It's All Good

The site is up and running again! So in celebration, I'll share some other good things... like good books!

I'll start with a recommendation for younger readers: The Sherlock Files: The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett. Tracy is a good friend of mine and a terrific writer. If you haven't read Cold In Summer, On Etruscan Time, or Anna of Byzantium (my personal favorite), you've missed out. Get them and read them! But on to the latest: The 100-Year-Old Secret kicks off a new middle grade mystery series by Barrett featuring the sibling sleuths Xena and Xander Holmes. Two typical American kids, they are less than certain about their futures when their parents move the family to London, England. They have to get used to new words ("biscuits" for "cookies"), new foods ("scones and clotted cream") and a new school (complete with uniforms— horrors!). But things get even crazier when they learn their great-great-great-grandfather was the real Sherlock Holmes— and they are given his casebook of unsolved mysteries as a gift. Xena and Xander can't resist a challenge, and pretty soon are off to track down a famous painting that's been missing since 1904. The book is a lot of fun and the two heroes are easy to like. Clues abound throughout the book, aided by sketches of the casebook's pages, so reading detectives can figure out the clever solution along with Xena and Xander. Suitable for ages 9-12, but older mystery lovers will enjoy it too!

When it comes to good reads, there's just something about England— specifically, the British Empire— that makes for great stories. Two recent jewels in the crown are Philip Reeve's Larklight and Starcross, set in a fanciful Victorian era Empire that has expanded into outer space. Mix a pirate yarn with an espionage novel, stir in massive quantities of steampunk science fiction and add a dash of Lemony Snicket style humor and you wind up with these two tall tales. The narration by the eleven-year-old Art Mumby (interrupted by his not-so-prim-as-she-tries-to-be fifteen-year-old sister Myrtle) is spot on. Our stalwart hero is convinced that no alien plot, however dark and devious, can stand up to British pluck— and off he goes to prove it, in rollicking style. These books are meant to be read, especially as the over-the-top illustrations just add to the humor (when the very proper Myrtle expresses certainty that the illustrator won't depict her in her nightgown, the next page does just that!). Indeed, the best way to give you a full appreciation for these two books is to repeat their full titles:
Larklight : Or the Revenge of the White Spiders! or to Saturn's Rings and Back!: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space
and
Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel and Curious Hats
What more needs to be said? Read 'em, by Jove!

And huzzah! A third book will be released on October 15:Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!

Yes indeed, life is good!

The Rescue

Out of the blackened wood he rode
into a dark grey dawn,
and thunder chased him with the wolves
over the barren lawn.
Up to the manor walls he flew,
as lightning licked his heels;
pursued by howls and thunderclaps
and the clash of distant steel.
With a splinter and crash the doors fell in,
kicked by his stallion's hooves,
and on he rode up the marble stairs,
without a look to the wolves.
The name he yelled from room to room
was drowned in the thunder’s cry,
and the savage howls of the wolves below
returned as his sole reply.

Out the window and growing near
fire raced down the road;
torches bright in the clouded light,
like gold from a demon's lode.

He leapt from his horse
to find her door, black as the night is dark.
He broke the lock with a pistol shot,
and hounds began to bark.
His sword was out, his blade was bright
with a light that filled the gloom;
His shoulder struck the blackened door;
her cry answered back from the room.
The door stood fast 'gainst all his blows,
held tight by a sorcerous spell,
and all his rage burned futilely bright
like an angel chained in Hell.
In the halls below arose the cries
of wolves and dogs and men,
of teeth and claws and musket blasts,
of death and battle's din.
Up the stairs the clatter came;
the clamor roared down the hall.
He turned away from the cries behind
as the blades began to fall.

His body lay outside the door;
The spell that held it fled.
She stepped in the glow of the morning light—
"You're rescued , lass," they said.

©2008 by Howard Shirley. All rights reserved.

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In case you're wondering, it's National Poetry Month. In honor of this, I thought I might offer a little something original for your enjoyment, hence the above, which has been languishing on my hard drive in various forms for several years. My goal in writing this was to capture the adventure poems I loved as a boy, which unfortunately I see very little of today. I also wanted to create a story poem that the reader could "fill in" as it were. Who is rescuing whom— and from what? Is the ending fortunate or tragic? You tell me what you see!

--- Howard Shirley