Jo Knowles's Blog, page 58

Friday! Yay!

1. I'm so enjoying my class this semester. And I'm not just saying that because one of my brilliant students friended me here. *waves to Ann* :-) There's just this fantastic chemistry in the group and every week I can see each of them stretching, finding their voices. Getting it. I love that.

2. I am reading a really lovely—no. A really BEAUTIFUL book right now. I'm almost done but don't want to finish because I don't want to leave the main character and her family. I love Gianna Z. I love her...

Linda Urban asks hard questions--the best kind

Have all of you been reading Linda Urban's posts lately? She can be found at lurban . I have to say, since she started talking about finding your spine, my whole way of thinking about my current work in progress has shifted. I've found my focus again. Yesterday, I wrote FOURTEEN pages!

Linda sent several of her friends a series of extremely difficult questions and now she's posting those conversations on her blog as well. I've been finding them fascinating and as eye-opening as Linda's earlier...

Come write with us

brian_ohio and other JoNo-ers are writing together over here: http://community.livejournal.com/jonowrimo/177940.html

If you want some cheering on, leave a note in the comments and we'll work with you.

:-)

Eric Luper Is Trying To Kill Me

So this morning I came home from a truly horrendous experience at the garage where a woman and her son joined me in the waiting room. I was busy reading student papers when the woman turned on the TV, found the ALL DORA THE EXPLORER ALL THE TIME channel and proceeded to SING and SHOUT OUT THE ANSWERS at Dora for OVER AN HOUR. Even AFTER her son FELL ASLEEP.

By the way, her son did not say a single word the entire time while he was awake. He just clutched these two little dolls he had to his ch...

I <3 Ted

Recently I received a lovely package in the mail from McElderry Books. It contained this:

Shop Indie Bookstores

and this:

Shop Indie Bookstores

I LOVE Andrea Beaty's picture books (and also her beautiful middle grade novel, Cicada Summer). Andrea has the best sense of humor and it SHINES in her texts. I adored her first Ted book, DOCTOR TED, and was looking forward to Ted's next adventure. It's even sillier!

The silliness starts when Ted sprays a smoking slice of toast with whipped cream.

"Stand b...

Brian's novel is my novel

Yesterday I noted on Twitter something about having a hard writing day and Eric Luper ( eluper) sent me this video, saying "Just watch this and rejoice you're not there anymore."

The sad thing is, I was thinking about it and I believe I've been working on this manuscript on and off for close to three years.

I am there. I am so there. Seriously... there.



SOS

Is it censorship? And a Poetry Friday Haiku Extravaganza!

Today is the ULITMATE POETRY FRIDAY POST, thanks to all of you. But first, I have one more thing to say about Banned Books Week and all the weirdness that's been going on lately.

Just yesterday I discovered this lovely review of Jumping Off Swings, only to read the final lines with despair (bolding at end mine):

For all of its harsh language, there is something very beautiful about this book. Knowles shows so many sides of complicated teen thoughts on sex and love and blends them skillfully...

ATTENTION TEACHERS (High School and College)

If you'd like to help save some books today, could you please read Laurie Halse Anderson's blog entry and help us out?

http://halseanderson.livejournal.com

That pesky Kentucky school is looking for new ways to remove books, since the challenges didn't pan out. This time the superintendent is claiming the books have no academic merit and do not help prepare students for college.

Um.

How do you even START to respond?

Anyway, please check out Laurie's post if you have time and think you can help.

THA...

Wednesday's Haiku Entries & Other Good Things

Another quick note before the next installment of haiku updates:

Part Two of Lee Wind's interview series with several authors who've recently faced book challenges, including, Ellen Hopkins, E.Lockhart, me, Jacqui Robbins, Sarah Brannen & Frank Portman is ow up!. Please check it out: http://www.leewind.org Thank you so much!!

Also, I just learned that JUMPING OFF SWINGS has been nominated for the Cybils! Yay! :-) You can go there to nominate other titles in lots of categories here: http...

Tuesday's Haiku Entries

Quick note before the haiku update:

Lee Wind is posting all week about censorship and this week he has Part One of an interview series with several authors who've recently faced book challenges, including, Ellen Hopkins, E.Lockhart, me, Jacqui Robbins, Sarah Brannen & Frank Portman. Please check it out: http://bit.ly/Ucd6O Thanks!

Also, for more mind-blowing news about censorship, please read Laurie Halse Anderson's latest blog entry here: http://halseanderson.livejournal.com/265251.html Thanks...