I’m sure we take our cool technology for granted, but today I’m a bit awed by the publication of my book “The Magic Barn” as a real, touchable book in full color. It came from my memory through the air and into reality. That’s pretty magic in itself.
The Magic Barn is a collection of short, funny stories from my wild childhood. I wrote them for my grandchildren (and all grandchildren) who always nag me for more “Chronicles of Neena,” as they call them.
When dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in art school we had to learn “lettering” by hand-very challenging. I even had to give up caffeine so my hand would be rock-steady. When I owned an ad agency, I ordered type from a typesetter and pasted it up on sheets of paper. I was so excited when I could print a bazillion styles of type in a bazillion colors and sizes right off my computer.
And now you can make a book, complete with color illustrations, online and they will print it, one at a time, as they are ordered. Traditional publishers may soon have to join typesetters and harness makers at the unemployment office.
“What hath geeks wrought?” to update Samuel Morse’s first  telegraph message. Our technology is moving so fast, each new invention climbing up on the last invention to launch new inventions. If only our moral reasoning would catch up.
The stories in the Magic Barn are kid-tested. Kids love them because I tell them the truth about what a naughty girl I was instead of how much better kids were back in the old days. Kids were not better. If Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn lived now, Tom would be on Ritalin and Huck would be in juvenile detention.
Kid: “So how long do you leave eggs in the sun before they will explode into a stinkbomb?
Mom from other room: “What are you telling them now?” (Kid and I giggle.)
Me: “Hey, it is my duty is to pass on the knowledge I have gained to the next generation.”
*Have some fun today and be kind to each other.*
The Magic Barn Volume One on Amazon
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