No Return to Censorship

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.

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An Offer for Book Groups

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.

For more details, see my new page:  S.W.A.G. 

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Guest Post for LGBT Lit Days

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.  

Just click on:  My Guest Post.  Thanks.

The Hat Says...

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.

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