NEWS

Coming in October 2009

Antelope Valley Anthology  #6

THE RAVEN & THE WRITING DESK

“HOW IS A RAVEN LIKE A WRITING DESK?”

Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Joan Fry & Margaret L. Priddy 

A raven and a writing desk--what do they have in common? 

Every story, poem, and essay in this year’s anthology was written on some kind of desk.  A few specifically mention ravens.  Most do not.  All invite the reader to meditate upon life’s great themes--the nature of childhood, love, water, companion animals, racial and ethnic differences, ghost-haunted families, antagonistic ants, and every subject in between.  Some will beguile you.  Others will make you cry.  A few may disgust you, or send you racing into the kitchen to check if that can of Raid is still under the sink. 

Except for the writing desk, the only attribute these works have in common is how varied they are--as varied and unpredictable as the desert wind that can find a spark of fire in an arid landscape, turn itself into a blowtorch, and cause a roiling firestorm of destruction.  It can snatch a child’s balloon and carry it into the clouds, far beyond his reach.  It can swirl around a woman’s bare legs when her arms are filled with groceries and whip up her dress as though she were Marilyn Monroe.  But wind can deliver the delicate scent of honeysuckle into your bedroom on a spring evening.  Or it can be completely domesticated, its power converted into electricity.  The wind not only mimics human capabilities but is a direct and spontaneous expression of the full range of our emotions.  The entries in this year’s anthology prove that.    

As the sun goes down tonight, and the ravens soar into the darkening sky with a silken rustle of wings, sink into your favorite chair, pour yourself a glass of the good stuff, make sure the cats and dogs are all accounted for, and abandon yourself to the pleasures of the book in your hands, the sixth annual Antelope Valley anthology.  Never mind the clamor of the wind outside, or the frantic scratching of branches against the windows, or the howling at your door.

What do ravens and writing desks have in common?  Lewis Carrol, whose character asks that question, answered it himself:  “the riddle as originally invented, had no answer at all.”  In other words--absolutely nothing.