Shannon Hale @shannonhale - Tumblr Blog

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Yesterday I went to the SLC airport around 4pm. As soon as I came up the escalator, I heard cries, someone in agony calling out for help. There was a group of people standing around watching, not intervening, and I couldn’t see past them.

The yells were coming from right in front of the security line where I was headed, and as I walked closer, I could see there was a woman face down on the ground with four large plain-clothed men shoving her, holding her down. And the woman was screaming, “HELP ME! HELP ME!” And she pled for her child. I don’t think I would have known in advance what I would do in such a moment, but I hurried through the crowd and straight up to the commotion and asked an airport worker in uniform what was happening and why was no one helping her? They told me the men were ICE.

I began to shake. I wanted to help her. She was a mom, a woman, under assault, begging for help. Why couldn’t I help her? I think I said something like, “We need to help her!” A uniformed police officer looked back at me and stepped more directly between me and the woman under assault. His body language said he was standing guard and he was prepared to stop anyone who tried to intervene. All I could think to do was to take out my phone and film. If this was a kidnapping, technically currently “legal” or not, at least I could record her face so her family would know what happened. As I began filming, they pulled her up off the ground and started to drag her away. In the video, I hear myself yell out, “Have mercy! Have mercy on her! She’s a human being!”

They forced her out, and we all stood there and watched. I stopped recording. But I couldn’t catch my breath. Men had assaulted a woman in front of me, she had begged for help, and I hadn’t helped her. No one had. The airport had gone quiet. Words began to rip out of me, and I yelled them into the horrible calm. I think I said, “THIS IS CRUELTY! HOW CAN WE BEAR IT?” I may have said that more than once. I may have said other things. I can’t remember. Suddenly I was afraid that I would be arrested now, just as she had, maybe for “disturbing the peace” with my shouting. Later, this struck me as an intentional effect of their actions. This was a violent, traumatic nabbing, performed in public, and it did more harm than just against the woman they assaulted and took away. To a far lesser degree, it still affected all of is. The public display indeed felt like a threat intended to cow every one of us who saw it.

For those who might say, “She should have just complied” you might not have seen the news. People disappeared off the street. People with legal papers, even US citizens, taken away without being read their rights, sent to prisons without informing their families or lawyers, many who still have never been seen again. Their families work tirelessly to find them. Their lawyers try. But there is little to no transparency or accountability. For her, being taken away was a very real threat that she might never see her child again. She begged for her child. And they took her anyway.

There was one victim of this attack. This woman was ripped away perhaps for simply not having the correct paperwork (tho it does sound like she’s saying “I have papers!”). But I also want to note that about 25% of women have experienced violence at the hands of men. We watched four men rough her up, slam her to the ground, pin her down, and then force her away. Police stood by and did nothing. Other men stood by and did nothing. (Later one woman told me a man from the crowd voluntarily went in to help the alleged agents and hold the woman’s legs. I did not witness that part myself, but the idea chills me.) For so many women having experienced past violence and living under the threat of violence, witnessing this was a retraumatization. A show of very non-benevolent patriarchy. An implicit threat—see what we can do out in the open to this woman? Just imagine what we get away with in private to you.

I still stood there after she was gone. I found myself unable to move. I was shaking so hard. I put my hands over my face and sobbed. An airport employee—an older man—came up to me and spoke to me softly, kindly, asking how he could help. (I thought about how none of us did that for the woman.) He led me to a seat, he fetched me tissues. I felt so foolish. I didn’t want to make a scene or make this about me. But my body was having a very strong physiological response, and I couldn’t stop crying or trembling. I hadn’t helped her. No one had.

Another woman came over to me to check in. I could barely speak. She asked if she could give me a hug. After she left, a young woman came up to ask for a hug as well. And then another. Another. All these women who hadn’t yelled, perhaps didn’t feel like they could, were too afraid, cowed by the show of force, didn’t think their voices mattered—a million reasons and old wounds that affect our choices. But they were shaken. And they wanted to reach out to someone. They couldn’t reach out to the woman taken, so they reached out to me.

I got on my plane and was alone for the next several hours. I wondered where that woman was. If she heard me shout for her. It wasn’t enough, but I hope she did. I hope she felt that someone cared about her. That someone witnessed her with compassion. And I’m left to wonder, what would I do differently next time? How can I use whatever power I have to stand up for others?

Someone said to me (meaning well), “This is not who we are.” And yet, it is. Because we’re doing it. We can’t fix things if we don’t face them honestly. This is who we currently are. AND we can change. We can recognize the humanity of all humans, regardless of paperwork. We don’t have to comply in advance. We certainly don’t have to jump forward to hold down a woman’s legs while she’s pleading for her child and terrified for her life. We do not need to agree with or aid those men, often in masks and out of uniform, kidnapping people off the streets, shooting chemical weapons into crowds of peaceful protestors, breaking into apartment buildings in the middle of the night and zip tying children together before tossing them into unmarked vans. We can call our reps and demand change. We can donate to organizations who stand up for the voiceless. We can stand in the way. We can YELL!

I was raised as a Christian. The majority of this country identifies as Christian. The majority of those who voted for this current government identify as Christian. So I think the words of Jesus matter right now and deserve repeating.

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Do to others what you would have them do to you.”

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Please, let’s learn to love ourselves enough that we have the capacity to love others. Take care of yourself so we can care for others. You matter. And she matters. Her child matters. We all deserve love, compassion, empathy, respect, humanity, life. #SLC #ICE

#ICE

allosaurusfragilis

We’re Ready: a post for #kidlitwomen

I was presenting an assembly for kids grades 3-8 while on book tour for the third PRINCESS ACADEMY book.

Me: "So many teachers have told me the same thing. They say, 'When I told my students we were reading a book called PRINCESS ACADEMY, the girls said—'"

I gesture to the kids and wait. They anticipate what I'm expecting, and in unison, the girls scream, "YAY!"

Me: "'And the boys said—"

I gesture and wait. The boys know just what to do. They always do, no matter their age or the state they live in.

In unison, the boys shout, "BOOOOO!"

Me: "And then the teachers tell me that after reading the book, the boys like it as much or sometimes even more than the girls do."

Audible gasp. They weren't expecting that.

Me: "So it's not the story itself boys don't like, it's what?" The kids shout, "The name! The title!"

Me: "And why don't they like the title?"

As usual, kids call out, "Princess!"

But this time, a smallish 3rd grade boy on the first row, who I find out later is named Logan, shouts at me, "Because it's GIRLY!"

The way Logan said "girly"…so much hatred from someone so small. So much distain. This is my 200-300th assembly, I've asked these same questions dozens of times with the same answers, but the way he says "girly" literally makes me take a step back. I am briefly speechless, chilled by his hostility.

Then I pull it together and continue as I usually do.

"Boys, I have to ask you a question. Why are you so afraid of princesses? Did a princess steal your dog? Did a princess kidnap your parents? Does a princess live under your bed and sneak out at night to try to suck your eyeballs out of your skull?"

The kids laugh and shout "No!" and laugh some more. We talk about how girls get to read any book they want but some people try to tell boys that they can only read half the books. I say that this isn't fair. I can see that they're thinking about it in their own way.

But little Logan is skeptical. He's sure he knows why boys won't read a book about a princess. Because a princess is a girl—a girl to the extreme. And girls are bad. Shameful. A boy should be embarrassed to read a book about a girl. To care about a girl. To empathize with a girl.

Where did Logan learn that? What does believing that do to him? And how will that belief affect all the girls and women he will deal with for the rest of his life?

At the end of my presentation, I read aloud the first few chapters of THE PRINCESS IN BLACK. After, Logan was the only boy who stayed behind while I signed books. He didn't have a book for me to sign, he had a question, but he didn't want to ask me in front of others. He waited till everyone but a couple of adults had left. Then, trembling with nervousness, he whispered in my ear, "Do you have a copy of that black princess book?"

He wanted to know what happened next in her story. But he was ashamed to want to know.

Who did this to him? How will this affect how he feels about himself? How will this affect how he treats fellow humans his entire life?

We already know that misogyny is toxic and damaging to women and girls, but often we assume it doesn't harm boys or men a lick. We think we're asking them to go against their best interest in the name of fairness or love. But that hatred, that animosity, that fear in little Logan, that isn't in his best interest. The oppressor is always damaged by believing and treating others as less than fully human. Always. Nobody wins. Everybody loses.

We humans have a peculiar tendency to assume either/or scenarios despite all logic. Obviously it's NOT "either men matter OR women do." It's NOT "we can give boys books about boys OR books about girls." It's NOT "men are important to this industry OR women are."

It's not either/or. It's AND.

We can celebrate boys AND girls. We can read about boys AND girls. We can listen to women AND men. We can honor and respect women AND men. And And And. I know this seems obvious and simplistic, but how often have you assumed that a boy reader would only read a book about boys? I have. Have you preselected books for a boy and only offered him books about boys? I've done that in the past. And if not, I've caught myself and others kind of apologizing about it. "I think you'll enjoy this book EVEN THOUGH it's about a girl!" They hear that even though. They know what we mean. And they absorb it as truth.

I met little Logan at the same assembly where I noticed that all the 7th and 8th graders were girls. Later, a teacher told me that the administration only invited the middle school girls to my assembly. Because I'm a woman. I asked, and when they'd had a male author, all the kids were invited. Again reinforcing the falsehood that what men say is universally important but what women say only applies to girls.

One 8th grade boy was a big fan of one of my books and had wanted to come, so the teacher had gotten special permission for him to attend, but by then he was too embarrassed. Ashamed to want to hear a woman speak. Ashamed to care about the thoughts of a girl.

A few days later, I tweeted about how the school didn't invite the middle school boys. And to my surprise, twitter responded. Twitter was outraged. I was blown away. I've been talking about these issues for over a decade, and to be honest, after a while you feel like no one cares.

But for whatever reason, this time people were ready. I wrote a post explaining what happened, and tens of thousands of people read it. National media outlets interviewed me. People who hadn't thought about gendered reading before were talking, comparing notes, questioning what had seemed normal. Finally, finally, finally.

And that's the other thing that stood out to me about Logan—he was so ready to change. Eager for it. So open that he'd started the hour expressing disgust at all things "girly" and ended it by whispering an anxious hope to be a part of that story after all.

The girls are ready. Boy howdy, we've been ready for a painful long time. But the boys, they're ready too. Are you?

I've spoken with many groups about gendered reading in the last few years. Here are some things that I hear:

A librarian, introducing me before my presentation: "Girls, you're in for a real treat. You're going to love Shannon Hale's books. Boys, I expect you to behave anyway."

A book festival committee member: "Last week we met to choose a keynote speaker for next year. I suggested you, but another member said, 'What about the boys?' so we chose a male author instead."

A parent: "My son read your book and he ACTUALLY liked it!"

A teacher: "I never noticed before, but for read aloud I tend to choose books about boys because I assume those are the only books the boys will like."

A mom: "My son asked me to read him The Princess in Black, and I said, 'No, that's for your sister,' without even thinking about it."

A bookseller: "I've stopped asking people if they're shopping for a boy or a girl and instead asking them what kind of story the child likes."

Like the bookseller, when I do signings, I frequently ask each kid, "What kind of books do you like?" I hear what you'd expect: funny books, adventure stories, fantasy, graphic novels. I've never, ever, EVER had a kid say, "I only like books about boys." Adults are the ones with the weird bias. We're the ones with the hangups, because we were raised to believe thinking that way is normal. And we pass it along to the kids in sometimes overt ("Put that back! That's a girl book!") but usually in subtle ways we barely notice ourselves.

But we are ready now. We're ready to notice and to analyze. We're ready to be thoughtful. We're ready for change. The girls are ready, the boys are ready, the non-binary kids are ready. The parents, librarians, booksellers, authors, readers are ready. Time's up. Let's make a change.

#kidlitwomen

maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20

I’ve decided to tell you guys a story about piracy.

I didn’t think I had much to add to the piracy commentary I made yesterday, but after seeing some of the replies to it, I decided it’s time for this story.

Here are a few things we should get clear before I go on:

1) This is a U.S. centered discussion. Not because I value my non U.S. readers any less, but because I am published with a U.S. publisher first, who then sells my rights elsewhere. This means that the fate of my books, good or bad, is largely decided on U.S. turf, through U.S. sales to readers and libraries.

2) This is not a conversation about whether or not artists deserve to get money for art, or whether or not you think I in particular, as a flawed human, deserve money. It is only about how piracy affects a book’s fate at the publishing house.

3) It is also not a conversation about book prices, or publishing costs, or what is a fair price for art, though it is worthwhile to remember that every copy of a blockbuster sold means that the publishing house can publish new and niche voices. Publishing can’t afford to publish the new and midlist voices without the James Pattersons selling well.

It is only about two statements that I saw go by:

1) piracy doesn’t hurt publishing.

2) someone who pirates the book was never going to buy it anyway, so it’s not a lost sale.

Now, with those statements in mind, here’s the story.

It’s the story of a novel called The Raven King, the fourth installment in a planned four book series. All three of its predecessors hit the bestseller list. Book three, however, faltered in strange ways. The print copies sold just as well as before, landing it on the list, but the e-copies dropped precipitously.

Now, series are a strange and dangerous thing in publishing. They’re usually games of diminishing returns, for logical reasons: folks buy the first book, like it, maybe buy the second, lose interest. The number of folks who try the first will always be more than the number of folks who make it to the third or fourth. Sometimes this change in numbers is so extreme that publishers cancel the rest of the series, which you may have experienced as a reader — beginning a series only to have the release date of the next book get pushed off and pushed off again before it merely dies quietly in a corner somewhere by the flies.

So I expected to see a sales drop in book three, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but as my readers are historically evenly split across the formats, I expected it to see the cut balanced across both formats. This was absolutely not true. Where were all the e-readers going? Articles online had headlines like PEOPLE NO LONGER ENJOY READING EBOOKS IT SEEMS.

Really?

There was another new phenomenon with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, too — one that started before it was published. Like many novels, it was available to early reviewers and booksellers in advanced form (ARCs: advanced reader copies). Traditionally these have been cheaply printed paperback versions of the book. Recently, e-ARCs have become common, available on locked sites from publishers.

BLLB’s e-arc escaped the site, made it to the internet, and began circulating busily among fans long before the book had even hit shelves. Piracy is a thing authors have been told to live with, it’s not hurting you, it’s like the mites in your pillow, and so I didn’t think too hard about it until I got that royalty statement with BLLB’s e-sales cut in half.

Strange, I thought. Particularly as it seemed on the internet and at my booming real-life book tours that interest in the Raven Cycle in general was growing, not shrinking. Meanwhile, floating about in the forums and on Tumblr as a creator, it was not difficult to see fans sharing the pdfs of the books back and forth. For awhile, I paid for a service that went through piracy sites and took down illegal pdfs, but it was pointless. There were too many. And as long as even one was left up, that was all that was needed for sharing.

I asked my publisher to make sure there were no e-ARCs available of book four, the Raven King, explaining that I felt piracy was a real issue with this series in a way it hadn’t been for any of my others. They replied with the old adage that piracy didn’t really do anything, but yes, they’d make sure there was no e-ARCs if that made me happy.

Then they told me that they were cutting the print run of The Raven King to less than half of the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. No hard feelings, understand, they told me, it’s just that the sales for Blue Lily didn’t justify printing any more copies. The series was in decline, they were so proud of me, it had 19 starred reviews from pro journals and was the most starred YA series ever written, but that just didn’t equal sales. They still loved me.

This, my friends, is a real world consequence.

This is also where people usually step in and say, but that’s not piracy’s fault. You just said series naturally declined, and you just were a victim of bad marketing or bad covers or readers just actually don’t like you that much.

Hold that thought.

I was intent on proving that piracy had affected the Raven Cycle, and so I began to work with one of my brothers on a plan. It was impossible to take down every illegal pdf; I’d already seen that. So we were going to do the opposite. We created a pdf of the Raven King. It was the same length as the real book, but it was just the first four chapters over and over again. At the end, my brother wrote a small note about the ways piracy hurt your favorite books. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hold the fort for long — real versions would slowly get passed around by hand through forum messaging — but I told my brother: I want to hold the fort for one week. Enough to prove that a point. Enough to show everyone that this is no longer 2004. This is the smart phone generation, and a pirated book sometimes is a lost sale.

Then, on midnight of my book release, my brother put it up everywhere on every pirate site. He uploaded dozens and dozens and dozens of these pdfs of The Raven King. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one of his pdfs. We sailed those epub seas with our own flag shredding the sky.

The effects were instant. The forums and sites exploded with bewildered activity. Fans asked if anyone had managed to find a link to a legit pdf. Dozens of posts appeared saying that since they hadn’t been able to find a pdf, they’d been forced to hit up Amazon and buy the book.

And we sold out of the first printing in two days.

Two days.

I was on tour for it, and the bookstores I went to didn’t have enough copies to sell to people coming, because online orders had emptied the warehouse. My publisher scrambled to print more, and then print more again. Print sales and e-sales became once more evenly matched.

Then the pdfs hit the forums and e-sales sagged and it was business as usual, but it didn’t matter: I’d proven the point. Piracy has consequences.

That’s the end of the story, but there’s an epilogue. I’m now writing three more books set in that world, books that I’m absolutely delighted to be able to write. They’re an absolute blast. My publisher bought this trilogy because the numbers on the previous series supported them buying more books in that world. But the numbers almost didn’t. Because even as I knew I had more readers than ever, on paper, the Raven Cycle was petering out.

The Ronan trilogy nearly didn’t exist because of piracy. And already I can see in the tags how Tumblr users are talking about how they intend to pirate book one of the new trilogy for any number of reasons, because I am terrible or because they would ‘rather die than pay for a book’. As an author, I can’t stop that. But pirating book one means that publishing cancels book two. This ain’t 2004 anymore. A pirated copy isn’t ‘good advertising’ or ‘great word of mouth’ or ‘not really a lost sale.’

That’s my long piracy story.

Pretty blue covers

#blue colorcovers

So many orange covers!

#orange #colorcovers

My #SDCC schedule!

THURSDAY

1:00 - 2:00 pm, Room 32AB

Panel: Stepping into Another World

Authors share the magic of books to transport young readers via words and pictures to new worlds, sometimes fantastic and exotic and very different from our own, and sometimes comfortingly close.

Panelists: Shannon Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities 6: Lodestar), Judd Winick (Hilo: The Great Big Boom), Dan Santat (After the Fall), Shannon Hale (Real Friends), Dean Hale (Princess in Black), Lisa McMann (Dragon Captives) Moderator: Lucas Turnbloom (Nightmare Escape: Dream Jumper, Book 1)

2:15 - 3:15 pm: Autograph-Area Signing #AA09

Signing with Shannon & Dean. Books sold by Mysterious Galaxy: Real Friends, Princess in Black, Squirrel Girl, plus the first time the repackaged Books of Bayern are for sale with their beautiful new covers!

6 -7 pm: Horton Grand Theater

Panel: Superhero Family Feud

Bestselling, award-winning, comic-loving authors Margaret Stohl (Black Widow, Captain Marvel), Rainbow Rowell (Fangirl, Runaways), Jason Reynolds (Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Ghost), Cecil Castellucci (Tin Star, The Plain Janes), Shannon and Dean Hale (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World), Ryan North (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl), Nick Lowe (Marvel Comics editor), and other special guests battle to the finish in this superhero-centric Family Feud -style game.

FRIDAY

Noon-1 pm: First Second/MCPG Booth #2802, 2800

Book signing for REAL FRIENDS, plus giveaway: bracelets & posters

SATURDAY

1:15-1:30 pm: Booth #2329/Marvel LIVE set/Marvel booth

Marvel Live interview with Lorraine Cink

3:30 - 4:30 pm: Room #8

Keepin’ It Real Panel

Graphic novels featuring realistic stories about kids are burning up the bestseller lists and winning awards. Join some of the hottest comics creators who are working in this genre to discuss why their work is connecting with readers both young and old.

Panelists: Jennifer & Matthew Holm (Swing It, Sunny), Victoria Jamieson (Roller Girl), Shannon Hale (Real Friends), Nidhi Chanani (Pashmina), and Tillie Walden (Spinning); Moderator: Meryl Jaffee

SUNDAY

11am-Noon: Room 25ABC

Panel: Capturing Teen Angst Panel

Panelists: Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, Erica Henderson, Victoria Jamieson, Marjorie Liu, Scott Westerfeld, Moderator: Mark Waid

Noon- 1 pm: Room 4

Spotlight on Shannon Hale & Dean Hale

1:15 – 2 pm: Autograph-Area Signing #AA20

Signing with Shannon and Dean, books sold by Mysterious Galaxy

Dear fellow white Christian writers,

Some of you have followed the discussion on #ownvoices: the focus on having writers who are part of marginalized groups telling the stories of characters from those groups. That the story will be inherently truer if the author has lived that experience. And that supporting marginalized authors is vital.

Some have pushed back against this idea.

"It doesn't matter who writes a story." "Telling me what I can and can't write is censorship." "We're all part of the human experience."

I want to offer some context for perhaps thinking about #ownvoices in a new way. Analogies are never perfect and can easily backfire, but hopefully this will be a beneficial exercise.

Despite the fact that 70% of the US identifies as Christian, no where near that percentage of book, TV, or movie characters are explicitly Christian. Of the ones that do call out their Christianity, they often fall into one of three categories:

1. Hypocrites who judge everyone and yet secretly are the worst sinners 2. Brainwashed chumps 3. Hateful bigots

This can make us feel a little sick to our stomachs. We think, is this how non-Christians see us? But this isn't me. This isn't my family and friends. We're way more complicated than these offensive stereotypes.

Since this has been our experience for years, how much confidence do we have in, say, a life-long atheist writing a book from the POV of a Christian character? Maybe they will get it right. Maybe the fact that they personally are and always have been atheist doesn't affect their ability to explore a Christian character in an open-hearted, respectful way. Odds are they know a lot of Christians personally, and maybe they have studied Christianity and have a favorable view of it even if they don't believe.

But do we feel confident that they could tell that story right? Have felt what we have felt as a Christian?

Take it further: imagine Christians aren't the majority in this country. Imagine we grew up as one of the only Christians in school. That there's never been a Christian president or governor or even mayor of your hometown. That Christian holidays fall on school days and work days with no time off. Imagine your kid is the only Christian most of their friends have ever met. Now imagine that the only books with Christian characters your child's schoolmates have ever read are ones written by atheists. And some get it right, and some really don't. Get facts wrong. Basics wrong. Tone wrong. Not only don't get at all the intricacies of personal faith but fall into hurtful stereotypes, perhaps without even meaning to. That when the schoolmates look at your child, they see the stereotype they read in books.

Imagine that there are Christian writers, but they can't sell their books. Non-Christian writers are seen as being more marketable, more universal, so more and more atheists write stories about what it means to be Christian, and Christian writers are overlooked.

Further. Imagine that this country has a long and troubled history of hatred toward Christians, of stripping us of our humanity. Of enslaving Christians. Of legal execution based solely on religion. Of putting Christians into institutions or trying to electrocute the religion out of us. Imagine that even today, millions of people in our country and prominent, powerful leaders actively campaign to keep us and other Christians from having the same civil rights as non-Christians. Imagine that important people on television and in government regularly claim that Christians are inherently more violent than non-Christians, that they believe dangerous things and are all potential murderers, terrorists, rapists. Imagine that nearly every day someone murders a Christian in this country not because of what they did but because of what they believe. Imagine that every morning when you send your child to school, you fear for their life.

Would that affect how we feel about trusting non-Christian authors to write books about us? Understand our complexities? Would we in those circumstances be more likely to champion #ownvoices?

But while I hope our personal experiences can help us empathize with marginalized people, we can never truly understand. In the US, Christianity is the vast majority belief system. Christmas is a national holiday. We pledge allegiance to "one nation under God." In this country, we are the Default. White, Christian (bonus if also cishet able-bodied…), we are the default character in every movie, every book. Even if the story doesn't specify "active Christian," because we are the default it is assumed unless the narrative reveals actually Jewish! or atheist! or Buddhist, etc. We don't have the experience of constantly being the Other. While I have (and odds are, so have you) experienced bigotry based on my religion many times, it's simply not the same as the systemic racism and bigotry that people from marginalized groups face every day. Of living in a country where you are Other.

Please know that I'm not telling you what to write. No one can. There's no divinely appointed committee somewhere that can grant or take away permission to write anything.

I personally have created characters from marginalized groups to which I don't belong because this world is diverse, and even in fiction (especially?) I want to tell the truth. (While I have had diverse characters in my stories, I haven't actually tried to write a diverse character's story, if that distinction makes sense.) Writing the Other is more time consuming and harder in every way, but I've tried because I felt it was important to the story and just in general. I've made mistakes, and getting called out on those mistakes is a gift that helps me get better. What I've learned: approach this with love, respect, and empathy. And listen, listen, listen. Read books by #ownvoices authors. And ask myself, am I the right person to tell this character's story? And am I doing enough to support marginalized writers and lift up their voices?

As Christians, we believe in the first great commandment: love one another, even as Jesus has loved us. Defensiveness is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. We instead try to be teachable, humble, non-judgmental. I'm so imperfect, but that's where I try to start.

#ownvoices christianity writing

Girls are frickin hysterical

Today FUNNY GIRL comes out, an anthology of funny stories by girls, for anyone. Here’s the book:

And here’s a photo of the broads who wrote the stories. Image by Amy Ignatow. I’m the one riding the green space narwhal.

And here’s a post I wrote in May 2015 about girls and humor:

Elizabeth Bird (librarian, author, blogger) asked me to contribute to her upcoming anthology FUNNY GIRL. For the announcement, she wanted me to write a sentence or two about being funny and being a girl and a writer or whatever, and yeah, I got carried away. Here’s the stuff I sent her that was obv too long for her announcement article.

While there are moments of humor in my first two books (Goose Girl & Enna Burning), no one would rightly call these comedies. When I was writing Princess Academy, I remember going to NYC for something and having a meeting with my editor and publicist. They'd read an early draft of Princess Academy. They both said, "We've been talking about how funny you are in person but how that doesn't come out in your books. Is there room for humor in this book? Is Miri funny?" And I thought, well, yeah, she is. She would totally use humor to defuse tension. So why hadn't I written that? The truth is I think I'd bought into the idea that "girls aren't funny." I heard that hundreds of times growing up. And again as adults, with regards to movies especially: "women aren't funny." I'd swallowed the party line without realizing it. But I was beginning to question it. Are we really not funny? Not as funny as the guys? Or do people assume we're not so don't notice when we are? The answer is clearly yes since I’m hysterical.

Ten of my twenty published books could be considered comedies, and yet I've never heard myself referred to as a comedic writer. TEN BOOKS. Never been invited on a humor book panel (those are for man writers). And the books that I co-write with my husband (Rapunzel's Revenge, Princess in Black) people always assume the funny parts are his. Hundreds of times people have pointed out parts that made them laugh and then asked, "Did Dean write that?" And most of the time, I had. Make no mistake, he is very funny and witty and clever. Too.

Here's a little story. Fifteen years ago when Dean and I were getting married, we made a wedding website. One night at a get together with our old group of friends:

Mike: "Dean, I loved your wedding website. It was really funny. I kept laughing out loud." Me: "Well, you know, he built the site but I wrote the content." Mike: nods "You typed it?" Me: "I wrote it." Mike: "You typed it up for him?" Me: "No. I wrote it." Mike: "You helped him write it?" Me: "No, I came up with the words and put them together in sentences and wrote them down." He was still so stumped. It took several more exchanges for him to get it. Later he returned. Mike: "I guess I've just always thought of Dean as the writer." Me: "I just received my MFA in Creative Writing." He returned later yet again. Mike: "I guess with couples, we're used to just thinking that one of them is the funny one." Me: "You and I were in an improv comedy troupe together."

Mike is a wonderful human being and open-minded and a feminist and we're still very close. And believe me, he's been teased about this mercilessly by all of us for over a decade. But this is how deep the "girls aren't funny" idea runs. Even when presented with direct evidence, so many people can't see it! They keep seeing what they've been taught to believe.

So why does it matter? Why do kids need to see/hear/read women being funny? And hear adults acknowledging that they are funny? Because stereotypes shut down possibilities. The "class clown" is a boy. The actually truly funny girls in class are just "obnoxious" or "attention-seekers." Boys who are funny are encouraged, laughed, cheered. Girls who are funny are told to behave, shush, sit down. Comedy is a gift to humanity. How sad and pointless life would be without good laughs. We need to see girls being funny, encourage them to develop their sense of humor, reward them for the cleverness and intelligence it takes to make jokes. They'll be happier, more fulfilled human beings. And so will we. The more comedy the better!

#girls humor funnygirl comedy

REAL FRIENDS book tour!

LeUyen Pham and I are about to hit the road to tour for our new graphic novel REAL FRIENDS, a memoir about the ups and downs of elementary school friendship. Are we touring near you?

TUESDAY, MAY 2 - SAN FRANCISCO, CA

4:00pm Launch Event @ Kepler’s Books Location: 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Contact: (650) 324-4321 Link: www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/2017/5/2/shannon-hale-and-leuyen-phan

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3 · DENVER, CO

12:15pm Public Meet n’ Greet @ Second Star to the Right Location: 4353 Tennyson St, Denver, CO 80212 Contact: (303) 455-1527 Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-shannon-hale-and-leuyen-pham-at-second-star-to-the-right-tickets-33634709321

THURSDAY, MAY 4 · WICHITA, KS

11:30am Ticketed Event: Lunch Meet n’ Greet Location: Watermark Books & Cafe, 4701 E. Douglas, Wichita, KS 67218 Contact: (316) 682-1181 Link: http://www.watermarkbooks.com/event/shannon-hale-leuyen-pham

SATURDAY, MAY 6 · ST. LOUIS, MO

4:00pm Public Event @ St. Louis County Library Location: St. Louis County Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Frontenac, MO 63131 Bookstore Contact: (314) 738-9384 Link: https://www.slcl.org/content/shannon-hale

SUNDAY, MAY 7 · ST. PAUL, MN

3:00pm Public Event @ Red Balloon Bookshop Location: 891 Grand Ave, St Paul, MN 55105 Contact: (651) 224-8320 Link: http://www.redballoonbookshop.com/event/shannon-hale-real-friends

FRIDAY, MAY 12 · TORONTO, CANADA

Toronto Comic Arts Festival - Library and Educator Day REGISTRATION REQUIRED: http://www.torontocomics.com/whats-happening/library-educator-day-2017/

11:15am Shannon Hale Presentation to Librarians/Educators Title: No Boys Allowed: The subtle ways we gender books and cut boys off from reading Location: Epic Room, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8

12:15pm Librarian/Educator Lunch Participants: Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham Location: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8

SATURDAY, MAY 13 · TORONTO, CANADA

Toronto Comic Arts Festival - Kids Programming Day (free and open to the public) MORE DETAILS: http://www.torontocomics.com/whats-happening/programming/

10:00am REAL FRIENDS Presentation @ TCAF Location: St. Paul’s Church, 227 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON M4W 1C8, Canada Participants: Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham Description: The dynamic duo of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham are teaming up again for the new book REAL FRIENDS! Join them as they explore the emotional roller coaster ride of friendship, from navigating the tricky waters of cliques and bullies to her never-ending struggle to stay in “The Group.” Come help kick of Kids Day!

11:00am REAL FRIENDS Book Signing @ TCAF (following presentation) Participants: Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham Location: St. Paul's Church, 227 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON M4W 1C8, Canada

12:00pm Draw-Along with LeUyen Pham Location: Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8 Participants: LeUyen Pham Description: Come and draw with LeUyen Pham (REAL FRIENDS)

12:15pm Prose to Comics/Comics to Prose PANEL @ TCAF Location: High Park Ballroom, Marriott Bloor-Yorkville, 90 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON M4W 1A7, Participants: Scott Westerfeld, Shannon Hale, Ryan North, Cecil Castellucci Description: The biggest names in YA books talk about how what they love about comics, the challenges of writing in a new medium, and if they think it'll change the way they connect with their audiences.

2:00pm First Second Booth Signing - REAL FRIENDS Location: First Second Booth @ TCAF, Toronto Reference Library Participants: Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham

SATURDAY, MAY 20 · SALT LAKE CITY, UT

5:00pm talk and signing @ The King’s English

and, 7:00pm talk and signing, in conversation with Megan Whalen Turner @ The King’s English Location: 1511 S 1500 E Salt Lake City, UT Contact: http://www.kingsenglish.com

#realfriends #graphicnovel #middlegrade

Book drive for school of robotics team champs!

Hey friends! Like me, many of you were horrified by this news report:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/03/17/robotics-competition-racism/99301384/?hootPostID=55f1203864224e186b5ee6d36938c0a1

We want to show love for this school and their outstanding robotics team in the form of a book drive. This is a Title 1 school with a very diverse population. Authors, you can sign books to Pleasant Run. Anyone else who can donate is much appreciated! Picture books, early readers, chapter books, and middle grade books most welcome, especially those written by and featuring people of color. Also early readers in Spanish would be a bonus as they have dual immersion language program for some kindergarten classes. Mail books to:

Pleasant Run Elementary

1800 N Franklin Rd

Indianapolis, IN 46219

If you have books more appropriate for middle or high school, this diverse district would love those too! Mail to :

Metro School District of Warren Township 975 N. Post Road Indianapolis, IN 46219 ATTN: Kathy Disney

Thank you! And congrats to the robotics team at Pleasant Run. You inspire us!

busy busy 2017

This year is a busy one for me career-wise. My breakdown:

Feb 7:

+ book tour Feb, March, and April. This middle grade novel is fun fun fun

May 2:

+ book tour, BookCon, & SDCC. This graphic novel is my heart.

July/August:

New covers for the Books of Bayern (wait till you see them in print--gorgeous!)

Fall will bring two more books: the 5th Princess in Black and a super secret middle grade novel that will make some of you very happy. Titles and covers TBA.

I’ll post tour schedules here as soon as they’re finalized. Thanks to my readers for allowing me to continue this crazy career. I’ll see you on the road!

insertatitlehere

We’re all Doreen Green

unbeatablesquirrelgirl

I do have several unsolicited opinions on gardening though

one woman’s decades of sexual harassment

(trigger warning)

I was speaking recently to a woman I’ve known for years about Trump and the conversation of sexual harassment and assault in the news. She’s worked for decades in several male-dominated industries and her experiences are harrowing. I asked if she’d write some down. She is a single mom and employment wasn’t optional for her, as it isn’t for millions of women. Sexual harassment isn’t just uncomfortable for women, it’s a kind of terrorism that keeps us feeling unsafe constantly as well as minimizes income and opportunities for us and our kids (which in turn, if you don’t care about the people themselves who are affected, also has a detrimental effect on the economy in general). And it’s important to understand that with 1 of 4 women in the US being raped in her lifetime, literally every woman I know has been raped or has a sister or close friend who has, so the terrorism of sexual harassment is the constant threat that “I can harass you, and I could do worse and you’re powerless.” This is how it feels.

Here are her words:

-----------------------------------------------

I wanted to follow up a bit on our conversation this week relative to the recent Donald Trump statements and the ongoing discussion about sexual assault. While it is unfortunate that we are still having these issues, I want to remind people that things are SO much better than they used to be. At least we are talking about it. When I started working there was literally nowhere to go with a complaint or any common language to use to describe harassment. For me personally, I have been the victim of sexual assaults. While there are multiple examples I could give here are just a couple from the highlight film.

I worked as the only female in the office of a fabrication shop. A certain production goal was met and the two owners decided to plan a celebration lunch. I ordered the food but was not invited to attend. During the course of their lunchtime festivities, I had to walk into the shop where I could see the lunchroom, which was upstairs on a mezzanine. I could clearly see that they were showing a porn movie. I went back to the office. Shortly after, the movie ended and everyone went back to work. One of the supervisors called my desk and asked me to come back to his office in the shop to pickup some work. When I walked in the shop all the men were lined up to watch me walk through the shop, making noises and gestures. I turned around, went back to my desk, got my purse and was starting to leave. My boss, the owner, told me I needed to be a better sport and consider it a compliment and if I left I would not be paid. I left.

We had a customer who would always come up behind me and rub my shoulders and tell me he was famous for his back rubs, and that I looked tense. I would try to move away or otherwise stop the contact. One day while doing this I could clearly feel that he had an erection. I got up and went into another room. The next time he came in he came behind my desk and said "this is for you", so I turned around. His erect penis was out of his pants and he was trying to lay it on my shoulder trying to get it to my mouth. I got up and left to go find my boss. He told me the guy was an important customer and could I just try not to get too worked up about it. He said he would talk to him. Meanwhile the customer had left by the time we got back to the office. This same man followed me home one day to find out where I lived. I didn't know this until one of the guys at the company told me about it later. I left the company shortly after.

I have also been groped, trapped by a man in a doorway and touched, raped by another, but that is a story for another day.

As a Human Resource Director I was privy to a number of complaints by women. I believe they were more willing to come forward because I was a woman and most felt that their male co-workers or supervisors would not be responsive, or would minimize the experience. Most did not want to report because of the retaliation they feared.

One incident particularly reminiscent of Trump was when I began hearing from one of our outlying branches that the Branch Manager was having an affair with one of the women. This then grew to include two other women. None of the three were who was reporting the issue. I investigated the allegations and under questioning, two of the women said he was harassing them. he was calling them in his office and making sexual advances toward them including unwanted touching, kissing, calls at odd hours to come to the office. When asked why they hadn't complained one said she needed her job, another said she had been subject to worse before and the other said he had promised a promotion. Since he was the executive in charge at the location, I took the results of the investigation to the company President. He told me that women do this kind of thing all the time to get someone in trouble. Maybe they didn't like him because he was too tough or demanding on them and they were out to get him. He went on to say he didn't believe it because he know the manager involved and none of the women were his type or sexy enough for him to bother with (Trump's defense). He went on to laughingly suggest that I should hire older, fatter, uglier women so we didn't have a problem at that location. All 3 of the women ended up leaving the company despite efforts to hold the manager accountable.

Another woman would leave for lunch and her male co-workers would go to her computer and log into porn sites so when she came back to her desk obscene pictures and movies greeted her.

My experience is that most women don't complain even when they should. They try to go along to get along. I believe there is a baseline expectation that women put up with a certain amount of harassment that has gone on for centuries. This attitude comes from both men and women. But not all of them, and that is what is better, people are speaking up.

Well, I am sure I could say more, but this should do.

----------------------------------------------

Thanks to my friend for sharing her experiences. I feel it’s very important to understand how much worse things used to be for women in the workplace because

1. it gives us hope that things do change and that they can keep getting better. Because we’re not even close to where we need to be.

2. it challenges the idea that “the good old days” were the ideal. That everything was better in the 1950s or whenever, when white men could do as they pleased, when women and minorities had fewer rights under the law and in practice. This is BS of course, but is a culture really better even for white men where women are subject to dehumanizing attacks?

I hope we take sexual harassment and assaults deadly seriously. I hope for a future where every person is valued equally and granted respect and humanity.

Books connect far-away family

I want to tell you a quick story, with permission from who told it to me, of the unexpected ways books connect us. A few years ago I did a photographic essay of men and boys reading Princess Academy to illustrate that, yes, this does happen and yes, it is okay for heaven's sake. One of the participants is this man, who I've known for years:

He is a family man. He has many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and is hands-on involved in their lives in an active, loving manner. He's a treasure. A few years ago one of his grandchildren gave up her two precious children for adoption. As is often the case, even though it was for the best, it was still very hard for the whole family.

The two kids, a brother and sister, joined a loving family. And not knowing that their birth grandparents knew me, they apparently became fans of my books. One day the grandson is reading through my past blog posts and sees the above picture. He recognizes "Papa." And so the boy has his mother take a picture of him reading Princess Academy in the same manner, recreating the photo. His adoptive mother sends the picture to his birth mother, who shows the birth grandparents. And today, with tears, they showed it to me.

tkingfisher

This Vote Is Legally Binding

In response to all those articles about talking to women with headphones…

Someone always says it, whenever it comes up: “I guess I’m just not allowed to talk to anyone any more!” Well. Yes. It is my duty to inform you that we took a vote all us women and determined that you are not allowed to talk to anyone ever again. This vote is legally binding. Yes, of course, all women know each other, the way you always suspected. (Incidentally, so do Canadians. I’m just throwing that out there.) We went into the women’s room at the Applebee’s at the corner of 54 and all the others streamed in through the doors into that endless liminal space, a chain of humans stretching backward heavy skulled Neanderthal women laughing with New York socialites, Lucille Ball hand in hand with the Taung child. We sat around in the couches in the women’s room (I know you’ve always been suspicious of those couches) and chatted with each other in the secret female language that you always knew existed. Somebody set up a console– the Empress Wu is ruthless at Mario Kart and Cleopatra never learned to lose and a woman who ruled an empire that fell when the Sea People came and left no trace can use the blue shell like a surgical instrument. Eventually we took the vote. You had three defenders: your grandmother and your first-grade teacher and an Albanian nun who believes the best of everybody. Your mom abstained. It was duly recorded in the secret notebooks that have been kept under the couch in the Applebee’s since the beginning of recorded time. And then we went back to playing Mario Kart and Hoelun took off her bra and we didn’t think about you again except that I had to carry this message. So anyway good luck with that it’s just as you always said it was. Hush now, no talking

hush.

shannonhale

This is some quality feminist humor here. I’m still chuckling.

The myth of the innocent victim

This week Leslie Jones was the subject of an egregious cyber attack and invasion of privacy. On Twitter, I saw people excuse the crime by showing screen captures of “nasty” things Jones had tweeted in the past. It reminded me of a blog post I wrote in 2014, which I’ll repost below. (trigger warning)

There's an old story I've heard retold many times. The Christmas oranges. Does everyone know it? An orphanage, Christmas, unjust mistress. Every Christmas the poor orphans get one precious orange. It's what they look forward to most, and spend all Christmas day smelling it, holding it, savoring and anticipating sometimes for days before peeling and at last eating it. One Christmas, an orphan is denied his orange as punishment for a mild infraction (in some tellings, he sneaks out of bed at night to peek at the Christmas tree). Christmas morning, since he didn't get an orange, the other orphans peel their orange early instead of savoring it and each give him one slice of their orange. It's a sweet story of mercy, kindness, and empathy.

Only it often falls a little flat for me because of the mild infraction part. What if the orphan had done something bolder? Worse? The story would be even more powerful for me if the other children still had empathy. Mercy.

If even in stories we don't allow characters to really mess up and yet love them anyway, are we capable in life?

I've always rankled at the term "Innocent victim." What does it actually mean? As if the only victims that count are those who are innocent of any wrong doing. Which would include babies and just about no one else, I think. I've heard this term a lot lately. And what I hear disturbs me.

When a police officer shot Michael Brown, focus was put on his shoplifting. The New York Times wrote that he was "no angel." When Eric Garner was choked to death, focus was put on his previous crime of selling untaxed cigarettes. When Tamir Rice was shot (a 12 year old boy, alone at a park with a toy gun, no one in immediate danger if the gun had been real, the police shooting and killing him within 2 seconds of arriving), the local media seemed to flail a bit. Aren't all children innocent? So instead they reported on the past crimes of his parents, as if that had anything to do with why police shot him that day in the park.

Rape victims still are blamed for what they wore, if they'd been drinking, if they'd gone with someone they didn't know well, if they'd gone with someone they did know and so should have known better, if they were in the "wrong" side of town, if they were sex workers, if they lied about any part of it to the police, if they were overly flirtatious, examining their decisions, finding fault, finding reasons to prove that they aren't "innocent" victims.

If the law only protects those who are innocent, we are all doomed.

We want to believe that when horrible things happen to people, that they somehow deserved it. They weren't completely innocent, so it's okay in a way. That makes us feel safer. We can believe that we are innocent, so those things can't happen to us.

But there are no innocent victims. We all of us make mistakes. And in this country, we don't believe in death as punishment for selling loose cigarettes. We don't believe in rape as punishment for getting drunk.

I know there is so much to debate in the things I'm bringing up. I do not want to get into here the vast problems in our legal system. And this is not a general condemnation of our police force. Remember who ran into the burning buildings on 9/11. The purpose of this post is to focus on this one simple idea. There are no innocent victims. I hope we stop trying to make anyone live up to that impossible standard. I hope we value all human life, even those who have made mistakes.

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