In my writing the theme of bullying frequently pops up because bullying situations occur from childhood through adulthood. No one remains unscathed. If not bullied, you may have been the bullier, or you have seen someone else being bullied. And oftentimes we are reluctant to accept that we are being bullied, or if we accept it, we don’t want others … Read More
The Slippery Slope of Permission Slips
I recently read a Time article about a response to a school permission slip by Daniel Radosh, writer for the Daily Show. His son Milo had to obtain permission to read Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 for his ELA book club. Daniel’s response raises the question of the permission slip being the first step along the road toward censorship, the issue … Read More
Enough
While I recently posted about bullying and suicide in honor of National Bully Prevention month (October), when I ran across the story of Bethany Thompson I felt the need to talk about it. Any time bullying leads to suicide, my heart breaks for the person who has been tormented to the point of no longer believing life is worth living. … Read More
Devastating Results of Bullying
As National Bullying Month comes to a close, I thought I’d take a few moments to highlight one of the devastating results of unchecked bullying. Suicide. My heart is always so full of grief when I hear that someone young has taken their life. I mourn for the life cut short, of what is not going to be; I mourn … Read More
Make the Future and What IF?
Writers tend to deal in the realm of “what if” … What if a baby wizard was orphaned and survived being killed by the darkest wizard of them all? What if that baby had to grow up and ultimately kill the dark wizard in order to save the wizarding world from destruction? A couple what ifs like that and an … Read More
This Precious Life
A little over a week ago I had an experience I wanted to blog about, but somehow, as usual, the frenetic activity of life took over and I haven’t had the clear brain space I needed to process the event and formulate what I wanted to say. It is probably a good thing because life threw me another unexpected, yet … Read More
Bullying vs Self-Esteem – The Forgotten Lesson of Dumbo
I’ve been so focused on writing my current novel, time has flown by. That’s what happens when you character yanks you into her world … you get a little lost and forget the real world exists. 😉 I originally wrote this post when a teen had been bullied to the point of seeking out plastic surgery erupted in the media. … Read More
Bullying vs Self-Esteem – The Voice of the People
I’ve been so focused on writing my current novel, time has flown by. That’s what happens when you character yanks you into her world … you get a little lost and forget the real world exists. 😉 I originally wrote this post when a teen had been bullied to the point of seeking out plastic surgery erupted in the media. … Read More
Bullying vs Self-Esteem – The Inconsistencies
I originally wrote this post when a teen had been bullied to the point of seeking out plastic surgery erupted in the media. I went into full rant mode, which usually produces an epic-length post, and this one was no exception. It posted in full on Rebecca Hamilton’s blog as a part of the Books Against Bullies campaign, but as … Read More
Bullying vs Self-Esteem – The Bullying Not Addressed
I originally wrote this post when a teen had been bullied to the point of seeking out plastic surgery erupted in the media. I went into full rant mode, which usually produces an epic length post, and this one was no exception. It originally posted in full on Rebecca Hamilton’s blog as a part of the Books Against Bullies campaign, … Read More
The Wild Hair
What do Back to School and Hair have to do with each other? Apparently quite a lot. This year’s call back to the classroom has been peppered with stories about students who have been sent home because of their hair — color, style, length — anything is a target, and an alarming trend. Hayleigh Black was sent home from school … Read More
Rant About Reading Shaming
I write Young Adult (YA) fiction and take it personally when the category gets slammed. It especially irks me when the person doing the slamming is from within the industry (publishing—whether writer, agent, editor, publisher) because I think anyone within the industry should be happy for people to read.