April 30 is my favorite of the eight sabbats. Beltane/May Eve is a harbinger of summer honored with fabulous festivals replete with fires and dancing. The world of Nightshade is steeped in the tradition and history of witchcraft and Wolfsbane draws readers deeper into that world. To celebrate this holiday I'm holding a contest and the winner will receive a Wolfsbane ARC!
Since my last blog post touted the greatness of Buffy I want to have a Beltane Buffy quiz. May is the fifth month of the year, so here are five of my favorite quotes from Buffy. Correctly identify the Buffy character delivered each of the five quotes and you'll be in the running to win the ARC. 1) "What's the matter Watcher? Life flash before your eyes? Cup o' tea, cup o' tea, almost got shagged, cup o' tea?"
2) "Forgiveness makes us human, blah, blah, blah."
3) "Rain of toads. One minute its 'oh no, pop quiz' and now it's rain of toads."
4) "That's beautiful...or taken literally incredibly gross."
5) "Bored now."
Good luck! Entries taken until 12 a.m. May 1.
Please leave your answers in the comments section. This contest is open to international entries!
Courtesy of Karsten Knight and Stacey of Page Turners Blog I've been inspired to post about films that supplied priceless pop culture knowledge that I internalized as eternal. I think it's perfectly reasonable that each generation assumes its points of pop culture reference will forever be relevant, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Each generation must write its own books, or rather each generation for the next succeeding."
There are certain pieces of culture that I refuse to believe will lose their relevance. For example, I will go to my grave proclaiming that everyone should know Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relish her (and Joss Whedon's) contributions to our sorry world. I'm forced to admit, however, that some of my cherished films will languish in history. To forestall this decline I'm going to do a series of posts about films that left indelible marks on my psyche and creative life.
Because this endeavor was inspired by Karsten's reference to She's All That. I'm starting with RomComs and the movie in question.
My brother and I used to watch She's All That constantly. It's a great mood lifter - funny and sweet. And has one of the best choreographed prom dances ever - Fat Boy Slim FTW! (And yes, that IS Usher)
Ten Things I Hate About You is another priceless romance. A retelling of Taming of the Shrew it features clever dialogue and young Heath Ledger (RIP) opposite Julia Stiles. Bonus: Proof that Joseph Gordon Levitt was awesome before Inception.
Another adapted tale is Clueless with Alicia Silverstone as Jane Austen's Emma. This film is hilarious! Clueless is the 90s prep to counter Ten Things 90s grunge - both of which were essential 90s trends.Taking few more steps back in time to 1980s, I'd be remiss to leave off a John Hughes film. I think they are all worth watching, but I have a soft spot for Sixteen Candles. In terms of feminism this film has some really messed up ideologies, but given that it's John Hughes my presumption is that such hyperbole of sexual and racial stereotypes are written with both irony and purpose (or I'm just naive). The kiss over the candles with Thompson Twins singing in the background is an alltime favorite scene. Sixteen Candles also has young John Cusack, but of course Cusack's famous 80s movie moment featuring a window and a boombox and Peter Gabriel happens in Say Anything. Also of the 80s - Girls Just Want to Have Fun. SJP and Helen Hunt in the 80s! Best slumber party movie ever. I went through about four birthdays where this was the featured film.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun is about a forbidden dance contest, but it's very PG in content. So of course I have to mention the more risque forbidden dance film: Dirty Dancing. No one puts Baby in the corner!
Jumping back into the 90s - some might not consider Mallrats a romantic comedy, but I do. And I adore it! Shannon Doherty and Magic Eye make this film indispensable. Plus - filmed in Minnesota, home of the first enclosed shopping mall in the country.
Another 90s film that I consider priceless is Beautiful Girls. Though this movie focuses on a high school reunion of late 20 somethings, its message is relevant for young adults and adults. In the last year of the 90s But I'm a Cheerleader made a wonderful and important contribution to rom coms. This film is poignant and hilarious. And has RuPaul in an amazing role! I could probably go on, but I'm happy with this list. What do you consider defining romantic comedies for your generation or simply for you?
Coming soon: Children's films, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, and Horror!
I know there's been quite a bit of grumbling about the some-might-say excessive coverage on William and Kate's nuptials. While I agree that there's enough happening in the world that is more newsworthy than a royal wedding, I don't have a problem with the attention this young couple is receiving. Precisely because the world is a rough place to be, sometimes it's nice to have a little escape. As much as William and Kate are real people and will have a relationship with real problems as in any relationship, this wedding is a bit of a surreal, fairytale moment that many people will enjoy participating in vicariously - including myself.
I'll be watching with a girlfriend in my sweatshirt and yoga pants, but in the spirit of make believe I'd like to imagine that if I were a guest (with the unlimited budget of a royal wedding guest) I would wear this dress from Rochas: With this hat (because hats are a must at British weddings):
And these shoes: Do you have a fairytale-esque event or costume you'd like to step into for a day?
When you write for young adults, I would argue that as an author you open yourself to an intensified public judgment and criticism. Some well-intentioned, others purely mean spirited, the blow back YA authors receive derives largely from conflicting opinions about what teens can and can't handle in literature and/or what they should or should not be exposed to.
Whether it be religion, drugs, or violence every reader and writer has an opinion about if a line for content in YA novels exists and where it should be drawn. And no subject garners more debate than S-E-X.
I haven't been shy about expressing my opinion on censorship, book challenges, and book banning. There's no room in my heart or mind for any of the above. I'm also proud to call myself a feminist and, for me, part of being a feminist is decrying double standards in sex and gender as well as the propagation of sex ignorance among young people, especially young women.
Working against double standards and ignorance is what I think of as sex positive education. Today, YA Author Kody Keplinger, offered up an important and fantastic blog post about what sex positive means (to her) and I couldn't agree more. Kody is the author of The Duff and the upcoming Shut Out(her take on Aristophanes' Lysistrata - one of my all-time favorite plays!) Kody is a brave and talented writer. And she's in college - I wish I would have been the force of amazing that she is when I was that young!!!
So I was more than humbled and honored that Kody mentioned Nightshade as a sex positive book. For me there is no higher compliment. And it's particularly meaningful given that some criticism I've seen of Nightshade is that it's too much "lust" and not enough "love." While the few comments along those lines I've seen don't surprise me, they do frustrate me. Here's why:
Sex and romance aren't the same thing, but in books they are very often equated or conflated. In Nightshade, Calla lives in a world of gendered hierarchies and sexual double standards. When she comes face to face with her own awakening sexuality, she's totally unprepared for it because she's been taught to deny that part of herself. Yes - she's experiencing lust. Of course she is! Sexual feelings and impulses are part of life, particularly in the hormone bonanza that is adolescence, learning how to understand and process all those lusty moments and how to separate lust from real love is a key part of growing up. Growing up and finding herself are what Calla is doing. It's what all young people are doing and I believe they need all the maps and guidebooks we can offer to help them on that journey.
Too often our culture still expects young women to ignore or repress the fact that we, as humans, are sexual beings while the opposite expectation dictates the ideologies around young men's sexualities. (FYI: I'm talking in heteronormative terms here - there's a whole world of additional silencing and repression when it comes to LGBT sexualities. Catherine Ryan Hyde had an amazing post on this topic recently). These double standards lead to confusion, frustration, fears and even dangerous consequences in the lives of young adults.
There will always be voices shouting down a sex positive take on young adults and sex education. There are those who believe young people should be sheltered from tough topics and they will continue to try to censor books that teens need to read: books on domestic abuse, drugs and alcohol, depression and cutting, and yes - sex. Teens need these books because they aren't sheltered. They are alive and life is hard.
Despite the fact that Mother Nature seems intent on keeping winter going in Minnesota until May, I still love her. In honor of Earth Day 2011 I thought I'd round up some salient articles that I hope will make us all more aware, concerned, and involved in protecting this precious resource that is our home.
Earth Day should make us sit up and pay attention to the crises that threaten our fragile planet, but don't think about the environment today and take it for granted tomorrow. We are not guests here, we are made of and sustained by this planet. To abuse, poison, and destroy the earth is to rend our own flesh and break our own bones.Today is just the starting line but the race - upon which our lives depend - is only beginning.
A little less than a year ago I had the delight of attending the American Library Association (ALA) annual meeting, at which I met many amazing authors including David Levithan. Upon meeting David I knew I'd found a kindred spirit and being so grateful for his kindness to a newbie author I wrote this blog post.
Now I meant the post as a compliment not an actual suggestion, but lo and behold David saw the blog post and decided to call my bluff - he asked if I wanted to try writing a book together. To take a page from my beloved Ghostbusters:
When David Levithan asks you if you'll write a book with him you say YES.
And I did.
And now I have amazing news to share that was announced this morning in Publishers Weekly:
Philomel Disappears with Levithan & Cremer Jill Santopolo, executive editor of Penguin Young Readers' Philomel imprint, took world rights to a new YA novel by David Levithan and Andrea Cremer called The Invisibility Curse. Bill Clegg, at William Morris Endeavor, brokered the deal for Levithan, who co-wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Play-list (and is editorial director at Scholastic Press), and Cremer, author of Nightshade (and history professor at Macalaster College). The novel follows a boy burdened by invisibility who meets a girl that has the power to see him and, possibly, cure him. Publication is currently set for 2013.
Our book will be published in 2013 by Philomel/Penguin with amazing Editor Jill at the helm!!!!
There are no words to describe how ecstatic I am about this novel and how much I love David. I'm grateful to him not only for sharing his creative talent with me but also for how much he's become a dear friend over the past 10 months.
I can't wait until 2013 when you'll be able to share our journey, too!
There is so much going right now and it's the end of the semester so I can't keep up! But here's a rapid rundown of current events:
1) I had the delight of attending Houston Teen Book Con wherein I met amazing librarians, teachers, booksellers, authors and of course readers!! Thank you so much to the organizers and to everyone who came to the panels! I also had the bonus of bringing a friend home; here is Ben the armadillo from Blue Willow Bookshop.He's a fan of WOLFSBANE as you can see...or maybe he's trying to eat it. 2) It's National Library Week!! Libraries are one of society's most vital resources. Support your libraries! Also READ BANNED BOOKS!
3) Tomorrow is Rock the Drop: Operation Teen Book Drop! This amazing event encourages you to drop a teen book in a random public place for a lucky reader to pick up and then pass along. I'll be dropping several books around Minneapolis/St. Paul tomorrow.
4) I'm almost done with my work in progress (the companion novel to the Nightshade series), and I'm in that totally obsessive zone; hence, my lack of blogs. When I come up for air I promise to write more posts and hold more contests!
Celebration time! I just hit 3000 followers on Twitter - amazing. I have promised a contest and need more than 140 characters to announce it, so the details will appear here.
This IS a Twitter contest so if you want to enter you'll need to Tweet me. To enter Tweet @andreacremer with the hashtag #wolfsbanepreorder
I'll take entries until Friday, April 8.
The winner will receive this MAJOR AWARD:
Just kidding. Here's the actual prize(s):
A pre-order of WOLFSBANE A pre-order of NIGHTSHADE paperback (featuring new cover) A pre-order of Lisa Desrochers' ORIGINAL SIN A pre-order of Tara Hudson's HEREAFTER A pre-order of Carrie Harris BAD TASTE IN BOYS A pre-order of Kiersten White's SUPERNATURALLY Gayle Foreman's WHERE SHE WENT Cassandre Clare's CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS Holly Black's RED GLOVE Lisa Desrochers' PERSONAL DEMONS Rachel Hawkin's DEMONGLASS Kiersten White's PARANORMALCY
Thanks to all my followers! Let's celebrate with music:
In a couple of hours I'm heading north to Ashland, WI, my hometown. I'm doing a school visit at my old high school tomorrow morning - which is both trippy and delightful.
With a four-hour drive ahead of me I decided to splurge on some new music. Listening to music while drive is a sure-fire way to get my brain synapses firing in a writerly way. Listening to new music in particular seems to really enliven my creative side.
While I purchase a lot of music on iTunes I still buy cds. I love the jacket art and liner notes that lets me know more about the musicians' process behind this finished product. Here's what I'll be listening to on the rides to and from the Northwoods.
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Though I already know the Mountain Goats to be incredibly talented, I was won over to purchase this album because I fell in love with the title tracks. The first track on this album: Damn These Vampires. Other fabulous titles for tracks: Prowl Great Cain, Outer Scorpion Squadron
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
I haven't listened to much Lykke Li but keep reading such great things about her that I decided to give this cd a whirl. Plus Scandinavian musicians tend toward awesome - Abba, anyone?
Jonsi - Go
Thank you to David Levithan for bringing Jonsi into my life. I loved Sigur Ros, I might love Jonsi a little bit more.
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
I already listen to Madder Red and O.N.E. incessantly, today I broke down and bought the whole album. Plus the typeface on the jacket is designed to look like Norse Runes. Love.
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
It's Radiohead. Need I say more?
I'll be curious to see which tracks are particularly inspiring. Songs often spin out scenes for me and that's how they end up on my book playlists and soundtracks. I'll keep you posted with the tunes that make the cut.
I always laugh when I'm asked "what did you do before you were a writer?" because I'm still doing it and have no intention of giving it up. I jokingly call my life as a history professor my 'day job' but it's a full-time endeavor and I love it.
When I've written about traveling of late it's usually been related to Nightshade, but I'm lucky that my history work takes me on the road too. This week I'm delighted to be at Saint Mary's College of Maryland for the Twelfth Annual Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Colloquium. The theme of this year's colloquium is Women in War: Object/Subject and feature historical, political, activist, and artistic interpretations of the topic.
Meeting the other visiting scholars and the faculty, students, and staff of the college has been wonderful, reminding me that gathering a group of engaged, caring people together and sharing ideas is the way the world can become a better place.
As a colonial historian I'm also enjoying the location. The college is located on the site of the first Maryland colony and has a public history exhibit that I visited.This building, the first state house, stands from 1676. It was amazing to be in a building that existed at the same moment Bacon's Rebellion and Metacom's War were underway.
And you can't have a colony without stocks. Let's all take a moment and be thankful that ear cropping and tongue dowels are no longer viewed as reasonable forms of punishment.
Maryland's colonial history has strong maritime connections and those connections continue today. The students of SMCM can take a course on colonial maritime history in which they learn how to sail The Dove - a replica of one of the colonial ships. I now really want to teach a course with a 'learn a colonial skill' component. Though I'm currently only qualified to teach students how they can identify a witch and I don't think that would be a great idea. The campus of SMCM is lovely as well. And spring is already appearing here.
The nice barn-shaped brick building in the background is where I'm staying.
I'll return home tomorrow after a wonderful week of conversation, learning, and new friends. Thanks, Saint Mary's!
Gazing into my crystal ball, I can see the future. And in the not-too-distant future this book: will be taught - and loved - in classrooms across the country (and hopefully the world!).
Between Shades of Gray is an exceptional novel, but you don't have to take my word for it. Check out this Booklist review:
*Starred Review* Sepetys' first novel offers a harrowing and horrifying account of the forcible relocation of countless Lithuanians in the wake of the Russian invasion of their country in 1939. In the case of 16-year-old Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, this means deportation to a forced-labor camp in Siberia, where conditions are all too painfully similar to those of Nazi concentration camps. Lina's great hope is that somehow her father, who has already been arrested by the Soviet secret police, might find and rescue them. A gifted artist, she begins secretly creating pictures that can--she hopes--be surreptitiously sent to him in his own prison camp. Whether or not this will be possible, it is her art that will be her salvation, helping her to retain her identity, her dignity, and her increasingly tenuous hold on hope for the future. Many others are not so fortunate. Sepetys, the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, estimates that the Baltic States lost more than one-third of their populations during the Russian genocide. Though many continue to deny this happened, Sepetys' beautifully written and deeply felt novel proves the reality is otherwise. Hers is an important book that deserves the widest possible readership.
Ruta Sepetys has created a beautiful, heart-rending historical tale that will move and change readers. I highly recommend you get to a bookstore today and pick it up. Not only is the book incredible, but I was lucky enough to be at a conference with Ruta this past November and she is a fantastic human being. I am honored to share an imprint (Philomel/Penguin) with her!
Congrats on your debut, Ruta! And thank you for this extraordinary novel.
Email your mailing info to andreacremerwrites (at) gmail (dot) com and the fabulous Editor Jill will ship your ARC to you! Thank you so much to Jill for giving away advanced copies of Wolfsbane and thanks to all of you for entering!!
I'll post any cover news/updates here as they're available.
Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears! You spoke. Penguin is listening. My wonderful editor, Jill Santopolo, has been kind enough to stop by and share a few words:
Hey, everyone. Editor Jill here. Andrea was nice enough to let me jump onto her blog to thank you all for your enthusiasm and feedback on the Wolfsbane jacket design. You’ve given us a lot to think about, and we’ll be having many Wolfsbane--related meetings here at Penguin headquarters in the coming weeks. Oh! And I have three Wolfsbane ARCs to give away today. Anyone who comments on this post with their favorite line from Nightshade will be entered to win. (Andrea assures me that she has a magical number generator that picks the winners fairly and squarely.)
More info to come! And yay Jill!! ARCs!! Leave a comment to be entered :) And please choose a favorite line that's SPOILER FREE.
Since this contest is tied into discussions about the new US cover designs it isn't open internationally (there will be future international giveaways).
All new cover info and updates will be posted here and on Twitter (@andreacremer)
Thanks you guys for your passion and commitment to the Nightshade series. Calla and the whole pack thank you.
UPDATE: Thank you for all the wonderful comments!! I'll take entries through Thursday and announce the winners Friday morning.
Another update: Due to the amazing response, Editor Jill is now giving away FIVE Wolfsbane ARCs! Huzzah!
This weekend I took in a film: Battle: LA. I will pretty much see any spectacular disaster movie, whether good or bad. I'd put Battle: LA in the good camp - it was an enjoyable romp with explosions abounding.
My husband and I bond over a shared love of the imagined apocalypse. While its depictions range from eye-rollingly ridiculous to thought provoking, there's something fascinating about the end of the world as we know it. In Buffyverse, though not one of my favorite character's, Riley Finn delivered one of the best lines of the series: "I find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse."
Pop culture has indeed dreamed up a plethora of means by which the world might end and I tend to enjoy society's demise in all its forms. The Ides of March seem an appropriate day to examine a foreboding subject. Let's have a look see:
Alien apocalypse Since I started out with Battle: LA I might as well continue in this vein. The alien apocalypse can be zany (Mars Attacks), insidious (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, X-Files), or bombastic (Independence Day, Battle: LA). It's interesting to see what our extraterrestrial neighbors look like, covet their superior technology, and wonder how humans will manage to prevail.
Viral ApocalypseMaybe more frightening because of its plausibility, the supervirus apocalypse (The Stand, Survivors) gets popular play though not as often as other armageddons. Sometimes it wipes out the population, sometimes it makes people into vampires (Daybreakers).
And in case you were worried that all this world-ending mayhem was mutually exclusive, sometimes viruses even bring...
Zombie apocalypseA perennial favorite, the zombie apocalypse comes in many forms. Whether wrought by the slow moving undead (George Romero's oeuvre) or the hyper-charged rage-diseased variety (28 Days Later), zombies spell bad news for society but give us lots of tips for survival. Double tap.
In fact, I'm not that frightened by the onset of zombie apocalypse because I think a good portion of the population is living in a zombie-apocalypse-ready state.
Climate apocalypse A relative newcomer to the end of the world scenarios, you'll find a few blockbusters (The Day After Tomorrow) but mostly made-for-tv fare (Category 7: The End of the World is pretty awesome). To get serious for a moment, the climate apocalypse scenario hits pretty close to home when horrible disasters (and yes, I know tectonics isn't climate, but still) are affecting sites around the globe. If you aren't already donating to the Red Cross, please consider doing so.
Nuclear apocalypse Like viral and climate apocalypses, nuclear apocalypse is plausible enough to be truly unsettling. But saw its popularity (Dr. Strangelove, The Day After, Reds, On the Beach) wane in the 21st century. I think "too close for comfort" is part of the we don't see more films of this variety. Also because the Cold War ended. Duh.
Biblical apocalypse Classic. Who doesn't love a good angels vs. demons battle for the fate of the world? And the four horsemen: pretty hard to top. Whether the anti-Christ is being born (The Omen, Constantine) or Lucifer's running rampant (End of Days), this type of apocalypse is chock full of supernatural goodness.
Though I'd hope none of us are rooting for the end of the world, I'd still wager that we all favor a particular armageddon. My husband is a devoted nuclear apocalypse fan, I'm torn between zombie and biblical, which makes sense given that science fiction and fantasy are my favorite genres.
I have some VERY exciting news today!! First of all I'm thrilled to tell you that NIGHTSHADE is now an international best seller!!! (Thank you, France!)
Coming on the heels of that announcement I'm psyched to share yet more fabulous news:
NIGHTSHADE will be available in paperback this June AND features a new cover! Penguin decided to try out a fresh take on NIGHTSHADE for the paperback release and I absolutely love it. I also loved the original cover, but I think the new cover truly embodies the novel and depicts Calla so perfectly. When I was first mulling over NIGHTSHADE I came across a poem by Margaret Atwood (one of my favorite authors)* and was struck by its first stanza:
Not you I fear, but that other
She who can walk through flesh Queen of the two dimensions
These lines reflected the essence of Calla and were the inspiration for this new cover. I love it!
The response to the new NIGHTSHADE cover as it was previewed was so positive that Penguin has decided to makeover the series with this new theme. Squee!!! Thus I'm also able to share....
NEW WOLFSBANE COVER!! I am enthralled by how powerful Calla is in this image and the way she resembles a wolf silhouetted by the moon is exquisite. Calla would love this cover (as would Ren and Shay *cough*).
Thanks to all the talent at Penguin for giving my books such wonderful covers!!! I can't wait to see them on the books!!
No this is not a post about that new movie starring Bradley Cooper (although - yay, Bradley Cooper!)
At my household of late we've been watching the X-Files, which I missed when it was on back in the day because at that point in my life my scare tolerance was about a 2 on a 1 - 10 scale (1 The Dark Crystal, 10 being The Shining). Over time I've scaled up to around an 8 with a few variables thrown in. I enjoy a good fright, but still have no tolerance for gore. All of this adds up to me rounding up films and television shows that were once upon a time too scary for me, but am now devouring as quickly as I can find them.
I was thinking about why I particularly love the X-Files, which lead to more broad speculation about sci-fi and fantasy - which I'll always take over other genres - and why I'm mind-boggled when encountering people who say "I just don't like fantasy."
And that's that. It's not that they haven't found the right type of fantasy. This group of people don't like any kind of fantasy. They don't even like Harry Potter (fantasy blasphemy!!)
I've run into many such persons in the course of my life, and now that I'm writing fantasy I encounter even more usually in the contest of "I'd like to read your book, but I don't like fantasy. Will you write something else?" *facepalm*
The X-Files finally brought me around to an answer to this conundrum of speculation-haters. In the series Agent Fox Mulder engages in a constant tug of war with Agent Dana Scully. Mulder searchers for evidence of the fantastic in the world: ghosts, magic, monsters and, of course, aliens. Scully is the skeptic, always demanding fact and scientific proof and hoping to explain away through reason what on the surface appears impossible. I think the population might be divided up into Mulders and Scullys: and it's all about competing visions of one's ideal world. Hailing from the Mulder camp I look at the world as full of possibility. And what terrifies me is the idea that all our imagining could be explained away. I don't want to live in a world where the magical and mystical have no traction, where miracles don't exist. That is what I'm afraid of.
Scullys are the opposite, finding comfort in a world that has boundaries that are fixed, rules that will not be broken. I don't mean this post as a criticism of said persons - only that I think I'm finally understanding their worldview and how radically divergent it is from my own.
These oppositional approaches to the world are based largely in fear. What is more frightening: a world where the fantastic and frightening may exist, or where they can be proven not to?
When asked why I write fantasy I often answer it's because of the freedom. I write to create worlds that explore things unseen, that test the limits of possibility.
I want to live in a world that is limitless. I want to believe.
Today is International Women's Day. I hope that anyone who reads Nightshade understands how deeply issues of inequality and patriarchy concern me - both as an historian and as a human being. I could write at length on this topic - but why would I when Daniel Craig and Judy Dench have already offered this:
My home state of Wisconsin has been making a lot of headlines recently and the news is not good. In case you haven't heard, the current governor - Scott Walker - has decided that to solve the state's budget woes his only option is to destroy collective bargaining for public employees. While troublesome in a broad sense because of its disdain for labor, the group affected by this decision that I'm most worried over is Wisconsin's teachers. I'm indebted to Wisconsin's public school system for my education - which was a truly excellent one at that. Teachers helped me to discover my love of learning and my passion for writing. They encouraged me with each step I took toward my goals and when my high school A.P. English teacher surprised me at my book release party, we both cried.
When I was home over the holidays I had the opportunity to visit my former high school and meet with students and teachers. I'm returning to the high school to give formal presentations on writing in April. School visits have become one of my favorite parts of being an author. Teachers play a vital role in organizing special programs, like author visits, to schools. I'm always impressed and moved by how incredibly hard these teachers work. Educators go far beyond the expectations of their jobs in order to enrich children's lives. Teachers are among the most dedicated, over-worked, and under-appreciated laborers of our society. Rather than being recognized for all that they do to help our communities, they've become an easy political target; scapegoats for social and economic ills for which they are not the cause.
I can hardly believe my ears when accusations of over pay for easy tasks fly. Teachers are not overpaid. Many teachers have second jobs in the summer months so they can pay their bills. During the school year teachers are not simply in the classroom, they are running after-school programs, coaching, mentoring and offering enrichment for students who would not otherwise find outlets for their gifts.
The attack on teachers is nothing less than an attack on the welfare of our society. To disrespect the contributions and sacrifices that educators make in service of the community is akin to dumping toxic waste in the river of the present so that its poisons can be dealt with downstream by the future.
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm running the first WOLFSBANE ARC contest on Twitter for the next 24 hours. On March 1 from midnight to 11:59 PM any tweet with including #wolfsbane will be entered for a chance to win an ARC of book 2 in the Nightshade series.
