In June 2020, I compiled this list of Windswept titles as I worked on building a set of the books. I have all of the books on hand, and this is the correct order. Some sites have some titles in the wrong order.
1. Don't Walk Alone, Mary Bringle, 1982
2. Someone Is Out There, Carole Standish, 1982 1. Don't Walk Alone, Mary Bringle, 1982
3. Girl in the Shadows, Miriam Lynch, 1982
4. The House of Three Sisters, Virginia Neisen, 1982
5. Yesterday's Girl, Madeline Sunshine, 1983
6. The Snow's Secret, Carole Standish, 1983
7. The Red Room, Kay Dobkin, 1983
8. The Silvery Past, Candice Ransom, 1983
9. Dreams and Memories, Lavinia Harris, 1983
10. A Forgotten Girl, Elisabeth Ogilvie, 1983
11. The Ghost of Graydon Place, Dorothy Francis, 1983
12. The Silent Witness, Meredith Hill, 1983
13. The Empty Attic, Jean Francis Webb, 1983
14. Murder by Moonlight, Dorothy Woolfolk, 1983
15. The Girl Cried Murder, Dorothy Woolfolk, 1983
16. House of Fear, Willo Davis Roberts, 1983
17. Mirror, Mirror, Virginia Nielsen, 1983
18. The Missing Sunrise, Joan Oppenheimer, 1983
19. Dark Magic, Miriam Lynch, 1983
20. Mysterious Summer, Marion Schultz, 1983
21. Phantom Light, Susan Dix, 1983
22. The Lost Holiday, Elizabeth Olsen, 1983
23. A Date With Danger, Edward Hunsberger, 1988
24. The Burned Letter, Conrad Nowels, 1984 25. The Castle Murder, Vivian Schurfranz, 1984
26. The Secret, Carol Beach York, 1984
27. Mystery Cruise, Carole Standish, 1984
28. The Disappearing Teacher, Conrad Nowels, 1984
29. The Hidden Room, Jennifer Sarasin, 1984
30. The Accident, Jesse Osburn, 1984
31. The Warning, Dorothy Francis, 1984
32. Secret of the Dark, Barbara Steiner, 1984
33. Weekend of Fear, Virginia Nielsen, 1984
34. The Mansion Murder, Vivian Shurfranz, 1984
Here are my books. Almost all of them have the Windswept packaging. The Girl Cried Murder is the only one that doesn't.
Here are my books. Almost all of them have the Windswept packaging. The Girl Cried Murder is the only one that doesn't.
I read Someone Is Out There before I began building the Windswept set. I enjoyed that book. I took a risk in building the set based on my liking of that book. Meanwhile, my reading of Sweet Dreams went very badly last year. I started reading the Wishing Star set and got on quite well with those for a time. I then had to quit.
Months and months came and went.
I have read 10 books this month that I have really enjoyed. I want to read. I actually want to read, which has mostly not been the case for the last year. This is amazing!
I tried reading a couple of Whitman books. Nope. After some thought, I found where I left off in Wishing Star, which was #21 But This Girl Is Different. Uh no, I can't do it. I tried Wishing Star #22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 last evening. I read varying amounts of each book. It's a "no" on all of them.
I then switched to Windswept: #1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. I did not like any of them. I try to give the books at least a few chapters, but the authors open the books with excessive details about each girl's entire life or other stuff that probably has nothing to do with the story. How boring! For goodness' sake, I'm not reading the biography of a famous person. I'm reading teen fiction that is supposed to be light reading. Ugh.
There is a reason why the Sweet Valley series and Christopher Pike's books were so successful. The authors got to the point on the very first page, immediately captivating the reader. The authors didn't force the readers to slog through minutiae for chapter after chapter.
I am actually reading Windswept #17 Mirror, Mirror, and I might make it through the book. I also might not. I have skimmed a little bit to get past certain unnecessary boring details. I do think I will make it to the end even if I have to skim in places.
At least I'm going to be able to clear even more books off of my shelves. Yay!
I will resume selling books sometime between March 13 and June 1. Either I must be immune after vaccination or the school year must be over, whichever comes first. I do not expect to be vaccinated for at least another month, which means that selling as soon as March 13 is now in doubt.
Whenever this subject comes up, I get asked to let you know when certain books will be sold. Really, the easiest thing for both you and for me is for you to simply follow my online stores. Whenever I open them again, you will receive an email telling you about my "new" listings, which will actually be my old listings from August 2020. And then, as I do begin creating actual new listings, you will receive an email each day when I list new books. It's that easy.
Go to this page on eBay. Click on "Save this seller" on the line where my user ID appears. That's all you have to do.
Go to my Etsy shop. Right under where you see 2,055 sales, there is a box that has a heart followed by "Favorite shop" and the number of followers. Click on that box to follow my Etsy shop.
6 comments:
Glad you are getting the vaccine. I had the Covid last March and it was no joke.
Sorry you are getting my husband's name and picture with my e-mail. I can't figure out how to fix it.
Mousecliffe AKA Julie Ratcliffe
I'm not sure how to ask a question without posting a comment, so I guess I might as well do it here: what's your take on how the Penguin purchase of Simon & Schuster will trickle on down to affect Nancy Drew? I know you've expressed displeasure at S&S's handling of the IP for some time. Would there be any reason to expect any change when/if this sale goes through?
I am intrigued by the possibilities. The end result could be either good or bad.
This purchase will bring the original 56 and Simon and Schuster's output under the same umbrella. It is possible that the hardcover books could be changed to softcover or all of the books from the two publishers could be reissued as part of the same set. Most of Simon and Schuster's titles are out of print, and it would be great if they would come back (at least #57-175 if nothing else).
The Nancy Drew Diaries series could certainly change course or be discontinued. I wonder how successful the current series is. If it does okay, then it might continue. The books continue to be uneven, changing in tone with every volume. It would be nice if the merger would result in better quality control. I suppose we can hope.
That's what I would be hoping for, as well.
Unless sales are absolutely terrible, I can't imagine Penguin House putting such a venerated IP on the shelf and letting it sit there, so Nancy Drew (and Hardy Boys) books should still get produced. Ideally they would put someone in charge of the division who understands and respects the IP's history and knows how to create a product that respects that history while also adapting to today. I firmly believe this can be done (and it doesn't have to be done by making Nancy into a "typical" teen-show heroine character), but it would require someone with a strong hand and a clear focus of what the series should be.
The recent Hardy Boys Hulu show was pretty okay as far as adaptations go, so I don't think it's a total lost cause. It can be done.
The main thing that needs to happen is that someone needs to remember that Nancy Drew is actually not supposed to be a "normal" girl--she's supposed to be a role model, someone for the readers to look up to. I believe this fundamental error in understanding the character is behind many of Simon & Schuster's mistakes with the IP over the last 20 or 30 years. One of your main criticisms of the current Nancy Drew output, that of her constantly being denigrated or made fun of or whatever, I think, is directly attributable to this: the editors/publishers are concerned that modern girl readers won't like Nancy if she's "too perfect," so they go overboard in making sure that she's not. I'm waiting for the day when someone steps up and gives the people in charge of the IP a history lesson in that for the first 50 years of her history Nancy wasn't portrayed as a "normal girl" at all and that's why she was so popular. We'll see if that ever happens.
The market is absolutely filled with "girl detective"-type characters (or some equivalent thereof) today, so it's not like making Nancy Drew relevant in today's culture is impossible--heck, it should be easy. But I don't believe Simon & Schuster understands what the IP fundamentally is. Maybe someone at Penguin does, who knows.
I should also add (since I don't know how to edit published posts) that in addition to a focused editor, it would also require writers who actually care about Nancy and the IP in general and aren't just using it as a springboard to better writing jobs down the road.
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