Catherine Ryan Hyde Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than 25 published and forthcoming books, including the bestselling When I found You, Pay It Forward, Don't Let Me Go, and Take Me With You.
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There sure is a lot going on right now around book banning and censorship. In fact, it's come to a town near me. San Luis Obispo, a small city about 45 minutes down the Coast Highway from me, reviewed a book today that someone wants taken off high school shelves. Here's the problem: We don't know who. After ten years in the school curriculum, the book was reviewed today as the result of an anonymous complaint.
The book is "Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane, a memoir about survival as a child in South Africa during Apartheid. Some anonymous person is upset by page 72, which contains a fairly graphic description of children prostituting themselves for food.
I have an old friend, Dave Congalton, who's hosted a local talk radio show since...I'm not quite sure, but I think since the beginning of time. He asked me this morning If I'd call in
Now might be a good time to start. If you have a Facebook account, you probably know that "liking" a page is just hitting the button that says "like." It's a type of subscription. The only danger is that some page owners send you lots of pesky messages. But I don't. I don't spam.
Here's why you might want to like my page now. Because on November 1st, I'll be doing a drawing, and everyone who likes the page will be automatically entered. It doesn't matter if you've been with me since the day I created
This is the day for my Young Adult novel Jumpstart the World. This is its "on sale date." And I'm pretty excited. Even more so than usual. There's just something about this one. It's close to my heart.
I also want to announce that I have an absolutely incredible blog tour coming up. Four weeks. Seventeen blogs. Four Jumpstart the World reviews, one each week. Three reviews for other books of mine. Four author interviews, two book excerpts, two entirely new scenes I created just for this tour...had enough yet? I hope not. Because there's more. Two character interviews, one with Elle and one with Frank. And three guest posts written by yours truly.
This is the kind of tour that makes me love the Internet. If I had to get on a plane and travel for a tour of this length, I'd be history before the tour was.
Here are the terrific people and blogs who are supporting me and Jumpstart the World.
Here's a great way to do it. Lauren of Shooting Stars Magazine has been nice enough to organize a charity auction to celebrate two great events: National Coming Out Day (October 11th). And the release of my novel Jumpstart the World (October 12th). All proceeds will go to the Cincinnati chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Click on their acronym to learn more about GLSEN and the great work they do.
Lauren has lined up some great auction items, but, more importantly, it's our chance to
As you can see on your left, I donated to Swati Avasthi's Before The Split Blog Tour and Charity auction. I made two donations, actually. One is a signed ARC of my new YA novel Jumpstart the World, and the other might be of particular interest to newer writers: a critique of a synopsis, query letter and the first 30 pages of your manuscript.
To honor National Domestic Violence Awareness month, Swati Avasthi (YA author of Split, a terrific debut novel) has combined a blog tour with a charity auction. Over 40 authors, agents and editors have donated manuscript critiques, personalized books, and more to an online auction that anyone--reader, writer, book lover--can bid on and buy. All proceeds go to the Family Violence Prevention Fund. In addition to the auction, Avasthi is donating $1/comment
On the 12th of October, my new Young Adult novel, Jumpstart the World will...well, hopefully it will do what the title suggests. In a small way. Or a medium way. Or...well, I don't know what it will do out in the world. I just hope people will find it and read it.
It's a novel about a teenage girl who falls in love with an older guy before realizing he's transgender. Which means, as a sort of follow-up for my "Speak Up About Speak" blog post, it's the kind of book the Wesley Scrogginses of the word would probably love to see banned. I'm not sure how someone would go about banning it, as it's about emotion, not sex. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried. But I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it, heartened by the knowledge that the book community stands up and speaks loudly for
Those of you who are reading the Sainsbury's Book Club edition of Second Hand Heart will already know Erin and Betty Ann. If not, a brief background. Betty Ann is a living kidney donor, and Erin is the recipient of her incredible gift. I wrote about their experiences in a true donor story as an exclusive for the Sainsbury's edition. Betty Ann was Erin's third donor, and Erin's situation was quite desperate by the time the third kidney arrived. And Erin and Betty Ann barely knew each other then. But they sure know each other now.
I also mentioned in the story that, after six long years of waiting due to her health issues, Erin and her finance, Joe, were finally planning their wedding. Imagine my delight when Erin's mother sent me wedding photos, including one of Erin with all three of her donors!
Who could possibly think the YA novel Speak is pornography? Unfortunately, there's an answer to that question. He's a guy in Missouri, Wesley Scroggins. In an article called Filthy books demeaning to Republic education, he mischaracterizes Laurie Halse Anderson's classic YA novel Speak, the story of a young rape victim, and says it should be classified as soft pornography. Because it contains two rape scenes.
Is the suggestion here that the purpose of writing about rape is to entertain and excite? Because that's a pretty sick sentiment, Mr. Scroggins. In a world where the statistics on child sexual abuse are so shockingly high, does he really think the solution is not to utter a word about the problem in books? It's better if they don't read about someone who survived it, even if it's happening to these readers right now?
Such dangerous logic. But then, all censorship is dangerous. If you think a book is
Well, it's here! Second Hand Heart has been in stores in the UK since Thursday. The blog reviewers have been wonderfully positive in their reception of the book (I just added a big bunch of review quotes to the Second Hand Heart book page) and I'm already beginning to hear from readers. That's what makes this all worthwhile.
A quick note for those of you who are reading the book, are just about to read the book, or who have read it. On the Second Hand Heart book page, I have some original photos that I took myself. You see, Vida and I have been to some of the same places.
The photo you see here on this blog is the memorial stone at Manzanar. The one Vida visited with Victor and Esther (and Jax). But I also have a photo of Mt. Whitney from
Yesterday I appeared on a KCBX Public Radio book program called BookWaves. It's a collaborative live program between KCBX and the San Luis Obispo (California, my home county) Public Library.
The book we discussed was Chasing Windmills. If you've read the book, or are interested in learning more, you can listen to the hour-long program at:
This time I got to see it. Through rain and fog for the first day. Through snow and sleet for the second. But I saw it. And the third day, the day I boated over to Wizard Island and hiked, couldn't have been more beautiful.
Here's a pair of sentences for you. I have been to Crater Lake, once. I have never seen Crater Lake. Weird. But both statements are true.
Last September, I took my dog Ella and my 88-year-old mom on an RV trip to Oregon. One of our first--and most highly anticipated--stops was Crater Lake. We'd heard such great things about it. But before we could get there, we hit smoke. A wildfire, too new to have been reported before we left, had begun near the route we were driving. But we were still a long way from Crater Lake, so we were sure we'd pass through it. The trouble, though, is
Is it just me, or is there a lot going on with censorship right now?
There's Young Adult author Ellen Hopkins' reverse invitation to a Texas Book festival (they invited her, then withdrew the invitation). Then there was that mess regarding Glen Beck's 9.12 Project getting books pulled from school--and even public--libraries without any formal book challenge. I wrote a report on this backlash against (primarily) LGBT lit, and it's featured on the Red Room home page all this week. You can read it here. And it's almost Banned Books Week (September 25th through October 2nd, 2010).
But there is a bright spot in all of this. Some interesting and important groups and projects have emerged. Well, emerged to me. They've probably been around for quite awhile. But I'm now lucky enough to have discovered them.
The bookmark you see at left is free. It's individually hand-signed, so it's the next best thing to a signed copy of one of my books. It can be personalized on request. And I'm offering it to any and all of my readers for just an S.A.S.E.
But now I have a better offer for book groups who are reading one of my titles.
If you'll contact me and tell me how many people are in your group, and send me one mailing address for a group representative, I'll send you enough bookmarks for everybody. And the postage will be on me.
It's a small thank-you for reading and discussing my work.
And here's another small thank-you. When you've completed your book discussion, I invite you to email me any questions that came up. I'll be happy to answer them personally.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to provide a guest post for LGBT Lit Days (August 9-20) on The Story Siren, an excellent book review blog. I'm sure my upcoming transgender novel Jumpstart the World is a big part of why I was asked, but my novel Becoming Chloe also falls into the LGBT category. In fact, my novel Pay It Forward also included the character of a gay/transgender young man, but most people don't know that, because he didn't make it into the film.
If you don't know the importance of LGBT literature to gay and transgender individuals, especially as they come of age, I hope you'll take a minute to read what I wrote.
It's August first. And some of you know I've been collecting entries for a giveaway through June and July, for which I promised to announce a winner in early August.
What you may not know is that when I say I'll draw a name out of a hat, I mean it quite literally. So here is the hat in question, an Australian Akubra that was given to me as a gift while I was touring Australia and New Zealand in 2001.
Ella is normally a bit camera-shy, so why she decided to plant herself front and center in one of these shots, I can't say. But I saw no reason to push her away.
Enough of that. Time to say whose name came out of the hat.
On August 28th and 29th, I'm going to be conducting a "weekend intensive" workshop. And, oh, believe me. I don't call it intensive for nothing. Unlike many of my other workshops, this will be specifically geared to beginning and intermediate writers. Think of it as a place to feel welcome no matter what your skill and experience level.
It will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, with an hour lunch break both days. Each participant will receive no less than one hour of group attention to his or her work-in-progress (time a standard critique group just doesn’t have). We’ll cover story arc, characterization, self-editing, dialogue, great beginnings, great voice. If you’re brand new, and have never experienced a critique group, this weekend will help get you started. If you’ve spent time in critique groups, it will help you make sense of the feedback you’ve been receiving.
My first one!I just...and I do mean just...got a terrific suggestion from a Facebook friend and fan. A video slideshow featuring my readers. After all, as I've said on more than one occasion, who's more important than my readers? Without you, I'd be out of a job.
So, this will be very easy...for you. Just send me a photo of yourself with one of my books. Be straighforward, or highly creative. It's up to you. That's it. I'll do the rest.
Give me time with this, because it will take a while to gather enough photos. But if you'll send 'em, I'll make it happen. Count on it.
Familiar with Internet references to something "going viral"? Here's hoping it's healthier than it sounds.
All I seem to have figured out for sure about viral-ness is that it happens to other people. People with truly bizarre YouTube videos. Celebrity stuff. But today I decided to play a game to see how viral I can get a video to go. I figure it's like changing the world. You set out to change it a lot, but maybe miss the mark and change it a little. But that's still good, right? Small change is better than no change at all.
The video is the Love in the Present Tense video excerpt.
Several months ago, I posted a blog making an offer. I had just cleaned out a storage space full of books, mostly my first two small-press titles, Funerals for Horses and Earthquake Weather. It didn't pay to keep storing them, but I didn't think I could fit them in my garage. So I offered to give some away.
Well, with the help of many loyal readers and fans who sent stamped, self-addressed mail bags, plus a fundraiser for the new Cambria library in which I gave three of my early hardcovers to anyone who donated to the library fund...they fit.
