Poor Mojo's Newswire

The Newbery Medal winner wrote more than 60 books, including fantasies, poetry and memoirs, often highlighting spiritual themes and her Christian faith.

Although L'Engle was often labeled a children's author, she disliked that classification. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, she said she did not write down to children.

"In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write.

The Web site Langmaker.com now lists more than 1,000 language inventors and 1,902 made-up languages, from Ayvarith to Zyem.

The language inventors have, of course, created a word to describe what they do - "conlang," short for constructed languages.

Created languages may have no hope of supplanting the real thing, but for most conlangers, that is hardly the goal. Hobbyists such as Kisa find it a fun or therapeutic practice. Linguists can use conlangs to dissect how real language works. For a select few who write fiction or work for Hollywood, conlanging can even be a moneymaker.

1 Who saw a black monkey after drinking tea?

2 Who relishes cups of redbush tea?

3 Who loses stature after downing a nice-tasting beverage?

4 Which cabaret artiste loved Prairie Oysters?

5 Which fictional tonic was sold in bottles whose wrappings depicted a nude giant?

He is notable for blending elements of science fiction and horror; and for popularizing "cosmic horror": the notion that some concepts, entities, or experiences are barely comprehensible to human minds, and those who delve into such risk their sanity. Lovecraft has become a cult figure in the horror genre and is noted as creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of nonhuman creatures, as well as the famed Necronomicon, a grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works typically had a tone of pessimism, regarding mankind as insignificant and powerless in the universe.

Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, and his works, particularly early in his career, have been criticized[1] as occasionally ponderous, and for their uneven quality. Nevertheless, Lovecraft’s reputation has grown tremendously over the last several decades, and he is now commonly regarded[2] as one of the most important horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting an influence that is widespread, though often indirect.