I’ve always been a fan of the quote “We are all made of stardust.” I don’t know who coined it, if it was an astronomer or a poet. I find myself wanting to attribute it to Carl Sagan or Neil Gaiman. Regardless of its author, the phrase has always had a lovely and calming effect for me. It’s…
“For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is ‘I didn’t get enough sleep.’ The next one is ‘I don’t have enough time.’ Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of…
Earlier this week I posted the secrets and stories shared at my book launch as part of the #ShareYourSecrets initiative. As I was working on this blog post another similar campaign crossed my desk. It’s the Out of Silence, Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 campaign. Once again a taboo topic that is shrouded…
All We Left Behind is a love story about two teenagers who don’t want to share their secrets, only to discover that true intimacy requires vulnerability and facing their shame. Silence is a strong theme in the novel and at my book launch I talked a lot about the power silence can have over us. Silence…
Twitter exploded yesterday after the announcement of Scott Bergstrom’s 6-figure deal for his debut YA novel The Cruelty. The backlash came in reaction to his comments in his interview with Publisher’s Weekly, which YA authors have categorized as “misogynistic” and “bashing the YA industry.” The main quotes that lit this twitter fire and birthed the…
Fraaaaaaaaaaaack! This sh@#! is scary! That’s the reaction I had when I read the following page of notes, posted on Leonie Dawson blog and taken from the “Raising Girls” seminar she attended. This is exactly why we need books that show honest teen relationships. This is exactly why we shouldn’t shy away from complex (and often taboo) topics like sex…
If you haven’t heard, author Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak is once again under the knife of censorship. In particular, Wesley Scroggins an associate professor at Missouri State University is touting the book as pornography. Anderson is rallying her troops and asking bloggers, tweeters, writers, teens, and all who love this book to share the…