Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 360923 times)

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #680 on: June 20, 2010, 10:41:52 AM »


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#

Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  537
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173





Thinking is good !   :D
quot libros, quam breve tempus

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #681 on: June 21, 2010, 09:19:57 PM »
OK, better late than never.

Author:  My wartime experiences were unfortunate.

Character:  Reading got me in trouble.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #682 on: June 22, 2010, 06:17:19 AM »
you're not late at all Pat!    :)
wild guess:   Hemingway?
quot libros, quam breve tempus

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #683 on: June 22, 2010, 04:25:27 PM »
No, not Hemingway.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #684 on: June 22, 2010, 05:34:34 PM »
"The Reader?" I don't remember the name of the woman prison guard who couldn't read. It could be her or the boy who read to her. I don't know the author.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #685 on: June 22, 2010, 05:59:16 PM »
Another good guess, but not right.  I do know you've read the book though, Joan.  (Given how much you've read, that doesn't narrow it down much.)

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #686 on: June 22, 2010, 06:43:40 PM »
I hesitate to guess.  The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #687 on: June 22, 2010, 08:45:15 PM »
Not The Book Thief, though I'm startled by how well it fits.

New clues:

Author:  I got in trouble on my job from accusations of financial mismanagement.

Character: I've had trouble keeping up appearances on my reduced income.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #688 on: June 23, 2010, 07:49:35 PM »
Not a single guess?  OK, next round:

Author: My book is considered a groundbreaker in several ways.

Character: several music pieces are named for me.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #689 on: June 24, 2010, 03:10:16 PM »
Can't hazard a guess on author or character ...too cryptic by far
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #690 on: June 24, 2010, 03:41:34 PM »
oh  glaaaaagghhh   music again.   Opera?  Classical?   pop ?  heavy metal   ???

this is not a guess, just an indication of my weird mind:  Afternoon of a Faun?
I can think of 2 books where a deer is a character.   But they don't read, so ignore this!
quot libros, quam breve tempus

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #691 on: June 24, 2010, 04:32:23 PM »
Classical, opera and popular.  The character is a person, not an animal.

Mippy, I really wasn't trying to make you gag.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #692 on: June 24, 2010, 04:59:51 PM »
Oh dear. I should know this. I will kick myself when we get the answer. No guesses from my just now.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #693 on: June 24, 2010, 05:15:56 PM »
I'm pretty sure you've all heard of the book and at least one of the music items.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #694 on: June 24, 2010, 07:04:58 PM »
Sadly, absolutely nothing comes to mind - yet. :(

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #695 on: June 25, 2010, 03:41:31 AM »
You've got me - is the character a real person or fictional?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #696 on: June 25, 2010, 07:02:49 AM »
no idea
quot libros, quam breve tempus

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #697 on: June 25, 2010, 09:39:51 AM »
More clues--sorry for the delay:

Author: I also wrote poetry and plays, though they're not much read in comparison to this work.

Character: I am fictional, not real.  I am quite an idealist, and not very practical.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #698 on: June 25, 2010, 09:43:30 PM »
It's not a whole day yet, but obviously more clues are needed.

Character: I have a companion who is practical and earthbound, who rescues me from things.

Author: (the author doesn't inspire useful clues, so I'll put in a useless one directed to Gumtree, who said in the Library that she brushes her teeth with her left hand) I wouldn't even try to brush my teeth with my left hand.

Further clue: we discussed this on SeniorNet.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #699 on: June 26, 2010, 05:14:51 AM »
PatH : You would if you were left handed  -  like me !
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #700 on: June 26, 2010, 08:47:38 AM »
I am left-handed.  The author, however, is not.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #701 on: June 26, 2010, 10:51:13 AM »
Wow, I'm left handed, also.   Methinks I see a correlation between brilliance and manus sinister.   Sorry, righties, no insult intended.    ;)

So does this clue mean the author is right-handed?  And who would know that anyway?
                                              
Thanks for the extra clues, Pat, but I'm so, so off-base with the musical clue, and
I thought I knew most famous operas.  Usually characters in opera are not struggling with a reduced income.    Maybe you meant that musicals are close to opera?

Oh, gosh, your hint about we having done this in SeniorNet:

Could it be Don Quixote?   The musical is Man of La Mancha!
    Was Cervantes right-handed?

quot libros, quam breve tempus

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #702 on: June 26, 2010, 01:45:07 PM »
This was the very first clue was :

"My wartime experiences were unfortunate."


Does "wartime" include active involvement by the author ?  
If yes, and if he was wounded,  there might be an indirect connection with left-handedness.

But which war?  Here ?  Can we exclude the Napoleonic era ?




PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #703 on: June 26, 2010, 02:42:52 PM »
Hooray, Mippy!  Don Quixote is right.  I'm glad you got it.  It was getting harder to think of clues.

The clues: Author: Cervantes served in the Spanish Army; he fought at the battle of Lepanto, (1571, Christians vs. Turks) and one of his three bullet wounds rendered his left arm useless.  He claimed it was worth it to have been part of such a glorious historical event.  Later, when his unit was sailing back to Spain, the ship was captured by pirates, and Cervantes was a slave in Algiers for five years, until he was ransomed.

For a few years he was a tax collector, but he was accused of irregularities in his accounts (dunno if he was being dishonest or just sloppy).

Don Quixote broke ground two ways--it's considered the first modern novel, and he used  everyday speech in a way not commonly done then.

Character: Quixote's stuffing his head with chivalry from his reading is the basis of the plot.  His shabby poverty is well described at the beginning of the book.  He and his companion, Sancho Panza, are the classic literary example of opposites, high-mindedness and practicality.

In addition to Man of La Mancha, my opera book lists 38 operas, Telemann wrote an orchestral suite, and there is at least one ballet.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #704 on: June 26, 2010, 03:11:06 PM »
Thanks, Pat.   I didn't look up an opera ref. book, but will do so now.   Your choice was nice and difficult!  Also, did not recall about Cervantes arm ... neat twist!

It'll take a day to think of a good one.   How about taking the  weekend off and starting on Monday?
quot libros, quam breve tempus

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #705 on: June 26, 2010, 04:21:05 PM »
Congrats, Mippy!

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #706 on: June 26, 2010, 07:23:00 PM »
Mippy, it took me several days to come up with my challenge.  It's often that way.

There are lots of brilliant southpaws here.  JoanK is another.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #707 on: June 26, 2010, 10:37:50 PM »
I play cricket left-handed; I fence left-handed; and I can shoot an arrow left-handed. I can play the guitar left-handed.  I take lids of jars and tops off bottles left-handed, but for the most part I am right-handed.  Just thought I would share this trivia with you ;D
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #708 on: June 26, 2010, 11:23:12 PM »
That's an interesting combination, roshanarose, especially the guitar.  I do some things, like scissors, right-handed.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #709 on: June 27, 2010, 02:22:30 AM »
I do just about everything with either hand - except clean my teeth - that's strictly for the left hand. I never had to worry about backhand strokes much when playing tennis or squash - I just switched the racquet over and played a forehand shot. Very disconcerting for the opposition  ;D 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #710 on: June 27, 2010, 12:00:04 PM »
PatH: My thinking was as far from Cervantes and Quixote as it is possible to be - I was thinking of  H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, Peter Benchley and James Baldwin who all fit the leftie bill but naturally I couldn't make the other clues fit in.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #711 on: June 28, 2010, 10:14:57 AM »
New week, new quiz   Hint:  no idea if our author is a south-paw!     :D

Author:   I've written well over a dozen novels.

Character:   I'm concerned with the way cultures blend in families.
quot libros, quam breve tempus

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #712 on: June 29, 2010, 10:27:36 AM »
No guesses?   Day 2:

Author:    I've written well over a dozen novels.   
           Reviewers suggest I have used my own experience of cultural mixes in families in this novel.

Character:   I'm concerned with the way cultures blend in families. 
            I observe and try to help other generations going through life-changing experiences.

quot libros, quam breve tempus

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #713 on: June 29, 2010, 11:56:46 AM »
I'm here but can't think of anything remotely connected with the clues.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #714 on: June 29, 2010, 12:02:42 PM »
Same here.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #715 on: June 29, 2010, 03:03:17 PM »
I'll take a very wild guess - Maxine Hong Kingston. She wrote several books blending Chinese and American cultures.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #716 on: June 29, 2010, 03:28:15 PM »
Duh, headslap for not getting Don Quixote!

Rose: you play cricket! I have spent much effort trying to understand that game, and always failed, miserably! Do you know any CLEAR explanation (cricket for dummies)?

Not a clue as to the book.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #717 on: June 29, 2010, 05:01:10 PM »
Sorry, not Kingston!   I'll give better clues in the morning!
quot libros, quam breve tempus

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #718 on: June 29, 2010, 05:49:31 PM »
Wild guess : Isabel Allende :  House of the Spirits;   or Island Beneath the Sea, inter alia.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #719 on: June 29, 2010, 11:00:32 PM »
Salman Rushdie?

Yes.  I play cricket.  I had no choice really.  I had a big brother who was/is completely obsessed by cricket.  I started to play when I was about three.  Mind you, we played in our back yard, with the old brick fireplace chimney as our backdrop.  Someone once asked me what position I played.  I played the stumps. 

Finally my brother got sick of me getting in the way with the cricket bat.  I had my own, it was a toy and I loved interrupting the game so I could get a hit.  I wasn't very tall, but I was quite broad.  My brother went into the house that day to get my father to remove me from the pitch.  My father told me kindly that I should be playing with my dolls inside and not spoiling the boys' game.  I don't remember having a tantrum, but evidently I did.  As my father picked up the stumps and bails to replace them, I picked up the big cricket bat and hit him square on his backside.  He fell over.  Maybe I couldn't play cricket, but that day I learned to run like the wind.  I got away with it, and soon was annoying my brother again. 
"Go play with your dolls" indeed!

I do know the rules but they are lengthy like most sporting rules.  If you wish I can send you some info via email.  I still watch thre cricket and I can still hit a ball well.  Being left-handed confuses everyone 8)
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato