madelinekelly

I like Jane Yolen. I've never come across any of her books but, from reading her comments on MakingLight, I've found her to be a thoughtful, friendly person. And her comments on writing, on her website, are definitely worth reading. So, anyway, I think her response to the following question was perhaps ill-advised.

This is taken from a Newsweek article -- I don't know how old it is, although my children's writing group on Yahoo discussed aspects of this interview a few months ago, so I suppose it can't be very recent. Anyway, here it is:

Have you read all six Harry Potter books? What do you think of them?

I read the first three. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don't feel like they're well written. Besides, I wrote a book called "Wizard's Hall" [in 1991, eight years before the first "Harry Potter" book]. And there's an awful lot of "Wizard's Hall" in it [the Harry Potter books]. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. ["Wizard's Hall"] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn't think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There's a wicked wizard who's trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change. I have kids who write to me all the time and say, "I thought you had stolen Harry Potter, but my teacher pointed out that you published it eight years before Harry Potter."

I think a better answer might have been along the lines of "I read the first three, but I couldn't get into the fourth." Instead of which, she goes all unprofessional. Not pleasant to see, actually. It makes me feel embarrassed -- the way you do when you're sitting in the audience watching actors forget their lines in a really bad play.

ETA: I've added a link to Jane Yolen's website, for balance. :-)

Ten things that make me happy, in no particular order (tagged by leenielou).

1. Matt
2. The sea and sky
3. My friends
4. Reading a really good book
5. Watching characters do stuff in my head
6. Growing fruit and vegetables, and eating them
7. My family
8. A purring cat on my knee
9. Learning a new piano piece
10. Successfully teaching a new thing to a pupil

I'm supposed to tag five people to do this, but I can't think of five who'd want to do it. How about if we say that if you've read this and you'd like to do it then you should but if you've read this and you don't want to do it then you shouldn't? Yeah. That makes sense.