NSWRA wiki. Your reading experience on the topic for the month can vary from books and blogs to poetry, plays or essays.
As well as discussing what they are reading in the library, some library staff will also be tweeting about their reading on twitter using the hashtag #readit2011 as well as specific monthly themed hashtags.
To take part you will need to be a member of the NSW Readers Advisory Wiki.
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/
Once you are a member you can go to the 2011 Librarian's Reading Challenge page and add your name.

2011 Twitter Reading Group
The Twitter Reading Group (and blog - http://readit2011.wordpress.com/) is an opportunity to run programs for the broader library clients and online communities. This is an online reading group, one that involves microblogging, blogging and taking pictures about reading. Through this program, we will be encouraging our clients to tweet, blog or post photographs about what they are reading. This is also an opportunity to engage with online users who are not currently library users.
For more information on the 2011 Twitter Reading Group go to
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/2011+Twitter+Reading+Group

Already #readit2011 has taken off on Twitter with January's #suagb (scare up a good book) theme. It looks to be a great year for reading - and for sharing online.