NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program - Stump the Librarian

Amber's Virtual Library

Tavia Stewart — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:10:13 +0000

While you are waiting for next November’s Stump the Librarian column, check out Amber’s Virtual Library. Find out about young writers just like you who have been published! Wow your family and friends with your writerly wisdom after reading some of Amber’s suggested books on writing! Add some great books about kids and teens who write to your “books to read” list!

Remember to keep writing!

Tavia

What is the difference between an absolute and constitutional monarchy?

Tavia Stewart — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:28:27 +0000

Who Asked: Celebrity Guest-Stumper, Meg Cabot
Novel: Princess Diaries IX, Princess Mia in stores December 26, 2007
About the Book: Mia Thermopolis has hit a new all-time low: Her best friend isn't speaking to her. Someone is posting horrible things about her on the web. And, oh yeah: Her longtime boyfriend may have just dumped her. But this princess has more on her mind than recruiting a new Prince Charming, including solving a four-hundred-year-old royal mystery that's about to set Mia on a one-woman mission that could bring big changes to the little principality of Genovia. But is Mia really ready to get rid of her tiara . . . especially if it means destroying a dynasty? Read the ninth—and next to last—installment of the Princess Diaries series to find out for yourself!

Answer: According to Wikipedia, “A constitutional monarchy is a form of government established under a constitutional system which acknowledges an elected or hereditary monarch as head of state, as opposed to an absolute monarchy, where the monarch is not bound by a constitution and is the sole source of political power.”

An example of a system that changed from an absolute to constitutional monarchy is England, with the signing of the Magna Carta, which Britannia.com describes as, “The Great Charter of English liberty granted (under considerable duress) by King John at Runnymede on June 15, 1215.” It is basically a document wherein the King, rather reluctantly, agreed to rule within a set of guidelines decided on by the English Barons who wrote it. It was a result of perceptions of the king as abusive and a failure at both domestic and international policymaking. It was also a result of conflicts between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which disagreed about the role of the king. The abovementioned Barons took London by force (actually, the people opened the gates for them) and forced the king to sign the document. It had to be resigned because John died a year later, and nine-year-old Henry III took the throne. Henry reissued it himself again when he turned 18.

It sounds like Princess Mia will be facing her own set of court conflicts and intrigues, though hopefully nothing as traumatic as what happened to King John! Remember, England now loves her Queen, even though most of the big decisions are made by Parliament.

Can’t wait to find out how this turns out when we get to read about Mia’s big shake-up.

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

In the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, how fast did the word spread to places like Britain, Spain, and other European countries?

Tavia Stewart — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:07:53 +0000

Did any Europeans come to Indonesia's aid and, if so, how fast did it take them to get there?

Who Asked: Bogmire
The Book: Black Song’s Curse

Answer: It is interesting that you chose this particular disaster to ask about media coverage. Krakatoa was actually the first disaster to affect the world after the invention of the telegraph, which means that the world learned about the disaster within minutes of its occurrence.

In fact, though the main explosion—where the crater sank, filled with water, and blew the entire island to smithereens—happened on August 27, 1883, a reporter for Lloyds of London had actually been following the story since May, when The Times reported, “Lloyd’s Agent in Batavia, under the date of May 23 telegraphs, ‘Strong Volcanic Eruption, Krakatowa Island, Sunda Straits.”

The reason the Lloyds agent was there, of course, was because Java and the surrounding area (including Krakatoa) formed the core of the Dutch East Indies (which means they were exploiting the native peoples). The area was important to the Netherlands as the center for coffee growing, and hence economically important to the entire world.

When Krakatoa blew, its effects were felt around the world, including raising tides in Australia and a dust cloud that reached the United States by October, 1883. Winchester says, “And in learning of these places and the terrible events that occurred there, so the world’s people suddenly became part of a new brotherhood of knowledge&$151in a sense it was that day in August 1883 that the modern phenomenon known as the ‘Global Village’ was born.”

There was a relief effort, headed up by the Dutch (Indonesia was a Dutch colony, after all), though it was not extensively recorded. One newspaper reports that by September 29, the relief fund had reached 657,505 guilders (half from the Netherlands, the other half from Singapore, London, Petang and the East Indes.) Simkin says, “Although we have found very little information on this aspect of the eruption, the relief effort must have been enormous: families to relocate, lighthouses and ports to re-build, and one report mentioned that 8,000 cases of petroleum had been dispatched to Bantam for the purpose of burning corpses.”

There is much more to the story than I have room to include here, including how the explosion may have led to the rebellion of the Indonesians against the Dutch. This would make a great setting for a historical novel.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Krakatau: Ordeal by Fire and Water!

Print Resources

Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester
Krakatau 1883 by Tom Simkin

In which specific year did megalodon go extinct?

Tavia Stewart — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:44:47 +0000

Who Asked: Alex
Nano-novel: The Legend of Stick Man

Answer: Well, by its very nature of being a pre-historic shark, megalodon probably went extinct well before men started keeping the specific years that make up the historical record. Sorry if you find that answer disappointing. However, note that I said probably, and read on for ways that “probably” could become interesting in your story.

Megalodon was a giant shark.. Because of this, scientists are forced suppose an awful lot in their reconstructions and histories of this animal. Why? Because almost all of a shark’s body is cartilage, which doesn’t fossilize. So, basically, everything known about megalodon comes from fossilized teeth (and a few fossilized vertebra)! Because these teeth are similar in structure to a great white shark’s, the reconstructions show megalodon looking like a scaled up version of a great white. What megalodon really looked like is quite open to interpretation.

Most scientists agree that megalodon went extinct somewhere during the mid- to late- Pliocene period. However, there is a rogue branch of biology, called cryptozoology that studies lost or “hidden” animal, and a number of these scientists believe that megalodon never went extinct at all, but rather is waiting at the bottom of some cold murky part of the ocean to be rediscovered.

Why would crypozoologists think this? Well, for one thing, magolodon went extinct relatively recently, probably from a lack of easy food sources. Also, coelacanths, another ancient fish thought to be extinct, have been rediscovered. And, of course, there have been a number of sightings of megalodon-sized sharks in oceans around the world.

This is quite a heated debate in zoological circles, where cryptozoologists are regarded as either heretics or lunatics. Roesch says, “I was disappointed to read Dr. Karl Shuker's article on megalodon survival in Wild About Animals 12 (2). His continued insistence that megalodon may still survive lacks all reason . . . Despite being aware of this paper, Dr. Shuker has evidently chosen to largely ignore it, dismissing my points in a breezy manner, and not once mentioning my involvement with the subject.” Countering the argument for individual sightings of supposed megalodons, the ReefQuest Center for Shark Research says, “Eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable and anecdotal evidence impossible to verify. The sea and atmosphere can play tricks on even the most experienced mariner. Multiple sightings of a well-publicized archetype - such as UFO's, Elvis, ape-men, sea serpents, or giant sharks - in no way verify that those reporting them witnessed a 'real' phenomenon, only that they could not identify what they saw as something prosaic and the closest identity that fits their recollections (often formed on the briefest of glimpses) happens to conform with one of these archetypes, which act as convenient templates for the indescribable.”

So, yeah, it is probably extinct. But there’s always the “what if”—both the “what if” the mega-shark is still out there, but also the “what if” that drives the cryptozoologists to keep looking. That is the kind of question you can really play with in your novel.

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Print Resources

In Search of Prehistoric Survivors

At what point in the election process do presidential candidates and their families receive Secret Service protection?

Tavia Stewart — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:13:25 +0000

I'd also appreciate anything you can tell me about secret service protection in general.

Who Asked: Celebrity Guest-Stumper, Ally Carter, author of teen spy novels I’d Tell You I Love You, but then I’d Have to Kill You and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, as well as a number of novels for adults.
Novel: The title is still top secret
About the Book: Well, Ally would tell us, but then . . . you know!

Answer: As a general rule, major candidates receive protection throughout the 120 days prior to the election. There are a few cases where the candidate receives protection outside this time frame, such as in the case of Hilary Clinton, who as a former first lady is already protected.

The United States Secret Service was created in 1865 to protect against counterfeiting. However, the mission has expanded, so that now, according to their site, they are all about, “protection of national and visiting foreign leaders, and criminal investigations.” In order to become an agent, recruits undergo an 11-week course in law enforcement. If they pass, they head to the Washington D.C. area for an additional 16 weeks of training where “trainees are provided with basic knowledge and advanced application training in combating counterfeiting, access device fraud and other financial criminal activity, protective intelligence investigations, physical protection techniques, protective advances and emergency medicine. The core curriculum is augmented with extensive training in marksmanship, control tactics, water survival skills and physical fitness.”

In line with the protection goal, the Secret Service works to make assassination attempts preventable. According to a New York Times article, the group has released a study of all 83 assassination attempts on political figures and celebrities within the last fifty years. According to this, agents would look more for a chain of events or pattern of behavior rather than the appearance of an individual to assess the possible threat.

That same article states, “Each year, the Secret Service tries to assess the risk posed by about 2,000 people. Some have made explicit or vague threats against the President or another national leader. Others expressed romantic interest in a public figure, pressed grievances that seemed unreasonable or tried to volunteer as a protector.” Which means these guys stay busy trying to stop trouble before it happens.

Hope this is enough to get you started, and I can’t wait to see how you weave this information into your novel. It sounds like you’ve got another exciting adventure in store for your readers.

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

United States Secret Service Wikipedia Article (Please remember that anyone can add to or edit a Wikipedia article.)
United States Secret Service Official Website
Secret Service Challenges Assassin Stereotypes

Who invented the first telescope?

Tavia Stewart — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:18:58 +0000

Who Asked: Catherine
The Book: The Fading Empire, Earth

Answer: You know, I thought this was going to be a no-brainer. This is exactly why when you go to the library, the people behind the desk don’t just tell you what the answer is, but also give you a citation for where they found the information.

Everybody knows that Galileo invented the telescope, right? Um . . . wrong. He was just the first guy to use it for astronomy.

Actually, there were a number of Dutch opticians working with lens designs that could have resulted in the telescope. The one who usually gets credit for the invention is Hans Lipperhey, simply because he was the first of the bunch to apply for a patent.

The book Stargazer: the Life and Times of the Telescope fills in some of the gaps of the story. I’ll summarize: while there were rudimentary designs before this time, Lepphery arrived on the scene when techniques for making concave and convex lenses had finally become sophisticated enough to make a working model. He also arrived during the middle of the Eighty Years War, carrying that working model to Prince Maurice of Nassau, commander in chief of the armed forces of the United Provinces, who was eager to use the telescope for tactical military advantage. While someone present described Lepphery as “a humble, very religious and God-fearing man,” it seems that he was really out to make a quick buck from being in the right place at the right time.

You could definitely use something like this in your novel. The intrigues, the hidden motivations—and don’t forget the competition with those other Dutch opticians to get the working design first—that’s what good stories are made of.

Thanks so much for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Who Invented the Telescope

Print Resources

Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson

What causes a mirror to reflect? Is it what it is made of? Is it something to do with the light around it?

Tavia Stewart — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:20:05 +0000

Who Asked: Donald
Nano-novel: Currently untitled

Answer: Yes, by which I mean, both elements are going to be important. This is because mirrors work by giving light a smooth reflective surface. This surface can be either flat or curved.

When it’s curved, you can achieve interesting effects. For instance, you can see the reflection of cars in a road from some distance, yet they don’t look distorted. Inversely, you can also see yourself ten feet tall in a fun house mirror.

Mirrors can be made of a wide range of materials from metal, liquid, stone, to and even plastic (organic) material. Mirror Mirror states that a number of early mirrors were made from copper. However, nothing quite replicates the reflective power of silvered glass.

The way light hits the surface is important. Here’s an important bit of physics terminology for understanding how this works: angle of incidence equals angle of reflection.

This means that at whatever angle the photon (what light is made of) hits a reflective surface is the same angle that a photon will leave the surface related to a line perpendicular to the surface at that point. You want all your light particles bouncing the same way, so that you get a clear, unified image. Which is why you need a smooth surface, which means you really can’t separate this whole reflection thing into surface or light; it is the way the two react together.

Mirrors have been used symbolically since the days of the Greek Oracles, and could easily become a symbol in your novel for any number of things—your character’s self-absorption, perhaps, or maybe how the villain sees everything in the world backwards. Or any number of things.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Print Resources

Mirror Mirror by Mark Pendergast

What is the largest living organism on earth, and where does it live?

Tavia Stewart — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:42:31 +0000

Who Asked: Zachary
NaNo-Novel: Emerald Dust

Answer: This is a surprisingly controversial question in scientific circles, depending entirely on how you define the word organism. Some point out that the Great Barrier Reef is a sort of “superorganism.” Some argue that Earth itself is the largest living organism.

But one of the strongest cases has been made for a spreading armillaria ostoyae (commonly known as the honey mushroom) which resides in Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains in Eastern Oregon. According to the Humungous Fungus article, the Oregon armillaria fungus is “up to 8,500 years old and carpet[s] nearly 10 square kilometers of forest floor.” Originally, each above-ground cluster of honey mushrooms was thought to be its own organism, but the whole thing connects underground through mycelia (spreading white filaments). According to A Fungus Among Us when the connecting mushrooms were tested, they were a DNA match, reacting as the same organism.

The downside of this huge fungus is that it destroys trees in the area through which it spreads (and cutting an infected tree only makes it grow faster. The good news (if you’re into that sort of thing) is the world’s largest organism is edible. However, never eat wild mushrooms unless you truly know what you are doing. Even mushroom experts can be fooled. Speaking of a mushroom expert, Celebrating the Wild Mushroom says, “Financially destitute during World War II, Schaeffer was known to disappear into the local German woods for days at a time, collecting specimens for study and subsisting on nature’s bounty. On one such occasion, Schaffer was found dead by a colleague, a pile of mushrooms by his side.”

So be careful! But nothing says your characters have to be . . . or that a fate such as Schaffer’s would (literarily speaking) have to be an accident.

Note: Some other ways of measuring the “largest organism leads to different results. By weight, the largest organism would be a stand of root-connected aspen trees in Utah. If multi-stemmed organisms are ruled out, the biggest thing left is the General Sherman Tree, a giant Sequoia. If you like your organisms moving, the largest animal is the blue whale.”

Happy noveling.

Thanks for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

A Fungus Among Us (Remember that this site is a .com, which means it is commercial in nature and not verified by any outside source.)
Humungous Fungus (Remember that this site is a .com, which means it is commercial in nature and not verified by any outside source.)
Largest Organisms (Please remember that anyone can add to or edit a Wikipedia article.)

Print Resources

Celebrating the Wild Mushroom by Sara Ann Friedman

How large would my protagonist’s wings have to be for her to get off the ground? (Her wings are of the leathery variety, if that

Tavia Stewart — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:52:41 +0000

. . .Assuming that the gravity is normal, assuming there is a near-constant ocean wind blowing in, assuming my protagonist is a little over six feet tall, slender, lightweight, and hollow-boned.

Who Asked: Vivian
The Book: A World in Ruins

Answer:
The answer to this question is going to be variable, due to a number of factors. Just to be able to get off the ground, we’re talking about a minimum of around an eleven-foot wingspan.

Think about birds and bats you’ve seen in flight (The Silby Guide to Birds is a good place to examine this, as almost every species mentioned is shown in flight). Their bodies are often much shorter than their wings.

Since you’re talking about ocean breezes, let’s take an actual sea bird for our first example. The aspect (height to wingspan) ratio of the wandering albatross, which is the world’s largest seabird, is 2:6. This means that for every 1 inch of body size, the bird has 2.6 inches of wing span. This would put your six foot person with a wing span of sixteen feet.

Since you mention leathery wings, I want to address bats as well. Different species of bats have aspect ratios ranging from around 5:7 to 9:8. This would add up to a wingspan between 18.2 and 42.8 feet.

The way your character acts in flight will further determine the size of the wings. The more maneuverability you want, the smaller the aspect ratio. The more distance (endurance) you want, the bigger the aspect ratio.

Another consideration is wing loading, which deals with how much weight and pressure that is advisable per square-inch of wing surface. Five pounds of body weight per square-foot is near the high-end for birds. Which means you really need to know how much your character weighs (including the wings themselves) to get a precise, physically-possible answer.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Wandering Albatross
How Bats Fly
Wing Loading Wikipedia article (Please remember that anyone can add to or edit a Wikipedia article.)
Bird Flight Wikipedia article (Please remember that anyone can add to or edit a Wikipedia article.)

Print Resources:

National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley

Are there any instances of different species of bear attacking each other? I'd like to have three species at a gathering, but I'

Tavia Stewart — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:53:32 +0000

Who Asked: Celebrity Guest-Stumper, Erin Hunter
Website: www.warriorcats.com
Novel: Seekers, the upcoming series about bears which launches in April, 2008.
About the Novel: In Seekers Book Two, our four central characters—Kallik the polar bear, Lusa the black bear, and Toklo and Ujurak who are grizzliesare united for the first time as they begin their long journey in search of destiny, hope, and what it truly means to be a bear in the wild. A gathering of bears beside a remote lake seems like the ideal place to learn from their elders, but not all the bears have their best interests at heart, and soon one of the four is in very grave danger.

Answer: I did not find any documented cases of bears of different species attacking each other.

One reason for this is that the habitats of the eight species of bears do not overlap by much. The Map of Bear Species on Wikipedia displays this graphically. The only bears that are likely to run into each other are brown bears and black bears in some parts of Alaska.

Bears of the same species often attack each other, especially as their habitat shrinks. They’re usually fighting over things like food or mating rights. And nobody had better get between a mother bear and her cubs! Bears says, “Spectacular fights occur between big male brown bears when they are courting, and when they gather at rivers to fish for migrating salmon. If the challenged bear does not turn his head and back up, the two go at each other with vicious lunges, slapping and biting until one bear gives up.”

People are still learning about the social order of bears. For instance, Bears says, “Grizzlies are not as solitary as was once thought. Female grizzlies will adopt motherless cubs and may even develop friendships.”

Which means that, if you want three kinds of bears at your gathering, go for it! I look forward to reading Seekers.

Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian!

Amber

Web Resources

Map of Bear Species

Print Resources

Bears by Donald Olson