Reader, Writer, Dog Lover

in which I answer questions about libraries and writing, show off my dogs, and highlight this week’s banned book news

After author photos for my upcoming YA novel “Keep Sweet,” Loki wants to show me some love.

Hi Friends:

As this is a holiday weekend that includes a few celebrations for my family, I thought I’d take a break. So I didn't write an essay this week. I’ve been cooking and cleaning like a mad woman. It’s 11 PM Saturday night, so too too late to record this post for audio.

I DO want to share my answers to a few interview questions I was asked last month. Along with two other Inlandia authors, I was part of a noontime panel at a Riverside, CA library employee in-service day. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the questions that Janine Pourroy Gamblin, Inlandia’s Program Coordinator, asked. A bit about libraries and a bit about writing.

Interview

Before we talk about writing, let’s talk about libraries – and, more specifically, librarians. Can you think of one in particular who made an impact? Why are libraries important to you, personally?

Other than being in nature, libraries are my favorite places. I didn’t have any experiences with them when I was young. My mom had five kids in seven years and was pretty overwhelmed. Other than a hardback set of children's stories, we didn’t have any reading material at home for kids and my elementary school didn’t have a library. So my interest in libraries might seem odd. But despite the dearth of reading material in my life, I loved to read and excelled at it. Because I was reading above grade level, my third grade teacher, Miss Shuck,  gave me a high school literature book to occupy me when I finished my work. I still remember a few stories from that anthology. One was “They Grind Exceedingly Small” by Ben Ames Williams. Many of the stories were about moral choices and their consequences.

My school did have a couple of clamshell bookshelves—the kind you see in Scholastic book fairs—in the foyer of the cafeteria. I remember being able to visit those a few times. I don’t know if it was just a happy accident or if my teacher directed me to it, but I found Old Yeller there. Oh, my dog-loving heart! What a beautiful and painful book. I was hooked. 

My little town had a book trailer for a library in the parking lot of a grocery center, in walking distance from my house. One day when my friend’s older sister was walking us home from a Junior Girl Scout trip, she stopped there to get books. I was nine or ten. I’d never been in the book trailer before, but I imitated my friends’ behavior. When it was my turn to take my books to the circulation desk, the woman working there told me I needed a library card in order to check anything out. She gave me a form for my parents to sign. That was it. I became a library user. 

Librarians

As far as librarians, I connected with them after I became a librarian myself. But that doesn’t mean librarians didn’t affect my younger life. I think we envision these relationships that usually don’t happen outside of the movies or fiction. (I think of the Rebecca Makkai novel The Borrower, where the librarian—somewhat accidentally—kidnaps a neglected, socially awkward boy.) 

What the librarians actually did for me was the behind-the-scenes, quiet work. They had to find, purchase and catalog the books that would help shape me. (Thankfully, there were those who enjoyed cataloging, which back in the day, was a pain in the rear.) They provided a quiet place for me to do homework. They had reference books with all the answers to my history homework questions. They called me when it was my turn on the hold list for Thorn Birds, a wildly popular novel when I was a teen. 

When I was a young mom, I always took my kids to the library. The librarians read to my children during story hours, taught them The Wheels on the Bus song, provided crafts, and taught us to tie-dye t-shirts. Later, I worked in a joint-use library where the branch of the city library was in the high school campus library. (Terrible idea, a story for another time.) The children’s librarian was the same woman who’d consistently done story time with all my kids over the years. That was very nice. 

Writing

What pushed – or maybe “pulled” might be more accurate – you toward writing? 

As a reader, I realized very young that authors were communicating their ideas with me. I wanted to do the same. As an undergrad, I majored in English. I loved writers and the influence they had on my thinking. I took a creative writing class and over the next several years, I wrote a not-very-good novel. 

An author’s writing process is always interesting and usually quite individual. What’s yours? About how long does a project take you, from first thought to last page?

I keep lists of ideas and go to them when I want to write a story. The first draft of a story takes me a few weeks, but I always need to revise. Writing is rewriting, as they say. My process for essays is much the same. But for longer work, like novels, I am very slow. Novels take years. I wish I worked more consistently than I do. I get stuck a lot. I often attend an accountability group on Zoom that meets daily. Each author sets an intention at the beginning. At the end, they tell others how it went. Having some sort of schedule helps me to do the work.

Any work that I feel will be worthy of publication, I bring to critique groups. So—I belong to a lot of groups. 

What’s the hardest thing about writing?

The hardest things:

Getting a throughline in the story, especially for novels. What’s the plot that brings the story idea together? I have so many good ideas that just don’t have yeast. 

The other thing is being vulnerable enough to write a good piece. I recently had a personal essay go viral on HuffPost. I thought, this essay is about the stupidest behavior of my life and over a million people read it. Maybe I should be writing stuff that makes me look smart. But guess what? People don’t want to read about how smart you are. They want to read about your humanity, which includes the messy mistakes. 

Last question. Do you have a favorite motivational phrase? Like, something you might have on a Post-it Note over your desk?

I tried putting inspiring quotes over my desk, but I ended up with so many everywhere that I looked like I belonged in a conspiracy theory meme. Now I have four words that I keep with me, keys to a good life and to good writing. They come from a New Yorker, article (October 22, 2015) by George Saunders. 

“A story’s positive virtues are not different from the positive virtues of its writer. A story should be honest, direct, loving, restrained. It can, by being worked and reworked, come to have more power than its length should allow. A story can be a compressed bundle of energy, and, in fact, the more it is thoughtfully compressed, the more power it will have.”

Saunders said he learned this from Tobias Wolff. 

• honest

• direct

• loving

• restrained

What I’m reading, what I’m up to

It’s not actually true that I didn’t write any essays this week. I wrote two brief book reviews on my recent reading of Rift by Cait West and Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold. I’ll post those soon.

I just started listening to The Way of Imagination by Scott Randall Sanders.

I’m reading Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

You may know that I’m a dog lover. On September 14, I’ll be reading a very brief excerpt from my chapbook The Mortality of Dogs and Humans at the ‘Petember’ event at the Upland Public Library. If you’re in the area, come on over. 

Curiosa (white) and Loki (russet) taking their guard dog duties seriously.

Part 2: Library and book ban/challenge news

Threatened for protesting book bans, this librarian won’t keep quiet gift link from WaPo (you can read the article for free)

I know I’ve posted about this book in two previous weeks, but it’s exciting, so here is a positive review. I bought the audiobook, but am using all my restraint and finishing my current book before starting it. 

Amanda Jones deserves a better subtitle for her new book, “That Librarian.” The anodyne “The Fight Against Book Banning in America” fails to capture the flavor or thrust of this intensely personal and often harrowing book. Please allow me, then, to offer Jones’s publisher a few suggestions for a more accurate (and compelling) subtitle for the eventual paperback edition of the book: “The Memoir and Manifesto of a Freedom Fighter,” “Dispatches From the Trenches of America’s Culture War,” “Jousting With Trolls, Telling My Story, and Defending the Freedom to Read.”

Any of these would be better. This is, after all, a book that begins with a death threat leveled at Jones because … she opposed censorship in her local public libraries in rural Louisiana. Jones’s fortitude in the face of such intimidation, and her subsequent work as a spokeswoman for libraries and library patrons, make for an important and engrossing story.

School book fairs help kids learn to love reading. But not this year in Greenville.. From Greenville News

The news broke last week that Greenville County schools had canceled upcoming book fairs due to a new book-banning regulation from the South Carolina Department of Education. Regulation 43-170 bans books (“instructional materials”) that contain descriptions of “sexual content” and “excretory functions.” These broad, vague terms encompass such works as the Bible, "The Canterbury Tales," virtually anything by William Shakespeare, and other modern classics (and my children’s favorite characters) like Captain Underpants.Because it’s not clear exactly what would happen to a school district, administrator, or teacher found in violation of the Department’s regulation, the Greenville district decided to cancel book fairs while it works out the logistics of ensuring that every single book brought in during a book fair doesn’t contain anything that offends the sensibilities of bureaucrats in Columbia.

Katy ISD amends library policy for the fourth time to ban more content from KHOU

The proposed amendment would also require book fair vendors to follow the library guidelines.

Major Publishers Sue Florida Over Banned School Library Books from the NYT

The lawsuit filed on Thursday argues that many “timeless classics” and best-selling novels are being indiscriminately tossed from school library shelves.

Those books include “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, according to the suit.

“If the State of Florida dislikes an author’s idea, it can offer a competing message,” the lawsuit said. “It cannot suppress the disfavored message.”

Libraries push back on Project 2025 from KMA Land

In Iowa, there are at least 540 public libraries, fourth-highest in the nation. More than 400 are among the scant cultural resources in towns with populations of less than 2,500.

Peter Bromberg, associate director of the institute, said Project 2025, a massive effort to reclassify civil service workers as political appointees, would take direct aim at libraries and the people who work there.

"You know, librarians and teachers are highly trusted and well-known and well-loved in their communities," Bromberg pointed out. "It's really kind of a shocking and extreme attempt to twist our democratic society and our institutions into more of a totalitarian theocracy."

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Author Julia Alvarez Addresses Banning of Her Book by Tillamook School District from the Tillamook County Pioneer

Note: The book in question is How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Having come from a dictatorship where books were censored and discussions were discouraged, I know how important it is that we protect not just our homes, communities, and borders but also our bookshelves. Stories are our shared legacy as a human family and our children are the poorer for being prevented from claiming that heritage.

Katy ISD considers banning books about ‘gender fluidity’ from some school libraries From Houston Public Media

A year after passing a controversial gender identity policy that prompted an ongoing civil rights investigation by the federal government, trustees for Katy ISD are considering another gender-related measure pertaining to library materials.

All elementary and junior high libraries in the Houston-area school district would be banned from containing books "adopting, supporting or promoting gender fluidity," according to a proposal on the agenda for Monday night's board meeting. High school students, meanwhile, would need permission from their parents to access such materials from their campus libraries.

DoJ and 16 states back lawsuit targeting LGBTQ+ book ban in Georgia schools from The Guardian

Court briefs outline how book ban creates hostile environment including discrimination based on sex.

Disinvited: Amid Censorship, Schools Abruptly Cancel Author Visits from School Library Journal

While book bans and other efforts to curtail free expression in schools have made headlines, canceled visits have gone relatively unmarked. SLJ spoke with authors about their experiences.