December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Here we are - on the verge of ringing in 2008! 

I'm happy to usher in a new year, but I gotta be honest ... 2007 was pretty damned good to me!  My debut novel, QUAD, came out and it's quietly making its mark in the niche of Young Adult Literature.  I met some new and dear friends this year, like Leigh Purtill and her husband Maurice who are absolutely and without question Da Bomb!!  Check out Leigh's current and upcoming books right here on her website.  And I've reconnected with old and dear friends - some, back in my life after a long-(twenty+)-year absence.  That's one advantage us old farts have over teenagers - we get to wax nostalgic, which we know annoys you young-un's, but it's fun and amusing for us.  Oh yeah ... I'm in a off-the-hook writers' group; my family, both immediate and extended, are healthy and happy; and my book garnered a few nominations during awards season, though time will still tell if any of that pans out.  So, yeah.  It's been a good year.  May 2008 be nearly as kind!

And may the new year bring you all that your heart desires!

December 20, 2007

Shout-Out to DHS

This post is dedicated to the way cool students at Discovery High School in Sac who were chill enough to talk to me about QUAD yesterday and then write to me and tell me how much they appreciated my visit!  I gotta say, guys, you inspired me too!  I loved our visit (and I'm totally holding you to the movie idea, BTW - have your people call my people, we'll get it all set up!)  = D

Here's a picture of some of the amazing kids I got to hang out with at DHS yesterday - you guys rocked!

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Check in at the website in a day or two - I'll post your thoughts about QUAD and the Soundtrack you made for the book (it's pretty sweet, even better than mine, honestly).  Thanks again, everyone, for making it a really amazing day!

December 03, 2007

Back from where ever

It's been how long since I've posted???  Yikes!  Sorry.  I've been scrambling to complete the rewrite of my latest manuscript which has taken up pretty much all of my time the last few weeks.  So let's see, what did I miss?
Thanksgiving - well, I've had a hell of a good year, so I'm thankful for that.  Amazing family.  Great friends, old and new.  All good.  Thank you, God.  Thank you, Goddess.  Thank you, Universe.  No kidding.
Black Friday - don't get me started.  But since you asked, please consume responsibly this year.  Don't feed the beast.
Mammograms - here's the funny thing about small-town living:  it's entirely possible that the woman who's holding your breasts in her hands is the parent of one of your students.   Honestly, the last thing I want to hear from the woman who's manhandling my "girls" is, "I think my daughter is in your class."  And as she's squishing my breasts to within an inch of their lives, all I can think is, "Oh God ... did I give her a good grade???"

I think that pretty much gets us caught up.  What's on your mind?

November 10, 2007

My Secret Obsession

Maybe it's just me ... maybe I'm just an obsessive type.  I mean, hell, I have a six-foot tall cardboard replica of Spike in my office, for Pete's sake.

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But the truth of the matter is, I found this blog to be very amusing.  I didn't even read the entries - just ogled ... er ... looked at the pictures.  If you fantasize ... that is ... love Spike as I do, you'll probably appreciate this.  If not ... check in again soon.

November 09, 2007

My Day Job

I learned something about myself today.  I learned that I'm "down with all that."  I was pretty sure I was  but one of my students confirmed it for me today.  Apparently I know things that some of my students' other teachers don't know.  Hey - knowledge is power, right?  I'm all about power. 

I think what gives me the ability to be "down with all that" is that I'm always listening (ya hear that, peeps?  careful what you say - it may end up in my next book!). 

Here's me, Spanish teacher by day, "down with all that" by night.

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November 04, 2007

Settling in for winter

So last night was daylight savings.  There's something about turning the clocks back that reminds me of hugging a friend - the point where you have to let go, where you know you're going to have to say good-bye.  But then you settle in for the rest of fall, and then winter, knowing that it will be okay, because eventually spring will come again.  There's an inherent comfort in letting go when you know it isn't forever.

October 30, 2007

Embracing Change

I've been thinking a lot about change lately, probably because it's autumn and everything is changing in our small town. The colors are deepening, the air shivers just a little, like when someone you love touches you unexpectedly.  A lovely talk with an old friend is the same as slipping into a comfortable sweater - it's familiar, down to the smell, and surrounds you, and keeps out the fingers of cold that creep in, or other small intrusions of life.  I'm feeling a little like autumn myself these days - richer from core to surface than  I've ever felt before, more substantive than I was twenty years ago; perhaps a little more earthy in a sense.  It's a strange thing, but this year, I don't fear the certainty of early nightfall as I have in years past, I don't dread the onset of winter.  Maybe when the rain becomes more of an unwelcome guest than a much needed respite I'll think differently.  But right now, with this gorgeous, heady autumn all around me, it feels like an embrace.  Change is good.

October 20, 2007

Lights, Camera ... Teen Read Week!

It reads like a perfectly crafted screenplay:

Two YA authors, newly published, adrift.
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Teen Read Week, a national movement, designed to inspire a love of reading in young people.
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The authors meet, visit schools, libraries, and a book store.  They meet a ton of amazing kids (and some pretty incredible grown-ups, too).

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The kids ask intelligent, sharp, thoughtful questions.
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The authors have way more fun than two grown women should have.
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Teen Read Week is wildly successful by all accounts.

In the end, two families have come together to share Mongolian BBQ and YouTube videos.  The sun sets.  Fade to black.

Thank you, Leigh and Maurice, for making the trek up north for TRW.  We loved every minute of it.

Have you hugged a book today?

October 14, 2007

YOUR HAIR LOOKS FREAKIN' COOL, DUDE!

I am not a geek* but I'm completely geeking out about Teen Read Week, which officially starts today!  While my YA novel, QUAD, doesn't completely fit the theme of this year's campaign (LOL), I'm still excited to be a part of this nation-wide campaign to bring the incredible world of reading to the young adult crowd. 

TRUE CONFESSION:  I was never a reader as a teen.  I truly believed that all literature was boring, that books had nothing to offer me, that there was no way literature could connect to my life on any level.  I even cheated on doing the required reading in high school (sorry, Mr. McHargue) although I was a good enough writer to fake it most of the time.  When I was a senior, my mom forced me to read Catcher In The Rye, which was not required reading back then.  I balked but I read it anyway, and secretly enjoyed it.  Who knew that a piece of "literature" would have the F word in it??  Now that sparked my interest. 

AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED that changed my life forever.  Without being told to, I read Alice Walker's The Color Purple from cover to cover.  It made me weep--I was hooked.  By the way, I met Alice Walker last weekend at NCIBA, and I was able to tell her that hers was the book that had made me a reader, and that now I'm a published author.  You just never know.

My dear friend Leigh Purtill and her husband Maurice are coming up from LA to join me for Teen Read Week.  We're gonna blitz the local high schools, hit the Barnes & Noble, and finish off at the public library.   If you're in the neighborhood, stop by: B&N Oct 18 from 5:00 - 6:30 and Butte Co. Library on Oct 19 from 3:30 - 4:30.   Leigh and I will talk a little bit about ourselves, do a reading or two from our books, Love, MEG and QUAD, and answer questions.  In the spirit of TRW, we're also gonna talk about our favorite books when we were teens. 

What is/was your favorite teen book???

*open for debate

October 11, 2007

There Are Always Two Sides...

Nothing, I repeat NOTHING, justifies harming another human being.  Ever.

But when it's happening with such frenzied frequency, we've got to stop and reflect on the reasons why kids snap, or it will only continue to escalate.  Will your child be the next victim?  Will mine? 

Consider the following quotes from an Associated Press story about yesterday's school shooting in Ohio:

Students said Coon shot one student who had punched him after Coon bumped into him, and another who was walking up the stairs while others were fleeing...  So this kid bumps into someone walking down a crowded hallway, a common occurrence in school, and he gets punched for it.  And when he snaps, that's the kid he goes gunning for.

Coon was the subject of a juvenile court neglect case at age 4, came from a poor home and routinely showed up to school unkempt. ... His probation officer described the relationship between Coon and his mother as extremely poor, with both using foul and abusive language toward each other. Their home was reported in poor condition with dog waste littering the front yard...  He learned this behavior at home - did anyone witness this?  A neighbor?  Where was Social Services?

Christina Burns, who volunteered at one of the schools Coon attended, said Coon both received and delivered abuse. She said that in seventh grade, he did nothing after a classmate dropped a book on Coon's head while the teacher wasn't looking... Right under the teacher's nose.  All too often, kids get pounded just under the radar of those in charge - and sometimes they retaliate, and they're the ones that get caught and get in trouble, which only deepens their anger and resentment.

"He would often take this abuse from children all the time before lashing at them and cussing them out," Burns said...  A person can only take so much before they reach the breaking point.  Sometimes the anger leaks out, like cussing someone out, but if it's not kept in check, it can explode.

Burns said Coon was a bright child who was unable to focus on his schoolwork and was prone to mood swings... Who could possibly concentrate on school work when they're getting whomped, both physically and emotionally, both at school and at home, every day?  This kid had nowhere safe to be.

Burns said she is angry no one reached out to him. "This all could have been prevented if he had the proper intervention," she said... Tragedy.

"That child was tormented from his classmates every single day," she said. "Everybody's making him out to be a devil, a demon, but nobody knows what was going on with this kid."  I think we can guess.

The tragedy is not that this child lived a neglected, abused life.  It's that he was brutalized every day for it, right under everyone's noses, and no one stepped in on his behalf!  No one offered themselves as an ally, no one stopped to ask themselves, or him, or each other why he was so angry.  That kind of anger doesn't exist in a vacuum - but no one took the time to find out.  One student told administrators that this boy had a gun - and even the administrator was "too busy" to intervene. 

It is a miracle and a blessing that no one was killed in this situation.  But we have to know that at the root of this tragedy was a boy who was labeled an "unlikable" kid, and as such, was probably not worth anyone's time.  No one wanted to be bothered to look for some good under all that so-called "evil."

Every kid needs an ally.  Every.  Single.  Kid.

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