On Bullying and Being Failed
Have y’all seen the recent discussions on bullying? People have made some astonishing contributions to the discussion: Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project*; Marianne of The Rotund’s amazing post It Gets Different; Seanan McGuire’s heartbreaking examination of her own experiences; Kate Harding’s post pointing out that kids and young adults who bully are not “good kids” and do not deserve the protection and excusing they often receive from adult defenders [fair warning: cursing]. Then there are the Broadway stars gathered for this song: A lot of the...
read moreWriter Fuel
This week I took a picture of dinner every night, and now I show them to you. THIS SUSTAINS THE WRITER BRAIN.
read moreThe sad tale of my osteopath’s duck
“Every time you talk about what you do I feel like, WOW, I’m talking to a celebrity,” he said, poking at my spine. I considered the glamour of my writing life, which includes wearing pajamas until forced to leave the house, and the physical traumas that encouraged me to visit him and his magic neck manipulations in the first place, and said, “But I’m really not.” “But you’re being asked to go and talk to all these schoolkids about what you do.” “Oh, but they’re made to do it,” I said. “I’m glad to be there,...
read moreBringing It On
The excellent women at The Book Smugglers asked me to round out their five week Young Adult Appreciation Month. ANA AND THEA: “We would like you to write about awesome female characters in YA fiction.” ME: “You know, I have an awful lot to say about that topic!” So I did. The post features eleven must-read books with excellent young ladies, my girlcrush on Teal Sherer, a question as to why “strong female characters” are still considered some sort of remarkable feat, my thoughts on prizing many kinds of strength, a link to this excellent vid on awesome women...
read moreLocal Customs
Yesterday I celebrated the cute American holiday of Independence Day, which takes place every July 4th. Robyn and Jimmy don’t have an American flag at home, because they are unpatriotic! So I grew one in a jar. I realise that most of my readers will be entirely ignorant of this holiday, which receives little world-wide press compared to more dramatic July events like St Ulrich’s day or Umi no Hi, so I have done some research and will now present: The True Story of Independence Day A long time ago, the American demi-god George Washington saw that his people were oppressed...
read morePrivileged Person Problems
ROBYN: Please don’t bite me while I’m using tools. ME: I haven’t bitten you in AGES. It has recently been borne into me that maybe people don’t normally get hungry like I do? Like maybe for normal people it goes something like this: Stage 1: Not hungry. Stage 2: Little bit hungry. Stage 3: Starting to think about a sandwich. Stage 4: But I could probably hold out until dinner. Stage 5: Mmm, a satisfying meal for which I had a healthy appetite! For me, it goes like this: Stage 1: Not hungry. Stage 2: Would claw the face off a toddler for a hamburger. So when normal...
read moreAbout Karen
Karen Healey is a young adult novelist. She is the author of the urban fantasies GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD and THE SHATTERING, both set in New Zealand, and the forthcoming sci-fi adventure WHEN WE WAKE. GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD won the 2010 Aurealis Award for Best YA Novel and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award. Karen can tell you a lot about baking, covers of "Hallelujah" and superhero comics.
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