Showing posts with label #weneeddiversebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #weneeddiversebooks. Show all posts

Saturday, May 21, 2022

What the World Needs Now: Empathy by Barbara Binns

 

In " What the World Needs Now: Empathy", first published December 10th, 2014, YA and Middle Grade Author Barbara Binns presents the importance of being able to see things from another person's vantage point, and how reading diverse fiction helps children develop empathy. (File this one under "Educate/Inspire")

Hi everyone! I am YA and Middle Grade author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 


This month I'm blogging about the E-word.

This is that season, you know, the one were everyone shouts about peace on earth and good will toward men. I have to think about another word. Empathy. You know, that ability to see things from another point of view. To understand and at least temporarily share someone else's feelings, even if that someone else is outwardly very different from yourself.

I have a quote from Purple heart recipient Charlene Lauderdale, a retired master sergeant in the United States Air Force. She was also born with both female and male anatomy. After living most of her life as a man, she is now legally a woman faced with all the challenges the transition represents. Instead of the walk a mile in someone else's shoes cliche, I will use her words:
You never know until you step up to the plate and swing at the ball coming at you.
See, it's not about feeling sympathy or approval. It's about understanding.

Two weeks ago at my adult Sunday School class, the subject of Ferguson Missouri and the Michael Brown came up. One member of the group made a statement saying he could never understand how anyone could ever try to hit a police officer for any reason.

Never understand.

I'm not going to pretend I know the right or wrong or the final truth about anything that has happened or is happening in this arena.  But I know that anyone content to relax and say "I'll never understand" and let that be the end of things, lacks the ability--or the desire--to even consider the possibility that another individual might look at the world and see something outside their own vantage point. 

Not long ago I saw a call from a teacher looking for books for her elementary class she could use to help teach them empathy. My answer: get any book about anyone who is different from them, who lives a life different from theirs in terms of social class, race, ethnicity, and physical location. Hand them books that show these characters face the kinds of challenges her kids can understand. Let her readers walk through those books wearing the character's shoes so they also see his or her motives, issues, thoughts, goals and emotions. See their sorrows and their triumphs. Become someone different from themselves, at least for the time it takes to get through that book.

A good book can be the perfect empathy training ground.  The march 2013 issue of the Rotarian included an article called The Truth About Fiction. In that article, cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley is quoted as saying:
…reading more fiction enables you to understand other people better.  Fiction is about exploring a range of circumstances and interactions and characters you’re likely to meet.  Fiction is not a description of ordinary life; it’s a simulation. ...fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations...

Inside the pages your mind can occupy another space, another body. You can see the world through different eyes. Unfortunately, too many of us read books about people who are like ourselves.  I don't mean that we're all beautiful heroines or navy seal heroes. But a load of the books we read are about people who are basically like the reader. White, middle class or wealthy, primarily suburban. As a result - little or no empathy is required or promoted during the reading of that book, and opportunities are lost. WNDB was born for various reasons. Partly by authors and concerned members of the publishing industry who saw how many children's books featuring a protagonist outside the typical "universal" background could not find a publisher. That included fantasy and speculative fiction,  aliens and yetis were more plentiful than kids of color, kids who lived in poverty, or people who existed outside the US, Canada, England or the UK. Don't even ask about non-christian kids or the handicapped.  

I believe that books featuring Heroes or Heroines from all places and walks of life can have stories that bring something to enrich us all. That characters who are neither rich nor middle class can share their form of the universal story with readers, and in the process, enhance the readers' lives. Those books can teach readers they do not have to condone an individual's actions, but that understanding is the path toward a better future.

That's why I write diverse books. It's also why I teach a class for writers who want to write about people who are different from themselves.  It's not an easy task. If done wrong, the author can do more harm than good, promoting stereotypes that negate the need for empathy because the reader Ends up feeling, "Everyone knows that's how those people are."  And people from the group can feel victimized when seeing themselves portrayed as a caricature.  The class is for authors who want to do the work needed to do a good job understanding and portraying someone else. And, in the process, developing more than a little empathy themselves.

Learn more at Diverse Writing

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Black Lives Matter and a Runaway President by Lynn Lovegreen

I was going to write about my favorite children’s book (The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf) per our monthly theme, but this is more urgent today. I apologize for getting political on this usually light blog. Please feel free to skip if you're not interested.

My husband and I rented an RV and left town for our anniversary last week. That meant that I heard snatches of news here and there, but didn’t know all of what was going on until we got home. Then the onslaught of recent events hit us. While we’ve had a lot to concern us for some time, now it is even worse. This blog post is my humble attempt to respond to it all in a thoughtful way.

First, the obvious. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are only two of the latest hateful murders in a long line going back hundreds of years. Discrimination and violence against African Americans must end. Black Lives Matter. #BLM. Some of us have been saying this (or at least retweeting it) for several years. It is still true, and always has been. I am repulsed and sick at heart to see that police brutality is still occurring against black individuals. I keep thinking, What’s wrong with those horrible murderers? Why haven’t we been able to get rid of this great cancer in our society? I wish I had easy answers to my questions, or many more I could ask. 

While we’ve made some progress over the decades, it’s obviously not enough. We have far to go. And we can’t afford to wait any longer. Black adults deserve to live in peace. Black kids deserve a chance to grow up without fear. It will take all of us, black individuals and allies—not just young protestors or families experiencing violence—to turn things around.

As a white cis het middle-class able person, I live in privilege and do not experience what my black neighbors do. As an ally, I know that my first step is to listen, to hear what black people are saying, and sit with them as they tell their stories. I can follow their lead and help where I can, whether financially through donations, or speaking out in writing, or walking with them in protests, whatever I can contribute. I can also spotlight black authors and boost their signals on my social media—and of course buy and read their books.  That’s another way to listen. What comes later, I’m not sure yet, but I know that if I listen, I will learn how to move forward. We must act to change our systemic racism.

The second thing that horrifies me is our runaway president. There have been issues since his first day in office three and a half years ago. Many powerful leaders, including some members of Congress, have let the president do whatever he wants with barely any reproach. It’s been four months since he was acquitted by the U. S. Senate. That emboldened him to become even more belligerent. He ordered U. S. Park Police to clear a legal demonstration in a public park, for a photo op. He threatened to set federal military forces against their fellow Americans. And that’s just two items in a long list of divisive, unconstitutional acts against his own people. His actions are getting more authoritarian every day. What scares me most is how little resistance he received. If things keep going in this direction, we won’t have any power to use against him. All of us must speak out now while we still can—on social media, in conversation, in journalism, whatever platforms we have. And we must stand together and support each other. 

The United States of America can become “of the people, by the people, for the people.” But only with our participation.

P.S. The COVID-19 virus is still among us. I worry about a spike in cases. If you choose to protest in person, please wear a mask, keep as much social distance as you can, and wash your hands ASAP. It would be an ironic tragedy if people die from the pandemic from protesting others’ deaths.

This blog post first appeared on Lynn Lovegreen’s blog, www.lynnlovegreen.com.

Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for over fifty years. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult historical fiction is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

COMING SOON TO RTG - DECADES: A JOURNEY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ROMANCE

 by Sarah Raplee


I'm so excited to announce that Romancing the Genres blog is once again trying something new in the coming year! We have partnered with Patricia Sargeant, the author in charge of publicity for the twelve-book, year-long, multi-author, Historical Romance series, Decades: A Journey of African-American Romance, to support this epic project. Beginning in December, the First Tuesday of each month will feature a blog post about an author and their book in the series.

According to series creator Wayne Adrian Jordan, years ago Harlequin published a twelve-book series titled A Century of American Romance. Each book was a love story set in the 20th century told against a background that focused on events in a different decade. Not one of the books featured a black hero or heroine.

In response to this oversight, award-winning, multi-published author Wayne Adrian Jordan wanted to publlish a similar project, a love story set in each decade that also looked at the black experience. He pitched the idea to a few publishers but none of them were interested.

While attending the 2016 Romance Slam Jam conference, Wayne asked a few authors whose work he admired if they would be interested in working on this Historical Romance series. Every author wanted to participate.
The result is Decades: A Journey of African American Romance. On January 1, 2018, the series begins with the publication of A Delicate Affair by Lindsay Evans, set in the early nineteen-hundreds.

2018 Decades Journey release dates are:

Lindsay Evans: 1900s, A Delicate Affair, January

Kaia Danielle: 1910s, A Secret Desire, February

Sheryl Lister: 1920s, Love’s Serenade, March

Suzette Harrison: 1930s, The Art of Love, April

Kianna Alexander: 1940s, Love’s Sweet Melody, May

Carla Buchanan: 1950s, Pride and Passion, June

Wayne Adrian Jordan: 1960s, Promise Me a Dream, July

Keith Thomas Walker: 1970s, Election Day, August

Elle Wright: 1980s, Made to Hold You, September

Zuri Day: 1990s, Thug Love, October

Denise Jeffries: 2000s, Inconsequential Circumstances, November

Patricia Sargeant: 2010s, Campaign for Her Heart, December

Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 16, 2017!!!
You are all invited to a Facebook Event celebrating the holiday season and the launch of the historical romance series, Decades: A Journey of African American Romance.  

Meet the authors on Facebook! (Times are EST - subtract 3 hrs for PST)

11 am to 12 pm: Lindsay Evans
12 pm to 1 pm: Kaia Danielle
1-2 pm: Sheryl Lister
2-3 pm: Suzette Harrison
3-4 pm: Kianna Alexander
4-5 pm: Carla Buchanan
5-6 pm: Wayne Adrian Jordan
6-7 pm: Keith Thomas Walker
7-8 pm: Elle Wright
8-9 pm: Zuri Day
9-10 pm: Denise Jeffries
10-11 pm: Patricia Sargeant

Like the Facebook page, Decades: A Journey of African American Romance, to join their journey.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Night Owl Reviews’ – The Melting Pot by C. Morgan Kennedy

Highlighting Diverse Books 
Let me begin by thanking the ladies at Romancing the Genres for asking me to guest post about my book review column. I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity to discuss a topic near and dear to my heart: DIVERSITY.

Two years ago, I had lunch with Tammie King – the tour de force behind Night Owl Reviews. At some point during lunch, she asked me if I would like to take over the diversity column for her free monthly e-magazine. The original column was focused on diverse romance and was almost exclusively African-American-centric romance – which was fabulous. My only ‘problem’ was that, even though I am a romance author working towards publication, my taste in books extended beyond romance.

Tammie and I had some conversations about how I wanted to expand the scope of the column, change the name, and focus on a broader definition of diversity….and thus, The Melting Pot: Stories with Diversity and Multiculturalism was born.

My column has showcased books that feature Cuban, Mexican, African-American, LGBTQ, plus size, Asian, interracial, and other-abled characters. Note that I am focusing on characters and diverse stories… the authors aren’t necessarily members of minority populations. We live in a diverse world and I would like to see more stories that reflect that diversity. I want to see authors move beyond the stereotypes and tell stories that include a rich tapestry of characters with depth and emotion. Yes, I read for an escape, but I also enjoy learning more about new perspectives and hidden histories.

No matter the genre (I read just about everything), I’m always on the hunt for well written stories with amazing casts of characters. Every December, I post a selection of diverse children’s books, too. If you have any recommendations of great authors or books, please leave a comment or reach out to me via Facebook, Twitter, or my website / email. I’d love to hear from you.

C. MORGAN KENNEDY
About C. Morgan Kennedy:
I have a confession to make. I’m a time traveler. I love flinging myself into the future, then hurtling fast to an alternative past. In my usual time-space-dimension, I’m a mechanical engineer and business woman. So, I have a natural penchant for hover cars and steam or aether powered engines. I was born in the wrong era, I’m actually a child of the sixties – 1860, 1960, 2060.

Steampunker, futurist, blerd, artist, contemporary author, and marketing maven…a real creative force of nature – that’s me in a nutshell.

Keep tabs on my adventures via my blog, Morgan’s Mix Tape, on my website: http://www.cmorgankennedy.com.



Monday, August 29, 2016

Five Tips for Writing Diverse Worlds & Characters by C. Morgan Kennedy

We live in a diverse world full of people from different backgrounds and lush cultures with varied abilities. Yet many of the stories written today often do not reflect this diversity. I’m not just calling out authors of contemporary fiction… many, if not most, historical authors overlook the presence of historically accurate diversity.

How should you approach writing diverse characters who are members of groups and cultures other than your own?
Here are FIVE tips for writing diverse worlds and characters:
  1. Do your research – Don’t rely on stereotypes. Read books written by authors from cultures you want to include. Specifically seek out books that reflect their cultural experiences. And, of course, first person research is the best…meaning talk to people.
  2. Write the story – Just like with any project, you can get bogged down in the research phase and never actually put words on the page. No words on the page means there is nothing to edit. Write. The. Story. Then…
  3. Use a sensitivity reader – Ok – let’s rewind a bit….what is a sensitivity reader? A sensitivity reader is a member of the group you are trying to represent who reads your work to help you ‘get it right.’ They are NOT a line or story editor, but they do provide input on character situations, reactions, and generally make sure your depictions are accurate and culturally sensitive. In short, they try to keep you from putting your proverbial foot in your mouth. Some publishers have sensitivity readers on staff. I’ve helped out a few author friends and friends of friends by doing sensitivity reads for African-American characters.
    Reach out to your writer friends and ask for recommendations for this type of help. Time is money, so be prepared to pay. Depending on word count, a sensitivity read can cost less than $100 - $200 or more USD.
  4. Find and use diverse alpha and beta readers – Especially if you are self-publishing your work, another set of eyes (or several sets of eyes) is always a good idea. Just make sure that the readers you select are representative of the world and characters you’ve written.
  5. Don’t be afraid, be sensitive – Some authors are so afraid of ‘getting it wrong,’ they avoid including diverse characters. I get it…social media hasn’t been kind to authors of some of the more outrageous and insensitive stories that have been hits lately. If you follow the points I’ve listed, you will avoid most – if not all – the pitfalls some authors have fallen into. Don’t make any assumptions about a different cultural group. Instead write the story and ask for input with an open mind and an open heart.

By being more inclusive, you will create more detailed and richer worlds for your audience. Plus, who knows, you may just find some new readers along the way.

C. MORGAN KENNEDY
About C. Morgan Kennedy:
I have a confession to make. I’m a time traveler. I love flinging myself into the future, then hurtling fast to an alternative past.

In my usual time-space-dimension, I’m a mechanical engineer and business woman. So, I have a natural penchant for hover cars and steam or aether powered engines. I was born in the wrong era, I’m actually a child of the sixties – 1860, 1960, 2060.

Steampunker, futurist, blerd, artist, contemporary author, and marketing maven…a real creative force of nature – that’s me in a nutshell.

Keep tabs on my adventures via my blog, Morgan’s Mix Tape, on my website: http://www.cmorgankennedy.com.


Friday, July 8, 2016

AWESOME Hunting Outlander and Favorite Scottish Hottie Giveaways coming on July 15th!

It's not too late to participate! You can take part in one or both event activities. 
OFFICIAL OUTLANDER STARZ
MAGNETS

For the Hunting Outlander scavenger hunt, at least one name will be drawn each day to win a large Official Outlander Starz magnet.

Michelle Monkou's Guest Authors are donating additional items.

K.M. Jackson - $10 Amazon gift card

LaShaunda Hoffman - an autograph copy of Building Online Relationships: One Reader At A Time and a 45 minute Virtual Tea Session w/ her for a fellow author

Tanya Michaels - three paperbacks (and she acknowledged the int’l possibility)

Shelia Goss - complimentary ebook of Rules of Love.

Eden Butler - a $5 gift card and 2 signed paperbacks of Thin Love.

Xio Axelrod - ebook of The Calum

Laura Kaye and Stephanie Dray - eBook

There will be one overall giveaway for Favorite Scottish Hotties.
AWESOME SHIRT FOR
FAVORITE SCOTTISH HOTTIES!


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Kids and Writing Conferences

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month is a "you pick it" topic so I've decided to use it to delve into a little personal history.
 
I attend a number of conferences each year, some aimed at readers, others at authors, and even those for professional librarians and educators. In a few months I will be on my way to St. Louis to attend the 9th annual conference of African American librarians.  Then it's on to Peoria, Illinois, not once but twice, to moderate a panel at the Illinois Reading Council and to give a presentation on finding diverse books at the Illinois Library Association.

But that's the future. For this month's blog post I'm turning the clock back to 2013 and a conference I spoke at in Kennar, Louisiana, Romance Slam Jam.
Smashwords seminar
Booksigning

The conference covered four days of fun and informative events that included spectacular new Orleans cooking, an awesome high school brass band, a well-attended booksigning, and events that included a seminar from Smashwords founder Mark Coker.

The conference included a special activity for young readers and aspiring authors. Several area schools and libraries sent teens to an author meet-and-greet on Saturday. As the author of three YA novels, Pull, Being God, and Minority of One, I was one of four African American YA authors invited to talk to the young people. 

As a YA author, it is always a joy to see a room filled with teens, some had never heard of or  seen an African-American author in person. It was inspiring to see these young people, hear their comments about reading, and to be pummeled by questions from aspiring young writers. The event grounded me and helped me remember why I write YA fiction. It was all about enthusiasm, hearing honest questions and seeing their delight once they got over the novelty of meeting actual published authors of color. You could tell some of them had not fully believed authors who looked like them really existed.

These are kids that many publishers claim don't read, yet they scrambled for books and then stood in line to get those autographed. Four of the young people were assigned to interview me, and I was pummeled with questions about the writing life. Two argued over who would get to introduce me and share what they had uncovered to the rest of the group. The winner had been one of the quietest girls in the room, but she stood next to me with pride as she introduced me and my work on getting more diversity in YA and children's fiction.

When it was time for general questions, several attendees pulled out actual lists they brought with them.  One was impatient when she was interrupted for the scheduled prize raffle drawing, she wanted to keep going on her list. The event lasted two hours and the adult chaperones finally had to pull the kids away to get them back on their bus to go back to their home libraries.

Kids of Color are absolutely hungry for books about them, and for authors who look like them.  I have been writing for years and have been to several writers conferences, conferences for educators and librarians, and many schools.  This was the first time I looked into a room full of young faces and felt like a true role model.

I have not let it be the last.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Where the Heart Is

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month the topic is charity and giving.

We dream about people who are totally altruistic, but the reality is that all too often, charity begins at home, and then stays there. Fortunately, we don't all have the same definition of home. For me, home really is where my heart is. When I give, it's because my heart is involved.

When I was a child I was the picture of real altruism. Or maybe I was just tired of having to eat everything on my plate because my mother always recited the plight of the starving children on the other side of the world. I began sending my allowance to CARE (http://www.care.org/) at an early age. My motive may have been suspect, but I felt good that even my small amounts were helping some unknown kid on the other side of the ocean get their own plate to clear.

During my childhood, my family spent a time being homeless. Today I donate both money and volunteer time to Journey From Pads to Hope, http://www.journeystheroadhome.org/landing/ an organization that provides services to the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless in suburban Cook County. My church is part of a network providing shelter to homeless men and women one night a week during the fall and winter, and I have volunteered to help serve food and care for participants.

My daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at fourteen. As a result, I discovered a kinship with other parents dealing in similar situations. For me, giving to organizations that help families dealing with this almost invisible crisis ranks up there with giving at home.

These days I find that my giving journey has moved in a giant circle. When I was in my twenties I gave to Alzheimer’s organizations. I worried about the possibility of facing that problem in my own future and wanted to give money for research. Now that I’m getting older, I find I’m at the other end of the giving spectrum. My primary charities involve giving to help families of children who have birth defects.

And, I am proud to say that my daughter has begun on her own charity course. She was involved in several church sponsored crop walks to fight hunger during her teen years. And this even though I was careful to never force her to clear her plate or call on the ghosts of starving children across the globe. She figured out the need for herself.


My giving involves more than just money. Being retired means I have time, and having time means I can volunteer. Right now I have volunteered to be a mentor to a young summer intern in the publishing industry. (I think I have her believing my input is valuable!!) Mostly it about giving her business advice, a subject my years as a manager have taught me well.

I also give time to children's literature. I don't just write, I give my time and knowledge to to teachers, libraries, and librarians across the country where I talk with professionals about ways to reach out to young reluctant readers and start them on the paths of reading, a path that will enhance their future.

 I am also giving time to and whatever expertise I possess to WeNeedDiverseBooks (http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/), a group working to increase the number, variety, and quality of books featuring diverse characters, locations and situations. One of my current roles involves helping with the group's first diversity festival. This festival is scheduled for July 2016 and will occur near DC. My role is to organize workshops, demonstrations and other activities for child and teen attendees. A year seems like a long time, but it's an entire conference so I need to finish this and get back into volunteer mode, picking speakers and performers for the big day.

You see, charity may begin at home, but HOME is as much the concepts I care about as it is my physical location. Yes, we must take care of ourselves and our families. But sometimes home includes people whose problems and suffering mirror our own. I don’t give to random charities, not even when they give me the spiel about the needy people. But I have suffered problems in my life, and I find my heart opening when the charity involves a pain I know something about.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

I'll Take Mine Spicy

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month It's all about spice!

Over the weekend I visited a Sikh religious service. A group of people from my church, Methodist, accepted an invitation to attend a service at a nearby Sikh house of worship.


We attended their worship service with a guide who spoke at length about the Sikh religion. The Sikh traditions include a community meal at the end of service called the Langar. This Langar or free kitchen is a practice that goes back 500 years to the religion's early days. It was initiated by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. (FYI Guru means teacher, Sikh means disciple or student).



The Langar is designed to uphold the principle of equality between all people of the world. Rich eat beside poor, and people of any caste are welcome. People sit on the floor, except chairs are provided for those of us with bad knees. To be inclusive of members who cannot eat beef, or pork, or any meat, the meals are vegetarian.

They also contain very little spice.

I'm not trying to be a spoilsport. I enjoyed the company and the meal. We had soup, beans and rice, homemade yoghurt, and a sweat pudding. But a little more spice would have pleased my palate, probably proving I am spoiled.

I tend to try spoiling my readers. I have just wrapped up teaching my four week online course, Adding the Spice of Diversity to Your Writing. In there I try to show authors how they can do the same by adding to manuscripts that frequently contain all-white, all able-bodied, middle class or wealthy, heterosexual people who rarely if ever even mention religion. Some authors and publishers see this as being universal.

It can also be a little bland.

I use the spice metaphor in my class title for a reason. Food is fuel. But it is also a social lubricant.
Food brings people together, just as it did with the Christians and Sikhs at the Langar on Sunday as we broke bread sitting on the floor (or in a chair). I see that 500-year-old tradition as being ahead of its time as a means for promoting harmony. But spice adds color and flavor to a meal...and to a story. That's why I see the lack of diversity in many books, especially children's and young adult books, as being behind the times. The CCBC statistics for 2014 show that still only about 10% of children's books feature prominent characters of color. The stats for LGBT+ and disabled characters are even smaller. More than thirty percent of US children are Kids of Color. This rises to 50% if you look at the baby set. Add in an estimated 4% of LGBT+, and people with some physical, emotional, or mental disability, and you may be able to see why I can't consider bland as something to be desired, at least not in the world of books.

I was recently invited to be a member of the WeNeedDiverseBooks™ team. All of us feel honored by the recent announcement that School Library Journal has named our organization one of the named 2015 Movers & Shakers. As SLJ put it, "Movers see the future and bring it to life." I'm proud to be part of WNDB, a change agent, and a spice bringer.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/03/people/movers-shakers-2015/the-reveal-announcing-ljs-2015-movers-shakers/


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

#KwameRules

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month I'm dishing out inspiration.

On Saturday and Sunday I was privileged to be at the SCBWI winter conference.Yes, it was February in New York and the weather was atrocious. But inside the hotel things were warm, people mingled, and Kwame Alexander gave a speech entitled Dancing Naked On The Floor - How To Say Yes To The Writerly Life.

In case you don't know, Kwame Alexander just won the Newberry Medal for his novel in verse, The Crossover. And I do mean just won, the award was announced the Monday before his Sunday speech.
The SCBWI committee invited him to speak at this conference long ago, and therefore we were the privileged group who saw him  make his first speech post award. He mounted the podium in a new, berry-colored suit. His Newberry suit, he proudly announced.

He kept the audience captivated with details of his agonizing wait for the 6 am call the committee made to the winner, unable to sleep, barely able to think. He turned on TV shows he couldn't remember, eventually giving up and going to bed at seven, certain he'd lost. Just as his wife was comforting him on the loss, the phone rang.

He'd forgotten all about the time zone difference!

When he spoke he was simply awesome, inspiring, riveting...he is a poet after all. He started out writing love poems. He recited a few he used to woo his wife and that generated the kind of feelings 50 Shades only wishes it could. (She is one lucky woman.)


I could have listened to Kwame all night even though the words were meant for someone else. For those of us who write romance, consider creating a silver-tongued poetic hero. I'll be standing in line for the release of that book. Yes, I like sports figures, six pack abs and bottomless wallets. But give us a truly heartfelt poem or ballad... But for me, move over, Mr. Grey. I want a man with a Golden Voice who can woo me with the beauty of his words.


Kwame shared his philosophy of always saying "YES" to opportunity.
  • YES when offered a job reading poetry to kids in an alternative school (talk about the blackboard jungle)
  • YES to reciting poetry to a church congregation. The minister didn't know Kwame specialized in love poems. he was appalled, the church women demanded more.
  • Most of all, he said YES when asked to write for children.
The Crossover is one of many results of that decision. Kwame spoke eloquently about the years of effort that went into that book.  He listened when editors told him it needed something more, even when they could not tell him exactly what that elusive something was. He even hired a writing coach to work with him for almost a year on the book stating that he didn't pay her nearly enough for all the work she did with him. In the end he knew he had something awesome and was preparing to self-publish if necessary. Then, a publisher said YES.

Audience members spent the time tweeting his pearls of wisdom, sending the hashtag #KWAMERULES viral.  His philosophy about saying YES, and the need for a community of people around you who will tell you the truth, even (maybe especially) when you don't want to hear it.

There were other speakers during the weekend. We had Q/A sessions with panels of Publishers, and
then Agents. I attended a late-night get-together of LGBTQ writers, illustrators and interested parties. We were treated to a talk by Kami Garcia, co-author of Beautiful Creatures who spoke on The Truth About Writing and reminded us that sometimes you have to write for yourself, not for what you think the market wants.  If she had been worried about the market Beautiful Creatures would never have happened. Instead, she took a dare from teenagers and created a book left her with emails from kids who told her the characters reminded them they weren't the only people who ever felt alone

 Even though I'm not a picture book writer or illustrator, I enjoyed the presentation by Herve Tullet on his joy at writing for young children. We ended the conference with a surprise cheer-up talk by Henry Winkler, actor, director and children's book author reminding us why we write and hope to inspire readers.


My favorite quote from the weekend conference: This writing life is not just about sitting in your room with your pencil & paper. It's about going out in the world. #kwamerules

I would love to hear any comments or words of wisdom that have helped you in any endeavor.  Leave  a comment, share with the world.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Welcome 2015

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month we're looking at the new year.

So many things are happening in the world and my life.   I could talk about the way the Global Warming and the way the weather continues to change, only not for the better. Or about the political situation and the new Illinois Governor who apparently forgot that "raise your right hands" means the real right, not the left. I could do the state of the economy, extremist threats, any of a dozen things that are going wrong.

Instead, I'll blog about something personal.

In less than two months I will be a Grandma!! How's that for earth shattering?  The girl who never wanted to live past 50 (seriously, at 13 I made a vow to die before 50 first because old people were so decrepit and useless they probably all wished they were dead anyway. At 49 1/2 I almost went crazy from fear of a self-fulfilling prophecy) will now be a social security collecting Grandma.  Of course, my younger sister has a grandchild who just won a college scholarship, so I'm actually a little slow.
Mother & Child

We know my grandchild will be a girl. Unless she chooses to enter the world early she will be a Pisces, like me. I thought I could wait forever for this day. My daughter has some issues, and I was perfectly happy to have her delay motherhood while she struggled to mature and find herself. Now I can't wait for the kid to get old enough so I can sit her on my lap and show her the naked baby pictures I took of her mother.

This also means I have to go shopping for books. Twenty-six years ago when my daughter was born, I had a quest to make sure she had plenty of diverse books to read.  I got started early, because those books were hard to find, seldom published and marketing departments did not know what to do with them when they were published. If you wanted one it was up to you to search.  So search I did, and I amassed a collection of books with Black, Hispanic and even disabled kids (and that last was a HUGE challenge).  Those books entertained my daughter, and later my niece, the one headed for college. BTW - that one still calls me "Beloved Aunt Barbara." Not because of the books, she wasn't always happy about getting books for presents. It's because I started training her before she could talk. Her mother laughed at me but she still knows what to call me.

And now I begin the cycle again. It does feel wrong to find that, a quarter century later, finding a supply of diverse books still needs a long hard search. Big publishers still put out a paltry number, and their marketing departments still don't know how to market them. Instead they still claim "those people don't read" as their excuse for not being able to reach out to the marketplace.  As one of those people, I guarantee we, and our children, do read.  We're just not all that satisfied with what the big publishers put out.  As an adult I long ago tired of romance books where heroes extolled the virtues of women with alabaster skin. (I actually informed an editor of this once and she seemed didn't seem to understand that have only alabaster skinned heroines considered beautiful could be a problem for any reader.) I don't remember everything I thought about the book selection when I was a child, those days are lost in fuzzy pre-history, but I know I got tired of the white on the pages then too. My mission is to make sure that my grandkid never gets the feeling that books are not for her. I want her to read voraciously, no matter what big publisher marketing departments claim. I want her to see people of every race and ethnicity in her books, people with physical disabilities and from a variety of cultures. There may be a few fairies and leprechauns and aliens there too, but mostly I want her to see her world and her place in that world. So my quest for diverse kids books has already begun, even before she enters the world.

I don't have much time. By this time next year I'll have her on my lap, reading her stories. I want those stories to reflect the world she sees around her, just as I want my adult reads to reflect today's world.  I will be at both the American Library Association meeting later this month in Chicago, and as SCBWI in  February, on the lookout for diverse books and authors. I was recently thrilled to recieve and accept an invitation to join the We Need Diverse Books team at http://weneeddiversebooks.org.


CONTEST RESULTS


As part of my December post I held a contest to let a lucky reader of one of my blogs win a free spot on Adding the Spice of Diversity to Your Writing, an online writing class that begins in February. I call it adding the spice because spice doesn't change an entree, it enhances things. Diversity is a choice that allows the same plot and and adds a little something extra for readers.

The winner of the free spot was Patricia M. You can see the results here.
 Contest results

Patricia has been contacted and will be enrolled in the class for February. 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

What the world needs now: Empathy

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month I'm blogging about the E-word.

This is that season, you know the one were everyone shouts about peace on earth and good will toward men. I have to think about another word. Empathy. You know, that ability to see things from another point of view. To understand and at least temporarily share someone else's feelings, even if that someone else is outwardly very different from yourself.

I have a quote from Purple heart recipient Charlene Lauderdale, a retired master sergeant in the United States Air Force. She was also born with both female and male anatomy. After living most of her life as a man, she is now legally a woman faced with all the challenges the transition represents. Instead of the walk a mile in someone else's shoes cliche, I will use her words:
You never know until you step up to the plate and swing at the ball coming at you.
See, it's not about feeling sympathy or approval. It's about understanding.

Two weeks ago at my adult Sunday School class, the subject of Ferguson Missouri and the Michael Brown came up. One member of the group made a statement saying he could never understand how anyone could ever try to hit a police officer for any reason.

Never understand.

I'm not going to pretend I know the right or wrong or the final truth about anything that has happened or is happening in this arena.  But I know that anyone content to relax and say "I'll never understand" and let that be the end of things, lacks the ability--or the desire--to even consider the possibility that another individual might look at the world and see something outside their own vantage point. 

Not long ago I saw a call from a teacher looking for books for her elementary class she could use to help teach them empathy. My answer: get any book about anyone who is different from them, who lives a life different from theirs in terms of social class, race, ethnicity, and physical location. Hand them books that show these characters face the kinds of challenges her kids can understand. Let her readers walk through those books wearing the character's shoes so they also see his or her motives, issues, thoughts, goals and emotions. See their sorrows and their triumphs. Become someone different from themselves, at least for the time it takes to get through that book.

A good book can be the perfect empathy training ground.  The march 2013 issue of the Rotarian included an article called The Truth About Fiction. In that article, cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley is quoted as saying:
…reading more fiction enables you to understand other people better.  Fiction is about exploring a range of circumstances and interactions and characters you’re likely to meet.  Fiction is not a description of ordinary life; it’s a simulation. ...fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations...

Inside the pages your mind can occupy another space, another body. You can see the world through different eyes. Unfortunately, too many of us read books about people who are like ourselves.  I don't mean that we're all beautiful heroines or navy seal heroes. But a load of the books we read are about people who are basically like the reader. White, middle class or wealthy, primarily suburban. As a result - little or no empathy is required or promoted during the reading of that book, and opportunities are lost. WNDB was born for various reasons. Partly by authors and concerned members of the publishing industry who saw how many children's books featuring a protagonist outside the typical "universal" background could not find a publisher. That included fantasy and speculative fiction,  aliens and yetis were more plentiful than kids of color, kids who lived in poverty, or people who existed outside the US, Canada, England or the UK. Don't even ask about non-christian kids or the handicapped.  

I believe that books featuring Heroes or Heroines from all places and walks of life can have stories that bring something to enrich us all. That characters who are neither rich nor middle class can share their form of the universal story with readers, and in the process, enhance the readers' lives. Those books can teach readers they do not have to condone an individual's actions, but that understanding is the path toward a better future.

That's why I write diverse books. It's also why I teach a class for writers who want to write about people who are different from themselves.  It's not an easy task. If done wrong, the author can do more harm than good, promoting stereotypes that negate the need for empathy because the reader Ends up feeling, "Everyone knows that's how those people are."  And people from the group can feel victimized when seeing themselves portrayed as a caricature.  The class is for authors who want to do the work needed to do a good job understanding and portraying someone else. And, in the process, developing more than a little empathy themselves.

I want to thank you for reading this long-winded blog post.  I do so by holding a contest. If you've done a Rafflecopter contest before you know how easy it is.  If not, just check out he box below. Each option has a point value. You can comment or like or tweet for chances to win. The prize is a free spot in the next Adding The Spice Of Diversity To Your Writing class being held in February, 2015. And, if February is not right for you, I have a second class coming in June 2015 you can select instead.

Information on the class is available at the YARWA website. This is the Young Adult chapter of the Romance Writer's of America, the organization sponsoring the February session.  Simply enter the rafflecopter contest below. There are multiple chances and ways to win, staring by making a comment about your feelings on Empathy on this blog. The contest runs until the second Wednesday in January when I will announce the winner on my monthly blog post.


Click here to enter contest for a free spot in Adding The Spice Of Diversity To Your Writing class

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Problem Tropes and Sterotypes

Hi everyone!
I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. This month I join the other Genre-Istas in talking about romance tropes.




Last month I conducted a class for writer's seeking to add the Spice of Diversity to their writing.  One of the big lessons was on problem tropes. Of course, there is always the Too Stupid To Live blonde, or the Red-head who Just Isn't Like The Other Girls. The ones most romance writer's know to keep away from.  If they don't know it, their readers, or lack of readers, will clue them in fast.

Our class looked at a few others that sometimes creep in when writers try to add characters that aren't like themselves. The results of these tropes can be stereotypical characters that may be considered caricatures of a group.


Most writers are out to increase their reader base - the members of the class were no exception, many noted that as a prime reason for wanting to include diversity in their manuscripts.

It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Selfie. Instead of your typical Asian Nerd Who Can't Get A Girl trope, this new romantic comedy will follow the trope embodied by My Fair Lady where a girl who wants to belong (via social media) engages the help of an expert (marketing guru) and the interracial couple end up falling for each other. So far it looks smart, it looks sexy, romantic, and oh, so funny.


The Asian Nerd is only one of the tropes we learned to avoid. There is also the Asexual Cripple trope where the writer makes the mistake of forgetting that people with disabilities are still people with feelings, urges and needs, as well as a desire for an HEA. In The Drowned Cities, the biracial heroine is missing a hand - amputated by enemy soldiers in this war-torn futuristic Earth.  But she's still very real, and grows to be interested in the equally real hero who can't decide what side she's really on.

Another problem trope some writers accidentally fall into is the Wise-cracking Minority Best Friend where the hero or heroine has a minority friend who is there solely to provide comic relief and never gets to have any of the romance.  I partly spoofed this trope by combining it with the Red-head best friend trope in my second book, Being God. Here my African-American hero has a white, red-headed best friend. I make Cesare Russo easy-going, but not wise-cracking, and instead of comic relief he and the hero get into and out of danger together as they both travel romantic arcs in search of romance - at least as much romance as you can have as seniors in high school.

There's nothing wrong with tropes. They make a wonderful background to use when taking readers (or viewers) along for a ride. No matter what trope you use, it's only as good as the writing.  When we writers use them, we need to stay alert. Use all tropes wisely and remember to jazz up that trope up for the modern world and modern reader.  Then we succeed in both pleasing our current audiences AND bringing in new ones.


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Passing Of A Giant

Hi everyone!
I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 



Life keeps intervening in my posts for Romancing The Genres, or in this case death. This month the theme is writing collaborations which I thought timely because I am on the lookout for a writing partner.  Two heads being better than one, I would love the opportunity to work with another writer and see how/if my writing would go if I were part of a collaborative team. Partnerships sometimes move mountains. That's why I am on the lookout for a critique partner. 

I have just started writing a series of YA paranormal novellas about The Vessels, a group of  Black, Latino, and bi-racial heroes and heroines called upon to fulfill an agreement their souls entered into before they were born and give their lives to save the world from a demon invasion.  I wrote a small piece of flash fiction I called Final Choice that introduces readers to one Vessel (he doesn't know what he is yet). Final Choice was recently published in the summer edition of a local journal, the Arlington Almanac (Click here to read the story. ) It's only seven hundred words (this publisher is serious about word count) digested down from a four thousand word short story that gives you a lot more about Juvon's background and some of the demons he will have to face.

Click for Obituary

But last week one of my inspirations passed away. Walter Dean Myers. That changed the rest of what I was going to write in this post. 

He wrote more than 100 books for children of all ages, with two Newbery Honor Books, three National Book Award Finalists, and six Coretta Scott King Award/Honor-winning books. He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.


At a time when people in the publishing industry may finally be hearing the message that #weneeddiversebooks the loss is a reminder that too few authors of color have ever been allowed on the center stage. His loss leaves a huge hole.  He was the go-to guy for all too many schools and librarians.  
Need a book for a black boy reader? Get him something by Walter Dean Myers. Oh, he’s already read that author's books and would like to see another well-written, quality book where he can find himself mirrored on the page? Sorry, no one else comes to mind.
Yes, I am being a little facetious, but only a little.  Try asking your local children's or teen librarian about black authors and see just how few they can think of much less have on their shelves for their kids to find.
I corresponded with some librarians over the holiday weekend who loudly proclaimed what a gem he had been. There would never be another one like him, they all said. I hope they are wrong. In fact, I’m sure of it.  Because if there is no one to take up the slack, what happens to the kids? Is it really true that the entire race could only produce one great children's author? Or is it just that the other authors labor in obscurity? Authors out there who are not afraid to write for this audience because “those books don’t sell” or “those kids don’t read,” and who are bypassed by publishers and the gatekeepers of children's lit and never seen or known. The thing I liked most about his books was that they didn't look down, or up, to anyone. They were all about relationships, parent and child, best friends, worst enemies. Characters who weren't the villains they looked like at first, and characters struggling to overcome villains.  Especially about building friendships and relationships between people who might not seem to have anything in common,  like Darius & Twig the most recent Myers book I read about the friendship between the kid who wants to be a writer someday (So I have to love him) and the kid on the way to a scholarship in track if he can get by the unscrupulous sports agent in his path.

In a few months I will be giving two workshops at a librarian convention.  One will be on ways to build up multicultural collections, including books that will provide both windows and mirrors for a variety of young readers. The second will focus on many of the invisible books by African-American authors.  I usually start that talk out by telling attendees there is one author whose name I should not even have to mention.  I will be giving him high tribute in October at the OELMA conference during both talks.

This man would have been number one on my list of collaboration partners.  Or maybe I would have just looked over his shoulder and watched him work, hoping to absorb some of his skill. Plotting, characterization, setting, he was a nimble craftsman who sucked you in and made you care about the story unfolding on the page. Both eager and reluctant readers were drawn to his words. And I know I am going to miss the joy of opening his future books. But I know there are other voices out there, and hope to see many authors building on his legacy.

PS, I'm still on the lookout for that critique partner.