Diversity in YA

This post has been post-poned twice thanks to Blogger downage and packing.

From Thursday night:

This is weird. Blogger is down, so I am writing this on word. It feels odd.

Tonight I left the <s>batcave</s> my little room of Buffy and Froot Loops where I have been cacooning myself thanks to a mild illness. Tess and I were meeting at Harvard Square for dinner and the Diversity in YA event. Of course my T pass was NO WHERE to be found. On the last day it’ll be necessary until SEPTEMBER. I took it as a sign that my two dollars and I would be taking a cab home. I used the two bucks to get me to Cambridge, then got cash for the cab out at Central Square where the ticket machine for the T to Harvard gave me my $15 change in dollar coins.

Dollar.

Coins.

Fifteen dollars worth. Zipped into my purple wallet….

Then Tess and I ate dinner at Border Café (om nom nom chips) the first place I ate in Harvard Square last yearß see that circularlity?? We walked to the Cambridge Public Library which was GORGEOUS. So in love. Planning on living in Harvard Square next semester and only coming back here for meals/my bed.

BUT that’s not what any of you are here for. THE DIVERSITY IN YA EVENT. Incredible. Not going to lie, I hadn’t read many of the books/authors featured. We read The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X Stork in literary criticism last semester, and I read Tithe by Holly Black last summer, but I was looking forward to getting White Cat and Red Glove, which I did. Also, I found my new YA idol.

Sarah. Rees. Brennan.

Tess already loved her, but I’d never encountered her. She’s fabulous. I think she’d be a great real life friend, she reminds me of the way my undergrad friends and I talked. Plus, she answered my question—Disability in YA, of course—so so classily. I brought it up because, as per usual, the terms “LGBT” and “people of color” were being bandied around, very intelligently and in a conversation that’s totally necessary, but non-/able-bodied only got mentioned in an audience’s question. It needs to be included in that category of “diversity” and I think people forget this in the conversation, because queerness and ethnicity are such big-ticket items. I feel strongly about both of those, too, but disability deserves attention.

But Sarah Rees Brennan totally got what I was saying. We discussed it while she signed my books (along with gushing about Dublin!) and talked about The Secret Garden, Colin being “healed,” which is my one major issue with anything about that book. Also, I recommended The Splendor Falls to her.

All in all, it was an incredible evening. One more story before I go off to pack (well, two):

First, on the walk to the venue we encountered a group of teen girls. I alternated between feeling jealous and judgey of one of them, who had on bright purple jeans. (is that a THING YOU CAN DO NOW? *wants*) They looked like they were going out to see a rock star.

They were.

We ran into them again in the bathroom of the CPL where they were wondering if Sarah Rees Brennan would remember them (from a video I think?), and if they should make it obvious they recognized her, and otherwise acting like they were at a concert. It made me happy. They were also all squee-y in the signing line ahead of me.

Also, during a discussion about the wireless mic, Roger Sutton, the MC, held it out and sang “Like a virgin, oh!” Everyone laughed except a bespectacled thirteen-year-old behind me who whispers, “I don’t get it. Why’s that funny?”

This event really made me re-fall in love with the YA community. What’s something recently that made you realize why you do what you do? (For my cab driver, probably not the handful of dollar coins I handed him an hour ago)

RTW: Audiobooks

Today's Road Trip Wednesday over at YA Highway asks who you would have narrate the audiobooks of your books if you had the choice.

Audiobooks are really important to me. Many of my favorite books are once my mom and I listened to on audiobook while traveling through Florida when I was young. Eden Riegel reading Ella Enchanted, Trini Alvarado reading the Trickster Books... they live in my head with their texts. I'd love to check out my favorite readers and tell you which of them I'd want to read my books.

But it would be a lie.

Background Vocals is dual-narrated so I'd need two readers. This is going to sound incredibly unsurprising, but the original conception of my narrators came from the Grey sisters on Grey's Anatomy (Meredith and Lexie). They've changed a lot since then--a lot, a lot--but I still hear their voices in my head.

So it'd be Ellen Pompeo and Chyler Leigh. And, hey, we know from the musical episode that they can sing so there's that part of the novel covered too.

Book Musings:Dear Genius

Dear Genius

Anita Silvey, author, former editor and my professor, recommended early in the semester that we read the collection of Ursula Nordstrom's letters compiled by Leonard Marcus. I bought it, but of course hadn't yet gotten around to delving into the four-hundred page book until the day before yesterday.

It made me much less afraid of, and incredibly awed by, the work of editors. Though I know the industry has changed since the days when Nordstrom would allow any young author or artist to speak with her without an appointment, her dedication to her authors shows how much editors can love what they do.

Reading her letters honestly made me feel like I'd had a conversation with her. She's so honest, and some sentences made me laugh aloud such as: ‎"I thought I had just developed an unusually dirty mind, which any children's book editor has to have."

She's also incredibly inspiring in her letters to authors such as Maurice Sendack, and her replies to readers' letters about the books.

I've read other letter collections, but none so interesting as this. If you're at all interested in children's lit, or children's lit history grab this book ASAP

"

A Mother's Day Gift

My mom is in an airplane somewhere heading to Orlando from whence she will come here on Friday to help me pack for home. Last year, my Mother's Day present to her was graduating, so I didn't quite know how to top that.

This might help.

It's my guest blog on the Disability.gov blog "Stories of Strength" about how strong my mother is. Please go read it. My mom's the best.

Friday Five!

1. A friend of mine over at Livejournal has a fabulous post on disability-independence that I think everyone should read, particularly people who are either reluctant to ask for help, or believe people with disabilities shouldn't have to. She defines knowing when help is needed as an act of independence. Which is something I need to remember.

2. I found out Wednesday that I won't be going to New York for the summer. It's back to sunny, humid Pensacola for me. I'm actually okay with this. It'll mean more book reviews for you lot, and more time to write for me. And I'll still keep my WIP in New York. It's not like I never go there...

3. Why did no one tell me about the awesomeness that is Buffy? I'm watching Season Three right now and I'm loving it! Thank the lord for Netflix. The amount of TV shows I watch has grown exponentially, and I consider them all writing research. I'm learning a lot about dialogue and facial expressions. And vampires.

4. Michelle Obama knows how to Dougie:

5. Oh my gosh, Grey's Anatomy last night. Baby! Adopted baby! I have all kinds of thoughts of why they need to be able to keep this baby, because really Meredith-trying-to-be-a-mom could be as dramatic as the angsty no-baby storyline. I am JUST SAYING.

Cure

Morning all.

If you've been around here a while, you know one of my pet peeves in novels with disabled characters is when an author "cures" the character's disability at the end of the book. I've argued mixed messages and realism.

But maybe I'm a hypocrite, because I am NOT one of those disability advocates who believes that a child with a disability should not be given every possibility to improve. Many people say the world should have to change--the disabled should not have to be "normal", because they have their own ways of giving back. This is SO true. Every person with a disability I've ever met has a unique worldview, and something that makes them so interesting to be around--just like every person. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be given a chance to succeed even more.

This article in Disability Scoop details the possibilities of an antibiotic improving life for people with Fragile X syndrome. The findings might be able to be extrapolated and applied to other intellectual disabilities. When I read about the boy who is the focus of the article, the way he's now able to succeed in school and that his mother hopes he'll be able to "complete high school, have a job, an apartment, a girlfriend — with just a little help from family and social services." I was so happy for him. And to the people who argue that this is in some way forcing the kids under the umbrella of "normal" well...

I have a little brother. His name is Jacob and he's eleven. He's diagnosed as emotionally mentally handicapped, ADHD and epilepsy. He's a hilarious, loving, fun kid. When his ADHD meds were obviously overpowering his personality, we were quick to get him reevaluated. He wasn't Jacob, but if there were a medication that would reduce the amount of support he'll need to function in the adult world one day... yeah, I'd advocate for it. Because he says he wants to be a pilot. He wants to go to college. He wants to do so many things that are outside of his intellectual capacity--all the accomodations in the world can't change that. He deserves a chance to be the best person he can be.

I'm not anti-accomodation. The boy in the article still leaves class every thirty minutes to reduce the amount of sensory overload he gets in the classroom. Kids whose cerebral palsy has been helped by botox still use mobility aids. They're not cured, but they're helped.

Can anyone really say they don't want to help?

NOTE: I know this argument goes deeper in many cases. The Cochlear implant debate--over the implant which allows children with some forms of Deafness to hear--in the Deaf community has roots in the long-standing Deaf culture questions. I'm not qualified enough to speak on it, except to say this: immigrants want their children to learn the language of the native country as well as the mothertongue to give them the best chance at functioning within BOTH societies.

I think there are similarities, but I also think it's important to remember that not all forms of Deafness can be helped with the implant, just like Jacob's disability probably wouldn't be helped by this medication. So, should captioning and ASL and other accommodations be more widespread and improved OF COURSE. Not everything works for everyone, and maybe that's why I'm so anti-"cure" in literature. Because maybe it could happen, but it's not always going to happen and we must remember that.

Purgatory

I suppose as a writer I should get used to the state of Not Knowing. Of waiting for an email that can determine my entire future. I should accept and do what I can do in the meantime.

But I have to tell you.

This sucks.

It's not really writing-related. I'm waiting to find out if I have an internship that will put me in New York all summer, or not in which case I'll be home. Either option is okay with me, truthfully. I want NYC, but I miss home. The thing is, without knowing I can't plan two weeks ahead of now. And a lot of other things are in limbo too:

• My query and my final paper abstract are with my writing professor
• I'm going steadily on my WIP but I'm a night-writer
• The book I'm currently reading you really need to sit down and focus on (ask me about my focusing skills...
• My dad is proofing the paper I'm submitting to an anthology in July.
• The fandom projects I have going can't be worked on until the season finale.
• One can only watch so much Buffy in a day (that's a lie)

It's all a lot of in-between. And as soon as time passes and emails are received it'll be hit-the-ground running. I'm trying to enjoy the downtime, and definitely remembering to start the next book once I'm in the querying process, because if I don't have something else to focus on then I'll go nuts.