Summer Blog Blast Tour – in which I am interviewed!

There are a lot of terrific bloggers in the kidlit corner of the blogosphere. This week they have coordinated their efforts into the Summer Blog Blast Tour 2008. Little Willow has the entire schedule.

Kelly Fineman was kind enough to ask me to take part. So… warm up your linkety-link finger, because:

Step One – Kelly has posted an extensive review of INDEPENDENT DAMES.

Step Two – Yesterday she gave a preview of all the folks she’s interviewing this week.

Step Three! Today (drum roll, please) you can read her interview with me; in which I ponder writing history and historical fiction for kids, spill the secrets about the writing process of DAMES, and answer the age-old question: “cheese or chocolate?”.

Thank you very much, Kelly and organizers of SBBT!

8 Replies to “Summer Blog Blast Tour – in which I am interviewed!”

  1. After reading your description of DAMES, (11,000 words), it strikes me you’ve got a book that will work well for some reluctant high school readers. Plus “interesting information presented in an interesting/interested tone” sounds a lot to me like Sarah Vowell’s works, which I highly recommend for those advanced students who can’t get enough of the Daily Show.

    Hurray for everyone who makes history fun!

  2. HELP ME PLEASE!!!! PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE

    Hi, my english class is reading the book “Speak” and it seriously touched me. I’m going through some problems right now and I was hoping you could give me your advice because I feel safe telling you.

    My dad is horrible. In public he’s super funny and lovable but he’s racist. But when he’s at home he’s terrible. He always yells at me. Calls me stupid and retarded. Messes around with me (playful fighting). He yells at me because I flinch too, and i flinch because of the play fighting. my mom is on my side most of the time. but my dad is the ruling leader. only what he says goes. It sucks big time.

    I’ve become depressed this year. It started in October. I would hide it behind a fake mask of happiness so no one would know, and it worked unfortunetly. Secretly inside I wanted someone to ask wat was wrong but no one did. It was like i wanted my life to be a tv show but it wasnt, thats not possible. So i would have depression episodes, sometimes it got so bad i tried to jump out the window. i would even hit my head against the wall so someone would ask. I was that desperate, but no one ever did. I even told one of my friends about it but she didn’t even care, She was never there for me. I think that’s y i dont want to tell any one.

    So i didnt have any depression episodes for like 3 months but then this month they came back but not very powerful. I pretty much stopped talking to my parents. On sunday (yesterday) in the morning, i was in bed cuz i was just exhausted from everything. I somehow got my dad mad and I don’t even know how. and he like exploded. then my mom comes in and starts freaking out at me. and Pulling on al my strings (theoretically speaking) and saying that my dad is forbidding her to feed me, making me walk to school, pretty much making me live on my own but in their house. I got mad, but in a way it didn’t effect me. I got the energy to tear down my room. Remove all traces of happiness and joy and memory. So now im in a room, that isn’t mine anymore. Its pretty much vacant. I have music constantly pounding so I won’t have to face my parents because they hate me. My mom tries to be nice but if she cared she would ask wat was wrong or would actually get involved in my life, maybe feed me.

    In my past i also ran away 2 times. My parents didn’t even try to stop me. Once i ran outside at night, my dad came outside like 2 min after and i felt emotional so i tried to hug him. I grabbed my arm and pushed me toward the house. not even tyrin to hug me at all and yellin at me to stop crying. After that i lost all interest in my parents kinda explains me now.

    My emotions jump around so it gets me really confused. Around my friends and at school i’m all happy and the opposite of sad. Sometimes a flicker of sadness comes into mind but disappears before i remember anything. When i walk home all happiness falls out of me and shatters to the ground. I’m just a zombie when i enter my house. I’m just, well, blah. I feel sorry for my mom, because im such a waste of a daughter. I’m confused because I dont like it when she tries to talk to me really but, i want her to be like my friend and the perfect mother u picture. I cant pick one. Im confused. I want my dad out of my life. I need answers. I feel like my life is falling apart, i have two different personalities and its like when im by myself i think of all these fantasies of wat i’ll do the next day like actually tell someone about wats goin on, but in the morning i choke and dont even try. When i walk through the school doors all emotions i was feelings evaporate. Today someone asked wat was wrong because i was like about to cry at lunch but i couldnt bring myself to tel them. I need someone to like corner me and force it out me. But they wont do that.

    Please help me,

    my e-mail is lovableweirdo101@aim.com
    notice that i spelled weirdo wrong so make sure u dont spell it right. Please im desprite. I need advice. this is the closest i’ll ever get to tellin someone wats wrong. I know its not good to keep emotions in, thats wat caused my meltdowns but i cant get them out except for when i blog them out (i just started so im not in my suicidal mode FOR NOW) I would really appreciate even the smallest of answers.

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