Local History

The novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote made its way to Amarillo, Texas! Psychiatrist Mitchell Jones, who was featured in the book as the psychiatrist responsible for determining whether Perry and Smith were mentally stable, spoke in December 2013 at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens. You can find the Amarillo Globe News article about the occasion here.

My Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy is to provide students with the best possible chance to succeed not only in school, but in their everyday lives. Every student deserves a dedicated and responsible teacher that cares about what she is teaching and makes sure every student is learning. Teachers in general seem to expect so much out of their students, but they seem to forget that they need to give an equal amount of commitment. If I expect my students to put in the required work to receive good grades, then I should also expect of myself to put in the work to allow that to happen. I challenge myself as I challenge my students.

By proving to my students that I am loyal and dedicated to enhancing their education, I hope students will recognize me as a role model and use that philosophy in their own lives. As they struggle through school, jobs, and personal lives, I hope that they remember there was a teacher they once had that believed in them and their abilities. That the teacher did all she could to make sure they understood the value of not only English, but also the value of life itself and the lessons it teaches.

The Alchemist Movie

Readers have wanted The Alchemist to become a movie ever since the novel was published. Paulo Coelho was skeptical about selling the screen rights to production companies, because he didn't feel a movie could capture the essence of his book. However, at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Company announced that he had bought the rights to the film and Laurence Fishburne was to be the director (though there are now rumors that Fishburne will no longer be the director). The film is listed in production, and is supposedly set to be released in 2014.

This short film was presented at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival as a trailer for The Weinstein Company's version of The Alchemist.

Characters

There were rumors in 2011 of Good Omens becoming a television series in the UK, and supposedly a movie adaptation of Good Omens is in the works. Readers, however, have still not been able to see the faces behind the characters of the popular novel. Luckily, some fans have put together some of their own illustrations of the characters based on their descriptions in the novel.

Adam Young: "It was a face that didn't belong in the twentieth century. It was thatched with golden curls which glowed. Michelangelo should have sculpted it. He probably would not have included the battered sneakers, frayed jeans, or grubby T-shirt, though."


















Pepper: "[They] had long ago learned that Pepper did not consider herself bound by the informal conventions of brotherly scuffles. She could kick and bite with astonishing accuracy for a girl of eleven."

Anathema Device: "Any prowling maniac would have had more than his work cut out if he had accosted Anathema Device. She was a witch, after all. And precisely because she was a witch, and therefore sensible, she put little faith in protective amulets and spells; she saved it all for a foot-long bread knife which she kept in her belt."

Newton Pulsifer: "He wasn't what she'd been expecting. More precisely, he wasn't what she'd been hoping for. She had been hoping, rather self-consciously, for someone tall, dark and handsome...She shrugged. Okay. Two out of three isn't bad."

Shadwell: "He was racist in such a glowering, undirected way that in was quite unoffensive; it was simply that Shadwell hated everyone in the world, regardless of caste, color, or creed, and wasn't going to make any exceptions for anyone."

Madame Tracy: Newt had been amazed to find that Madame Tracy was a middle-aged, motherly soul, whose gentleman callers called as much for a cup of tea and a nice chat as for what little discipline she was still able to exact."

The Metatron:
     "Aziraphale: 'Oh dear. It's him.'
     Crowley: 'Him who?'
     Aziraphale: 'The Voice of God. The Metatron.'"

Beelzebub: "A figure rose from the churning ground in a manner of the demon king in a pantomime, but if this one was ever in a pantomime, it was one where no one walked out alive and they had to get a priest to burn the place down afterwards."

War: "She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired, but not up close."



Famine: "It was not surprising that she had recognized him, for his dark grey eyes stared out from his photo on the foil-embossed cover. Foodless Dieting: Slim Yourself Beautiful, the book was called; The Diet Book of the Century!"



Pollution: "'Young man,' he said, 'how would you feel if I came over to your house and dropped litter everywhere?' Pollution smiled, wistfully. 'Very, very pleased,' he breathed. 'Oh, that would be wonderful.'"

Death: "There was a tearing sound. Death's robe split and his wings unfolded. Angel's wings. But not of feathers. They were wings of night, wings that were shapes cut through the matter of creation into the darkness underneath, in which a few distant lights glimmered, lights that may have been stars or may have been something entirely else."

"Big Ted looked at the Fourth Horseman. 'Ere, I seen you before,' he said. 'You was on the cover of that Blue Oyster Cult album. An I got a ring wif your...your...your head on it.'"



Aziraphale: "Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide."



Crowley: "Nothing about him looked particularly demonic, at least by classical standards. No horns, no wings. Admittedly he was listening to a Best of Queen tape, but no conclusions should be drawn from this because all tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums."

**Photos courtesy of  http://juliedillon.deviantart.com/ and http://goodomenslexicon.org/, both of which I encourage you to visit.

Paulo Coelho

Terry Pratchett

About the Author

Elizabeth Wein, the author of Code Name Verity, didn't find immediate success. In fact, Code Name Verity was really the book that put this author on the map in terms of great literature. Before the great success of this book, Wein had written five other books set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia: The Winter Prince (2003), A Coalition of Lions (2003), The Sunbird (2004), The Lion Hunter (2007), and The Empty Kingdom (2008). Wein has since written Rose Under Fire, a novel that has been received with similar critical acclaim as Code Name Verity.

Wein was born in October 1964 in New York City. When she was just three years old, her family moved to England due to her father's job. Only three years later, when Wein was six, the family moved again to Jamaica. In 1973, Wein's parents divorced, and Wein moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with her mother.

Wein studied at Yale University and later received her PhD in Folklore at the University of Philadelphia. It was in Philadelphia that Wein met her husband, Tim Gatland, at a bell-ringers dinner dance. The couple moved to Scotland in 2000. Wein got her pilot's license in 2003, and she has flown all over the world, including the United States, Kenya, England, and Scotland.

Elizabeth Wein's website is: www.elizabethwein.com