see if you can get it on the paper

Okay.

Yesterday's Writer 2 Writer session at Flintridge Bookstore was amazing. I guess I really didn't know what to expect, but it turned into a kind of discussion group with some very creative people and some incredible authors who showed up to participate. So, great thanks to Catherine at Flintridge Bookstore for setting this up, as well as to the participants an the wonderful authors of LAYA who took time to join in.

You know who you are.

Now, I'm going to briefly field this comment left a couple days ago in the Suggestion Box:

Why does college get your stamp of approval? Seems like a waste of time just like other schooling.

College isn't just like other schooling. And, by "other schooling," I am assuming you mean public or private K - 12 education.

It's easy to equate schooling with time wasting when you have no choice but to be there, and in college, you can get up and go any time you want to. On the surface, that freedom might not seem like a powerful leverage device for a student; but freedom and choice encourage achievement. Only those who can discipline themselves, direct their efforts toward an attainable goal, and are motivated to succeed and realize gains, will.

Again, this is vastly different to public schooling, which emphasizes fitting in and getting by, because both of those ends can only be met in the absence of freedom and choice.

Now, college definitely can be a waste of time for some people. But, if you are wasting your time and you have the freedom to choose not to, then that's consciously-directed and self-destructive.

friday at zuni

All right... another good question in the suggestion box, and you can be assured I'll get to it... hopefully tomorrow.

But I wanted to remind everyone about today's Writer 2 Writer event at Flintridge Bookstore, where I will be speaking and performing a modern expressionistic dance.

Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse
964 Foothill Blvd.
La Canada, CA 91011
Today at 4:00

And now, at long last:

milestones

Okay.

The strip will be on tomorrow -- Sunday.

I've been so gone and so busy, and I just got home, behind in my word count for today and a tad stressed.

Last night, I passed one of those milestones in life. You know, like the oh-my-god-my-son-is-taller-than-me milestones. Last night, I let my son drive me home from our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was the first time he'd ever driven me, well... except for maybe the Autopia at Disneyland.

And, remarkably enough, just like that time when he passed the height test and was able to drive our car at Disneyland, as soon as he took the wheel, I began shrieking in abject terror.

I don't know why, but for some reason my son finds that behavior somewhat unnerving.

Does that make me a bad person? It's a dad's responsibility to make his son as tough as possible, and screaming insanely when he takes the wheel for the first time is just the beginning of many lessons still to come.

this is the life

Well, if you check out that funny little box on the right-hand column of the blog, you may have noticed a question left by an anonymous reader a couple of days ago that asked this:

Do you make enough money on your books to live how you like to live?

First off, I like the way this question is phrased because it's not as specific as the "money question" I get asked every single time I speak before kids at school. So, I'm going to start off with a general statement, and then work my way down to the specifics.

I may be presumptuous, but reading between the lines of the question, I get an impression that the questioner is fairly young. Unfortunately, and coming from a perspective where I deal with hundreds of teenagers on a daily basis, I see kids most often trying to plan their futures based on projected earnings -- going into career fields that promise the highest pay scales.

Kids, this is your life you're talking about.

If you put money as your top qualifier, you're a whore. That explains why there are so many school administrators and principals in our educational system. They're whores. They started out wanting to make a difference in the lives of kids, but then got sucked to the top like fat on milk by the lure of pay. They whored themselves out, drank the Kool Aid, and now they are the destroyers of kids' minds. So, don't get me started on all the whores at school and the damage they do to kids.

Think about it.

Now, regardless of how much money I get paid, I will always do what I really want to do, that which gives me the most satisfaction -- whether I'm cold and hungry, or warm and well-fed.

But, more specifically, does writing provide me with "enough money on your books to live how you like to live?"

The answer is NO.

There is no amount of money that can give me the life I want to live.

Let me explain.

In the perfect life, the life I want to live, there will be no economic or moral rationing device that creates a superclass of equals and an underclass of "others."

The life I want to live is one where everyone in our society has access to decent and universally-granted health care. This is at the core of our American philosophy, but somehow we've become so caught up in the idea of hoarding and protecting our little camps against "others" that we've forgotten it. In Jefferson's argument that governments are established in order to safeguard LIFE (expressed in the Declaration, and again in the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution), we seem too willing to gloss over the concept of what a governmental responsibility to protect LIFE should actually entail. How can we even argue that it's okay for government to establish a playing field (a Monopoly board) that allows for a prerequisite sufficient credit rating in order to have decent health care? How can we allow cost and profit to become more important than LIFE? This is a complete failure to protect LIFE, one of the architectural starting points for decent government as envisioned by our Founders.

The life I want to live is one where everyone can get as much education as they qualify themselves to have. I can't tell you how many brilliant kids I know who are choosing to NOT go to college, simply because they can't afford it. I wonder how many kids who may have gone on to discover a cure for AIDS or some viable, sustainable, and green new form of energy didn't get there because they couldn't afford the financial burden of attending our great universities -- WITHOUT borrowing themselves and their families into the poorhouse?

The life I want to live is one where people wake up and realize the economic realities -- the attainable economic realities -- of these first two "wants" of mine: that freeing society from the burden of having to extract earnings in order to 1) save our children from leukemia or 2) attend a university, will allow everyone in society to consume at a higher level, thus not only spurring on economic growth and driving technological advancement, but boosting employment and raising tax revenues for government WITHOUT increasing personal taxes.

Duh!

And, finally, the life I want to live is one where basic human liberties are not denied to any groups of people and rationed only to others. The right to marry is a natural, human right. In the life I want to live, everyone will be able to marry the PERSON of his or her choice.

So, no... money can't buy the life I want to live. But in the mean time, until we get there, I'm doing what makes me happy.

a great question and a great review

One more down.

in the path of falling objects received another fantastic review, this one from Horn Book Review, which will kick off their 2010 reviews:

Horn Book Review: IN THE PATH OF FALLING OBJECTS Jan/Feb 2010

In the Path of Falling Objects

by Andrew Smith

High School Feiwel 326 pp.

10/09 978-0-312-37558-4 $17.99

Jonah and Simon are all alone: their heroin-addict father is in jail, their older brother Matthew is fighting in Vietnam (it’s 1970), and their unstable mother has left. The two teenage brothers set off for Arizona , but when their horse dies, stranding them in the New Mexico desert, they catch a ride with Lilly, a flirtatious girl their own age, and Mitch, an ominous young man several years older. The relationship between these four characters constantly shifts and realigns over the course of an increasingly tense road trip, but when Mitch tries to kill Jonah by pushing him into a river and abandoning him, Simon finally realizes just how dangerous Mitch is. The setting is vivid, the plot (including a thrilling showdown) is suspenseful, and the characters are complex and intriguing, particularly in their interactions with one another. It’s a wilderness survival adventure wherein the characters have to survive each other as much as the harsh, unforgiving landscape. jonathan hunt

Thank you very much for that, Jonathan Hunt and Horn Book Review. I am flattered, and that is one incredible review.

Also, I wanted to add that I received a terrific question yesterday in the suggestion box -- one about money and writing. And... oh, my answer may surprise you.

Should be up tomorrow.

a little organization

Okay. Time to start acting a little more organized. First off, some business. I am going to do that strip I mentioned coming up soon, so keep looking for it. Heads up: Josh, Gail, Yvonne -- you're in it. It takes place at Zuni. Enough said.

See, there are cool friends, and then there are the kinds of friends who get bent out of shape because you put them in a comic strip. I'll let you know what kind of friends I have in a few days, I guess.

Next, I've been forgetting to pump up my next gig: I'll be at Flintridge Books, 964 Foothill Blvd. in La Canada, CA this Sunday at 4:00 for their Writer to Writer program. I will be talking, bouncing off the walls, reading from in the path of falling objects, and I also have a special surprise -- I'm going to read some little bits and pieces from next year's release The Marbury Lens. Oh, and I've got some T-shirts to give away, too.

More on that coming up...

Yesterday, a writer asked about tips on staying organized when writing a novel: Do I use index cards, write outlines on legal pads, keep folders, use novel writing software, etc. -- you know, all the stuff that real writers do.

My answer was, "No." I don't do any of that. I just start writing in Microsoft Word, the pages pile up, the word count grows, and, in time, I have a novel.

Well, I do lots of quirky stuff along the way, especially regarding backing up copies and so-forth. And, since I usually get ideas faster than I can write them down, at the very end of the document, I keep a numbered list of things that pop into my head that I want to get into the story. Sometimes, these items may include web addresses so I can look at pictures of places, or access some information about some obscure referent in my story (hint: the next novel has a little story, a bizarre one, about an obscure saint).

Then, as I go through and hit these points, I'll usually either highlight them in color, or delete them from my list.

That's what I do, but every writer is always going to find his or her own perfect way of doing things. I actually do know some writers who write things down -- by hand -- on paper.

Yikes!

the museum of natural tolerance

I promised a friend of mine that I'd post some pictures of things kids have given me to decorate my museum over the years, so, in no particular order -- and by no means is this an expansive exhibit of what I have -- here are a few select pieces, some of which are accompanied by explanations of sorts:

Ceiling Cat: The latest addition. He is watching you always. Kind of creepy.



Jesus Action Figure: Sometimes Ceiling Cat has to sleep. When he does, this guy takes over and watches you.



The "I'm Not Gay, I Just Like Rainbows" Air Freshener: Guess what, Mom and Dad? There is almost no such thing as a "bad" kid. And, among the good ones I've met over the years are all types, colors, and genders. Gay kids are usually pretty funny about bringing in stuff like this for me.



Good vs. Evil Battling Unicorns: This pretty much says it all, don't you think?



Balls that have been Removed: Rugby players. They're kind of creepy. Like Ceiling Cat.



Flag of Australia: Some Aussie kids stayed with us. They gave me this.




First Aid Kit for Dogs: You never know. You just never know.




Pokemon: This is the hardest one to explain. I don't know the first thing about Pokemon, how to play it, or the bizarre religious cult behind it. But a few kids have brought me every single goddamned Pokemon card over the years. Yes... even the "ones you could get a lot of money from on eBay." And, I'm like, are you fucking serious? Really?



This exhibit, really, just barely scratches the surface. I'm saving the sock puppets for a future post, where they will play a starring role.