Reporter Jamie Gumbrecht fawns over an appearance in the Atlanta area of author Ann Martin, creator of “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “Main Street” series. Gumbrecht says the characters in the first series are the Hannah Montana of twenty-something girls. She writes:

I came to believe Martin was a literary figment created by the publishing industry to sell books, like Betty Crocker on cookbooks or Carolyn Keene on Nancy Drew mysteries. I continued to read the BSC books until way after it was cool, but I knew the truth: Ann M. Martin, fiction.

Now, she knows the author is actual. (How’s that for word choice?)

In other Atlanta-area news, father of seven Paul Weathington has taken to writing books for his own children. He says, “A lot of people never thought in a million years that I had it in me. But I’ve always had a creative bug; I just didn’t have a forum for it.” He wrote one of the books on several offeratory envelopes during a Sunday morning service. See the books here.

NY Daily News has this feature on Terry Pratchett, whose Alzheimer’s is worsening. “I used to touch type as fast as any journalist does and my spelling was pretty good. Now I hunt and peg and my spelling is erratic,” he told The Times of London. “I can spell ‘transubstantiation’ and in the next bit I can’t spell ‘color’ because it’s as if bits of the network are switching on and off.”

He says he will to write, just “more carefully.”

Oh dear. I meant to mention this earlier, and it slipped my Teflon mind: I met a reader of this blog at church last Sunday. A lady who was visiting with one of our families introduced herself, and said she was a reader. She also mentioned that her daughter also read it—in Ankara, Turkey. Nice to meet you, Reader, and I hope I wasn’t too distant and avoidant with you.

Man, do I love saying “I told you so.” I am, at bottom (and at top), a petty and vindictive sort, as you’ve doubtless gathered by now.

Via Townhall.com, there’s this article from The London Daily Mail, in which Rebecca Walker (no relation) tells the story of her unhappy relationship with her mother, feminist author Alice Walker (also no relation. To me. Obviously a relation to her daughter). She tells of being raised by a woman who considered her a bother, a burden, and an interruption in her important work.

You see, my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale.

In fact, having a child has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Far from ‘enslaving’ me, three-and-a-half-year-old Tenzin has opened my world. My only regret is that I discovered the joys of motherhood so late – I have been trying for a second child for two years, but so far with no luck.

Rebecca Walker doesn’t appear to be a Christian, and you’ll find some statements in the article that you probably won’t agree with if you are one. But the basic argument is one a lot of us have been trying to make for years: That radical feminism has done far more harm to women (and to everybody around those women) than any good it’s done.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday!

The MetaxuCafe is discussing and reporting on the PEN World Voices Festival 2008 with some good photos too. A couple notes from the top post: “[Salman] Rushdie is a Harry Potter fan.”

“Rushdie, Eco and Vargas Llosa now began batting The Count of Monte Cristo back and forth, debating whether or not such ‘bad writing’ as this can also be great writing. All three seemed to agree that bad writing could be great writing and that this often happens.”