Someone tweeted this YouTube video yesterday, which I then retweeted, but I can't let it rest there. I'll tell you why after you watch:

Click to view

Seattle columnist Dan Savage created the "It Gets Better Project" on YouTube as a place for gay, lesbian, bi or trans adults to share their stories with teens, to help gay, lesbian, bi or trans teens understand that ( Read more... )

I should be clickety-clicking away on my wip, but I am compelled to take time to post about the Missouri minister's challenge to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. I cannot tell you how troubling it is, first that the rape scenes, acts of violence against a young woman, would be categorized as soft pornography, second that a book that encourages young ( Read more... )

Random Thing 1

saraharonson  says to "Celebrate Everything!" Sarah knows what she's talking about, so when I finished my first draft of StT, I celebrated. The celebration included ordering some photos of the person who inspired this novel.

The  photos arrived in Monday's mail and I turned at least momentarily into a squeegirl:


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1. Working with creative people who encourage box-jumping and demolishing. I'm lucky enough to teach as an adjunct at Champlain College, where a) I am treated like a member of the faculty, not a slavey and 2) where experiments in cross-disciplinary and real-world/school are encouraged.

2. Lunch was delicious today--inspired by angie_frazier  I put together an ( Read more... )

1. Like so many others, I'm grateful Prop 8 has been defeated. From the Irish, to women, to blacks, to gays, to... this country has been about expanding civil rights. It's "liberty and justice for all," not liberty and justice for everyone like me. And I'm grateful that Judge Walker wrote the decision the way he did, as reported on Slate.com. It ( Read more... )

halseanderson's WFMAD prompt today asks us to describe a childhood memory.

Because I'm so engrossed in Super-ooper-duper Secret Project X I didn't follow the prompt, (wrote for multiple hours, adding 1500 words and being pleasantly surprised by one of the supporting characters. --Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving the process for this project.)

However, ( Read more... )

Unwind, by Neil Shusterman. Second place went to Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson and third to Sold by Patricia McCormick.

The real winners, though, are the high school students who read and vote. (To be eligible to vote they must have read 3 of the 15 books on the year's list.) Rutland High School had 114 students vote! Yay Rutland!

I've been on the ( Read more... )

Hoo boy, are there things to be thankful for today!

1. Revisions on SPIDER FINGERS have all been entered! This was my one day to write this week. (I had hoped to have time yesterday, but it got more complicated than it looked on paper, so I only had three hours between arriving home from one meeting and going out to another. I used the time to get ( Read more... )

While the spaghetti cooks for my lunch so I can pack and get out the door to the fall League of Vermont Writers meeting, let's see if I can come up with Five Things.

1. jonowrimo is keeping me on task--Thanks, Jo!

2. halseanderson  's words about not volunteering give me the mental support I need--so many people think that because I am a writer and community reporter I ( Read more... )

I minimized my computer time today because of the shoulder thing
and instead
I read

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