Hey, all you authors and readers,

I just wanted to write a bit here about how I was feeling about the hate crime that happened in Oxnard, CA, last Tuesday, Feb. 12th.  Ten years after Mathew Shepard's untimely death (and the ones in between), I can't believe that an eighth grader is shot to death in front of 20 of his classmates because of who he (the slain youth)  was - he was an openly gay youth who, from what I've read, liked to wear high heels and some makeup to school. 

All of this makes me crazy. So, I went to an area youth meeting last night and listened to parents of gay youth talk about how this incident has compounded their own fears. One woman of a transgendered youth burst into tears and burbled out her anger at the crime itself and then at the media who seemed to have virtually swept the story away. It's true...I bet there are people reading this who don't know. But, if you google Lawrence King, you will see the story...

We talked about gay sex education and how bullying can end....how educators and politicians need to help....but also how inordinately frustrating it all is at times. One of the youth facilitators talked about an African-American female principal at a school in Petersburg who did not want a GSA at her school. A great yet horrible example of irony.

Thanks for listening.

Ruth

So, I'm new to the blogging game and right now I'm just posting this expression as I feel it...

I did a very personal radio interview with Liz Humes of http://www.wordybirds.org last week and would like to know if any of the authors/writers out there have ever had REALLY personal questions asked of them. I didn't mind her asking the questions, but I just wasn't prepared for the delving into my dark, secret past (okay, it's not that dark).  She is a fabulous interviewer and I think what we did was good....just wasn't sure if this was an unusual thing or not.  

Also, one of my former students was so kind and wrote a letter to Ellen with a copy of my book (Vera's Still Point)....Ellen has a cameo in it at the end and actually changes the entire plot of the story. The funny thing is that ten years ago, I wrote Ellen a letter about this very student (way before writing my book) because her sitcom had opened up the LGBT dialogue between us. It sort of saved me and her (I think) at that time. I sent Ellen a long letter in 1997 via snail mail. I never heard back....and now ten years later, my former student is/has reached out to Ellen in a similar way. My student sent this letter to her last May and has not heard anything but she is keeping her hopes high that she will...what an interesting circular universe we all live in. Eh?