Today I'm one of the guests celebrating the season over at Reading is Bliss (Thanks, Jill!):

Christmas 1993: Faraway & So Close

I flash back to a Christmas I spent in Dublin in 1993 and you can enter to win a prize pack consisting of a signed paperback of I Know It's Over, a signed hardcover of One Lonely Degree and a Lighter Side of Life and Death journal.

***

I also want to say a big congrats to Sherri L. Smith whose fabulous YA book Flygirl, about a young African American girl training to be a WWII pilot, was named one of the six best books for teens by The Washington Post. Would make a terrific Christmas present and while you're at it, pick up Sparrow by Sherri too. I liked Kendall so much that I keep hoping there'll be a Sparrow sequel!

Christmas is coming up fast and inevitably I'll be spending less time blogging (and more time watching Christmas movies, listening to my favourite holiday music, eating the chocolate and cinnamon chip cookies I plan to bake today and hopefully figuring out how to kill yet more angry giant insects in Wii game Escape From Bug Island).

Although you won't see me around here as often I'll be making appearances on other blogs during the holiday season. You can catch up with me here:

December 18: Reading is Bliss - Guest Blog
December 23: Juiciliciousss Reviews - Interview
TBA: Books Obsession - Interview

And now I have to get back to listening to that magical Pretenders tune. It's true, it's colder day by day. And listening to Chrissie Hynde sing about diamonds in the snow makes me love that.

Canadian Our Lady Peace fans probably already know that they're doing an extremely cool Canadian tour this coming March through May where they'll play the Clumsy and Spiritual Machines albums in their entirety on 2 separate nights. The second set will be a selection of songs from their other albums.

As if that's not exciting enough their Toronto dates are at my favourite T.O. venue, Massey Hall. The only trouble is, how to choose between such two amazing albums. And so I pored over the albums and what it came down to is, I can't miss the chance to see OLP sing the song Clumsy live. Maybe they'll play it on the Spiritual Machines night anyway, but well, if I have to choose I've gotta go with the sure thing.

And what about 4 AM for that matter? Can't miss that either. Automatic Flowers. Superman's Dead...But hey, how about Life, In Repair and Right Behind You from Spirtual Machines. Do you see the torture I've been dealing with this morning!

I was an OLP fan before One Lonely Degree but writing about main character Finn and her feelings about Our Lady Peace actually made me an even bigger one and now I can't really hear the band without thinking about her. I almost wouldn't be surprised to see her at the Massey Hall gig in March and, you know, I bet she has better tickets than me and is going both nights. One of the big questions this gives rise to is, who would Finn be at the concert with? I'm going to scope out the first few rows in front of the stage and take a close look at the redheads to see if I can figure out the answer. If anyone catches sight of her on the Spiritual Machines night let me know!

* Read more about OLP's Canadian tour and next album on Chart Attack

* Finn Kavanagh of One Lonely Degree writes about Our Lady Peace on Shooting Stars Mag before the release of Burn, Burn last May.

I'm sad to hear the news that seventy-six year old American review journal Kirkus is closing. On a personal level I feel very grateful to Kirkus for putting I Know It's Over on people's radar. On a general level I think this is bad for every single author out there.

The announcement was in Publishers Lunch today:

The publishing world's concerns about declining review space will only become more severe with this morning's news that Nielsen Business Media has "made the decision to cease operations" at Kirkus Reviews (as well as Editor & Publisher.) The news came as the company announced the sale of the Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and six other media brands to Guggenheim Partners and Pluribus Capital Management. Nielsen is retaining ownership of The Bookseller in the UK.

The memo from Nielsen Business Media president Greg Farrar does not indicate what will become of the Kirkus archives, and whether there will be any effort to sell the operation. As Ron Charles at the Washington Post Book World tweeted: "Worst news in a long time: Kirkus shutting down. For me, they were the last reliable source of negative reviews."

That same edition of Publishers Lunch notes that, “Amazon has quietly pushed the [ebook] discounting envelope even further, at least on a small set of delayed big releases. The new books from Sarah Palin and Steven King, both of which release in Kindle format right around Christmas, can now be pre-ordered for the lower-still price of $7.99. That's also the pre-order price for Ted Kennedy's True Compass, which Twelve has apparently decided to release in ebook form after all, also on Christmas.”

I think if life were like a blockbuster movie these things would be some of those (not so) early signs that an enormous meteor (or other cataclysmic life-destroying event) is about to hit the publishing world. And, like in the movie 2012, we sort of knew it was coming but thought we had more time. I'm looking around for John Cusack as I type this, to see if he has any ideas for surviving the upcoming calamity or whether I should just, like, go back to school and become an accountant or something because, you know, once the ebook format takes over (hello bargain basement prices and mass piracy!) it's looking as though authors won't be able to make a living (not that most of us ever really could but there goes the lunch money even!).

This was in the Toronto Star yesterday:

It's only been one day, but Canada has already garnered its first "fossil" award. The award, which is given to countries who are blocking progress at the United Nations climate summit, is awarded daily by a coalition of 400 international NGOs.

According to organizers, Canada was awarded a Fossil of the Day for its commitment to stand on its targets and not to negotiate them throughout the conference.

At a speech in Montreal on Friday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said that he “wont be swayed by the Copenhagen hype.”

I'm sure Emperor Harper is still beaming with pride today, as all the rest of the Tories punch the air and rave about how they're not going to get suckered into helping save the environment because damnit that costs $ and we should be able to trash our own backyard if we want to, leave shamelessly heavy carbon footprints, exhaust natural resources etc. And who cares about polar bears, seals and other species anyway, they don't even pay taxes!

Yes, indeed we should be so very proud that our country, unlike more rational nations which would like the planet to continue housing us for a few more years, just doesn't give a sweet damn about anyone or anything except money (which will be used to construct Emperor Harper's future Death Star).

Emperor Harper and one of his minions supervise the destuction of the environment and the creation of dirty fossil fuel at the Alberta Tar Sands.

I've been saying for some time now that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is actually an evil Sith Lord:

* Say Yes to Carbon

* What Canadian Voters (Inexplicably) Want

* Stephen Harper: Ordinary People Don't Care about Arts Funding

* Tories Slipping From Majority

* Stephen Harper says, “These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For”

* Easter Greetings From Our PM

Funny how that fact seems to be more widely recognized abroad than it does in Canada. I'm not sure whether that means we're not too bright in this part of the world (brain freeze?) or whether we're just too apathetic. Either way, there's no denying that we royally suck.

As one close observer of of international climate change talks said leading up to Copenhagen, “Canada has become the Darth Vader of the G8 in particular. The marks they now get regularly from the environmental groups are last place.”

Yep, not only is Stephen Harper really Darth Harper underneath the suit, tie and wind-resistant hairstyle, if we keep letting Harper get away with steering Canada in the direction of doing as little as humanly possible to fight climate change we're all acting in support of the destructive Empire.

Do we need the Ewoks to come over here and kick our asses in order for us to realize what we're allowing to happen here?

Twenty years ago today 14 young women were slaughtered at L'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal by a gunman on a rampage ranting about "feminists."

Top Row L to R: Anne-Marie Edward, Anne-Marie Lemay, Annie St Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Daigneault, Barbara Maria Klucznik, Genevieve Bergeron
Bottom Row L to R: Helene Colgan, Maryse LeClaire, Maryse Leganiere, Maud Haviernier, Michele Richard, Nathalie Croteau, Sonia Pelletier

Sadly, we're nowhere near a place where we can say this couldn't happen again.

“Many of the safeguards put in place after the Montreal massacre are now being dismantled. Last month, Parliament voted to scrap the federal long-gun registry, despite the pleas of parents of the students slain at l'École Polytechnique, and of police and women's groups...This month, the government of Stephen Harper refused (again) to call an independent investigation into the disappearance of hundreds of aboriginal women. In 2006, the Conservatives chopped the budget of Status of Women Canada, which provides funding to community groups working to combat violence against women.”

Read the rest here: *  Twenty years on, little has changed

On this side of the pond it'd be hard not to notice that lots of people are big into the musical show Glee, but I wonder how many folks may have missed out on the quality BBC singing series, All the Small Things (which is being shown as Heart and Soul in Canada and Australia).

A couple of months ago I stumbled across the below scene from the show on BBC Canada:

That fabulous rendition of Swing, Swing (my favourite All American Rejects song) was more than enough to make me curious and I've subsequently become hooked on this lovable and eminently listenable show about the cast off local choir members of a small northern English town banding together to form their own kick ass choir which tackles music by Blink 182 and All American Rejects amongst others.

But the show isn't just about music. Main character Esther's choir conductor husband (Michael) drops a bomb on her in the first episode—he wants out of their marriage. Meanwhile there's a younger new guy with a mysterious past in town (Jake) who seems interested but Esther's not exactly overflowing with trust. One of Esther's teen sons, Kyle, is also at the heart of the show. Although All the Small Things never names Kyle's condition he appears to suffer from Asperger's and has trouble with social interactions but is musically gifted.

One of the many things I love about the series is that it doesn't feature the standard cast of beautiful people we're used to seeing in North American television. Instead the majority of the characters are diverse, down to earth and three-dimensional with their own unique (yet universal) issues. All the Small Things is the warmest, least cynical show I've seen on TV this year. If you stumble across it in TV land trust me and give it a shot.

* Read the BBC press release for All the Small Things

* Sarah Lancashire (who plays Esther) talks about All the Small Things in an interview for The Manchest Evening news

And, BBC, we need a second season of All the Small Things so get cracking!

The odds must be against this (so you better believe I'm feeling lucky!) but yesterday afternoon both Susan Beth Pfeffer and Catherine Ryan Hyde emailed me to let me know I'd won copies of their YA books.

Actually, it's *two* copies of Catherine Ryan Hyde's book, The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance—one for me and one for my mom—and an ARC of Susan Beth Pfeffer's latest meteor novel, This World We Live In. I'm a huge fan of Susan's other meteor books (Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone) and I loved The Day I Killed James and Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde so I'm super excited.

Thank you, book gods!

I was also extremely happy to hear, just the other day, that Mare's War (by Tanita S. Davis) has been included on the Kirkus Reviews "Best Young Adult Books of 2009." And I'm keeping everything I can crossed for 2010 White Pine nominee Cracked Up to Be (by Courtney Summers) in the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading awards. It's great to see such terrific books get the recognition they deserve!

Yes, indeed, I'm such a diehard Billy Bragg fan that eight days after his Toronto gig I'm still celebrating the show. Hooray for the person who posted Billy's rendition of John Cooper Clarke's Evidently Chicken Town in Toronto on YouTube! We've all had days/weeks/months/years that felt like this, I think:

I must admit I'm tempted to send a link of this to the blog reviewer who mentioned that One Lonely Degree had "forty swears" up to page 68 but I don't know, they might go into a state of shock or break out in a rash. I totally understand when people take issue with language (or images or jokes etc.) that spread(s) hate of any sort (racism, sexism, homophobia). It really should come as no surprise that (and there's actually a 2007 study on this), for example, “exposure to sexist humor can create conditions that allow men – especially those who have antagonistic attitudes toward women – to express those attitudes in their behavior...The acceptance of sexist humor leads men to believe that sexist behavior falls within the bounds of social acceptability.”

But, for me, it doesn't compute when folks get antsy about stuff like, “I fucking love you, man” or “I'm having a shitty day.”

I guess people like that don't really enjoy stuff like The Trailer Park Boys or The Commitments, huh?

Still no Billy Bragg video from the recent Toronto gig but handily there are fantastic Ottawa and Hamilton clips to be seen. How I wish I'd been at the Hamilton show too! Alas, there were no tickets to be had.

Jeane, Hamilton Place, November 18, 2009:

The Milkman of Human Kindness, Hamilton Place, November 18, 2009:

Like Soldiers Do, Hamilton Place, November 18, 2009:

Old Clash Fan Fight Song and Billy talks about how The Clash initially inspired his activism, Bronson Centre, Ottawa, November 19, 2009:

On activitism continued, I Keep Faith, and There is Power in a Union,
Bronson Centre, Ottawa, November 19, 2009:

A New England singalong, Bronson Centre, Ottawa, November 19, 2009:

Finally, you can download Billy's hilarious musical rendition of John Cooper Clarke's Evidently Chicken Town at Krewechief's Live Music Blog and read Krewe Chief's comparison of the Toronto and Hamilton shows. A warning for those with sensitive ears—I don't have an f-word count for the song but it's exceptionally f@#*ing high!

I haven't seen any clips for last night's Billy Bragg Toronto show appear on YouTube yet but if they surface I'll post them later (please tell me someone captured the brilliance of Evidently Chickentown on video!). There's a review up on Canoe if you want to hear more concert details.

It's actually been awhile since I caught a full length Billy Bragg concert in Toronto—my last two Bragg gigs were in London last year and Dublin in 06—but it's cool indeed to share the experience with some of my fellow countrymen and see what Billy Bragg fans they still are. And always, always, wonderful to see Billy—who is hilarious, insightful, inspiring and really knows how to rock a guitar—play live.

As you can see below, my spot against the stage wasn't actually an ideal one for snapping photos. My old point and shoot camera wasn't up to the challenge of the concert lighting and made portions of the show appear like a bit of a psychedelic experience.

Or like a potential bootleg album cover—case in point:

However, I did manage to get a few snaps that were more representative of the gig.

When you're just one guy on stage with a guitar regular tea breaks are essential for refueling!

So, because there aren't any T.O. clips up yet I'm attaching a few from the Bragg show in St. John's, Newfoundland on November 14th.

Must I Paint You a Picture:

Greetings to the New Brunette:

The Warmest Room:

And here's some bonus classic Billy: An Accident Waiting to Happen, live in 1992

Thanks, Billy, for an amazing show and for keeping the faith all these years and helping your fans keep ours!

And for Canadians with tickets to the upcoming Bragg shows in Hamilton, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg—you guys are in for a fantastic time!

Book blogger Thao of Serene Hours has created stunning mock covers for I Know It's Over, One Lonely Degree and The Lighter Side of Life and Death.

* Check them out in all their glory

Thanks so much, Thao! You rock. Please accept this virtual cupcake with my thanks:

I adore the covers. I've been trying to make up my mind which one I like the best but I just can't do it—they're all so beautiful. Staring at them I can almost believe warm weather is on the way. May's just around the corner, right?

A few days ago I was sifting through files on my clunky super-slow desktop computer, deciding what needed to be saved to DVD, and discovered some mysterious stuff in the folder for The Lighter Side of Life and Death. I create a folder for every book I write and save different drafts of the manuscript to it along with various research files and photos. For instance, in The Lighter Side of Life and Death folder there are a bunch of files on the Arthur Miller play, All My Sons, which main character Mason stars in as Chris Keller for his school's production.

I don't want to give too much away by saying what else is in there but...I did find a couple of things that have me scratching my head because they have nothing to do with novel.

1). Articles explaining how to break into a car.

2. Four separate files on counterculture figure Abbie Hoffman.

Now while it's conceivable (though I have absolutely no recollection of this) that at one point I could've thought someone would have to break into a car during the course of the book I can't for the life of me work out what role Abbie Hoffman could play in the novel.

???

Anyway, I can confidently say The Lighter Side of Life and Death doesn't feature any car break-ins. Also, Abbie Hoffman does not appear (nor is he referenced) during the pages of this book. I hope this news doesn't disappoint anyone.

Here are some other things that don't appear in the novel:

* zombies

* Elizabeth Bennet (of Pride and Prejudice fame)

* Time Lords, talking apes and evil aliens

* alternative rocker and political activist Billy Bragg (although I really should work him into a book)

* chocolate bunnies (however, there is one reference to chocolate and two references to rabbits)

But here's what I consider to be some Lighter Side of Life and Death related music (song #16 on my Lighter Side playlist) to end this blog entry on:

TV depictions of violence against women have risen dramatically in just the past five years (while violence that occurred irrespective of gender only increased 2%.) Depictions of violence against teenage girls increased by an alarming 400% in that same period. Those findings, by a Parents Television Council report, note that the portrayals of violence against women, especially young women, "with increasing frequency, or as a trivial, even humorous matter, the networks may be contributing to an atmosphere in which young people view aggression and violence against women as normative, even acceptable."

Recently a public pro-rape Facebook group composed of students from a university in Sydney was uncovered (and subsequently shut down) in the sports and recreation section. The commander of the NSW Police sex crimes squad, Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, said when operational, the Facebook page - tagged ''pro-rape, anti-consent'' - was ''inciting people to sexual violence''. In Richmond, California last month a fifteen year old girl was gang raped and beaten for more than two hours while twenty men and boys looked on, laughing and snapping photos. In the province of Ontario studies have shown that sexual assault against girls at school is so common that it's seen as the status quo.

This is the kind of atmosphere our young girls are growing up in. Hostile. With so much violence (or threats of violence) directed at them and shown to them in the form of entertainment that it's become an unhappy normal. Is it any wonder then, that a survey of Boston teenagers last winter reported that 46% felt Rihanna was responsible for the violent attack Chris Brown committed against her and 52% said both were responsible, despite knowing that Rihanna's injuries required hospital treatment?

As well, young women today are relentlessly bombarded with media messages that tell them their worth is rooted in being attractive, that their life's ambition should be to exist in a state of hotness twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Much of the music industry glories in showing women purely as sex objects—and flawless ones at that. If you're unaware of the airbrushing that goes on in video, this article in Uplift Magazine is an eye-opener.

Obviously we need a hell of a lot more media out there ready to take girls' wellbeing into account and counter the overwhelming negativity (hooray for organizations like PinkStinks and About-Face!). And we need to fight to hold on to the good stuff like seven year old New Moon Magazine (100% advertising free) which is dedicated to lifting tween girls' aspirations, increasing their power, and giving them an outlet for their unique perspectives and voices. Unfortunately, New Moon has been hit very hard by the current recession and will have to close at the end of December if we can't help them out financially. I know it's a challenge for many of us to find extra money to donate to worthy causes during this economy, but take a look around a quick look around at the toxic media universe and you'll realize how important this is.

New Moon says you can help by:

" Sponsoring memberships for libraries, schools and programs serving low-income girls. It's quick and easy to sponsor one, ten or 100 girls - every dollar matters!

" Buying memberships for all girls 8-14 that you know. Our holiday special saves you 50% after the first order.

" Telling everyone what you value about New Moon. Link to us, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share with your FB friends and Tweeps."

Here's their donation page. You might also want to read about the "safe, secure and advertisement-free social network" they've created for girls 8-12.

Truly, New Moon is awesome. Let's help keep it alive for all the amazing tween girls out there.

Recently Chris Spence, the Toronto District School Board's new education director, has been calling for an all-boys school to address male underachievement at school. “The real objective is to cast a critical eye on how we reach and teach our boys,” said Dr. Spence, whose 2008 book, The Joys of Teaching Boys , makes the case that boys learn differently from girls and have suffered under a “unisex model for child rearing and teaching.”

But it sounds like Spence isn't being nearly objective enough because in fact neuroscientists say that, “Just as a boy's foot and a girl's foot work the same way, so do their brains. As the OECD report Understanding the Brain points out: "No study to date has shown gender-specific processes involved in building up neuronal networks during learning." So the way boys and girls create synaptic pathways – and therefore learn – is the same. When we see differences in the behaviour of boys and girls, that's because those differences are taught. They are social, not biological.”

Functional MRI studies show, "that there are no differences in the young male brain that would explain why boys might have more trouble reading."

According to StatsCan figures for 2006/7, a third of boys don't graduate from high school and a quarter of girls don't make it. Spence's vision, on top of being rooted in beliefs unsupported by evidence, does nothing to address that 25% figure, nor does it deal with the startling amount of sexual harassment and violence aimed at girls uncovered in Julian Falconer's report on school violence.

Are there major problems with Ontario's education system? You bet, the same problems we encounter elsewhere in society but magnified many-fold as young people soak up our constraining—often toxic messages—about what it means to be male, female, rich, poor, middle class, white, black, Asian, straight, gay, bisexual, yada, yada.

Apparently many scientists now believe that 20% of a person's outcome in life is the result of innate brain capacity (nature) and the other 80% is based on what happens after birth (nurture). Biology doesn't count for much. A newborn's brain doesn't know it's a future male problem child. It hasn't yet learned the faulty cultural idea that a girl isn't as mentally equipped for math or been exposed to Eurocentric teaching that devalues other cultures.

So sure, we can start up that Male Leadership Academy and pretend a one size fits all solution might work (as though all boys learn in the exact same way and face identical challenges...right) for some of the boys that attend it, but that would still mean doing a disservice to an entire generation of kids.

Or we could be ambitious and hopeful and aim for that less-traveled road where all young brains are treated like equal entities and given the nourishment and confidence they need to be their best selves. That would undoubtedly require more money being funneled into the education system (higher taxes!), a much bigger push to end child poverty and a concerted effort—as a society—to set aside our own learned biases, but imagine a generation of kids raised with that kind of care. Just imagine how glorious that would be.

We've all heard common advice for eluding the swine flu such as getting the vaccine and washing your hands a zillion times a day but now I'm going to share my secret tips with you in the hope that you remain well and happy.

* 1. Buy yourself some fun-size chocolate bars. It's Halloween and they're everywhere. Chocolate makes many, many people happy. You want to keep your immune system super happy during flu season, don't you? Sure you do. I recommend a 12 pack of Crispy Crunch (go on, they're tiny) but whatever the twelve pack of your choice is will work just as well.

*  2. From now until when the swine flu epidemic is over, only hang out with superheroes. With their superhuman immune systems you won't have to worry about them passing on germs to you. Unfortunately, this option didn't work out so well for me as one of the superheroes I was hanging out with was The Torch and there's now been some fire damage to my apartment. The Hulk was here at the time and got angry on my behalf and inadvertently destroyed my bathroom. Thank God Wonder Woman and Batman dropped by and helped get things back under control! But I have to say, it was annoying the way Batman kept staring out my window, searching the sky. I mean, hello, are we hanging out or do you have something better to do? Make up your mind, why don't you! Anyway, just be cautious about which superheroes you choose to spend your time with.

* 3. Get yourself down to your local Blockbuster Video while their current 30% off sale is on and treat yourself to a previously used copy of Wii game Escape From Bug island for a grand total of $6.88 (price may vary according to your regional taxes). Yes, it's a very early Wii game and kind of wooden and cheesy but you get to battle giant praying mantises, moths etc. Adrenaline, baby, it's good for you. What more could you want for $6.88?

* 4. Buy yourself a Tim Hortons donut. This tip works similarly to #1. I know it can be difficult to force yourself to eat a donut— especially if it's something like Boston Cream, chocolate glazed or kiwi lime but exercise some self-discipline—remember, this is your health we're talking about!

* 5. Watch The Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day. For the endorphins, which recent studies show enhance the immune system, relieve pain, reduce stress and increase well-being. It's impossible to watch this movie with a straight face—from Randy's markered head to the boys' home made security office uniforms when they try to rob a bank, the final TPB offering is a laugh riot. For increased flu-fighting potential eat a donut or several fun-size chocolate bars during your viewing.

* 6. Build/purchase a robot to pick things (which may be contaminated with flu germs) up for you, open doors (which may be contaminated with flu germs) and shake hands (which may be contaminated with flu germs) on your behalf. This is the twenty-first century and where are the flying cars already? But if we can't have the soaring cars, at least let's get going with the robots. If you're not very good with technical matters yourself, and are therefore unable to construct your own robot, contact your local community college and get one of the tech students to whip you up one on the cheap, right now before they graduate and their robot design prices go through the roof. Be sure not to buy a Terminator, though, particularly if you happen to be John Connor or someone close to him.

*7. Customize your dart board by covering it with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's face. The space between his eyes should serve as the bull's eye, of course. Again for the endorphins. We really want to keep that immune system bolstered!

* 8. Go trick or treating this Halloween, no matter your age. When you've been around for decades, like I have, you might not think you can go trick of treating any more. Won't the neighbours shun you or maybe even call the cops? No, see they won't have any clue it's you! Just get yourself some kind of goofy face mask. Kids are tall these days, I figure as long as you're not over six foot three, you're good to go. If you're taller than that, I do recommend you hunch over (maybe wear a costume that supports a hunched over personna). The money you spend on your costume will pay itself back in candy later in the evening and you can find out which of your neighbours give out the really good stuff and write yourself a reminder to drop by their house again next Halloween.

* 9. If you're a writer, spend your time inside your abode staring lovingly at your newest book instead of going out into the world where swine flu lurks everywhere. If you're in the middle of penning a new novel, you can just gaze loving at that on your laptop screen. If you're not a writer but are an avid reader, stare at your own favourite book(s) and/or reread them. If you don't enjoy reading quite possibly you already have H1N1—I mean, clearly something's wrong with you, how can you not enjoy reading!

* 10. If you absolutely must leave the house to pick up supplies (like the Escape from Bug Island game and Tim Hortons donuts) Buy yourself a Stephen Harper mask this Halloween. People will stay away from you in droves (and therefore, so will the H1N1 germs), especially if you offer to sing Beatles tunes for them. Of course this only works within Canada. Outside our borders limited knowledge about our nation will render this defense useless. Also, in certain ridings, particularly those with a decidedly leftwing bent, people may feel compelled to throw rotting fruit and other assorted items at you but don't worry, they still won't want to get close and will be tossing from a distance, leaving you untainted by the swine flu microbe. In the United States, a possible substitute option is a Sarah Palin mask.

Happy Halloween! 

Between tackling some minor copy-editing on The Lighter Side of Life and Death and working obsessively on my current book I haven't been around much but there have definitely been things I've wanted to link to lately so I'm going to pass some of them on now.

First, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is hosting a poster contest for their college campus campaign. “The winning poster will be used to promote sexual assault awareness on college campuses all over the U.S., reaching over 1 million people nationwide. The winning artist will be mentioned on our website (rainn.org) and have their design downloaded and printed for display by schools and crisis centers!” The deadline is Friday, November 13th so if you're an artist who wants to do some major good with your work, check out the details here.

Kate Townshend, a writer and teacher, has a very informative blog entry up at The F-Word about the gender bullying going on in primary school playgrounds. Kate writes, “it seems obvious in some of the schools I go into that the boys know things are weighted in their favour, at least in the short term. By 11, they have already learnt that calling a girl fat effectively finishes the argument. It doesn’t matter whether she is actually fat or not. It has become a code word which makes it clear that since female self worth is built upon looks, it is easily destroyed by male indifference or antagonism.”

The U.K. based Pink Stinks campaign believes, “that body image obsession, is starting younger and younger, and that the seeds are sown during the pink stage, as young girls are taught the boundaries within which they will grow up, as well as narrow and damaging messages about what it is to be a girl.” Pink Stinks aims to, “redress the balance by providing girls with positive female role models chosen because of their achievements, skills, accomplishments and successes.”

Be sure to have a look at their name & shame page, where they highlight some of the worst marketing aimed at girls.

The Washington CityPaper posted an article about the sex ed gender divide revealed by a survey of about 250 District high school students’ thoughts on sex ed. “According to the study, young women expressed a greater interest—and perhaps difficulty—in speaking openly about personal sexual issues” with sex partners and health educators. Young women also said they had a tough time talking about sex with their parents. “Male participants reported an easier time talking about sex with their parents than the female participants.” Heterosexual girls in the study expressed a greater acceptance of GLBTQ youth and “were more likely to desire an increased visibility for GLBTQ issues in the sex ed curriculum.” While locked drugstore condoms produced shame and frustration in both males and females, it was the girls in the study who expressed shame in carrying condoms. “Young women are afraid that they will be judged as promiscuous by others or misunderstood by their partner if they carry condoms. To avoid misperception, some female focus groups participants reported leaving the responsibility to their boyfriends.”

Finally, I saw the below clip on Broadsides (Antonia Zerbisias's Toronto Star blog) yesterday.

“A question about pregnant women and the H1N1 vaccine provoked a bizarre bout of heckling and laughter on the Tory benches in the Commons on Tuesday.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, a physician and former public health minister, was shouted down when she tried to raise the issue of confusion surrounding what kind of vaccinations pregnant women should be getting.

Bennett initially couldn't finish her question, overcome by roars of derision and mockery from the Conservative backbenches.”

Jack Layton spoke about the incident the next day commenting that, “During question period we have been witnessing undeniably sexist heckling from members of the government side. This abuse is growing hotter, it is growing more frequent and there is more bullying. I can hear some of it now, except in this case it is not targeting women as it all too often does in this chamber. It targets women representing opposition parties, all the opposition parties in the House...I call on the government's leadership to really get a grip on its members and set a higher standard.”

And so the gender bullying that begins on the school playground continues right into the House of Commons. Well, isn't this a far cry from Stephen Harper's attempt at playing a warm-blooded human, crooning With A Little Help From My Friends at the piano with Yo Yo Ma? Here we can see what Harper's party really think of female MPs and some of the citizens they're governing. Pregnant women concerned about H1N1 vaccinations...hardy har har. Isn't it hilarious, people thinking their little peasant lives matter? Where do the peons pick up these ludicrous ideas?

Sure Prime Minister Harper gets by with a little help from his friends, we just shouldn't go getting confused that common citizens are of any concern to his government. It's all about the Death Star with him, same as it's always been.

So if the first chapter of The Lighter Side of Life and Death were a song it would be Santigold's Lights Out. Not the lyrics necessarily but the overall feel of the song.

There's so much positive energy in this song that if experts could figure out how to harness it I'm sure it would be more than capable of stopping H1N1 dead in its tracks.

This, I believe, is what the best day of your life sounds like:

Sure some trouble sets in during Chapter Two etc. but we don't need to think about that right now.

I should also mention that I've heard word that the cover for The Lighter Side of Life and Death should be going up at various online bookstores within the next two weeks. As soon as I get the official thumbs up I'll add it to my website and blog—hopefully with Chapter One soon to follow!

Can I just remind you that I called this, people? Okay, I didn't nail the tunes and we're not in election season yet after all but you gotta admit that my powers of perception are impressive.

Stephen Harper and Yo Yo Ma. For real. Umm...yeah. Watch out for the Prime Minister's release of those Pitbull and Jason Myraz covers soon.

Not bad Steve-o but if you really want to rack up some cool quotient points you should try, oh, maybe repairing Canada's reputation as a peacekeeping nation, focusing on fighting the damage our country's inflicting on the environment or committing to battle child poverty.

I know, I know. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...

Melissa Silverstein over at the Women & Hollywood blog has been doing some really exceptional writing about the rape of a thirteen year old girl committed by Roman Polanski in 1977 and Hollywood's mind-boggling reaction to his recent arrest:

* Does Being An Artist Trump Being a Rapist?

* The Silence is Deafening

* Rape is a Feminist Issue

It's staggering the amount of Hollywood (and European) directors and actors who have stood behind Polanski and petitioned for his release, shocking to hear Whoopi Golberg proclaim on The View that, "It wasn't rape-rape," and Peg Yorkin, founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, state that, "My personal thoughts are let the guy go. It's bad a person was raped. But that was so many years ago. The guy has been through so much in his life. It's crazy to arrest him now."

Yes, the rape happened over thirty years ago. Yes, Roman Polanski has directed some very well-regarded films. Yes, he's had a hard life.

None of those things change the fact that in 1977 Polanski plied a thirteen year old child with alcohol and Quaaludes and then raped her. At the time the victim was well under the legal age of consent (which was sixteen in California in 1977). But regardless, she didn't consent. Quite the opposite. She tried to fake an asthma attack to keep her distance from Polanski and said no several times during the attack. I don't want to go into much detail here in case people find it triggering but if you're so inclined you can read the victim's very disturbing grand jury testimony at The Smoking Gun.

The Hollywood bigwigs standing behind Polanski either aren't aware of the awful details or don't care. Shame on them all.

Of course, not everyone in Hollywood supports Polanski. Comedian/actor/writer Chris Rock was the voice of reason when he appeared on Jay Leno last week. If you missed it you can see him start into the subject at the 2:45 mark.

Others who have spoken out against the rape include producer Bo Zenga (Scary Movie, Soul Plane) and director Kevin Smith but so far that list is sadly short.

In a recent interview Harvey Weinstein (who's been circulating the pro-Polanski petition) stated that “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.”

To that, I say, as Chris Rock did on Leno, "Are you kidding me?"

For the most part compassion is not what's on display here. When you have such a slew of influential people from the entertainment world coming forward in support of a rapist I think it behooves others with equal influence and opposing views to rise up and counter those negative ideas.

So what's going on with the actors and directors whose names don't appear on the petition and who aren't mouthing idiocies about 'rape-rape'? Your silence doesn't tell us anything, folks. Isn't there something you'd like to say to all the young women out there and to the men who see these girls as easy targets?

I've been wanting to mention this for awhile and finally got the paperwork so can happily report that my fourth YA novel, Delicate, will be jointly released by Random House Canada and Random House U.S.A. in May, 2011. The story is told in alternating points of view and is about second cousins, Ivy and Lucan, who become friends over the course of one complicated summer.

I'll post more info about the book in due course but for now I'm glad just to be able to publicly proclaim its existence...or future existence. It's written, of course, but is currently in an unedited state, sort of like a bill dreaming of becoming a law!

Anyway, here's one of the songs from the book's playlist. There are some songs that I come to associate so strongly with my various books that I can't hear them without thinking of the characters and Young Folks is one of them:

It probably goes without saying that I like to read (and I'm particularly fond of fiction) but mostly I'm not someone who seeks out author readings or wants to learn more about the author. The stories themselves are all I'm after.

Having said that, there were two authors I hoped to see at this year's Word On The Street festival in Toronto. One was my favourite Toronto Star columnist, Joe Fiorito. Anyone who doubts that Toronto has a heart need only read his column to be proven wrong. You can check out his Star columns dating back to January 09 here. The second was Margaret Atwood who was scheduled to appear in person in Toronto and simultaneously via LongPen in Halifax and Vancouver. I heartily enjoyed Joe Fiorito's appearance but unfortunately by the time we arrived at the Scotiabank Bestsellers' tent all the seats (predictably!) were long gone and a sizeable crowd had gathered outside, straining to see and hear what was going on within. After several minutes of squinting at Margaret Atwood in the distance, unable to hear a word of what she was saying (the PA system obviously wasn't set up with a crowd that large in mind!), we decided to implement Plan B, which was shuffling off to a nearby theatre to see one of the movies we'd missed at this year's TIFF.

I'm sure The Year of the Flood discussion was scintillating and I'm very much looking forward to reading it (after I make some serious progress on the book I'm currently working on) but we pushed on from a dystopian novel to a family drama film. The Boys Are Back, directed by Scott Hicks, is based on the memoirs of Simon Carr and tells the story of British sports writer Joe Warr (played by Clive Owen) who is living in rural Australia when he's suddenly widowed and must learn how to care for his young son alone. During the course of the film the two of them are joined by Joe's teenage son from his first marriage. Things do not go smoothly, to say the least, but it's a wonderful movie, emotional without being the least bit manipulative or maudlin. Clive Owen's young co-stars shine as does Owen who delivers a three-dimensional portrait of a grieving father who was never around much and is now forced to confront his shortcomings and decide what to do about them.

I'm also hoping to watch Bright Star, another TIFF film that I missed out on, in the not too distant future, but for the next little while I need to knuckle down and write.

So if things are quiet around here for awhile you know why, but before I disappear I want to send my congratulations out to Tanita S. Davis whose fabulous YA book Mare's War has been nominated as an Amelia Bloomer book (an annual list of recommended feminist literature for readers from birth to the age of 18). You can read some of my thoughts on Mare's War in this August blog entry.

Today you can find me guest blogging on Teenreads.com. They very kindly invited me to blog about whatever I wanted to share and so I talk about learning something that I believe made the biggest difference in my writing—creating three-dimensional characters.

* Read the blog entry: The Deep End of the Ocean

Lately I can't stop listening to All is Love (by Karen O & The Kids) from the soon to be released movie version of Where The Wild Things Are. I think it may be impossible to frown while listening to this song.

Having listened to it several times this evening I have to say that I feel younger than when I rolled out of bed this morning!

To have a hit of feel-good music at the ready is especially important right now because man, the YA novel I'm currently working on is sad. And it's both crying out for me and pushing me away with both hands. Inconsolable is what it is.

Hmm, maybe I'll add another feel-good tune for good measure (Incidentally, Abba and I go waaaay back. The first pop album I ever had was one of Abba's greatest hit albums).

I was very sad to hear, earlier this week, that South African runner Caster Semenya had been placed on suicide watch. Semenya, as I'm sure most people are already aware, was determined by tests to be intersex after winning a gold medal in the 800 metre event in Berlin.

South African lawmaker Butana Komphela, chair of the country's sports committee, commented that: “If she commits suicide, it will be on all our heads. The best we can do is protect her and look out for her during this trying time.”

I hope that Semenya has supportive people around her at this terrible time and I hope that she can somehow come to the realization that the failure here is entirely ours and not hers. Every day we all walk through a world that insists on defining people according to X and Y chromosomes, as though there's some absolute meaning in this, a neat divide, as though possessing ovaries automatically imbues you with a nurturing spirit and compels you to worship the colour pink and adore shopping while having a penis makes you aggressive and forever bonds you to things like power tools and pro football.

And what do we have to say in response to these ludicrously small-minded ideas? Not a hell of a lot, mostly. Not enough.

Not only do binary ideas like the above create constraining behavioural expectations, they also exclude certain people from aspects of society entirely. No medal for you, they say. You don't belong here. You aren't either or.

Stats on babies born intersex aren't indicative of true numbers as “1 in 2000 infants is born with genitalia that are so atypical that the attending physician requests the help of the specialists in the team to assign a sex...[but] most hospitals in the world have no gender assignment teams and most intersex people have typical genitalia.” Apparently the real figure could be closer to 4%.

Isn't social exclusion and demanding that you attempt to adhere to one of the two approved genders awful enough without people pointing at you (now, thanks to the Internet millions upon millions of folks can do this without even leaving their homes), poring over the details of your ordeal while some of them are even ignorant and callous enough to call you a 'freak of nature'?

Just this morning I read that it's come to light that the governing body of athletics asked South Africa's top administrators for the sport to consider withdrawing Semenya before the race but that those officials declined without even informing her of the governing body's concerns.

To say this was handled badly all round is an understatement. This isn't entertainment—this is someone's life, her hope and dreams. We should be celebrating Caster Semenya's accomplishment in the world of sports and throwing our support behind her. If you feel the same, please write your support down where she, and others, will be able to see it—your blog, Twitter, Facebook, a message board, wherever.

Caster, my thoughts are with you.

We caught the world premiere of Irish film Perrier's Bounty at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday evening and it was much fun, markedly more violent than director Ian FitzGibbon's last film, A Film With Me In It (which we saw at last year's TIFF), but just as comical.

Here's the summary from the TIFF site:

“A tongue-in-cheek narrator introduces us to anti-hero Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy), who is the perfect boy next door – or upstairs, if you're his best friend Brenda. Night after night, he patiently listens to Brenda's lamentations about her boyfriend Seamus's cheating heart. A real catch, right? The unfortunate matter is that Michael is estranged from his father, Jim (played by Jim Broadbent). And he owes Dublin's most ruthless gangster, Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson), a lot of money.

With impeccable pacing, Perrier's Bounty follows Michael during two whirlwind nights in the city. On the first night, he confronts his ailing dad, takes a swing at Seamus at the pub, seeks a loan for his debts, burgles a home, participates in blackmail and is implicated in the accidental murder of one of the crime lord's goons. For his deeds, a ten-thousand-euro bounty is placed upon the heads of him, Brenda and Jim. The twenty-four hours that follow are a veritable game of cat and mouse, with a trail of mishaps and mayhem left across Dublin as Perrier's gang closes in. Michael's fight to save his skin is complicated when he is forced to confront his emotions toward the eccentric Jim, who washes down coffee grounds with cold water, and Brenda, who is morose to the point of being suicidal after getting dumped by Seamus.”

I was surprised by just how much violence you can comfortably get away with as long as you keep the audience laughing, but what really struck me about this movie was how different it played having come from an Irish writer (Mark O'Rowe) and director than it would've from American or British ones. The Irish sensibility/wit renders this film brashly charming—charming with liberal use of expletives and blunt implements to the kneecaps. There's also something about it that seems humble at the core where an American or British film would've appeared arrogant and without half as much as heart. I think in large part this is due to the relationship between Michael and his rather eccentric father (played by Jim Broadbent in the film's most winning performance) who is convinced, for reasons that have nothing to do with the bounty, that he'll die the next time he falls asleep, but there's a sort of rough warmth between the F-words and batterings/shootings that makes itself felt throughout the script.

You can read notes from the Q & A here. While Ian FitzGibbon said the film will have quite wide distribution in Ireland and the UK, unfortunately it doesn't yet have North American distribution. I'm hoping that changes as I think it could make a big splash in North America given the opportunity.

Some YouTube footage from the Q & A:

You can also watch lead Cillian Murphy discuss Perrier's Bounty on the Tribute.ca site.

On Saturday morning we headed up north to spend the weekend with some friends. Saturday was a gorgeous day to be out on Georgian Bay and we hung out on the water for several hours, enjoying the scenery and fresh lake air. The calendar may say September but I would've sworn it was August (except for a few stray trees already showing off their fall colours).

Glorious, right? I couldn't ask for anything more from a weekend!

Summer came late this year but I'm glad we're seeing lots of sunshine lately. I'm all for a sunny September...and a sunny October...and, well, it'd be perfectly fine with me if we had this gorgeous weather all year round with maybe just a month of cold and snow in December. Because I think we can always use some of the fluffy stuff around Christmas to really get in the spirit of things.

Speaking of things that happen annually, it seems Canadians are staring election season in the face again. Most countries like to skip a couple years in between federal elections but not us and I'm beginning to wonder, now that this has become a yearly event for us, whether we should combine election day with October Thanksgiving festivities to jazz things up a little. Wouldn't going to your local polling station be more fun if they'd offer you a free ham or turkey or maybe a warm slice of apple crumble?

Our loveable leader Steve-o could gain a leg up on the competition by recording versions of current hit songs like I Know You Want Me and I'm Yours and handing out his CDs free along with the pie etc.

I mean, the lyrics kind of fit, don't they? There's his total disregard for the function the press should be permitted to serve in a democracy and for other people's rights in general:

“Baby, I don't care, I don't care, what they say”
—I Know You Want Me

And just today I saw in the paper that Stephen Harper told his party's faithful he believes a majority government “is in reach.”

“Nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention
I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some.”—I'm Yours

Damn, Steve-o! Seems like it's always your turn to win some (what happened to the learn some?). I'm starting to think that it's because you lack charisma to such an astounding degree that whenever your name's mentioned or your image appears, folks simply stop paying attention. This would explain your apparent impunity. A hearty percentage of the electorate are too bored with you to want to hear about the latest wrongs you and your party have committed.

But wouldn't it be cool to have someone in power (at least until next year!) that we wouldn't have to ignore, someone we might be able to have a modicum of respect for, someone who might even give a shit if we were being held against our will in a foreign country. I'm just saying...

In other news, this feminist re-imagining of Twilight — Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed is popping up around the Internet and it kicks ass.

Some other things that kick ass lately: Courtney Summer's has unveiled the cover for her new book Some Girls Are. It looks fabulous (just looking at it makes me feel antsy) and you can enter to win an advance reader copy at Courtney's site (draw date is the 14th).

Also, David Yoo, author of Girls For Breakfast and Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before has a terrific Writers Against Racism post over at the School Library Journal blog. I think Stop Me would make a great movie. Would love to see the roundabout scene and all those sweet sequences between Albert and Mia at the inn (and no, I don't mean that) played out on the big screen. Think about picking up the book if you haven't read it already.

We had to hit the CNE one last time to make the most of the last day in August —and because we'd previously missed daredevil Joseph D. Bauer's Wheel of Thrills act, which, let me tell you, is really something to see. If you're going to the Ex this weekend before it closes make sure to catch his act.

And say hello to my bear pals for me

and munch on some 'food' that would make your dentist cringe.

Here's Joseph D. Bauer walking and running (sometimes skipping rope and blindfolded!) inside and outside of a 45 foot long wheel that rotates 360 degrees on a beam. No harness! Just an impeccable sense of balance. Truly amazing.

Like hanging out at the Ex on the last day of August isn't nostalgia-inducing enough (summer, please don't leave us!) on its own, some band just off the midway was playing the Green Day tune Time of Your Life as we were on our way out.