Upcoming Blog name change

After this blog gets reviewed by the Twenty Three Things on a Stick Powers-That-Be I'm going to change it to a more general blog, and the new name will be Cleery's Alley (at least that's the plan, if no one else has taken it). My screen name has been Cleery since about 1996, an homage to a character in one of my favorite children's books, Magic in the Alley by Mary Calhoun.

Man, I loved that book as a kid. I reread it about every season. It is hard to find now. But, a few years ago, I tracked it down through an out of print book service and grabbed up a copy of my very own. If you like children's literature and fantasy, you should read it, you really should. If your library doesn't own it, you can get it through interlibrary loan. If you're in the Twin Cities, guess what, Minneapolis libraries have it!

Now, I shall tempt you. This is from memory at this point, so excuse any errors :) Cleery is a skinny, mysterious girl (age 11?), who likes to poke around alley junk shops hoping to find something interesting. One day in a shop, she finds a carved box, with a secret latch, that contains... magic? She tests out the ingredients on a conveniently located stuffed crow, and gets a big surprise. The outcome is that Cleery, her best friend Knobs and Crow get to enjoy a strange summer of magic. They meet a ghost, a mermaid, and a truly awful scarecrow, among others. I wanted to be Cleery, lucky, brave, non-conformist Cleery. And I loved Crow. I still love Crow.

So, Ms. Calhoun, in the crazy unlikelyhood that you should read this, please consider it a big, fat valentine. You gave young me many happy hours.