PARENTS TO THE WORLD, FOREVER

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter… ©

Daughter Katie’s novel LEARNING TO SWEAR IN AMERICA, is YA, but it’s also science fiction. Some people don’t seem to understand what science is. Several folks have given her only 4 stars instead of 5 in reviews because, they say, “The science sounds made up.” They don’t give any examples. It’s just a “feel.”

A statement that “The science sounds made up” is very unscientific. How can you criticize someone for not being scientific when you are just going by “sound” or “feel?” That’s not scientific. If you’re too lazy to check it out yourself, it would be best not to display your ignorance.

And some folks seem not to understand what fiction is. Why criticize made-up science in a FICTION book anyway? Fiction is ALL made up. That’s what it is! MADE UP. A novel is not a science text book.

Katie, however, is an assiduous researcher. If she has a character eating in a restaurant in NYC, she goes on line or calls them and checks the menu for the day the character ate there to be sure they served that day what she had her character eat. She even called The Johnson Space Center to discuss how they run their cafeterias for that scene in her 2017 novel, WHAT GOES UP. Although she says she did make up flying through XD space in What Goes Up, because it’s FICTION!

So what, you say. Isn’t this a blog about old people and how they can still do good faith stuff? Yes, and the first thing you have to know about old people is that we never stop being parents, regardless of how old our kids get!

I think that is the task of old people, even those who have not raised children in their own homes, to be loving parents to all the children of the world.

When my older sister’s husband, Dick Lindquist died, much too young, people noted that “he loved children, anybody’s children, any age.”

What better legacy to leave?

BTW, since you know that Katie is an assiduous researcher, you know she did not make up the science in Learning to Swear in America. She says, “Tell the chief scientist for Homeland Security that it’s made-up science. He’s the one who told me how to do it.” [1]

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

1] Also the FBI knows her by name, which sort of makes me glad we don’t have the same name anymore.

*****

Russian boy genius Yuri Strelnikov is a 17 year old with a PhD in Physics. The Americans recruit him when they discover an asteroid is blazing toward earth on a collision course with Los Angeles, where NASA has assembled the best and brightest to figure a way out of this deadly impact. Yuri has only a few days to work the math, find a solution, and then convince those much older to accept his anti-matter plan. He meets the quirky teen girl, Dovie, and her equally quirky family, and finds there are more reasons to save the earth than just winning a Nobel Prize.

So goes Katie Kennedy’s marvelous Learning to Swear in America, published by Bloomsbury, which also publishes lesser authors, like JK Rowling. It has received a rare star review from Publisher’s Weekly and another star review from BCCB [Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books]. It’s on B&N’s, Bustle’s, and PopCrush’s “Most Anticipated” list, and Goodreads “Best New for the Month” list. An IndieNext pick. Listed by American Book Sellers as one of their Top Ten new releases. Available in print, audio, and e-book, from your friendly independent book store, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc.