I have this bizarre weird fangurl/life connection with Tori Amos.
First, her music is beyond ab-fab…. she is one of my favorite, favorite musicians. And she has a new album which I just bought and you might want to take a listen to: American Doll Posse. Wikipedia has some interesting stuff about the new album.
Second, she and I have all this synchonicities in our lives: both preacher’s kids, both huge supporters of sexual assault survivors (she is the driving force behind RAINN), both feminists of the same generation and proud of it, both huge Gaiman fans, and on and on.
Third… well, I just think she is a gift from the Gods. I am going to listen to Tori fly flying through the air today.
I totally thought you said Tori Spelling.
Wha?
Need more coffee.
Yes, Tori Amos is beyond gifted.
yeah she’s amazing! i listen to her on a loop when i’m painting. great voice and amazing lyrics
I love Tori, too. I was just listening to her on my I-pod mini while I slogged through my run. Thanks for the heads up on the new album. I am too buried to know anything these days.
Hehehe, I just re-watched the episode that your icon is from the other day.
it’s a great one haha. i absolutely love the west wing. the earlier seasons are definitely my favourite
PK!
Another preacher’s kid here! That reminds me, I don’t think I ever told you, but Catalyst totally felt like certain bits of my life stuck into a book – though thankfully not the whole tragic part! But the whole preacher’s kid, good/bad “Kate” thoughts, and being named Kathleen, yup, that’s me! And apparently exhaustion makes me use a lot of exclamation points…
The West Wing Rocks. CJ more so. 🙂
I listened to Tori’s new album and didn’t really connect with it. Maybe I should give it another try, since you so glowingly recommend it. I was disappointed with The Beekeeper, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up for this one. Loved Scarlet’s Walk, though! So warm!
I love Tori, too! I couldn’t stop listening to Black Dove (January) from From the Choirgirl Hotel recently. Can’t figure out what it means, exactly, but I love it!!
The New Yorker did a piece on both Tori Amos’s and Bjork’s recent releases. The author stated, “Amos fans who have complained that they haven’t heard from ‘the real Tori’ in a while will be relieved.” I’m curious if that’s true.
Laurie, have you seen this: http://maureenjohnson.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-am-very-dangerous-person.html ?
http://pics.livejournal.com/bagelwhore/pic/0001b30w
http://pics.livejournal.com/bagelwhore/pic/0001ceak
http://pics.livejournal.com/bagelwhore/pic/0001d5ht
this are pics of the mural i painted in the art room of my school
i knew no other way to show you these
i apologize
If Tori were single and into girls I’d so ask her to marry me. Ok, not really, cause I’ve never met her and that would be weird. But she kicks some ass. Attending one of her concerts is on my list of things to do before I die.
*some major ass.
Have you seen any of her music videos? Fan-fucking-tastic. Spark & Hey Jupiter are my favorites, but God, Crucify, Silent All These Years, & Jackie’s Strength are worth checking out as well.
Hi Laurie.
I completely understand if you’re too busy to answer, but recently, I’ve gotten into a debate with someone on one of my writing boards, who took issue with Twisted because she thinks that middle school students are the only ones who read YA, and that, therefore, the book is too “mature” for the young adult market. I love the book- have raved about it on every online community I belong to, in my blog, etc. I’m in my early twenties, and heard about the book from the blog of another college student, and I was wondering- if you had time- if you could talk a little about your sense of your audience- and particularly, your take (based on fanmail, your blog, etc) on whether high school and/or college students read your YA books. Based on my perusal of facebook, Myspace, and the like (not to mention the amazon reviews of speak), I’ve been arguing that they do, but it would help to hear it from the horse’s mouth!
I’d also open this up to anyone else who reads this blog and happens to see this comment, if anyone has a perspective to share.
Thanks.
Jen
Had you seen this?
Hi Laurie,
You signed my copy of _Speak_ at the river’s end. (I’m the chemist who moved here from Ohio a few years back.) Thanks again for taking the time to do that.
Anyway, I’ve been reading my old hometown newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, since they became available on line. And in the last week, there’s been a rather horrifying incident that’s caught the media’s attention. Short story: star athlete in a high school is charged with raping another student, yet he’s been permitted to continue to attend school alongside the student he’s charged with raping. You can read the stories in the paper at:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07123/783015-57.stm
and
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07124/783370-57.stm
The catch is that apparently the law doesn’t provide any jurisdiction over the school district and therefore a judge cannot keep a student out of school on a criminal matter. The only way to keep these two students separated during the school day would be for the victim to file a separate motion for a civil suit.
Rather horrifying, isn’t it?
Anyway, you can e-mail me directly at
hellmanm AT cubiccommunications DOT com
if you’d like. But please don’t post this comment without taking out the first paragraph, this last one, and my name, as they aren’t particularly relevant to anyone but you.
Melissa (one L, two Ss, and you are one of the few people who has guessed right on the first try!)
Growling
OK – this is a pet peeve of mine. Forgive me if my tone is intemperate.
“Children’s” literature is subdivided is several age categories: Middle-grade novels are written for kids in a broad from roughly 4th – 8th grade. Some middle grade books are appropriate for all of those kids. Others are aimed at the younger end, still others squarely at those kids in middle school. The ALA recognizes middle-grade novels as being for readers up to age 14; this is the age-definition of the Newbery Award.
Young Adult literature is similarly broad and has interior subdivisions. Some books, like SPEAK, are written for and appropriate for all kids in 8th grade and older. (I think SPEAK is very fitting for some 7th graders, but there are many who are not ready for it. I see it as a parent’s responsibility to stay on top of this.) The ALA’s Printz Award is given for novels written for kids 12 years and older.
But anyone who has made it to age 18 knows that the issues facing younger teens are very different in scope and consequence than those facing older teens. So some of us write with a specific older teen audience in mind. I know I do. CATALYST is for older teens. So is TWISTED. No 12-year-olds will be harmed by reading the book, but they’ll get much more from the story if they read it at 15. Or 20. And let’s not forget the note that I had the publisher put on the front page of the book pointing out that TWISTED “is not a book for children.”
I am bewildered that the person you mention only thinks that middle-grade kids read YA. That is not my experience at all. In fact, it is the exact opposite of my experience. Most of the feedback I’ve had has been from readers who are 10th grade – at the youngest. Many, many of my readers are in college, or recently graduated. If I had to come up with an average age, I would put it at 18 or 19.
In fact, I had a discussion last week about the phenomena I’m seeing of YA books that cross over to “adult” readers (older than 21). We will be seeing more and more of this, I predict.
I strongly urge the person you are communicating with to do more research.
Thanks for asking for my opinion about this. I appreciate it.
hi! i’m so excited to see you in just a few days! i was wondering if whenever you have time, could you write me a letter of recommendation for a scholarship for the National Federation for the Blind. if you don’t have time i understand, but i would really appreciate it if you could do it. let me know. =) ♥
p.s. i’m planning to get american doll posse. thanks for mentioning tori amos; i was thinking about getting one of her CDs but i wasn’t sure which one to get. now i know to get american doll posse. i read some things about it online and it does look like a good music choice.
Hoooooly crap
Just a minute after I sent a message to your myspace, I came here and now I’m even more amazed! Knowing your a fellow Amos fan as well just makes you even cooler. 😀
-Bekka