Please note: The following story is in fact what we call fan fiction. This means that the author is playing around with characters, plot, and settings that were first conceived of by someone else. In this particular case, Enola Holmes is property of Nancy Springer and Sherlock Holmes is property of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The modernization and the plot belong to Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat. Chapter the First My name is Enola Holmes. I am 18 years old and work in central London as the world’s only scientific perditorian – that is, I use […]
Writing, Writing, Writing
It’s very rare these days (although slowly becoming less rare) that I have a day off in which to get things done. Those things are typically chores. (Today I got the oil changed on my car.) But what I really want to be using these days off for is writing. The trouble is the writing doesn’t always come to me at the most convenient times. I have a couple of pages full of writing that I will not be publishing (but contain the gist of an idea) that happened upon me while I was at […]
Musings on Writing
Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing. The ideas bounce around, bumbling, rolling, hitting the walls inside my brain begging to be spilled out into the fathomless unknown of the world around me, wanting to be birthed and read and loved. And I look at them and think, ‘Yes. It’s time. You should come out now.’ But then I sit to write down these words and nothing happens. I stare at a blank screen, my fingers itching to add something, to mark it up with shapes and words and colors. To turn the blank canvas into […]
Eerie Silence
The world stood still. It was quiet. We could feel the shock. It was one thing at three am. But the world held on. The tears would not come any longer. The train station was quiet. The train car was quiet. No cars honked on the way into work. And Boston wasn’t alone. Arriving at work was it’s own thing. No “good mornings” were uttered. We just looked at each other, Dumbfounded. Move on with our day, but look In disbelief As the world feels like it crashes around us. As the day progressed, We […]
History Chat: The Earliest Constitutions
Most of the questions I have involving history are because I heard someone say something that didn’t quite line up with my existing knowledge. Either that or someone posed a question I didn’t know the answer to and had to look it up. Since I spend most of my time either in a classroom or a museum, this happens quite a lot. Today’s inquiry came from a simple statement. John Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, the oldest Constitution in the country. So, I will start with the part that is the easiest to […]
BOTM: Enchanted Islands Parts One and Two
Okay, so I admit, I’m starting this without actually finishing the book, but I needed to take a moment to stop and reflect. The first two parts of this book are really what lead Frances Frankowski to her job and mission in Navel Intelligence. I was beginning to wonder, honestly, when we were going to meet Ainslie Conway, the man we know from the beginning that Fanny is going to marry. That being said, having some clue of where this book was going did make the journey through parts one and two more bearable. We […]
Shadows of Sherwood: Eerie Hints of Democracy’s Downfall
For the first book of the summer to read off of the Dorothy Canfield Fischer 2016-2017 Nominee List, I read Shadows of Sherwood: A Robyn Hoodlum Adventure by Kekla Magoon. Below are my reactions. We have backup plans. And backups of backup plans – specifically for the situation that Shadows of Sherwood suggests. That doesn’t stop the story from being frightening – particularly in the age of Trump running for president. When I have a student come up to me asking if Trump is going to win because she’s afraid of what’s going to happen to her […]
Dorothy Canfield Fischer: New Reads, New Opinions
I’m going to start reading Shadows of Sherwood on my drive back to Vermont today. The idea will be that if I can finish that book amongst all the packing, and finish Ocean at the End of the Lane, I will have two new book reviews for this blog relatively soon. I love fantasy, but I also love historical fiction. The Dorothy Canfield Fischer Award is Vermont’s YA book award, and it gave me a good starting place for this summer’s list of books to read. My name gave me a good place to start on this […]
Down the Rabbit Hole
This blog post contains some spoilers for After Alice by Gregory Maguire. As the book was only very recently released, this warning has been put her as a courtesy. After Alice by Gregory Maguire, if you have not yet read it, is a reintroduction to a world that doesn’t make sense. It is the dark side of Wonderland. I will admit, it’s tame in comparison to some versions. (I refer here to Splintered by A. G. Howard as well as a few other versions I can just barely think of off the top of my head.) But […]
Choreography: “Under Cover of Darkness”
This is the first post in this category, and depending on what else is going on, hopefully not the last. Changing studios and moving and all of that makes these things very up in the air, but I wanted to discuss the inspiration behind this piece because it makes me sound completely geeky – and also completely in love with what I do. “Under Cover of Darkness” is the first piece I ever choreographed for competition. (I do not count throwing together a long line and a short line of dance for ballroom “choreographing for […]