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For the 11th question of her What a Girl Wants series, Colleen Mondor asked a number of us one of her typically challenging questions: What does it mean to be a 21st century feminist, and on the literary front, what books/authors would you recommend to today's teens who want to take girl power to the next level?

Lorie Ann Grover, Laurel Snyder, Loree Griffin Burns, Margo Raab, and Zetta Elliott all came through with reliably interesting responses. I was caught up in a series of corporate projects and could not respond in time.

Today, however, I'd like to put my two cents in by recommending Elaine Showalter's A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx to readers of any age, gender, or race who wish to understand and celebrate just how hard women have had to work to put their voices on the page—and how women's voices have and will continue to shape us.

Anne Bradstreet, one of this nation's first women writers, entered print, in Showalter's words, "shielded by the authorization, legitimization, and testimony of men." In other words, Showalter continues, "John Woodbridge, her brother-in-law, stood guarantee that Bradstreet herself had written the poems, that she had not initiated their publication, and that she had neglected no housekeeping chore in their making."

No vanity allowed, in other words, and no leaving those dishes in the sink.

Showalter's book—which yields insight into the stories of Phillis Wheatley, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Zora Neale Hurston, Pearl Buck, Shirley Jackson, Harper Lee, Sylvia Plath, S.E. Hinton, Grace Paley, Joan Didion, Lorrie Moore, Jayne Anne Phillips, Sandra Cixneros, Amy Tan, Louis Erdrich, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gish Jen, and so many others—is itself a piece of history, for it is, unbelievably, the first literary history of American women writers.

Showalter suggests that the development of women's writing might be classified into four phases: feminine, feminist, female, and free. Anyone who wants to know just how we got to free (and to ponder, with the evidence, whether or not we're really there) should be reading this book.

by Laurel SnyderRandom House 2009Scared away by a condescending narrative voice.It's been a while since I abandoned a book outright, but I just couldn't keep plowing through. There have been books I wanted to ditch, and others I probably should have dumped, but I've always held out to the end with that hope that maybe something toward the end would redeem the effort. But Any Which Wall just

Blogger of the Week:
Laurel Snyder...


Laurel Snyder, you will learn below, is a long-time blogger who's not afraid to be herself in cyberspace--with a few rules. Soak up her advice below and click here to visit her blog.

You blogged on Kid*Lit(erary) from April 2007 until March 2008. You began blogging on your website on December 2007. Will you tell me your motivation behind starting each of these blogs, and why you stopped blogging on Kid*Lit? I'm interested in your evolution as a blogger. (Because why wouldn't a full-time writer with small children have plenty of time to keep up with two blogs?)

Ha! You don't know the half of it. I started blogging around 2000, after going to SXSW with a webby friend. At the time, my blog (lonelysongs.com) was personal, VERY personal. I posted all sorts of sordid things about nasty ex-boyfriends. I don't think I really had a clear sense for what the web was yet. I did all of that in dreamweaver, and had to upload through this funny ftp window, using dialup. I can't believe I bothered!

Then, I took that down and discovered Blogger. I built a new site called Jewishyirishy.com, and again, it was personal, but not THAT personal. Lots of poetry blogging and religion rants and an attempt at community building for kids of Jewish intermarriage.

When I began writing for kids and knew I was going to be publishing, I decided I needed a new focus for my blogging. Honestly, I wanted a site that wasn't riddled with naughty words. Something I wouldn't get in trouble over when parents found it googling my name. I also wanted a chance to think in a more critical/academic way about children's books. Hence, Kid*Lit(erary) was born.

BUT, after 2 kids were born, I started blogging for pay at Jewcy, podcasting at Nextbook, AND I sold a novel on proposal (and was expected to write it), I didn't have time for the reviewing I'd been planning. So I just killed the site and began an author blog, which I update now and then.

Whew! Sorry to go on so long. Looking back, I realize I'm a fickle sort of blogger, huh? But that's nice thing about blogs. Like haircuts, you can always start over if you mess up!

You started blogging well before your first books were published. Would you advise new writers, even those without book contracts, to work on their Web presence?

YES! Absolutely. But I think people do it for the wrong reasons sometimes. I don't understand when people blog because they're concerned with marketing themselves before they publish. Marketing is tiring and time-consuming and it will kill your soul and get in the way of your writing. Blogging isn't marketing. It's a productive, generative, creative way to think online. It's a starting point for community building too.

What do you do to maintain your own presence online (blogging, reading other blogs, Twitter, etc.)? How much time do you devote to that?

All of it. Facebook and Twitter. Blogging and reading blogs (in Jacketflap reader, mostly). Commenting on other people's blogs. I'm on several listservs. I love it all. I think the real trick is just to limit the amount of time you spend online. I use an egg timer when I'm trying to write. When it dings, I go offline. Hard to measure it in hours when I'm not regulating myself. With two toddlers underfoot I'm online a lot, back and forth all day in 30 second intervals. Twitter is perfect for me for that reason.

What kind of posts will readers find on your blog? Are they certain types of posts that get more response than others? (When I blog about Brussels sprouts or my '80s prom dress I get a lot more hits and comments than when I offer industry news, for example.)

Yes, well, I'm (I think) in the Kidlitosphere minority on this issue. My blog is an extension of ME, and I am a loosey-goosey, ranty, accident-prone, haphazard gal. I rarely censor myself much, and my blog is all over the place. Despite my best efforts to keep a "clean" site, I still can't seem to stop from losing my temper online. But I think the more blunt I am, the more people respond.
Popular topics have been my hatred for snooty adult writers who don't appreciate the amazing value of kidlit, fluffy kidlitters who don't understand why "literary" writing is more artful than crappy commercial writing, my confusion over Israel and Palestine, and my WRATH at über-protective mommies who use too much Purell and make their kids sleep in helmets. Ha!

What advice would you offer new bloggers?

Just that a blog is published material. So we should all remember--it is one thing to be a crazed maniac online, and quite another to be a DUMB crazed maniac. If you want to say crazy things, try to sound smart and funny. Smart funny writers can get away with almost anything.

And please, for the love of Mike, do not tell us anything you don't want your boss (or your husband) to know.

Art and the Economy:
Laurel Snyder, PW and NY Times...

On her blog today, author Laurel Snyder offers some interesting comments on art and poverty as prompted by the recent economic downturn and how it's affirming to writers and other creative types. Here's a snippet:

See, to pursue a writing life, to really make literature and art the center of things, you have to accept a certain amount of uncertainty, poverty, etc. You decide you’ll be a waitress forever, and never own a fancy handbag. You live in a studio apartment, eat cheap. Ideally, you do this (not because you’re selfish and singleminded, but) because you’re choosing to prioritize art and social commentary and intelligent community and the life of the mind BEFORE handbags.

Laurel Snyder is the author of the brand new children's book Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, or, The Search for a Suitable Princess (review here). She's also written a book of poems, entitled The Myth of the Simple Machines, among other works. Her most recent release was the picture book Inside the Slidy Diner. You can visit her online at www.laurelsnyder.com

What inspired Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains?

It began as a bedtime story. I don't remember why, but I was telling my boyfriend-at-the-time (now my husband) a story about a little milkmaid, and he said I should write it down. I had never really considered writing a novel of any kind, so I didn't think of it that way. I kind of scribbled down the beginning, and it kept on going.

The book has the charming feel of an "old-fashioned" fairy tale. Did you set out to write a story in that vein on purpose? Or did that evolve as you wrote the story?

No, it was absolutely that way from the start. I'm a little obsessed with what people call "classic books" and I have a hard time writing in a contemporary voice. I think somehow "old fashioned" is easier for me, because I don't have to try to sound young and authentic. There's no temptation to be like, "Yo, wassup?" in a fairy tale. Nothing is worse than grownups doing bad impressions of teens. Gag.

But the challenge is to NOT just repeat what's already been done. I want to make this kind of book my own. And that's tricky. I really admire Shannon Hale. And have you read Victoria Forrester's The Girl Who Could Fly? Wow!

Yay Shannon Hale! And the latter book you mentioned is on the top of my reading stack right now.
Your writing style is simple; sparse and intelligent all at once. Did any books or authors influence you in particular?

I love and regularly re-read Edward Eager, Betty McDonald, PL Travers. The "classics". But really, the spare quality comes, I think, from reading a ton of translated poetry. Poetry has an economy that makes all prose feel wordy, and translation tends to strip things down. I love Tomaz Salamun. There's a fable quality to a lot of Eastern European poetry, something related to fairy tales.

Growing up, did you always want to be a writer? Or did that interest and passion develop later on?

Always. Or since about 4th grade anyway. Before that I wanted to be a ballerina.

For a long time I wasn't writing for kids. I also write poetry, and nonfiction for adults. But whatever I'm writing, I really can't imagine doing anything else. I always figured I'd be a waitress and a writer forever.

You're the author of a choose-your-own-adventure biography in verse, a picture book, a novel for children, and have edited a nonfiction anthology. Whew. How is it, working all across the board like this? Are there any forms of writing mentioned that you are especially fond of working on?

It's funny, they don't feel *that* different when I'm writing them. I approach certain issues--conformity, honesty, etiquette, loneliness, fence-sitting-- a lot. And so although one attempt may result in a grownups-only essay, and another may result in a picture book, I'm still just exploring the subjects of my various obsessions. I really feel that a project will demand its proper form, and you have to listen closely to find out what that is. Sometimes a prose poem turns into a picture book. Sometimes a novel outline turns into an essay. In my dream world, I'll someday write something publishable that nobody can categorize. Something like The Little Prince, that crosses all boundaries.

In a similar vein, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains contains some rhymes and poems, and you've also published a book of poetry for adults. Which came first for you - did you begin by mostly writing poetry, or prose? Which comes easier for you?

I'm a poet at heart. I'm still just learning to play with prose. But the rhymed songs Lucy sings in the book, although they were fun to write, are very different from my poetry.

There's a precision in poetry, like nothing else. The process of getting into THAT head is very different. Writing poetry is like pulling the world apart to understand it. Writing prose is like building a new little world.

Do you have a favorite poet?

I mentioned Tomaz Salamun above. But if I have to pick a favorite poet, I'll take Berryman. Or O'Hara. Or... Umm... I don't think I have a favorite.

What are you working on next?

Well, next May my new novel, Any Which Wall, will come out. It's an homage to Edward Eager, kinda. About four kids who find a magical wishing wall. And I just (this week) started my new book, Penny Dreadful. It's about a little girl who moves to a town full of very odd children, and has to try to make friends.

What's your favorite thing about being a writer?

The best thing about being a writer is just writing. Really. I can't imagine what life would be like if I couldn't write. But it's also awfully nice to be able to stay home with my kids.

Thank you so much, Laurel!

You've really got to work Now and Later candies hard before you can enjoy the sweet reward. They're a perfect metaphor for our class, which has worked really hard this year and reaped in lots of sweet rewards. Just imagine the things we'll accomplish over the next decade!

REGINA LUNDGREN

In 2008, my greatest writing-related accomplishments were:

1. Made my dream research trip to England
2. Saw my first YA novel La Petite Four published
3. Submitted proposals on request to an adult romance line and a new YA line
4. Met many of my 2k8 sisters in person
5. Actually learned how to blog, do MySpace, and generally have an online presence

By 2018, across my life goals, I hope to have:

1. Landed long-term contracts with two publishers, both of whom love and respect my work and my writing voice
2. Seen both my sons graduate from high school and go on to education and work in fields they love
3. Published many books in both adult and YA, earning a devoted readership that clamors for my unique characters, exciting plots, and dash of humor
4. Not let writing take over my life, so that I enjoyed time with my husband, family, and friends
5. Continued to grow closer to Jesus my Savior.

LAUREL SNYDER

2008 accomplishments:

1. Published Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains
2. Published Inside the Slidy Diner
3. Actually made more money from my writing than I spent in babysitting!
4. Potty trained successfully! (my son, not me. I've been potty trained for at least a year or two))
5. Wrote my next novel, Any Which Wall!

Hopeful 2018 accomplishments:

1. Manged to avoid a desk job (and/or dress clothes) for a full decade
2. Took an actual vacation to someplace where I don't have family.
3. Healthy! Healthy! Everyone healthy!
4. Actually working out and eating well for the first time ever!5. Spent a month at a writing colony.

STACY NYIKOS

2008 accomplishments:

1. First middle grade novel launches
2. Finished my first ya novel
3. Slept
4. Remembered to eat...occasionally
5. Hung with the Classof2k8!!!!!!!!!

Hopeful 2018 accomplishments:

1. I'm still alive
2. I've been to Asia
3. I've written a few more and better books
4. My husband and I survive our children's teenage years
5. My children - who will then be in college - think I'm not half bad

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

When Laurel Snyder told me she'd be on tour, I just had to jump on board. She's a wonderful blogger, a fantastic writer, and she has a new Middle Grade novel that sounds just up my alley. So in honor of Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains and of Laurel Snyder, please welcome her here at Big A little a.

Kelly: Laurel--You've written many books--nearly all for different age groups. For which age group do you like to write most and why?

Laurel: Hmmm. For me, writing begins with language-- with a line or a bit of dialogue or even a single word. Figuring out what form the project wants to take can be a matter of trial and error. I made several false starts, for instance, at poems (for grownups) before turning the phrase "greasy spoon of stuck" into a picture book called Inside The Slidy Diner. So the age I want to write for, on a given day, is a matter of what's working that day.

Kelly: Beer, wine, or a soft drink?

Laurel: Oh, all three please! And a whiskey back if you'll join me. Most often, weather dictates. Red wine on a cold night. Wheat beer on a hot summer day, or limeade!

Kelly: If you had the chance, would you travel to space?

Laurel: As long as you come too. I'm not good with isolation. I'm an ENFP.

Kelly: Oh, man, I'm an INTJ/INTF. And, I'm scared of space. Terrified, to be honest. Will you be okay if I sit in my living room and cheer you on?

Here's another question: Beach, city, or forest?

Laurel: Oh, the beach. I love most kinds of places, the way I like most adult beverages. NYC in a snowstorm. The Tennessee Mountains on a fall day. But I grew up in MD, near the Atlantic. Nothing else will ever feel quite right to me. I miss seagulls.

Kelly: Why do you think you're now focusing on writing for children?

Laurel:Well, I'm sure that part of it is that I have my own kids. But really, I've always read children's books, and re-read them. I just love them, and think that most of the books that touch people deeply are books they find when they're young. I feel insanely lucky to get to be a part of that. I'm still writing poetry, but adult prose feels a lot less important now that I'm writing for kids.

Kelly: Coffee, tea, or a triple skinny latte?

Laurel: Coffee! Good dark roast brewed thick and chewy, but just plain old regular drip. It feels like there's something broken in the world when my coffee costs more than my lunch. Tea is for winter afternoons.

Kelly: You're a popular blog reader and writer—one who participates in the kidlitosphere actively. How did you get started blogging and why?

Laurel: Hmmm. I actually started blogging back in 1999, using Dreamweaver, so that the posts accumulated backwards. As a result, my original site, lonelysongs.com was a MESS. But the worst part of it is that my original blog was a chronicle of one very depressed year when I moved to New York City, not to mention a diary of the men I had loved and/or dated in my life. People ate it up, but I'm very very very glad it disappeared into the aether. I didn't really understand what the web was, how public it was. Lesson learned (for the most part) the hard way.

Kelly: I have to say that your first blog sounds fabulous, Laurel. I'm sorry I missed it! Okay, on to another question: Movie, Theater, or a Concert?

Laurel: Concert, of the acoustic variety. Something alt-country or folky. I love twang. Ideally, outdoors on a sunny day. With a fiddle or banjo. I really learned to love music in Iowa, where the music feels very American.

Kelly: Ooh, Iowa. Over the years, I've become a fan. Better to love where you live, no? Okay, here's another question: If you had an entire week and unlimited resources to do whatever you'd like, what would you do and why?

Laurel: Hmm. That's a tricky one. For myself, all alone, I'd take a week in Jerusalem. Stay at a nice hotel, but putter in dark corners. With the whole family, I'd rent a cottage in Ireland, near Doolin, with a private chef and a nanny. Just let the kids roam and run while I sat and listened to music. I'm not ready to take the kids to the Middle East just yet.

Kelly: I hear you, Laurel. I have that struggle too--only with Russia. Okay, here's another question: Halloween, New Year's, or Valentine's Day?

Laurel: Halloween! I love dressing up! Though I love it a lot less now that they move it to a weekend night and make everyone trick or treat at the mall at, like, 4 pm. What's that all about? Halloween is for letting kids do insane things in the dark on a school night, obviously.

by Laurel Snyder, from The Myth of the Simple Machines

The answer to the puzzle
is the mauled bird on the sidewalk,
and the feathers.

The answer to the puzzle
is that things keep getting less lovely,
but more interesting.

When the girl falls
through the air from the top
of a very tall building,

she sees everything
rush past her in great detail
but with little promise.

Onlookers see, “Some girl
cutting through the air
like a knife cuts through water.”

They gasp and say, “How terrible.
That poor girl. It’s just awful.”
And it really is. A moment.


Poetry Friday roundup at Charlotte's Library

Debut Author of the Month: Laurel Snyder...

This month's debut author Laurel Snyder's first two books have release dates just a few months apart. Her picture book Inside the Slidy Diner is an October release from Tricycle, and her mid-grade Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains is coming in October from Random House. Both books were slush piles submissions. Here she explains her almost simulteanous first books; talks about finding her agent, waiting tables, and writing poetry; and offers advice to those seeking publication.

How did you end up with your first books being published so close together?

Oh, it's a funny situation, but for a good reason! Basically, both books were pulled from slush, about a year apart. Tricycle accepted Slidy a year ahead of Random House contacting me about Scratchy. So then Slidy was due to come out last fall, in time for Halloween (it's a spooky kind of book) and Scratchy was supposed to follow about a year later. But the artist working on Slidy threw herself into it like you wouldn't believe. The pages are very involved, hand painted with with collage elements, and some crazy details. There are recurring images like a mouse you have to hunt for on each page, and all sorts of little jokes... it's wonderful, a work of art (that I really can't take credit for at all). So it took a long time, and at first I think the press wanted to speed her up. But when they saw what she was doing, they decided to let her take her time so she could maintain that level of complexity, and they gave her another year!

Please tell me and my readers a little about both of your first books.

Inside the Slidy Diner is a picture book about a little girl named Edie who lives in a macabre sort of diner where the lady fingers really are! Watch out for the Wigglepedes!

Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains is a lower middle grade novel, an old-fashioned fairy tale set in a place called "The Bewilderness"�about a milkmaid named Lucy and a prince named Wynston. When Wynston has to pick a queen, and Lucy is deemed too common for the job, Lucy runs away in search of her mother. So of course Wynston chases after her, and they have all sorts of silly adventures. It has wonderful pictures by Greg Call, and a lot of silly songs. There's a sniffly prairie dog named Cat, a sweet but ornery cow, and some cautionary tales about living life too rigidly.

You started out submitting on your own, but you have an agent now. How did you find her?

When you get pulled from the slush at Random House, it suddenly becomes easier to find an agent! I queried about 30 of them in one whirlwind weekend, got offers from several great folks, and was lucky enough to be able to choose. I'm very very very happy with my amazing agent, Tina Wexler. I picked Tina because she didn't scare me. She talked to me like a person, laughed a lot, and felt immediately like a friend. One of the best decisions I ever made. But I was rejected by a lot of people before that all happened (some of whom sleazily offered to rep me after the book was in committee, but I'll never say who!).

Tell me about getting your first BFYR contract.

They never tell you how long it'll take to get the actual contract, do they? The formal offer came one day while I was teaching comp at a community college in Atlanta, and I actually got the message as I was dashing from school to pick up my son at his babysitter. I must have looked like a crazy lady, screaming my face off in the gridlock traffic all the way home. But the contract came about four decades later, in the heaviest envelope ever, and I just signed where I was supposed to, and sent it back. Maybe that's dumb but I figure that's why I have an agent.

How must inspiration did Slidy Diner draw from your experience waiting tables in several greasy spoons?

It really is a kind of encoded memoir of those years. I guess its a lesson in how anything can be interesting, and how we need to collect details wherever we go. Show Don't Tell, and all that. Rotten grill grease, tattooed waitresses, and sad patrons who sleep in their oatmeal don't sound like things you'd put in a children's book, but somehow it worked. I should say, for the record, that I love waiting tables, and plan to do it again when my kids are a little older. The Hamburg Inn, where I worked in Iowa City, was a second home to me. For me, living in a world of non-writers is important, so I have something to write about.

How have SCBWI, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the Class of 2k8 each helped to shape your writing career?

I could write a whole book about the Workshop. I really have a love/hate relationship with that world. I love poetry, and I love Iowa City, and I cannot imagine my life without some of the friends I made in those years. But the climate of that MFA program made me a little nutso. Not the program itself, but the weird competitive stuff that happens among the students. It made me so crazy I stopped trying to keep up and dove into children's books, my touchstones, and that's really how I began writing for kids. So I have to thank them for that! Also, although I didn't share with anyone else, my teacher Marvin Bell was very supportive of Scratchy Mountains. I'll never forget that!

Once I found myself writing for kids, I didn't feel like I could show anyone at the Workshop the things I was working on. And that's where the SCBWI came in. It provided, along with the Verla Kay Blueboards and the CWIM, a community and a set of instructions for how to think about publishing. I don't know how I would have ever found a home for my work without SCBWI. I don't actively participate in the physical world, but as a virtual community it was critical for me.

2k8 is awesome, but that happened very late in the game. I was already into several other books by the time I joined 2k8, and it's a nice way to meet people and get the word out, but I don't feel it had any effect on my publishing career, per se. Though another class member from Iowa, Sarah Prineas, was an early reader for my second novel (Any Which Wall, 2009) and she's become a good friend, so that's wonderful!

You have a lot of experience writing material for adult readers, having published in Salon, Utne Reader, The Iowa Review and others. What led you to write for children?

Children's books are some of the best, most innovative books in the world. I read them myself, and I find that there's a spark of magic in them. I just love them. I'd say that 80 percent of the most important books in my life are things I read before I was 12. I hate the division between children's books and the literary institutions. I just don't think the divide makes sense. Also, writing for kids feels almost political to me. Helping to shape the future--not writing political books and offering "messages," but providing the right stimulus for kids. Giving them something to chew on.

You've said that writing children's books is not as lucrative as you thought it would be when you were in fourth grade. Since (so far) writing for young readers has not helped you buy a mansion or become a gajillionaire, what keeps you interested?

Well, it's a lot more lucrative than poetry!

No, seriously, one benefit to beginning as a poet is that poets don't write to earn. They write to write. I don't think about money or the market when I write. As a result, I have written some books you will never see, like a morbid picture book called, The Boy Who Caught His Death. I always assumed I'd write, and make my money some other way--whether teaching, waitressing, or writing schlock for hire.

You have a book release party coming up and have a string of promotional events on the horizon. What's your plan for engaging your audience?

Oh, I don't know that I have a plan. I just think meeting kids and seeing them excited about books is the most exiting thing in the world. I want to believe that if I work hard, I'll write good books, and that if I write good books, they will find their way into people's hands. It has been explained to me, in so many words, that I'm not a "bestseller" kind of author. I can live with that. It's a great gift to me that I can write the books I most want to write, and I have an editor and an agent who will help them reach people. Especially since more copies have already been pre-ordered than were even printed when I published my book of poems. Poetry really does make you appreciate having a wider readership of any kind. Based on anything I've ever experienced, both of my books have already been successful.

What's your advice for those working toward publication?

I think the trick is a very careful balance--between writing hard without thinking about selling, and then selling hard (by which I mean hunting for a book deal) without thinking about the possibility of failure. I do believe that a good writer who plugs away will someday publish. You can only fail if you set quantitative expectations like, "I'll publish before I'm 30" or "I'll send this to 51 agents and then quit." I do think you have to listen to your most honest readers and friends, and if one books isn't working, try another. But you can't quit. I have about 30 "dead" picture book manuscripts in a drawer and Scratchy Mountains went through draft after draft before it was accepted. In fact, you can go to my blog and see a rejection letter from the very editor who acquired it! I figure if I can have two books pulled from slush by two different editors, it still happens a good bit.

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode of The Book of Life, we talk to 2 Jews and get way more than 3 opinions! These two conversations are the last of the material recorded at Book Expo 2008.

> Kathy Bloomfield, owner of the former Jewish book fair company For Words, member of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, and Outreach Program Ambassador for the Union for Reform Judaism's Northeast Council talks about her life as a Jew by choice, and how it affects her reading.

> Laurel Snyder, author of secular books for kids and adults and editor of Half / Life: Jewish Tales from Interfaith Homes, talks about growing up interfaith, raising Jewish children in an interfaith home, and about how questions of Jewish identity affect her writing.

SURVEY:

Do you prefer the regular half-hour shows that includes multiple interviews? Or would you rather have shorter, single-interview episodes? Post a comment, e-mail [email protected], or take the survey in the sidebar here at bookoflifepodcast.com.

NEWS:

The Book of Life has joined the Big Tent Judaism Coalition. This an umbrella group for communal Jewish institutions that strive to be inclusive and welcoming, like Abraham and Sarah in the Bible, whose big tent was open on all four sides to let guests enter. The Book of Life became a Big Tent member to show our commitment to exploring Judaism from new angles and to educating and welcoming a wide variety of listeners. The Big Tent Judaism Coalition is run by the Jewish Outreach Institute. Check out their website at joi.org/bigtent.

AUDIO:

Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now:

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CREDITS:

Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Additional background music in this episode includes the song "Bad Writer" by Gokee Quateto from the Podsafe Music Network.

Books mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel. (Or if they're too new to be in the library now, they will be once they are published!) Browse our online catalog to reserve books, post a review, or just to look around!

Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to [email protected]!

Web sites…
Most authors have them, need them, or want them. But are they truly necessary? For the rest of this week, members of The Class of 2k8 will give you their innermost thoughts on being part of the World Wide Web. Stay tuned for some great insight, and be sure and check out each member's site.

(Drum roll, please.) Let’s get to that list: 28+ Reasons Why You Need A Web site.

A Web site is where people go to find out information.
The first thing I do when I finish a book that I love is visit the author’s Web site. Here, I learn more about the author, what other books he published, where she was born. A good Web site makes me feel closer to the writers I enjoy, and much more likely to buy their next book. I hope readers who come to my site feel like they’ve gotten to know me a bit, and have found some way in which we connect.
~Jenny Meyerhoff, Author of Third Grade Baby
http://www.jennymeyerhoff.com

A presence on the Web means being a part of a community.
For me a Web presence isn't just a matter of advertising, it's a matter of community and process. So many essays have begun as blog posts, and soooo many of my friendships and professional relationships have started the same way. I've also had old friends find me through my online life, and I've been approached by publications like Salon.com, as well. So, really... I have to say that I think I'd still be waiting tables if it weren't for the Web!
~Laurel Snyder, Author of Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, http://www.laurelsnyder.com/

A Web site brings people to your site.
It's really fun to see what kind of search brings people to your site. Let's see, some of the phrases that have brought viewers to my site include:

"didactic stories read"
So, you want to read a didactic story, and if so, may I ask why?
"sleeping babies"
Ah yes, with a picture book titled, Baby Can’t Sleep, I get lots of parents wanting the secret to getting your baby to sleep. Guess what? There is no secret. Babies simply don't sleep as much as people have led us to believe. So, buy my book and have a laugh over it at the very least.
"slush pile garbage"
Yeah, I think editors would agree, there's a lot of garbage in the slush pile. Are you trying to figure out what defines garbage? I think it's pretty much anything that's not so fabulous an editor wants to snatch it up the second he/she reads it.

See? What a fun game! Get a Web site, and find out what fun phrases bring people to your site.
Lisa Schroeder, Author of I Heart You, You Haunt Me, http://www.lisaschroederbooks.com/

Our Totally Important Post for today is about Lisa, as well.
T.I.P.
Kids are loving I Heart You, You Haunt Me! Check out what this blogger’s daughter has to say.

The 2007 Booksense Awards have been announced. The Booksense awards recognize those books "independent booksellers most enjoyed handselling during the past year, as voted by the owners and staff of ABA member bookstores." Children's winners are:

• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, by Isabella and Craig Hatkoff, Dr. Paul Kahumbu with photos by Peter Greste.

Kimberly Maul reports for The Book Standard.

Speaking of Markus Zusak, he's guest blogging during the month of April over at Inside a Dog. Don't miss it! (Speaking of Inside a Dog, here's another blog I thought was on my blogroll, but when I switched over to "new blogger" it didn't make the transition!)