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The Queen's English
The Queen's English
The Queen's English
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The Queen's English

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The Queen’s English is a whimsical novel about a sexy future monarch who reigns over the country once known as the United States of America. She is guardian, too, of the English language. Her tongue-in-cheek name is Jackpot Pastiche, Harlot Queen of English, and we follow her story in a picaresque medieval-like tale, as she and her entourage “go a progress” through her realm. It is a land in geologic and linguistic turmoil, and the Queen needs every scrap of bawdy wisdom she can muster in “pronouncing judgments on matters great and small, settling ancient feuds, realigning mistaken attitudes, and diagramming the thorniest of sentences.” She must humble herself (no small thing) to ask advice of the Oracle of Style and Perspicuity, the ghost of Diana Hacker, of the Bed by the Ford. And on her journey (recounted by a hyperbolically academic and quirky narrator), she must face dangers and conundrums with only her wits, OED, and the help of her band of academics, her rather lewd Consort, Dripping Sea God, and Mascot, Diving Squirrel. They make their way through adventures, puzzles, word play, racy interlude, literary allusion and even tidal wave. The episodes affectionately parody many of the cherished teachings of the English department. The Queen’s English is a humorous blend of Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Decameron, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, and Freddy and Fredericka. (Approx. 51,000 words)

LanguageEnglish
PublisherStephen Cline
Release dateNov 13, 2009
ISBN9781452416748
The Queen's English
Author

Stephen Cline

Stephen Cline grew up in southern California and earned his Master’s Degree in Literature from California State University Dominguez Hills. He is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to study Arthurian Literature of the Middle Ages at the University of Puget Sound. He currently lives in Hawaii where he teaches writing and literature at Hawaii Community College.Prior to his move to the islands, he lived in Carpinteria, California where he chaired the English department of Laguna Blanca School for seven years after stints at Santa Barbara City College and Ventura Community College.Stephen has been involved in the arts most of his life. He has had numerous short stories, essays, and cartoons published both in the US and in Britain in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, such as Short Story, The Surfer’s Journal, Petroglyph, The Fretboard Journal, The Easy Reader, The Surfer’s Path, H20, The Julian News, Skateboarder's Journal and Inside English. His first novel, The Last Orange Grove, about present day and historical California, is available from such sources as Amazon.com and Xlibris.com. He has also performed professionally as a musician on the West Coast and in the Midwest, being selected in 2002 to perform with his partner, Chuck Roehm, in the Vashon Allied Arts New Works Series Concert in Washington State and performing in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest with his group Tiger Rising (Their CD is available at CDBaby.com, Digstation.com and Itunes.com). In addition, he worked in the art studio of the internationally acclaimed artist, James Hubbell, crafting such things as stained glass windows, bronze sculptures, and carved doors.Growing up in a beach town, Stephen has been interested and active in surfing and boating all his life, loves he learned from his parents and passed to his children. His work combines his interests in the ocean, cultural "first contacts" and change, as well as academic, literary and musical subjects.His twin sons are grown, pursuing academic careers, and he lives in Kona with his wife Nancee, who also is a writer and college lecturer.

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