Got the letter; nomination is official

Got the official letter today from the Mystery Writers of America about my book's nomination! Seems there's a big banquet and other festivities in New York City in April. Wahoo!

Edgar Award Nomination

Wow! Thanks to the Mystery Writers of America for the Young Adult Nomination for an Edgar Award for The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone. Keep your fingers crossed!

Also, thanks so much to Kate O'Sullivan at Houghton Mifflin for taking such care with the book.

Thoughts on Imperialism, class, and racism

It had to come. Someone hated my book. According to her, it is imperialism, classism and racism at its most offensive. Someone answered back trying to defend the book as a period piece and she answered that if the plot was so not-real, then I shouldn't have tried to make the historical aspects of the book real, either. At first, I just thought that she's clueless and really missed the point of the book, which is to ironicize or satirize the upper crust and pomposity while being entertaining at the same time. There is certainly enough about British aristocracy during that time period to poke fun at, which is what I did. If she thinks that I was promoting that mindset and lifestyle and approving of it, she just didn't get it. I wondered why.

What's an author to do? Does this mean I can't write accurate historical fiction anymore? The Historical Novel Society approves. The Junior Library Guild approves. Others also approve. Hmmmmmm.

Then I started thinking that the reviewer is probably university educated and has been taught about post-colonialism, which is the study of the consequences when a government or culture colonizes other people, physically or mentally. Obviously, there are many varieties of colonization. The British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French are the most famous for colonizing other people and lands. America has colonized the world with American film, fashion, and food just by us being us or U.S. and being viewed as the cool thing to be. However, there is also the colonization of the mind. The reviewer has been colonized by academia to the point that it is possible that she has lost her sense of humor. She's more offended by my portrayal of British aristocracy and the Panamanian rebellion than she is by bug eating. Does academic colonization rule out enjoying irony? The irony of the reviewer's post is that she is buying into the self-seriousness of academia that I was trying to satirize. I just love irony.

I have a PhD. For me, my education opens more possibilities of things to laugh at. My education allows me to be aware of what I am being taught or positions presented and being able to make the choice of what to believe, what to consider, and what is pure bunk. I wonder if she has gotten to that point, yet, or if she just swallows whole what her professors tell her without applying the analytical or critical thinking that allows a scholar to see beyond the surface?

She probably didn't like Princess Bride, either.