My family is considering moving to North Carolina in the not too distant future and I have mixed emotions about it. When I think of NC I think of mountains and beaches, southern hospitality and northern seasons, more manageable winters and fewer summer insects, and I’m ready to high-tail it out of Illinois. Then I see the Phlox blooming in my garden, have a neighbor over for a backyard bonfire, hear my children rave about their school and my roots sink further into the Rockford ground.

My husband says, don’t forget Rockford’s stats: the highest unemployment in the state, highest crime rate, highest high school dropout rate…

I say, but I love my super aggravating/rewarding job…

He reminds me of when my minivan gets stuck at the top of the entrance road to my son’s school in the wintertime and other parents have to get out of their cars to push me…

I remind him of some of our favorite restaurants, the Sinissippi Light Show every Christmas, how much we love our church family…

We go back and forth. I waffle. But for the time being, we stay.

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a lot to like about Rockford, IL. In fact, lots of Rockfordians are “as grumpy as a cat caught in an empty fish barrel,” says the man who works at Kelly’s Mobil. So I thought, I’ll use this blog to remind me why I want to stay. I’ll create a running series entitled, “What’s to Like About Rockford” and once a month I’ll post something positive about the city and surrounding neighborhoods where I live, work and play. That’s only 12 posts a year. Surely, I can do this.

Suggestions welcome!

Photo by Karin Blaski, 8/3/2012

The beach is the perfect place to read, and in June, I was able to spend two weeks of blissful sun ray soaking, sandy toe stroking, gentle surf sounding, reading time. I even broke my personal reading record: five books in two weeks. As you can imagine, it was hard to leave that perfect reading environment behind.

Each day, after diving in to a good book for a couple hours at a time, when I finally came up for air, I did some people watching on the beach. And, nosey gal that I am, I took a peak at what they were reading. Mainly, paperbacks. Yes, there were Kindles and Nooks (I saw three of one and two of the other on the first day), and a spattering of hardcover books (three throughout the week), but by and large, beachers were reading paperbacks in every genre.

I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask someone. Well, okay, a few someones that had fatefully unfolded their chairs near mine.

Rachel from Virgina, reading Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, told me she owns a Kindle, but would never bring it to the beach because of the sand. “Even if you don’t drop it, there’ll be sand on your hands when you’re touching the screen.” She said a paperback is lower risk and just as satisfying.

Mark from N. Carolina, reading The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal, sitting next to Maggie with a Nook reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, said a paperback felt better. “The sun warms the pages. It feels good. Better than that machine she’s got there.”

Maggie, on the other hand, was all for portability. “I got too much to lug around as it is. And this thing holds an entire library.”

Finally, Carla from S. Carolina reading Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks, said, “I’ve always brought a new paperback to the beach, ever since I was a kid. I pass them around when I’m done and someone hands me off another. The condo I’m staying at has a bunch and you can tell they’ve been well read. It’s recycling.”

So there you have it. My completely non random non statistical sample of the books and book format people read on the beach. And me? I was one of the three with a hardback book. Dust jackets repel sand as well as dust.

How about you? What do you bring to the beach?

Photo © Alex Bramwell

Recently, I finished watching the second season of the Anime series “Black Butler” and I absolutely despised the end. I wish I’d stopped watching at the end of season one. Both the protagonist and the antagonist (who is completely likable, he does battle with utensils and makes a great cup of tea) had “the worst thing that could possibly happen” to them and that’s when the story ended. I was left with HUH?! WHY DID THEY END IT LIKE THAT? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! Yes, I know, it’s a passionate response, but when you fall for wonderfully deep dimensional characters, you develop certain expectations.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like my heroes (or anti-heroes) to overcome the grand obstacle at the end. Otherwise, what’s the point of the build up all along the way? Yes, it’s true, real life has a nasty habit of kicking you down, but in the books I read and the movies I see, I want at least a sliver of hope. Call it the Hollywood ending if you like, but that’s what I want. It’s the reason I gravitate to the middle grade and young adult genres. They usually end, you know, sorta happy.

My mother feels the same way about Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Series. She had to call me up to tell me when she finished it so she could rant about how dissatisfied she was about the end. Her words went something like this, “Oh, Karin, it was awful. Just awful. He (the author) completely ran out of steam and the whole series just ended.” She’d spent her money, mostly she spent her time, and she wanted a payoff at the end.

I’m waiting for her to finish the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy to see what she thinks about that ending. No spoilers here, but I wish I’d stopped reading after book two . . .

So when one of the women who is in my writing critique group who read my recently finished WIP said something to the effect of “Please, please change the ending,” I took her very seriously. And I changed it.

Yes, I write for me, but more importantly, I write for readers, and my desire is for them to be satisfied when they get to The End. I know I can’t please everyone. I’ve learned that after years of teaching: some students will love you, some student will hate you, most fall somewhere in the middle. But in this age of e-books, print on demand, and increased writer/reader social interaction, maybe in the future we’ll have more “pick the ending you want to read.” Elle Lothlorien did it with her book “Sleeping Beauty.” Will we see more of this? Should we?

PS: I’m reading the Black Butler Manga now. I’ve heard the storyline goes in a different direction than the Anime series!

Photo © Redbaron

It’s fun to see how excited students get about Spring Break. Some will take a trip some place warm (Florida was a hot spot again this year), some will sleep (I can tell cause they come back without the dark circles under their eyes), and some, will cram the first half of the semester’s homework into a marathon “catch-up” session.

My son spends the week living in his pajamas. My daughters, their Spring Break is never the same week as mine and they are too young to stay at home by themselves, hang out with their grandparents. We affectionately call it “Nana Camp”. Mornings at the playground and afternoons crafting fill their days.

And here’s the scoop–I dig Spring Break too! This year, I went to my favorite beach and the top five things I did (in order):

1) Wrote

2) Slept

3) Wrote on the Beach

4) Slept on the Beach

5) Walked on the beach, Watched other people on the beach, Read, Took long showers, Played Words with Friends,  Watched TV, Ate, Talked, Swam, Visited, Shopped, Photographed the beach, Smiled.

Yep, kids of all ages enjoy Spring Break.

Photograph by K. E. Blaski 2012

Back in 2010, I posted an article about how to come up with new story ideas (read archive here) and managed to generate my own story: what would happen if your dryer really was a portal to another time or place? And what if it decided to take more than the occasional sock?

I wrote the story during the summer of 2011 and it found a home today at Darker, a new online magazine, edited by Robert MacAnthony. Check it out here when you get a chance and let me know what you think.

Photo © Igor Korionov

There, I’ve said it. I struggle to compose on the keyboard. I cannot plot on the keyboard. I spend more time deleting than creating on the keyboard. Staring at a blank page on a computer screen = no. Staring at a lined legal notepad = YES! Call it what you will, “strange quirky writer refuses to get with the times.” Old-fashioned, and change-adverse. Like a baseball pitcher who refuses to change his underwear or else spoil his winning streak. Well, maybe not quite like that.

I write with a pen, on legal pads, usually in bed, and always in cursive (I know, a dying art I’ve read). It’s the way my brain has always worked. Studying for exams in school, I would rewrite my notes, heck I’d rewrite the textbook if I found the time. My brain has a connection to my hand, my hand to the pen, the pen to the paper.

I judge my progress not by a word count at the bottom of the screen but by how many pens run out of ink (one so far on CURSED, four on CHOSEN SOUL, three on HOPELIGHT) and how many notepads I can fill (lots).

If it matters, I do appreciate the trees that have been felled in pursuit of my dreams of a college education and a career as a writer.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Macbook. Truly I do. But my computer is all about work: creating syllabi and grading electronic assignments and checking e-mail (couple hundred per day) and oh yes, editing. Let’s not forget editing. My scrawled notes have to end up in the computer some time, so the first round of edits happens while I’m typing them in, making the second round easier. In theory anyway.

And lets not forget that Macbook is also a gateway to the greatest time-suck of the universe: the internet. The glowing apple beckons me to Facebook, blog links of the world, Ebay, Twitter, Goodreads, and yes, Wikipedia. I also have an IPad now, which I can use to kill a good hour throwing a diverse array of birds at snorting green pig heads.

Hiding my electronic devices so I can compose on paper works for me. Maybe it will work for you. Give it a try some time. All you need is a good pen . . . some lined paper . . . a quiet room. Cat curled at your feet is optional.

My family and I return to our annual argument around this time of year: what are the best monsters of all time. Today, in the spirit of the season, I present my case for Zombies. Let’s see if you agree with me.

Counting down, I’ll start with reason #10…

When your mother/partner/child turns on you like a rabid dog and starts to eat you, that’s scary. When the people you’re emotionally and physically closest to, who you’ve shared your life with, protected, loved, and helped raise, think nothing of ripping open your abdomen and eating your entrails, that’s scary. When threats, pleading and/or squealing for your life is futile against your loved ones, who are hell-bent on EATING you, that’s SCARY.

#9. Cannibalism is DISGUSTING and morbidly fascinating at the same time. Did you read Alive by Piers Paul Read or any of the numerous books about the Donner party? I rest my case.

#8. Zombies are UGLY. Maybe not at first, but give them a couple days in the hot sun and well, dead flesh will rot and it’s not pretty when it does. Add on festering wounds and untreated injuries, and it’s hard to find residual human cuteness. Maybe around the eyes? That shiny white smile? Nope.

#7. Zombies travel in PACKS. You can’t fool yourself into thinking, oh, there’s only one or two, I can take them down. Cause, there’s always more around the corner, and more, and more.

#6. Zombies MOAN, but even worse, when they eat you they make those CHEWING and SWALLOWING noises�

What do the following titles have in common:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins,  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

They’ve all been challenged, moved to the “restricted section” or out and out banned from schools and public libraries. Notice some of the newer titles listed above? Yeah, that’s because censorship happens today, right in your own community.

“According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were at least 348 in 2010; the ALA estimates that 70 to 80 percent are never reported.”

This directly from the ALA website:

Over the past ten years, American libraries were faced with 4,660 challenges.

1,536 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;

1,231 challenges due to “offensive language”;977 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;

553 challenges due to “violence”

370 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 121 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 304 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

1,720 of these challenges (approximately 37%) were in classrooms; 30% (or1,432) were in school libraries; 24% (or 1,119) took place in public libraries.There were 32 challenges to college classes; and 106 to academic libraries.  There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups.  The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 48%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% each).

Obviously, I wouldn’t read Catcher in the Rye to my 6 year old, but I sure wouldn’t keep you from having access to that book at your public library. Today is the beginning of banned books week, Sept. 24- Oct. 1. Jump on the official website at http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/ for lots of information. You can even participate in the Virtual Read Out, where you can upload up to a two minute video of you reading from one of your favorite banned books.

HAPPY READING!