Radiance of Tomorrow, by Ishmael Beah on NPR's Morning Edition

I heard this story on NPR this morning, about a former child soldier turned novelist, and I was deeply moved by some of the language and imagery I heard.

You can hear the full story, on NPR's website: here.

The poetry that stuck with me was near the end of the story, when Ishmael Beah was describing his native language, Mende, which is a tonal language (meaning that meaning is often derived from tone) and is apparently very image driven. A few examples of beautiful phrases they use are:

A soccer ball might be called a nest of air.

If night falls suddenly they might say the sky rolled over and changed its sides.

Have you ever heard anything so beautiful? Remember, this is a former child soldier speaking.

Wag the Dog

I heard the most awesome story on NPR's Morning Edition this morning. It was about dogs.

You can find it here, but the audio won't be up until 9 AM.

TL;DR when dogs see something they love (like their owner) they wag their tails more to the right. When they see something threatening (like a strange dog) they wag their tails more to the left.

Isn't that fascinating? I love dogs.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Happy Blumesday!

Some of you have maybe heard of Bloom's Day, which celebrates James Joyce. Well, I've ready Ulysses, twice, and I still don't get it. Another author, who I do get, and love, is Judy Blume. So, some writers decided she needed a day too. I couldn't agree more.

Happy Blumesday!

The Hobbit: First Review

Well, I heard my first review of The Hobbit on NPR's Morning Edition this morning. From Kenneth Turan:

"It doesn't suck."

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it's encouraging. And I now officially will not even look at another blog until I've seen the movie. So please don't tell me what you think until I've had a chance to see it.

Surprise! Kids are Reading (Duh)

Just something quick for you today. All you authors out there, but especially we kidlit authors, will be glad to hear: kids read.

Haha, I know. Obvious right? But according to this story, on NPR's Morning Edition today, kids are reading more than adults. And that's great news, isn't it?

Seriously, check the story out. It's not even a full story, really, just a quick bit about books and readers. The audio won't be available until 9 AM, but you can read the transcript at that link, above.

The Kindness Project: Giving

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

Today I just want to highlight something I heard about on the radio. I know, it's kind of a cop-out in comparison to some of the other Kindness Project posts I've done, but I've been slammed at work lately, and even being on a hiatus from blogging hasn't helped much.

So anyway, I was listening to NPR on the way in this morning, as I am wont to do, and I heard this story, about literary giant Larry McMurtry, author of Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove, among others, who is holding an auction for 300,000 rare and used books.

His bookstore, Booked Up, is apparently a sprawling operation that takes up four buildings in his tiny town of Archer City, Texas. It's home to around half a million books, the majority of which will soon be going up for auction. In the interview, he said that he was concerned about his legacy, but wanted to unload some of the books because his son and his grandson are not book people.

This got me thinking about family, legacies, and giving. My dad died four years ago this October, and when my sisters and I went through his house, there was a lot of stuff to decide about. A lot of paintings, a lot of records, and a lot of books. Not nearly as many as Mr. McMurtry, of course, but a lot. We still have not had time to go through it all.

He died suddenly, and while he did have a will, it didn't specify what he wanted done with any particular items, so we've put most of it in storage until we have time to decide what to do with it. Someday I hope to have time to decide what I want to keep, and what I can give away, assuming someone somewhere wants it.

When I first heard about this auction, I was saddened and amazed (he's not giving the books away for free or anything, but still), but then I remembered my dad's stuff, and recalled what a burden it can be.

I don't know if I really have a point, but you should check out that story, it's pretty interesting. And here are the rest of today's Kindness Project posts:

The Lifespan of a Fact

There was a fascinating story on NPR this morning, about embellishing the truth in writing. Most of us here, in the writing and publishing blogsphere, write fiction, so truth is of little consequence, unless it comes to properly researching the correct airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. But in non-fiction, narrative or otherwise, facts and truth, become a bit more paramount.

I'm sure you all remember James Frey, and his "memoir," A Million Little Pieces. If you don't, he's the author who was publicly called out on Oprah Winfrey's show, for falsifying many of the key details of his autobiography.

Anyway, this post isn't about all that. It's about the two gentlemen in the photo, and the new book that they're involved in. The Lifespan of a Fact is a new book getting talked about for defending an author's right to embellish facts, even in non-fiction. The two men in this photo are Jim Fingal (left), a fact-checker turned software engineer, and John D'Agata, who teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa, and is the author of About a Mountain.

The Lifespan of a Fact focuses on an essay D'Agata wrote about a boy who committed suicide 16 years ago in Las Vegas, by jumping off the Stratosphere Tower. In the essay, D'Agata wrangles several dates, and twists the facts for dramatic effect, into an essay that while it may not shatter the truth, certainly bends it.

This new book contains the essay, and some correspondence between the two men, who had to work together for the essay to be published in The Believer, after it was rejected by Harpers. You can read the article at NPR, here, but the audio from the piece on Morning Edition will not be available until 9 AM.

What do you guys think? Have any of you ever written non-fiction? Even if you haven't, do you think a writer has the right to embellish certain things, for dramatic effect? What if, writing about your own past, you simply can't remember every detail?

Two Announcements

I've got two announcements for you guys this morning. The first one is probably obvious by now.

I've been invited to join the group blog, Project Middle Grade Mayhem. Some of my favorite authors are members there, like Hilary Wagner, Jen Blom, and Rose Cooper, and the other members all seem awesome, I just have to get to know them now.

In the meantime, it would be great if all of you would head over there, follow the blog, and say hello on my behalf. I haven't done a single post yet, but I'm looking forward to playing my part.

The other announcement is equally important. I'm sure you all remember the ridiculous article in the Wall Street Journal. The one that called Young Adult Literature too dark (and depraved) and specifically called out my friend, Andrew Smith, for writing a sick novel, with no happy ending. Well, Andrew is going to be interviewed this morning (10 AM CDT) on Minnesota Public Radio, on Midmorning with Kerri Miller.

I grew up in Minnesota, and I love Andrew's writing, so this is going to be interesting for me. Make sure you give it a listen if you like that kind of thing.

Bouquinistes

Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

I heard a really interesting story on NPR this morning about the book sellers who ply their wares on the banks of the Seine in Paris. These people are known as bouquinistes, which I guess means booksellers? I don't really know because I don't speak French. Anyway, rather than steal the story and represent it as my own, I will just point you to the article on the NPR website, here. The audio for the produced for radio version of the story will be available around 9 AM EST.

Anyway, the whole thing also reminded me of an awesome group of bloggers I know. The Bookanistas. Well, I don't actually know all of them, but I do know some of them. Here is a list of links to their blogs in case somehow, for some crazy unknown reason, you haven't heard of them:

Katie and Sarah Frances

Elana Johnson

Christine Fonesca

Shannon Messenger

Shelli Johannes-Wells

Scott Tracey

Kirsten Hubbard

Beth Revis

Carolina Valdez Miller

Jamie Harrington

Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Saxton

Myra McEntire
Michelle Hodkin
Lisa and Laura Roecker

So there you go. Enjoy the article, check out the Bookanistas and have a great day! I'm off to work on something for my crit group.

NPR is the Shiznitt

I didn't even realize it until today, but Friday's was my 105th post. Yay me. I started this blog in early March, I can't remember the day, but that means that six months will be coming up soon. And I haven't embarrassed myself into oblivion ... yet.

Anyway thanks for all the lovely comments on Rose's post and query. She and I will be in touch and announcing a winner soon. Well, I assume we will at least, it's really all up to her. I don't have much else today but I do want to share with you all a pretty cool story I heard on the radio on the way in to work this morning.

I listen to NPR in the morning and sports talk in the afternoon. Does this mean I'm old and boring? Yeah, pretty much. Anyway this morning they had an encouraging story about something planned for Paris. They've already got the best health-care in the world, what do the French need now you ask? How about a fleet of electric cars, publicly funded, to allow Parisians to rent them for a very reasonable rate at any time and place?

It's called Autolib, which is short for Auto Liberte. Think of it like the community car programs many major U.S. cities have like FlexCar except that these are all electric, publicly funded, and cheap to use. Paris has had a program called Velib going strong since 2007 in which Bikes can be rented dirt cheap by the public and then returned across town. Velib has already reduced traffic in Paris by 25%, officials hope the car program will do even more to reduce congestion and pollution.

Autolib is basically an extension of the bike plan in which a fleet of 3000 all electric cars will be available for rent at very reasonable rates across the city, can be used for a day or a week, re-charged at over 1000 stations around town, and then returned at your leisure. It's very simple. You pay to use a car when you need it, and there are no hassles like insurance, repairs, and the bane of every urban driver who ever lived: parking.

You can read more about the program here.

What will they think of next?