So far, it’s good. It’s about a girl, Laurel, who one day discovers a plant growing out of her back and learns that she’s a faerie. It can be a little slow at times, and the characters are somewhat flat and unflawed, but apparently this is the first in a four-book series, so maybe things will get more complicated in future books. Right now it’s a lot of exposition and explaining what a faerie is, etc.

All in all, not bad. An easy read and entertaining as well.

So, let’s look at my goals and what I’ve been doing:

• Write at least 3,000 more words in my WIP. This is looking like a much less hectic week, so I think it’s definitely feasible. Although I did write a lot on my WIP, I didn’t write 3,000 words. I wrote 2,483. More than last week, but not my goal amount. The reason for not writing as much as I thought I would is revealed in the next two goals, which took up a lot more of my time than I predicted.
• Complete assignments in my editing class to help me figure out if my first ms needs further revision. The assignments in the class aren’t mandatory, but I think they’ll be really helpful. They have been very helpful, and a little time-consuming as well. But I’m not complaining – they’ve really gotten me thinking about changes that need to be made in the ms. Working on them does cut into my writing time, though.
• Start reading The First Five Pages. I should be done with The Lost Symbol within the next day or two, so this will be possible. It should be a nice complement to the course I’m taking. Again, this book has been really helpful for me in thinking about my first ms. But it does take a lot of time to do the exercises at the end of each chapter. Very helpful, but time-consuming.

This was a pretty good week for writing, all things considered. I met two of my goals and almost met a third one. The weather helps – I love the chilliness in the air. It makes me want to spend hours in front of my computer, sipping tea and thinking about writing.

Goals for next week:

• Write at least 2,500 more words in my WIP. This is approximately what I was able to do this week, and based on my experience, it’s doable.
• Continue completing assignments in my editing class. I’ve already done today’s assignment and should be getting a new one on Wednesday. I shouldn’t have any problem making this goal, and it definitely helps me with my first ms.
• Continue reading The First Five Pages and doing the exercises in the chapters. The exercises have proven extremely helpful in thinking about my first ms. I don’t know how much farther I’ll get into it. I’m currently working on the exercises in chapter three, so I’d at least hope to be at chapter four by next week.

1. Who in your life is as blind as a bat?

Me! I have very bad vision and have needed glasses/contacts since I was eight. Every time I go in for an annual eye exam, my doctor remarks upon the imbalance of my imperfect vision (my right eye is much worse than my left) and tells me that if it had gone untreated for much longer, I probably would have ended up with a lazy eye.

2. Who in your life is as happy as a clam?

Happy as a clam? Hmm…My friend Alison is always very upbeat when I see her, even when I know she has difficult things going on in her life. She’s cheerful and enthusiastic, which is part of the reason why I always love seeing her.

3. Who in your life is as mad as a wet hen?

I’ve never heard this phrase before. Does it use “mad” in the angry or crazy sense? Okay, just found out that it’s used in the angry sense here. I don’t know. I tend to stay away from very angry people, as a general rule. It’s served me well.

4. Who in your life is as stubborn as a mule?

My brother is stubborn as a mule. He will insist until the day he dies that he’s right about something even when presented with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. I’m about half as stubborn as him. And when we’re being stubborn at each other, my spouse very kindly describes us as “being such Cann kids.” We inevitably turn our ire towards him, which is fun.

5. Who in your life is as quiet as a mouse?

Ironically, my cat Luna is quiet as a mouse. When she meows, it comes out more like a dignified whisper. Very cute. But it can be a little scary in the mornings when she comes into my bedroom to wake me up and I open my eyes to see the jaws of a famished feline inches away from my face. She’s meowing for food, but all I see in my half-awake state are the fangs.

But here she is all wrapped up for a nap, not ferocious at all:

Have a good weekend!

What is PAYA?

Officially, PAYA is a coalition of Pennsylvania’s young adult authors, bloggers, librarians, readers, and other book-lovers. Our mission is two-fold:

1. To share the love we have for young adult literature with others in our state.
2. To raise money to support Pennsylvania’s libraries, with a focus on helping build Young Adult library collections and Young Adult services.

Basically, though, it’s just a group of YA lovers trying to raise money for PA libraries.

Why was PAYA started?

PAYA was started because I (Harmony) do a ton of work with my library’s teen section and I wanted to do some major fundraising for it because the budget was pretty nonexistant. But then I realized it wasn’t just *my* library that was hurting so I enlisted the help of a few fellow PAers and the idea has just become bigger and better since then.

What’s the Livejournal auction? Who can submit an item for auctioning?

The Livejournal auction is the first major fundraiser. Anyone can submit an item for auctioning – all you need is a Livejournal account. The full details are here. Right now, it’s off to a slow start but it’s my hope that as the month progresses, more and more people will become aware and start bidding and adding items. All of the proceeds will be donated to libraries across PA.

How can people get involveed with PAYA?

People can get involved with PAYA in a bunch of different ways. If you’d like to help out in general, just send us an email. There’s also tons of fundraisers and book drives, as well as other things, that will be posted on the website so be sure to check that out!

Do you plan on holding events throughout Pennsylvania?

We have one major YA Festival planned for next summer which will take place in Philadelphia. Details about that will be coming in the next few months. We’re also working on doing different in-person fundraisers across the state too.

Anything else you want to add?

Just that any participation is REALLY appreciated, especially in the fundraising events. PA libraries just had their budgets cut by a LOT of money and they can use the money now more than ever. I know that most people don’t have a lot of money to spare but even if it’s only a dollar or two, PAYA will put it to use that will benefit the whole state.

I do love autumn. I love the leaves changing, I love pulling out my sweaters and boots, I love drinking tea at night rather than ice water. I just hate the fact that I turned the heat on last night.

One upside to this chill in the air, though, is that my cats want to be very cuddly with me. Human = heat source, and all that. They’re very adorable, except when they’re walking all over my keyboard or lying on my arm in such a way that makes it impossible for me to type. Here’s Moses being very sweet (on some freshly-washed laundry, of course):

Too adorable, right?

Okay, enough kvetching and cooing over kitties. Off to write for the night, if I’m going to accomplish my week’s goals!

From the beginning of the book, Meg is grumpy, jealous, and prone to getting into fights with her classmates. Yet she obviously adores her family, particularly her mother and younger brother Charles Wallace, and she desperately wants her father to come home. In the book’s climactic scene (spoiler alert if you haven’t read it!), her good, true heart helps her triumph over the evil of IT. I think she’s one of the best characters ever.

The supporting characters are wonderful in this book, too. Who doesn’t love Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which? They have some of the funniest lines in the book, and they’re caught stealing sheets, of all things. Calvin isn’t the typical teenage dreamboat, but he suits Meg just fine and serves as a balance for her personality and characteristics.

This book, of course, launched about a thousand other books that Madeleine L’Engle published. I really loved how she continued writing about beloved characters. I read somewhere, though I can’t find it now, that she sent out press releases about her characters’ educational progress long after she had stopped writing about them. Something about Polly O’Keefe getting a PhD in something?

Anyway, A Wrinkle in Time is a sublime book that I must have read at least a hundred times growing up. Like the best books, its ideas and emotions still resonate today.

The truth is, I’m not really reading anything at this very moment! I finished The Lost Symbol yesterday evening and haven’t picked anything else up. I definitely have a pile of books staring me down, though.

I’m planning on starting The First Five Pages this week. As for non-craft books, I have Wings by Aprilynne Pike waiting for me at the library! I’m pretty excited for that.

Any suggestions for what I should pick up after that?

(Photo by OUCHcharley)

Anyway, here’s a look at my goals from last week and the progress I made on them:

• Write at least 2,000 more words in my WIP. I’m going to a conference out of town this weekend for my day job, so that seriously cuts into writing time, but I think I can cobble enough time together during the week to do it. – Success! I actually wrote 2,467 words in my WIP last week. All of the writing was done at the beginning of the week because of the conference. I haven’t written anything for it in October yet! That will change this week.
• Start reading The First Five Pages and think about if anything applies to my first ms. Nope, this didn’t happen. I’ve been reading The Lost Symbol instead. My book club will be discussing it this month and I asked a friend if I could borrow her copy when she was done reading it. She dropped it off at the beginning of the week and mentioned that her husband wanted to read it when I was done, so that became my reading priority. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it, though, so I’ll be able to pick up the craft books soon.

But, lest you think I’ve been doing nothing on revising my first manuscript… When I wrote last week’s post I forgot that an online class was beginning this week that I signed up for at the beginning of September through Pennwriters. The class is about being your own best editor:

Have you ever written a short story or novel and wondered if it was done? Have you made revisions and thought you were finished, but then realized once you started to send the piece out that it needed work?

Perfect! The instructor just posted our first assignment and I think it’s going to be really helpful in determining whether to further revise my first ms.

So, what are my writing goals for this week?

• Write at least 3,000 more words in my WIP. This is looking like a much less hectic week, so I think it’s definitely feasible.
• Complete assignments in my editing class to help me figure out if my first ms needs further revision. The assignments in the class aren’t mandatory, but I think they’ll be really helpful.
• Start reading The First Five Pages. I should be done with The Lost Symbol within the next day or two, so this will be possible. It should be a nice complement to the course I’m taking.

My family never banned books. I was always free to read whatever I wanted, which I usually bought at Waldenbooks or borrowed from the library. That means that the Babysitters’ Club and Sweet Valley High gang are near and dear to my heart, along with the characters from The Rain Catchers, Summer of My German Soldier, Jacob Have I Loved, and many other books. But there were certain TV shows I wasn’t allowed to watch: just about anything on MTV besides the actual music videos was forbidden (no Beavis and Butt-head for me), and certain Nickelodeon shows were also off-limits, like Ren and Stimpy. I wasn’t allowed to watch The Simpsons, which means that every reference to that show is completely lost on me. (Apparently it was a pretty seminal show for my friends, who just shake their heads when I stare blankly at them.)

I’m still not sure how I feel about that situation. Do I think I would be a better person, or that I somehow missed out on something, by not being allowed to watch Beavis and Butt-head? Of course not. But I am uneasy with restricting people’s freedom, and that’s exactly what people who seek to have copies of Laurie Halse Anderson books pulled from the shelves are doing.

Nathan Bransford had a good post on the subject which concluded with a lot of questions:

Censorship and book-banning was certainly an important issue pre-Internet, when libraries and bookstores (if you were lucky enough to have both) were the only places where books could really be acquired. But these days the Internet has made any book readily available. Is the issue of censorship as pressing as it used to be, when the banning of HUCK FINN at a library meant a kid really couldn’t read it? Is the [Wall Street Journal] editorial correct that if censorship means actually suppressing a book’s availability, it is moot in the Internet age?

And perhaps more importantly, where is the line between parental and public discretion vs. censorship? Should public libraries stock everything and let patrons decide what is inappropriate? What about books that, say, incite prejudice or that the majority of a community feels is inappropriate for children?

I get what he’s saying about Internet ubiquity diluting the debate over censorship. But it’s important to remember that not every person has Internet access and that removing Huck Finn from the shelves of an inner-city middle school is probably very effective at shutting down a child’s chance to read it.

As to the line between parental and public discretion vs. censorship: it’s a matter of freedom to me, like I said earlier. I think that if a school librarian has decided to place a certain book in her library, it should be available to students based on their age and maturity level. Does this mean that ten-year-olds should be reading Speak? No, probably not. But fourteen-year-olds should be. And I don’t think a parent has any right to forbid a child—theirs, or anyone else’s—from reading it.

Also, if you’re in Pittsburgh or thereabouts, come to the Banned Books Reading at the Carnegie Library in Oakland, sponsored by the Library, the ACLU and WYEP. I’ll be there and it sounds like a lot of fun! Tonight at 7 PM in the Lecture Hall. Be there!

Here’s the synopsis from bn.com:

Minutes before the train pulled into the station in Jenkinsville, Arkansas, Patty Bergen knew something exciting was going to happen. But she never could have imagined that her summer would be so memorable. German prisoners of war have arrived to make their new home in the prison camp in Jenkinsville. To the rest of her town, these prisoners are only Nazis. But to Patty, a young Jewish girl with a turbulent home life, one boy in particular becomes an unlikely friend. Anton relates to Patty in ways that her mother and father never can. But when their forbidden relationship is discovered, will Patty risk her family and town for the understanding and love of one boy?

When I think about this book, I remember reading it in the summer, on the swing on our front porch, and in the winter, curled up under a blanket on the couch. I was never sure if I would have been as courageous as Patty, but I completely understood the love she felt for Anton. The power of the story and the emotions I felt reading it make it stand up, even after all these years. And I guess that’s really the mark of a great book—which this definitely is.