Celebrity, shmebrity. Okay, OKAY, Jamie Lee Curtis writes some decent children’s books. However, I still maintain that celebrity authors suck up all the air in the room. Book number seven’s probably great. Probably fabulous. Look how quickly she heard from her editor. Look how fast the newest one hit the bookstores. It’s probably wonderful, marvelous. But still. Okay, I just read The Jealousy Book last night. I’m over it. Ignore the green eyes.
Sister Mary Wookie Explains It All. Via Bookshelves of Doom, author Maureen Johnson, author of the upcoming YA novel, Devilish, has an hysterical piece on her blog that ties in to the book. From her Protestant-in-a-Catholic-school upbringing, Maureen Johnson learned so much. About wasps. About… the solar system... About life. Or some facsimile thereof. I imagine Sister Mary Wookie has a new illustration, now that Pluto isn’t even a planet anymore…
Um, what, Chris? From the cover blurbs from author Laura Ruby’s newly released novel Good Girls, a quote: “You can’t write an authentic book about adolescence without including sex and sexuality, and Laura Ruby does a masterful job.” —Chris Crutcher, author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Um. Really? You can’t write an authentic book about adolescence without including sex and sexuality? Honestly? I appreciate the sentiment praising the book, but is the rest of that statement really true? As I tend to be at this point, waiting to hear something from S.A.M. or the editor we’re working with, I am questioning the nature of the world and the unfolding of the universe… and I want to ask, “Oh, is that what’s wrong with my book? I just need to include sexuality and sex, and it’ll be 
authentic? Then editors will knock on my door and actually return my agent’s phone calls? Hm??? Forgive me, Mr. Crutcher. I’m being snarky. But if I include sex/sexuality in my work, my books will be awkward, hackneyed and awful…much like the adolescent me, I’m afraid! Maybe I’m just not comfortable enough with my sexuality to be authentic. I admire authors like you and e. lockhart, Nick Earles, Tanya Lee Stone, and even Meg Cabot who can effortlessly segue first kisses and first flirts and first… other stuff into their work, but that’s just not me. Am I then doomed to a life of inauthenticity? Or, maybe, can I just be authentic for ME!? Can we agree that not everyone’s adolescence includes acknowledging sexuality? Maybe if we had a definition of the sexuality in adolescence with which we’re supposed to be conversant?
Sigh.
Speaking of my books, I’m hoping that a friend won’t have the same J.K. Rowling experience… he’s printed out one of my manuscripts and is bringing it with him to read on a plane. As he has been bugging me and bugging me to read one of my novels, it would serve him right to be stopped by airport security! However, even if he is flying out of SFO… on the way to Nebraska? This is not going to happen. But still.
All right, to work.
Happy Wednesday, people.
Chris is a psychologist, dear. He’s professionally obsessed with it, talks about it all day long, probably has “dialogue” with his “partner” about their “experiences.” He’s going to think/talk/write about sex. That’s why he’s a shrink. It’s a prerequisite.
And I’m dying to know which book & which friend … and why the heck they’re going to Nebraska!
“Or, maybe, can I just be authentic for ME!? Can we agree that not everyone’s adolescence includes acknowledging sexuality?”
Definitely! Even if everyone’s adolesence included acknowledging sexuality I don’t see why every YA book should. That’s like saying because we’re all sexual beings all fiction, movies, etc should include sex and sexuality. There are other things to focus on.
Or maybe I’m just being inauthentic in my thoughts?? How to tell?
May I tell you, C.K., that you have THE COOLEST SITE EVER!? Thank you for dropping by!!!
I look forward to reading more of your inauthentic thoughts – and some of your cool looking books, especially the graphic novel! 😉