Issue 17

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.” –Noam Chomsky

The American Library Association (ALA) has announced that the 27th anniversary of Banned Books Week (BBW) will take place September 27- October 4, 2008 at libraries and schools across the country.

Since 1982, BBW has drawn attention to the increasing number of challenges to books in schools and libraries. The ALA is asking readers to support BBW by organizing Banned Books Read-Out! at local schools and libraries, reading a banned book, joining the Freedom to Read Foundation and writing letters to schools and libraries in support of the freedom to read.

The challenging and banning of books because of questionable content is an age-old practice that is surprisingly prevalent today. Some of the most frequently challenged books in recent years include The Catcher and the Rye, The Color Purple, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Golden Compass. Many influential writers have had their work challenged as well; authors in this category include Judy Blume, R.L. Stine, Stephen King and John Steinbeck.

According to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, 420 challenges were filed last year requesting that a book be banned. A challenge is a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Judith King, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom, reports that for every challenge reported approximately four or five remain unreported. A banning, on the other hand, is when a book is actually removed from a library or school. Fortunately, most challenges are unsuccessful; despite the formal compliant, books are rarely removed from library and school bookshelves.

So how do you get your book challenged and possibly banned? It’s quite easy. The following criteria are used when ruling whether or not to ban a book:
-inappropriate sexual content (including homosexuality and sexist remarks)
-offensive language
-anti-ethnic
-anti-family
-religious viewpoint
-unsuited to age group
-racism

For the past two years, the most frequently challenged book has been And Tango Makes Three (Simon and Schuster) by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The ALA reports that complaints against the book include “anti-ethnic,” “sexism,” “homosexuality,” “anti-family,” “religious viewpoint” and “unsuited to age group.” And Tango Makes Three is the true story of a baby penguin at the Central Park Zoo who is raised by two male penguins who are presumably a couple. In 2006, the book was named Notable Children’s Book by the American Library Association and Best Book of the Year by Nick Jr. Family Magazine. Numerous complaints have been filed since the book’s publication. For instance, at Shiloh Elementary School in Shiloh, IL parents petitioned for the book to be placed in the restricted section of the library. The superintendent denied the request and the book is available to all students.

BBW is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the National Association of College Stores and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. BBW is endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com or join the discussion on gather.com.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine

Once, at the ripe young age of eighteen, I went away to work and live in a castle in Austria. I planned to stay a year, but my boyfriend proposed two days before I left. Always one to listen solely to my heart I left Austria only after a few short summer months. Even still, the mountains, lakes and twisted trails had their way with me in the few short months I was there. How could sleeping in the same barracks that the Nazi soldiers once lived in not fuel my imagination? How could I not wake up at sunrise before work to jog along the lake alone or walk through the village in the evening writing poetry in my head?

The closest castle to me now is Castello di Amorosa in the Napa Valley. Sure it’s a winery and it’s not old, but it’s built authentically and even has a genuine torture chamber with a used (!) iron maiden. I like to visit not just for the wine, but because seeing the rough hewn stones of the courtyard and turrets takes me back to other castles I have experienced. From the ruins of Nimrod’s Castle in Israel to the beauty of Warwick’s Castle in England, there is something about walking along walls that speak. From a soiled oubliette to a grand banquet hall, castles breathe the stories of former times into my ears. I walk along in silence, listening only to what the tour guide doesn’t say. If there are ghosts there, I’ve heard them.

Listening to stories both told and untold always inspires me to write, though I never write exactly what I hear and the settings always change. Although I enjoy period pieces I prefer to relate the past to the present; to write characters that breathe now but are connected to those who don’t. Since I’ll never be a princess, and hopefully not a maid, I probably will never live in a castle again. Still, the experience will always be with me, the memories of sitting up in the tower alone to look out over the lake or walking up the mountainside to discover a meadow of wildflowers. It somehow feels right to know that my own story, no matter how minor, will always be mixed in with all the others in the castle both past and present.

Tyler Oaks earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Stanislaus and her Master of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Sacramento. Tyler lives in California's Napa Valley with her husband and twin daughters. Tyler is presently at work on her next novel.

How much do you value your own life? To what lengths or extremes would you go to stay alive? All of us have been in circumstances where we believed our demise was imminent. What action, or better yet, non-action did you take?

Almost everyone has stepped off a curb; their mind pre-occupied with other important matters like what they are having for lunch, and heard the squealing of tires before facing the front end of a car. I bet the only reaction by the majority of people was to freeze-in-place, almost creating the certainty of death if the vehicle fails to stop.

But what about a situation where you have time to mull over and think about a response to your predicament? Say you are trapped on the second floor of a burning house. Would you open a window and jump out? Or is your fear of heights going to allow your body to be fried to a crisp?

If you deliberate very long, it’s probably too late to make a decision to save your skin. Now jumping out of a two-story window may be a quick thought for many, but what if you are on the fourth floor? Do you give up and just keep screaming or try to figure out a way to scale down the gutter or hope to grab a window ledge on a lower floor? The prospect of grabbing something to break your fall plays fairly well in the movies, but it is still a better option than having your socks on fire with no chance of escape.

Every decision to save your life from any calamity is based on balancing our multiple fears against the odds of survival. For example, riding a gutter to the ground or leaping into a nearby tree, which may save your life if you are successful, versus remaining in a burning building where the heated fumes will probably kill you within seconds.

Is deciding your method of surviving (or dieing, if you are unlucky) more terrifying then facing death? Perhaps this is the predicament your protagonist will face in your next horror novel.

On second thought, I don’t even want to get started thinking about making a decision regarding our fears. I’m afraid that would take way too long.

Brian Douglas Coyle, a graduate of Kent State University in Ohio, has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry. He is currently the Community Development Investment Manager at BB&T, the eleventh largest bank in the country. Brian is the author of Soul Riders and the 2008 release The Devil’s Sanctuary.

Photo Courtesy: Gracey Stinson

It’s April 1990. My first book, Full Circle: The Near-Death Experience and Beyond has just been released, and I am in a long black limo being driven through traffic in Manhattan. We’ve just picked up a Simon and Schuster publicist, straight out of The Devil Wears Prada, only this girl is even younger than Anne Hathaway. I am pushing 47 and feeling quite old sitting next to her. I’m also chuckling, thinking about what my blue collar neighbors in Connecticut must have said when a stretch limousine picked me up to take me to The Big Apple.

My publicist informs me that we are doing a TV show in Jersey and a radio show that will broadcast live during the 5:00 p.m. rush hour: A perfect time to be heard in the tri-state area. She carefully breaks the news to me that this interview is going to be rough. She explains that it’s just his style and he is listened to by most New Yorkers. There is dead silence for awhile, and then she continues, telling me how to roll with the punches.

The TV show went well, and as we left my publicist informed me that it will be watched by the whole tri-state area, mainly stay-at-home moms, and that they could buy my book. As I began digesting this information, my publicist began prepping me for my interview with Don Imus.

“Who’s Imus?” I ask.

“You don’t know who Imus is?” she answers, making me feel like I just landed from Mars. My excuse now, looking back eighteen years, is that I never listened to the radio, unless of course I was being interviewed.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I was interviewed constantly about near-death experiences and the research at the University of Connecticut. I was even in a newsletter that went out to all the radio stations with bios on experts. That lasted a month, and I was on at least two radio shows a day somewhere in the U.S. and in Canada.

Through my experiences on radio, I offer the following advice:

1) Most radio interviews can be done from home over the telephone. If interviewing from home, don’t use a cordless phone; they sound fuzzy compared to a phone with a cord.

2) If another caller can click in to your line turn that feature off of your phone. The lick will be heard on air and can be a distraction.

3) Ask for a CD of the interview when the radio host or producer sets up the interview. Its important to have a clear recording of the interview to put on your website.

4) Realize that you won’t like every interview. Every host has his or her own agenda.

5) Talk radio is big now. Take every show you can get, even if its at 3 a.m. Someone’s shift is ending, and there are always commuters listening somewhere.

6) Laugh at your interviewer’s jokes and cracks.

7) Make sure either you or the host gives ordering information for your book. I recommend repeating the website and phone number for your publisher’s ordering department a few times throughout the course of the interview.

8) Add what you want to say even if the interviewer doesn’t ask about it and have what you want to say in front of you in big print. Remember, we’re the ones that are the authority; that’s why we wrote the book.

9) Finally, don’t take yourself too seriously. Radio interviews get easier over time and actually become fun.

My publicist left before the interview started, saying that it was almost 5 p.m. and that if I didn’t mind, she was ready to call it a day. I hope she listened to the show on her way home because this man was not who she described. Don Imus was a gentleman. He actively expressed genuine enjoyment for my topic and my book. The questions that came in over the phone were also positive. Just before the interview ended, he opened my book to the page he had marked and read one of my poems to me. That poem starts the second half of the book with the beginning of my new life. Don Imus read the following to me:

I sit patiently, now
In my solitude.
Awaiting the dawn
Of my release
Knowing a death has
Occurred.
Two cautious still
To announce my rebirth.
But starting to sense my need
For lessons in crawling, then walking.
So I may eventually Skip
And Dance
And Live
To my Heart’s Own Content.

It was a gentle moment where I realized that he and I probably had more in common than I understood. I walked away feeling good. This was the first feedback I received on my first book, and I knew that he understood. Years later, I would learn of Imus’s reputation. I believe that his reputation is show biz. Behind that, his heart beats just like the rest of us.

Click here to read "Oprah Who?" Barbara Harris Whitfield's TV interview tips.

Barbara Harris Whitfield is the author of five books and numerous articles on the near-death experience and natural spirituality. She is a near-death experiencer and respiratory and massage therapist. She spent six years at the University of Connecticut Medical School researching the psychological, emotional, and energetic after effects of spiritual awakenings and recently retired from teaching at Rutger’s Institute for Alcohol and Drug Studies. Barbara lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, author and physician Charles Whitfield, MD. They share a private practice helping adults that were repeatedly traumatized as children. Barbara’s new book, The Natural Soul, will be coming out in 2009 with SterlingHouse Publisher. For more information go to http://www.cbwhit.com and http://www.barbarawhitfield.com

Photo Courtesy: Ronnie Bergeron

Last week’s exercises focused on establishing Place within a scene. This week, we will work on developing the relationship between Place and the character.

Setting Exercise Four
Objective: To develop the relationship between Place and character

Part 1
Place helps define character. Here’s the setting; now, who is the character?
1. A shack in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou
2. An old castle in Scotland
3. A ghetto apartment building
4. A moon station
5. A recently remodeled farmhouse

Part 2
Now choose one of the above settings and write a short scene in which the character you created for that setting interacts with his or her environment. How is the setting established? What sensory images are used? How does the setting help define the character? What sorts of interactions might the character have?

Setting Exercise Five
Objective: To show how different places affect character

A woman character whom you know relatively well is going on a blind date with a man whom she is to meet at a specific place. She has seen his picture, so she knows what he looks like.
Write a brief scene of 4-8 sentences in which these two characters meet for the first time in the following settings. Her blind date has chosen the place in which they are to meet. Be sure to include sensory descriptions. Note how each place influences the characters in specific ways, including dress, speech, emotions and reactions to each other.
1. A California fern barn
2. An amusement park
3. A bowling alley
4. A performance of the opera, Madame Butterfly

What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part One
What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part Three

For more helpful tips and exercises, visit www.sterlinghouse-bookstore.com and check out:
Writing Aerobics I by C. Sterling and M. Davidson

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com or join the discussion on facebook.com.

By Amanda Linsmeier

The Beach House (Viking Adult) is a captivating novel by best-selling author Jane Green (Second Chance, Swapping Lives, Viking Adult) about family, self-love and friendship. Living alone in an old, elegant house atop a bluff in Nantucket, Nan is perceived as an eccentric woman. The 65-year old widow is content keeping up her image by skinny-dipping in her neighbors’ pools and stealing their flowers. When she discovers that her financial situation isn’t quite as comfortable as she would have liked to believe, Nan is forced to come up with an alternative to selling her Windermere, her beloved home. Her solution? Take on boarders for the summer and run an unofficial bed and breakfast.

The first guest to arrive is Daniel, a quiet man struggling with a deep secret that has haunted him his entire life. Next is Daff, a recent divorcee who is trying to come to terms with her newly-single self while her rebellious teenage daughter Jess spends the summer with her father. Nan’s son Michael also arrives, running from an affair with his boss and looking for some peace inside himself.

The summer is spent with guests building a relationship with Nan, their fellow houseguests and most importantly, with themselves. Daniel’s ex-wife makes an appearance along with their two young daughters. Daff’s daughter Jess, who has become too much for her father to handle, also arrives. Nan is thrilled to see Windermere restored to the bustling, lively home it once was and considers her houseguests to be her extended family. In turn, the guests fall in love with Nan. It is only when an unexpected visitor arrives that they discover their lives have been turned upside down.

I found the novel to be interesting and the characters loveable. I did however find some flaws. The first being Daff’s daughter, Jess. When we meet Jess, she’s a screaming, shoplifting teen; magically, she is transformed overnight into a responsible, loving girl simply by feeling “useful” and being treated as an adult. I would have liked to have seen more of a subtle transformation with her story. My second issue with the novel involves Nan. Described as being eccentric, and yes, swimming naked in her neighbor’s pool does constitute this title, I wish that Green would have developed that side of her character more. Yes, she wears red lipstick. Yes, she chain smokes. But I think these qualities give her a personality; not necessarily an eccentric one. Truth be told, I loved Nan anyway. I thought she was a cool old lady, if not a particularly strange one.

All in all, this novel was an enjoyable read and something that I would read again. I dare readers to pick it up and not wish they were spending their summer at a beach house in Nantucket. Jane Green has written a wonderful summer novel. Read it on a white, slip-covered chair with a glass of cold iced tea and a vase of blue hydrangeas close by.

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