This week’s YA Highway – Road Trip Wednesday is about The Best Book No One’s Ever Heard Of.  I’m a bit late, but after commenting on the site I decided to post this to my blog too.

I could probably recommend plenty, but the one I went with is Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur.  I chose this one because I thought I remembered it going out of print, but it is listed right now on Amazon and has apparently gone through two covers since I read it on its first publication.  So, it’s not so likely no one’s ever heard of it.  Nevertheless, here are my thoughts.

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I read Wisdom Hunter more than 15 years ago, but I still remember how much it impacted me.
It was recommended to me by a good friend and so I decided to read it sight unseen. I don’t like movie trailers (and other spoilers) so I value the recommendation of someone I trust over product marketers trying to convince me of what I’ll like. And I loved it.

This is a story about journey.

It opens with a pregnant young woman, disowned by her father, a conservative, legalistic pastor and a real a$$hole – Jason Faircloth. She tragically dies in childbirth in a traffic jam, but her baby girl survives and is raised the baby’s father (I can’t recall if the two were married), who subsequently takes the baby and moves away. Jason is completely unaware this has happened.

The main character is Read More . . .

I know at times I’m a terrible dreamer.

Some days this is more true than others.  On my good days that inner voice, the one that tells me I need to stay grounded in reality and not let myself get too far ahead of what I can “see”, is just a quiet whisper on the breeze.  On my bad days that voice is like thunder.  And on those in-between days, which can seem as infrequent as leap year or a blue moon, the coast is clear without a cloud in the sky and I can see all the way out to the edge of the horizon (and perhaps a bit beyond it).

Our dreams touch on our innermost, secret selves.  It takes courage to Read More . . .

Until today, I had never heard of a manuscript style sheet.  I was introduced to this term in a post by Mary Robinette Kowal about her upcoming book: Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor, 2010).  While you’re there, why not visit the rest of Mary’s site to learn more about her and her work.

In the world of information technology a style sheet is a master file used to easily manipulate the look-and-feel of an entire graphical user interface system (e.g. a blog, website, certain software applications), but in the world of publishing the style sheet (a.k.a. “style guide”) serves as a Read More . . .

I freely admit that I am terrible at remembering many of the details of my own childhood.  There are reasons for this which continue to manifest themselves in the fiction and poetry I write.  Nevertheless, I DO recall my earliest writing memories.

It was back in the early 1980’s when I middle school and the Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street slasher-style movies series were just gaining in popularity.  Read More . . .

I don’t pretend to know very much about squirrels.

I don’t know how they remember where they bury their nuts, I don’t know how they socialize, and I don’t know how they stay warm and dry every winter in the large leaf nests they build in the upper branches of our trees, so I didn’t really know what to think about the recent small gathering of squirrels in our back yard.  Read More . . .

As the calendar year draws to a close it’s a time many reminisce about the past year and years past. I’ve found myself doing the same. In fact I seem lately to be spending more and more time thinking about the way things are, how they got that way and how things might have been different under different circumstances. Read More . . .

Deanne Bray is a successful television actress who also happens to live with severe hearing loss.  Here she is featured in the November/December issue of Hearing Loss Magazine.

Living with a spouse and son who are hearing impaired it’s always encouraging to see others like them portrayed in a positive light!

Click HERE to read the article to learn more about Deanne’s career, her experiences living with hearing loss, and a bit about her current role as Emma Coolidge on NBC’s Heroes.

You can also visit Hearing Loss Association of America website to learn more!

by John Rea-Hedrick
Thursday, December 10, 2009

To wait is the hardest thing to do.
Potential energy held at bay
awaiting kinetic birth.
To be poised between the before Read More . . .

by John Rea-Hedrick
Tuesday, December 1, 2009

If a lifetime of wisdom could be summed up in a single word,
no mouth could utter it.

If a lifetime of love could be felt in one beat of one heart,
no flesh could Read More . . .