Bad books!

Have you read any of these bad books?

- The Joy Luck Club
- The Name of the Rose
- The Pillars of the Earth
- The Hot Zone
- The Giver
- The Things They Carried

Those are just few of the "bad books" listed by PABBIS.org - Parents Against Bad Books in Schools.  [Full disclosure:  I think of it as Pablum.org].  People have gone through books and looked for any instance of sex, sexual innuendo, violence, swear words, and mentions of God that aren't prayer.  And then these books, with a handful of cherry-picked words or sentences, are labeled "bad."

In case you were wondering how The Hot Zone, a non-fiction book warning about exotic viruses, ended up on the naughty list, here's what's wrong with it, according to PABBIS:  "Has graphic detailed descriptions of the effects of the Ebola virus on the body [really?  in a book about viruses?  How dare they!];  4 uses of the f-word, 16 uses of the s-word, 4 SOB’s, 1 bastard, 2 Christ’s/Holy Christ’s, 1 GD; Brief mentions of pimps/prostitutes, how someone’s [testicles] swelled up “like a blue monkey’ and a statement of how a man infected his wife through sexual intercourse."

The whole idea makes my blood boil.  Check it out here:  http://pabbis.org

To learn more about book banning, click here.

What world are these folks living in?  In my world, a girl who goes to my daughter's school was given a box of 300 condoms by her mother for her 14th birthday.  An f word or an s word or GD is not going to ruin kid's ears (or eyes).

In the Bible, Lot had sex with his daughters.  Or how about "Your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle"?  And don't get me started on all the violence in the Bible.

Buy a gift (even for yourself) and help Bridget kick cancer!

This is Bridgett Zinn and Barrett Dowell in February, 2009, the day they got married at Emanuel Hospital in Portland.  It was at Emanuel that Bridget was diagnosed with Stage Four colon cancer.  I had met Bridget and Barrett just a few months before, at an SCWBI meeting

After receiving treatment in Portland for 18 months, Bridget and Barrett are now traveling to Phoenix one week every month for innovative treatment at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Not all of their costs for this promising treatment are covered by insurance. Bridget and Barrett's friends and family are rallying to help them pay the bills so that they can focus on Bridget's health and kick cancer. Artists, authors, and other friends and acquaintances have donated items in the spirit of love and hope.

The Bridget Kicks Cancer: Season of Love and Hope Auction is off and running. Between now and December 4, you can place a bid on 114 items and services. Get a unique gift for a loved one (or even yourself) and do a good deed at the same time.

There's:
- Jewelry
- Portrait photography
- Tutoring
- Personalized animation
- A beach house rental
- Original artwork
- Professional manuscript critiques (including one by me!)
- and of course books, books, and more books, most signed by the authors!

We've already raised about $2,500 for Bridget.  It's amazing what love can do.

To view and bid on items, visit the auction site at http://bit.ly/bridgetauction and follow the instructions for bidding.

The action ID is: bridgetkicks and the password is: cancer. (People will need this information if you send them a link to a specific item, or if they use any link other than the one above.)

Another reason to hate James Frey

I already disliked James Frey for screwing up books being a regular feature of Oprah show.  Now there’s a new reason to hate him:  he’s got a work-for-hire fiction factory to churn out YA books - and it has to be read about to be believed.

In a story in New York Magazine, a MFA graduate who was considered for one of the projects Frey was offering explains the terms:  “This is the essence of the terms being offered by Frey’s company Full Fathom Five: In exchange for delivering a finished book within a set number of months, the writer would receive $250 (some contracts allowed for another $250 upon completion), along with a percentage of all revenue generated by the project, including television, film, and merchandise rights—30 percent if the idea was originally Frey’s, 40 percent if it was originally the writer’s. The writer would be financially responsible for any legal action brought against the book but would not own its copyright. Full Fathom Five could use the writer’s name or a pseudonym without his or her permission, even if the writer was no longer involved with the series, and the company could substitute the writer’s full name for a pseudonym at any point in the future. The writer was forbidden from signing contracts that would “conflict” with the project; what that might be wasn’t specified. The writer would not have approval over his or her publicity, pictures, or biographical materials. There was a $50,000 penalty if the writer publicly admitted to working with Full Fathom Five without permission.”

This is a pretty raw deal.

Read more about Frey’s scheme here.

And YA author Maureen Johnson explains in more detail why this is so wrong.

Bridget still needs you!

Remember Bridget, this beautiful young writer who lives in Portland? Three things happened to Bridget in 2009:
1. She got a two-book offer for her young adult novel.
2. She got married.
3. She found out she has Stage Four colon cancer.

Here is the latest from Bridget:

“Everyone must be thinking, Bridget, come on, aren’t you done having cancer yet? I am totally with you. I'm ready to move on to something more fun. But cancer doesn't seem to be quite done with me yet.

“Over the past year and a half, I've had chemotherapy every two weeks, almost non-stop. There was that little "vacation" for surgery. I've been over a range of treatments. On some of the less harsh treatments (chemo is no joke-less harsh does NOT mean easy), we've had glorious little stretches of a few days, sometimes even a week at a time when we could almost pretend that things were normal. And there were some chemo regimes that didn't really give us much of that. But we found joy where we could and Barrett and I are talented at finding joy. The “Summer of Love” celebrations back in Wisconsin, all of the book signings, fifth Fridays and social gatherings we were able to attend back home in Portland were extraordinary high points.

“But we reached a stopping point with my treatments at OHSU--we had a setback but no real options left to turn to in Portland. So we decided to try Cancer Treatment Center of America in Phoenix, AZ. They showed us a good eight options to try and that was just the beginning. They are committed to providing options for their patients and their motto is "care that never quits" so they never give up on you. This, along with their survival rate for people with my type of cancer being statistically higher than the national average, really helped nudge us in this direction. This first treatment was a little rougher on me than they expected but they're going to help us continue to plan and move forward with something that works on the cancer and allows us as many of those glorious stretches of normalcy as possible.”

How can you help? It’s simple. In the spirit of Bridget and Barrett’s Summer of Love,” let’s keep it going with an online auction, “Bridget Kicks Cancer: Season of Love and Hope,” from November 22-December 4. Please consider donating an item to the auction (and bidding on items once the auction is underway). Items that have been popular and successful in previous auctions include:

· Author and writer services: critiques, help with social networking
· Autographed books
· Handcrafted jewelry
· Local services: wine tours, house rentals, wine packages
· Original Artwork: perhaps design an 8 x 10 -12 x 24 around the theme of “Season of Love” (paying homage to Bridget’s “Summer of Love”), offer to commission a piece of art, or donate an existing piece
· Handcrafted greeting cards

I am donating a manuscript critique that would be perfect for anyone who writes YA, mysteries, and/or thrillers.

If you would like to donate, go to http://bit.ly/bridgetkickscancer. Donations must be in by November 19, 2010.

Items will be listed in an online auction at http://32auctions.com/ beginning Monday, November 22, 2010. Donors will be responsible for shipping their item to the winning bidder. Since this is around the holidays, send items as soon as possible after we notify you that payment has been received. Thank you!

If you would like to follow Bridget's blog or just find out more about her, you can do so at http://www.bridgetzinn.com.

How long before someone stages an intervention?

My Kajukenbo class is the most challenging - and yet fun - physical activity I have ever done. I grew up uncoordinated, the girl who pulled straight As except for Cs in PE. I could not dance to Winchester Cathedral. I nearly broke my knee on the pommel horse. I was so skinny that I sank rather than floated in swimming. I once managed to swing the bat in front of the softball I had just hit, so it bounced back and hit me in the eye.

One of things we do in class is practice getting out of all kinds of holds and grabs. I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before someone hands me a card for a women's shelter.



Last night the Kajukenbo instructor tried to get me over my fear of sparring by putting me in the bullring with every other person in class - one after another.

I actually landed a few punches and kicks. Probably wincing the whole time.

But watch out world, I'm learning. Better not mess with me.

Anyone can write a book! (with some help)

New York Post's Page Six has an interview with the ever-articulate Hilary Duff.

"“I wrote a book, so it goes to show you that anyone can write a book if they have an idea,” says Hilary Duff, who’s not exactly “anyone.” The newlywed, 23-year-old pop singer, “Lizzie McGuire” star and fashion designer just came out with “Elixir” (Simon & Schuster), the young-adult novel she wrote with Elise Allen."

Yup! All she needed was an idea and someone to turn that idea into a book!

Of The Hunger Games, she says, "I’m going to do a terrible job of explaining it because, like my book, it’s very complicated."

About Eclipse, she says, "it’s so genius."

Click here to be inspired.

Dead parents in books for teens

Editor - and author herself - Leila Sales takes issue with the number of dead parents in books for teens.

For the record, I’ve had written teen with parents (Shock Point), teen with older adoptive parents (Torched), and one dead mom (Girl, Stolen. The dead mom is barely mentioned - the step-mom gets more air time. And she’s nice) (although I guess another character has a mom who took off).

She thinks writers who create characters with dead parents are guilty of lazy writing - because they don’t have to show their relationships, because it creates instant empathy, and third because grownups are boring (although I don’t quite follow why that is lazy writing).

And I think she undermines her own argument when she says, “Adult characters put a damper on the kid-only adventures that make children's books fun. But there are solutions to this problem other than just killing them off. Set the book at boarding school, summer camp, or another parent-free zone. Create parents who are clueless or uninvolved, à la Harriet the Spy. Fade their role into the background.” This is the only part that bolsters her argument about laziness. “Write parents who actually have something to contribute to the story, who aren't just a barrier between the kids and fun.”

I think one reason there are so many dead parents is because the teens need to fix things on their own. No parent or parents means one less person to interfere.

You can read her article here.

What do you think about the issue of dead parents?