Celebrate your right to read!

It’s Banned Books Week! And my library is doing something really cool to celebrate. They started about a month ago. They gathered up all the books in their collection that they know have been challenged somewhere and put these bands around them:

Then they put the books back on the shelves. Or they put them in a display of banned books. The banned bands certainly got people talking. People weren’t sure whether they could still check the books out (they could) or even read them because the band went around the entire book! Ha! Talk about making a point.

And yes, that’s my banned book in the picture above. To my knowledge, my book has been challenged in Oregon, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Nevada, and Florida. It also made the Canadian Library Association’s list of most challenged books and magazines for 2010.

My library didn’t stop at the banned bands. They decided to really draw attention to banned and challenged books during Banned Books Week this year and stage a live display of people reading banned/challenged books every hour that the library is open. So as soon as the library closed on Saturday, they built this little reading room:

As the local author of a challenged book, I got to kick the whole thing off when the library opened on Sunday (the beginning of Banned Books Week). I got the first hour in the chair. I’m reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Because I can

It was an interesting experience. This display is right out in the main atrium area, so it’s the first thing you see when you walk through the door. It was fun to watch people’s reactions.

One guy walked right up to the plastic and said to me, “what are you doing?”

I said, “Uh…reading.”

“Are you really reading a banned book?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Whoa! Radical!!!”

There wasn’t a single person who came in who didn’t at least glance at the display. But most did more than just glance. A lot of people came over to see what it was all about. A stranger asked if she could take my picture.

Some people just stood there and watched me for an unnervingly long time. One person said, “Oh, I’m glad you moved; it was a little freaky when you sat so still.”

A ten-year-old girl watched me for a while, then said to her mom, “Oh, wow! That’s a real person in there!” That girl had a really cool mom because the mom took the time to explain to her and to her little sister exactly what this display was all about and why it was important.

A library serves an entire community. That doesn’t mean that every item in the library is appropriate for every patron. Imagine what a library that only contained books and materials that EVERYBODY approved of would be like. Would there be anything in it at all?

Visit your local library this week. Take a look at some of books that have been challenged. Or cut/paste this URL to take a look at a list of books that have been challenged somewhere in the United States in the past year: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads/2011banned.pdf

Keep in mind this is not a complete list. Many challenges go unnoticed.

Be thankful this week that you live in a country where you are free to read what you choose. And don’t forget to thank your local librarians for all they do to fight censorship.

From Mouse: Review of A Dog’s Way Home

Mouse: Hey! This blog is called “A day in the life of a children’s book author AND HER DOG.”

Me: Yes, it is.

Mouse: Well, when do I get to blog?

Me: Um…when you have something to blog about?

Mouse: I have something to blog about. I want to blog about BOOKS! Books that kids can read to dogs.

Me: Okay. Is there a particular book you’d like to blog about today?

Mouse: Yes. It’s called A Dog’s Way Home and it’s by Bobbie Pyron. It’s got a really pretty dog on the cover.

Me: Yes, it does. So what do you want to say about this book?

Mouse: I want to say that it’s a really good book about a dog named Tam and her human, Abby. It starts out kind of scary. Tam is in his crate in the back of Abby’s truck and then there’s an accident and Tam and his crate are thrown from the truck. They tumble down a rock ledge and into a creek, and Abby and her mom don’t even know about Tam because they’re hurt, too. But when they’re better they go look for Tam. They’re so, so, SO close. Tam hears Abby calling for him, but by the time he gets to the place where Abby was standing, she’s gone.

Abby lives a long way from where the accident happened, so she eventually has to go home. Without Tam. And it’s up to Tam to find his way home.

It takes a long, long, long, long time. Tam has to travel for hundreds of miles during the fall, winter and spring. He meets other humans and animals and has a lot of adventures along the way. But he never gives up on finding Abby.

And Abby never gives up on finding him, either. Would you ever give up on me if I got lost?

Me: No, Mouse. Never.

Mouse: I wouldn’t ever give up on you, either. Anyway…the story goes back and forth between Tam and Abby so you find out what they’re both doing all those months. It’s such a good book that I hated to stop reading it. I couldn’t wait to find out whether Tam and Abby ever found each other again.

I think kids who are in 4th or 5th grade should read this book to their dogs. Or if they don’t have dogs, they should go to a library that has a program where you can read to a dog, and read this book to a dog there.

You want to know the best part about this book?

Me: What’s the best part?

Mouse: THE DOG DOESN’T DIE!!!!

-Mouse is a three-year-old golden retriever/English setter mix who enjoys hot dogs, liver treats, squeaky tug toys, hide-and-seek, a good game of chase, and being read to.

Teen Book Group

I have to say I think YALSA made a smart choice when they chose the Coralville Public Library’s teen book group as one of their Teen Top Ten groups. YALSA Teen Top Ten book groups get to read books in galley form, offer comments to publishers, and eventually choose the list of books that teens all over the country will use to whittle down to the final Teen’s Top Ten list each year.

These kids don’t just say, “I like this book” or “I don’t like this book.” They dig much deeper than that. I am continually amazed by how carefully they read and how well they express their opinions. They’ve even gotten feedback from publishers about the quality of their reviews. This is a great group! And as a writer, it’s always valuable to me to hear what they have to say about the books they’re reading.

Here are some of the books they discussed last night:

The Sweetest Thing. Christina Mandelski, are you reading this? You’ve been compared (favorably) to Sarah Dessen! (And no, the girl who said it does not know that I know you and can tell you exactly what she said.)

The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young. Several of the kids in this group have read this one. They’re all liking it. The girl who talked about it last night said she liked that the character’s problem isn’t really over at the end of the book. Yes, she liked that. As writers, don’t we usually try to solve a problem by the end of the book? Here’s a reader who says things aren’t always that simple. I asked if the character had changed by the end of the story. “Oh, yes!” she said. To her, the ending was completely satisfactory.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. This is another one that a lot of the girls are reading. Some of them are having trouble with the cover. The cover isn’t making them want to read the book, and they don’t think it’s representative of what the book’s really about either, but they’re liking the book when they do read it. Definitely a “girl” book, though somebody last night said that once you get past the first 150 pages it’s kind of a guy book, too. One of the boys in the group was dared to read it. We’ll see if he takes the challenge. (I’m betting no…)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis. I really need to read this one for myself so I can form my own opinion. Both the guys and the girls are reading it. The first night it was discussed a boy described the plot…and then ten minutes later one of the girls described the plot of a book she’d read. IT WAS THE SAME BOOK! But you never would’ve known it by the two summaries. The boy told the science plot and the girl told the romance plot. Last night somebody else (a guy) sort of combined the two summaries. He really liked the book…enough that he nominated it for the Teen Top Ten list! This was huge! This guy is a great reader and great reviewer, and he reads a lot. But until Across the Universe he didn’t see anything that he felt was worthy of nomination. I have to read this book just to see why K. nominated it!

I don’t want to trash anyone’s book on my blog, so now I’ll share the negative comments, which again, can be helpful for a writer to hear, even if you don’t know what book I’m talking about.

-”it was just like all the other teen books.” (Note to publishers: some of these girls are getting a little tired of shallow, angsty girl YA…while we’re at it, some are tired of vampires, too!)

-”the character didn’t get anywhere by the end of the story. She didn’t change. And there’s no hope that her life is going to get any better.”

-”this book was two different things. It was a serious romance story and it was a story about [a significant historical even from the 60s]. But the two didn’t come together very well. It was like the author couldn’t decide which story to write so she came up with lame excuses why both should be in the book. Also it was a little slow to get going. The beginning was 150 pages of family history. It was boring.” I asked this reviewer why he kept reading if it was boring…aside from the fact this guy almost never abandons a book, he said it was beautifully written. He really liked the writing style. And the tension. That’s what kept him going.

-And finally, there’s a book I will not name, but in some circles it’s being compared to the Hunger Games. Well, according to one of our readers this book is NOT the next Hunger Games. He thought it was a good story, but just wasn’t written well. He thought the writing was kind of childish and aimed at readers younger than him (he’s 14). Listening to him, it seems to me the publisher actually did the book a disservice by comparing it to the Hunger Games because they’re setting expectations high to begin with. When the book doesn’t live up to the hype, readers are disappointed. “False advertising,” one of the teens claimed.

Looks like I’ve got a few more books to add to my must-read shelf…

Research!

This is a Taurus .380:

And this is a Glock 22 .40 caliber:

I shot both those guns yesterday. (Don’t worry…I only hit a paper target. And maybe some corn.)

Why did I do this? Because I’m working on a YA murder mystery and there’s a scene in the book where the protagonist, a 17-year-old girl who has never held a gun before, has to pick up a gun and shoot the bad guy before he shoots her. I’ve never fired a gun before; she’s never fired a gun before. I was pretty sure I could write that scene. I know what it feels like to not want to shoot a gun.

I did have questions about guns, though. My kind, gentle, almost 22-year-old son knows a surprising amount about guns for someone who, to my knowledge, has also never fired one. He answered more of my questions than I expected him to; then said, “you should probably go shoot a real gun yourself sometime.”

My first thought: I’M NOT GOING TO SHOOT A REAL GUN!!!! Aside from a gun safety course, which was a little more than I wanted to do, I didn’t even know where one would go to shoot a real gun.

But once the shock wore off, I realized he was absolutely right. If I’m going to write this book, I need to know what it feels like to shoot a gun. Sigh….

How did this opportunity come about? I was in Curves, of all places…making polite conversation with a woman who works there. In addition to working at Curves, it turns out she’s also a deputy sheriff. (You never know who you might end up exercising next to.) One thing led to another…and she offered to take me out shooting.

So I drove out to her place yesterday, which as you can see, is pretty far from town.

And because I read and write murder mysteries, the thought did cross my mind…how well do this deputy sheriff and I REALLY know each other? I mean, it was going to be just the two of us and some guns, out in the middle of nowhere. How did I even know she really was a deputy sheriff? Maybe she was a serial killer who pounced on the opportunity to get me away from the safety of Curves so she could MURDER me in cold blood???

But I guess the trust goes both ways because how did she know I wasn’t a serial killer? Sure, I SAID I needed (yeah, I may have actually used the word “need”…that’s kind of scary in and of itself) to see what it felt like to shoot a gun. How did she know I didn’t actually “need” to see what it felt like to actually kill someone? She doesn’t know me…I could possibly be that crazy.

Of course, she had the resources of the sheriff’s department at her disposal. It’s entirely possible she ran my name through the police database. Maybe she even did a background check on me. In which case she knows I’ve never had a parking ticket; I’ve never had a speeding ticket; but I was arrested in Washington, D.C. 23 years ago. Yes, I was. (That’s a story for another blog post.)

Seriously, there’s no doubt that if she really felt I was a threat, she could have me on the ground in about three seconds flat if she really wanted to. Me, if I found her to be a threat, well…about the best I could do is RUN into that cornfield.

So…what was it like to fire a gun for the first time? It was interesting. I learned a lot about those two guns and figured out which one was right for my story. We went over some safety procedures first. She gave me safety glasses and ear protection, which at first I didn’t think I wanted to wear. She wasn’t wearing them. And the character in my book won’t be wearing them. But in the end I decided it was best to simply follow directions.

She shot both weapons first so I could get a sense of how loud it was going to be before I did it myself. She started with the .380. It was LOUD. Louder than I expected it to be. I was surprised to see the casings flying everywhere. Some landed over by the target; others landed behind her. I was also surprised to see smoke rising from the chamber.

I didn’t notice a huge difference in sound between the .380 and the Glock.

Then it was my turn. I also started with the .380. It seemed to make sense to start with the lighter, easier one of the two.

Loading the magazine was harder than I expected it to be, but I was able to do it. I held the magazine in the palm of my hand, pushed the insert down with my thumb and then pushed the bullet into place. You load one on top of the other, pushing each one down on top of the previous one. It took some force to do this, but not more than I had.

She showed me how to hold a gun. Actually, she did that before I ever loaded the magazine. You need your hand (i.e. the webbed skin between the thumb and forefinger) completely below the “tang.” Otherwise when you shoot, you’re going to get your skin pinched. You hold tight and firm. You don’t cup your other hand under the handle part of the gun—she called that the “teacup” method of holding a gun. That doesn’t give you enough support/control. Instead you bring your (in my case) left hand in tight next to your right hand, wedging the left thumb right under the right thumb. I asked about how to hold my arms; she said it didn’t really matter. She had me stand with my legs apart and knees bent.

There are two little notches toward my end of the gun and one little notch at the end of the barrel. You want to line up the single notch between the two notches. You don’t put your finger to the trigger until you’re going to shoot. In fact, she reminded me of that several times, even though my finger wasn’t on the trigger. (Can’t say I blamed her!) But when you are ready, you put your  finger to the trigger and press. She said don’t anticipate, just pull back and let the gun go off. So I did.

First impression: WOW, that’s loud!

Second thought: I just shot a real gun!

Third thought: It felt smoother and was physically much easier to do than I thought it would be. But I certainly felt the power behind it. I think my hands were shaking more after I’d shot half the bullets than before I ever shot the first one.

I was surprisingly accurate with the .380. I aimed for the large box on the paper (which represented a person’s torso), and I think I got it almost every time.

Once the magazine was empty, we switched to the Glock. It was much more difficult for me to load the Glock. In fact, she had some sort of tool to help with that. I can’t quite remember whether it opened the hole where I put the bullets or if it pushed the previous bullet down or if it somehow did both. She told me to release gently and put the bullet in, but I couldn’t do it. She ended up loading it for me. (Hey, my character isn’t going to have to load the gun anyway…at least, not in this book!)

This one definitely felt different from the .380. It was heavier. Maybe not quite as heavy as I’d expected, but heavy enough that I found myself lowering the barrel for a couple of seconds between rounds. Again, L-O-U-D!!! That was my reaction.

I certainly knew going in that the bigger the gun, the more the recoil. That’s just obvious. But I really FELT the difference between the two. I could see where my shots were going with the .380. I knew I’d shot well. With the Glock, I had no clue where the bullets were going. None whatsoever. And I was standing the same distance from the target as I’d been with the .380. I asked her where I’d hit and she didn’t know because she’d been watching me. (Again, can you blame her?) But once she trusted that I wasn’t going to kill either of us, she did look forward…and I learned that my shots were not only way low (like not even hitting the body at all), some of them completely missed the target. I wasn’t shocked to hear this because I didn’t feel like I had much control over that gun. I tried to line up that little notch, but I just couldn’t hold it in place. Sometimes I was aware that I was moving the gun while I was trying to aim, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. And I wasn’t moving it out of fear or nervousness, I simply couldn’t control it.

Like I said, definitely an education. I was able to talk through a key scene in my book with her and discovered I needed to rethink how a couple of the events unfold. I can think of a couple of books I’ve read recently that would have benefited from the author taking a little time with a police officer.

Was it “fun?“  That’s hard to say. I did feel a little proud of myself for being able to shoot that .380 accurately. And I understand the “sport” in shooting a little better now (as long as an animal isn’t involved, but that’s just me…). I’ve always enjoyed archery (when I’m aiming at a target and not an animal.) I sort of enjoyed this in the same way. But I could sort of see myself owning a bow and set of arrows. I can’t see myself owning a gun.

Overall, I’m glad I did it. And I’m grateful to this deputy sheriff for taking me out and giving me this opportunity. You can read about guns (which I have, but what I read didn’t make a lot of sense until I actually was able to hold a couple of these weapons in my hand and really talk to someone about them. It was just words and numbers before), and you can watch videos on youtube. But it’s not a substitute for experience. That scene in my book will be much richer now.

Tired of LiveJournal

Trying out a new blog site.

To view old posts, visit: http://dorihbutler.livejournal.com/