Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I LOVED this book. I attended a launch luncheon with Chris Bohjalian a couple years ago, and it's been on my to-read shelf ever since. I finally read it, and it's spectacular. It brings to life a little-known black mark on the history of mankind: The Armenian Genocide at the beginning of World War I. The way Bohjalian weaves his characters together in connections and twists makes the story unforgettable and heartbreaking. His prose is consistently beautiful, and this is my favorite of his books so far. I'm going to seek out the others.




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Medusa Tells All: Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing

Yesterday, a box of books arrived on my porch, covered with a light dusting of snow.

Very exciting moment in an author's life to open the box of complimentary brand-new copies and hold the baby in your hands for the first time.

Check it out:


You can buy it here...

OR go directly to Capstone Books for young readers:
Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing at Capstone Books for Young Readers

Thanks to my editor and friend, Jill Kalz, you can enter promo code 6027 at checkout and get 30% off plus free shipping.

Kobus van Wyk

Today--well, Thursday in South Africa--marks the funeral for one of the most amazing people I have had the privilege to know personally.

This is the last photo taken of a gentle giant of a man who changed his world, and changed our world.


Kobus van Wyk, we will NEVER forget you.

This was Kobus van Wyk, talking to our American students from SCC and MSU, explaining the need for a change in housing development to end the legacy of apartheid in South African Townships. In spite of the chair blocking the view, I like this picture because his passion shows so clearly. He spoke quietly but with a gentle force you couldn't ignore. We all fell in love with him.

Kobus had spent the last twenty years building the Human Settlement Development Management Degree program at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. This week, the program launches its first group of students.  His dream is becoming reality.

His legacy will live on.

Happy news and poetry to make you laugh from Richard Meyer

My friend Richard Meyer, who taught Humanities in high school to both my kids (and they adore him), retired a few years ago and has immersed himself in one of his primary passions: poetry. He's getting quite a pile of publications, and here are two of his most recent ones.

I sat at the kitchen table, reading them, belly laughing all by myself. Freya wondered what was so funny. So I read them to her.

Richard Meyer's poems in the Journal "Light" (Can't italicize in a link here)

Read them and smile!

Another snow day....or rather another snowy day

Freya carries in a blanket of snow. I try to grab her with a big towel before she shakes.

Writing this morning before school. Going to try to hop on the trainer for a bit, too.

Rafi and Maddie, the characters in the novel I'm working on, have me hooked and all I want to do is write, but then comes a little thing like school.
 
Rafi is a Muslim and Maddie has grown up in a conservative Christian home. They are both fighting the frac-sand minds, and they fall in love. They're smart, so of course they talk about their religions. I'm worried about too much "talkiness" sometimes, but I guess I will have to read the whole thing aloud and see. It's sort of pouring onto the page.
All I want to do is write. I already said that.

Yes, this is the novel where both kids go to St. Peter High School. 

I was higly insulted this morning...

When I woke, I saw what I thought was a mouse turd on my phone! On my night stand! I have a cat, that crazy Katniss, and besides, what ballsy mouse would dare make a deposit one and a half feet from my head during the night?

Well, I put on my glasses and picked up my phone. Turned out to be a Boxelder bug wing. Farsightedness sucks, but in this case, it was a relief.

January 20, MLK Day

A good day to remember how important it is to make sure everyone gets equal rights, equal opportunity, and equal chances.

Is that realistic? No, and the longer I live, the more I see that level playing fields aren't a reality. We can each do our best to make sure that we are not part of any system that perpetuates oppression, that students and any other people in our charge not only get a fair shake, but get encouragement and see what's possible. But we can't make sure that anyone gets a level playing field.

I had so much fun two Wednesdays ago (January 8) in Marshall, MN at the Southwest Cooperative Young Writers' Conference. Students were eager and engaged. Freya and I had fun meeting students and spending the day talking about writing.

Then I wonder...how many of those eager young writers will publish the books they want to? Will working long hours, piles of other responsibilities, the need to keep bread on the table, keep them from realizing their dreams? Maybe, but some will reach their dreams, and having a dream is as important than being successful in many, many ways.

I'm a big Downton Abbey fan. I don't watch live TV much at all, but I've caught up to season four on Netflix and Amazon Prime. It reminds me of the sharp divide of class. We pride ourselves that in the U.S., such classism doesn't exist, but that's a lie. If we think we have no such class divides in the U.S., we are living with our heads in the sand.

Look at what money can do without regard for its effects: Fracking destroys property, health, animals, and long-standing family ranches or farms because big oil and gas companies have the money to do so.  Frac-Sand mining is doing the same thing in Minnesota and Wisconsin because Fracking is such a big industry that the silica sand miners can get what they want, take the property or make it worthless, mine the silica, sell it for billions, no matter how many people the company tromps all over in order to do so.

Lime Township has been up in arms for most of two years, battling the new Jordan Sands processing plant and mines. What's happened? The entire township full of citizens can't stop the power of a big wealthy company with the potential to make billions more.

Class? Money? Yeah, my friends, I'm afriad it's everywhere.
This could be very depressing, and if we let it, it is. However, the fact remains that we have to each do everything we can, to chase our dreams and to make the world as just and safe as possible. To fight injustice and the greedy destruction of our planet however we can.

If we don't, then we are living with our heads in the sand.