URGENT: Stop Congress from Rubber-Stamping Fracked Gas Exports!

AWP: Our panel, "What I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Writing for Children and Young Adults," seemed like a success. At least we had a good time. It seemed as if our audience did. At least there wasn't much shuffling, squirming, and reading of programs while we were talking. :)

Heather Bouwman organized us and moderated the panel. My buddies from my writing group, Shelley Tougas and Kirstin Cronn-Mills, and I joined Sheila O'Connor to fill out the panel.

We all are used to talking in front of groups, so we were surprised by how nervous we were beforehand.

I wonder if everybody who gives presentations runs over what they forgot to say or wish they had said during the program. I do that in school, too, but then I get to see my students again in a few days, so I can add or correct or fix what I missed. There's no second chance when it's a conference.

Anyway, one thing I wanted to say is that I think every writer should write poetry, even if he or she never publishes any...It's such a terrific exercise in conciseness and paying attention to language and lyricism. I think writing for kids uses those skills, absolutely and entirely.
I never felt that as fully as when I wrote Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing: Medusa Tells All for the "Other Side of Myth" series published by Capstone. That book started out as a longish lyrical poem and then condensed itself into the snarkier voice of Medusa in which it was published.

Anyway, AWP was fun, and I had a grand adventure with my two buddies. We were reduced to uncontrollable laughter several times.
We became the Three Musketeers of Vehicular Safety (in our cab to the airport), and the Three Musketeers of Row 19 (in the aircraft). Yeah, we tried to be reasonably quiet. Not sure how well that worked. But we had fun.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I LOVED this book. I attended a launch luncheon with Chris Bohjalian a couple years ago, and it's been on my to-read shelf ever since. I finally read it, and it's spectacular. It brings to life a little-known black mark on the history of mankind: The Armenian Genocide at the beginning of World War I. The way Bohjalian weaves his characters together in connections and twists makes the story unforgettable and heartbreaking. His prose is consistently beautiful, and this is my favorite of his books so far. I'm going to seek out the others.




View all my reviews

Yesterday, a box of books arrived on my porch, covered with a light dusting of snow.

Very exciting moment in an author's life to open the box of complimentary brand-new copies and hold the baby in your hands for the first time.

Check it out:


You can buy it here...

OR go directly to Capstone Books for young readers:
Capstone Books for Young Readers
Thanks to my editor and friend, Jill Kalz, you can enter promo code 6027 at checkout and get 30% off plus free shipping.

Today--well, Thursday in South Africa--marks the funeral for one of the most amazing people I have had the privilege to know personally.

This is the last photo taken of a gentle giant of a man who changed his world, and changed our world.


Kobus van Wyk, we will NEVER forget you.

My friend Richard Meyer, who taught Humanities in high school to both my kids (and they adore him), retired a few years ago and has immersed himself in one of his primary passions: poetry. He's getting quite a pile of publications, and here are two of his most recent ones.

I sat at the kitchen table, reading them, belly laughing all by myself. Freya wondered what was so funny. So I read them to her.

Richard Meyer's poems in the Journal "Light" (Can't italicize in a link here)

Read them and smile!

Freya carries in a blanket of snow. I try to grab her with a big towel before she shakes.

Writing this morning before school. Going to try to hop on the trainer for a bit, too.

Rafi and Maddie, the characters in the novel I'm working on, have me hooked and all I want to do is write, but then comes a little thing like school.
 
Rafi is a Muslim and Maddie has grown up in a conservative Christian home. They are both fighting the frac-sand minds, and they fall in love. They're smart, so of course they talk about their religions. I'm worried about too much "talkiness" sometimes, but I guess I will have to read the whole thing aloud and see. It's sort of pouring onto the page.
All I want to do is write. I already said that.

Yes, this is the novel where both kids go to St. Peter High School. 

When I woke, I saw what I thought was a mouse turd on my phone! On my night stand! I have a cat, that crazy Katniss, and besides, what ballsy mouse would dare make a deposit one and a half feet from my head during the night?

Well, I put on my glasses and picked up my phone. Turned out to be a Boxelder bug wing. Farsightedness sucks, but in this case, it was a relief.

A good day to remember how important it is to make sure everyone gets equal rights, equal opportunity, and equal chances.

Is that realistic? No, and the longer I live, the more I see that level playing fields aren't a reality. We can each do our best to make sure that we are not part of any system that perpetuates oppression, that students and any other people in our charge not only get a fair shake, but get encouragement and see what's possible. But we can't make sure that anyone gets a level playing field.

I had so much fun two Wednesdays ago (January 8) in Marshall, MN at the Southwest Cooperative Young Writers' Conference. Students were eager and engaged. Freya and I had fun meeting students and spending the day talking about writing.

Then I wonder...how many of those eager young writers will publish the books they want to? Will working long hours, piles of other responsibilities, the need to keep bread on the table, keep them from realizing their dreams? Maybe, but some will reach their dreams, and having a dream is as important than being successful in many, many ways.

I'm a big Downton Abbey fan. I don't watch live TV much at all, but I've caught up to season four on Netflix and Amazon Prime. It reminds me of the sharp divide of class. We pride ourselves that in the U.S., such classism doesn't exist, but that's a lie. If we think we have no such class divides in the U.S., we are living with our heads in the sand.

Look at what money can do without regard for its effects: Fracking destroys property, health, animals, and long-standing family ranches or farms because big oil and gas companies have the money to do so.  Frac-Sand mining is doing the same thing in Minnesota and Wisconsin because Fracking is such a big industry that the silica sand miners can get what they want, take the property or make it worthless, mine the silica, sell it for billions, no matter how many people the company tromps all over in order to do so.

Lime Township has been up in arms for most of two years, battling the new Jordan Sands processing plant and mines. What's happened? The entire township full of citizens can't stop the power of a big wealthy company with the potential to make billions more.

Class? Money? Yeah, my friends, I'm afriad it's everywhere.
This could be very depressing, and if we let it, it is. However, the fact remains that we have to each do everything we can, to chase our dreams and to make the world as just and safe as possible. To fight injustice and the greedy destruction of our planet however we can.

If we don't, then we are living with our heads in the sand.
 
 

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 My Capstone Book from Medusa's point of view will be out soon!

Medusa Tells All: Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing

Loved writing this book!
 

I always tell my comp classes about Emmitt Smith. I'm not a big NFL fan (or even a little one), but I read an article about Emmitt in Sports Illustrated while in the Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic waiting room once. He says that his high school football coach told him, "A dream is a dream until you write it down. Then it becomes a goal." Therefore, I make my comp students dream about their life in ten years--writing down their fantasy life; then, they have to formulate three goals for the semester. I almost always (or at least once a year) do this with them.

The point of this rambling? To write down my goals. Here. Publicly. So my friends and acquaintances who glance at this blog will help hold me accountable. I have found that a buddy in the goal-setting business is helpful.

1. Finish my novel, the title of which is Who the Frack is Maddie Jackson?
2. Get back in shape, race the Minnesota senior games, and ride at least two centuries: "The Ironman" at the end of April, and The "Jesse James" in September. (I read an article in  Bicycling about several people who collectively lost over 600 pounds through riding and eating right. For some reason, that was a kick in the butt to get back on the wagon of paying attention to what I eat and riding in a way that you could actually call training. I also just received an email about the National Senior Games. A few pictures of some senior athlete women's arms reminded me that I can get truly fit no matter how old I am. I've always been pretty fit, and reasonably competitive. I have let it slide lately. It's hard to make writing a priority AND riding a priority, but it can be done, and I'm going to do it.
3. Keeping a balance. Keeping up with schoolwork, and still doing the above two priorities which are the work of my soul.
It's hard for me to make the two things that are a priority for my own soul (versus school which is ever-present) when I am overwhelmed with work to do. Maybe I'll assign fewer assignments. I always say that and rarely do it.

Less important to me:
4. Trying to get my finances in better order. When you don't have enough money, and your monthly teacher income barely covers all the bills (it does, but barely), it's hard to make this any kind of priority because it's so depressing, especially in light of all the hours I work every week all year. However, I'm actually determined to put some effort into this. I just made a new budget, and I'm going to file taxes in February instead of April this year. Those are starters.