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A mother isolated by pain. The man in the mask will change things for them all. But who is he? And will he be back? Posted by Robyn Morgan at 2: We suggest you bring a journal or laptop, as there will be opportunities to write. Jude Walsh writes personal essay, memoir, self-help, and fiction and is published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. She teaches classes on personal essay and writing mindset, and is a life and creativity coach, helping people to reinvent themselves and find new paths.
We assume we know the relationship of Lily with her husband, but what is the connection of Marvena with the sheriff? That, along with the mystery of who killed Sheriff Ross and why, is the crux of the story. Much is learned about resistance to unionization of the coal mines in Appalachia Ohio in the early era, the hardships of the families working in that industry, corruption on many levels, and the influence of prohibition. Posted by Robyn Morgan at We expect Hedgie to be with her! She will give a presentation and a drawing demonstration followed by the book signing portion of the day.
But when a snowstorm starts, Lisa luckily finds him and brings him inside so he gets to see the wonders of winter from inside the cozy house. Jan will sign any new books purchased at the event. If time permits, she will personalize books, and sign a favorite book from home. Posted by Robyn Morgan at 1: The novel is based on historical research and begins in where we meet year old Bridey who runs away from her small town in Ireland with her same-age sweetheart Thom to begin their future in America.
But when Thom dies suddenly of ship fever on their ocean crossing, Bridey finds herself alone and pregnant in a strange new world. It is then that her strength of will, determination, and the kindness of others are needed to survive. Told in interweaving timelines and rich with detailed history, romance and dark secrets, the story spans a century of American life and reminds us that we can never truly leave the past behind.
Ross will give a slide presentation highlighting the customs and artifacts that were part of everyday life at the turn of the previous century. She has also written another novel, What Was Mine. He recently founded the art and literary events listing site, DaytonLit. He is currently working on a middle grade adventure book and is represented by The Bent Agency in New York.
Learn more at FredrickMarion. It looks at the poor, black segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, who, against all odds, defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams in their state and won both the basketball and baseball state championships in the same year, making history. Even more remarkable, it happened as the nation was dealing with the sorrow and unrest caused by the assassination of Martin Luther King,Jr. It's a powerful, true story of perseverance, amazing talent, dedication, courage, goal-setting, determination, and, ultimately, triumph.
The athletic success is just one aspect of the book. Much of it deals with the racial unrest that gripped the country in the s and s and shows how everyone, including athletes from high schools through major league sports, was impacted by it. Wil Haygood is the author of The Butler: He is currently a Visiting Distinguished Professor in the department of media, journalism, and film at Miami University, Ohio. The Doocys share favorite recipes, stories, and photos from their family life. In addition to beloved family dishes, this full-color cookbook includes recipes from friends like musician Kid Rock, professional golfer Greg Norman, and many more.
Advance tickets may be purchased at: Come join us and be entertained by often costumed performances by some of our talented amateur and professional writers. Get ready for NaNoWriMo! They both published books they worked on during NaNoWriMo. If you have long nurtured a desire or just got the urge to write a novel, this month-long challenge is a fantastic way to join thousands of other writers across the country in getting that first draft done. In the Introduction he states, " From onward, Dayton's Jews not only provided for the spiritual and material needs of their own, they also involved themselves faithfully in the needs of Dayton's general community.
These pages offer a family photo album of the Jews of Dayton, from those early days through the close of the 20th century. Those abundant photos vividly tell the story of the many Jewish people who enhanced the Dayton community over the years, and continue to do so today. Posted by Robyn Morgan at 9: It is the true story of women willing to risk everything, even their lives, to do the thing they loved. With it in hand, you can take a simple day trip, or string together a longer vacation of activities that catch your interest. Destinations in the book are organized by theme, such as lighthouses, orchards and vineyards, festivals, and outdoor adventures, so you can decide what to do and figure out where to do it.
She will inspire you to "get on the road. Cathy Hester Seckman is a lifelong resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, She has been writing travel articles for newspapers and magazines since Filled with an abundance of photographs, this book will take you down memory lane as you see many of the places that helped make Dayton a center of innovations but were lost to history. Entire neighborhoods, such as the Haymarket and the commercial districts, such as West Fifth Street, vanished and show no traces of their past.
Others, including the popular Oregon District, narrowly escaped the wrecking ball, but thrive today. Walsh is a writer and a research librarian at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. Posted by Robyn Morgan at 4: Chief of Police Kate Buckholder is called to investigate when a well-liked year old Amish man is found dead in an historic barn that burned to the ground. Her investigation is going nowhere as she finds herself stonewalled by the Amish community to which she once belonged. What secrets are they hiding? Kate doubles down and discovers a plethora of secrets and a chilling series of crimes that shatters everything she thought she knew about her Amish roots—and herself.
The title tells us the book is speculative fiction — and what a tale it is! There have always been theories that the British plotted to kidnap George Washington during the height of the Revolutionary War, imprison him in London, try him for treason and use his release as a bargaining tool. In this novel, they were successful in kidnapping him, but Washington would have none of their plan to use him as a bargaining tool.
He said he would rather die a martyr to the cause than give them a means to end the Revolutionary War. Charles Rosenberg is the author of four legal thrillers, including Death on High Floor. After a fundamentalist upbringing that caused him to come out later in life, House was faced with both blatant rejection and fierce acceptance. The insight he gained from those often painful circumstances spurred him to craft this intensely candid story, one that explores our ability to escape the confines of intolerance and hate and move toward dignity, understanding, and grace.
The main character in the story is Asher Sharp, an evangelical preacher in Tennessee who offers shelter to two gay men after a devastating flood. This action comes with a huge personal cost, creating chaos in his congregation and marriage. Ousted from his church, he flees to the southernmost part of the US where he discovers a new way of thinking about love, faith, parenthood, and life. When Tallulah James returns to her Mississippi hometown in after a seven-year absence, determined to help her brother escape a murder conviction, she hopes to avoid the small-town gossip mill and return to California as quickly as possible.
But as she reconnects with her dysfunctional family, she becomes entangled in a web of long-held secrets about their history of mental illness, her tumultuous upbringing and a terrible tragedy that nearly tore the family apart. Ultimately, the truth forces Tallulah to reckon with her past—and find a way forward. She lives in Noblesville, Indiana with her family. With his signature insight, each story peers into the nooks and crannies of seemingly normal homes, communities, and families.
The footprints of a midnight prowler peel back the veneer of a marriage soured by a long-ago affair. A con man selling faked UFO footage loses his wife to the promise of life outside the ordinary, and a troubled man, tormented by his own mind, lies in the street to look at the stars, and in doing so unravels the carefully constructed boundaries between his quiet neighbors. From friendship and family to all forms of love, the book explores the intricacies of relationships and the possibility for redemption in even the most complex misfits and loners. For short-story devotees, this is a must-read!
After detailing many of his experiences during 24 years in service to our country, he writes of the harrowing mission when his SEAL team crew was attempting to rescue a rogue soldier — Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl - during which Hatch suffered severe wounds that ended his military career. Coming home after all those years in special operations missions was difficult for him; leading to despair, alcoholism and the pull toward suicide. Finally through the love of family, friends, soldiers, and his specially trained military dogs, he found a purpose in going on.
During his adjustment to life in the States, he realized how important his specially trained military dogs were to him in his war years and could be again. The fund also rehabs K9 agility courses used to train police dogs. Information about this group will be available at the event. Rippling with tensions over sex, race, and class, the book is a gripping true-crime tale that raises themes that haunt us still today: This book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.
He is a featured contributor to Smithsonian magazine and The Marshall Project. He lives in New York City. Advanced tickets may be purchased at: Attendees can have up to 3 books per author signed. Personalization of books is permitted and so are photos, depending on the size of the crowd. Posted by Robyn Morgan at 3: Kate Brighton works for the royal courier service. Only the most skilled ride for the Relay and only the fastest survive, for when night falls, the drakes --deadly flightless dragons--come out to hunt.
Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: She is a wilder born with forbidden magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. That magic leads her to a caravan massacred by drakes. The only survivor is Corwin Tormaine, the son of the king, and the person Kate swore to forget after he condemned her father to death.
Can Corwin and Kate put the past behind them and face this new threat and dark menace stirring in the kingdom? Mindee Arnett has also written Avalon and its sequel, Polaris , as well as the Nightmare series. She lives with her family on a horse farm in Ohio. The book tells the region's story from before the time when great continental glaciers covered much of what is now Ohio to the present.
Along the way it covers the natural and human history of the site and the changes made to it by Native Americans, early settlers, farmers, flood control engineers, and the U. It goes on to explore how part of the prairie survived, leading to the restoration effort of a acre fragment of the Prairie to something that recalls its original glory. The Wright Brothers perfected powered flight and take-off and landing technologies and skills at this prairie site.
David Nolin was Director of Conservation for Five Rivers MetroParks in the Dayton area, where he led the land acquisition and habitat management programs. He has been actively involved in the protection and restoration of the Huffman Prairie State Natural Landmark.
Many of his photos of the species living on the Prairie are in his book. TEEN event for aspiring writers in grades Three authors will be sharing their expertise: For more information and a schedule of activities, check the Dayton Main Library website or call What a fun book this is! All kinds of dogs cavort across the page, running, strolling, dashing, splashing, fetching, begging, rolling, gulping and so on. Our own Miss Mary will entertain with fun dog-themed songs.
Join us for the Finale of the community Big Read project. David is an accomplished poet and professor emeritus who taught Spanish and Portuguese at Wright State University for 30 years and chaired their Department of Modern languages from to It is not necessary to have read the book before the discussion. Because of that rejection she became inspired to train dogs herself for children, and later for veterans.
After two decades and a thousand service dogs and children , 4 Paws for Ability is the largest organization whose primary mission is to place service dogs with children. Each story in the book proves that the unconditional love of a dog can change lives! Service dogs and their people companions are encouraged to attend and participate in the discussion of The Underdogs.
Set in nearby Yellow Springs, Ohio, the novel asks: How well do we really know our neighbors and what goes on behind their closed doors? A group of neighboring women gather around a fire pit in one of their backyards one Saturday night for wine and socialization.
The next morning, they become aware that one of them, Kristin, is no longer in her house. She and her young twins have disappeared. Her estranged husband has no idea where they could be. How can they unravel this mystery? Did Kristin and her kids just disappear or did something awful happen to them? He has a B. However, once she is rescued from the streets by Mr. Brownlow, her life takes a far different turn as she goes from slum-life to high-life. It is here she meets Jack MacCarron who bears a striking resemblance to the Artful Dodger, she knew form her slum days.
Could he be that same person , and how will that affect her now? Fans of the classic Dickens novel will find Olivia Twist a hard book to pass up as the old masterpiece has been expertly reimagined, giving an entirely new dynamic to the celebrated tale. Line numbers beginning at 6 pm. The War of saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts.
Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson, who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks and knew that America had to control the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans, to stop the British aggression.
And that is what he miraculously did! After years at the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, all Noah dreams of is the opportunity to fail if he wants to. Sticking up for Noah lands Donovan in the middle of a huge feud with Hashtag. And it may have gone more than a little bit to his head. He describes the work as "having plenty of action and adventure along the way, along with an abundance of magic and wonder! It's an immersive world that a child can get lost in and one that I hope will inspire them to dream, create, connect, and overcome.
The reader discovers that the boundaries and beliefs that appear to separate us as individuals and groups are an illusion and that when we look deeper, we will see the commonalities we all share. In his books, the heroes sacrifice their self-interest for the good of all. DiMartino is the co-creator of the award-winning animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: Resolve to make YOUR year for making--and achieving--writing goals! Get practical hands-on tools from Megan so that you have a manageable list of to-dos to turn inspiration into achievement! She writes in the genres of romance, mainstream and speculative fiction.
Learn more about her at www. Set in on a sweltering tobacco farm in the town of Truevine, Virginia, we meet George and Willie Muse, two little African-American boys born to a sharecropper family. They caught the eye of a circus man because they were albinos and he thought they would make a great circus attraction for his freak show.
Luring the 6 and 9 year old boys away with the promise of candy, the boys became star attractions, though cruelly exploited.
Beth Macy is also the author of Factory Man. Her articles have appeared in national magazines and the Roanoke Times, where her reporting has won more than a dozen national awards. At the Dayton Metro Library; E. Third Street, in downtown Dayton. It is set in s Colorado and explores the idea of inner darkness through three members of the Soria family who perform miracles for pilgrims to their small town of Bicho Raro.
Join Kate Geiselman, published essayist and Sinclair Community College creative writing professor, for tips on how to write compelling personal essays--and find the editors and readers who want to read them! Sara will be introducing Follow Me , which trails the Amateurs girls as they stalk down a twisted path — one crafted by a brilliant killer. With a flawless mix of mystery, suspense, and romance, we follow Seneca, Maddox, Aerin, and Madison to the beach to solve a twisty kidnapping. This book is part of the series, but it can be read as a standalone.
We follow a healer who cannot be healed and a soldier shattered by war on a high-stakes mission to spy on the Empire in a quest to uncover a deadly secret. The nuanced characters have a sizzling chemistry and find themselves faced with a heartrending ethical dilemma. Livia has also written Midnight Thief. In it, Stone Barrington gets entangled in the intricate and rarefied art business. It will take a man of his careful discernment and well-honed instincts to get to the truth without ruffling the wrong feathers….
Stuart has written more than sixty novels and 50 hardcover bestsellers. Follow him along the iconic trail and learn of his humorous and sometimes frightening adventures with bears, bugs, blisters, captivating characters, skink bed mates, and his most unusual food cravings. He plunged forward through freezing temperatures, driving rain, blinding snow, but often sunny skies, constantly buoyed by the knowledge that his walk was dedicated to his brother who has cerebral palsy and lives in a Sunshine Community.
Come meet this experienced hiker, especially if you have been hankering to walk the Appalachian Trail, or at least part of it. He can give you lots of tips. An Astronaut Photographs the World. He has spent more than days in space and taken more photographs of Earth from above than anyone else. In this gorgeous and inspiring new book filled with stories of his time in space, he shares his photographs of our planet and makes us aware of the vastness that surrounds it. He assumed command of the International Space Station in March , and has spent over 7 months there.
He has a unique perspective about the earth because of the many photographs he has taken showing its splendor. You can learn more about him at Terryvirts. Two Catch a Thief. Two Catch a Thief, Stick Cat and her incomparable sidekick Edith try to catch a thief in the third hilarious book in this series.
In it, we meet Sophie, Agatha, Tedros, and the other students as they begin a new era in the Endless Woods — The Camelot Years — where Evers and Nevers alike must move beyond the bounds of school and into the biggest, boldest adventures of their lives. The students at the School for Good and Evil thought they had found their final Ever After when they vanquished the malevolent School Master.
Now on their required fourth year quests, the students face obstacles both dangerous and unpredictable, and the stakes are high: For their quests, Agatha and Tedros are trying to return Camelot to its former splendor as queen and king. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mold Evil in her own image. But soon they all feel themselves growing more isolated and alone.
When their classmates' quests plunge into chaos, however, someone must lead the charge to save them. If Good and Evil can't find a way to work together, neither side will survive. Since going on-sale in , The School for Good and Evil series has sold more than 1. Soman Chainani is also a screenwriter and his films have been played at more than film festivals around the world. What is next for them and the revolution? But first, he needs to wipe out the Resistance and capture the remaining members of the Electroclan. Can anything —or anyone—stop the Elgen? Or is this the end? There are more than 30 million copies of his books in print worldwide translated into more than 24 languages.
You can visit his website at RichardPaulEvans. The author will sign any new books you purchase at the event and one book from home. In it we meet Clay, an outstanding quarterback for his school team and his coach, a former star player for the Dallas Cowboys, who is just like a second father to him. When Coach Walker begins to show side effects of the many concussion he sustained during his playing days, Clay knows that the real victory that year will be to help his coach walk onto the Cowboys Field during a Thanksgiving Day ceremony honoring him and his former Super Bowl-winning teammates.
Join Erin Flanagan, published fiction writer and Wright State University creative writing professor, for tips on how to brainstorm and "pre-write" characters, plot points and settingpaving the way for a smoother writing process. Her work and legacy live on! This most expansive biography of Virginia Hamilton has been written for middle grade readers, but will be enjoyed by adults also. Days later, the girls are found in a city park.
Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life. He is an associate professor of English at Western Kentucky University. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required and closes July 6. Learn the latest advancements in cancer screening, treatment and research from local and national experts. Community and clinical sessions will run concurrently during the morning.
Check-in and continental breakfast: Event, lunch and booksigning: Only books purchased at the event can be signed; no memorabilia please. We see that Raven Black is bouncing back after her very public divorce from Dillon Black and she has her own growing congregation to prove it. Worse, she begins running her ministry more like a cult, which ultimately gains a huge national following. Kimberla has sold more than 2.
Making Mindful Choices in a Drinking Culture. This is a book of hope. Boucher aims to dispel the presumption that you have to lose it all before you can accurately take stock of your life and make healthy choices. She aims to help people recognize the warning signs of alcoholism. She is a recovering alcoholic who made the choice to quit drinking in her late twenties, before giving birth to her twin sons. Now a registered nurse for over 24 years. She has witnessed the negative effects of alcohol and hopes she can help others to recognize the signs and to change course.
Raising the Bottom received a starred review in the May 1 edition of Library Journal. When the lights go out across Europe, a former hacker and activist must find his way to safety in the darkness, and, in tandem with a U. Everywhere in Europe the electrical grid is collapsing. Who is behind it? How can it be stopped? Thriller writer Lee Child says the book is.. Mark Elsberg is a sought-after dialog partner for industry and politics and a renowned speaker on these topics. She will be introducing her 13th novel, I Found You , a domestic thriller.
In I Found You , we meet Alice Lake who discovers a disoriented man on the beach who has no idea who he is or where he is or what he is doing on this British seaside beach. Despite a warning siren in the back of her mind, Alice invites him into her home to warm up anyway. And thus begins a mystifying journey filled with gripping characters and dark truths. As a long-time UK bestselling author, Lisa is finding a steady following of ravenous readers in the United States.
We encourage you to come see what all the excitement is about! He views the Bible not as a singular text stemming from one point of view. Instead, he considers it a library —a complex and multifaceted collection of poems, letters, and stories compiled over years by over 40 contributors.
He looks at it as a compilation written, assembled, and edited by people living in different times, functioning under different circumstances, and possessing differing opinions and agendas. Time magazine named him one of the Most Influential People in the World. In it, we meet Beck Throckmorton who finds herself living unexpectedly in a small suburban Ohio town with an 83 year old neighbor who has turned out to be her best friend, writing erotica and stewing over the fact that her ex has taken up with her sister.
It features Kamet, a secretary and slave to his Mede master, who has the ambition and the means to become one of the most powerful people in the empire. But with a whispered warning, the future Kamet envisioned is wrenched away, and he is forced onto a very different path. This epic adventure sees an ordinary hero take on an extraordinary mission.
When Annie discovers that the wicked Raiff has kidnapped her beloved new guardian, Annie must win the trust of a riddle-loving dragon and search for a magical bow and arrow to save her guardian. Morris Mole has always been a little different. That difference is a big help when the moles are running low on food. With a little help from an unexpected friend and a lot of digging, Morris learns that even the smallest creatures can do big things.
It also demonstrates how teamwork can benefit everyone…a must-have for all shelves. Visit him at www. Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. He offers citizens practical advice from our past, adapted for the world of today. He posted his 20 Lessons in a Facebook post in November It has since received more than one million views, having been reposted, republished, and retweeted countless times.
His lessons have resonated with a world-wide audience. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. He is the author of Bloodlands: The Holocaust as History and Warning. It explores the question: What if you could start over? Coming from a childhood of poverty and pain, Charles James has now achieved everything he thought he wanted: Then a twist of fate changes everything.
Charles is granted something very remarkable: What will he do with it? Each of his more than 30 novels has been a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 30 million copies of his books in print worldwide, translated into more than 24 languages.
Cyclone is the name of a roller coaster in the world famous Coney Island amusement park. Doreen Cronin has written several picture books for young readers: Line numbers beginning at America Divided or United. The other path is the one America has been down before. It is at times steep, but it is solid. It is the same path our forebears took together. John Kasich is in his second term as Ohio governor. Before that, he served nine terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from to David will be performing on stage at the theatre with his signature storytelling program, as only he can do!
He will be autographing books after the show. Get your tickets at TicketCenterStage. With piercing insight, narrative prowess, and a masterful ability to blend imagination and history, Iles illuminates the brutal story of the American South in a highly atmospheric and suspenseful novel that delivers the shocking resolution his fans have eagerly awaited. The series illuminates a brutally searing period in our Southern civil rights history that resonates even today. April is National Poetry Month.
Come celebrate with us and create a poem! Great for poets and writers of all types--challenge your creativity and learn some techniques to enhance your writing craft! You can learn more about Jamey at www. So their input along with your input will make this a very valuable discussion. Chester is a lovable dog who did not pass the service dog test, but he still longs to be a service dog.
Reminiscent of Because of Winn-Dixie, Shiloh , and Old Yeller , Chester and Gus explores the extraordinary friendship between a child and a dog but with a poignant and modern twist. Cammie McGovern is one of the founders of Whole Children, a resource center that runs after-school classes and programs for children with special needs. This universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible—until the discovery of The Flow. That is an extra-dimensional field that can be accessed at certain points in space-time that transport humans to other worlds around other stars.
The Flow is eternal—but it is not static. It changes, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. At age 52, torn between duty and love, she agonized for months before deciding to leave Dayton and her brother Orville Wilbur had already died and move to Kansas City to marry Henry Haskell. This decision caused a huge rift between Orville and Katharine. Please join us for an interesting discussion at Wright Memorial Library. Hers is quite a story…actually a triumph! As a result of surviving childhood bone cancer twice, Marsha endured long-term side effects, including the amputation of her lower left leg, the loss of her bladder and kidneys, congestive heart failure, a kidney transplant, and scars galore.
A rebel to the core, her defiance in the face of disease, doctors, establishment, and anyone who would steal her joy or life force, offers moments of profound depth and humor. There is no pity in her words, but rather they are an encouragement to people to live with an abundantly hopeful spirit that infuses life with purpose, appreciation, and contentment.
She lives in Dayton, Ohio. Songs and crafts will be part of the fun! The program will be in the Performing Arts Center behind the school. Doors open at 6: The event is free. Seats are first-come, first-serve. D will discuss her book, Unselfie: Why do studies show that kids are less happy and more stressed than in past generations despite our love? Why is peer cruelty increasing and bullying starting at younger ages? And what can parents and educators do about it? As an internationally recognized expert and author on children, teens, parenting, bullying and moral development, Dr.
Borba addresses these issues head-on and provides tools parents need to teach their children empathy — and explains why caring for others is actually an essential life skill. She served as a consultant to hundreds of schools, parent organizations, and corporations on bullying prevention. It is one of the most important craft tools for fiction and nonfiction writers. Learn how to use it effectively to create compelling fiction and engage readers! Learn more about Martha at www. A Cajun Red Riding Hood. Songs and a craft will be part of the fun.
Songs and a craft will be part of the fun! Come for an interactive storytime, songs, and crafts with our own Miss Mary. And as a special treat….. Yes, really, the lovable cat himself will be here! The theme for this event is Beyond the Reach of Sleep. Performing original work, each writer will present poetry, short stories, or who knows what. Here is your chance to hear some talented regional writers as they showcase their work, in person, to entertain and enlighten. We are having a special Kids Storytime featuring our own Miss Mary reading favorite picture books, singing songs, and helping the kids make crafts.
We'll have a surprise for them also! All across America today schools, libraries, bookstores, and families everywhere are celebrating the love of reading. The Great Big Boom. When we last saw Hilo, DJ, and Gina in book 2, Gina had been sucked into a mysterious portal to who knows where! Will there be danger? Will there be amazing surprises? Will Gina end up being the one to save them? Will they make it back to Earth before the portal closes again? You can get your HILO books signed by both of them! It has lots of slapstick humor with an appealing dose of friendship, acceptance, and adventure.
She helps young people discover there is science behind absolutely everything — including burps, earwax, and boogers. The book is an especially great tool to intrigue the kids who perhaps are not too keen on science yet. With it, budding scientists will perform real science with ick- speriments think Ooze Olympics and Stinky Burp Factory , build or craft something with ick -tivities, and investigate nature and the wilds of their home with ick -splorations. Whether in a kitchen, a classroom, or in the backyard, Oh,Ick!
Trust no one with anything — especially in Amberlough City. She has been a professional fire performer, belly dancer, and has knowledge of aerial acrobatics and burlesque, which helped her create the decadent night life of Amberlough. He plunges the reader into a frightening and fascinating world that lies somewhere between dreams and reality. This mesmerizing story tells us of a wife and mother who vanishes from her bed late one night, and the mysteries that linger in her wake.
Her children are left to agonize over what happened to her. She has a history of sleepwalking, often out into the night alone, and on one occasion she was found on the Gale River bridge and thankfully pulled back before she did herself harm. Did she actually complete a jump this time?
And strangely, the detective investigating the case, seems to know too much about their mother. How do they get to the truth? His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and three of his books have become movies. You can visit him at www. We meet year old Elric, who is a shepherd, and his year old sister, Wynn. Wynn had been born with developmental delays, and so the village folk determined she must be a changling left by the evil fairies to cause havoc in their village.
According to them, she must be abandoned in the woods. However the mother and baby secretly leave the village and live alone for eleven years in a hut that was filled with their laughter and song. As they go on this quest they encounter many difficulties and dangers, but Wynn always sees good in their circumstances, maybe because she is guided by a mysterious song taught to her by her mother that promises to lead her to a place beyond a silver gate where she will find acceptance, safety, and happiness. Learn tips and best practices for using Point of View to enhance your stories, novels, essays, memoirs and other works and connect with your readers!
Thinking no one is reading it, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. Little does she know that Alex Bartlett is reading her blog and is determined to find her, hoping to find healing for his broken heart. He determines through clues on her blog that she lives in a small town in Utah. He makes it his mission to find her. Can he do it? What will the outcome be?
Richard Paul Evans began his novel writing career with the extraordinarily successful The Christmas Box. That, and every book since then , has been a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 17 million copies of his books in print worldwide. The session is designed to help writers--whether already published or not-yet-published--figure out the best way to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs, readings, and other tools to build readership and an audience.
Ryan is the author of "Beyond the Horizon" and "Ghosts of the Desert. Learn more about Antioch Writers' Workshop at www. Autograph line numbers beginning at 3: He has a talent for making the reading of history appealing and exciting. When Thomas Jefferson became president in , America faced a crisis. They would confiscate any goods that were being transported and either demand ransom for the American sailors or force them into slavery. Jefferson took a stand, and sent the U. Kilmeade has also co-authored George Washington's Secret Six: He has appeared in such films as Spider-Man 2, Spy Kids: It harkens back to the scorching hot summer of in Breathed, Ohio, when young Fielding Bliss makes the acquaintance of a bruised and tattered year-old boy, Sal, who claims to be the devil himself.
Fielding brings him home where he is welcomed into the Bliss family. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater town forever. Booklist says it is "an ambitious novel that will invite thought and surely spark discussion. We got word October 27 that Stuart Woods has the flu and has to cancel his tour. He hopes to reschedule in spring But everything is not as it seems, when the client reveals the true nature—and value—of his recent turn of fortune.
Stuart Woods is the author of more than sixty books. He began his novel writing career with Chiefs, his debut in , which won the Edgar Award. He is also an avid sailor and pilot. She had never seen an angry alien, a bizarre bigfoot, or a creepy clown…………….. Told with clever, colorful illustrations, we learn about her transformation into Bad Kitty. Bring your camera if you'd like a photo with her!
It is the fictional telling of Katharine Wright and Henry J. We are made aware of her vibrant, outgoing personality that made her indispensable to her renowned yet socially shy brothers. It's fun, it's challenging, and it's rewarding. Come join in and get encouragement from other writers. Eleven year old P. Wilkie has grown up at a wacky motel known as the Wonderland, a downtrodden Florida beach motel his granddad Walt Disney opened the year before that other Walt Disney opened his famous resort just a half hour away.
Could they really be the infamous jewel thieves P. Fast-paced, laugh-out-loud funny, this new illustrated series is a romping adventure sure to delight young readers. Preceding David's talk, at 1: Between the two speakers, we will learn much about our flying friends.
David Sibley is the author and illustrator of the series of successful nature guides that bear his name. The other books in the series are Chain and Forge. As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Force — but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. Her work has earned numerous ALA and state awards. It is a tale of young people working under miserable conditions who take a stand — and press back — towards a better life.
Best friends Colin and Ty live one day at a time working long, grueling hours for pennies at the Small Parts factory, attaching fuses to bombs and manufacturing weapons. When they are worked to the bone, they seek shelter where they can find it, and do it all over again the next day. Something dramatic happens and they see a chance to transform their lives. The author presents a fascinating and frightening vision of a near-future with a thought-provoking take on political issues.
She lives with her husband in Cincinnati. Two other young adult author friends of Kristen Simmons will also be at the event; Mindee Arnett and Natalie Richards. They will be happy to discuss and sign their books also. In it, we find that Veronica has been removed and the witch of Doon is now on the throne; Jamie is believed dead; and Duncan and Mackenna are trapped in Alloway.
Veronica now has no choice but to put her grief aside and prepare her remaining followers for the impending battle against the false queen and her forces. But while on an undercover mission to steal a powerful elixir from the castle, Veronica discovers Prince Duncan, her true love, may actually be alive.
With his help, along with Jamie, Mackenna and Veronica, will they have what it will take to save the Kingdom of Doon? Other books in the series include: Doon, Shades of Doon , and Destined for Doon. Lorie Langdon will also debut her stand-along young adult novel, Gilt Hollow. Hoping for answers, Niklas takes an ancient key, left by his mother, and he and his talking lynx travel to a different realm that is populated by animals who are in danger as well. What can Niklas and his lynx do to save the animal realm—and their own? It was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and is an international bestseller.
Fall of Hades , the next-to-last book in the Michael Vey series. Excitement builds as Michael Vey and his electric friends realize they have to eliminate the source of money that Elgen is using to finance their dastardly plans. That means capturing the boat that serves as their floating treasury.
Each of his more than 25 novels has been a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 20 million copies of his book in print worldwide; translated into more than 24 languages. He is the recipient of numerous awards for both his children and his adult books.
As they say, Ohio is the heart of it all! That is never more evident than in the presidential election cycle. Why Ohio Picks the President. Political junkies and other informed citizens alike will find much to glean from the research presented in the book. He is from greater Cleveland and lives in Washington, DC. Two authors are coming to visit! Both of these books are seriously engaging, involving puzzles and mysteries. In Mark of the Plague , London is threatened with a rapidly spreading deadly disease. Only one apothecary, Christopher Blackthorn, can formulate a remedy, but an assassin threatens his life.
Theory of All Small Things. The Initiation , the first book in his middle grade trilogy. We first meet James and Moira when they are sent off to boarding school. It is there that James is paired with a rather unexpected roommate—Sherlock Holmes. But now they are all being sent back. Home is nothing like she expected. Something is terribly wrong. But what is it? You can visit her at HaddixBooks. Young Piper Dove wants to become the best female detective in Chicago. Starting out, she is hired by former Chicago Stars quarterback Cooper Graham to keep an eye on the employees at his exclusive new nightclub.
As you would expect, the chemistry between Cooper and Piper is hot, providing zip to a good love story and a lot of laughs. This incredibly imaginative and charming debut novel is about ten-year-old Antoinette, who suffers from a severe form of autism that prevents her from speaking. She and her mother Rose live in rural Kentucky on a flower farm. Rose, after witnessing a number of unexplainable events involving her daughter, discovers that Antoinette can heal anything and anyone with her touch and change the course of nature.
That proves to be very difficult. Stephanie Knipper and her husband adopted their daughter Grace, the first of five children with special needs they adopted from China in The character in her book was modeled after Grace because the author wanted to examine the impact of a disabled child on a family and highlight how we separate ourselves from one another by race, gender, physical ability and a myriad of other categories that mask that we are more alike than different. As payback, he posts a revealing photo of her online for the entire senior class to see.
Now Hadley has a choice to go back to the party and force Ben to delete the photo or raise the stakes and take his beloved car on a road trip as far away from their hometown of Oak Grove, Ohio, as she can get. Little does she realize how much trouble that will cause! The fast paced romantic thriller draws on real-life events straight from the news and takes on difficult issues of sexting, teen prescription drug abuse, and cyberbullying. Have you been wondering what the coloring book craze is all about? Then this program is for you. As part of National Coloring Book Day , we'll be giving away free coloring books while supplies last during this "how to" session.
We'll also have coloring pencils for you to use during this program and refreshments will be served. We think teens and adults will enjoy it. Posted by Robyn Morgan at 5: Subtitled How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice, and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini, it gives the reader a glorious introduction to the beauty and delicious nature of vegetables. Set in , on land that divides Georgia from Alabama, farmer Pearl Jewett ekes out a hardscrabble existence with his three young sons: Cane, Cob, and Chimney. Several hundred miles away in southern Ohio, a farmer by the name of Ellsworth Fiddler lives with his son, Eddie, and his wife, Eula.
After Ellsworth is swindled out of his family's entire fortune, his life is put on a surprising, unforgettable, and violent trajectory that will directly lead him to cross paths with the Jewetts. No good can come of it. In it, we meet Norman, an anthropologist who heads to the Utah desert to study the ghost towns and abandoned mines that litter the brutal landscape. What starts out as a serious educational study turns out to be something extremely different. Norman comes across a group of desert-dwelling outcasts who take him captive and introduce him to a way of life both repulsive and mesmerizing.
Posted by Robyn Morgan at 8: One night Della Black and three of her seven children are killed in a horrific fire in their trailer. As the surviving children are caught in the middle of a custody battle between their well-intentioned neighbor and their father and his pregnant mistress, new truths about what really happened the night of the fire, which was declared arson, come to light. Unexpectedly, Riley Griggs is informed that her island home is being foreclosed and, curiously, her husband is nowhere to be found.
Her island friends are no help because they have secrets of their own they want to keep hidden. So Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know, and the summer that could change everything. Victoria Theatre N. Please join us for an evening with Stephen King on stage at the historic Victoria Theatre as he talks about his new book, End of Watch.
Each ticket guarantees entry to the event, as well as one hardcover edition of End of Watch. As a special bonus, lucky attendees will randomly receive a pre-signed copy, so we wish you luck! King will not be signing books during the appearance. EVERY ticketholder will receive one copy of the book signed or unsigned at the end of the event. Additional copies of the unsigned new book, along with the two previous books in the series, Mr.
Mercedes and Finders Keepers will also be available for purchase at the event. Due to capacity limits, each person is allowed to purchase up to 4 tickets. Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love. In it, she shares stories of dogs bringing children with disabilities and their families new levels of engagement with the world, independence, and self-worth.
In doing this, Greene highlights the remarkable work being done by 4 Paws for Ability, a service-dog-training school headquartered in Xenia, Ohio. The dogs offer love, friendship, health, and happiness to children often isolated by their disabilities. Through the poignant, inspiring case studies in the book, Greene weaves the latest scientific discoveries about our co-evolution with dogs and about the cognitive and emotional capacities of our four-legged friends.
Melissa Fay Greene is the author of five books of nonfiction: Welcome to Wonderland's prestigious Millinery Academy: With all that to contend with, not to mention following in his popular older brother's footsteps, for Hatter Madigan getting through Imagination Class seems impossible already.
When students begin behaving strangely throughout the academy, Hatter and his fellow cadets must unlock the mysteries behind the ghosts, and the headmaster's suspicious behavior, before the entire student body finds itself possessed. Outing Contemporary Television I. Tauris, and Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the White Picket Fence I. He is the Director of the Centre for Television Drama Studies, established in to develop research into television analysis and historiography.
He has led three major collaborative research projects to date, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, on BBC TV drama in the s and s, British broadcasting in the period —82, and on relationships between US and UK television from to He specialises in analytical and archival study of television drama, developing links between academics, archives and television practitioners. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on television drama and has also published on factual television and on film.
She is the author of, amongst other things, Adaptation Revisited: His book, Emotional Structure: In addition to his collaborations with Jimmie L. Reeves and Mark C. Rogers, he has authored numerous articles on a variety of subjects, including telecommunications law and policy, the entertainment industry and attorney representations in American culture. Her current research focuses on theatre and globalisation; and on the Eurovision Song Contest, particularly Irish Eurovision fandom. A Western to Swear By I.
Tauris, and Reading The Sopranos: He co-edits the e-journal Slayage: Mark Lawson writes about television, politics and culture for the Guardian. His latest novel is Enough is Enough: Or the Emergency Government Picador, His teaching and research interests include children and media use, journalism, national cinemas, issues of the local and global, and television studies. She is author of Feminist Film Studies: A former journalist, with a PhD in Psychology, she has taught in universities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Together with Roberta Pearson she has been conducting research on American television, using Star Trek as a case study, to be published in a forthcoming book by University of California Press. He has published widely on arts and media topics, and his books on TV drama include Boys from the Blackstuff: He is currently working on a monograph, State of Play: He is also the author of a number of articles about the American comic book industry. Her work appears in various anthologies, including Reading Sex and the City I. TV to Die For I. Tauris, and The W Effect: Visit her website at: He has written or edited six books on American TV.
Thanks also to W. We would like to acknowledge Trinity College, Dublin, and in particular the School of Drama and the Samuel Beckett Centre, for generously hosting the conference. Special thanks go to Professor Brian Singleton for inspiration and support as well as Francis Thackaberry, Ann Mulligan and Michael Canney for invaluable administrative and technical support.
Thanks must go to our student helpers and, in particular, Sara Keating for her sterling efforts and hard work during the conference. Tauris and Palgrave who have supported the project. Thanks also to Jessica Cuthbert-Smith for managing the project in its final stages.
Babies, family demands and changes in jobs have conspired to delay this project. Throughout, though, our families have endured with us the frustrations and patiently supported us. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to them: Last, but absolutely by no means least, our fellow conspirator and inspirational editor Philippa Brewster, who waited so patiently for this manuscript and still believed it would arrive. Over the years, she has stalwartly believed in our projects and encouraged us to bring them to fruition. We appreciate her consummate professionalism, her wise counsel, her intelligent observations, her incorrigible sense of humour and are so very proud to call her our friend.
It is to her, with love, as always, that we dedicate this collection. It was a very short book. A lot has happened since then. That first phase stretched from the debut of Hill Street Blues in to the cancellation of Twin Peaks in There were only a few of them, and they were most conspicuous. Series like Hill Street Blues, St. In fact, quality TV back then was best defined by what it was not: Then, in the early s, something remarkable happened. Demographically conscious producers and network executives were now employing the quality TV style in a massive repackaging strategy across generic lines.
It was a retooling comparable to the switchover to colour three decades earlier. By the turn of the century, quality was busting out all over the networks. The very shows against which we used to define quality TV were disappearing. Needless to say, cable — both pay and basic — became an important player in this second phase of quality television. In fact, by the s, cable had emerged as the principal test kitchen for innovation in television.
Once they put their minds to it, of course, the folks at HBO often outdid their network counterparts.
With no concerns about ratings subscribers are what count , advertisers or federal regulations, HBO realised it could do what it pleased, and pretty much did. The string of series that included Oz, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under and Deadwood went beyond anything imaginable in the old network era in terms of content, narrative complexity, language and lots more.
Basic cable has also emerged in the past few years as a somewhat surprising venue for new iterations of quality TV. Who would have guessed 10 years ago that a basic cable channel like FX would Quality01 pre. Midway between the freedoms of pay cable and the restrictions of broadcasting, basic cable channels like FX and Comedy Central have created new territories of television content. The other was to load their schedules with reality TV, in which the cursing could be bleeped and the nudity what little there was of it could be digitally blurred.
Though networks would probably be best to leave subject matter like organised crime to the pay cable channels that can do it justice, there are areas of quality TV in which broadcasting can still excel. This highly stylised series turned out to be as much about language as it was about politics.
Broadcast limitations forced the drama to come not from the use of forbidden words but from the complex gymnastics of syntax. In , not everyone had a VCR, not many of those who did were efficient enough to record every episode of their favourite series, and not many of those who did that could find the right tape when they wanted it. The DVD changed all that. Unlike the home- video industry, which released small numbers of series episodes, the basic unit of release on DVD is an entire season, sometimes an entire series. Producers now make shows with the knowledge that each episode might be viewed and scrutinised over and over again.
Back in the s we breathlessly celebrated these new aesthetic approaches and challenges being taken on by a Quality01 pre. How is it adjusting to the multi-channel universe? Is the new television aesthetic developed in the s continuing to transform the medium in positive and interesting ways? The essays that follow examine the state of the art of quality TV 25 years after its first appearance. Jonathan Storm, Philadelphia Inquirer quoted in Harris Something had been happening on American TV, and we wanted to understand the significance of this new wave of critically acclaimed drama hitting our screens.
Instead, we unwittingly stirred up a minor storm. Even the call for papers provoked reactions that we had not quite anticipated. Misconceptions prevailed; charges of essentialism were levied. Others queried the criteria, while a few quibbled over our examples.
Their contact with the outside world was all but severed. While Miss Julia pens a letter that serves as the introduction to the story, the protagonist is Etta Mae, a hardscrabble, heart-of-gold woman, who is having a hard time trying to convince people that she is not like her low-down kin. Reservations are required; space is limited to guests. The attempt to expunge indecency from the airwaves justifies the exhaustive nature of the endeavour to monitor and keep the illicit in view. If we are to understand American Quality TV as a genre, then, the most useful short definition of it came from American freelance writer and conference participant Ashley [Sayeau]:
A television executive whom we had Quality02 intro. And maybe we were. Looking back, it seems quite an audacious title. But, mindful of the debate, we were also being deliberately provocative, for there is something inherently divisive about the term quality — its meaning, its use, which often finds colleagues compelled to apply quotation marks as qualifiers around the word. Even before a definition can be made, almost any discussion involving quality cannot escape issues of value judgement and personal taste. Given the traditional ephemeral nature of the medium, its relative novelty and its appeal to the mass audience, debates on taste and judgement are thus inevitably handicapped.
Brunsdon insightfully identifies a central problem: Nonetheless, the controversy intrigued us and prompted this latest undertaking. Bringing together leading scholars, writers, industry insiders and practitioners, Quality TV: Each contributor aims to make sense of what quality TV means to our present television cultural zeitgeist.
Striving to find appropriate methodologies, apt writing styles and different ways of talking about this notoriously contentious term, this collection emphasises difference and deliberately promotes discordant voices. It asks, what are the criteria used to define quality — taste, personal judgement, commercial success, industrial conditions, aesthetic values, product differentiation? Who defines it, and who has the right to intervene and judge what we mean by quality? Who is Quality02 intro. Is it, indeed, an appropriate term at all? Its inclusion is meant to flag up those issues — those theoretical blockages, subjective factors and critical difficulties — expressed above.
What follows in the rest of the collection are a number of timely and thought-provoking responses. From a range of very different perspectives, and cognisant of the difficulties involved in articulating the very term quality, authors provide varying accounts in an effort to explore different meanings, alternative definitions and fresh approaches to thinking about and studying quality television. This book takes as its starting point That year saw the publication of Robert J. Furthermore, just as Thompson was analysing the s institutionalisation of unique televisual primetime network shows like Hill Street Blues, St.
Elsewhere and thirtysomething, something new was happening in American television. For these reasons, Thompson has been invited to review the last 11 years in the preface to this collection. Conversely, American TV scholars have fewer problems, partly because of the lingering tradition of evaluative criticism. Whereas the scheme for transforming quality into academic discourse has long demanded both critical and emotional distance as observed by Cardwell , the discourse of TV journalism has always been concerned with making critical judgements about television McArthur Writing about quality television for the last 30 years, American television critic David Bianculli confirms how personal criteria and emotional response are central to his professional role and writing practice as a TV critic.
Notions of quality are nothing new, but instead have a long history. Identifying shifts in criteria for evaluating television small- screen fictions as well as changes in social, economic and industrial discourses that have an impact on such thinking, he argues that the quality debate has an ever-changing history.
The final two chapters in this section investigate the politics of quality in American television. Each chapter looks at how the term is often evoked at moments when television is attempting to Quality02 intro. Looking back over the history of American sitcoms, she considers how quality granted programme makers permission to talk about, as well as propagate knowledge of, the changing place of women in American society.
We describe how courting controversy has been institutionalised by HBO, in its unwritten rules, and embedded in and through its original programming, as a distinct feature of its cultural cachet, its quality brand label, its exclusivity, its difference from standard network fare and until recently its leading market position. Cultural values influence institutional policy; business strategies affect programmes. In , television programme makers and executives were confronted with a highly competitive market, one where economic survival and business success were dictated by factors that could never have been imagined before the arrival of multi-channel television and the cable revolution.
Satellite transmission meant cable went from local to national, and even global. It gave rise to a diversity of new cable channels, from the superstations to those specialising in niche entertainments. The new post era was driven by consumer demand and customer satisfaction as well as being shaped by digital technologies and technical innovations, and new ways of distribution in terms of international sales and global syndication. Market forces in terms of quality control and brand equity, and the conversion of cultural currency into economic capital, are all considered through a case study of cable channel Comedy Central and its flagship programme The Daily Show.
Award-winning writer and producer Peter Dunne assesses professional codes and practices for making quality programmes as he charts his experiences of working in the American television industry over the last 30 years. Familiar with conflicting demands and the compromises that need to be made, he writes on how quality is ultimately censored by economic pragmatism, industrial trends and financial constraints. The last three chapters in this section look at quality from different national contexts, and the competing demands that can change the definition of quality as a TV product moves from one television flow into another.
Now they are the most expensive television he buys. Citing the cyclical nature of quality television, Horan contemplates the demands placed upon him when he is acquiring individual programmes as well as package deals from America. Despite changes in taste and a preference for the local, as well as spiralling costs for quality series, Quality02 intro.
Janet McCabe has written that the UK minority terrestrial Channel 4 has long made use of American television small-screen fictions like ER and The West Wing to define and strengthen its own corporate identity as it repositions these shows as quality In recent times, the rebranded Channel 5 has increasingly relied on a similar strategy to elevate its institutional status within the British broadcasting context.
Goode argues that these programmes are inherently signalled as quality, used, as they are, to endorse a quality brand for a previously inferior channel. Definitions of quality in this context are inherently conservative in terms of a need to protect indigenous markets as well as preserve cultural values and national identity.
Geoff Lealand takes up such debates, and updates his thinking on quality television in the context of New Zealand, where he identifies what is meant by quality in a national context where American television is marginalised and the local output dominates. Public service broadcasting prevails and guides standards on programme strategy and practice. Criteria for defining quality and judging what it is are deeply embedded in this remit, made visible in and through cultural policy, government funding and guidelines.
The first two chapters define quality Quality02 intro. Feuer, in this collection, revises and advances the debate with an analysis of what constitutes quality today. Innovation here has recourse to older, more established art traditions. It leads one to ask if co-opting prestigious cultural affiliations is necessary before the new can be formulated and accepted into something different, something innovative and groundbreaking. Innovations in production techniques have enabled TV series to produce visual effects similar to ones that were once only seen in Hollywood movies.
Moreover, as more homes install widescreen, plasma and HD high-definition television sets and state-of- the art Dolby sound systems, consumers demand content that keeps up with these advances. Such innovations have further contributed to television now becoming a medium that rivals film for entertainment. Offering his perspective on quality TV, Jonathan Quality02 intro.
Underlying the centrality to contemporary debates of Hill Street Blues as establishing the quality television drama as a uniquely televisual form is the emergence of the writer-producer. Talking about Bochco, she says: A bold statement indeed, but it does seem that in recent times American broadcasters are once again emphasising the importance of authoring as a means of Quality02 intro.
Using the idea of the author as brand label of quality and exclusivity, they are institutionalising the writer-producer as a strategy. This is, then, followed by an interview with another television auteur, W. As we edge closer to a shift from analogue to digital, consumers are enjoying ever more control over content, with more choice about what to watch, where to watch it and when. The television-viewing experience may have been transformed with the box set, but, as David Lavery argues, the companion book also enriches it.
Giving context to hours of television, investing it with prior narratives and backstories, the quality companion book adds additional weight, nuance and significance to the narrative of shows like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, created by Aaron Sorkin and cancelled after only one season , portrayed life behind the scenes of a top TV comedy show, and gave the writer complete creative control, something he had never had on The West Wing.
The Nine tells the story, through a series of flashbacks, of a hostage-taking during a bank robbery; another was Six Degrees also cancelled after the Quality02 intro. It is certainly no small coincidence that these shows built on the immensely successful formula instigated by breakthrough ABC hit Lost. Thompson quoted in Harris Ever since Hill Street Blues in the early ls, American TV has been known for producing intelligent high-quality shows, but rarely have so many quality shows been released at once. This anthology is published at the very moment when something new seems to be happening again.
What we hope is that definitions of quality offered in this collection will stimulate fresh questions as we enter the post- analogue, post-Sopranos age. The term came into circulation after the publication of American academic Robert J. If we are to understand American Quality TV as a genre, then, the most useful short definition of it came from American freelance writer and conference participant Ashley [Sayeau]: What was perhaps most troubling about the conference to me was the emphasis in many papers on the aesthetic and formal qualities of the programmes discussed, often at the expense of any consideration of their content, and the ways they might play into real-life relations of power and politics.
Television disperses images and ideas that affect and shape how billions of people see themselves and each other; one of the Quality03 Fricker. Scary — but sadly believable. However, according to many at the conference, this is a necessary phase in the intellectual field of television studies, which started out as a discussion mainly of ideology and is now moving through a necessary phase of aestheticism.
My world was perhaps most rocked by the argument of Paul Woolf from the University of Birmingham about the sponsorship of 24 by the Ford Motor Company: I feel a conference coming on. Original appeared on 12 April and reprinted here with kind permission of The Irish Times. If not, what relation do they bear to one another? Viewers, critics and scholars persistently draw curious distinctions between quality and good television, and yet simultaneously find themselves implicitly asserting overlaps between the two. This chapter draws out a range of features by which the two categories might be distinguished, while acknowledging some of the ways in which they are interrelated, and questions the usefulness of demarcating the two.
It is clearly unrealistic to hope for an immediate clarification, let alone resolution, of complex and abiding concerns regarding the role of critical judgement within television studies. Indeed, unsurprisingly, when we are determined to speak more carefully and reflexively about quality and good television, about evaluation and critical judgement, about criteria and discrimination, our understanding of television as an art form appears to be complicated Quality04ch01 Cardwell. However, the process is invigorating, for we are also able to lay out some tentative distinctions and to be more precise, honest and reflective in our assessments of programmes.
Television studies has for too long lacked sufficient attention to detail in conceptual matters and indeed in textual analysis. The aim of this chapter is therefore to proffer some claims regarding quality and good television in order to provoke the reader through exposing and perhaps unsettling his or her assumptions about the evaluation of television programmes.
Polemically, this chapter urges that we all examine more closely and disclose more honestly our own systems and criteria of judgement, and engage more deeply with those television programmes we deem worthy of such engagement. His reaction, which is by no means an atypical response to artworks, including television programmes, raises some interesting questions.
Perhaps the central question is this: What does it mean to call something quality television? The most reasonable answer here is that the student had identified certain textual characteristics that signify or represent high quality; in fact, when pressed on this matter, he acknowledged that the programme was carefully constructed, well acted, well filmed and based on a good story adapted from a classic novel.
So he tempered his own, intuitive response with a statement about how he could see that the programme was of high quality. What this instance exposes is one aspect of the intricate and sometimes rather curious system of judgement we use to assess texts. We are able to conclude that something is of high quality based not on our own experience or critical judgement of it, but on Quality04ch01 Cardwell.
This part of the process is more dependent upon the observation and apprehension of textual qualities than on our immediate, subjective responses, emotions and evaluations. Quality television may be perceived as being good for its viewers — morally or educationally edifying — but it may still be experienced as worthy, dull, conventional or pretentious. Good television is rich, riveting, moving, provocative and frequently contemporary in some sense ; it is relevant to and valued by us. It speaks to us, and it endures for us. If the student had enjoyed the programme, he would perhaps have described it as good television as well as quality television.
I shall elaborate further on this distinction between quality and good television later. At this point one final observation is necessary. If a programme is regarded as being quality television, viewers may feel more compelled to give it a chance, to remain more open to seeing its attributes for themselves. That is, critical evaluations may be more subjective, based on our own experiences, our feelings of like or dislike,1 but they are also framed by broad, culturally specific understandings of what is considered good quality.
First, he was aware that it was considered quality television, and this implies not just certain generic features but also a broad cultural consensus that Quality04ch01 Cardwell. Second, the student knew that I had chosen to screen the programme on my television aesthetics course; he could therefore assume that I considered it to have significant enough merits to warrant its study.
This guided him in seeking out the qualities of the text that I might have chosen to value, rather than dismissing the programme on the basis of a personal preference. Interestingly, classifications of quality television appear to be deeply affected by national context. Contemporary British quality television differs from its American counterpart; similarly, the critical community of scholars and critics appears to take a different stance towards these two groups of programmes.
The stance most commonly taken towards American quality television enhances the possibilities for future television scholarship. Academics writing about British quality television seem to exhibit a level of discomfort with their subject matter. It is intriguing to note the underlying struggle in such academic writing: The middle-brow is regarded as inauthentic — neither proudly popular or plebeian nor firmly highbrow and artistic. Instead it panders to the middle ground — and to the middle classes, who have not fared well within television studies, given the Marxist history of the field and the prominence of theorists who hold special scorn and the sharpest criticism for any work with bourgeois aspirations or connotations.
That is, by recognising quality as a generic description rather than a term of positive critical evaluation, we are able to engage more straightforwardly and with fewer reservations in the evaluation of all television. Yet this has been accompanied by a broader reluctance to establish what the key features of quality and good television are — and especially to engage with the question of what good television is Caughie, Brunsdon and Jason Jacobs are notable exceptions here. Relatively comfortable Quality04ch01 Cardwell. Less concerned with distinguishing quality television from good television, scholars have been far more willing to accept the categorisation of a programme as quality television as an indication that it is also good television worthy of study.
There is little of the reticence or ambivalence found in British writing on, for example, classic British literary adaptations when one reads articles about American contemporary quality television. The West Wing launches a number of contradictory positions while maintaining, through three-dimensional characterization and mastery of dialogue, a moral center that subtly and precariously stands up to repeated challenges Here, quality is initially spoken of as a set of conventions and stylistic features.
This reflects the more widespread practice when scholars deal with American quality television rather than British quality television: But there is still some anxiety evident in her writing. This suggests an excessive caution, as if she is afraid to lay her cards on the table and assert her critical judgement. It is as if to say that she esteems the programme but that, if push came to shove, she would not impose that view upon others. It is to put inverted commas around the very practice of critical judgement I shall return to this later. Lane writes of the traditions and conventions of quality television as if these were widely known and recognised.
My immediate, instinctive response was to spot omissions and challenge wrongful inclusions. There was a sense of connection, continuity, even development, across the group. How can this identity be defined? What is creating it? As with a generic group, are we able to determine particular aesthetic features — elements of style, for example — that connect the programmes?
And most pertinently, Quality04ch01 Cardwell. What does an indicator of quality look like? If we can determine this, we can determine the reasons that this set of programmes might coherently and logically be grouped together. Continuing with the generic analogy, let us consider how one might classify programmes as quality television on the basis of their exhibiting certain textual characteristics of content, structure, theme and tone.
American quality television programmes tend to exhibit high production values, naturalistic performance styles, recognised and esteemed actors, a sense of visual style created through careful, even innovative, camerawork and editing, and a sense of aural style created through the judicious use of appropriate, even original music. Generally, there is a sense of stylistic integrity, in which themes and style are intertwined in an expressive and impressive way. American quality television also tends to focus on the present, offering reflections on contemporary society, and crystallising these reflections within smaller examples and instances.
Further features are present in the programme that indicate that the audience ought to classify it thus, such as the foregrounding of the creative impulse and artistic vision of the creator and original screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, which adds prestige and a sense of artistic integrity, and suggests that the series should be more highly valued. Other aspects encourage an intense level of audience appreciation and engagement, such as the complex narrative structure, its intricate themes, its use of erudite, technical, oratorical and even poetic language, and its fast-paced style.
We are shuttled between Quality04ch01 Cardwell. This higher level of engagement is considered to be another feature of high-quality television. It also places the viewer into the active position that one takes up when making a critical judgement. The programme encourages us to interpret and evaluate it. It is clear that The West Wing shares with soap operas and other melodramas an interest in interpersonal relationships. But The West Wing offers a more intricate, eloquent and ambiguous exploration of these.
It also presents characters as social and political actors, as players within a larger scheme, not just as emotional individuals. The series foregrounds their interrelationships as fluctuating, changing, subtle and profoundly affected by bigger things: Take the credit sequence as an example: This is especially true of the last three shots of the president, where we move from an official shot, to him as seen by his team, to him alone, unaware of being observed. This movement promises us privileged access, right up to the top of the hierarchy and the president as fulcrum; it promises that the programme will bring us closer to the human beings behind the news stories.
Consider, too, the music: This reflects the idealistic framework of the series. The programme presents a kind of perfect public sphere in which ideals and principles are central, and the characters are under pressure to negotiate these ideals in the face of the gritty realities of real, political life. The programme itself is not idealistic but it engages with ideals. This is captured here in the credits. The powerful, inspiring music integrates with the images of active, concerned characters to reflect carefully and honestly the kind of dynamic that informs the action. These qualities can similarly be found in other examples of American quality television.
Rather than focusing solely on a series of events, these programmes Quality04ch01 Cardwell. Each programme tackles contemporary inflections of themes that have affected humankind for centuries: Interestingly, each of these programmes echo the form of The West Wing, for they posit a relationship — couched often but not always in terms of a disparity — between the mythic or ideal and the actualities of everyday, lived life. In proffering particular instances of life and death, Six Feet Under presents protagonists who encounter the difficult experience of reconciling ideals and beliefs about life and death with the more prosaic experience of these things.
The reflective and thoughtful qualities of these programmes thus arise because they place the ideal in its primary sense alongside the real — and this is one of the key features that distinguish them from soaps, which are firmly committed to examining the real. These shared thematic preoccupations are also suggesting shared aesthetic choices, though the programmes are stylistically diverse. Fragmentation in the form of abstraction is commonly employed, for example, allowing the focus to be narrowed to a small detail that is nevertheless connotatively rich and encourages interpretative work on the part of the viewer.
Of course, many television credit sequences employ fragmentation, and some employ it in the form of abstraction, but most credits do not objectify or defamiliarise to the extent seen in quality television. The opening of Six Feet Under is a good example of such defamiliarisation. An opening chord chimes and a large black crow flutters across the top right-hand corner of the screen against an unusually deep blue-green sky. The camera tilts downwards, framing a solitary tree, beneath which is an expanse of dark earth.
The limited palette of colours, blanket lighting and lack of shading mean that perspective is unclear, and this image feels flattened. As a further chord chimes, the two hands move upwards, straining their grasp on one another, and then pull sharply away from one another, as if torn apart against their will. The movement subsequently slows as the hands continue to move apart, but more slowly, as if drifting, floating in space. The hands that are torn reluctantly and suddenly apart, and gradually fade from one another, present in abstraction an image of the experience of death.
Yet the image is not reducible to this verbal meaning but expresses the meaning in a particular and emotive form. The sudden, pulsing jolt of an apparently inanimate white plastic hand lends an eerie quality to the credits, while the accompanying fast, low drum beat implies a frantically beating heart, conveying the sense of a threat perceived by a real, living, fragile body.
As in Six Feet Under, the opening credit images play with perspective and depth, using white shapes on white backgrounds so that the bodies are in one moment two-dimensional drawings, in the next moment three- dimensional models. Defamiliarisation and abstraction again lead the viewer to interpret and ruminate on the question of human and social identity, and their relation to the bodies that are distorted in pursuit of artificial perfection.
So What is Good Television? The purpose of drawing out such shared features was simply to suggest that these three programmes fit together into the category quality television — rather than to support a claim that the programmes should be highly valued as good television. That is, I would argue that many of those attributes that define quality television are also ones that may relatively reliably contribute to making a programme a good one. The way a camera moves, the moment at which a cut is made, the choice to frame a character in mid-shot rather than close-up, the use of a cello rather than a violin on the soundtrack: These are questions that have concerned aestheticians for centuries.
A tentative and personal response would be that these programmes are capable of raising our thoughts and observations above an immersion in the prosaic and quotidian, yet in doing so they may shed light upon, reassess and reshape the significance of the ordinary and the everyday, and they can do this repeatedly. As valuable artworks, the programmes exhibit endurance and flexibility, providing the viewer with the potential for active discovery and ongoing reflection.
Moreover, lest this seem too broad, let me emphasise that this is not a simple matter Quality04ch01 Cardwell. Such correlation can be found in quiz shows and cookery programmes. Good television also avoids making redundant stylistic choices. Take, for example, use of simple repetition, such as the chords that herald the closing of a soap opera such as EastEnders, or the opening of a new round of questions in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Good television also requires one further crucial element mentioned previously. Good television is television that we experience positively: We might also evaluate a programme on the basis of its moral qualities or ideological framework, given that those aspects affect our ability to view repeatedly and engage with the work. So, good television, though constituted by textual features that open up the potential for rich, repeated viewing, requires something special for its classification: Unlike quality television, we cannot simply categorise good television on the basis of a cursory viewing; we must experience and respond to it.
Quality television can be found through a reasonable level of attention to the text — the seeking out of particular textual features. Good television can only be discovered through the exercise of critical judgement, a personal decision based upon our considered, sympathetic and ideally disinterested response to the details of a text. Where to From Here? We have seen that one can claim that a programme ought to be classified as quality television, and that one can also make claims for the value of a text i. These two types of claims are often conflated, but actually involve different things.
To determine quality one need only refer to details of the programme and show that they exhibit fundamental defining features. To determine real value — to make a critical judgement and try to persuade others of it — one must both interpret the programme and evaluate it according to explicit criteria. In scholarly writing on British quality television, this distinction has been made relatively clearly; in comparable writing on American programmes, however, quality television is often conflated with good television.
We would speak of good and bad art and all the shades of grey in between. Perhaps the recent scholarship on American quality television reveals that what many of us really want to write about is good television — but we seem afraid to do so. Some television scholars do write overtly about good television — even if they deploy other terms for it. This is the kind of provocation that is needed in the field. However, television studies would be enriched if more scholars focused on good television.
We would have to tackle the prevailing concern that hampers this field, that evaluation is merely personal opinion, that no real agreement can be found, and that therefore evaluative discussion is fruitless. The one will enhance the other. As Jason Jacobs writes: As with the analysis of all art, understanding [our involvement with specific television texts] requires above all concentrated study: Criticism is a way of articulating why television programmes matter to us and the nature of that significance.
Only in this way can we develop meaningful criteria for specific instances of television that may then be applied more generally The study of American quality television has already contributed to this project. Alongside more traditional media studies analyses and ideological critiques, scholars have proffered careful and engaged analyses and evaluations of American programmes such as Twin Peaks, The West Wing and Six Feet Under. The best of these studies take the view that the programmes under scrutiny are interesting not only, or not even, as artefacts of popular culture, but that they are rich, complex artworks worthy of sustained study in themselves.
As Brunsdon rightly says: The criteria I use above — of interpretative richness and endurance i. They may have a sound history of critical practice behind them,12 but they are still open to consideration, confirmation and challenge by other scholars. At least in proposing them I open up the possibility of debate. It seems as if we nervously avoid serious debate regarding evaluation and critical judgement. The prevailing notion that any evaluation is equally valid, that there can be no reasonable evidence to establish the superiority of one critique over another, is oppressive, for it incapacitates our critical faculties and disables us in advancing discussions of good television within the field.
We should be bold and state our critical judgements, not fear them as instruments of oppression. We should free ourselves from the timid inverted commas. Let us openly defend those programmes we believe are worthy of serious, dedicated study and discussion. Let us abandon quality television and embrace good television. Quality television, to me, encompasses everything from the novelistic themes and scope of The Sopranos to the silly antics of the medical sitcom Scrubs. It includes the puncturing of political and media sacred cows on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the endlessly analysable clues on Lost.
Asking what these shows have in common, though, is asking a lot. These ranged from Japanese documentaries on the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and on a loving fifth-grade schoolteacher, to a British poetry programme called Whine Gums. Confining myself to home-grown product still leaves a lot to discuss, though. In the USA, quality television came early, but not necessarily often. In those early years, it also came with the technical playfulness of Ernie Kovacs and the macabre playfulness of Alfred Hitchcock.
What was slower to mature, in terms of excellence, was the weekly television drama series. For far too long, US drama series consisted largely of tales told in easily interchangeable chunks, like cards in a deck that could be shuffled and dealt in any order. The daytime soap operas, borrowing from radio, told stories in sequential, serialised fashion. At night, though, whatever happened to Mannix or Perry Mason one week had no bearing on what happened the next. It offered closure, and made The Fugitive, from start to finish, seem less like a series of shows, and more like chapters in a novel.
That novel approach grew quickly, as did quality TV. Shows like The White Shadow injected not only surprise, but unsettling suspense, by randomly killing off a key character — a key ingredient of the current, groundbreaking By the s, pioneering series such as Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere broke all kinds of rules and Quality05ch02 Bianculli. Quality TV shows began to flock together, like birds. And today, thanks to cable and satellite TV as well as increased broadcast networks, you really can find something of quality on almost any given night, though you have to sort through an awful lot of dross.
So what has quality TV evolved to in the US? Those, to me, are prime primetime examples of quality television. TV critics, to do their job, must multi-task voraciously, taking notes on one show while writing about another. In my case, I know it when I stop to watch it. Which, fittingly, is my cue to stop writing. A new episode of Scrubs is on. It is not necessary to revisit in detail the core traditions in Britain and America with whose television cultures this chapter is primarily concerned since they are well documented.
Several core tensions were in play historically between cultures and within cultures in the broad period from the late s to the late s. For the sake of brevity, I propose to set these out more starkly than they have functioned in actuality, before addressing the continuities and discontinuities into TVIII the s and early s. Early British TV drama had its roots in theatre and had a strong disposition to privilege the writer as the locus of a distinctive vision or guarantor of authenticity.
America, in contrast, with its television industry developing substantially in Los Angeles, has lived in the shadow of Hollywood film. There has always been a tendency within both the British and American industries to estimate film more highly than television. This evaluation is based partly on the higher production values historically associated with the big-screen cinema image over the poor resolution of the small television monitor; partly on industrial practices in which more time is taken to produce film on the back of better funding; and partly on the domesticity of television, which militates against scopophilic cinematic pleasures.
The privileging of film over television in America is significantly informed by an industrial hierarchy in which film production personnel and practices were kept as discrete as possible from those of television in a situation in which they were in fact close neighbours. The distinction between them was founded on the much higher budgets of film in comparison to television, and filmmakers did not want to be tainted by association with a cheaper, and allegedly inferior, product.
Such films carried something of the cultural cachet of the authored TV drama, but crediting the vision of the director rather than the writer. Even though this cachet may not have applied to industrial Hollywood, it has always seemed possible to do something interesting on film in a way that the television industry typically seemed to preclude as authored drama diminished even in the British tradition.
If anything distinctive was achieved in American television, it was perceived as being against the grain of the industry, as being, in Robert J. There are strong undercurrents in this broad sketch review that make assumptions about the industry, viewers, television texts and the processes of creativity.
In respect of textual production, the distinctive vision of a special individual — a film auteur or Quality06ch03 Nelson. Whilst film might sustain such quality, the industrial processes of early television, racing to supply the rapacious schedules but static and studio-bound with its cumbersome cameras and cables, allegedly could not. In addition, the tried and tested tele- vision programming — repeating formulaic codes and conventions with only minor adjustments — appeared to serve the needs of LOP culture but, almost by definition, could not be distinctive. In the first, negatively expressed account, Neil Postman argues that the American television medium is: The average shot is only 3.
Moreover, television offers viewers a variety of subject matter, requires minimal skills to comprehend it, and is largely aimed at emotional gratification. American television, in other words, is devoted entirely to supplying its audience with entertainment.
Despite differences, there is agreement here that, in espousing the LOP values of popular entertainment, American television, with rare programming exceptions, has eschewed the intellect and amused through a relatively superficial emotional engagement. Thus it would be very surprising if all programming aspired to a Reithian high seriousness. Assuming that informative and educative programmes have a value where they do appear, too little has been established critically about the other pleasures television might generate for viewers, not all of which are mindless.
Shifting Foundation; Altered Viewpoints In the late s and early s, however, critical discourse on quality TV drama has been dominated by the celebration of American quality TV. Wilcox Fighting the Forces: Thus the first point of change to note is that American quality TV is currently dominating the discourse and, given the sketch above, an explanation for this apparent turnaround is needed. It is not the first time that one television culture has been per- ceived to be better than the other.
In the late s and s, for example, British television was highly rated in America. Beyond mere fashion, underlying changes have been highly significant, however, in technological, financial, industrial and Quality06ch03 Nelson.