{"id":1053,"date":"2012-01-23T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1053"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:35:10","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:35:10","slug":"monday-randomness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1053","title":{"rendered":"Monday Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After spending much of the weekend reading Plato&#8217;s <i>Republic<\/i>, I find my brain has decided to retreat into a tiny corner of my skull and refuses to work any more. And, I&#8217;m again pondering blog-related what&#8217;s-the-point-itis and rethinking what I want to do in my blogging life. So&#8230;here are a few links for your amusement while I return to normal. Enjoy.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you&#8217;re interested in writing for educational publishers and live in&#8230;er&#8230;Central California, there&#8217;s a seminar by writer Christine Peterson on March 3rd in Bakersfield. Why Bakersfield? I dunno. I liked the sound of it until I saw it would be a 3-hour drive (each way), so I am unlikely to attend, but for those who live a little closer, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scbwicencal.org\/events\/3.3.2012.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">this link<\/a>. For those of you on the opposite side of the country, in April our blog bud Mitali Perkins is leading a Highlights workshop on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.highlightsfoundation.org\/content\/creating-authentic-cultural-voice\" target=\"_blank\">Creating an Authentic Cultural Voice<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>Also, in an e-mail to the Kidlitosphere Yahoo Group, author Martha Brockenbrough says: &#8220;YALSA reached out to authors, asking us to sign a petition that asks for  school libraries for every child in America. They are in need of almost  15,000 more signatures. If you feel so inclined, might you write a blog post about what school  libraries meant to you, to your kids, or to kids you know?&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/zHr7Ce\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s the petition<\/a>&#8211;they still need signatures, but I agree with Martha that a heartfelt blog post might also be in order. I know I spent a ton of time in the school library, not just browsing books, but studying and being a tutor. (Weirdly, I was a chemistry tutor. Go figure.) My middle school library was where I first checked out and read Ursula LeGuin&#8217;s <i>A Wizard of Earthsea<\/i>. I even remember the two librarians there: Mrs. DeLeon, who was the mom of a girl in my class, and Mrs. Y, who had a long and unpronounceable last name. As an adult and as a writer I&#8217;ve had some amazing school library experiences, too, talking to kids in book clubs and creative writing clubs and just regular kids. I can&#8217;t imagine a world without school libraries. If you feel the same, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwws.whitehouse.gov\/petitions\/%21\/petition\/ensure-every-child-america-has-access-effective-school-library-program\/\" target=\"_blank\">go sign the petition<\/a>! And if you write a blog post, <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/zHr7Ce\" target=\"_blank\">let Martha know<\/a> for her roundup.<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, I&#8217;m proud to say that my advice, such as it is, has been included in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.katiedavis.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Davis<\/a>&#8216;s new e-book, <a href=\"http:\/\/katiedavis.com\/products\/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Promote Your Children&#8217;s Book<\/a>. Katie does the podcast <a href=\"http:\/\/brainburpsaboutbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brain Burps About Books<\/a> and her book is an amazing collection of first-hand marketing information from the likes of <a href=\"http:\/\/janeyolen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Our Jane<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cynthia Leitich Smith<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/liz-scanlon.livejournal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Liz Garton Scanlon<\/a>, and plenty of others. I know I&#8217;m going to find it useful, and I&#8217;m happy to give it a plug! <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After spending much of the weekend reading Plato&#8217;s Republic, I find my brain has decided to retreat into a tiny corner of my skull&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,60,18,99,10,86],"class_list":["post-1053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-book-news","tag-happenings","tag-libraries","tag-views","tag-web-wanderings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6922,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions\/6922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}