squeetus

Announcing new Princess Academy books!

Eight years ago Princess Academy was published. Once it won a Newbery Honor, its success overwhelmed me. I'd considered writing a sequel before but decided against it, sure that it could never match up.

So I resisted until my idea for what happens next overwhelmed me more than the overwhelmingness of the previous success. Just generally overwhelmed, I still had to write that story.

I'm so glad I got to write Palace of Stone. I love that book. While working Palace of Stone, another burning question haunted me. And the only way to answer it was to write a third book in the series. Which I am doing now, most likely for early 2015 publication. Working title: Dragonfly Sisters.

Since it's going so well, I see no reason to stop. Here are some more Princess Academy titles that you can absolutely expect to see in the near future.*

*this isn't true. the third book will be the last. but what would you give to read princess academy: doug? *sigh*

EDIT: Faithful reader Laura adds this brilliant idea to the Princess Academy genre family:

The book cover I never in my wildest fantasies imagined

This will be happening.

This edition of the book will hit stores in July. The movie premieres in NY and LA on August 16 with more cities and dates TBA. A British release is scheduled for September 27. Tallyho!

Bio before beauty

Over the past year between projects, I've been working on a short story. I like working on short things between drafts of novels. After a year of work and a dozen revisions, I decided I would send it to a fantasy and science fiction magazine I admire that publishes short stories. I used to write a lot of short stories and spent four years writing cover letters and sending them to magazines--all rejected. I hadn't written a cover letter for a submission since before my first published book, so it felt astounding now to be able to mention my honors and publications. How things had changed! Here's my cover letter, names redacted.

Dear Mr. ---,

Please accept my submission, ----, a 3400-word science fiction story.

I’m a NYT best selling author of twelve novels published by Bloomsbury, including The Goose Girl, Princess Academy, and Book of a Thousand Days. My professional honors include an Eisner nomination, two Mythopoeic Award finalists, a Josette Frank Award, a Newbery Honor, two Cybils, and several state awards. I recently adapted my book Austenland for the screen, and the movie is a 2013 Sundance Film Festival selection.

Thanks for your consideration,

Shannon Hale

 

I got a response. The story was rejected.

I share this for other hopeful writers out there. I think it's nice to know that it's a pretty level playing field. There's no Publishing Club and once you're in it, everything comes your way. 99% of the time, it's about the story. My story wasn't good enough for this editor, and nothing in my bio would change his mind.

And that's how it should be.

The Goose Girl is a big girl now

This year marks the tenth anniversary of The Goose Girl, my first published novel. I began it in 1999, during the summer break between my 1st and 2nd year in graduate school. I finished a first draft in late 2000, rewrote for another year, and queried many agents, none of whom would read it. I eventually found upcoming agent Amy Jameson, who agreed to read the first five chapters. Then all. Then agreed to represent me.

The following year was one of joy and agony. For about nine months, every single time my phone at work rang, my heart would jump. Maybe it was Amy! Maybe she'd sold it! But though sometimes the caller was my agent (joy! I had an agent!) she had bad news (another rejection). The Goose Girl was rejected by all the major children's publishers and a couple of fantasy publishers to boot. Here's some of what the editors said about why they were rejecting it:

"I ultimately didn't think the story itself was consistently strong enough to hold a young reader's interest."
"I'm afraid that the writing struck me as occasionally a bit stiff, cliched, or self-conscious."
"I did not find the story compelling enough to maintain my interest...I felt that the narrative was a bit too labored, too slow in progressing...the rather slow and deliberate pacing of the plot does not bode well for a middle grade audience."
"Further, many young adult books are becoming more and more 'edgy.'"

I despaired. Amy did not. She kept submitting. (and I kept writing...but would anyone want Enna Burning if no one wanted Goose Girl?)

The company I worked for moved out of state and laid everyone off. In a couple of months the dot com bubble would pop and my husband would lose his job as well. It was in that uncertain time that I got the call at home that Victoria Arms at Bloomsbury wanted to publish The Goose Girl. (In case you assume my financial troubles were solved forever, it was a 4 figure offer--but I didn't care! Huzzah! An offer!) It was only the second acquisition Bloomsbury USA had ever made. (The first was The Frog Princess. Bloomsbury UK were the original publishers of Harry Potter.)

It's still phenomenal for me to look at all the rejections The Goose Girl received, and then to look at what it's done out in the world. Among its shiny bling:

• An ALA Teen's Top Ten (voted by teens in the US as one of their 10 favorite books of the year)
• The 2003 Josette Frank Award Winner
• The 2003 Utah Children's Book Award Winner
• A Texas Lone Star Book
• An NPR 100 Best-Ever Teen Novel
• Translated into 10+ languages

I hope that's encouraging to many of you who have or are facing similar rejections for your own work, whatever it might be. Most rewarding, of course, is that it's still in print, still being stocked in bookstores after TEN YEARS (that is extremely rare in books). Anecdotally, among my diehard fans (those who have read all 12 of my books) it appears to be the fast favorite of a good 50% of you.

The year it was published, a bookseller at The King's English told me she had recommended it to a mother for her young teenage daughter. Some time later, the mother came back into the store and told the bookseller that The Goose Girl was now her daughter's favorite book. She and her husband were going through a divorce, the girl was having a hard time, and she had begun to sleep with her copy of The Goose Girl, hugging it to her chest. I still can't retell that story without crying. That's the unexpected part. The exquisite part. The reason that fiction exists. I think I'm just telling a story that wants to get out. I don't know how it will affect any readers. That my words got to hold a girl's hand during a tough time is such an honor.

This book doesn't feel like it belongs to me anymore. It hasn't for ten years. But I still love it. I love the characters, I love the words and scenes still in my head. I'm so grateful I got to tell that story. And I'm grateful for all the rejections. I'm grateful that my earlier stories were never published so that this one--the one I really love--got to be my first and defining book. And I'm grateful that those other publishers rejected it, so the story could reach the right editor at the right publishing house. I'm grateful for the booksellers and librarians who still stock and talk about it. I'm grateful for the readers who built into the story their home.

I'm just flat out grateful. I don't feel like it's mine, but my name's on the cover. So as the story's legal representative, thank you.

I'm going to be celebrating The Goose Girl's tenth anniversary here for the rest of the year. I'll do games, prizes, a chapter-by-chapter book club (like we did last summer with Princess Academy) and other fun stuff.

If you've read the book, will you briefly share your thoughts, reactions, any stories? No need to do a formal review. I just would love to hear your voice.

EDIT: your comments made my editor cry happy tears. Thank you!

A few more voices on sex, consent, and rape

This post is continuing the discussion from the past three, and again, is intended for those 14 and up. If you are younger, please get parent/guardian permission before reading.

I have so many more thoughts and questions about this topic, but I want to step back now and highlight some of your voices before bringing this discussion to a close on my blog for now. I am so happy to hear how many of you are talking about this in your homes and classrooms. There were so many comments that impressed me and felt important and mini-conversations going on in the comments. Let me just pick a tiny few to repost.

 

Commentor Mary Lou Hart: "Consent really is an important part of the discussion and I don't think it is the murky grey area it is being made out to be. I am reminded of a story from a girl friend who in high school told a boy ''Yes" to having sex. Then as it got down to the last moments she was more scared then excited, he noticed asked a second time "Are you sure you wanna do this?" and she said No. His response was to say okay and take her home. Years later she told me "He could have continued on, I wouldn't have fought him and I wouldn't have felt I could claim rape because I had said yes in the beginning. But the fact that he respected me enough to listen and ask made a huge impact on me. I was no longer an object with which he wanted to interact for his own pleasure. My pleasure matter too." This is what we need to get to. Where either party can say no, at any point, and be listened to as a person and respected."

 

From Megan Whalen Turner: "You said...that people commit crimes because they think they can get away with them. I wanted to add that they commit crimes because they don't think they are *really* wrong. File sharing is a good example. People who would never, NEVER, steal a book out of a bookstore will steal an electronic copy with only a moment's hesitation and a little defensive rationalization. They don't really think it's wrong, just maybe a little illegal, but not for a good reason, therefore, it's actually okay.

"This is what rape culture tells rapists-- it's not *really* wrong.

"Sure, there are the rapists who jump out of bushes and violently assault women. Then there are the boys at Steubenville who talked about the rape, took pictures of the rape, joked about the rape and then were visibly stunned to be convicted of, you know, RAPE.

"It makes sense to be careful. It makes sense to teach our children to be careful to avoid being a victim of *any* crime. But I believe, really, really believe, that every time we publicly suggest how a woman or a girl can avoid getting raped what we do is reinforce the idea that if they *don't* do these things then it is not *really* wrong to rape them.

"I am sick of every single variation of "Yes, but that girl shouldn't have . . ."

"I understand people's good intentions when they say that women should take self-defense classes and that girls shouldn't get drunk at parties and that we shouldn't walk in the dark alone. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you tell girls and women that this is "just the way it is," it means that you are making sure this is the way it will *always* be.

"It's time we made an effort to change our focus in these conversations. I think we need to make a deliberate effort to stop talking publicly about how women can avoid rape and start talking publicly about how men can stop being rapists. After all, we have already heard for several thousand years how women can avoid rape. I'm not worried about women not getting the message."

 

From a teacher who emailed me privately.

"It is difficult to not consider my own experiences when reading your thoughts on the subject. The abuse I suffered in my youth has been a relentless wound that has followed me well into my adult life. Funny how quiet, yet persistent it can be. I was in my 30's before I could fully understand my "history". I held onto shame and a sense of culpability for decades. I had assumed that the fact that I was not beaten or threatened made me an accomplice. While the adult mind might understand that shock and horror can be paralyzing, when you are raised in a culture that tells you that your body is a temple and you should go to your death fighting for its virtue, it is hard to reconcile any delay in one's response to its violation.

"It did not help that I was a child growing up in a HIGHLY conservative home. I was told it was not okay to "talk back" to grown ups. No one ever gave a scenario where it might be okay to say "no" to one. Sex was a taboo subject, outside of the "school maturation program". Funny how that taboo led to every single one of my sisters suffering from one form of abuse or another. I share this with you to say that if I had read a blog like yours when I was in my youth, I would have been given the language to see my situation a little differently. Instead, it took a lot of therapy, money and "letting go" to come to the conclusion you give your readers.

"As I have worked to come to terms with my own history, I have often looked into the eyes of young  women in my class and found an all too familiar shame reflected back. Your conversation is necessary. It is vital to the health of the every 1 in 4 women out there who walk around carrying an unnecessary sense of responsibility for something in which they did no wrong."

I think it's vital that we listen to the stories of rape survivors (boys and girls, men and women). Until all of us understand how devastating rape can be on an entire life, we might not be motivated enough to enact our small part in helping to eliminate rape culture.

One commentor linked to this amazing post, a mother writing an open letter to her two sons about sex, consent, and rape. I think it's a wonderful model--this is how clear we need to be, both in the home and in schools. I want to add that for those parents who believe that sex is for marriage alone, that is easily added to this same discussion. I believe that any person who chooses to wait until marriage to have sex should still have the exact same understanding of what sex really is (and should be), and what rape and consent are.

Let's talk about consent

Don't forget Writing for Charity this Saturday.

Again, If you're under 14, please skip reading this post unless your parent/guardian okays it.

Thank you thank you for so many thoughtful comments on the past two posts. I’m impressed by the collective brain power here and the earnest desire from so many of you to obliterate rape culture.

I was surprised and bit disheartened by how many of you objected to the definition of consent, as first offered by, Dianne E Anderson: "Consent is an enthusiastic, unequivocal yes."

Chuck says, “Consent must be unequivocal it does NOT need enthusiastic...If she implicitly and explicitly makes clear that she's willing to have sex it's not rape no matter how unenthusiastic she may be.” Chuck, this is not the legal definition of consent. It's an extremely wise definition that we'd all be better off to live by and the definition I believe we should be teaching to our children. Wouldn't you rather that your partner was enthusiastic? Why would you want to proceed if she/he wasn't? (Also, probably not a great pickup line: "Hey baby, want to have some willing but unenthusiastic sex?")

What are we worried about here? Yes is such a wonderful word! Don’t we want to hear that from our partner? Yes! Yes please. Don’t we want to be sure that our partner is as excited and willing as we are? Don’t we want there to be no doubt? Just imagine a world where all those entitled high school football players had parents who taught them "Consent is an enthusiastic, unequivocal yes." Imagine those frat boys one commentor mentioned, sitting on their porch chanting about raping women--if they instead had been repeatedly and lovingly taught that "Consent is an enthusiastic, unequivocal yes." Wouldn't everyone be better off embracing this ideal? Why fight this brilliant idea when there are so many more important things to fight? Like, say, rape?

john doe asks, “What if the two parties disagree on what it was?...do you need to get consent in writing now?”

Yes, do that. If you have to ask, then yes, yes, yes. Sounds like you’re walking a line, and one that can be horrifically devastatingly life changing and even life ending for many a victim. If you’re not sure if she’s consenting, then ask her to sign a consent form, a napkin, your belly--whatever. And then her consent (or non-consent) will be perfectly clear. You’ll protect yourself as well as your partner. Do that. Please.

Let’s err on the side of clarity, can we? When we have girls and women regularly taking their own lives to escape the horrors of a post-rape life, then clarity is the least we can offer.

Are we worried that enthusiastic consent is too hard to get? Say a woman says, not tonight, honey. And he gets to kissing her neck and murmuring sweet things and she changes her mind and is all in. Great!
Or say a woman says, not tonight, honey, and he tries his usual moves and she’s not feeling it and still would really rather not. What happens next is very telling about how healthy their relationship is and what kind of a man he is. If she really doesn’t want to, and he doesn’t care because he does, then that’s abuse. That’s unhealthy. And if that sounds like your relationship, you both should get counseling. I mean that kindly and sincerely. Counseling could really help. When sex is more about the pleasure of the other than about your own, then your pleasure increases. That should be the goal. That’s when it’s the best.

Any other worries about a clear consent? That a partner might reluctantly say yes and so you decide it wasn’t enthusiastic enough and don’t go through with it? Then you did the right thing. You protected them, you protected yourself.

Are you worried about the slippery slope? (full disclosure: I don’t believe the slippery slope argument is valid in any discussion. I believe it’s false rhetoric.) But let’s explore. Is the worry that if a guy wants to has sex and doesn’t hear a clear an enthusiastic yes but goes through it anyway, then she might call rape on him?

Well, 1st, depending on how it happened, it might very well be rape.
And, 2nd, if you’re okay having sex with someone who really doesn’t want to do that with you, then counseling is a good idea. Again, I mean that kindly and sincerely. Sometimes survivors of rape and abuse have a hard time enjoying sex again, and that’s something normal that a partner needs to know and respect, and counseling together is an excellent idea. But if that’s not the case and you just enjoy having sex with someone who isn’t enjoying it with you, then STOP IT AND GET HELP.
And, 3rd, if you’re choosing to sleep with someone who you’re worried might falsely call rape on you, then it’d be a good idea to choose not to sleep with them. Foregoing sex in this instance would be a wiser, better, happier choice for all.

Sex is a physical communication, but it needs to be proceeded by a verbal communication to make sure it means the same to both partners. We need to talk. When sex is a taboo topic, abuse and rape is more rampant. When we’re willing to talk about it, understand how it should be, communicate with our partners, we’re striking a huge blow to rape culture and creating healthier relationships for ourselves.

In order to end rape culture, we all need to be on board. Men and women. Girls and boys. Everyone. We have to care deeply about stopping this epidemic and protecting our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, ourselves. We have to be clear. What is rape. What is sex. What is consent. I’m honored to be talking about it with you here. But what I really hope is that these thoughts might spark the conversations that really matter: the ones between parents and kids, between partners, in families and among friends. The more we talk and think about it, the more aware we become, and awareness always proceeds significant change.

The greatest contributor to rape culture

Thank you so much for your comments on the last post about rape culture. I appreciate the bravery and insight, and was grateful for all the comments, maybe especially those I didn’t agree with. Because it made me think, and leads me to dig a little further into this topic.

Again, if you are under 14, please don’t read this post unless you have permission from your parent/guardian. And if this topic troubles you, I hope you can find someone mature and responsible in your life to talk to. If needed, you can find a local US crisis center phone number through RAINN.

I was recently reading a news report about a rape of a teenage girl. In an interview, a police officer reported what happened. He said that the girl had passed out. He said, when she came to "the defendant was having sex with her." I read those words and got sick. Here's a police officer, someone who should be familiar with the law and with crimes, and yet when referring to a man penetrating an unconscious girl he used the word "sex."

I am beginning to believe that the foremost contributor to rape culture is a wide spread ignorance about what sex is. We cannot understand what rape is and work to stop it without first understanding what sex is.

Sex is a completely consensual, intimate, physical conversation. Rape is not sex. Rape is not the same experience as sex to the victim, and, this is very important: it’s NOT the same experience as sex to the rapist. They are entirely different things.

Commentor Mary Lou posted a link to this great article by a high school teacher. This point bears repeating over and over again: Consent isn’t the absence of a “no;” consent is an unequivocal and enthusiastic YES.

Let’s look at the Steubenville case, one I find interesting (horrifying) because SO MANY PEOPLE weren’t sure if what happened was actually rape, even when it was so devastatingly clearly rape. In the scenario, two or more cute, popular high school football players rape an unconscious girl at a party. There were witnesses to digital rape, and there was evidence of further sexual abuses. To a girl entirely unconscious. From the aftermath, we see how well liked these guys were, and how many of their fellow students couldn’t believe it was “rape” because any girl should be willing to have sex with them. Given that, most likely there were other conscious girls at that party who would have been willing to have consensual sex with those boys. If that’s all the boys wanted, they could have gotten it. But they wanted something different. They chose not to have sex. They chose to rape.

Rape is not simply acting upon sexual urges. Rape is about dominance and power and violence and control. The intent of sex is mutual pleasure, and that's never the intent of rape. Let’s be totally clear. Those young men chose, instead of having sex with a willing girl, to rape an unconscious girl. Who could not participate, could not experience pleasure, could not say yes or admire them or share an intimate moment. Those boys didn’t choose sex. They chose rape. And the experience of rape, for both the girl and the boy, is entirely different than the experience of sex. THEY ARE NOTHING ALIKE. RAPE AND SEX ARE NOT RELATED.

How can there be so much confusion about two entirely different things? Perhaps because they are both physical acts that involve the same body parts. Though that doesn’t explain it entirely.

For instance, hands and torsos are involved in both hugs and gut punches, but we know they’re not the same.

Heads are used both for kisses that cause blushes as well as for head butts that cause broken noses, yet we know that they’re not the same thing.

Spoken words involve the mouth, tongue, and larynx, yet we know the difference between friendly conversation and a tirade of insults.

Even if they involve the same body parts, how can there be any confusion between rape and sex?

Maybe because we’re not honest and clear enough about what sex is. I believe in treating sex with reverence and respect, but that shouldn’t include ignorance and confusion. Sex is not just this body part + that body part. It is, again, an intimate, consensual, physical conversation.

I assert that both a person who rapes and a person who is being raped knows that what is happening is most definitely NOT an intimate, consensual, physical conversation. But does a bystander? If a third party (who witnesses or hears about something later) isn’t experiencing either the welcome pleasure or the horrific invasion, they may not be able to tell the difference, unless they’re educated in what sex is and what rape is. Many are not educated in that. And so rape culture grows. Ignorance allowing people to ignore, to walk away, to not report, to blame the victim, to not convict the obvious rapist, to create an environment conducive to even more rape.

If someone rapes and honestly believes that it was consensual sex, then there’s something clearly, devastatingly wrong with them. Sex is an extremely intimate act. How could a person be so intimate with another and yet be completely unaware that the touch is unwelcome? If they are truly unaware, then they are dangerous and need therapy and to be locked away from other people. But I don’t believe that most perpetrators of rape are genuinely unaware. They don’t care. Their intent is not mutual pleasure.

I know people who have been raped who weren’t sure for some time if it was rape or not. It’s so traumatic, confusion is common for the victim. And the best way to protect people against that confusion is to arm them with information. Educate, so if something happens, they know what it was and can get help fast.

Parents,
When we don’t have conversations with kids about sex, we’re telling kids that it’s too bad, dirty, and wrong to even talk about. And when someone is raped, they feel bad, dirty, and wrong, and they think, yeah, that’s what I expected sex to be. And so sometimes, horrifyingly, they conclude that rape and sex must be the same thing.

When we don’t have conversations with kids about sex, we allow TV shows to do it for us. And locker talk. And twitter. We give up the power of our voice. They learn from those who don’t love and care about them like we do.

When we oppose conversations about sex in school, all those kids with parents who aren’t around, who don’t think they need to educate their kids, or who don’t know how or can’t find the words--those kids have a huge hole in their knowledge. Those kids don’t understand the big picture of sex. And rape. And consent. And those kids go to school with our kids. And to parties with our kids. And if someone is raped, the under educated are the kids who are likely calling a rape survivor "slut" and "whore" because they don't get it. And we’re partly to blame for their ignorance because we didn’t allow those conversations to happen.

We need to have talks with our kids. And we need to allow education to happen carefully and respectfully in schools to make sure knowledge is widespread. And that education should include the basics of just what sex should be, what consent means, and what to do if you see or hear about something that you believe is wrong.

I believe we can greatly lessen the rape culture in this country. Just look at the difference 50 years made in a lynching culture. Change is possible. Education. Kindness. Awareness. I have hope.

I want to hear your thoughts, no matter if you agree or disagree. But please be respectful of others. I need this to be a safe place where people can share thoughts and experiences.

Let's talk about rape culture

If you are an advanced writer, beginning writer, or just like hanging out with writers, don't forget Writing for Charity, our fab 1-day conference April 27 in Utah. All proceeds help us buy books for kids in need.

I want to talk about something disturbing, and I hope you'll bear with me. If you're under 14, please skip reading this post unless your parent/guardian okays it. If what you read troubles you, please find someone mature who you trust to talk to about it. I'm not an expert on what I'm talking about here. I am a woman and a parent and am speaking from my own observations.

On Saturday, I joined a conversation on twitter about rape culture and wanted to continue that conversation here. All of us know rape=bad. All of us know someone(s) who have been raped (even if we're not aware of it) and/or been raped ourselves. It's horrifyingly common. But until reading about the events in Steubenville, Saratoga, Penn State, Nova Scotia, and Torrington, I hadn't realized just how wide spread rape culture is in our communities. (and I realize, it's far, far worse in many other parts of the world)

Rape culture is an environment that is conducive to rape.

Most potential criminals will not commit a crime unless they believe they can get away with it. This is just natural. People have a strong sense of self preservation. We are children sometimes--we want what we want and we want it now. But as we get older we’ve been conditioned by society to withstand impulses that we know are going to get us into serious trouble. Some microcosms of society are more lenient to particular crimes than others.

Let’s look at the American South in much of the last century. Lynching was obviously against the law, and yet in that post-slavery and pre-civil rights era, terrible acts of racism were committed because the perpetrators believed (rightly in most cases) that they could get away with it. People of color were murdered in front of witnesses who never testified. Criminals bragged about their acts, but they were never arrested. Or if they were, the all male/all white jury didn’t convict.

Racism still exists, but how common are lynchings today? That culture has been squashed through education, changes in generations, and a more fearless justice system. Though there may be people just as hateful toward others as there were then, they no longer believe they can get away with lynchings (and rightly so), and so they no longer commit those crimes.

What we have broadly in America (and much much more severely in other parts of the world) is a rape culture. Rapists believe (often rightly) that in certain circumstances they can get away with sexually assaulting someone.

When a well-dressed, employed, non-prostitute, non-drug addict, non-immigrant woman gets violently raped by a stranger in a dark alley and immediately gets medical attention, there’s no question it’s rape. Everyone thinks it’s horrible. It’s not her fault. The law and society are on her side. It may be hard to catch the rapist, the trial could be a nightmare, the woman will fight just to survive in the aftermath, but no one questions the word “rape.”

But change the details of the victim and the rapist, and rape culture allows a horrible act some leniency. Here's some of the points from the twitter conversation:

Rape culture asserts that when a guy is cute and popular he couldn't possibly be a rapist because any girl he chooses is lucky to be chosen.

Rape culture asserts that accused rapists are innocent till proven guilty (as they should be) but sometimes denies rape accusers the same courtesy. A rape accuser is commonly called a "slut" and "whore." This happens even if the rape occurred in front of witnesses, while she was unconscious, when she repeatedly said no. Recently two rape accusers committed suicide after being bullied for speaking up.

Rape culture thrives in places where it's forbidden to talk about sex. This is a big, big topic and one I want to tackle in its own post. I hope you'll join me back for that discussion and that we can keep it respectful and open-minded.

Rape culture is encouraged by the idea that males are characters of choice and action and females are present to please the males. While boys and men are frequently the victims of rape, the vast majority of those targeted are women and girls, so I think it's important to look at how we allow girls and women to be portrayed in stories and media, and ways our culture is encouraging that attitude. The attitude that when a girl is passed out a party, a group of boys would see no problem taking advantage of her any way they want. Her purpose is to please them. She is not a human being to them. The idea that it's somehow the girl's fault, that if a girl is passed out it's only natural for boys to undress and assault her, is so grotesque and not to mention untrue and unfair to the majority of wonderful, sane, respectful men and boys in the world.

Rape culture says, "but how could it be rape if she was married to him?" Again, that idea that a woman has no free will of her own. She belongs to her husband or boyfriend or any man who wants to use her as he will. So strange that anyone can still think that way! And yet many do.

Rape culture praises a woman's appearance and sexual attractiveness above any other quality.

Rape culture thrives in communities where protecting the public image is more important than anyone's life.

Rape culture insists males can't be rape victims because of course males always want sex under any circumstance.

Rape culture is most effective when people believe there's no such thing as rape culture. When it's invisible, when we think "that's just how things are" instead of realizing that we've helped create these artifical rules.

Rape is not a woman's problem. It's everyone's problem. And as the news has shown us, the villains in rape aren't just the male rapists. The problem is created by everyone who stands by and doesn't speak, who lets things occur. Who doesn't try to stop a rape, as in the Penn State atrocities, and then go immediately to the police (real police, not just campus police). Who aren't willing to testify as a witness. Who forward photos and videos of a rape to other students instead of showing them to the police and NO ONE ELSE. Who make jokes about rape. Who whisper about a rape accuser, call her a slut, victimize her all over again on social media. Who help create the kind of culture where potential rapists feel safe doing whatever they want. Because they know they can get away with it.

It's up to all of us to make sure they don't. And the very first step we need to take is simply to talk about it. So let's talk.

A new Dawn

Some of you may remember my dear friend Dawn on Survivor a couple of seasons ago. While I was in England for seven weeks shooting Austenland, she was in the Philippines for seven weeks shooting Survivor. Though we didn't know it at the time. She was super secret.

Well, she's back in this season's Survivor: Caramoan! They're several episodes in, but if you want recaps, I love what Dalton Ross does at EW.

I love watching the show and rooting for a friend, but the most interesting part for me is reading what others (viewers, contestants voted off) say about Dawn. It's cool and it's heartbreaking. And a good reminder to me that what we see on TV isn't the whole story. Dawn is one of the best people I know. She is the first person in the neighborhood to notice a need and go rushing in to help. She genuinely loves and cares about people. She and her awesome husband adopted six awesome kids. She's very intelligent and funny and witty. But from watching a 45-minute show edited for some other purpose, you can't see her whole personality. You get an incomplete and sometimes false picture. This realization has made me less inclined to judge anyone I don't know by what a TV show or article or books shows me. I always wonder, but what's left out?

Of course this isn't only true of those visible in the media, is it? I mean, how well do I really know anyone? A few minutes here or there, edited out of their whole life. I have no right to judge anyone. I can't see their whole picture. I can't understand all that's going on inside their head.

Just my quick musing on a Monday morning amid a crazy book deadline. Time to go get inside my characters' heads...

This is just to say

I have taken
on a project
that has a
crazy deadline

and you were
probably expecting
timely
blog posts

Forgive me
I am a dervish
spinning and sweating
words elsewhere

Leaner, meaner trim size coming your way!

I'm mostly shy about self-promoting. In my real life, I never bring up my profession with people I meet. When asked about it, I usually answer briefly and then change the subject. I've mentioned here before, I spent years doing school and book store visits usually without ever mentioning my books. But there are two consistent exceptions:

RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE and CALAMITY JACK, y'all!

I don't know why it's so much easier for me to tout these books. Probably because they're not mine alone. I co-wrote them with my husband Dean and artist (no relation) Nathan Hale.

Possibly also because they're FREAKIN' AWESOME.

Here's the thing about these books. Librarians who know them and stock them tell me they can't keep them on the shelves. I hear this constantly from school, public, and classroom libraries across the country: the kids fight over these books. The kids read them again and again. My avid readers read these books. My non-readers read these books. My non-readers became readers because of these books.

They're absolutely life-making for me, these comments.

Then I also hear: I can't find these books. Bookstores don't carry these books.

When we first wrote Rapunzel's Revenge, I couldn't name a single other graphic novel for young readers. Children's book publishers were not yet publishing graphic novels. We thought we'd have to try to publish it with a comics publisher. That world was new. Bloomsbury took up the book, and when we decided on a trim size, we chose a comic book size, because that was what had been established.

Shortly thereafter traditional children's publishing got into graphic novels in a huge way, and they all went for a smaller trim size, one that could fit on bookstore shelves beside other novels.

So my publisher, Bloomsbury, has decided to revisit these books. Since their reception by readers has
been so great but bookstores can't fit them on regular shelves, they are re-releasing both books in a smaller trim size. The smaller size will start replacing all the other books in about two months.

What does this mean?

Hopefully that you will start seeing these books regularly available in your local bookstores!

But it also means that the larger size will disappear. So if you like that size (I do) then BUY NOW!

And may I recommend? Boldly again, since I only speak about these books boldly. Buy the hardcover. They get re-read. Lots and lots. And paperbacks fall apart. So invest in the hardcover. That thing, as Nate says, will stop bullets.

Happy reading, and yee-ha!

How to be a reader: separating author from narrator

When I was in sophomore English class, my teacher Ms. Barnes hit us with a revelation: The Author Is Not The Narrator.

I had never considered this possibility before.

In our essays, we got red marks against any phrase like, "The author believes," or "The author states that," correcting it to "The narrator states."

"In fiction, you cannot assume the opinions in a book are the author's, only the narrator's."

This is more obvious in a first-person narration. The narrator of Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caufield, not JD Salinger; the narrator of Jane Eyre is Jane, not Charlotte Bronte. But things get murkier with third person. Some third-person narrators are invisible, channeling only what the main character sees and knows. Some take a small step back, seeing and understanding a bit more than the main character can. Some go even further back, switching back and forth between two or more characters' POVs. Others are omniscient, understanding everything at once. Some, like To The Lighthouse, flow in and out of characters' consciousnesses. And still others are unnamed and yet have a presence and clearer personality.

The latter kind is the kind I write with for my adult novels: Austenland, Midnight in Austenland, and The Actor and the Housewife. I love the style and humor available to me with that narrator.

I assumed that everyone had a Ms. Barnes who cleared up the narrator/author thing in 10th grade, but I continually hear from adults who are confused.

"I can't tell if the opinions are Jane's or the author's," a reader of Austenland might complain.

The answer is: neither. The opinion is the narrator's. Unless it's stated in dialog, unless the narrator says it's the character's opinion, then the only thing you can be sure of is that it's the narrator talking. I am no more the narrator of my books than Julia Roberts is Erin Brocovich or Heath Ledger is the Joker. I am the artist channeling a character. All the characters, including the narrator.

It's not accurate to assume that the opinion of any of the character's is the author's opinion. Same of the narrator. The narrator is always character.

The narrator of Princess Academy likes to slow down and savor moments. She stays close to Miri and only reports what she knows, but uses words in a way Miri wouldn't. The narrator of The Actor and the Housewife has a lot of opinions. That narrator wants to laugh, sometimes with the characters and sometimes at them. The narrator of Book of a Thousand Days is Dashti, the main character, reporting in the very moment the action happens, though translated from her native tongue into English by an unknown narrator who had license with word choice and expression. The narrator of my book coming out next year is the main character, told in retrospect from a point after the action occurs. The narrator of the Books of Bayern is close to that of Princess Academy with a desire for richness, the dramatic, the imperative of each moment.

It is as fun for me to write different narrators as it is to write different characters. And my narrators are as much me as are all my characters. Ani and Selia, Ungolad and Geric, Miri and Dan, Tegus and Khasar, Rapunzel and Jack--they came from the same place as my narrators, and yet all speak with a different voice.

What books have you read that have an unnamed third person narrator with a prominent personality? I think of Just So Stories and The Tale of Despereaux. Others?