Catherine Ryan Hyde Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than 25 published and forthcoming books, including the bestselling When I found You, Pay It Forward, Don't Let Me Go, and Take Me With You.
123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999
(123) 555-6789
email@address.com
You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.
Filtering by Category: Opinion Pieces
I can't really say, "Happy Spirit Day." Because it's nothing to be happy about.
The last few months have seen an epidemic of teens committing suicide in the wake of unmerciful bullying, violence and degradation. Because they were gay, or perceived as gay. Today the caring world wears purple in remembrance. And today I say, along with millions of others, "Enough!" You cannot tell
There sure is a lot going on right now around book banning and censorship. In fact, it's come to a town near me. San Luis Obispo, a small city about 45 minutes down the Coast Highway from me, reviewed a book today that someone wants taken off high school shelves. Here's the problem: We don't know who. After ten years in the school curriculum, the book was reviewed today as the result of an anonymous complaint.
The book is "Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane, a memoir about survival as a child in South Africa during Apartheid. Some anonymous person is upset by page 72, which contains a fairly graphic description of children prostituting themselves for food.
I have an old friend, Dave Congalton, who's hosted a local talk radio show since...I'm not quite sure, but I think since the beginning of time. He asked me this morning If I'd call in
Those of you who are reading the Sainsbury's Book Club edition of Second Hand Heart will already know Erin and Betty Ann. If not, a brief background. Betty Ann is a living kidney donor, and Erin is the recipient of her incredible gift. I wrote about their experiences in a true donor story as an exclusive for the Sainsbury's edition. Betty Ann was Erin's third donor, and Erin's situation was quite desperate by the time the third kidney arrived. And Erin and Betty Ann barely knew each other then. But they sure know each other now.
I also mentioned in the story that, after six long years of waiting due to her health issues, Erin and her finance, Joe, were finally planning their wedding. Imagine my delight when Erin's mother sent me wedding photos, including one of Erin with all three of her donors!
Who could possibly think the YA novel Speak is pornography? Unfortunately, there's an answer to that question. He's a guy in Missouri, Wesley Scroggins. In an article called Filthy books demeaning to Republic education, he mischaracterizes Laurie Halse Anderson's classic YA novel Speak, the story of a young rape victim, and says it should be classified as soft pornography. Because it contains two rape scenes.
Is the suggestion here that the purpose of writing about rape is to entertain and excite? Because that's a pretty sick sentiment, Mr. Scroggins. In a world where the statistics on child sexual abuse are so shockingly high, does he really think the solution is not to utter a word about the problem in books? It's better if they don't read about someone who survived it, even if it's happening to these readers right now?
Such dangerous logic. But then, all censorship is dangerous. If you think a book is
There's Young Adult author Ellen Hopkins' reverse invitation to a Texas Book festival (they invited her, then withdrew the invitation). Then there was that mess regarding Glen Beck's 9.12 Project getting books pulled from school--and even public--libraries without any formal book challenge. I wrote a report on this backlash against (primarily) LGBT lit, and it's featured on the Red Room home page all this week. You can read it here. And it's almost Banned Books Week (September 25th through October 2nd, 2010).
But there is a bright spot in all of this. Some interesting and important groups and projects have emerged. Well, emerged to me. They've probably been around for quite awhile. But I'm now lucky enough to have discovered them.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to provide a guest post for LGBT Lit Days (August 9-20) on The Story Siren, an excellent book review blog. I'm sure my upcoming transgender novel Jumpstart the World is a big part of why I was asked, but my novel Becoming Chloe also falls into the LGBT category. In fact, my novel Pay It Forward also included the character of a gay/transgender young man, but most people don't know that, because he didn't make it into the film.
If you don't know the importance of LGBT literature to gay and transgender individuals, especially as they come of age, I hope you'll take a minute to read what I wrote.
Just click on: My Guest Post. Thanks.
You know, I almost called this blog "For Struggling Writers." Then it hit me. Is there any other kind?
Anne Allen posted a great blog today about critique groups. If you’re a writer, and are not familiar with Anne Allen's blog for writers, today is a good day to jump on board. Here’s a link:
Learning to understand and make use of criticism is a crucial subject for writers at every stage of the game. It’s hardest on newer writers, those who haven’t quite gotten their feet planted yet. But, believe me, if you write, you face critique.
Sound familiar? Probably because last year I wrote a blog with a very similar title. But, in that case, I was going a slightly different direction. That blog was more about speaking up. Not so much about what truth really is, how to find it, or how to know it when you see it, but more about saying what you really feel, popular or (far more likely) not.
This is a blog about truth itself.
So...the inevitable question...what is truth?
So, a blog about what I think happiness is. I’ve been experimenting with the idea that it’s a decision.
Now, that’s an easy statement to argue. You may say, “But there’s so much I can’t control, and it makes me unhappy.” Right. True. There’s a lot we can’t control. But if we could be happy anyway, then we could be happy. Case in point:
My first true mentor was author Jean Brody (Gideon’s House, A Coven of Women, Cleo). I met her when I first had the guts to join the Cambria Writers Workshop and read my work out loud (picture if you will: hands trembling as they try to hold the printout; hammering heart; much pausing for life-giving oxygen).
She wasn’t an “easy” or “soft” mentor. In fact, I once stayed away from the group in despair when she announced that all my authority figures came off as stereotypes. I respected her knowledge so much that I allowed it to crush me.
Why did I go back?
I tend to think of myself as someone who speaks my mind fairy easily. So I’ve been quite surprised by my recent foray into a whole new realm of truth-telling (not as opposed to lying, which I haven’t done in years, but as opposed to keeping quiet about how I feel), because it’s shown me that I’m not nearly as good at it as I thought.
Not everyone is pleased by hearing my truth. I guess there’s no such thing as a world where you can say what you mean and enjoy everyone’s approval. And that, I think, is the real bottom line on speaking up. I guess it just boils down to this one key question: How much do you care what others think of you? More than I thought, I guess, but I’m doing it anyway. Because once you pull the covers off a pattern like that, there’s just no going home again.
The Cliffs at Ragged PointI seem to have a preoccupation with cliffs, both in fiction and in my everyday life. In Love in the Present Tense, Leonard launches his home-built hang glider off one. In The Day I Killed James, James drives his motorcycle off another. I quit my day job and became a writer.
Sounds like a one-time jump, but nothing could be further from the truth.
This morning I took a good look at my appointment book for the rest of the year. It’s a lot different from last year, because of my landmark (for me, anyway) decision to stop traveling and speaking on behalf of the Pay It Forward concept.
I have gotten quite a bit of blowback about the language in that book (always from adults, never from youth). Almost none of it has been said to my face. For example, at one of these town in IN, I was told that the school had received phone calls from parents troubled about a handful of words. But when I speak, and open for questions, it's very rare for anyone to bring it up directly. I wish they would. I have opinions on the subject, and I'd like to have an open discussion.
I guess that's what blogs are for.
So here are my opinions:
(This little essay was originally written for the Random House web site.)
I can’t define myself as a writer without mentioning Lenny Horowitz, my high school English teacher. I never called him Mr. Horowitz. He let us call him Lenny.
Lenny sent my world in a completely different direction (and if you’d seen the direction I was going at the time, you’d understand that he was a lifesaver): he taught me to love reading again, and he told me I could write.
(This is one in a series of blogs on frequently asked question that I posted on MySpace when I began that blog. I’m guessing most of my visitors to this site have not seen them.)
I get a lot of questions about this one.
Q: What did I think of the movie version of Pay It Forward?
A: I thought the book was better. Then again, I would, wouldn’t I?
When I say that, just about everybody says the same thing: "Oh, the book is always better than the movie." Which leads me to wonder why, as a society in general, we see so many movies and read so few books. But that’s another rant for another blog.
I have theories as to why the book is always better.
(This is one in a series of blogs on frequently asked question that I posted on MySpace when I began that blog. I’m guessing most of my visitors to this site have not seen them.)
I want to talk about the labels (figurative labels, not price stickers and such) that we put on books. Particularly the ones that relate to reading levels. As in, This one is for a teenager. This one is for an adult.
Like there’s such a huge difference.
Here’s my opinion in a nutshell: I think it’s all meaningless.
A few examples.
