As Family Day Weekend commences in large swaths of Canada, the Literary Comedy Podcast commences A Dragon for George: a family friendly novel about a boy and his pet cat.
(I was told no spoilers.)
But I suppose I can foreshadow: it’s not a cat.
Point is, it’s family friendly content. To be clear, I did not write it to celebrate Family Day. Nobody celebrates Family Day. Or, rather, half of Canada, but we celebrate the time off. Or the time and a half wages.
Also to be clear, A Dragon for George can be enjoyed even if you are not a family. Even if you don’t much like your family. Or certain parts of your family. George doesn’t much like his parents at the moment. Wait, that might be a spoiler. Okay, the dragon doesn’t even know its parents. That’s more spoilers.
Foreshadowing: I will be presenting a chapter each week, barring incident.
(“Barring incident” is not a spoiler. I always say “barring incident”. You never know when incidents might come up in life. Ergo, I try not to make promises I haven’t already kept.)
If you don’t like family friendly content mixing with “mature” themed content on the same podcast, I feel you. So does the literary world. Or worlds. Lit and family friendly lit are two very different worlds. For me they’re not. Not as a reader. As a parent, sure. I am not reading my toddler Ulysses. (Except on Bloom’s Day I did read part of it to him. He had mixed feelings.)
I am also not reading him A Dragon for George, unless he hears me record it from the next room. It’s a novel. It’s fifty thousand words long, give or take. Too much for my little one. And it has mature themes such as death and survivor guilt and vengeance.
Okay, those are some definite spoilers…. No. Foreshadowing…. No, spoilers. No, it doesn’t matter. What does matter: the novel reveals these mature themes as part of an adventure story that an eleven-year-old might like and that you might like too, even if you’re a little more “mature” than that.
(When I was eleven, kids were reading The Stand. A Dragon for George is less mature than that.)
Narrative comedy, for lovers of laugh-out-loud literature (or “lololl’s” for short). A mix of novels (chapter by chapter), short stories, and theatrical shows to help you laugh along with the human condition.
Sonnet for Spring Sonnet Contest Winner Tara Travis. Listen closely. The first letter of each line spells Tara's chosen phrase: ”Y O U 'R E S O A W E S O M E”.