Poetry Friday - The Herding Teacher's Name

A little doggerel (or cat-eral) about one of my favorite characters from my Ratha series about intelligent prehistoric cats; Thakur, the clan's herding teacher. It addresses a silly problem with his name. Somewhat inspired by Edward Lear:

The Herding Teacher's Name (or I Should Be Working on Something Else)
(just for fun)

by Clare Bell

The herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR
I'll admit that it's a little bit obscure
Although it sounds absurd
It's a Bengali word
The herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR

Oh the herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR
I can't blame you if you're not really sure
The books where he resides
Lack pronunciation guides
Yes, the herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR

We call the herding teacher Ta-KOOR
THA-kur isn't right and needs a cure
It was a glaring feature in the TV movie "Creature" *
But the herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR

Get it through your furry heads; it's Ta-KOOR
If you say it wrong you may not be a boor
As it's writ in Ratha's Creature
It really does mean "teacher"
The poor herding teacher's name is Ta-KOOR

Ah, the herding teacher goes by Ta-KOOR
Regrettably it rhymes with "manure"
You must do quite a dance
When herding elephants
Since they leave behind a whole lot more than spoor.
And the herding teacher says his name ... TA-KOOR!

(copyright 2008 by Clare Bell)

Using Children's Nonfiction For Research - See Inside an Aztec Town

For an author, especially when faced with a deadline, a great source for information about nearly everything is the kids non-fiction section in the library. When I was writing my novel, The Jaguar Princess (Tor Books 1993) about ancient Aztec Mexico, I stumbled upon a fantastic reference. See Inside An Aztec Town by Cottie Burland, edited by Adrian Singleton is part of the See Inside series of illustrated kid's picture books, with series editor R. J. Unstead and first published by Hutchinson and Co., Great Britain in 1980, reprinted by Warwick Press in the US.

In a spare but densely-packed 28 pages, See Inside an Aztec Town thoroughly immerses the reader in the exciting and exotic details of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization. Illustrators Charlotte Snook, Maurice Wilson, Ron Jobson, and Rob McCaig do a stunning job of reviving and recreating the Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan. The painting of Tlatelolco Market, and the accompanying text inspired an early scene in Jaguar Princess where my little heroine, the Olmec slave-girl Mixcatl, escapes from the selling block and runs amuck through the marketplace.

The description of the calmecac, or school for noble boys, and the intriguing details involving the instruction, treatment and often punishment of its students led me to set a large part of my story within its walls. Mixcatl is not a student there; she begins as a slave, emptying slop jars from the student's rooms. However, it is in the calmecac that her talent as a scribe and a glyph-painter emerges, as well as another and more sinister ability. More wonderful illustrations inspired scenes in the Temple Precinct, outside the Royal Palace and on the boats that plied the numerous canals within the city.

Even the fore- and end-papers, with their wonderful array of Aztec glyphs, helped inspire Mixcatl's profession and gifts.

This was not the only reference I used for the novel, but it had a special spark that helped me recreate the Aztec city through the eyes of a captured slave girl. It led me to other, more detailed references,

Reviews and reader comments of Jaguar Princess have mentioned the richly detailed background of Tenochtilan. Some suggested (half-jokingly) that perhaps I had managed to teleport back in time and space. Yes, in a way I did, and the time-portal was a children's picture book.

CB

The Named Are Being Twits Again...

For purposes of fun and silliness, I have given the Named clan cat characters the ability to temporarily teleport from their home in the California Miocene so that they can peek into the human world and remark upon what they see. This, of course is not to be regarded as 'canon', i.e. in the storyline of the actual books. Think of it as sort of an alternate universe version.

Of course, the main event recently, was of course, the election. I was and am, an unabashed (though some may yet wish to bash me) Obama supporter.

Please note that I have added one or two introductory Tweets. Also, the words prefaced by a '#' (pound sign) were used as Twitter search categories. For more (dis) orientation, see my earlier blog post, "Ratha on Twitter".

So, without more author blather, here are Ratha, Bira, Thakur, Cherfan, Thistle-chaser
and last, but certainly not least, the clan's fiesty Firekeeper leader Fessran. She would have the audacity to fall in love with the prez elect.

Cats don't tweet, but they do chirp. Let the Chirps begin:


Who is behind all this prehistoric cat stuff? http://bit.ly/2n88x4 5:17 PM Oct 24th from TwitWall

Trying Twitwall. The pic is what Ratha will be for Halloween... 5:21 PM Oct 24th from web

For #Halloween, Thakur wants to be ... Joe Biden! 5:34 PM Oct 31st from web

For #Halloween, Cherfan wants to be....Joe the Plumber! 5:44 PM Oct 31st from web

For #Halloween, Fessran says she doesn't know squat about the #First_Amendment and wants to be....#Sarah Palin! 5:57 PM Oct 31st from web

Now, back to our regularly scheduled (hah!) transtemporal broadcasting from the Miocene....Fessran says Obama is one hot cat! Prrrrr... 11:46 AM Nov 5th

ClanChirps - For the newbie whitetippers (nice followers), the Chirps are by characters in my Ratha series about big prehistoric cats. 12:05 PM Nov 5

ClanChirps - Ratha: "Fessran, get your tail back here! We have a story to finish. 11:48 AM Nov 5th from web

ClanChirps - Fessran: "I don't wanna come back yet. I'm in love with #Obama-cat. Quit pulling my tail, Ratha!" 1:20 PM Nov 5th from web

ClanChirps – Ratha: “C'mon, Fessran. #Obama-cat already has a mate. A good one. And cubs. The clan needs you back home.” 3:28 PM Nov 5th from web

Characters doing the ClanChirps reside in #Ratha's_Courage, my new #book about #prehistoric big #cats. http://www.rathascourage.com 12:28 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps- Fessran:“I know you're going to light fires under some deserving tails, Obama-cat. I gotta go back and light fires of my own...” ... 12:32 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps – Fessran “Farewell, love of my life! May you eat of the haunch and sleep in the driest den, you cool Obama-cat.” 3:58 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps - Ratha and Bira together: "FESSRAN!" 12:14 PM Nov 7th from web

ClanChirps – Ratha: “Bira, you take Fessran's scruff and I'll grab her tail. All right, back to the Miocene!” * poof * 4:50 PM Nov 8th from web

OK guys, enough...

CB

Solo's Journey by Joy Smith Aiken

A few days ago, to take a break from the laptop, I picked up Solo's Journey. Intending to sample the first few chapters, I found myself drawn in to the story of Solo, a feral kit who loses his mother and has to find his own way in the feral cat colony. I don't usually read other cat fantasy books, since I write the Ratha series, and I like to keep my slate clean, so to speak.

I picked up Solo out of curiosity, but ended up devouring it in one evening. Gulping books is part of my pattern, since I'm naturally a fast reader. Not all books get devoured in one session, since life inevitably interrupts. Some books are consumed in multiple smaller gulps, but Solo's Journey shoved life aside temporarily. Good books do that.

Sometimes I regret that the hunger for narrative pulls me through the pages so fast, but I am also a re-reader, and sometimes after finishing a novel, I will go right back to the beginning and read it again, allowing me to savor the writer's skill.

Solo's Journey appeared in 1987, according to the copyright date in my hardcover copy, before the Warriors series made the concept of talking cats in feral cat clans wildly popular among kids. Both Solo's Journey and my own Ratha series were too early for this wave, and both suffered for it. However both were reprinted.

I greatly enjoyed Aiken's originality in portraying the feral cat society, especially in her use of invented onomatopoeic (sounds like what it means, at least to human ears) terms. The words also sound like feline vocalizations “Prill” for a female cat, “bard” for an intact male, “silt” and “siltaa” for solid and liquid waste respectively, and the honorific “Dom” for the dominant male tomcat.

Some of the novel's power may come from real-life experience, as the dedication hints. Aiken mentions a real Solo, and implies that the book may be an apology for an act she regrets. It makes me want to know the real Solo's story, though perhaps it is a sad one.

Although Solo's Journey describes battles between clans in adjacent territories, it moves beyond those conflicts. The inside jacket text says that the book was inspired by Watership Down, and like the rabbit tale, involves destruction of the cats' home ground and a quest to discover a new home. During the journey, however, Solo rises to leadership, finds his gifts, and discovers a new and inspiring purpose. I won't reveal what it is for fear of spoiling the book, but I do urge readers who have enjoyed both Warriors and my Ratha series to go along on Solo's Journey.

CB

The Flaming Torch - My Vote and Yours

Today I will be driving from my home in Patterson to Modesto. I will be carrying my absentee ballot, which I have completed, but did not have time to mail. My destination will be the country voter registration office, where I can hand my sealed ballot to an election official. Why am I doing that? To make sure my vote gets counted.

Why do I vote? Because there are people who don't want me to.

I am not going to name parties or names, but in the past and today, people and organizations have discouraged and prevented Americans from voting. Historically, neither political party has been exempt from these practices; ask any Civil Rights veteran of the 1960's.

A basic tactic of the power-hungry is to convince citizens not to participate in elections. If the majority in a country are economically beaten down, frightenened, discouraged and lied to enough, they cease to hope and they cease to vote.

An apathetic, powerless constituency will not challenge even the most insane of government actions. A democratic republic can degenerate into an oligarchy, where few rule and many suffer. Those who rule know this well. They depend on it. They do everything they can to alienate and discourage the electorate, enlisting cynics in the opposition who joining them in crying that voting is rigged, useless, and the only answer to social injustice is violence.

Does voting make a difference? Yes, voting makes a difference. Why else would those in power try to suppress it?

Denying people the right to vote is not just a tactic used in the 1960's South. This cruel and ugly beast reared its head in the last elections and is threatening this one.

It has struck In Ohio, where 200,000 new voters were nearly stricken from the rolls. In New Mexico, where private detectives hired by politicos intimidated poor and Hispanic voters (in their homes!) by asking them questions that intimated that they had no right to vote. In California, where phony petitions misled people into registering for the wrong party. In Florida (again!) where absentee ballots were thrown in the trash. In Virginia, where voters were given flyers telling them to vote on the wrong day.

And I am sure that before this election ends, there will be more. Much more.

That is why I am hand-carrying my absentee ballot to the Elections Office. I want it to be counted. Not lost in the mail, sent astray or thrown in the trash, but counted.

Not to vote, for whatever reason, is to say yes to those who would pillage our government and economy. Not to vote is to deny hope for change. Not to vote is to give in and say that representative democracy doesn't work and this great human experiment has failed.

To vote is to lift a flaming torch in defiance of those who would deny liberty, equality, justice, and hope.

Lift your flaming torch and VOTE.


P.S - Back from Modesto, mission accomplished, wearing an "I Voted" official sticker on my shirt pocket.

CB



KidLit Bloggers Blog The Vote: http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2008/11/blog_the_vote_2008.html