Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sam Cheever's Halloween Contest

Time is running out to enter Sam Cheever's Halloween contest! Only a few more days. http://www.mechelearmstrong.com/contest.html
Sending safe vibes to all those in the path of Hurricane Sandy! Be careful everyone. I'm hunkered down critiquing for Cheyenne Meadows!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday Five

1. The Frankenstorm approacheth! Not liking all the forecasts. We are making preparations for a power outage. Stay safe everyone!

2. Will be glad when the election is over.

3. Rereading the Stand. OMG I love this book. I'd almost forgotten how much I get into it when I'm reading it. The word usage. The characters. I bow to the brilliance of Stephen King.

4. The Walking Dead? Wow. Just wow. It's been an excellent start to the new season. I finished Rise of the Governor and was blown away by a plot twist. Not the best book I've ever read but that ending did catch me.

5. December 15th from 10-2, 20 authors are coming together at a mall in Richmond, VA for a book signing. You might recognize a name on the blog *whistles*. It should be fun so if you're in the area, make plans now! Lots of great authors and books.

May the muses have flashlights
Mechele

Friday, October 19, 2012

Friday Five

1. Work continues. I'm not as far as I would like but I'm still moving up in the word count.


2. I'm reading The Rise of the Governor, a Walking Dead novel. I've been reading the comics, which are amazing. I find it interesting in Rise of the Governor they are telling the story of a bad guy in the Walking Dead. And yes the season premiere had me glued to my seat. Love the first five minutes there is no dialogue.

3. Don't forget to enter Sam Cheever's Halloween Contest. The more authors you send to, the better your chance on winning the engraved I-pad!!

4. Hubster is doing a biking event on Saturday. Just a shout to him for doing it. Very proud of him. He's been doing biking for a while and really enjoys it.

5. Castle rocks. That is all.

May the muses have contests
Mechele

Monday, October 15, 2012

Sam Cheever's Halloween Contest

Here's the link to my page:




http://www.mechelearmstrong.com/contest.html



Follow the directions to be entered in a drawing for a Halloween themed box! The winner of the box's name is passed along to Sam Cheever to be entered in a contest for an I-pad among other goodies.



The more author's you enter with, the greater your chances of winning the I-pad.



Good luck!!!!!



Mechele

Friday, October 12, 2012

Friday Five

1. Writing has slowly started up again. Wrote 3 K on another project. Hoping to get back in the swing of things.

2. Look for a contest announcement soon about Sam Cheever's Halloween Contest. It's always fun and I'm participating again this year.

3. Sadly my oldest's 7th grade Civics teacher passed away from cancer. Oldest is pretty upset. This teacher was a "good one" and a Dr. Who fan. Our thoughts and prayers are going out to their family. Very sad thing. If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it. ~Margaret Fuller. She was definitely a candle that others lit from, including oldest. I think some of oldest's love of history came from that class.
4. I'm reading I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. It's a young adult book that puts me in mind of Dexter and The Silence of the Lambs. It's engrossing, the characters pop, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm over half way through.

5. Finally watched the Dr. Who finale. *sniffle sniffle* Great send off and OMG the angels are always creepy. Still loving Castle. I wasn't sure how Beckett and Castle would be together but I'm enjoying the chemistry. Revolution? Still meh. Am still watching but I'm not being wowed.

May the muses have legions of Dr. Who fans
Mechele

Monday, October 08, 2012

Kate Hill's Halloween Contest

There are some great prizes. Check it out.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

Banned Books Week: What can I do?

I'm a huge supporter of Banned Books Week. I wish I didn't have to be. I wish books weren't challenged/banned. With each post/tweet/update I hope to raise awareness that this does go on. I've attended events in my local area (a seminar with readings from banned books and read in the banned books room at our local library for the past two years (sadly they aren't having it this year but say it will be back)). I read Banned Books. I try to read a book that's been challenged during Banned Books Week every year. I reread Salem's Lot, and read Olive's Ocean, Sandpiper, and The Perks of being a Wallflower in years past. I'm trying Fahrenheit 451 this year.  I bought the red "I read banned books" buttons to help support the cause.

But I think the biggest things I do to support Banned Books Week? I talk to my children about the issues and the week throughout the year. I encourage them to read books that have been challenged. When they were younger, I did hold them off from books until they were a little older but now that they are a tween and a teen, I let them read whatever they want. I try to know what they are reading and if we need to discuss something about the book, we talk about it.

Read freely. Read banned books. Challenge censorship wherever it rears its ugly head. Don't declare because you don't want or don't want your child reading a particular book that no one should be able to.
Talk about these issues. It's the only way we will ever move past them.

Mechele

Friday, October 05, 2012

Banned Books Week: It's personal

I've shared the story a couple of times now so I won't again. You can read it here.

One parent removed a book from my high school library because it was "objectionable." Was the school library better off? I don't really think so. I'll never understand the logic behind it.

Mechele

Friday Five

1. I blogged at TRS Blue on Banned Books Week. Yeah, I know it's probably overkill but is a subject near and dear to my heart.

2. Ahhhh ahhhh ahhhhchooooooo! Silly kids don't share when I want them to and DO share things like colds. Hmpph.

3. Have had some family issues that have hampered my writing time. Hoping to get back on the keyboard, maybe this weekend.

4. Still reading Fahrenheit 451. Haven't had much reading time.

5. Still haven't watched Dr. Who season finale. Have seen spoilers and know I will need a tissue *sniffle*. Warehouse 13 season finale was good. Real cliffhanger in their usual style. Castle was excellent. I'm enjoying the banter. I'm watching Revolution. Still not wowed but I did love a character made two Stephen King references! And another character referenced Peanuts. Hmmm they are trying to bring me in...

May the muses have tissues
Mechele

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Banned Books Week: Why it matters

Imagine a world where there is nothing to read. If you're like me, that's a NIGHTMARE. I can't imagine. It would be a world not worth living in quite frankly.

Well, if books are challenged and removed from shelves at will, we could wind up in a world where there's nothing left.

Let's face it, we have all topics we don't want to see in books. We all have books we don't really like and possibly do not think anyone should read. The problem comes in when we don't leave it at "My kid/I won't read that" and try to move toward, "No one's kid/No one should read that."

I know there are books I've let my children read that others may not let their children read at a certain age or ever. I have no problems with them saying their child can't read something, and I've held my children off from a book until they were a little older. I have no problem with someone not wanting to read a book due to content.

Just don't try to make that book not available to anyone else to read.

Mechele

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Banned Books Week: What books are challenged and Why?

The books on the challenged/banned list run the gamut.

It's anything from And Tango Makes Three to In the Night Kitchen, both children's picture books to children's chapter books like Captain Underpants to Bridge to Terabithia to Julie of the Wolves to young adult novels like Sandpiper, ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r,  The Hunger Games to classics like The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, 1984, Huckleberry Finn, Fahrenheit 451 to popular fiction like Harry Potter and Twilight. Several books by Stephen King and Judy Blume have been banned/challenged in years past.

Generally when people are asked to name their favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird is somewhere on that list. And yep it's been challenged/banned as well.

ALA took a list of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and counted off how many book on that list had been challenged/banned. These are just ones they know about but 45/100 books have been challenged and yet are considered the top novels of the 20th century.

Why do people challenge books?

The most common reasons books were challenged from 2001 to 2010
- “sexually explicit”
- “offensive language”
- “unsuited to age group”
- “violence”
- “homosexuality”
- "anti-family”
- "religious viewpoints"

I know Harry Potter has been challenged due to promotion of witchcraft.

Mechele Armstrong

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Banned Books Week: Most challenged books of 2011

 The list changes from year to year. The reasons for the most part do not.

After I read it, I told my older daughter, who LOVES the Hunger Games, I bet this series will wind up on the challenged books list and it did in 2010. It moved from 5 in 2010 to 3 in 2011.


1.ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle


Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group


2.The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa

Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group


3.The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins

Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence


4.My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler

Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group


5.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group


6.Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint


7.Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit


8.What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones

Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit


9.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit


10.To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Reasons: offensive language; racism



  Mechele.

Monday, October 01, 2012

Banned Books Week: Quotes

“All of us can think of a book... that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.”


― Katherine Paterson



Top Quotes about about book banning:

"If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed." - Benjamin Franklin, 1730




"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance." -Lyndon Baines Johnson



"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads." - George Bernard Shaw



"One man's vulgarity is another's lyric." - John Marshall Harlan, Supreme Court justice, 1971



"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." - Mark Twain



"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." - Oscar Wilde



Free people read freely!  
Mechele