This wonderful writing friend made this comment on my last post... for National Bullying Prevention Month...and I feel compelled to share it widely because, honestly, I wish I had made it!  But this is a reason for insightful readers and editors like Debbie Vilardi, they see into your writing as much as your soul: 

"The hats you wear today have so much more power than the one you lost. If only the child you were could have known."

Thank you, Debbie! 

Truly,

author of LIE

I hate bullies -- even though, if you ask my brothers or sister they may describe me as one on occasion. Still, in the spirit of National Bullying Prevention Month I was asked by the wonderful Lady Reader's Book Stuff to write a short piece on bullying... what I wrote about was long-buried in my memory and even so many years later painful to recall.  

Now, if you go to Lady Reader's blog-- she is doing a giveaway of a signed edition of LIE, my debut young adult novel, which is also appropriate for this month.  Inspired by real events, LIE is the story of a brutal hate crime and extreme bullying. If you haven't read it yet, enter the giveaway!

Truly,

 

But I also like end of the world, we-are-all-at-risk, flesh-eating zombie stories.  I think it makes me less afraid of the day–to-day fears (today, my 7-year-old daughter didn’t get off the bus today, was she kidnapped? Is she hurt? Is she crying out for mommy – no, they didn’t announce her bus and she’s waiting in the main office with a half a dozen other kids who didn’t hear their bus being called.  I can go calmly pick her up. I can do this.). 

 

I didn’t once think: did zombies attack her? It would almost have been a relief to focus on zombies because everything else could have been an option.  In the celluloid/digital world we watch in horror as the innocents go into the dark doublewide trailer or into the bucolic woods – and you know-- and everyone but that person knows – THAT’S WHERE THE ZOMBIES ARE.   When there are flesh-eating zombies on the screen, somehow my world, with my day-to-day fears seem somewhat manageable.  The zeitgeist of zombies is that they are unpredictable, driven by base passion and not by reason. Zombies are the Zen of our time. I can put all my irrational fear into them – and be calm -- except when my daughter isn't on her school bus and she should be.   

 

Of course, this love of zombies makes me a fan ofAMC’s The Walking Dead – and on an upbeat thing to share: I just noticed that they are right now running a sweepstakes-- a trip for two to the Walking Dead Set – co-sponsored in a weird bit of promotion by the Red Cross (Use Your Brains, Give Blood is the tagline - go to www.amctv.com).

 

 

Truly,

 

Critically-acclaimed YA for adults

…and teens.

Note to Parade magazine and the "book editors at amazon.com" who put together their version of this fall's top fiction and nonfiction books in today's Sunday newspapers-- it is the year 2012 -- and on your top ten list you have included only two women writers? Can I say I'm shocked - no - but I am pissed. Of all the books out -- only two, both fiction (The Round House by the seminal Louise Erdrich and The Diviners by the young adult author Libba Bray) made the mix.  Could there be that no woman wrote a compelling non fiction book -- oh, go to the front page of the New York Times book review and there you'll find not one, but TWO, newly-released nonfiction books that look like must reads: The End of Men And the Rise of Womenby Hanna Rosin and Vagina: a New Biographyby Naomi Wolf. Maybe the titles were too scary or shocking for the "book editors at amazon.com?"  Then, also in the New York Times were two new novels by women.  And even more, all the nonfiction and fiction by women were reviewed by women, something I was gratified to see.    There is an organization, VIDA -- Women in Literary Arts, which tracks and publishes stats on this fairness and parity in the literary arena and kudos to them for continuing to point out that women read, women buy books, but women writers are published less and reviewed less. But I didn't need anyone this Sunday morning to tell me that too often the deck is stacked, the fix in, and yes,  the bias often without malice but bias nevertheless. I wish 'amazon' would remember that one definition of their name is strong woman -- and think of this next time they publish a list like this.   

 

Eleven years ago, I woke up to the same blue, blue skies that I woke up to today.  Not a cloud. Blue.  That day, I was supposed to be in New York City, running a press conference, downtown, until my ace second-in-command, called and ordered, "Turn on the news. Now."  The skies were clear and blue and then they weren't.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The second anniversary, talks about what saves us from despair, at least what saves me: stories and poetry. The Norton Anthology of English LIterature is celebrating its 50th anniversary, having published nine editions so far.  I have carried my edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry with me since I was a freshman in college, schlepped it from one home to another, at least a dozen moves, brought it with me to graduate school in my 40s, adding notes to its tissue-thin paper, losing the cover, re-reading some poems never reading others in the 1,000 plus page tome. I will never abandon it, for it never abandoned me.

"I wake to sleep, and take my waking show.

opening to "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke

p. 1133 in my edition of The Norton Anthology  of Poetry

And lastly, if you haven't read LIE yet -- my critically-acclaimed young adult novel, now is the time.  

Truly,

 

by Caroline Bock

 

We send our children off—

with sunscreen and antibacterial lotion.

With orders to drink lots of water

if it’s hot, and to button up, if it’s cold.

I instruct my six year old not to scream—

don’t draw attention—

if the gunman points his semi-automatic your way—

run out of sight, disappear into the air—

know where the exits are located.

Or if in a classroom, barricade yourself in.

Don’t be a hero. Call 9-1-1.

Come home from Columbine,

West Virginia Tech, the “Congress at your Corner”

meet and greet in Tucson,

the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises”—

come home safe.

But at six years old, she insists she is smarter than me:

says she won’t leave my sight, she’ll hold my hand.

She’ll eat her green vegetables. Go to bed early.

We send our children off—

mine, contrary to what she promises,

breaks away, races across the dying grasses—

the scent of apples on the ground—

a new backpack slung on her sturdy shoulders—

new sneakers tight on her feet.

We stand in the autumn fields demanding

the world return our children safely to us

and fear our voices can never be loud enough.

 

                       ###                      

 

 

 

Lu Xun is one of the major figures of modern Chinese literature - but perhaps people out there in the Internet ether know this -- or at least, I keep wondering who in China is clicking on this blog?  I taught "Diary of a Madman" this year -- reluctantly. I knew little of Chinese literature. It was a mandate from the English department at City College of New York to teach this early 20th century short story as part of my World Humanities course.

I loved this story. Reading and teaching Lu Xun led me to think of China -- and of other places in history and time that has suppressed human creativity and hope -- driven people crazy with fear. I wonder if they are reading him in China today -- or is he out of fashion?  Written in 1918, "Diary of a Madman" is about a so called "madman's" point of view of his village -- of sanctioned terror, of a village and of families turning to the most horrendous of human crimes-- cannibalism.

Or, is this all just the crazed ramblings of an unreliable narrator?  Moreover, is this truth or symbolic of a larger destruction of a corrupt, brutal, inhuman society?  Does the madman speak truth to power or does he have no power at all --except to share his nightmares? 

As the narrator exclaims at the very end, "Are there children who have not yet eaten human flesh?  Save the children..." 

Truly,

author of LIE

I envy:

-People who can pay for college in full for five sons

-People who get shoeshines on their way to private corporate jets

-People who use the word 'envy' with such moral gravity to describe those who are struggling to pay bills, the middle class and all the rest of the 99%, as if there was time enough in our days for 'envy.'

When asked what he and his striking men wanted, Samuel Gompers, famous union organizer, simply replied: 'More.'

It's not envy to want more -- from our politicians, our country, and from ourselves.  We should be given the opportunity to want more -- and to dream too.

Envy, covet or

Want?  I prefer want, simpler:

Want more, envy less.

Truly, from author of LIE.  

I find it strange that some readers have claimed that kind of response to the hate crime described in LIE, my debut young adult novel, never could have happened, not this way.  LIE is the story of the aftermath of a brutal hate crime, of the decision of the two main characters, Skylar and Sean, to tell the truth, or to keep with their friends and lie about what happened. LIE is also the story of a community in the midst of upheaval and change, forced now to face ingrained sentiments about race, and hence, LIE is told in 10 distinct first person voices.   

Certainly, some character in the novel would have told about the beating sprees, or realized the 'true' character of the mastermind, Jimmy, behind them, and rebelled, or at least, personalizing the story, the readers claim that they would have come forward.

In fact, in the 2008 Long Island murder of Marcelo Lucero that, in part, inspired this novel, nobody came forward. Even though, according to news reports, it was widely known within the teen circles of this Long Island town that a group of their peers, including several school athletes, regularly went out to beat up Hispanics. I even start the novel with a quote from the real New York Times front page story attesting to this:  "The attacks were such an established pastime that the youths, who have pleaded not guilty, had a casual and derogatory term for it, 'beaner-hopping.'" 

So I find some readers comments strange. Strange.  

One last thought on 'strange.' I wrote LIE listening to Billie Holiday's famous song, "Strange Fruit" and re-reading the poem by the New York City schoolteacher, which comprises the words to this blues lyric about lynchings. I even taught the poem to my college world humanities class, played the song in class, and while we have traveled far from that song, I found it strange still, strange enough to write LIE.  

Bottom line:  You read LIE.  You decide. 

Onward into 2012 -- may it be a happy, healthy, inspired new year for all!

This murder, in part, inspired LIE:

From Newsday on Long Island -- Sunday, October 30:

Community advocates will hold remembrance events this week to call for unity and continued work against prejudice on the third anniversary of the hate killing of immigrant Marcelo Lucero.

Lucero was killed Nov. 8, 2008, when a mob of teens attacked him in Patchogue.

The Long Island Organizing Network, a Riverhead advocacy group, will hold an action meeting Tuesda at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood to discuss, among other subjects, the need for a permanent hate crimes task force and for passage of anti-bullying legislation in the county.

The meeting, slated to start at 7 p.m. in the campus’ theater located off Crooked Hill Road, seeks to foster “acceptance, understanding and respect, not just for Latinos but for every gender and race,” said lead network organizer Lisa Perry.

Lucero’s brother, Joselo Lucero, and other advocates will also hold an interfaith vigil, starting at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, at the St. Frances DeSales Parish Hall, located at 220 South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue.

“We want people of all faiths to come and for the event to take place every year, so that together we can create awareness that hate is not acceptable,” Lucero said. “We are not tolerating that conduct on Long Island.”

May Marcelo Lucero rest in peace