Today is Andrew's birthday! Come join the party! :-)
Wingfeather Lego drawings
What creativity—this young man (also named Andrew) drew several Wingfeather characters, made to look like Lego minifigures. Are they cool or what? He drew these when he was 11—but today is his 15th birthday. Happy birthday, Andrew! And thanks for the drawings!
Our Andrew's birthday is this week, too, on Thursday. I've started a birthday thread in the forum, where you can leave him a note if you like. I know it'd make his day to hear from you. :-)
This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 53-58 of North! Or Be Eaten. Check back on Friday for her favorite excerpt, and to share one of your own.
Beauty and rest
In the midst of exhaustion, fear, danger, and loneliness, beauty can be a refuge. Difficult things are happening to the Wingibys. The last few weeks' excerpts have been hard, and next week's is likely to be hard as well. But for now, just rest here a minute.
The hollow seemed safe enough. It was the first peaceful spot they had found in the Stony Mountains, and he hated to leave. They gathered enough sticks and scrub for a fire and settled in to cook a meal.The setting sun broke through the clouds and shot a golden beam at Mog-Balgrik. The light transformed the hideous semblance of a face and showed the peak for the ancient beauty that it was.“Look!” Maraly said.Janner pulled his gaze from the bright mountain and saw what appeared to be a cloud of yellow flower petals floating down from the slopes to the lake. Then they heard the flutter of wings and the twitter of birdsong. Thousands of yellow birds alighted on the surface of the lake, so many that it looked like the water itself had turned to gold. They sang and groomed their wings in the twilight and were visible long after night fell.“Hmph,” was all Maraly said, but Janner noticed that she wiped her eyes.The children fell asleep to the pleasant play of the birds on the water. Janner woke more than once that night to see the starlit creatures still floating on the lake, and he went back to sleep with wonder in his heart.—From chapter 52, "The Bomnubble and the Lake of Gold."
Do you have a favorite recipe from the books? Any questions burning? Visit the forum! We'd love to hang out with you.And for some great news from Andrew, here's this. :-)
Sailor's Pie
“His name is Ronchy McHiggins. ... Runs a tavern called the Roundish Widow that serves the finest sailor’s pie I’ve ever laid mouth on. He cooks it with a sprig of honeybud, and the mashes atop it are copiously peppered and garlicked. Seven vegetables are mixed with goat crème and—”“Can we trust him?” Nia asked.Oskar cleared his throat and eyed his diggle meat with disdain. “I hope so. He’s the one who introduced me to Gammon. ... If anyone can find us a guide over the Stony Mountains to the Ice Prairies, Ronchy McHiggins can. His sailor’s pie, as I said, is delicious.”—From North! Or Be Eaten, chapter 17, "An Ally in Dugtown."
Ronchy McHiggins' Sailor's PieOlive oil2 slabs henmeat, cut into small pieces1 onion, cut up8 oz. mushrooms, sliced2 c. broccoli, cut up1 lb. asparagus, cut up*1 acorn squash, peeled and cut up*2 parsnips, cut up2 carrots, cut up1 sprig (about 2 t.) honeybud*A few cloves of garlic, smashedSalt and pepper1 c. goat crème**1 1/2 c. hen broth1/2 c. hen broth1/4 c. potato starch or other thickener3 lb. totatoes, quartered3/4 to 1 c. heavy cream1/2 c. (1 stick) butterThe rest of the head of garlic, smashedSalt and copious pepper•••First, start a fire in your oven. You'll want it to get to about 350º.Heat up a very large pan, and when it's hot, add a good-sized splash of oil. Add some garlic and stir it around for just a few seconds. Add your vegetables, a handful at a time, and stir as you go, then add the henmeat. Add more oil as you go to keep things from sticking.When the henmeat is cooked through and the vegetables are done, pour in the goat crème and 1 1/2 c. of hen broth. Whisk the potato starch into the remaining 1/2 cup of broth, then add that to the pan, too. It'll thicken quickly, so keep an eye on it while you stir. Add salt, pepper, and honeybud to taste.Remove the pan from the heat, and spread all of this mixture into a very large (about 9x13") baking pan.Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the totatoes. Let them cook until you can stab them through with a fork. Drain the totatoes, then melt the butter in the pot. Add the garlic and stir for a minute. Put the totatoes back into the pot and mash them. Add salt, cream, and copious pepper as you go. (If you have a helper, they can do this part while you work on the henmeat and vegetable filling.)When the mashes are ready, spread them over the top of the filling in the pan. Top with more pepper. If you like, you can use a spoon to make little dips and swirls in the mashes, and fill those in with more garlicky butter. Put the pan in the oven and bake for about twenty minutes, or until the filling burbles a little. (You might want to put the pan on a large cookie sheet, in case it burbles over.)*You can substitute other vegetables if these are not on hand. For example, butternut squash works well in place of acorn squash, and sugar snap peas can be used if asparagus isn't in season. And thyme works nicely if you haven't any honeybud.**If you can't find goat crème, you can substitute goat milk (or toothy cow milk, if you can manage to extract it and keep all your limbs), thickened with 4 oz. of goat cheese.
This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 48-52 of North! Or Be Eaten. Check back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own!
The Hag in the Burrow
Greetings from Madame Sidler! This week I read chapters 42-47 of North! Or Be Eaten. By now I suppose my fellow readers have picked up on my appreciation for creepy passages. Perhaps it's no coincidence that I enjoy creeping in secret passages. Perhaps that's why people call me creepy? Hmm. Let's not dwell on that. At any rate, here is an excellent creepy passage.
When yellow light from the strike of the match filled the chamber, Janner was so shocked by what he saw that he wouldn’t have been surprised if his heart leapt up his throat, out of his mouth, and landed with a splat on the dirt floor.Someone sat against the opposite wall, staring at him.She was dressed in rags, her skin leathery and caked with grime, and her eyes were bottomless pits set in the wrinkled landscape of her face. She looked familiar, which told Janner she must be one of the hags of Tilling Court.He dropped the match and everything went black.She laughed. It was a dry, papery laugh, a dead crackle.“Child,” she whispered.Janner was too terrified to move. He imagined her crawling toward him in jerking movements, those wide, black, spidery eyes able to see him in the dark somehow. Fangs bumped and growled in the house above. He wondered which was worse: capture by the Fangs or the wet stink of the hag in the cellar.“Child,” she whispered again, louder.Janner closed his eyes and tried to shut out the world. When he heard the woman grunt and drag herself across the floor toward him, his breaths came in short, desperate gasps. His head seemed to thicken; bright points of light danced across his eyelids.Her hand touched his foot, and Janner tried to scream, but his voice made no sound. The stars burst into fiery colors, and he had the sensation of falling slowly upward and into the dreadful, silent well of space.—From chapter 46, "The Strander Burrow."
What was your favorite passage this week—from the book club reading or anywhere else? Post it in the comments!This week in the forum, there's a new thread about songs of lament. There are also all kinds of other conversations—names, favorite characters and quotes, Andrew's sly sneakery, the First Well, and more. Feel free to strike up a conversation on any Wingfeathery topic that interests you!
The Fork Factory (woe!)
Here, for your nightmarish edification, is the Fork! Factory!, drawn by JoLeigh. May this excellent drawing serve as a warning to stay inside at night, lest you be subjected to such a hideous place. Thank you, JoLeigh. Your courage in creating this drawing will, I hope, protect many children from this cruel fate.But what will become of brave Janner? Even now he suffers the horror of the paring station. Will he escape? Join us in the Book Club to find out!
This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 42-47 of North! Or Be Eaten. Join us on Friday to read her favorite excerpt, and to share one of your own!
The Coffin
Dear readers, we're more than halfway through North! Or Be Eaten now, and the second half of this book contains some of my favorite passages. They're also some of the hardest passages—ones with darkness and sadness. If you're new to these books, don't lose heart. Andrew's going to put us through a lot, but he'll bring us all the way out again, too, and it will be worth it.
When Janner woke, he thought for a moment that he was dead. His eyes were open, but he could see nothing. His body ached, and his hands were so blistered that he couldn’t move his fingers. He tongued his swollen lip and tasted blood. He was in bad shape.But where was he? He lay on a hard surface, but his hands and feet weren’t bound, which was a relief. He sat up, and his forehead smashed into something hard.“Ow!” He put a hand to his forehead, forgetting the blisters on his fingers and palms. “Ow!” he said again.When the pain subsided, he found he was in a box not much wider than his shoulders and not much taller than his chest. He felt himself on the verge of panic. Janner had always been afraid of tight places, even when it was just he and Podo wrestling. Sometimes when Podo held his arms down, this same panic erupted. One moment, Janner would be laughing, and the next he lost all control and thrashed as if in a bad dream. He closed his eyes again and forced himself to breathe slowly.But he couldn’t resist the urge to push on the ceiling, just to see if it would give. He pushed, found it solid and strong, and then he lost his mind.Janner screamed and scratched at the walls and ceiling of the box, heedless of the pain in his hands or in his fingernails when they tore away. He was trapped in a dark so deep that light itself seemed never to have existed at all. He lost all sense of time. He kicked and scraped until his strength was spent and then lay there sobbing. He cried for ages, until sleep came at last, but he dreamed of a giant nothingness, an empty hole into which he tumbled and disappeared.When he woke again, he found that the box was not an awful dream but a black reality. He panicked again. He lay panting in the blackness, talking to himself, praying aloud to the Maker, accusing, pleading, screaming things that, while no one could blame poor Janner for saying them, will not be repeated here.And the Maker’s answer was a hollow silence.—From chapter 40, "The Coffin."
What did you most enjoy reading this week? The rooftop chase? The heat of the factory? The name Flavogle? Shining eyes? Or are you reading another section of the series right now? Whatever you loved best, share it in the comments!If you've got more thoughts swirling, just stop by the forum. We've got a conversation going on the Maker's silence, and there are several other great topics as well. And it's a great place to make new friends. :-) I'm glad we're reading together!
Audiobooks!
Huzzah! The entire Wingfeather series is now available on audiobook! The last two books, read by Andrew himself, are finished—recording to editing to mastering to pressing—and are now available for purchase at both Amazon and CBD (links below). We'll be sure to let you know when they hit the Rabbit Room Store, as well. (Kickstarters, check your email! Your files await!)Andrew says, "I hope you enjoy the story on your commute, your summer road trips, or your long walks through the Blackwood." :-)
The Monster in the Hollows: Available at Amazon and CBDThe Warden and the Wolf King: Available at Amazon and CBD
This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 35-41 of North! Or Be Eaten. Check back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own!Don't forget to stop by the forum before you go. We've been having some great conversations, and would love to hear your thoughts.