Geekfest: Could There Be a More Beautiful Name? by Lisa Ann Sandell

Lisa Ann Sandell is the author of the lyrical The Song of the Sparrow, which has earned many starred reviews. Her vivid debut novel, The Weight of the Sky, was also well received. Her next novel, A Map of the Known World, comes out on April 15, 2009. Check in later today to have a chance at winning both The Song of the Sparrow and and ARC of A Map of the Known World in a Geek Fest contest!

Geekfest: Could there be a more beautiful name?

Cardboard. Marigold yellow and white. I remember a marigold yellow and white cardboard box filled with kitty litter, or some other granular substance that looked and felt and smelled a lot like kitty litter (minus the actual cat poo). It was a Chanukah present from my parents, the best one ever. A cardboard box filled with kitty litter and fossils. FOSSILS! As in, fragments of dinosaur bone and trilobite imprints and ancient plant remains. OMG. A box of FOSSILS buried in kitty litter! And it came with a little guidebook, a brush, and a magnifying glass. I couldn’t imagine a better present, not for Chanukah or my birthday or Christmas or National Digging Up Dinosaurs Day—if only that were a holiday.

Well, as soon as my parents presented this magical box to me and I tore off the dreidel-covered wrapping paper, I began picking through the bits of gray, slightly smelly pieces of gravel, or litter box filler, excitedly unearthing piece after piece of prehistoric treasure. I flipped through the book; identified each piece I found, carefully dusting off the microscopic specks of dust; and stuck a small square sticker on whatever flat surface I could find. I painstakingly labeled those stickers with neatly drawn numbers, then pulled out a black and white freckled composition notebook and wrote the corresponding number alongside the name of the artifact. 1. Dinosaur bone (late Triassic – late Cretaceous?). 2. Trilobite (early Cambrian – lower Paleozoic), etc. Finally, I lovingly stored each fossil in a long, rectangular red velvet case, which I stored in the drawer of my night table, at my bedside, so I could examine and caress my precious finds whenever I wanted.

Oh my goodness, I was in geek heaven. A special corner of geek heaven—DINOSAUR geek heaven. And I couldn’t have been happier. Of course, I couldn’t let on to anyone I knew outside my immediate family that this was the best gift I’d ever gotten. In fact, I’m not sure anybody outside my immediate family even knew about my affinity for dinosaurs, aside from one or two bffs. And I didn’t get any less geeky as I grew older and moved into high school.

There, I was a full-fledged geek: top in my class in calculus, a chemistry lover, and…in the marching band (yes, I went to band camp). But I did everything I could to mask my geekiness. I didn’t necessarily succeed at camouflaging myself as one of the non-geeky, but not for lack of trying. I tried to dress trendily (fail), I tried to cover up my good grades, and I tried to convince myself that marching band was cool. Uh huh. Because to admit to geekiness was to admit to weakness, to loserdom, and I certainly wasn’t prepared to do that. At least not willingly.

Once I got to college, however, everything changed. There, I found that to be smart, to have “geeky” interests was actually cool. It was like four years of opposite day. And gradually I began to embrace my closeted geeky side. I learned how to recite the prologue of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English from memory; this bumped me up the geek-o-meter by about fourteen thousand points. Suddenly, I was kind of cool. I majored in medieval English literature and focused on Arthurian legend. Girls who love the mythology of King Arthur are not often considered cool, but in my college English department, it wasn’t even a question. The research that went into my senior thesis led to my second book, Song of the Sparrow. Snap!

And when I left college, suddenly, I realized, the geekier one was, the better. The more I read, the more I knew; the more Star Trek I watched, the more I had to talk about with my friends. Now, as a tried and true geek—still a space and dinosaur lover—and a fan of Battlestar Galactica, when people ask me if I watched the original Battlestar Galactica series (which I didn’t), I feel a pang of anxiety because maybe…maybe I’m not geeky enough. Ah, how things change. For the better!

So, I say: Geeks, stand strong. Wear your fossil-loving, dinosaur-hearting sci-fi nerdiness like the badge of honor that it is! And, geeks, unite!

Being a Book Geek by Maria V. Snyder

Maria V. Snyder has gotten much recognition for her Poison Study series. Here is my favorite quote on Poison Study- it's from the Publisher's Weekly starred review: "The first in a series, this is one of those rare books that will keep readers dreaming long after they've read it." That pretty much sums up Poison Study for me. Maria is now working on her next series- the Glass series. Book one is coming out in late April and is entitled Storm Glass. And you'll never believe what book is being given away later today...

First off, I want to thank the Not-So-Closet-Geeks for inviting me to be a guest blogger for their Geek Week. Thanks so much!

Now time to confess….looks over shoulder….I’m a book geek! I’ll blame my older sister Karen for starting me down this path a long time ago. And no, I’m not telling you how long – a lady never tells her age J My mother probably shares the blame as she had the audacity to read to me every night, but when my sister learned to read (she’s four years older than me….sorry three and a half years older than me – funny how she lorded the four years over me all during childhood, but now she corrects me all the time!) – when my sister learned to read—I was annoyed and jealous and mad that she could read and I couldn’t.

Competition and peer pressure can be a good thing at times. Determined to learn to read, I quickly picked it up and was always a year ahead in reading at school. We didn’t own many books when I was growing up (although we made frequent trips to the library). In fact, I can remember (and I still have) the books in my modest childhood collection (my sister may claim some of these books were her’s first – tough – you snooze, you lose J )

My book geekiness started with Never Tease a Weasel, by Jean Conder Soule and grew to three with the addition of Swimmy and Frederick, both by Leo Lionni. Then an unexpected fountain of goodness came in the mail for a while. My mother signed me up for a beginner book club and I received books like The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, The Big Honey Hunt by Stanley and Janice Berenstain, Are You My Mother? and Go Dog Go (my favorite!) both by P.D. Eastman, and A Fly Went By, by Mike McClintock. I had to look up the author names, but I could probably recite the stories by heart. “So…The fly ran away in fear of the frog, who ran from the cat, who ran from the dog.” from, A Fly Went By.

Unfortunately the books stopped coming, but my love of books and reading continued. The Northeast Branch of the Philadelphia Library became my second home – good thing is was only four blocks away. The children’s section was in the ground floor – and you would think it would be dark, but high windows let in plenty of sunlight and it was fun to watch people from the knee down walking along the sidewalk.

My collection did increase in bits and pieces. A few Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books and some mysteries. My mother read mysteries so when I “graduated” from the children’s section, I automatically started reading Agatha Christie, Ed McBain, Robert B. Parker, Dick Francis, etc…

My future brother-in-law introduced me to the science fiction and fantasy genres when I was in college. (another point in my blame-my-sister defense – she married a fellow book geek J) I really started collecting books when I graduated college and was working. Basically, when I had money. I enjoy collecting every single Dick Francis book, and then I started trying to get signed books. And being a geek, I decided to try and have only first editions signed (which for Dick Francis some are nearly impossible to find – nearly – good thing the Internet came along and my husband—who is rather adept at ferreting out elusive editions J).

The need to collect books is addicting. I can’t pass a bookstore without stopping and my TBR pile is quite large. My husband crafted built-in bookshelves for my office, but it still wasn’t enough room (I had to perform a book triage and weed them out – I donated boxes and boxes to my local library for their annual book sale – I kept all my signed ones and favorites of course J ).

I don’t think I’ll ever convert to a digital reader – having a book in hand is, for me, all part of the reading experience. The smell of the print and the feel of the paper can’t be replicated.

And I wonder at this need to own a book, to see it on my shelf (and seeing my own books on the shelf is still an amazing thrill). My mother and sister, both big readers are quite content to borrow them from the library – they have no desire to fill up their houses with books (shocking!). And I have no problems in sharing my books – I think I’m a closet librarian. When a friend or family member’s looking for…something to read, I delight in picking out books for them to try (as long as they promise to return them J).

And I wonder at my son, who I read to every single night for over 10 years and who views reading as a….I can’t…so hard to type…..as a CHORE! Gasp! The Horror! Yet my daughter has picked up the addiction and already has shelves full of books (can you say no when your child wants you to buy a book?? Really? Well, I can’t J).

What makes a book lover versus a non-reader? Why do some feel the need to possess the pile of pages glued together versus borrowing from the library? I haven’t been able to figure it out. It’s a mystery! Speaking of mysteries….I hear Harlan Coben’s coming out with a new book….I’ll just check……………………

Curiosity question: Alright, booklovers. When did you discover your love for reading and how?

What is Geek? by Sarah of Sarah's Random Musings

Today's book blogger guest blogger (this sounds slightly repetitive but also technically correct to me) is Sarah of Sarah's Random Musings. Sarah not only writes wonderful reviews, but she is also a pretty amazing person. And here is the guest blog she wrote for Geek Fest...



Am I geek?


Geek is just a slang term, for someone that is "a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, etc." according to Wikipedia. I am definitely Geek. I can’t just love something; it becomes an utter part of me, like with most tweens with cellphones.


I first found that I was different in 5th grade. My friends hated homework and while I would rather be reading. I still found homework rather awesome (I was a strange kid.). I would read ahead in my history and science books. I also did math for fun. When I was allowed to pick my classes, I took the hardest ones possible and while the homework was time consuming, I still had fun with it and did well. Even when I got sick in Tenth grade, I learned all the medical terms on the table and then some. My obsession went to books, in the following year. On the way, I found Doctor Who- a show in which a whole another guest blog is needed to describe how much I love it. I also discovered Youtube and Brother 2.0. Found awesomeness of being a Nerdfighter. Then, I started my book blog (Sarah’s Random Musings) in last September. I finished 365 books in one year and surprised myself on how much someone can read in one year. I am now doing a vlog project with some fellow bloggers, and I am overly excited. It actually starts this week.
Being a Geek isn’t a bad thing. Or even being a nerd, dork, or insert any label. When the label is gone, you are still amazing. So, embrace your inner geekiness and admit it. The worst thing that could happen is having more interests. I AM A GEEK AND I AM PROUD OF IT!


Thank you, NSCG for letting me do a guest blog for Geek Fest. It was a lot fun.


Take Care, Sarah.

Geek Like Me by Susan Juby

Susan Juby is the over-the-top hilarious author of the Alice series, Another Kind of Cowboy, and Getting the Girl. Getting the Girl has been reviewed by the NSCGs here. If you plan on reading her books, get ready to unleash a geeky guffaw. I am not kidding.

There was a time when I fronted. Yes, it’s true. I tried to pretend that I was not harboring a geek the size of a 1970s rec room just under my skin. I paid a terrible price for geekery when I was a kid (think groups of children chanting about mismatched footwear and indeterminate gender thanks to persistent and poorly executed pixie haircut) and decided, enough! Being a geek is too hard.

So I covered my inner geek with inoffensive, earth-toned carpets and posters of Scott Baio. I kept the big words to a minimum and hid my books. I stopped spending every spare minute wandering about in swamps with a jar and a large net because I wanted to be Gerald Durrell when I grew up.

In other words, I shamed my geek. She kept trying to come out. She made me fall in love with bands no one else could stand and caused me to glom onto the worst possible aspects of the latest fashions, including but not limited to granny boots worn with striped and lacy bloomers and puffy sleeved white shirts.

After high school, I should have let her free. But she was so explosive in her needs, that I was a little afraid. Instead I hung out with other people who let their geek flags fly. I hoped proximity would calm her. It worked for a while, but by the time university was over, she would no longer be denied.

I knew she was loose in all her orange plaid glory, complete with green shag carpet and buck teeth, when she dragged me off to join an aquarium hobbyist club. In the years since, she’s kept me busy with trips to look at show chickens and yearly readings of Lord of the Rings. She sometimes makes me wear a wet suit, goggles and flippers to the lake across from our house. In June. Teen girls will be sprawled around in tiny yellow bikinis, surrounded by flexing and imposing young men. And then there will be me and my inner rec room geek standing on the beach like the creature from the black lagoon.

The tanned people snicker as my geek and I walk gingerly into the water. (We wear a wetsuit because she hates being cold and doesn’t care who knows it). When I’m tempted to be embarrassed, I shrug and think, ah, well, she’s earned it. You have no idea what she went through as a kid.

Geek Fest: I Am A Theater Geek by Lisa Mantchev

Lisa Mantchev is the author of many short stories and the soon-to-be-released Eyes Like Stars (July 2009), part one in the Theatre Illuminata Trilogy. Eyes Like Stars captures the imagination through a combination of theatre, fantasy, humor, and love. Bella Aire, still a bit starry eyed after reading Lisa Mantchev's debut novel, predicted for it to be one of the best YA novels in 2009. Eyes Like Stars is on the NSCG List of Favorite Books. Check in later to have a chance at winning a personalized ARC of this fabulous novel!

"My mother left a half-crimped pie crust sitting on our kitchen counter to take me to my first audition. I was seven. The play was South Pacific. The director knew me from the holiday shows at school, which also meant that he knew I could memorize and bellow lines, take stage directions, and, perhaps most importantly, that he could count on my mom to bring me to rehearsals on time.

Sent onstage at the audition with five or six other kids, I was asked to recite a poem. I launched into a veritable manifesto by Kay Starbird. With the stage lights in my eyes and the audience reduced to that hazy glow, I told them about "Eat It All Elaine" and her propensity for eating twigs and rocks and prune pits.

One morning, berry picking, a bug was in her pail

And though we thought for certain her appetite would fail,

Elaine said, "MMMmmm, a stink bug."

And while we murmured "EWWW"

She ate the pail of berries and ate the stink bug, too!

The warm laughter that sloshed to and fro after I delivered those lines hooked me forever. Well, that, and they dyed my hair black so I could play one of the children living on Bali H'ai. Singing, plus costumes, plus getting to stay up late, plus flowers on opening night, plus hair dye? Count me in.

After South Pacific came Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, and The Nutcracker with my ballet class. I was obsessed with props and costuming. Wanting to read about the theater, I devoured the Shoes series by Noel Streatfeild, in which children attend Madame Fidolia's Academy of Dance and Stage Training. The Fossil sisters (Ballet Shoes) are cast in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard the Third. I asked for, and got, a Complete Works of Shakespeare for my tenth birthday.

When I didn't have my nose buried in a book, I was onstage: Grease, in high school, and the lead role in Eleemosynary, by Lee Blessing. After seeing a group of traveling performers put on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with only three actors and a small box of props, I was inspired to write a children's play. I took it to the creative directors at the community playhouse who had cast me in Eleemosynary and said, "I'd like to direct this here."

To my (now) amazement, they said yes. Twenty kids, all under the age of sixteen, put up with my bellowed directions for two months and a weekend's worth of performances. We got written up in the local paper, and my high school newspaper ran a series of columns on students known for their extra curricular pursuits; they labeled me "The Writer."

I was annoyed, because I was headed off to University of California , Irvine to become a Real Actress.

Except something about the university drama program immobilized me. I had never auditioned using monologues; we always read from the scripts in community theater. A few disastrous auditions into my freshman year, I stopped believing in my ability to deliver a line. I was too tall, too busty, too awkward because I felt tall and busty. Suddenly, I didn't know what to do with my hands. I didn't know where to look during the audition, because the director was sitting right in front of me in a fully-lit room.

Instead of acting, I stage managed. Cleaned costumes. Tended to quick wardrobe changes for the actresses onstage. I took musical theater and advanced lighting design, learning the hard way (during a graded project) never to fade a porch light. For my senior thesis project, I did the costume, scenic, and lighting design for Much Ado About Nothing. While I was painting and gluing and rigging up HO scale train layout lights into my miniature catwalks, I also enrolled in a playwriting class.

Somewhere in between filling out character sheets and constructing short scenes, I remembered that I was also a Writer.

It was inevitable, when I sat down to write My First Real Novel, that it would be about the stage. It was only later, when Shakespearean characters were scampering about a teenaged main character with flaming blue hair that I realized just how full-circle I've come. These feet haven't been onstage for close to five years, but part of me lives at the Théâtre Illuminata... the little girl covered in body paint with a silk flower in her dyed-black hair, the one who wanted desperately to play Wendy in Peter Pan but had no idea why a thimble would be a kiss, the teenager who wouldn't take no for an answer to any question. It's the part that flares to life when I take my seat in the audience, burns bright when the lights dim and the curtain goes up. It's the magic that bridges the real world and the place where anything is possible.

If anyone is looking for Neverland or Narnia, they can meet me backstage. No need to prepare a monologue. Costumes will be provided."

Taste the bad candy at Lisa's website.

Check out the brand new Theatre Illuminata site!

Curiosity question: who else has been involved in theatre/had some theatre experiences?

In Praise of Geocaching by Justina Chen Headley (aka headless3)

Justina Chen Headley is the award-winning author of Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies), Girl Overboard, and North of Beautiful. Her books have earned many fans and starred reviews for her ability to create strong and unique relationships. She is on the NSCG's list of favorite authors, and both Girl Overboard and North of Beautiful have claimed spots on the NSCG Favorite Books List. Read my rave review of North of Beautiful here. But the most amazing thing about Justina Chen Headley is that she is an author who truly gives back. Learn about how you can help Justina donate to Global Medical Surgeries here.

"Here’s the truth: I am the most directionally challenged person on the planet. Honestly, I should be in the Guiness Book of World Records for my extraordinary ability to get lost. East, west, north, and south are merely math problems disguised as words. I always look with suspicion at people who tell me to drive north when narrative would be so much more illustrative: drive until you hit the mustardy yellow sign that looks like something your kid could throw up and then turn right.

It is a miracle, then, that I geocache. Think of geocaching as treasure hunting a la high tech geek. Armed with a GPS device and coordinates (longitude and latitude) found on http://www.geocaching.com/, geeks around the world seek out treasures. Many are cleverly named, most are cleverly concealed. That rusty old bolt on a dilapidated tractor? A tiny cache could be glued to it, found only if you unscrewed the bolt.

Caches are everywhere. Easter Island? 7 caches. Great Wall of China? Yup, geocaches there. Antarctica? Uh-huh. In your neighborhood? Chances are, yes—in your parks, near your favorite stores, under mailboxes in front of your city hall. (Oh, yes, the staffers laughed at my friend, Lorie Ann Grover, and I as we searched fruitlessly around their building. At last, they took pity on us and intoned over a loudspeaker: “Check under the mailbox.”)

Wherever I go, I geocache—through Omaha and Seattle. In Shanghai and Central Washington. The caches take me to scenic spots I’d never notice on my own. They connect me with nature. They feed my sense of fun. And I always get in a good walk to boot!

It is pure, sheer geeky fun. So geeky, I had to use it in my novel, North of Beautiful. And so it is that Terra discovers, partly through geocaching, that she isn’t stuck in the tight grid box that her controlling cartographer of a father has locked her in. But that she can break out into the world, map her own way to beautiful, never to be lost again."

A curiosity question: have you ever gone geocaching?

What Is a Geek? by Zoe Marriott

Zoe Marriott is the author of The Swan Kingdom and Daughter of the Flames. The Swan Kingdom has been short-listed for the Lincolnshire Young People's Book Award and nominated for the 2008 Cybil Award in the Young Adult SF category. Daughter of the Flames came out in the US last month. Zoe Marriott's beautiful style of fantasy blends a soft fairytale tone with her own unique spin to the story. And the best part? Zoe is an incredibly nice and genuine person. Don't miss the giveaway for her books scheduled to post later today!

"What the heck is a geek now, anyway?

That was my first thought when Bella suggested that I do a guest blog on that theme. I mean, I was delighted to be asked and everything, but I wished the theme could have been something a little simpler. Like...I dunno...quantum time-slip theory or something.

You see, when I was in school, having that name applied to me made tears prick my eyes. And believe me, I spent a lot of time crying, because back then I was the textbook definition of a geek. I was taller than most of the boys, I had coke-bottle lense glasses, I had a 'posh' accent (most of the people in my area sounded like Christopher Eccleston - you know, the last Doctor Who) and, worst of all (gasp, shock, horror) I was not ashamed of being clever. I actually put my hand up in class without having to be forced to. I got - and laughed at - the teacher's weird jokes. I read books. In public!

That was before geek was ever an affectionate term. That was before clever, funny girls like Bella had blogs and LiveJournal accounts where they got to reach out to other funny, clever girls all over the world and make that term into something cool. Back then, a geek was the scum on everyone else's shoe. And once you were down there, everyone felt free to just keep stepping on you. Frankly, being called names was one of the milder abuses that I was subjected to.

Because I was a geek, I was punched in the face. Had my glasses ripped off and stamped on. Had ink poured down my back and chewing gum put in my hair. I was tripped in the hallways and pushed down the stairs. On two memorable occasions, I was spat on.

Looking back, I just can't figure out why the kids I went to school with hated geeks - hated me - so much. They'd already slapped their label on me, right? They'd already dismissed me as below contempt. All those cool kids who hung out at the back of the bike-shed, smoking, making out, drinking cheap alcohol and graffiti-ing all over the walls: they were at the top of the food chain in school. Everyone wanted to go to their 'orgies'. Everyone wanted to wear the clothes they wore, listen to the music they liked, be part of their group. Even the teachers didn't bother them. So why the heck did they spend their valuable time coming up with more and more ways to make my life, and the lives of other geeks, utterly miserable? Didn't they have anything better to do?

Wait a second! Suddenly, we've come full circle. Because the answer to that question is, of course: 'No'. Those kids really didn't have anything better to do with their time than harass innocent geeks. Maybe they didn't realise it consciously back then, but those years in school when they got to do whatever they wanted to do, say whatever they wanted to say, abuse and beat people up and no one dared mess with them? Those were going to be the best years of their lives. They had to make the best of it, because life was only going one way once they graduated - downhill.

That's why they hated us. That's why they had to torment us. Because us Geeks? We were just biding our time. When we left school, our lives were going to open up in a thousand different directions, taking us anywhere that we had the brains and ambition to go. Those cool kids had to get their licks in while they had the chance. Pretty soon, they weren't going to be able to touch us.

Thinking about that made me realise, even though 'geek' is not the same insult now it was when I was ten years younger, the meaning hasn't really changed all that much either. What is a geek? It's a person with brains, talent, passion. A geek is a person with things to do and places to be. A geek is a person who just might change the world one day.

So call me a geek. Maybe I'll even get it tattooed on my arm. I'm a geek, baby. And proud of it."

Zxxx