WRITING NEWS SCOOPS! SCBWI TEAM BLOG and... THE GOLDEN KITE WINNERS!!!

News, News, News!!!

SCBWI TEAM BLOG

I get to finally announce that I've been asked to be part of SCBWI TEAM BLOG - Under Team Captain Alice Pope (of Children's Writers and Illustrators Market fame), Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik, Paula Yoo, Suzanne Young, and I, Lee Wind(!), will live-blog the upcoming Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators 38th Annual Summer Conference, coming up August 7 - 10, 2009! In the months to come, we'll be scooping the Conference, sharing tastes of the great stuff to come, and during the conference we'll all contribute to the official SCBWI TEAM BLOG! It's going to be AWESOME!



2009 GOLDEN KITE WINNERS

The first of our scoops that we get to share with you all is The Winners of the Golden Kite Awards! (The winners are invited to the conference, and their acceptance speeches will be the highlight of a special luncheon on Sunday August 9th!)

The Envelope, please...

The 2009 Golden Kite Award Winners are:

For Fiction:



DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN, by Steve Watkins (Candlewick Press)

I just heard Kaylan Adair, the editor of this book, speak and she said that what drew her to the manuscript in the first place was the VOICE!

For Nonfiction:



A LIFE IN THE WILD: GEORGE SCHALLER’S STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE LAST GREAT BEASTS, by Pamela S. Turner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

For Picture Book Text:



A VISITOR FOR BEAR, by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick Press)

For Picture Book Illustration:



LAST NIGHT, Illustrated and written by Hyewon Yum (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

And The Golden Kite Honor Recipients are:

For Fiction:



THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX, by Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)

This book is the featured title this month on Readergirlz. Go check out the interviews with the author Mary E. Pearson, and you can join in the discussion about the book there! (Oh, and you can hear the author's playlist of music to go along with her book - so cool!)

For Nonfiction:



THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE: SUPERNOVAE, DARK ENERGY, AND BLACK HOLES, by Ellen Jackson; photographed and illustrated by Nic Bishop (Houghton Mifflin)

For Picture Book Text:



BEFORE JOHN WAS A JAZZ GIANT, by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)

For Picture Book Illustration:



I LOVE MY NEW TOY, Illustrated and written by Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Hurray SCBWI!

Hurray Golden Kite Winners and Honorees!

Hurray SCBWI TEAM BLOG!

A Printable and Downloadable Gay (GLBTQ) Teen Booklist!

Okay, I've gotten some requests for a printable Booklist.

So here it is!

It's downloadable (from here) and printable. And if I've figured out the technology, when you click on the image below you should see a bigger version of it! (If that doesn't work, try clicking on "open publication" below. And if that doesn't do it, please go here to see it full-sized.)

Get your own - Open publication

Putting together a one page list was really tough. While I might have been able to cram every single title (over 200 of them!) on a single sheet of paper, I thought the result of that would be pretty useless (and rather hard to read.)

I ended up deciding to just make it a "taste" - with a handful of books in each category to pique interest, with the hopes that people, if they're intrigued, will come to this site to find out more.

I didn't even include author names, figuring that the title, the bookshelf category, and this blogsite as a reference would be sufficient clues to track down the specific books. (And that way, I got to DOUBLE the number of books on the list!)

So please, please, please - for the authors whose books were not included in the 43 titles I listed - don't take it as a judgment on YOUR book. I sort of pretended I was in my own bookstore/library and I just started pulling titles down off the shelves. It's a rather random and quirky list, like a sampler box of fancy chocolates.

My goal is for this list (and this blogsite) to help Teens find the books they need and will want to read - and hopefully that means they'll find YOUR books, too!

Namaste,

Lee

ps- My thanks to Terry over at The Reading Tub for the push and the issuu recommendation!

GSA Monday Topic: Kanye West has a new definition for "That's So Gay!"

I found this on the amazing towleroad website!

Kanye West, in his interview with Details magazine:

"Titles are very important. I like to embody titles, y'know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that's good. Take the word gay—like, in hip-hop, that's a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I've encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. Y'know, I haven't, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to. But where I would talk to a gay person—the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design—it'd be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids'll say, 'Dude, those pants are gay.' But if it's, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it's on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it's, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, 'Dude, that's so good it's almost . . . gay.'"

Adds Details: "West's friends and professional adjuncts, who quietly pass in and out of his loft throughout the day, start cracking up, and he leaves his chair for a bit of stand-up: 'Dude, that's so good it's almost gay!' 'Dude, you pay real attention to detail—that's almost, like, gay!' 'You had a whole conversation with that girl without bringing up sex? That was, like, gay!'"

How cool is this guy?

With the power of Kanye West behind us, can we change "that's so gay" from being a slam to being a compliment of the highest order? If "dope" can change meanings so dramatically, why not "gay?"

Can we make "gay" dope? What do you think?

Gamer suspended from XBOX Live because she identified as a lesbian in her profile!!!

Aarrgh!!!

I'm MAD!

Get This:

Teresa says that she was harassed by other players and later suspended from XBOX Live because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. When she appealed to Microsoft, she says they told her that other gamers found her sexual orientation "offensive."

The Full article, by Meg Marco, over at "The Consumerist," is here.


Microsoft "explained" a parallel issue where they forced a guy to change his gamertag from "TheGAYERgamer." (full article here):

Microsoft, when contacted, referred us to Xbox Live team member Stephen Toulouse's personal site which explains the Live terms of use in detail. Toulouse writes that the gamertag is in violation of implied "sexual innuendo", one of the many forms of disallowed "content of a sexual nature." Toulouse expands:

We recieved a complaint on the Gamertag and determined that it did indeed contain sexual innuendo. Now granted, there could be an argument that the text is not pejorative to homosexuality and should therefore be allowed. But there is no context to explain that. Gamertags are visible to everyone and it would be hard for me to defend to a parent of a young child who saw it that the name did not contain content of a sexual nature.

What's even crazier in this case is that it wasn't anything Teresa did or said in the game, as a player, it was her mention of being a lesbian in her profile! And, excuse me, but when the HECK did mentioning you're a lesbian or a gay man mean you were talking sex? Do we need a different expression than "sexual orientation?" Something that illustrates that being gay is not purely about SEX? (And helps straight people remember that?) Maybe "gender-affection-direction?" (or is that too rhyme-y?)

Either way, I think Microsoft is WRONG on this.

Are any of the over 750,000 XBox Live subscribers allowed to say if they're Black in their profile?

How about if they're Asian?

Or if they're Christian?

Come on!

...And, one more thing: I wonder about the parents whose children are so young they can't handle the fact that lesbians and gay men exist in the world... and are letting those same kids play XBOX Live.



I mean, was it playing Team Deathmatch in Destruction Mode in the Hell's Kitchen map on MECH ASSAULT, when suddenly some child stopped playing, put down their Pulse Laser, their Medium Laser, their Particle Projection Cannon, their Machine Gun, their Autocannon, their Gauss Rifle, their Crossbow, Hammer, and Javelin LRM missiles, and, of course, their Lava Gun, went to the user profile of another player, saw she was a lesbian, and decided that trying to rack up the most kills wasn't fun any more because now they knew there were people like that (like us) in the world? Someone who could fall in love with someone of the same gender! Oh, the cruel truth of it!

HUH? HELLO!

Microsoft needs to do some work on their virtual world. 'Cause we're out here in the REAL world. And this stinks.


What do YOU think?



My thanks to loyal blog reader (and eagle eye) KELnino for the heads-up on this!

BONUS POST: Adam Lambert gets my GAY vote! But will he be the first OUT, PROUD, and GAY "AMERICAN IDOL?"

So did anyone else notice that Adam left out the lyric "I can't get no girl reaction" from his version of "Satisfaction" on last night's show? It's not exactly coming OUT in one of those video packages before he sings, when "American Idol" lets us know some more about this contestant, but Adam does share what isn't his "preference," kissing-wise, in the intro to this song:



and the song's pretty great, too! (Despite the audio quality issues.)

Adam, you've got my vote! You're talented. You've got style.



And if you come OUT PROUDLY, I'll vote twice. I'll get my friends to vote for you. We'll start a movement.

Heck, we'll start a revolution.

So come on, Adam! Come OUT!

And make history!

Dubai's International Festival of Literature Opens Today, But It Is Far From OPEN!

So I've been pretty frustrated over the past two weeks at the news that a new International Festival of Literature in Dubai refused to accept Geraldine Bedell's "The Gulf Between Us" because it included a gay character in a gay relationship in it.

What's been bugging me is how there were still 66 "star" authors scheduled to attend, and I was so angry that no one was standing up and saying it was wrong.

So Thank you, Margaret Atwood!

Atwood drops Dubai festival

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has pulled out of the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature after the Dubai-based fair's decision to pull a book that refers to a gay relationship.

Penguin, which had planned to launch Geraldine Bedell's "The Gulf Between Us" at the event, was informed in September it could not launch the book at the fair, which is due to open on 26th February, because it was anticipated that the book would not get past the censor.

The rest of the article is here.

Margaret's letter to the festival explaining why she will not attend is on her website, here.


I know that we in the West struggle with these issues. Should we engage as much as these restrictive societies allow us, accepting their limits on free speech, in the belief that it will help OPEN their society up eventually?

Google believes so - witness their approach in China.

But when a particular minority (like us Gays) are targeted with such intolerance - the mere MENTION of the gay characters in the book!!! - I'm glad SOMEONE had the balls to stand up and say - I'm not going to be a party to this. I'm not going to let you use my fame and prestige to pass off your "international festival of literature" as something truly international and diverse when it has no interest in being worldly or tolerant or inclusive.



As the author of the banned book wrote on her blog:

"Can you have a literary festival and ban books because they feature gay characters? Is that what being part of the contemporary literary scene means? The organisers claim to be looking for an exchange of ideas – but not, apparently, about sex or faith. That doesn't leave literature an awful lot of scope."

So hurray for Margaret Atwood. She's been lauded as a "Civil Liberties Hero Of The Week!"

And here's hoping Geraldine Bedell's book is a huge success.

And shame on Dubai's Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature.

What do you think? Engagement or Boycott? What's the right response?

The Tenth Man

By Tamara Sheehan

A gay urban fantasy novel!

Saul, the last magician in Versua, is being blackmailed and has to work for the powerful businessman, Eduard Audel. While searching for an Audel family heirloom, Saul meets Audel's runaway son, Toven.

Saul and Toven team up with the mysterious "Tenth Man" to break free of Audel's power, and before they realize what's happening, Saul and Toven start to fall in love.

Add your review of "The Tenth Man" in comments!

Just How GAY is Mardi Gras?

Pretty

Darn

Gay

Check it out:

Krewes are "secret" Queer societies during Mardi Gras that throw gay "balls!" Krewes...

"up the pomp-and-circumstance ante with lavish formal-dress balls that simultaneously coronate their carnival royalty and parody straight society."
-From a sidebar in a recent issue of Advocate magazine.

There are 16 Gay Krewes during this 2009 Mardi Gras! Here's just a taste:

The Krewe of Amon-Ra

The Lords of Leather

Krewe of Armeinius

Mystic Krewe of Satyricon

Krewe of Mwindo

Krewe of Queenateenas

Krewe of Petronius

Krewe of Apollo Baton Rouge (this one has some fun mardi gras music when you go to their site!)

And some of these lavish affairs even offer balcony seating to the public... But really, if you were already at Mardi Gras, wouldn't you want to be PART of the party, rather than just watching it unfold before you?


(sigh.) And without a ticket, don't I just feel like a pre-fairy godmother Cinderella?

To everyone at Mardi Gras, have a wonderful time!

Namaste,
Lee

BONUS POST: Dustin Lance Black Accepts the Oscar for Best Screenplay for "MILK"

How amazing! He speaks beautifully, to all the gay kids out there...
Enjoy,



Thanks Dustin!

Lee

GSA Monday Topic: George Mason University elects a DRAG QUEEN as HOMECOMING QUEEN!

Watch it!





Get This!

George Mason U. elects man as homecoming queen
Friday Feb 20, 2009

FAIRFAX, Va. – George Mason University students have elected a drag queen as homecoming queen. Student Ryan Allen beat out two women for the title at the small school in suburban Washington, D.C., famous for its run to the Final Four a few years back.
Allen competed under his drag queen persona of Reann Ballslee.
Allen, who is gay and performs in drag at nightclubs, said he entered as a joke. But he considers the victory one of his happiest moments and proof the school celebrates its diverse student body.
The senior from Virginia's Goochland County won the pageant about a week ago at a sold-out homecoming basketball game against Northeastern. George Mason's basketball team pulled off a string of upsets to advance to the Final Four in 2006.

- From Yahoo News

Go, Reann!

And in the words of RuPaul:

"Gentlemen, Start Your Engines. May the best woman win!"

What do you think?


Is this a good thing?


Does it promote tolerance and understanding, or is it just going to reinforce prejudices about gay men being effeminate?


And perhaps most importantly, what should Reann wear to her coronation? (okay, just kidding on that last one - I would never presume to tell a drag queen what to wear! I'll leave that to the experts!)

More photos of Reanne's win for you to enjoy:

Ryan Allan, a.k.a. Reanne Ballslee, thanks the crowd!
Photo from the great towleroad website!

Reanne Ballslee
Photo from her myspace page

Have fun talking about this one!

Namaste,
Lee

The Wrong Reaction To A Tragedy: Lawrence King's Family Sues The School, The Shelter, and a Gay Organization... For helping Larry be OUT!

Lawrence (Larry) King

Get This:

Parents suing over killing of gay teen in classroom

The Associated Press

Updated: 02/14/2009 09:35:33 PM PST

VENTURA - The family of a gay teenager who was shot to death in class filed a wrongful-death lawsuit that accuses the school district, a shelter and a homosexual rights organization of failing to protect him.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed Wednesday in Ventura County Superior Court.

Larry King, 15, of Oxnard, was killed in February 2008. His classmate at E.O. Green Junior High, Brandon McInerney, was charged as an adult and has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and a hate crime.

If convicted, McInerney could face 51 years to life in prison.

McInerney, now 15, allegedly shot King twice in the head in English class. Prosecutors said there had been rising tension between the two after the eighth-grader told McInerney he loved him.

The 18-page lawsuit filed by King's parents and brother names nearly two dozen defendants. It claims that everyone from King's teacher to his social worker failed to urge the effeminate teen to tone down flamboyant behavior. The suit also claims they failed to heed McInerney's alleged threat to kill King a day before the shooting.

In addition to his teacher and principal, the suit names McInerney and his parents; the nonprofit Casa Pacifica, a shelter for troubled children where King had been living; counselors; a county social worker, and the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance.

The school and shelter knew that King's behavior was "sexually assertive" and threatening but failed to take action, the suit contends.

The shelter gave him "cross-dressing clothes and makeup and women's boots," and the Rainbow Alliance encouraged King to make sexual advances on McInerney, the suit claims.

Alliance Executive Director Jay Smith denied the allegation.

"No facilitator or mental health therapist would say anything even remotely like that," Smith said. "This whole thing is just frivolous."

Casa Pacifica did nothing to contribute to the boy's death, administrator Steve Elson said.

The Hueneme School District earlier denied responsibility for King's death.

McInerney's mother, Kendra McInerney, said that she had not seen the suit.

Now, no question - the school did not protect Larry. Another kid brought a gun into the school and shot him during class.

But after his own family couldn't be there for him and Lawrence King had to move to a shelter, the family is blaming the school and the shelter and the gay organization that helped Larry - not for allowing the other kid to bring a gun to school - not for allowing an atmosphere of homophobia - but for LETTING LARRY BE SO EFFEMINATE.

His own family is blaming the murder of their son - NOT on the kid who shot him - NOT on the culture of homophobia and intolerance - but ON their son. They're saying that if Larry hadn't been so swishy, so in your face about being gay, so up front about being attracted to another boy, this wouldn't have happened.

This is how to compound a tragedy.

Blame the victim.

And I think it compounds it even more to treat his murderer, a 14 year old boy, as an adult.

There are so many ways we can collectively and individually learn from this horrible event.

Larry's murder is a failure of our culture to accept that others can be different.

Larry's murder is a failure of understanding that if a guy hits on you and you're not interested, just say no thanks - and recognize it as a compliment.

Larry's murder is a failure of recognizing that being embarrassed because someone might think you're gay, too, is not the worst thing in the world, but murdering a fellow student and possibly going to jail for maybe the rest of your life might be!

Larry's murder should get us talking about gun control.

Larry's murder should get us figuring out how to make schools a safe place.

Larry's murder should have us teaching and learning about tolerance and acceptance.

But let's not blame Larry for having the courage to be himself. That was one thing that went right in his all-too short life.

On Writing: Take Your Character To Therapy!

Freud next to his analytic couch

As a supplement to this schmooze blog on Character, I want to share here one of my favorite techniques for working on the Characters in my books.

It's a psychiatric questionnaire that was adapted in a SCBWI Bulletin a few years ago, that I've added some questions to as well.

I find it's a great tool for figuring out the backstory and WHY my characters would act certain ways. For main characters it's been indispensable. And it's been really useful for creating minor characters, too. I really like not figuring out the character name until after I know quite a bit about them - that's why the name and what they look like section is at the bottom.

Also, I want to mention that often my characters won't tell the truth when asked these questions- so I'll write down both what the character would say, and then in parentheses, I'll add what they actually know the truth to be... Why? It's more fun to write it that way, plus it gives me a better take on the character's voice.

So, try it out. Take this Character Therapy Questionnaire for a test spin. And see if it works for you, too.


1 Do you see the world the same way your friends and family do? Do you feel your parents/friends/community understand you?

2. If you could change one thing about yourself or your life, what would it be? What would happen if you did?

3. What’s your home like? Who lives with you? What rules (explicit or unspoken) must you follow?

4. Describe your hometown. How has growing up there shaped you?

5. Who is your best friend? Do you have a significant other? What traits attract you to these people?

6. Do you have any enemies? Why is there friction in these relationships?

7. Who do you admire? Why?

8. What do you fear most?

9. What is your proudest achievement?

10. What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Did it pay off?

11. Do you tend to worry? What do you worry about?

12. Are you shy or outgoing? A leader or a follower?

13. Do you take things seriously or are you a class clown?

14. Do you have a favorite place? Why is it special?

15. Have you ever been singled out for something? How do you feel about it?

16. What’s the most important thing you’ve ever learned? How did you learn it?

17. Are you truthful? If you have ever misled someone – why did you do it? Are you likely to do it again?

18. Do you have a secret? Who might be hurt if your secret were discovered?

Full Name:

Age:

Outfit:

Personal Grooming:

Body:

Face:

Posture:

Tics/Habits:


CHARACTER ARC:


By the time I've figured out everything else, answering "Character Arc" is much easier. And once I've figured THAT out, I look to my outline to figure out where those character arc moments might happen... And suddenly, the plot fleshes itself out...

Okay, off to work on my characters!

Namaste,

Lee

Ultimate X-Men Issue 65: Magnetic North, Part 5

by Brian K. Vaughan, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Wade Von Grawbadger

It's Marvel's re-conceptualized X-Men, and this issue includes a pivotal coming out scene!

Northstar and Colossus become a GAY superhero couple in this series of comic books, and amid all the fire and ice and metal skeletons and X-wings and the battle between Magneto and Professor Xavier and the X-Men, to see this ROCKED my world.




I love Gay Superheroes!


To catch up on the Ultimate X-Men's world, check this out.

And for an issue-by-issue run-down of what happens when, go here!

M+O 4EVR

By Tonya Cherie Hegamin

O (for Opal) and M (for Marianne) are childhood best friends growing up in rural Pennsylvania. In fact, they're more than best friends...

But when they get to high school, Marianne gives up Opal for drugs and being popular. Opal wants to save her, but is too late...

There's a ghost of a runaway slave and the girls' parents who can't figure love out either.

Can Opal figure out what love is? And can she find the hope and strength she'll need to get that love for herself someday?


Add your review of M+O 4EVR in comments!

GSA Monday Topic: Advice for a "girly" 11 year old boy

Adam, while rather BUFF, has a pretty limp wrist
in this depiction of the creation of man by God,
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by the artist Michelangelo.

Okay, so here's the situation.

There's this boy in 6th grade with very effeminate mannerisms. He's not TRYING to be girly, it's just who he is. He got beaten up twice and his parents moved him to a different school. Things got better, but he made no friends at the second school.

The family moved again, and for the entire summer before he started in 7th grade at this third school, they tried to help him notice (and stop) his

"stereotypical behaviors that might make another child think he was gay: prancing, pirouetting, dancing around with scarfs and boas, limp-wristedness, an affected manner of dramatically running his fingers through his hair."

(That's a quote from his mother.)

The summer experiment in getting him to act more like a "boy" didn't work - the parents now feel it was a ridiculous idea - , and the second day at his new school an older boy saw this kid walking in the hall and said to his friend, "Is that kid gay or what?"

The kid doesn't think he's gay (boys aren't very nice to him so he can't imagine ever being interested in a same-gender relationship.)

What would you suggest? What can this boy do? How can he make friends? Should the parents do anything to help? What about the school?

How can we help this kid?


I'd love to have you share your thoughts (and what you come up with in your GSA discussions) here in "comments!"

Thanks, and Namaste,

Lee