Vixenwriter

The winner of The Handmaid’s Tale is comment #5: Pam K!

The winner of Ann Aguirre’s Doubleblind is comment #11: Samantha

Ladies, please email me your mailing addresses and I’ll get the books your way!

How about a first amendment film festival? The ALA has a nifty page up with some great movies about censorship:

I noted that Fahrenheit 451 was on the list – one of my favorite Bradbury titles (another author who’s been targeted by the small minded censors for decades). I think Bradbury is brilliant. Fahrenheit was on my sophomore english reading list and I’ve read it another dozen times over the years.

I must say my personal favorite on that list is Inherit the Wind, about the Scopes Monkey trial – it’s a fabulous movie if you haven’t seen it yet.

Some other titles on the list: Cinema Paradiso, 1984 (the book is much better than the movie), Good Night and Good Luck and Guilty By Suspicion – I think we may do a mini film festival at my house next family movie day (though they might vote for Footloose instead of Inherit the Wind, LOL)

The link above will take you the page and you can check out all the great movies they’ve got up!

In keeping with the celebration this week, I’m giving away a copy of Hot for the Holidays – the new anthology with the ever so lovely Anya Bast’s novella within along with those of Lora Leigh, Angela Knight and Allyson James!

I’ll choose a winner at random from the comments at noon pacific tomorrow! What are some of your favorite, or not so favorite movies about censorship/book banning?

When I was growing up, the library was my refuge, it was my theme park, my day at the beach (though I had those too, LOL). My mom would drop me off at the Norwalk Public Library (and for those of you in Southern California, if you haven’t been there, it’s still standing, though I haven’t been there in many years) and I would spend four hours there that were gone in the blink of an eye to me.

I’d come out to the car with so many books I could barely walk and over the next two weeks I would read them all, many more than once and head back to get more.

My mom would look at the books I’d checked out, look them over and over the next weeks, I’d tell my parents about what I was reading. I remember discovering Susan Cooper’s the Dark is Rising and the rest of that series.

As I grew up, my parents never censored my reading material, but we did talk about what I read, something I’ve been able to do with my kids now and I must say I love that they trust me to share their feelings with. I love puzzling over things the characters did and why. As a writer now, I have a new perspective on this process, LOL, but it also feeds that part of me, that story brain part.

I suppose my larger point is – books FREE your mind. Books are not weapons of mass destruction, they are tools to build, they are spaceships, they are pirate vessels, race cars, the hollow of a tree where the squirrels live – whatever. And there’s nothing else in the world like books.

I’ve talked about Judy Blume in years past so I thought I’d talk about another book on the most challenged list for the 1990’s – Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The book is most often used in the higher high school grades, not to a seven year old who couldn’t understand the layers of this dystopian world where women able to breed are in short supply and they’ve been caught up by the government and renamed Handmaids – they are given to rich and influential families, wrapped in religious trappings and they breed, the child is taken and they are reassigned. (This happens to be in my top five most favorite books – I adore this book nearly as much as I adore Atwood for her fearless, intensely personal and intimate storytelling (Megan Hart has this intensity too).)

This is NOT a happy book. The protag is a woman whose life has been stolen from her. She had a family, she had a life until the troubles started. Now she has nothing but her working reproductive system. She is nothing but for that. She has no rights, she has no sense of self. She cannot move independently. Some handmaids are no more than whores as you can well imagine there will be people who use them for more than just that “holy union” to knock them up.

The book is meant to challenge the reader. There’s so much value in books like that. Whether you agree with them or not, it’s not the point (I had to read The Fountainhead and I don’t agree with a thing Rand says). The point is, teaching young people to take in information and to think critically about it. Critical thinking is a ridiculously important skill and if more people possessed it, we’d be in way less trouble than we are now.

High school literature courses are not only about having students read what they like, it’s about giving them tools to deal with information, giving them tools to understand there exists a wide variety of perspectives on the world and how to read them – even if you don’t agree, especially if you don’t agree. That’s what good literature does, it challenges. It’s OKAY not to agree with the book, agreement is not the point.

The extreme irony of course is that censorship if a major theme in the book – sigh.

We seem to have gotten to a place in our culture where people believe they should only see things they agree with, and they’ll push that off on their children too. I think this is the utmost intellectual laziness and it’s destroying the next generation. The world doesn’t work that way. We’re confronted with ideas of all types, all day long – this is part of the greatness of our culture, and literature is a great way to open worlds up, it’s a great way to encourage critical thought. It’s just a great way to learn about yourself and others.

How about I give a book away then? Oh I know – two books!

A copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and a copy of Ann Aguirre’s newly release Doubleblind are up for grabs for two winners (one book each). What book did you read that challenged you? Doesn’t have to be a big important book, you don’t have to have agreed or disagreed with it.

I’ll choose the winners at random from the comments by noon pacific tomorrow (September 30).

This weekend, as I worked on Insatiable with a box of tissues on one side and my notes on the other, I was thinking on the dedication and acknowledgments.

You see, none of us gets to where we are without community.

Tracy Williams was one of those people. She read and critted every single one of my books. She was my friend and my support and she died last year of breast cancer. Cancer she’d fought for years as she beat it back only to have it return again, even stronger. And still she stood up and fought. She told me, when she’d received the final news that there would be no more beating it, that all she wanted was one last Christmas with her children. I spoke with her last just after Thanksgiving of 2008. She was unlike anyone else I knew, funny, smart, a romance reader, a woman who faced what to many would be insurmountable obstacles but damn it, she kept getting up and standing tall because that was who she was. She never lost her humor, even as she spent more time in the hospital than out of it, even as her lungs filled with tumors, as the cancer spread. I do hope very much that her children know how much she loved them for who they are.

I bring this up because I learned today that Kate Duffy – a woman I admired greatly and was, in no small amount of awe of (scared too!), lost her own battle with cancer. Kate Duffy meant a lot to romance. She was a huge, powerful force in the world. She wasn’t my editor, but she edited a lot of authors I love, her fingerprints were all over our genre in ways that we’ll be feeling for a long time to come.

Rest in peace, Kate and Tracy – and know you touched the world in ways people will never forget.

(I missed Saturday!)

Top Ten most challenged books of 2008

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.

—Claire Booth Luce

This quote encapsulates my perspective on issues of censorship when it comes to books for children. I’m a mother of three. I care about what my children read and what they see and hear. It is MY job to say, “hey, that one’s a bit too old for you” and to redirect with other choices. Generally, I fall on the, “let’s read it and discuss” side of the line with most things because hiding information doesn’t teach children anything, it doesn’t cure them or make them better citizens. TEACHING children about why something is bad is more effective.

I can’t tell you all how awesome it was to read the Harry Potter series with my oldest son! I read the books first and then he did and we discussed them. What a great time we had as we talked about all sorts of stuff, from the fluffy like how fun it would be to play quidditch to the serious like what happens when people abuse their power and when/if disobedience is necessary.

He then went on to Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series – a personal favorite of my childhood (I’m writing about that one tomorrow). My oldest reads several grade levels ahead (as does my middle child) and over the years, since we have this tradition of reading together, he’s come to me with questions and issues he’s had while he reads. I’m PROUD of that.

Still, there are books that they can’t grasp at five that they can at twelve, so it’s a parent’s job to be aware of what their children are reading and to be part of that process. When my middle son was 5 or 6 he pulled Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings from my shelves and wanted to read it. Now, I had to laugh since my kids clearly have good taste, but hell, I couldn’t really grasp it until I was a junior in high school. It’s a complicated book and it has some disturbing things in it. It’s clearly not a book for a 5 year old, so I steered him to one that was. But I’ll be back to it when he’s ready, because it’s an important book and he should read it.

It is not the job of the woman up the street or across town, or in another state to make those choices for me and my children. For instance, Harry Potter remains on the challenge lists year after year. And while I disagree most vehemently with the criticism of the books, I’d never presume to tell another family what they should read.

But when self appointed morality police march into school libraries and public libraries, this is what they’re telling you, what they’re telling me and I’m saying, it’s MY family and I WILL decide what they read and these uptight censors should mind their own families.

Ranty Bit: Listen, what I truly hate the most about most of these people is that they have an agenda. They constantly say that they want government out of their lives but here they are, using government to try and push into everyone else’s life and it’s ridiculous.

If you, for some reason, think Bless Me Ultima is a bad book (a tragedy since most censors admit they haven’t read the material and quite frankly, Ultima is a fabulous book) then don’t read it.

Here’s what Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me Ultima, had to say about the censorship of the book: “My suggestion is: Read the book. The language is not gratuitous. It fits with the scenes,” the 67-year-old Anaya said. “The book is about good and evil. Ultima teaches Antonio that the smallest piece of good can stand against all the evil in the world. I have hundreds of letters from students from all over the country who have been moved by this book. I would love to go to Norwood with my box full of letters.”

I tend to agree with Anaya here. Read it. As a parent, pick the book up and read it. See for yourself if the book is appropriate, if it has lessons for your child, if you can enhance them or you know, actually parent and make it a teaching moment. Instead of running from it because someone told you it was bad, try to see for yourself.

At its base, censorship is about intellectual laziness. Parents too lazy to do their own work so they let others do it for them. Censors too lazy to read the material they rail about because in truth, it’s not about the content at all, it’s about their ability to control you and what you think and feel.

I prefer to control what I think and feel and I don’t want small minds parenting my children. *I* will decide what my children check out at the library, not you, not her, not him.

I’m a day late because of this damned swine flu so please excuse my tardiness! I have celebrated this each year for the last three so I definitely didn’t want to break the tradition and it’s a very important cause to highlight as well. Since I’m actually beginning to feel human again, I thought I’d get my butt in this chair and put a post up!

This comes directly from the Banned Books Week section at the ALA site:

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

For more information on getting involved with Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please see Calendar of Events and Ideas and Resources. You can also contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.

Books offer people of all ages, races and genders a chance to learn, to fall into another world for a few hours, to be shocked, excited, angry, puzzled, pleased, intrigued and entertained. There’s nothing in the world like a book – so seemingly simple but integral to a free and open society.

Book banning is a strike against the foundations of intellectual freedom and democracy, it seeks to enforce the opinion of one onto everyone. This is intolerable when the alternative is simply putting a book down if it bothers you so very much.

Sorry this should have gone up earlier but I am slowly recovering from what I learned this week was H1N1 so I’m a little behind on work.

This week’s theme is first paragraphs! How about the opening of Trinity?

TRINITY by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Lauren Dane
All rights reserved, Samhain Publishing
Releasing October 20

Renee wiped the counter down, smiling as she swayed her ass to ABBA as they told the story of Fernando. The warmth pressing against the windows and outer walls of the building brought a languid fluidity to her muscles. She envied Sam, the fat feline sprawled in his high perch, furry belly flopped to the side. It would have been an excellent day to simply lie in the sun and nap the hours away.

Be sure to visit the other authors participating today!

Kelly Maher
Jody Wallace
Shelli Stevens
Michelle Pillow
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
Jaci Burton
Elisabeth Naughton
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Juliana Stone
Anya Bast
Lacey Savage
Shelley Munro
Sasha White
Ashley Ladd

I blame Mark Henry for this new musical love (but it’s a good kind of blame)

Julian Plenti Is …Skyscraper

If you recognize the sound – this is the lead singer of Interpol. I’m totally digging this CD

Working on this book so I’m totally diverted and engrossed with that – I’m pretty much offline, but I couldn’t resist posting this…

I’ve been working, pretty much nonstop, on Insatiable and I thought I’d introduce you to the hero – Daniel Haws.

While Roman was soo very Daniel Craig in my head, Daniel is Eric Bana – dark hair, muscles, compact, hard, beautiful but sometimes in a harder way. I’m seeing a pattern with these British and Aussie men, hmm. I think I’m going to have to bring it back stateside for the next hero, LOL

Those of you who read Relentless will remember that Daniel is Abbie’s brother. You get a glimpse into his job, but you never really know what he does. Until Insatiable – which is the first in my Phantom Corps story arc. He’s a warrior, an assassin and he sometimes wonders if what he does has tainted his heart, even though he knows what he does is necessary and important.

Yes, he’s broody and hard to crack, but he has a sense of humor and he loves his family, he has a soft side, just not on the job. So what happens when his job is a woman he can’t resist?

Today’s theme is Kick Ass Heroines/Protags and so I thought I’d put up the opening to Undercover where readers first meet Sera…

FEDERATION CHRONICLES: UNDERCOVER by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Group, Intnl.

People scurried out of the way, keeping their eyes down as Sera Ayers stalked into the squat gray building on the outskirts of the city. Single-mindedly, she made her way through the myriad of nondescript hallways at the Federation United Forces. Anger coursed through her as she walked, her boots sounding a muffled thud, thud, thud on the laminate floors.

Halting at the sub-commander’s door, she slammed a fist into it several times. Her hand hurt but she felt a bit better for the small violence of it.
“Enter!”

She opened the door and went inside. Noting little more than the fact that two men were seated before Commander Yager’s desk, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Whoa! What’s so damned important that you nearly knocked my fucking door down?” Sub-Commander Yager bellowed before she could say anything.

“I just got your summons. You’ve reassigned me! That’s my problem! I’m the best you have out there. My team is good, damn it!” She shoved a hand through her hair, not caring that she probably looked like a curly porcupine.

“Sera,” Yager sighed, gesturing to the men in the chairs, “you have a new team. This is Commander Ash Walker and Para-Commander Brandt Pela.”

At the mention of the names, a roar of white noise filled her ears. In what felt like slow motion, Sera turned and looked into the face of a man she knew all too well many years before. “Ash.”

The palest blue eyes she’d ever seen gazed up at her. Eyes she’d given herself to as he was above her and below her. Eyes that had held her down as he’d bound and collared her to his will. Eyes that had haunted her for the last ten years.

It all crashed down on her, the world began to close in and she fought with iron will to hold back the impending breakdown. She fisted her hands to stop them from trembling.

“Sera, you’re looking well.” Ash smiled, his posture relaxed as if she’d been an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. It appeared he wasn’t affected at all by her presence. Prick.

“Ash?” Sera said sweetly.

He cocked his head. “Yes?”

“Fuck you,” she snarled, landing a solid right hook to his jaw.

Halt. Gods damn it, Sera!” Yager jumped up and with the other man, held her back as Ash got up from the floor where she’d sent him sprawling. “What the seven hells is wrong with you?” Yager demanded, his face an inch from hers.

“Why, nothing now. I feel ever so much better.” She hoped her smile was as feral as she felt. At least her hands weren’t shaking anymore.

The other higher up who’d come with Ash barked out a laugh and stepped back, letting her go. “I’m Brandt. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Sera looked up at him. Where Ash’s beauty was harsh, savage, this man’s was elegant. He had almond shaped eyes of a deep brown so dark it was nearly black. The twist of his braid, dark and rich as his eyes, reached halfway down his back. Lush lips and perfect cheekbones, skin in a beautiful olive tone that made her want to reach out and touch him—delicious.

“Look, I have nothing against you, Para-Commander. But I am not going to work with Ash Walker. Not now, not ever. I have a team. We work very well together.”

“Stand down, Ayers!” Yager shoved her into a chair. “You want to do time in the brig for attacking a superior officer? I expect there’s an explanation for this. Like you’ve gone insane but you’ll be making amends for your behavior which you know is horribly out of line.”

“This won’t work, Sub-Commander. Just put me back with my team.” Sera tried not to sound as desperate as she felt.

“Sera, things with the Imperialists are getting worse. You know that. You see that every day.” Ash tried to stay reasonable, despite the pain in his jaw. He’d deserved the punch, he knew that. And at least the pain kept him focused on something other than how much she still affected him even a decade later.

“Why is he talking?” Sera jerked her head in his direction, speaking through clenched teeth.

“May I speak with you alone?” Ash asked through his own tightened jaw.

“No. You may not speak to me any way at all, at any time or in any place.” Still stubborn, that much hadn’t changed.

“What the hells is going on here? It’s obvious you know each other. Walker, this is something you should have disclosed to me up front.” Yager looked back and forth between Ash and Sera, clearly unhappy.

“If you’ll excuse me, SC Yager, I don’t need to disclose anything to you but what I determine you need to know,” Ash growled back.

Sera groaned and got up, heading for the door but Brandt stopped her. “Sorry about this, Lieutenant Ayers, but you’ll need to stay.”

Ash watched in slow motion as she centered herself, rocking back enough to give a side kick to Brandt’s knees and knocking him down. Using his surprise, she scrambled over him and out of the room.

“Sera! Damn it, woman, hold up!” Ash rushed to pursue her.

Even though he was agitated, he couldn’t help but admire her skill. She was quick and limber as she dodged people in the long hallways. Despite his calls for bystanders to stop her, they jumped out of the way and let her past, indicating a high level of respect for her along with a distrust of outsiders.

Still, he had nearly half a foot on her and his legs were longer. He caught up to her quickly, grabbing her and shoving her into a room near the front reception area. Slamming the door, he locked it with savage satisfaction. Taking a moment to gather himself, he turned toward her, keeping her only exit through him.

“Don’t try and run from me again, Sera. I’ve had enough of that from you. Just listen to what I have to say.” Ash used the toe of one of his boots to shove a chair in her direction.

“You’ve had enough running from me? That’s rich.” Sera remained standing. Arms crossed, feet apart and eyes narrowed, she looked fearsome and unapproachable.

“Things are bad right now. The Imperialists are gaining the upper hand along the frontier. If we lose any ‘Verse in this system, we could lose everything. If they gain a hold here,” he paused for a moment, “well, you know what could happen. I need your skills on my team.”

“I have a team. Find another person, Commander.”

He growled in her direction and ran a hand over his scalp but caught the way she watched his movement. Ahh, she remembered. Once, she loved to stroke her fingertips over the smooth skin of his scalp, tracing along the tribal tattoos marking his family and position that edged the back of his head. All wasn’t lost just yet.

“Commander? Now you honor my title? Not back before you decided to punch me and be otherwise insubordinate?”

“Commander, I do not wish to be on your team. Period. I do not wish to be in the same room with you. In the same universe with you. I want you to go away. Find. Another. Girl. I’m not interested.”

Go on and visit the other Saturday Snippeters to see what they’re up to today!

Jody Wallace
Jaci Burton
Elisabeth Naughton
Ashley Ladd
Moira Rogers
Taige Crenshaw
Lauren Dane
Victoria Janssen
Vivian Arend
TJ Michaels
Juliana Stone
Lacey Savage
Eliza Gayle
Sasha White
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro