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Musings: Gratitude

One thing this month has brought into sharp relief for me is how much I have to be grateful for.

I have discovered that I am surrounded by people of conscience who will actively challenge hate. Despite all the problems caused by the spread of poor information, the Internet has connected me when I felt isolated and alone.

I am within walking distance of my public library, a privilege that lifts me up, whether I am going there to work on this website, search for recreational reading, hang with my kids, or widen my understanding of the world. It’s a pretty great place, and during the month of October, I got to see democracy in action there, and show it to my kids, as it was an early voting location. People waited for hours to vote, every day. I wish everyone could easily access a library like mine. We all deserve it. Libraries are a cornerstone of democracy. If a major purpose of education is to create informed citizens able to participate effectively in democracy (and I firmly believe that it is) then publicly funded libraries are essential to our society. Where else can we freely access information and literature of all kinds, that opens windows in our minds and wakens us to ideas we’ve never encountered before? More than ever before, we need libraries and librarians, those professionals able to help us sort satire and lies from reliable sources. to help us identify bias and examine our reading critically. “Check your sources”, repeated by English teachers everywhere, has to be our gospel now. Librarians and libraries can show us how.

That we have freedom of information, freedom of the press, is such a gift. It’s one that can so easily slip away without our noticing in the morass of fake information and claims of bias. Corporations would like to end net neutrality and control our access: government would like to see the only news we see come straight from the source. That we live in a country where a free press  that keeps our government accountable not only exists but is something to have pride in, is amazing. That it’s a right we have is something we must protect (and that free press needs to be held accountable to accomplishing its mission, too). Our ability to express our outrage over challenges to literature and to question authority is a blessing that I am so grateful to have written into the founding documents of this country.

I am hopeful that we will remain a country of neighbors, reaching out to help each other in times of need. I have benefited from that generosity in my community as I cope with the death of my husband and the grief that accompanies it. I would like to think that the same people who have reached out to me when I have been in distress will also reach out to others outside our community when they see those people in need of help. I believe readers, especially, have a vision of the wider world, and will hold out their hands, and so I’m grateful for readers, and for all of you who have touched the lives of the people around you, near and far… and whether you know me or not, you have made a difference in my life.

I am grateful for a loving family and for my reviewers, some of whom have been such a part of the lives of me and my kids that they are like family themselves. And I will also be grateful if the sherry gravy on my stove right now doesn’t burn while I’m writing this.

Although for many people (including me) this is a difficult time of year, and in this year, for some it is particularly dark, I wish you all blessings in your celebrations, and reasons to find gratitude in your future.

 

Posted on November 24, 2016 by , Reply

The Amazingness of Libraries

I’ve rediscovered the library. Oh, I have loved libraries since I was a kid and have spent a large chunk of my adult life working in them. As a new parent I took my kids to storyhours and flooded them with library books. Now they are at that awkward in between stage where they’ve outgrown storyhours but aren’t old enough for much of the library programming that intrigues them. I spend time in their school library now, and it’s a really great place.

But I have rarely gone for myself since I became a parent. My community’s library has an amazing first floor children’s department, but I have to take an elevator up to the adult stacks. The few times I have been up there it’s been kind of dusty and I’ve had difficulty finding what I want. I have a card for the Indianapolis library system, but the nearest library there is still a 20 minute drive for me. With ereaders at hand, I have not felt that I have a lack of reading materials. It’s very easy to get a book I want when I want it, so why cause inconvenience?

Yet I noticed my list of books I wanted to read, or thought I should read, or wanted to try, was getting longer and longer. I didn’t want to pay full price for books I might only read once that would take up the limited space that I have for my very favorite books. And so I gave up the convenience of my ereader and headed to the library, where I had a stack of holds waiting.

Now, there are two ways you can approach turning in your books or picking up holds. The first is the targeted approach– you are there to do one thing and that’s it. When you have lots to do or little kids waiting this is the way to go. The second is the “since I’m here, I’ll just look around” approach. Clever library pages display intriguing titles on the tops of shelves. Maybe I decide to see if there’s a particular title that I want that I just thought of (chances are slim, but I did find A Grief Observed this way) or to see if any books by an author I like are on the shelf. And just walking down the aisles of books chances are I will discover something that looks interesting enough to take home. Probably several things.

Which is how I ended up going to the library yesterday to collect holds  of Station Eleven by Emily St. James Mandel; Get in Trouble by Kelly Link; and Waistcoaats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger, and also ended up with one of Laura Resnick’s Esther Diamond paranormal mysteries (these are FUNNY– in one of them, Esther plays a Jewish departments store elf named Dreidel); an update of Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid; two Discworld novels; and a book that I am not familiar with by Mark Haddon (author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time).

This library also does something that I think is rather unusual– it puts new nonfiction up front. Typically, I would expect new fiction to be in front, but the effect this has on me is that I pick up and read nonfiction that I would never seek out on my own.  I’m working my way through The Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi, and she almost has me convinced to go back and read books I haven’t touched since high school.

What neither my community library or this library does is separate horror out from general fiction. They do try to pull the science-fiction and fantasy books together in one location, and you might find something there that will rock your socks off, depending on your definition of horror (one of Booklist’s editors named John Scalzi’s Lock-In as one of the top ten horror novels of 2014– I love John Scalzi, but I think that’s a stretch). So you may be in this same situation where you can’t find what you want without putting it on hold or having a librarian lead you to a specific title… but don’t limit yourself. You aren’t buying a book– you’re trying out something new. Don’t like it? Put it down. But with a visit to the library where you can take your time, try wandering the stacks, looking through the books, and seeing what out there, that you might not normally read, looks like it’s worth trying. For me, it’s like falling in love all over again.

Posted on May 15, 2015 by , Reply

Media Tie-In: The Right Hand of Doom Limited Edition Beer

I was going through old emails and look what I found. It arrived in my mailbox on my birthday (I will not reveal exactly what day in February that is). How cool is this? Better than birthday cake, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, it is already sold out.

Now THIS is a media tie-in. Librarians, take note. I’m sure there’s a nearby pub that would love to host your graphic novel discussion group.

 

 

 

For Immediate Release:

Introducing the RIGHT HAND OF DOOM beer

inspired by Mike Mignola’s bestselling HELLBOY graphic novels

 

Portland, OR– To celebrate the 21st anniversary of Mike Mignola’s legendary Hellboy character, Dark Horse Comics and Rogue Ales have collaborated to create the RIGHT HAND OF DOOM, a limited edition beer that will be available online beginning February 22, 2015 at www.rogue.com.

 

“When Dark Horse Comics published the first Hellboy story 21 years ago, I never thought there’d be a Hellboy beer,” said Mignola. “But I really can’t imagine a better time for Rogue to introduce the Right Hand of Doom beer. If Hellboy was real I guess he’d finally be able to buy me a beer.”

 

“Hellboy has appeared in graphic novels and comic books, prose novels, two animated features, two live action films, toy lines and all manner of merchandise,,” said Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse. “Rogue Ales approached us with the idea of creating a heavy-handed, supernatural red ale and we loved the idea of two independent, Portland based companies coming together to create something new that would be both fun for fans and worthy of the Mike Mignola’s creative legacy.”

 

“This beer is dedicated to the B.P.R.D,” said Brett Joyce, President of Rogue Ales. “RIGHT HAND OF DOOM is brewed with all the same passion and intensity that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse have brought to Hellboy for the past 21 years.”

 

The RIGHT HAND OF DOOM label features a Hellboy drawing by Mignola. The beer will be available for the first time publicly at an event at Things From Another World Comics store in Portland on Friday, February 20 at a signing with Mignola and fellow comic book superstars Matt Kindt (MIND MGMT), Eric Powell (THE GOON) and Brian Wood (REBELS). The event begins at 4 PM, with Mignola’s signing scheduled for 6 PM. The beer will be available nationally via http://buy.rogue.com/Rogue-Hellboy-Right-Hand-of-Doom-Red-Ale; pre-orders are now available.

 

 

 

 

Posted on April 4, 2015 by , Reply
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