Beth Fehlbaum's Blog, page 6

BIG FAT DISASTER Book Nerd Tour & Blast coming up! Want to host or help out?

To be considered for the tour, click here.
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Check out these great reviews of BIG FAT DISASTER!

http://chiquitablogger.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/big-fat-disaster-by-beth-fehlbaum-review/

http://readingjunky.blogspot.com/2013/12/big-fat-disaster-by-beth-fehlbaum.html

After you read the reviews, enter my Soon-to-End BIG FAT CELEBRATION of BIG FAT DISASTER contest! You may win an Apple iPad 2, a signed ARC of Big Fat Disaster, my first two books, $25 bucks in cold hard cash, and a box of chocolate cupcakes! The winner will be drawn on New Year's Day, 2014! Click here for details: http://bethfehlbaumbooks.com/1/post/2013/12/win-a-signed-big-fat-disaster-advanced-reader-copy-signed-books-cupcakes-christmas-cash-and-oh-yeah-an-apple-ipad-2-its-the-december-edition-of-the-big-fat-disaster-contest.html

The fun doesn't end there: beginning January 1, 2014, there's a Goodreads contest for a signed ARC! Click here for more details: http://bethfehlbaumbooks.com/1/post/2014/01/goodreads-giveaway-of-big-fat-disaster.html

Goodreads Giveaway of BIG FAT DISASTER!

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Giveaway ends January 31, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Contest! Advanced Reader Copy of BIG FAT DISASTER and more!

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Each month, I am awarding one lucky winner an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of BIG FAT DISASTER, releasing from Merit Press in March (ebook) & April (hardcover) and signed copies of my first two books, COURAGE IN PATIENCE and HOPE IN PATIENCE. Sweet treats play a big part in BIG FAT DISASTER, so I'll send you a box of Hostess Cupcakes, and for December's contest ONLY, I'm throwing in $25 of Christmas spending cash at the bookstore of your choice!

December's contest starts at midnight on December 1 & ends at 11:59 PM on December 31. Then a brand new shiny contest starts on January 1 at midnight and monthly contests continue as such through March 31, 2014!

As if all that weren't enough, everyone who enters my monthly contest is eligible to win the grand prize of an Apple iPad 2, to be awarded on April 1, 2014.

The best part about this contest is that you are able to enter as many times as you like, and you may win more than once!


BIG FAT DISASTER is on Amazon! Click here.
And Amazon.ca!
BIG FAT DISASTER is on Barnes & Noble's website! Click here.
And IndieBound!
Don't forget, BIG FAT DISASTER is at Books A Million!


Clickhere to read Chapter One of BIG FAT DISASTER!

A sociologist's view of fat characters on book covers

As a sociologist who studies the body, I see concepts like health and fatness as social constructions. That is, they vary from society to society, from culture to culture, and may change over time. Erving Goffman theorized that people use frames in order to define certain situations and guide their behavior. In other words, you might act a certain way, dress a certain way, and use certain vocabulary at work and then act, dress, and speak differently at home. If you are meeting your partner’s parents for the first time, you know from how you were socialized that you need to be on your best behavior so as to make a good impression. The way in which you frame that situation in your mind has implications for what you do and do not focus on.

            In her book, What’s Wrong with Fat? , sociologist Abigail Saguy uses framing as a means to explain how society deals with fat. Most of the frames are taken for granted and seem natural because these frames are used over and over again. For example, one frame Saguy examines is the medical frame. The medical frame sees fatness as something pathological, a public health crisis that must be solved. The idea that fatness signifies a lack of health and a propensity toward illness is socially constructed. In other words, it is not natural, but this story of fat as bad and unhealthy has been repeated so many times that it appears to be natural and just plain common sense. Saguy points out that there are other frames for fatness, namely fat as healthy, fat as beautiful, and fat as a basis for civil rights claims. These frames obviously do not hold the dominance that the medical frame does. Indeed, even Michelle Obama’s campaign to get people to drink more water is built on the medical frame of fatness.

             “One could try to imagine a world in which fatness signified neither health nor illness but was seen as a relatively neutral form of human variation, such as, say eye color,” Saguy poses in the introduction to What’s Wrong with Fat? “In such a world, one would not assume that it is possible to predict how a person eats, the extent to which a person exercises, or a person’s risk of disease based on body size.” That world is not currently the United States, or much of Western culture. Instead, most people do make assumptions about how a person eats, exercises, and their risk of disease based on what they look like. Most of the time, these assumptions bear out anti-fat prejudice. When fat people are shown on television (that is, when they are not on a weight-loss program), they are often shown from the neck down. These “headless fatties” are a unique sort of objectification. Objectification in general serves to dehumanize the person and is applied to both men and women of all sizes. The “headless fatty” objectification, however, emphasizes the stigma of being a certain size. Those are not real people with feelings in the frame – they are objects of disgust and moral failing.

            Our reliance on frames and our steadfast belief in their being natural states make it difficult to receive contradictory information, such as seeing fat as an indicator of human diversity rather than disgusting. I think this is why people have taken issue with the book covers. If the dominant frame sees fat bodies as less than human or only represented as a “before” picture, it makes sense that a book cover with a full fat body (albeit a headless one, although I am personally not sure what a good alternative would be[1]) is not approved because it is deemed “unattractive.” On the other hand, representation in media is important. There are many young women who resemble the alternative cover and, I believe, would think it is nice to see someone like themselves represented. I know when I saw a billboard for the show Huge in Times Square in 2010, I took at least a dozen pictures because I thought the imagery was so bold and, well, like me. So often images of fat women are not depicted – even in plus-size clothing catalogs – and they are made invisible.

Fatness does not have to be indicative of a state of “disaster” or health. It is all in how it is framed. Exposure to different ways of framing fat has the opportunity to affect people’s attitudes toward fat people and about fatness. Advocating for the increased representation of fat people in media, including on Young Adult book covers, may help decrease anti-fat prejudice in society.[2]


Amanda Fehlbaum is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma.

Footnotes:
[1] Neither book cover really solves the problem of objectification; however, I cannot think of a better alternative. I am reminded of the storm of controversy from the cover of Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, which shows the torso of a thin, light-skinned woman. 

[2] Of course, the perpetuation of objectification of fat bodies may also hurt the cause to end anti-fat prejudice. It depends, again, on how the fatness is framed and interpreted by readers. Will readers say, “Hey! This is like me! This is awesome!” or will readers say, “Eww, gross. Fat arms? Fat body? Not for me.”


 Discussion of this topic from its inception:

To read a literary agent's perspective on on the debate, click here. To read the initial post on this topic "No Fat Girls Allowed (on book covers?)", click here. For the survey results and our preliminary conclusions, click here.
To read a summary of voices calling for a shift in thinking regarding this issue, click here.

From Santa's ELF to you:

Advanced Reader Copy of BIG FAT DISASTER!
You're going to miss out if you don't enter faster!

COURAGE IN PATIENCE and its sister book:
You're missing out if you don't take a look!

Eight Hostess Cupcakes wrapped up in a bow
Curly-cue icing atop, don'tcha know. . .

And since it's the season for mad dash-like shopping,
I'll send you a gift card, so better get hopping!

December's contest ends the 31st
OH! I forgot something! I can be the worst!

Every one entering is qualified to...
Win a new shiny Apple iPad 2!

Here's the link: Get Going! Like Santa's Reindeer!
Enter today and tomorrow, right here!

On flakiness, fat girls on book covers, and Kermit's flailing arms

My current mantra. Sooooo. . . I flaked out on keeping up with the scheduled blog posts on the topic of overweight people on book covers. Apologies!  ’Twould seem that the holidays + being in crisis mode with my day job (I’m a teacher who needs to become a miracle worker) has caused my mind so short-circuit just a little.

December 4’s scheduled topic was, “So, what about those real people on book covers?”

Because my mind is completely fried, I googled “real people on book covers” as a way of warming up to write on this, and I found a Goodreads thread of the same title.

I thought, “Cool!”—then went to the page and it was REAL people on book covers, but not REEEEEEEEAAAAAAL people, meaning, no one on those covers looks like the people I see at my local WalMart. They were all perfectly proportioned with flawless skin to boot, but, in fairness to the thread title, the covers all feature actual human models rather than illustrations.

So, I tried again and I came up with Elizabeth Bird’s phenomenal School Library Journal article titled “Overweight and Invisible.” I’d seen it before, but after rereading it, I knew that there is absolutely nothing I can add to what she said. Go ahead, check it out. I’ll wait. Click here. ...Am I right? It’s so spot-on, don’t you think?

December 11’s topic is on reader’s voices about fat people on book covers. In reading over the comments left by readers on the first post on this discussion, I am struck by the passion apparent in many comments. Some expressed that due to having an eating disorder, they expressly would NOT choose a cover with food on it, while others said that they would not choose the cover with the overweight person in jeans because they found it denigrating to fat people (largely because of the white granny panties on the person).

One interesting comment on Elizabeth Bird’s article was left by a woman who, when she was young, she was quite overweight, and she never would have chosen a cover with a heavy person on it because she feels it would have drawn attention to her body if she was seen holding the book. It’s for that same reason that she would only read Judy Blume’s BLUBBER in the library by herself.  I can see her point.

On the other hand. . .several of the comments regarding the cupcake cover were that it’s been done and done and done

               and done

                              and done

                                              and

                                                       done.

In spite of that, I am super-pleased with the copy that my editor, Jackie Mitchard, wrote for the Big Fat Disaster book cover. Check this out:

Insecure, shy, and way overweight, Colby hates the limelight as much as her pageant-pretty mom and sisters love it. It's her life: Dad's a superstar, running for office on a family values platform. Then suddenly, he ditches his marriage for a younger woman and gets caught stealing money from the campaign. Everyone hates Colby for finding out and blowing the whistle on him. From a mansion, they end up in a poor relative's trailer, where her mom's contempt swells right along with Colby's supersized jeans. Then, a cruel video of Colby half-dressed, made by her cousin Ryan, finds its way onto the internet. Colby plans her own death. A tragic family accident intervenes, and Colby's role in it seems to paint her as a hero, but she's only a fraud. Finally, threatened with exposure, Colby must face facts about her selfish mother and her own shame. Harrowing and hopeful, proof that the truth that saves us can come with a fierce and terrible price, Big Fat Disaster is that rare thing, a story that is authentically new.

Want to read Big Fat Disaster before anyone else? Win a signed Advanced Reader Copy (as well as my first two books, a box of cupcakes, $25 cold hard cash to spend at the bookstore of your choice, and a chance to win an Apple iPad 2!)—by going here .

Coming up next—on December 18—I promise!—my daughter, Amanda, who is a sociology Ph.D. candidate and designed a course titled “Sociology of the Body” is going to share her thoughts on fat bias. [Yaaaaay! Kermit-the-Frog, flailing-his-arms.]


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   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win a signed BIG FAT DISASTER advanced reader copy, signed books, cupcakes, Christmas cash, and, oh, yeah, an Apple iPad 2: it's the December edition of the Big Fat Disaster contest!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Each month, I am awarding one lucky winner an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of BIG FAT DISASTER, releasing from Merit Press in March (ebook) & April (hardcover) and signed copies of my first two books, COURAGE IN PATIENCE and HOPE IN PATIENCE. Sweet treats play a big part in BIG FAT DISASTER, so I'll send you a box of Hostess Cupcakes, and for December's contest ONLY, I'm throwing in $25 of Christmas spending cash at the bookstore of your choice!

December's contest starts at midnight on December 1 & ends at 11:59 PM on December 31. Then a brand new shiny contest starts on January 1 at midnight and monthly contests continue as such through March 31, 2014!

As if all that weren't enough, everyone who enters my monthly contest is eligible to win the grand prize of an Apple iPad 2, to be awarded on April 1, 2014.

The best part about this contest is that you are able to enter as many times as you like, and you may win more than once!


BIG FAT DISASTER is on Amazon! Click here.
And Amazon.ca!
BIG FAT DISASTER is on Barnes & Noble's website! Click here.
And IndieBound!
Don't forget, BIG FAT DISASTER is at Books A Million!


Click here to read Chapter One of BIG FAT DISASTER!

A former "stupid worthless bitch" emerges from the shadows and writes of hope: tough stuff in my novels

Imagine this scenario, if you will. The mother of a teenage girl calls a meeting with the superintendent of schools and the principal of her daughter's high school:

   "The books my daughter checks out of the school library are usually perfectly acceptable," the woman says. She slides a novel across the heavy mahogany desk. The man seated across from her picks it up and studies the cover before handing it off to the woman, who thumbs through it quickly and places it back on the desk.
            
     "For example," the mother tells them, "The setting of this novel is a middle-class home in a quiet neighborhood in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. But it could be Main Street, Anywhere, U.S.A. The main characters are a fifteen-year-old girl who is a book-smart student and sings in the church choir; her eighteen-year-old brother who is very busy as a leader in Police Explorers; their universally-loved, always smiling mother who is an elder in the church; and their stepfather who is very quiet, hard-working, and known as a generous person to his employees and the church. He's so wonderful that even though the man doesn't attend church--and, I'll admit it, that is somewhat bothersome--his good works redeem him. It being the parents' second marriages is kind of a problem, but they're both such saints that a thing like divorce can be overlooked, in my opinion. Good family, great kids. And, on top of all those selling points, the book is very well-written."

          The superintendent leans forward in her chair. "So, um, what's the problem, ma'am?"

            The woman pulls from her purse another novel with many Post-It notes stuck to its pages.

            "So, what is this other book doing in the library, hmm? This inclusion of filth cannot stand. It will not stand. This book contains profanity and takes the Lord's name in vain. The main character, a fifteen-year-old girl, even questions the existence of God, because she prays that He'll save her from the life she's in and feels that nothing happens as a result. Blasphemy. As if that weren't bad enough, there are references to every kind of child abuse; alcohol consumption; and the father character even holds the family at gunpoint when the mother dares to try to reason with him. What sort of agenda does that librarian have? Or is this some sort of conspiracy to make children grow up faster?"

            She withdraws the essay she has written in preparation for this meeting and glances at it frequently just to make sure she doesn't leave out one bit of her concern. Turns out, she really doesn't need her notes. "The setting of this book is a middle-class home in a suburb, but unlike the other novel, the acceptable one, these people are exaggerations. They're just beyond belief. The neighbors wonder what all the yelling and screaming coming from the house is about. They don't understand why the father character stands in the front yard with a beer in one hand and a water hose in the other, spraying down the huge rocks as if he expects them to grow. The yelling and screaming happens after he finishes watering his rocks, goes into the house, and the daughter character inevitably says or does something to enrage him. For example, she does not say 'Hello' to him quickly enough, or does not come quickly enough to refill his tall plastic cup filled with 3/4 Wild Turkey Bourbon, 1/4 Diet Pepsi. The girl says she did not hear the ice rattle when he shook the cup, but who shakes a cup of ice at a kid?  Night after night, the father convenes the family on the sticky faux-leather furniture in the den and berates them for their worthlessness. He does not mince words. I counted the number of curse words, and I have the list right here."

    She slides a paper across the desk to the superintendent, who glances at it. "I'll read it later. Please continue, unless you're finished."

            The woman lifts her eyebrows and gives the school employees a skeptical look. "Not even close. This book isn't even written well. You say it's realistic fiction? Who in their right mind ever heard of an adult"-- she holds up one finger-- "watering rocks in the yard? Or"--second finger--"expecting a teenage girl to play bartender?" She shakes her head sadly and mutters something about taxpayer dollars, then dives back in.

            "The mother character will do anything to keep the peace. ANYTHING. It seems she prefers her life as it is to being alone again, like she was when her first husband abandoned her with her two small children. The baby girl was three days old. Luckily for her, several years later, a woman with two young children was exactly what the new guy in town was looking for. He could take or leave her son; it was the girl he really paid attention to. How nice: after years of having no father, her daughter finally has a man who cares about her."

            The principal sounds hopeful. "Well, that's a positive, isn't it? She found a new husband who loves her and the children?"

            "Her husband doesn't love the son. When the boy joins Police Explorers, his stepfather hates him even more because he has no respect for police officers. So he slams him up against walls and beats him. The boy only comes home to sleep after everyone else has gone to bed, and he sleeps with a loaded pistol under his pillow. He eats dinner at a different friend's house every night and he hates his sister because he thinks she's the favorite." The woman shrugs and says sarcastically, "Just what we need in this world: more disrespect for law enforcement."

            "I'm sure that's not the author's intention." The principal shifts in his chair uncomfortably and looks at his watch. The woman notices and snaps, "I am not finished yet! Now, do you want me to go to the local newspapers, or are you going to hear me out?"

            He sighs, "Of course, ma'am. Please continue." 

            "Thank you, I will. When the mother notices that the daughter character is eating massive amounts of food, she points out morbidly obese women and asks, 'Do you want to look like them? Stop eating so much! You'll never get a boyfriend if you're fat!' The woman makes a face as if she smelled something bad. "This is not a positive adult character for my daughter to read about."

            She narrows her eyes, tilts her head, and says, "This author seems to be on a crusade to portray mothers in a bad light. Does the librarian who bought this book hate her own mother or something?"

         The superintendent sputters, "I--you--I think you're reading more into this than--"

            The woman cuts her off. "I'm not happy about the profanity, but forget that a moment and consider the quality of storytelling, would you? I find the stepfather's behavior unbelievable, but the mother is equally over-the-top. She is so determined to maintain the facade of family perfection to the world that when the girl tells her, at age fourteen, that the stepfather character has been molesting her since the age of eight... well, first, the mother questions her as if the girl is her husband's mistress. Then, she decides that from that moment, they will all move on. It's simple: Just. Move. On."

            She picks up the novel and it seems for a moment that she may throw it at the people across from her, who duck. She slams the book onto the desk, not even noticing that they're cringing. "No mother would do that." She snorts, "Realistic fiction. Hmph! But you know what really gets my goat?"

            They shake their heads.

            "It's the main character, the fifteen-year-old girl. Is my daughter supposed to identify with this person? To emulate her? She hides in books, writing, and her closet at night-- and sometimes during the day. She has no close friends, because any time she overcomes her social awkwardness enough to become close to someone and tell them what happens at her house, the person begins to pull away. She discovers that if she eats excessive amounts of the sweets at one time, she doesn't feel so much of what she is afraid to feel. The messages she absorbs from the caretakers in her life have taken root like a cancer in her soul! They tell her, "You are stupid. You are worthless. No one will ever love you. You're so angry! You wake up angry and you go to sleep angry. What a--a-- B-word you are!"

            The woman flings the novel into the wastebasket. "Trash! Sensationalism! What sort of parent would say that to a child? And, my question is, why do you feel that teenage readers should have access to these sorts of stories?"

Find Beth Fehlbaum online:
  Official Book Trailer for Hope in Patience  Video of me reading a Dear Teen Me letter  My website  Facebook  Twitter  Reviews of The Patience Trilogy Reviews of Big Fat Disaster Cut! End of scenario.

            I'll take this one. Me: Beth Fehlbaum: the author of books that tell such stories of teens in seemingly hopeless situations, who find that they are capable of overcoming, surviving, and thriving: The Patience Trilogy: Courage in Patience, Hope in Patience, Truth in Patience, and Big Fat Disaster. The Patience Trilogy is available for acquisition, and Big Fat Disaster will release from Merit Press in March, 2014.

            I write books about people like the fifteen-year-old girl in the "controversial" novel, and I have a wide readership from teens to people in their seventies, although my books are considered "YA".

            I was that fifteen-year-old girl. That is my story. My family was perceived as the family in the "acceptable" novel, but it was a lie. I write the stories that I do because as a book-smart teen, I looked high and low for people like me; for a way to process what was going on under our roof.

            I tried repeatedly to find...something. Peace? Answers? A solution to my stepfather raging or, if my mother was not at home, being overly kind to me-- which was like sirens going off that he was about to jump me. I lived in a heightened state of anxiety, and I have PTSD as a souvenir of those years.

            I was convinced that I was an awful person, and that if I prayed just right, God would save me. I rode my bike to the Christian bookstore by my house and pored over the self-help section.

            When I gave up and became convinced that I must be doing the whole praying thing wrong, I trekked to the public library. I can't even tell you what I thought I'd find, but I was desperate and I thought that somewhere, there had to be someone in those pages who I could relate to. But no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find MY LIFE in the books I read. So, I read a lot of non-fiction, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I cannot begin to express to you how much I could have used some HOPE back then; to have read about people like me who manage to find a reason to hang on, even though many times it was tempting to check out.

        While I didn't find books with characters who were like me, I did find the technical words for what was going on in my house, such as:

Molestation: to make annoying sexual advances to; especially : to force physical and usually sexual contact on

Incest: sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that they are forbidden by law to marry; also : the statutory crime of such a relationship

Rape: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent

Alcoholism: a chronic disorder marked by excessive and usually compulsive drinking of alcohol leading to psychological and physical dependence or addiction.

       At that time, I didn't realize I had an eating disorder--but I knew that I ate in secret and that I didn't eat like other people did. Binge Eating Disorder has only recently been added to the DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria. If that information had been around when I was a teen, I guarantee that I would have book-smarted my way to finding it.

            I also didn't know that my frequent thoughts of killing myself was suicide ideation, a symptom of major depression, which I had, undiagnosed, for years:

Suicide Ideation: wanting to take one's own life or thinking about suicide without actually making plans to commit suicide. However, the term suicidal ideation is often used more generally to refer to having the intent to commit suicide, including planning how it will be done. Suicidal ideation is one of the symptoms of both major depression and bipolar depression.

            Ya know, I've read articles written by those who question whether YA fiction is purposely sensational and controversial, but I believe that "CONTROVERSY" is in the eye of the beholder. What I lived wasn't controversial. It was my life; surviving day-to-day, and feeling as if I was alone. I coveted the lives of my friends whose families weren't like mine, and I was convinced that because of what was happening to me, I was a dirty, shameful person. I wasn't, and teens who are experiencing those same things in their lives --or who know people who are-- need to know that being raised in a world like that is not a cause for shame.

            Most importantly, I want my readers to know that they are not alone, and that THERE IS HOPE. Sure, there's a place for books about perfect families, but there's also a place for books like mine and other authors who tell the truth even when it's messy; who write fearlessly; and who show that there's light to be found without being preachy, and even, believe it or not, by injecting humor into the most surprising places.

            Some people have accused authors like me of creating a dark world that damages teens. Trust me: a person who slept in my closet for years to avoid my stepfather's nighttime attacks, and who grew up believing that I was a stupid worthless bitch, because my parents told me so: the real world is dark, all on its own.

            That's why I write like I do.

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to enter Beth's BIG FAT DISASTER GIVEAWAY for November! Enter to win signed copies of her books including an Advanced Reader Copy of BIG FAT DISASTER, and be eligible for the grand prize, an Apple iPad 2! Click here to enter.

Buy Beth Fehlbaum's books:
Big Fat Disaster, Courage in Patience, Hope in Patience:
Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound