Or is it just coincidence? Today I get email from Writer’s Market, as I often do, and I notice a story about four new book publishers.  I always check those out, because in the past I’ve had luck getting published with new/small houses.  One of them, SynergEbooks, intrigues me for their emphasis on e-books, so I check it out. What’s highlighted on the first page?  A series of romance novels set in the fictional town of….Oberon, California. Best I can tell there is no Shakespeare connection, other than the fact that your Shakespeare Geek happened to trip over it.

I have already mentioned my daughter’s plan to get me “a Shakespeare thing” for Father’s Day. I’m a big fan of letting the kids pick out gifts on such occasions (as compared to the parent doing it) so I sent my wife a list of “Shakespeare things” that might make potential gifts. Here’s my rule – I want something that the kids will be able to point to and say, “We got Daddy that.” That’s the only requirement. I don’t even have to like or want it. 🙂 I ruled out books and movies because I’d rather a gift be shared. Any Shakespeare book I’d actually want is not something my wife or kids would care about, likewise for movies. And other than when they see me reading it, it’s not like they could satisfy rule one and say “That’s the book we got you.” There’s always Shakespeare’s Den, who don’t do just Shakespeare stuff but do have a whole category devoted to him :). I pointed out things like coasters or a throw pillow because that is exactly the sort of thing that could be just lying around the house for the kids to see and appreciate. Not to mention when company comes over – I love a good conversation starter. They also have a jigsaw puzzle that just happens to be The Tempest. I’m just wondering if we’d have time to do it together as a family (the 3 and 2 yr olds might not have that much input, you see). Know what I covet, though, is one of these bad boys from One Page Books. It’s a wall poster of the entire play. I think it’s a cool idea. Options include the great tragedies, the sonnets, Merchant, Much Ado, Dream…no Tempest, but still, some of those others would make a pretty cool wall decoration. But which one to pick? Any fathers out there? What sort of “Shakespeare thing” would you like from the kids?

I wish I had a recorder for moments like this.  My daughter’s new book, according to my daughter: “The one princess is named Belle, and the other princess is named Ariel.  The mean witch is Max and the nice witch is Caliban.”

“Caliban, huh?  Did you mean that the other witch’s name is Sycorax? Is that what you were trying to remember?”

“No, Daddy, Sycorax is the nice witch’s *helper*.”

“Oh.  Continue.”

Every time she says Ariel I always wonder if she’s thinking of the Little Mermaid, or The Tempest.  But when she says Caliban, I know :).

So this morning my 3yr old tells me, “I don’t have work today” (she pretends that she has a job like Daddy) “and all my friends are coming over to play.” For some reason this brings to my brain a quote that I can just barely remember, which may or may not be from Shakespeare.  Something about the gates of hell being opened and all the demons being free.  I am *way* off on that, so far that I cannot even adequately google for it.  It bugs me. I’m curious to see if anybody knows what I’m talking about. For a minute there I was thinking it might have been something one of the sailors yelled at the opening of The Tempest, but I can’t find anything similar to what I’m thinking.  Anybody?