Lookie what's on the YA shelf in Neill Public Library in Pullman, WA!!! Thank you, Kathleen Ahern. To have Bound in a place where I spent so many happy hours reading and picking out books and albums to take home, brings me great joy. Libraries are truly the great equalizers. But it is very difficult for a self-published title to get into libraries. Why? There's no vetting process for them. They aren't reviewed in the various journals that librarians read to decide what books to carry. So unlike my other books that magically appear in schools and libraries all over the country, Bound is going to have to find its way into the hands of librarians through a different route. The one I'm planning is to apply for awards presented by the ALA. If Bound can win or be on the honor list, I'm sure it will get picked up by many libraries. So wish me luck!
However, winning the Printz (a dream) isn't going to be so easy because I cannot even nominate my own book. So please, my friends, ask your local library to order Bound. Libraries are truly the best route because then the book is available to all in the community. And unless you request it, librarians will not know that it even exists. And perhaps a librarian will nominate my book. Why yes, I'm already dreaming of what I might want to wear...my mother's sari, most definitely.
A friend alerted me to these Instagram posts from a librarian, BarbinNebraska. Aren't her caricatures expressive?! I was so tickled to see Bound rubbing shoulders with Jada Jones!!! Note that Barb's nail-polish matches the books. This has to be the ultimate in cool. I really do love librarians!!! If I weren't a scientist or a writer, I'd be a librarian. Funny, I think Rebecca feels the same way :)
A friend sent me this library display! Do you see what I see? I've been invited to be part of the annual Harvest Tour of Homes. It's a very unique way to raise money for our local library. Four beautiful homes are featured and in each home there is a local author. I am so honored to be amongst these wonderful authors who write about food, culture and history. I have a feeling my Michael is going to be very interested in Robert Moss's books on Southern food and especially barbecue! If you either watched or read and enjoyed The Help, you will love Angela William's memoir: Hush Now, Baby. I suspect that many such stories are just waiting to be told. And for the history buffs: a novel set in antebellum Charleston by Ben Pogue. If you're in the Charleston area Oct. 24th, come see me and these amazing writers and support our local library!
I wonder whether some day I can get our home in good enough shape to be *shown*!!! Alas, the writing life means that I am not the best housekeeper. We have books not only on the shelves but piles of them in every room. And papers. Our formal dining area is actually a computer and art room. We pretty much live in the kitchen and back porch. It is a writer's dream home -- tranquil. Perhaps I'll leave behind a legacy of great books and someone else will keep house for me. Or maybe long after I'm dead, people will come to see where I wrote. Ah, one can dream.
I'm very fond of Neil Gaiman and his books and lectures. In this article, he explains why public libraries deserve our support. "But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information."
He gives a litany of obligations, and this one is especially for writers of children's literature: "We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all. We have an obligation not to bore our readers, but to make them need to turn the pages. One of the best cures for a reluctant reader, after all, is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading. And while we must tell our readers true things and give them weapons and give them armour and pass on whatever wisdom we have gleaned from our short stay on this green world, we have an obligation not to preach, not to lecture, not to force predigested morals and messages down our readers' throats like adult birds feeding their babies pre-masticated maggots; and we have an obligation never, ever, under any circumstances, to write anything for children that we would not want to read ourselves."
Read the full article here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
Lookie what's on the YA shelf in Neill Public Library in Pullman, WA!!! Thank you, Kathleen Ahern. To have Bound in a place where I spent so many happy hours reading and picking out books and albums to take home, brings me great joy. Libraries are truly the great equalizers. But it is very difficult for a self-published title to get into libraries. Why? There's no vetting process for them. They aren't reviewed in the various journals that librarians read to decide what books to carry. So unlike my other books that magically appear in schools and libraries all over the country, Bound is going to have to find its way into the hands of librarians through a different route. The one I'm planning is to apply for awards presented by the ALA. If Bound can win or be on the honor list, I'm sure it will get picked up by many libraries. So wish me luck! 
