incipit vita nova

Book View Cafe New Bookstore Grand Opening Promo: Win Free Books!!

Book View Café (new look designed by me) is celebrating the opening of our new, completely-redesigned bookstore by giving our readers a chance to win the book of their choice free.  Just take a look around the store anytime up until midnight, June 8, and choose the book you’d like—all the books that are eligible for the giveaway are marked with a gold star. Then come back here and leave a comment with the name and author of the book and why you want it (we may use that comment for publicity purposes). When the promotion ends, if you’re the winner, I’ll send you a coupon for the book of your choice.

This is good for Imago and any other book in the store with a gold star - one copy free awarded by me!

Here are the instructions!

1) Browse the bookstore and find the book you’d like to win. Eligible works are marked with a gold star. 

2.      Leave a comment here telling us which book you would like and why (both are needed to qualify). Multiple comments will be disqualified. A valid email is required—it will not be displayed (but will show to me on Typepad).

3.      By entering, you agree that your comment may be used for promotional purposes.

4.      You can also visit the member sites listed below and enter in a similar fashion, as specified on that site.

5.      At the end of the promotion, one winner will be selected at each site (here and on each author site). Winners will get a free coupon for the book of their choice.

In advance, I have selected a day and time during the 7-day contest period, and the person who comments closest to this pre-selected day and time will win!

You Get the Face You Deserve at 50 Part 2

All this means is - by the time I'm 60, I'll be walking around with a Trader Joe bag on my head.

Another unretouched photo, but this time, I do have on makeup.

Important things to do to avoid carb face . . .

 

see below . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I know. Not fair. But I noticed this today - conservative writer Jonah Goldberg, who is 7 years younger than me, looks like a walking heart attack. Jonah was making negative statements about young voters recently, which is why I noticed him.

This is either too much wine and cheese, or too much wine, cheese, scotch and cigars, too little water, too little exercise, too much junk food - possibly too many Whoppers (and I don't mean the malted milk ball type - although those are plenty bad too) and just too much bad.

Our American diets make us like this. Sluggish, bloated, the whole 9 yards.

As most who read here know, I am opposed to cosmetic surgery (and have crooked teeth). I do have sun-damaged skin but it doesn't show too much. 

No dairy, minimal gluten, no junk food. Plenty of water, plenty of fresh air, plenty of exercise, plenty of sleep. Focus on lean protein, and any type of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Buy local whenever possible. Avoid processed foods. Avoid stress when possible. Be happy every day. Life is good!

If I Don't Graduate From High School, What Will Happen?

If students fail to complete high school and receive their diploma, many bad things will happen to them. Nationwide, about 70% of high school students do graduate, while 30% fail to make the grade.

Over the course of their lifetimes, high school graduates earn as much as twice as those who drop out. A little-addressed fact of government spending and deficit reduction are the estimated savings in government aid if large numbers of dropouts complete their high school education. As much as $1 trillion over a decade could be saved if 700,000 of today's dropouts could be convinced to stay in school and finish.

The dropout problem has been going on for years. In 2006, the Los Angeles Times covered the graduation of the class of 2005 at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, where less than half of the 1,100 freshmen who entered four years earlier ended up graduating. Instead of pat excuses, the article covered the factual reasons for dropping out. Some students failed to pass classes, being pushed from grade to grade, but without credits to graduate. Eventually, they were sent to alternative or adult school, but most just dropped out.

Other young women became pregnant and dropped out to have their babies and start life as young mothers on aid. Only 40% of teen mothers end up getting their high school diploma, according to the March of Dimes.

After going down for a number of years, the birth rate among teen mothers started to increase again in 2006. Almost 89% of teen girls who had not had a baby graduated from high school or received a GED. Only half of teen moms went on to get a diploma or GED.

Anywhere between 60 and 75% of babies born to teen moms live in poverty. 

How about other stuff? Like . . . incarceration?

A 2009 study sponsored by the Center for Labor Market Studies found that male high school dropouts had a 68-times (not percent - TIMES) greater chance of going to jail or prison than did men who had a 4-year college education. Nearly one out of 10 male high school dropouts is incarcerated in America. If, as a young student, a lot of these guys thought they'd get "freedom" by dropping out to do whatever they felt like doing each day, the freedom wasn't long-lived. They traded a classroom for a jail cell.

Many people think that the failure of the educational system is so widespread, we may have doomed an entire generation to nowhere lifestyles. Young men who don't graduate from high school are likely to have very low earnings and can easily end up incarcerated. Young women who don't graduate from high school are likely to find themselves and their children living a life of poverty and deprivation.

When does this start? Most kids who drop out do so between 8th and 9th, and 9th and 10th grades. But problems start at a much earlier age. A 2009 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that if children aren't reading well by the end of third grade, they are much less (75%) likely to graduate from high school than those who are reading well.

According to results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test, a stunning 83% of children in low-income families, and 85% of children attending school in high-poverty areas nationwide failed to test as "proficient" in reading. The lack of proficiency was across the board, in large cities, rural and suburban areas. Half of these children couldn't even score at a "basic" reading level.  

So, here are some facts that high school dropouts can look forward to:

1. Lifetime earnings will be about half of those who graduate from high school.
2. Three quarters of the single mom high school dropouts will live in poverty, and their children will, too.
3. Young men who don't graduate from high school have a one in ten chance of being incarcerated . . . on any given day. They are 68 times more likely than male college graduates to serve time in prison.
4. One third of high school dropouts will be obese.
5. Three quarters of high school dropouts cannot even serve in the military to get GI benefits. They are either too unfit physically or too poorly-educated to qualify for military service.

So, we have a generation of parents who has now raised children who are too fat, too poorly-educated and too incapable to do anything but sit at home, or pursue activities that land them in jail or prison. Whose fault is it? If you're in high school and reading this for a report, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. You may be a teen, but you can take charge of your life. Don't be a statistic. Don't drop out of school.

Teacher Abuse Linked to Autism, Aspergers

I watched a non-autism related abuse video about a North Carolina teacher screaming at students this a.m. I only watched half the nine-minute video and in this brief period, heard the teacher shriek at the top of her lungs six times, and bang either a desk or book for emphasis. Her point? No criticism of President Obama. Trouble was, she had introduced the topic of the Mitt Romney bullying allegations and the students had been asked to discuss that. That's not really a fit topic for high school "discussion," whether or not the class is in civics, history or heaven knows what else. Maybe even homeroom or English! How about science or math? Sure! Topic of the day: Trash Mitt Romney at length and add "You WILL not disrespect the President!!!" Lesson of the day: "My teacher can't control herself."

Many comments on YouTube videos of teachers misbehaving are from students saying, "You think that's bad? You should see/hear  ___________________________[fill in the blank - their district or school]."

Last month, the story of 10 year-old Akian Chaifetz hit the news.

According to his father, Akian was always happy and pleasant, but from the first week that he attended school in New Jersey, he came home with reports that he was violent, hitting other students and the teacher. For the better part of a year, Akian received behavior therapy, and was never violent with the behaviorist: only in his self-contained class. All of the students in Akian's class had autism and couldn't tell parents or others what was going on. Akian's father Stuart put a tape recorder on Akian on February 17, 2012, which brought home hard evidence of abuse against Akian on the part of his teacher and aides. "Shut up!" the teacher screams. The rest of the unprofessionalism is appalling, beginning with "I'm doing the happy dance -- I had a bottle of wine with my girlfriend last night and no dinner." Isn't that what parents expect any child to be greeted with at the start of their school day?

Is Akian's situation unique? Doubtless, the New Jersey schools will say it has never happened before, and would never happen again. With today's journalistic commitment to excellence, these repeated assertions on the part of individual districts will always go unchallenged, and nobody's really putting them all together or looking at a pattern. YouTube has over 1,000 videos of "teachers yelling at students." The majority are real, not satire. Many aren't just the always-popular teacher-meltdown/destroying cell phone scenes. They feature teachers verbally abusing developmentally-disabled or special-needs children.

In 2008 in Indiana, New Albany/Floyd County kindergarten teacher Kristen Woodward was suspended (and eventually allowed to resign a year later) for telling 5-year old Gabriel Ross he was "pathetic, ignorant and self-absorbed," finally getting the other kindergartners to say in unison that they did not want to be Gabriel's friends or be around him. Ms. Woodward's union defended her to the bitter end, stating she had "tried everything" and the student had given "trouble" all year, rolling on the floor, kicking and biting.

First, he's five. Second, Gabriel appears to have been somewhere on the autism spectrum.

What level of training did this kindergarten teacher have that indicated that calling a 5 year old autistic child "selfish," "self-absorbed," and "pathetic," and singling the child out for the ridicule and ostracism of his peers was a good thing to do? With a reported 13 years of experience, this teacher had no indication that a five year old with special needs might not be able to help some behaviors and could not be "shamed" into stopping them by such abusive tactics?

In the case of Akian Chaifetz, a happy child, upbeat child with special needs was bullied and abused for months by teacher and complicit aides, exhibiting violent behaviors for the first time as a desperate form of self-defense. Reports now indicate that as many as one in 100 children has some form of autism or Aspergers Syndrome. Gabriel Ross, at only five years of age, was presented as such a problem child by the teacher's union and problem teacher in Indiana, that the teacher's only resort was abusing the child with adult language and singling him out for ostracism and bullying.

Is this new? Hardly. When I was between 6th and 7th grade, I went to summer school at Clement Junior High, not my "normal" junior high. I don't know if it was increased enrollment or other pressures, but on the first days of school, I was singled out by a teacher similar to these abusive teachers and placed in the "special-ed" class.

That summer probably gave rise to a lot of the stories I've written as an adult. I didn't learn much in terms of facts or school work, but I did learn, and have never forgotten, what it felt like to be in the "special-ed" class. The actual special-ed teachers in this class were young, enthusiastic teachers who wanted to work with special-needs kids, so no one was abused in this class. They quickly recognized I was far from "special-needs," so I became like a junior aide. I helped the other students with physical and learning tasks throughout the summer and made friends with kids I was unlikely to ever have talked to had this not happened.

I certainly know what it felt like to be singled-out for no reason. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and could not believe somebody was saying I was "slow" or "special needs." To this day, I don't know what inspired the teacher who placed me in that class to do so. I believe I was talking too much or behaving in an overly-exuberant way. I was probably messing around and being rambunctious with some of my friends from our girls softball team, who did go to that school and were the only kids I knew there. The teacher who did this to me was very much like the YouTube abusive teachers, yelling, berating, using inappropriate language, and singling out students for other kids to abuse/harm.

You might think that teacher unions and all the good teachers out there would be outraged that this type of behavior persists more than 30 years later. You might think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

What's Going On With Harriet Klausner?

A couple of recent web visitors reminded me to look into Amazon's most prolific reviewer, Harriet Klausner. I started wondering - what's up with Harriet lately?

There's only one place to find out: our good friends at the Harriet Klausner Appreciation Society. These guys have been posting more than me so far this year! According to their countdown, Harriet shows no signs of slowing and has just passed the 27,000 review mark. If book reviews were mileage, Harriet's insurance premium would, without a doubt, skyrocket. 

Just one of Harriet's new nicknames is "The Perpetual Perpetrator of Poor Punctuation." I do like that. I also like "Cozy Queen of Crap." Go Buck Go! Hilarious. Harriet has been averaging anywhere from 6.9 to a blistering 8.04 reviews a day so far this year. According to Buck, this year's total of 900 book reviews represents 2 pages of reading a minute for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, of course not counting the reviews, which are clearly written by alternate-universe Harriets. What Buck and the rest of the Society may have overlooked is the parallel universe or timeline explanation for Harriet's amazingly prolific reading and reviewing habit.

Now, the thing is: she gets free books. Loads and loads of them. But oh, what will Harriet do when the books slow to a trickle? In Harriet's own words - she is a speed reader who reads 2 books a day - but reviews anywhere between 6 and 9 a day (and sometimes - 72!). She's 1,055 in Amazon reviewers right now, but #1 in the Hall of Fame - whatever that is.

You don't think she's reading them, do you? Harriet . . . is . . . selling them. This is a great response from an actual reader/music listener about the miracle that is Harriet.

I actually have nothing against Harriet. She beats the white supremacists and other assorted trolls who've abused Amazon for years.

 

Baby Avery Gene Therapy: More Real Every Day

People have learned about Spinal Muscular Atrophy through the amazing story of beautiful baby Avery Canahuati and her mom & dad's Bucket List for her.

Little Avery passed away April 30 at only five months old. One of Avery's Bucket List wishes was to raise $1 million for Dr. Arthur Burghes/Kaspar Labs to continue gene therapy research to cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic condition that causes poor muscle tone, breathing and many other physical problems. This terrible disease took Avery's life at only 5 months of age. 

For those of you who've never read anything I've written (which I am pretty sure includes 100% of my relatives, including my daughter - but not all of my school friends, and I don't just mean Grad School!) the type of gene therapy the doctors are working on is similar to the gene therapy that was good from "Perfect Stranger," a short story I published in 2006 that is now being reprinted in bioethics and literature textbooks. It is 5,000 words long and takes about 10 minutes to read. Gary, the father in the story, decides it was right to cure his baby Denny's heart defect before birth, but all the rest of the treatments Denny had? You'll have to read the story . . .

 

Art Talent: Robert Castillo & Ray Renooy, Amazing Artists

I sometimes forget to update people on what I'm doing - I am working a LOT lately and very busy. Yesterday, I had cause to think about ultra-talented Robert Castillo, who drew a fantastic picture in memory (and by memory) of K.D. Wentworth (who will be so-missed). Robert took time out from his busy schedule drawing storyboards for film and TV to show Kathy as he (and I) remember her and always will. (K.D. or Kathy Wentworth, who helped so many aspiring writers and served as the coordinator of the Writers of the Future Contest, was called home Wednesday after a battle with cancer and pneumonia).

Robert's work reminded me of Ray Renooy, Manitoba's top professional art designer and builder of custom displays, signage, and basically magic-maker. 

How do I know Ray?

Well, I have realized that the joy in my life comes from learning about and appreciating other people and their gifts and talents. I feel enriched every time I am privileged to learn about someone's work, and help them achieve greater success. If I wasn't the peculiarly curious individual I am, I could not do as I do, and would never have known about Ray or his work. In fact, I would not have known much about the big country to our north - the great nation of Canada.

So here is a shoutout to the numerous creative individuals in my sphere. You'll note that Ray is known as "Cosmic Ray" and will note the adorable spaceship logo on his website. This is just one small taste of what Ray can do. He and his partner Rene can make pretty much ANYTHING.

And it won't fall apart, either.

 

This night club is located in Canada.

 

I just put it because . . . if you know me, you know why.

 

 

 

Week's News: Tupac Hologram, Tawkify, Literary Orange

As seen in Imago, now in real life: Tupac Shakur performs at Coachella via hologram. It's not quite perfect, but he is "back from the other side."

From Jezebel: a dating service that sounds simultaneously appalling and charming - Tawkify, which matches eager singles based on their Klout score (50+ - 3 free calls, 60+ David Brin level, SIX free calls!). Please do retweet me up or repost on Facebook so I can get 6 calls free!! I could be matched with America's most popular spackle expert!

Amazing day Saturday at Literary Orange, able to share panel with the lovely and talented Michael Cassutt. I would especially like to thank Beki Reese, who coordinated and moderated the panel. She was so gracious and did such a fantastic job!

 

 

"I'm Not Just the Fat Girl"

For some reason this a.m., looking into the false information that "Marilyn Monroe was a size 16," I came across Chrissy, the author of All My Jiggly Bits, and wanted to share her mini-documentary and some of her great thoughts on being a person.

In the film, Chrissy shows footage from a trip to Ecuador and says that while there, she realized that our concerns in America today are pretty unimportant compared to what people confront in Ecuador. She realized while there that she was "not just the fat girl" and that her change began when she returned home and realized she was with people, her family and friends, who loved her just the way she is. When she was younger, Chrissy said

. . . I hated who I was, I hated how I looked, I hated how I felt . . .

She no longer feels that way, and feels great about herself, which is how she should!

It's a pretty easy way to put someone down -- just call them fat. Most famously, the false information that Marilyn Monroe was a "size 16" or "fat" was put about by Elizabeth Hurley, who very clearly was trying to make herself feel better at a dead woman's expense by saying that she thought Marilyn "looked fabulous," but that she would kill herself if she was that fat.

I just found the great retort to these ill-advised comments: "Most of us would kill ourselves if we were as talent-free as Elizabeth Hurley."

Marilyn's official measurements - 35-22-35, are most certainly not "fat" and Liz Hurley might have 3/4 inches smaller hips, but did not ever have a 22 inch waist. As costumes collected by Debbie Reynolds (also a tiny lady) were auctioned off last year proved, few, if any of the old Hollywood costumes were anything approaching a "size 16" or "fat," and waist measurements ranged from a mind-boggling 18 inches to 23 inches at the largest.

Here is Debbie with the famous Marilyn Monroe Seven Year Itch dress - yep, there's the waist of a total fatty right there, all right. That is all justification for all the massive amount of mis- and dis-information about Marilyn's size, from Liz Hurley idiocy to Roseanne Barr justifying being the size of two Marilyns put together. This dress sold at auction for $4.7 million, by the way.

What is true about Marilyn and the older generation of starlets isn't that they were "bigger" than today; far from it. They were much more petite, as people were in general just as recently as 50 years ago. By the way, there's a controversy as to whether this dress is "the dress" or not.  Hm!

As to the "What size was Marilyn?" controversy, the last word is probably "Marilyn was comfortable with who she was, and we should be, too."

No one is ever "just the fat girl" or "the skinny girl." We are greater than the sum of, or the appearance of, our parts! We should all be so fortunate as to have more than 12 inches of difference between our chest, waist and hip measurements, as Marilyn did. Take that, Liz Hurley, and I wouldn't say anything negative about you in any way, if you hadn't tried to tell lies about Marilyn (a 22 inch waist categorically cannot be "fat" - nor are Marilyn's hips "huge").

New Covers: Outcasts and Godsfire

Outcasts, three stories by Vonda N. McIntyre (photo by Vonda's sister Carolyn).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Godsfire by Cynthia Felice. Cynthia now has completely coordinated covers for all of her science fiction books back in print. Godsfire tells the story of Heao, a female feline alien who goes against her entire culture in seeing humans as worthwhile and intelligent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the new BVC bookstore banner . . . it only took 2 years to figure out the coffee cup!