Mulling it over Monday

June! It's June! And the Houston weather has slipped back to its set point of high in the 90's low in the 70's. The summer endurance contest begins. Next time I will report a temp change will probably be, um, October.

Last night's Game of Throne episode! What can I say without spoiling it? Except that I screamed. I have not read this far in the books so... I knew something wouldn't go well, but not THAT. Didn't see THAT coming. (If you watched, discuss among yourselves. If you didn't, get back to me when you have.)

And my signing yesterday at Katy Budget Books with Sophie Jordan and CC Hunter was such fun. I love Sunday afternoon signings. Everyone's always relaxed and having a good time. Thanks to all who came out.

Mostly this morning I'm fretting over this whole reading trigger warning label thing that universities are threatening to place on books. We're not talking the basic movie/tv kind of warning like: adult language  and partial nudity. We're talking trigger warnings like racism or misogyny. As in a warning to students that what they're about to read might upset them.

So doesn't that change the entire reading experience? And isn't getting upset about the dark stuff part of the point? Shouldn't I be angry as hell at Tom Buchanan in Great Gatsby and not a watered down angry because I've been warned that my tender self might be hurt or shocked by that fact that he's a nasty misogynistic bastard? Isn't discomfort okay? Shouldn't my intellectual sensibilities be, um, challenged? Isn't this a first slide down the slippery slope toward making everything we read and see just one big bowl of mushy oatmeal?

Or is it the opposite? Will an advance trigger warning that, say, Shakepeare's Merchant of Venice contains uncomfortable and essentially unchallenged anti-Semitism enhance my reading experience? Or will it control it?

Where do we draw the line about these warnings? At what level of the human experience? The answer that keeps coming to mind is: all of it.

We are not always our best selves, we humans. Surprise, surprise! We hurt each other and destroy each other in so many ways that it defies the imagination, which is perhaps for the best. I spend enough time as a writer mining those awful possibilities that I'm clear on that. And anything my imagination conjures up is probably a poor substitute for what I will read in the morning news blasts. But I do not believe that I need an advance warning about that. I believe I already am fully aware.

Lots of people have been addressing this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/warning-the-literary-canon-could-make-students-squirm.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/trigger-warnings-and-the-novelists-mind.html

Let me know what you think, dear reader

Signing, Signing, Signing!!

So excited to for all that's coming up in the next few days! One of my favorite things to do as an author is to visit with readers. One of my second favorite things to do is to meet other authors. And I'm getting to do both all week!

Here's the details below. If you stop by, please tell me you're a blog reader so I can thank you! (Plus there will be candy! Lots and lots of candy)

Saturday April 14th

2-4 PM

Katy Budget Books

Signing and reading with CC Hunter

http://www.katybooks.com/event/cc-hunter-joy-preble

Wednesday April 18th

TLA

YART Texas Author's Tea

noon-1:30

with many amazing authors!!

YAHOUS (YA HOUSTON)

Reception at Pat Anderson's Overlooked Books Booth #2629

3-4

Snacks, Raffle for Basket of books/swag from the YAHOUS

(Joy Preble, Sophie Jordan, CC Hunter, Jenny Moss, Lynne Kelly, Dotti Enderle, Crystal Allen, Mary Lindsey, Christina Mandelski)

http://yahous.wordpress.com/

Thursday April 19th

TLA

TT4L

11-11:30

(at the Hilton Americas)

Signing Advanced Reading Copies of ANASTASIA FOREVER

Sourcebooks Booth #1902

2-3 PM

(Want to find out how the trilogy ends before anyone else? This is your chance!)

More coming in the next months as we approach August and the Anastasia Forever release!

But this is enough for now.