Banned Book: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Before there was Elizabeth Gilbert and Eat Pray Love, there was Kate Chopin and The Awakening.  Chopin penned The Awakening in 1899.  It was the Victorian era.  It was a time of marked constraint.  Propriety was a top priority. 

Edna Pontellier, Chopin's protagonist, was anything but the ideal Victorian woman.  Edna's actions flew in the face of Victorian notions of proper female behavior and familial obligations.  The book outlines Edna's awakening.  Edna's is a journey of self-actualization, self-understanding, self-reflection.

Edna is a twenty-eight year old housewife.  She is defined by society, and in the beginning by herself, as a wife and a mother.  All other aspects of her personality are pushed to the edges, overshadowed by Edna-Wife and Edna-Mother. 

While on vacation in Louisiana Edna begins to realize her own dissatisfaction with her existence as Edna-Wife-Mother.  She begins to search for happiness, and that search leads her to behave in ways that are not socially acceptable. 

If you want to read about strong women, real women--you'll want to read about Edna Pontellier.  You want sex? Scandal?  Adultery?  Go to your local library and check out The Awakening.  It's so shocking it was banned. 

Banned Books: fREADom of Information

This week is Banned Book Week!  In honor of banned books every where, this week's posts will all have something to do with banned books.

I thought I'd start the ball rolling by putting up the ALA's list of 100 banned and challenged classic books.  The X next to a book means I've read it.  How many banned books have you read?

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald   X  (loved it)
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger   X
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck   X
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee      X (loved it)
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker            X
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce                            X
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison       X
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding    X
9. 1984, by George Orwell      X10. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White      X (one of my childhood favorites)
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller      X
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley      X (strangest, most interesting book ever)
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell             X (hated it, but I read it)
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway     X21. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad                 X (pretentious, boring book)
22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne                          X
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston      X
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison         X
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell     X (love it, better than the movie)
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey    X
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut         X (Thank you Jonathan Hartzell for introducing me to Vonnegut!)
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway       X (awesome book)31. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway          X
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London                       X
34. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf 
35. Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien                X (wonderful book)
41. Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton                      X (I love Edith Wharton)
43. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand                                 X (I do not love Ayn Rand)
44. Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum        X
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence           X
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin                             X (I loved this book)51. My Antonia, by Willa Cather                                       X (one of my favorites)
52. Howards End, by E.M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz, by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe          X
66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut                 X
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 68. Light in August, by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe            X (great book)
71. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams X
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh    X
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe    X
77. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway  
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise, by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells      X
86. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians, by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame       X (lovely book)
91. This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand                       X (eh)
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles
94. Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike           X (I like his other banned book better--The Witches of Eastwick)
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie

I've read 41 of the banned books on this list.  How many have you read?  Which of these are books you love? 

Picture Post

People say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Is that true?  Let's find out!  Send me a picture--any picture--and I'll write a story about it in under a thousand words.  Let's see what kind of images I get.  If I don't get any then I guess I'll just figure out something else. 

This should make for a fun Reader Wednesday.

In other news:

It is a somber gray day here in the sweet, sultry south.  A soft, warm rain is pit-patting against the window panes.  It's a lovely sound.  It it the perfect weather for all things word related:  reading, writing, resting (which for me always involves both reading and writing). 

It is supposed to rain all week.  I will therefore be working on my novel all week.  The blog may be neglected as I try to draw our reluctant queen's journey to a close.  I am determined to finish this week.  We'll see if that determination pays off.

Now it's off to sit in my windowseat with a fresh cup of cocoa and my weapons of choice: a pen and paper.

Happy National Punctuation Day: Commas

Today is National Punctuation Day.  Silly, I know.  But where would we be without those wonderful sentence stoppers?

 

In honor of National Punctuation Day I've decided to dedicate today's blog to the proper use of commas.  I have been called a grammar Nazi, and I am a bit of a grammar snob.  So here are some common comma-related punctuation errors/tips for those of you who are not so grammatically inclined.

. ? !:  Periods, exclamation points, and questions marks are pretty straight forward. You use them to end a sentence.  If you are having a problem with the use of these simple punctuation marks then seek help immediately, and stop reading now.  This article isn't going to help you, my friend.

Commas (,):  People are afraid of commas.  Many writers are so afraid of commas that they just don't use them.  Under use of commas is bad.  Overuse of commas is worse.  Lots of people are comma-happy.  Don't be comma-happy.  Here are some tips on when to use a comma:

1. To separate items in a series

Example: Brad ate an apple, a cracker, and a chocolate bar.

2. To separate two complete sentences.

Example:  The concert had started, but Michelle was late.

Explanation:  Two complete sentences are connected with a connecting word (but). Both sentences could stand alone. If you said, "The concert had started.  Michelle was late" it would still make sense.

Tip:  The comma goes before the word connecting the two sentences.

3. To offset introductory clauses.

Example:  To get a good grade, you'd better come to class early.

Example 2:  Venus was not worshipped as widely during Constantine's reign.  However, archaeological evidence shows that Venus-worship did not cease completely during this period.

Tip:  If you find that you naturally pause when reading a sentence aloud, you probably need a comma.

There are lots more ways to use commas.  I can write more about it later if you'd like. 

If you have other punctuation related questions, please direct those to my email: jenniferwelbornwrites@gmail.com.

Thanks a Freaking Lot (Really)!



You can find more cool images like this one here.

 Despite the insincerity of this image I really do want to a say a great big THANK YOU to some pretty great people.

As most of you are well aware (and if you're not then dude seriously read the blog header) I am an aspiring YA novelist.  I have actually nearly completed my first novel.  I have maybe 2 chapters left to write and the rest is currently in the editing stages.  I had no idea editing, especially editing for format, was so time consuming...but that's a post for another day.

So I am working on this work of fiction whenever I get the chance.  I am madly researching how to get published, how to write query letters, how to "be" a "real" writer.  I'm reading all of this stuff, anything I can get my hands on really, and one piece of advice keeps popping up.  It goes something like this:  DON'T send your manuscript out to publishers and agents until at least five people have read it and commented on it! 

Holy freaking cow.  I don't trust five people!  I mean how do I know they won't plagiarize all my hard work?  How can I find five people who can actually articulate their opinions?  What five people?  What kind of demographic should I be looking for here?  *screams in horror* I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING! I DON'T HAVE FIVE PEOPLE!

Ok so after my mini meltdown I decided a few things.  First, I am writing a YA book.  Therefore, my readers need to be teens. I need comments from teens.  Second, the readers need to be teens who actually read--you know--like for fun.  Third, I have a cousin in high school.  He likes to read.  His friends like to read.  They're all the right age.  They all like to read.  Time to make contact.

So I did.  I emailed my cousin who put me in touch with some of his friends and together this group of quirky, interesting, and fantastically funny teens have become my teen reading panel.  These teens never cease to surprise me.  They are remarkably thoughtful and eager to help.  Plus, they seem to be enjoying what I've written which just makes me grin like a moron.

Thank you so much to my teen reader panel!  You know who you are and you are fabulous!  Your comments and feedback have offered me unique insight and understanding.  When this book gets published all of you will merit a special mention in the acknowledgement section. 

But until then I thought I'd let you know:

Wow...a 3 year old has better Paint skills than I do.

Reader Wednesday: Favorite Books/Authors

I didn't get any prompts or writing suggestions today so I decided to give my readers some suggestions instead.  I wanted to keep with the theme "Reader Wednesday" and this is what I came up with. 

Today I am going to give you a list of some of my current favorite authors and books.  If you decide to try something on the list and you like it too then please let me know.  I love it when I help a person discover a great read!

Fiction:

1. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
2. The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
3. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
4. Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie (a light, easy read: no real depth, but fun)
5. The Lost Hours by Karen White

Nonfiction:

1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (this book really is as good as people say it is)
2. What Color is Your Parachute 2010 by Richard N. Bolles (great for job-hunters)
3. Playing the Game: The Street Smart Guide to Graduate School by Fred Frank and Karl Stein
4. Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill
5. 2011 Writer's Market (ed.) by Robert Lee Brewer

Teen:

1. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
2. Valiant by Holly Black
3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
4. The Necromancer by Michael Scott
5. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Children:

1. Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser
2. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
3. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
4. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.
5. Waking Up Is Hard to Do by Neil Sedaka

Happy reading!

Gift Card Giveaway Winner!

The Gift Card Giveaway ended on the 19th.  I put all of your names in a hat and made my husband pick one.  Sooooooooo [insert anticipation building drum beat here]:

Congratulations to LOVEISMUSIC!  You've got a $10 Gift Card to Books-A-Million! 

I Speak Loudly

I wanted to write this entry last night, but I found that I could not.  I was too upset.  I was too angry.  The words I needed to say were caught in the back of my throat like a spoonful of peanut butter.  So I took the night to think about it.  Now I know how to say what I need to say.

Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite authors.  I am madly in love with him, despite the fact that he is both dead and homosexual.  Wilde's books were used against him at trial.  He famously said, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.  That is all."  He was right.

He also said, "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame."  Laurie Halse Anderson dared to write such a brilliant book.  Her YA novel Speak confronts controversial and scary topics, specifically that of teen rape.

Melinda, the main character, is brutalized.  She goes to a party a happy, carefree girl.  She leaves that party a broken, terrorized, victimized young woman.  She doesn't know how to talk about what happened to her.  She doesn't know how to put voice to something so horrific that words cannot compare to the pain she will eventually have to face.  Melinda is a victim of rape, and she chooses not to speak about it.  Melinda, like so many victims of rape, chooses not to tell.  Her story is moving and so very real.

And unfortunately, we live in a society where teenagers are raped and they, like Melinda, cannot speak.  They, like Melinda, do not tell.  Melinda's story resonates with those teens.  It also teaches something important, something of pain, to teens who have not had to live through something so awful.

There is an awful man out there.  His name is Dr. Wesley Scroggins.  He lives in Rebulic, Missouri.  Scroggins is a fundamentalist Christian.  He is calling Speak "soft-core pornography," and he specifically objects to two rape scenes depicted in the novel. He is fighting to have Speak removed from public schools, libraries, and curriculum.  He wants to ban this book.  I object to this on several levels.  I find Scroggins and his claims abhorrent.

First, When did rape become soft-core porn?  What kind of world are we living in that a man like Scroggins can read a rape scene that is vile in its truth and somehow see pornography?  Dr. Scroggins, you need help.  If you see porn in rape, if the scenes in Speak are turning you on, then I think you are the one with the biggest problem, and that problem does not stem from this book!

Second, banning books like Speak hurts victims.  If we don't speak against this, we become partners in shaming the victims, and make no mistake--Dr. Scroggins is placing shame on rape victims.  That is unacceptable to me.  There is no shame in being raped. The shame lies with the rapist.  I will not rape people with my words, and I will not sit quietly while a man tries to ban a book that may offer solace to those victims.

If you have had the misfortune of experiencing something truly tragic, truly awful, truly horrific then you know how very important it is to have books about those issues out there and easily accessible.  There is some kind of catharsis, some kind of relief, in reading a book and seeing yourself in the protagonist.  It provides a kind of salve for the soul when you can say, "Me too.  That happened to me too.  I felt that way too."  You can't take that away from the children and teens who need it the most.  Most rape victims never report it.  Many of those victims are under age 18.  They need this book.  They need to read it and be able to say, "Me too."  Speak gives them words where there are none. 

So we can't sit quietly while yet another important text is banned from our schools.  We can't just look the other way, and that is what Scroggins is asking us to do.  He is asking us to pretend rape doesn't happen, to sweep it under the rug because it is unpleasant, to view it as something sexually satisfying (porn!) rather than viewing it is the horrible thing it is. 

So I am Speaking Loudly and you should too.  Join the twitter feed #SpeakLoudly. Read other blogs on the subject:

Laurie Halse Anderson responds to Scroggins here (she's the author).

Veronica Roth speaks against Scroggins from a Christian perspective here.

CJ Redwine has perhaps the most moving story.  She shares her own story quite bravely here.

Janet Reid says, "Truth is not pornography."  She is right.  You can read her blog here.

We Spoke Loudly.  Will you?

Reader Wednesday (on Friday)

This week's writing prompt comes to us from Love is Music.  Congratulations Love is Music!  Let's see what I can do with it!

If your prompt was not used this week, it could still show up at a later date.  If you have a suggestion you'd like to make please email it to jenniferwelbornwrites@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on Tuesday.  Reader Wednesday will normally be on Wednesday.

Prompt:  Most kids set up a lemonade stand to make money, but not us.  We decided to...

open our own hair salon.  How hard could it be?  Liza and I did our own hair every day and all the other 8th graders complimented us. Besides, Liza's parents were out of town and her older brother (Brett--super hot and he had his own car, but a total bonehead) wasn't home.  Who knew where he was?  Who cared?  This was our chance to make some serious dough.  So we let everyone at school know that Liza and Renee's Sexi (using the I was Liza's idea, she thinks it looks hip) Salon was open--one day only, $10 a pop.

Our first customer was Rosie Jones.  She had crazy frizzy hair, black coke bottle glasses, and braces.  My older sister had naturally curly hair so I got to do the honors of the first hair cut.  I didn't really cut anything.  I just plugged in Chelsea's (that's my sister--she'd kill me if she knew I had it) hair straightner and went to work.  Her hair was really thick and it was actually quite pretty.  The blond locks shone in the sunshine streaming through the window.  Just when I was about to turn her around to face the mirror, Liza stopped me.  Liza untied the hideous paisley scarf Rosie had wound around her neck, folded it twice, and turned it into a headband.  Hey, look at that!  It was actually a pretty snazzy headband, and Rosie was actually really pretty.  We let her turn around to face the mirror we had set up in the corner.  She smiled.  Rosie never smiled!  And look at that--she had dimples!  Wow.  She handed over her $10 and left without a word, grinning from ear to ear.

Well that was all the advertising we need.  After the other girls saw what we'd done to Rosie, naturally they all wanted to partake of our expertise.  So we spent the day straightening, curling, and crimping hair.  We had only been at it for 2 hours and we'd already made about $120. It was all going pretty well really, until Joanne Carmichael showed up.

Joanne was the Queen Bee of York Road Middle School.  She was the hottest girl in school.  She had boobs.  I looked down at my own flat chest, wish mine would come in already.  I hated her guts.  But she was the kind of person that no matter how much you hated her, you would always want her to like you.  Her dark brown hair was perfectly straight, layered, and curled prettily under her chin.  She had big green eyes and her daddy was richer than God, which of course meant that she was always wearing clothes the rest of only wish we had.

She sauntered up the driveway and pranced her prissy little butt right into Liza's kitchen without so much as knocking.  Placing a pink fingernailed hand on her hip she looked us up and down.  "What do the two of you think you're doing? I mean really," she stalked over to where I stood and flipped my hair into my face, "look at your ugly mousy hair.  Do you even wash it?"

Maria McMann was still sitting in the chair.  We had just curled her red hair and Liza had put a little green eyeshadow over her mossy colored eyes.  She looked quite pretty really. 

Joanne stalked over to the chair and pulled one of Maria's newly set curls, watching it spring back into place.  "You look ridiculous Maria.  Who are you supposed to be?  Shirley Temple?" she said disdainfully.  Maria teared up and ran out of the house without paying.

"Hey! Look what you did!" I shouted.  I was getting mad.  Joanne was so mean!  She twirled around and pointed at Kensley Smith.  We had crimped her light brown hair like Madonna's in that one really old music video, and Liza had lent her a pair of cool plastic bracelets.  Joanne pointed at Kensley, "And you!  You look like a poodle."  Kensley inched out the back door, lip quivering.  The other girls laughed nervously.

Joanne turned on Liza.  Liza had a red streak in her black chin lengthed hair.  She had done it with kool-aid earlier that month.  A blue stud glistened in Liza's nose and her ears were pierced even at the top, you know where the cartiledge is--where it hurts the worst to have it done.  Liza was edgy like that.  Nobody messed with Liza.  Joanne snickered, "Why would anyone let you touch their hair?  You look like a freaking zombie with that pale skin and that ugly bloody streak in your hair." And that's when it happened.  That's when everything went downhill.  Liza drew back her fist and punched Joanne right in the face.  She knocked that snotty little weasel right on her butt!

"Get out of my house you troll!" Liza thundered.  Joanne's nose was bleeding all over the kitchen linoleum.  Big fat tears were rolling down her face.  She stood up and ran to the door.  "You're going to regret this!" Joanne snarled, slamming out the kitchen door.

The other girls stared at Liza, mouths hanging open.  They were in awe of Liza.  So was I.  She had just hit the meanest girl in school right in the face!  Maria and Kensley rushed into the room, "Ohmygod!  Liza you hit her," they gushed.  "What do you think she'll do?" I whispered.  Liza drooped into a kitchen chair, chin in her hands, "I don't know," she said miserably.  And so our salon was closed for business.  We had made nearly $200 and lots of new friends, but we had also managed to make one dangerous enemy.

A few hours later Liza's mom showed up.  Joanne's mom had called her.  Liza's mom was P-Oed.  She had had to come home early from her weekend getaway.  She was giving us both a lecture about how you were supposed to solve problems with words not fists when my mom walked in the door.

"Renee Danielle Atwater!  You are in serious trouble young lady!" she shouted. Uh oh--I had been middle-named.  I was in big trouble.  I may have suggested that Liza's parents were home when I got permission to stay the night.  I guess that cat was out of the bag.  My mom grabbed my hand, said her apologies to Liza's mom, and tugged me to the car.  Liza's mom was still yelling at her when we left.

The next Monday I tried to tell my mom I was sick, and my stomach did hurt, but she wasn't buying it.  She shook her head at me, "You have to face the consequences of your actions Renee. That's part of growing up."  She dropped me off at school.  Everyone in the hall was whispering about what Liza had done.  I slunk into first period and slipped quietly into my seat.  Liza was already there.  But Liza wasn't like me.  She didn't keep her head down.

Liza was sitting with her arms crossed, glaring at anyone who dared utter her name.  "What do you think she's going to do?" I whispered.  Liza shrugged, "Who cares?"  But I knew she cared.  So we both sat nervously, waiting on Joanne to walk through the door and make our lives miserable.  But Joanne didn't show up in first period.  Or second period.  And just when we thought we were off the hook we heard laughter in the hallway. 

The bell hadn't rung yet so me and Liza poked our heads out the door.  And there was Joanne.  Head down.  She never kept her head down.  Her long brown hair was masking her face.  She rushed past us and into the room, and then she looked up and we saw why she'd had her head down.  A metal thing was taped over her nose with white tape.

Liza gasped, walking over to Joanne.  "Did I do that?" she whispered.  Joanne nodded without meeting Liza's eyes. "Geeze," Liza said, "Sorry." 

"Hey Bulldog, nice nose!" Maria McMann sneered.  Everyone laughed.  One tear slid down Joanne's face.  Liza, who had been stooped next to Joanne's desk, jumped up, hands on hips.  "Why don't you just shut your pie hole Maria McMann!" Liza shouted. 

Kensley stood next to Maria, "Hey Liza don't talk to Maria like that!  You know that smush-face over there deserves it!" She had a point.  Joanne was mean.

Joanne put her head on her desk, covering her face with her hands and sniffling softly.  Even I felt a little sorry for her. 

"How do you like it when people call you freckle face?" Liza pointed at Maria, "Or when people call you metal mouth?" she pointed at Kensley.  The other students snickered.

"Doesn't feel so hot does it?" Liza snarked, sliding into her seat just as the bell rang. 

"Why'd you do that?" I whispered.  "As soon as it heals, she'll just go right back to being mean."

"Yeah.  But we don't have to be like her," Liza whispered back.

Mr. Prost walked in, "Open your books to page 318."  And that's how our salon experience ended.

Don't forget--you still have a few more days to enter the giftcard giveaway.  Click here for details!

Sick :(

Don't worry I haven't forgotten about Reader Wednesday!  I'm just really sick today.  So this week Reader Wednesday will be on Friday (yeah I know-confusing).

Reader Wednesday is a reader's choice blog.  If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, a writing prompt you want to see me try, or any other suggestions then email me by Tuesday at 11:59 PM to be considered. 

I guess this week you get two extra days to send your feedback :0)  I'll be on Friday!

Tools of the Trade

We are in an increasingly technological world.  Laptops, cell phones, ipads, internet, ipods, even the Wii has wifi.  Wifi is everywhere: Starbucks, Borders, Books-A-Million--my friend even saw it in a gas station!  Everyone is connected--it's a connection overload.

The publishing industry is becoming more tech savvy too.  E-books, e-readers, and internet books are everywhere!  Authors have to learn to use internet networking sites--Facebook, Twitter, Myspace.  It's not enough to be a good writer anymore, to a certain extent you also have to be a marketing guru/internet god. 

For someone as paper-loving and tech-challenged as me this is some scary sh--stuff.  Let me show you my tools of the trade:

This, my tech geek friends, is something called paper.  Dictionary.com provides the following definiton:

Paper:  a substance made from wood pulp, rags, straw or other fibrous material, usually

           in thin sheets, used to bear writing or printing, for wrapping things, etc.

All you really need to know about paper is I love it.  I love the way it smells.  I love the way it feels between my fingers as I turn the pages of a book.  I like the way it looks (way better than the glare of a screen).  I like the way it sounds, faintly of rustling leaves, when you flip through it.  I love paper.  I think the loss of paper books is a travesty. 

I only have one other tool in my arsenal:



That's right! A pen.  That, my friends, is a quality clicky pen from a local drugstore. It was free. It's fabulous.  I scratch my lovely flowing scrawl onto my pulpy fibrous substance with beautiful black ink and watch new worlds unfold before my eyes.  How wondrous is this thing we call a pen!  Oh wonder of wonders this pen and paper that go together better than peanut butter and jelly. 

These are the tools of my trade, and I love them more than jewelry.  Well maybe not--but they definitely come in a close second!

Also, it's not too late to win big in the Great Giftcard Giveaway!  Click here to see contest details :)

A Special Hello to Teen Readers!

This blog entry is dedicated to teen readers.  I think teens who love to read rock.  I'm in my twenties and I still read teen books--it's my guilty pleasure. 

I traveled to my local Borders today to conduct some research.  I wanted to know what teens were reading.  The teen section was HUGE, way bigger than it was when I was a teen.  When I was a teenager we had one shelf--no joke.

I started browsing the titles, picking up one book at a time to read the flap.  The cover art on these books was amazing--way better than the BORING crap publishers tend to put on the cover of adult fiction.  Wonder why that is? 

Anyway, I found myself overwhelmed.  There were just so many titles, so many books, so many authors!  How did I discover what was being read and what wasn't?  What books were teen readers looking at?  Why?  What authors do they like to read?  What are their favorite books?  I just didn't know.

So I decided to write this blog in hopes that teens who read it will be willing to leave me a quick comment.  What kind of books do you like?  What are some of your favorites?  Are there any books in particular you think I should totally read right away ('cause I'll read them---I swear)?  Do you have any favorite authors?  What book do you want to read--but you haven't found one like it yet?  Could you help me out here?  I want to write amazing books for teen readers.  I want to write what you want to read.

Also, don't forget to scroll down and take a peek at the contest.  There's still time for you to win a $10 giftcard to your favorite bookstore!

Pulling My Hair Out

See that lady? That's what I feel like doing right about now. When I decided I was going to write a novel I had this image in my head of a book that is so good it sells itself and makes me a household name. Nieve much?

The novel writing--not so hard. I like to write. It's work, but it doesn't feel like work. I am, in fact, nearly finished. I still need to edit, but I am ok with that. Everything else--a little harder than I thought.

First, as an author you are responsible for a huge chunk of your own marketing. To get published you need to have a marketing plan. I have great ideas. Now I need to figure out how to make those ideas happen.

Idea #1: My author friends (who shall remain nameless) said, "You need a website! Start a website and get followers!" I approached this with enthusiasm. I thought, Yay! A website! I can totally do that! Followers? Yeah, I can get some of those. Ha! Easier said than done my friends.

So I started this website not having any idea what I was doing (by the way, I will be cross-posting this entry to that website). That in itself was a real adventure for me. I am tech-challenged, and that's putting it mildly. But I did it. I have also somehow convinced 21 people to follow me. I LOVE ALL OF YOU! No, really--I do. I need followers and you lovely people heard my desperate plea and responded with kindness. I am grateful for that.

Despite those 21 people, there are tons of other people who aren't following. I don't know how to get them to follow. I don't know how to market the website. I don't know how to entice people to click the damn button on the right hand of the screen that says "follow." I don't know how to build an internet presence. Apparently these are all things I need to know. So now I am trying to learn them, all of them, quickly and with great skill. And I feel like pulling my hair out.

I dropped all of my courses--all of them--to do this. Crazy much? Maybe. For me, this is the height of insanity. But I did it. A successful author aquaintance of mine told me over coffee, "Look Jenn, if you want to do this then just do it. Don't talk about doing it, don't plan how to do it, just do it. Jump in head-first and give it all you've got. It will be frustrating. It will drive you nuts. But you're good, damn it. You're good. So just do it." So I did it.

And here I am, with a website and a dream and a nearly complete novel. And I want to pull my hair out. I have officially hit the frustrating part of this journey. I am battening down the hatches, digging my heels in, and doing this thing. Frustration City here I come! But I am not giving up. I will get more followers. This website will be worth the money I invested to get it up and running. This dream will not die. I will overcome difficulty and I will persevere. I do, afterall, have plenty of experience in that department. So dear readers, wish me luck, and for goodness sake's PLEASE follow my website!
 
This post is also posted on my other blog.  Don't worry about that one, it isn't important :)

Remembering A Tragedy: 9/11

I remember vividly where I was on this day nine years ago.  I don't remember what I was doing before the second tower was hit at 9:03 AM.  I don't remember a great deal about what I did after, but I remember where I was. 

I was in twelfth grade.  School had only just begun.  I was seventeen years old. When the first plane hit I was probably flirting with a boy in the halls of my high school.  When the second plane hit I was in Mrs. Hewes Theatre Arts X class (or some such imaginary number she made up so those of us who took a million theatre arts courses could continue enrolling and learning from her) .  This was a course that was usually rowdy and loud.  We were obnoxious until we got started.  But when I walked in that day I remember how quiet it was.

We sat in a circle so we could see each other.  The circle wasn't there.  The entire class was gathered in ugly plastic chairs staring in silence at the television on the right-hand side of the large classroom.  I pulled up an empty chair.  "What's going on?" I whispered.

Zane shook his green-haired head.  "No one knows.  Just watch." He whispered back.  And then the second plane flew into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.  It just flew right into the side of the building.  No one said anything.  We knew we were watching a tragedy unfold, watching our own tragedy unfold.

I remember the shock and the sadness that filled the room.  I remember the reporters ducking instinctively as the south tower fell.  This huge skyskraper tumbled to the ground like so much dust in a matter of seconds.  And that's when we reached out to one another.  We were crying and holding hands.  People were dying and we knew it.  So we sat and we cried and we held hands and we grieved for those people and for ourselves and for our country. And nothing was ever the same again. 

Where were you?

Contest--Take 5 Minutes and Enter to Win a Prize!

CONTEST EXTENDED!  YOU NOW HAVE UNTIL 9/18/10 AT 5:00 PM TO WIN!  The rules are easier now too--all you have to do is follow me and then click share at the bottom of this post--then let me know how you shared (twitter, facebook, blogger, etc.)  This is an easy way to win $10 to your favorite bookstore!

I wanted to thank all of the people who have willingly become "followers" of this blog.  I thought, "How can I thank them and promote my website at the same time?"  So this contest was born!

PRIZE: 

$10 giftcard to your favorite bookstore (Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Books-A-Million).  Note:  I selected the BAM image because for a significant amount of time I was a BAM minion/cashier/customer service guru.

How to win (it will take you all of two minutes):
1. Follow me (if you're already a "follower" then you're a step ahead!)
2. Tweet/Facebook/Blog about this website and include a link to this contest page. This part is easy--there are buttons at the bottom to auto-share the link :)
3. Comment on this post:  Tell me what you'd like to read and let me know how you completed step #2 (i.e. I'm Joe Schmoe and I would like to read about killer ferrets.  I tweeted a link @joeschmoe to all my twitter friends.) If you don't want to tell me what to read then comment with "I'll read whatever you write" and sign up for email blasts by emailing jenniferwelbornwrites@gmail.com (no spam--you'll only get blasts when I get published/appear at events).

That's it!  You will then be entered to win.  The contest will run for 24 hours.

Prompt #1: Life of a Lizard

Congratulations and many thanks to Joyful for this prompt suggestion:

What if you were able to be a lizard on a rock on Orient(al) Beach in St. Maarten's for a day?  What would that feel like?

The sun is deliciously hot against my cool skin.  I crane my neck toward the sky, reveling in the warmth that bathes my reptilian face.  I blink against the brightness and lower my gaze.  The ocean laps calmly against the sea-worn stone I perch upon, wetting my feet and belly.  A balmy breeze, the earth's exhalation, caresses beach goers and critters alike. My round eyes settle on a nude sunbather, sand glittering on her ample pink skin.  These humans enjoy the sun too.  I whip my tail into the temperate water.  This is bliss.

Welcome Readers!

Welcome to my first attempt at my very own registered webpage!  I'm learning as I go so have patience with me (and I hope you have more patience with me than I have with myself). 

I want this blog to be an interactive experience.  I want my readers (when I have some) to be involved.  So here's my first experiement:

I would like all of you to send me a writing prompt.  It can be the first sentence (warning--I will edit for grammar) you want me to run with.  It can be a suggestion for a story.  Just do your best.  I will pick at least one prompt per week, use it, write it, and post it.  Send your prompts to:  jenniferwelbornwrites@gmail.com! 

I look forward to hearing from you!