Whuf, Liese. So many things to be done at a time like that. I remember going with my mother to buy a new shirt for my father when he died.

Damn, Liese.

Oh, yes. Yes indeed, Liese.

Dayum.

Kauai 1974

There is warmth, and light, and permanence.

I lay in the sand. There are still scars visible from the accident and the surgeries. I don't give a damn. They're mine; the world can deal, or not.

Warmth, light, permanence.

Spouting Horn blows spray, cooling the air. On the crest above Poipu Beach, someone's got a radio on: bang a gong, get it on... I roll over, warmth rising on my cheekbones.

You don't like the sun; your pale English skin turns angry. I open my eyes, and realise you've left my side, gone back indoors, distant.

Light, warmth. No permanence.

But you're laying a value judgment on them as storytellers, and I wanted to know whether you'd read them from the perspective of a kid gobbling down a good story, or whether you were trying for the crit attitude.

Whether I try to use critical perspective or no, I agree with P-C -- Christopher Pike was better than R.L. Stine. While Stine has interesting quotes on writing, even at age 13 or 14 I thought his books were dreadful. As P-C says, Stine's chapters formulaically end with cliffhangers, which got incredibly tedious. Also, he just didn't have any gift for making characters live, while Pike did. I can still remember specific incidents and lines of dialogue from Pike, whereas Stine is just one big sucky blur 10 years on. To me, saying it's about "resonance" makes it sound like I'm picking chocolate over vanilla, whereas really this is (in terms of YA thrillers) Haagen-Dazs Dulce du Leche vs. freezer-burned bargain-basement vanilla. Now, I would say Pike had a better grasp of the mechanics of storytelling; then, I probably just thought he was scarier and funnier and sexier and wittier and, yes, better.

many of Stine's series books were eventually written by ghostwriters/packagers.

I was wondering this. There was Goosebumps a month in the heyday, wasn't there? A hard pace to keep up.

There was Goosebumps a month in the heyday, wasn't there?

Yup. And when Animorphs went to that schedule (and K.A. Applegate wanted to start yet another series) she went to ghostwriters, too. I got to write two of them, which was a hell of a lot of fun. Except the part where I had to figure out how to get the kids-morphed-into-cows out of a slaughterhouse.

Except the part where I had to figure out how to get the kids-morphed-into-cows out of a slaughterhouse.

Fun. Did they have human intelligence, or were they just ... cows?

They still had their own intelligence and personalities, but gained the instincts of whatever animal they'd morphed. In the other one, one of the girls got to be a starfish, and got cut in half by an overzealous toddler with a pail and shovel.

Whether I try to use critical perspective or no, I agree with P-C -- Christopher Pike was better than R.L. Stine.

Yes, but my point is, did you think that at age 12, reading them?

Cast your memory back to however old you were when you read the things, and try to remember their impact on you - those writers, any writers - at that age.

Because, you know, maybe I was a terribly underachieving twelve-year-old, but my reaction to Wind in the Willows at that age? Did not include mental sentences like "Well, of course, Grahame is using the original foundation of the sexuality in the Pan myth as an underpinning, with the metaphor of willing restlessness...."

And I don't believe anyone else thinks like that at age ten or twelve or whatever, either.

Any look we take at a childhood or adolescent read as adults is going to be coloured by the adult sophistication we've attained. I wanted to know what the visceral reactions - the kind most often seen in children - were to these authors.

Except the part where I had to figure out how to get the kids-morphed-into-cows out of a slaughterhouse.

OK. This just sounds FUN.

I'm now hard at work trying to track down editors and agents for our conference. So far my two best nibbles were the agent AmyLiz recommended I call and another agent who works with a promising newly-published writer in our chapter. It's amazing what a little name-dropping will do. The only thing I did differently in talking to them was say "AmyLiz suggested I call you," and "I know you work with M from our chapter," and they're all, "Seattle! Great! Been trying to get out there for awhile. Let me check my calendar, and I'll get back to you in a few days."