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Old Week Ends, New Week Begins

Banned Books Week is over. I wish I could report on the status of Wes Scroggins’ challenge in Republic, MO, but I have not been able to get official notification of  what is going on. There is a school board meeting later this month. Perhaps they’ll post something in the minutes.

There are a few more links I’d like to share with you. Popmatters ran a long interview with me. And Random House posted the wisdom about censorship from four giants in children’s literature: Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, and Lois Lowry.

Now that Banned Books Week is over, many folks will be tempted to tuck the issue away in a small box and revisit it again next year. I understand. It’s hard to keep outrage boiling on high 24/7. I’ve spent the last two weeks responding to this challenge and my other work is sorely overdue for attention.

The books for the libraries in MO will be shipped tomorrow. I will continue to try to contact the superintendent of the district. I haven’t contacted any of the district’s teachers because I figured they were already busy enough with their students and the last thing they needed was me poking my nose into things. It seemed more appropriate to keep my communications with the district limited to the superintendent. Although that sure isn’t working because all my emails have returned as undeliverable (yes, I called the district office to double-check the address) and he hasn’t responded to my letters.

I think the best place for those of you who want to continue the discussion about censorship and First Amendment issues is over at SpeakLoudly.org. I’ll continue to speak up both here and there.

At the same time, I need to turn some of my attention to FORGE. I leave on the book tour in 11 days!!! ARGH!! Must find new tour pants!!

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You Speak Loudly & I Love Mick Foley

Yesterday, my publisher decided to speak loudly about the MO banning attempt by taking out a full-page ad in the main section of the New York Times. My dad bought nearly every copy of the Times in Oswego County and cheerfully distributed them all day to friends, strangers, and everyone in between, pointing out this page:

Am I feeling totally supported, affirmed, appreciated, and loved right now? Yep! It is so exciting to see a publisher take such a strong stand supporting a book and its readers. Thank you, Uncle Penguin!

I still have not been able to discover the status of the three challenged books in Republic, MO. Have they officially been removed from the classroom? There are conflicting stories about this. When will the school board make a statement? Do you know?

Edited to add: I have written to Republic Superintendent Vern Minor asking for an update on the status of the books. He has not responded.

Students of the English Society at Missouri State University have spoken loudly. On Wednesday, the local TV station covered them writing quotes from banned books in chalk in front of the building where Wes Scroggins teaches.

 

Yesterday they read from Speak in front of his building, too. (photo credit: Gemma Bellhouse)

Thank you, good citizens of the English Society!

 

 

Missouri State officials told the local newspaper that Wes Scroggins, like all Americans, is entitled to his opinions and has the right to express them. The university told him, however, to stop using university resources, like his campus email account and office computer, for political candidates or positions.

The Guardian newspaper in England is covering Scroggins’ censorship attempt and highlighted the very moving blog post written by UK childrens’ author Lucy Coats, who, after 40 years of silence, spoke loudly about being sexually assaulted. And a French blogger spoke up about the whole mess. In French.

I have been spending hours every day reading blog posts and emails from Speak readers. I thank all of you for your support of the book, the First Amendment, and for telling your own stories about finding the courage to break the silence after being sexually assaulted. We are beginning to dissolve the shame and stigma that too many victims have traditionally felt. When victims speak loudly, the criminals who attacked them can no longer hide.

This has a lot to do with why I now love Mick Foley.

huggable!

 

 

 

Yeah, this Mick Foley, The Hardcore Legend. Professional wrestler and wonderful author.

 

 

Why? First of all, he is a huge Tori Amos fan, just like me. (If I ever get to meet her, I will squee and fangrrl as badly as I do when I am in the same room as Judy Blume.) Through his connection to Tori, Mick became involved in RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, Incest, National Network that she founded). He volunteers weekly for the RAINN hotline. In fact, he has joined RAINN’s National Leadership Council and taken on the fight against sexual violence. Mick donated half of his advance for his new book, COUNTDOWN TO LOCKDOWN, to RAINN. The other half was donated to ChildFund International to set up microloans and scholarships for victims of rape and their children in Sierra Leone.

Buy Mick’s book!!

I need to say thank you, also, for all the warm wishes that poured in after I posted about Thor, our new rescue dog. A few folks suggested that he might be a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog, which I had never heard of. He goes to the vet this afternoon, so maybe we’ll learn more about him then.


Thor speaks loudly, too.

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A Pause in Banned Books Week Coverage

Sit down. I have a story for you.

So we have a neurotic six-year-old German Shepherd. I generally refer to her as The Creature With Fangs. tho’ truth be told, she rarely uses them.

 

 

 

 

 

Isn’t she lovely?

 

 

 

 

We’ve known for a while now that she’s be a lot happier (and possibly less neurotic) if she had a buddy. (The chickens don’t count. She views them as snack food.)

We decided we needed a short-haired dog, maybe one of the breeds that provokes fewer allergic responses. Most importantly, the new dog would have to get along with The Creature With Fangs. But we are responsible adults here, very serious people. We knew that we should wait until after my book tour before we started looking for  the Companion Dog.

Seriously. We meant it. For real.

Driving back from Ft. Ticonderoga on Sunday, we stopped at a super-great grocery store in Saratoga Springs, Putnam Market. As I was getting back into the car, I noticed a brand new Kong ball laying next to the front tire. I looked around. There were no dogs in sight. The only people I could see looked like cat people.

I tossed the Kong ball in the car, figuring it would be a souvenir of our trip for The Creature With Fangs.

Tuesday morning, as I was getting ready for the arrival of my writer’s group, a dog showed up at our house. A funny-looking dog. Looked like he had been built from the spare parts of several different breeds. Made me think of a chimera or a hippogriff. He was scared and hungry so we fed him and gave him some water. He had a collar, but no ID. Looked to be about six months old.

When I crouched down to pet him, he leaned against my leg.

I fell in love.

“His name is Thor,” I told my husband. Why? Because that was the name that popped in my head.

“Don’t fall in love,” BH warned. (I did not tell him it was too late.)

BH made a lot of phone calls. Turns out that this dog’s owner had ‘sort of’ left him at a neighbor’s house and forgotten to pick him up. For a month. The owner was more than happy to have us take the dog off his hands; he wasn’t in a position to care for the dog properly, but really didn’t want to take the little guy to the pound. Props to him for that.

But before we could agree to take him, he had to pass a test. We introduced the ChimeraDog to our Creature With Fangs.

We held our breath.

Or rather, we inhaled, but didn’t have time to hold our breath because they both started wagging their tails and playing as if they’d been born in the same litter.

So we have a new resident in the Forest. After much speculation, we think he is cross between an Australian cattle dog and possibly a Rottweiler. I imagine the vet will be able to figure it out.

 

 

 

 

Treats? Did someone say "treats?"

 

 

The Creature With Fangs is a very happy Creature indeed.

 

 

 

Our family is a little bigger and life is even more topsy-turvy than usual around here. In the best possible way.

One more thing!

We found out what the dog’s original name was. Can you guess it?

Right. His original name was Thor. And he loves that stray Kong ball that I picked up in Saratoga.

::cues Twilight Show theme::

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The Community That Speaks and Listens

I baked on Monday night. It was a shocking event. When my kids were little, I used to bake a lot, but as life got busy, it slipped off the priority list. But the writer’s group was coming to my house on Tuesday, and I wanted to do something nice.

Why did I make banana bread and apple brown betty (and potato salad, which does not fit in the baking example, but also takes a lot of time)? Because they are my friends. They are are my community. Because sharing food is a ritual bonding that ties one person closer to another.

I wish I could bake for all of you. Because you are my community of people who love reading and writing. Because you are defending the First Amendment and making America a better place. Banana bread for everyone! Thank you!!

As we are at the half-way point in Banned Books Week, I hope you’ll indulge me in a few more links.

Check out the Google map of Banned Books.

The New York Times Papercuts blog looked at the role that Twitter has played in responding to the Republic, MO man’s  attempt to ban Speak. AOL.com News ran an editorial about the banning. And Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic mentioned it briefly a few days ago.

Risha Mullins (who endured a horrific banning episode last year in Kentucky) has posted an interview with me about my book TWISTED.

The LA Times weighs in on Banned Books Week.

SpeakLoudly.org is fast becoming the go-to place for discussion about censorship issues. Take a peek!

Remember how I was running around like a crazy person last week? Here are a few pics from that trip.

 

This is Marion Lloyd of Marion Lloyd Books, a division of Scholastic UK. She is my new British publisher. What’s that she’s holding? The UK edition of Wintergirls. I believe it goes on sale in January, 2011.

 

 

 

Here is the only picture ever taken of me and my agent, Amy Berkower of Writer’s House. We call her Saint Amy at our house.

(note: I published my first 7 books without an agent, including Speak and Fever 1793!)

 

 

In other exciting news, we have a new dog in our life. He appeared most serendipitously and has succeeded in charming all of us, including The Creature With Fangs. More details and pictures tomorrow, I promise.

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Lightning Round

 

The clock is ticking ever closer to the start of the FORGE book tour, and the available hours to get everything done by then are becoming perilously few.

So I am going to turn this blog into a lightning round.

Ready?

Last week: the Scroggins book banning kerfuffle. Lots of interviews. Said “Scroggins” a lot. This made me think of Charles Dickens. That was nice. Quick trip to Denver to talk to independent bookstore folks there.

Weekend: Hung out with Revolutionary War geeks at Ft. Ticonderoga. Drank spruce beer.

This week: waiting for Magic 8 Ball to deliver verdict on possibility of writing time. Hoping I don’t get BH’s cold. Hoping that the chickens lay eggs soon. Writer’s group tomorrow. Possibility of hibernation after that.

Ideas for you:

1. Join the Speak Loudly Community! (Many, many thanks to David Gill and Paul Hankins for setting it up!)

2. Add a SpeakLoudly Twibbon to your Twitter or Facebook profile pic.

3. Contact bookavore if you need an incredibly good copy editor for academic papers or fiction writing.

4. If you live in Republic, MO, drop me a line and let me know how the Scroggins’ banning attempt is proceeding.

Whew!

Questions?