Open Fire

It's been a tough summer. We lost a loved one after she fought a battle with cancer and there is a quiet sadness that brackets our days here in the Meminger home. But it also makes us grateful and deeply appreciative of the ones we love who are still here. By the way, can I just say how sick I am of cancer? Seriously. It has been popping up way too much lately.

In any case, I am glad to get back into a busy rhythm of school, writing, and reading again. Who'd have thunk I'd be relieved to get back to the mundane rituals of daily life? :) I am also working super hard on my next novel, which is set to release in March, 2012. I've had a quick peek at the first drafts of the cover and I am *loving* it.

One of the events I have coming up is the SAWCC literary festival. I'll be on a panel with Marina Budhos and Jyotsna Sreenivasan, talking about YA novels and politics. Can't wait. If you're in New York on the 24th, please stop by Revolution Books. Our panel is from 1-2pm, but there will be others throughout the day, followed by readings in the evening.

October is birthday month, so I'm hoping I haven't scheduled anything for then, but November is another busy month. I'll be in Chicago (where I get to meet Ari of Reading In Color, Edi Campbell of the Crazy Quilts blog, and Maggie Desmond O'Brien of Bibliophilia!) for the ALAN workshops on the 21st and 22nd.

Hope everyone had a great summer and is off to a smooth start for the fall.

Coming Up

Happy Asian-American Heritage Month! Happy Mother's Month! (Yes, I think we deserve a MONTH.)

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be participating in a live-chat on Twitter with a few of the other authors involved in the Diversity in YA tour. The Tweetchat starts at 9pm EST, so join us if you're on Twitter!

And the book-signing-turned-into-panel at Books of Wonder takes place on Saturday, May 14th, at 1pm. I am keeping my fingers double-crossed that they will have copies of my books this time! The other panelists are Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Jacqueline Woodson, Rita Williams-Garcia, Matt de la Pena, Kekla Magoon, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. The panel will be moderated by Cheryl Klein. Please join us if you can!

At the end of May, I am off, once again, to Wiscon, the *echoing announcer voice* WORLD'S LEADING FEMINIST SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION. This conference is something I do for myself because I love the people I get to meet and I always have a great time engaging in the kind of discourse I enjoy having. If you're going, let me know! Would love to say hi :).

And this is not in May, but I'm going to plug it now, anyway, in case you're planning vacations and such. On June 9th, I will be sitting on a panel with two other Sikh women for SAWCC (South Asian Women's Creative Collective). We will be discussing faith and feminism within a Sikh context. Should be an interesting conversation and a lot of fun. More on that soon, though.

Have a great day!

Upcoming Toronto Events!

Next week, I am going to Los Angeles for a few days, then coming home and turning right around to go to Toronto for a little over a week. Talk about climate change! Though maybe I messed up with the times--should stay longer in the warm spot ;). But I am super, super excited about both, in any case!

In L.A. I get to meet some awesome high school students who will have had an entire week of classes, events, and awareness raising around issues of discrimination, bias, and bullying. And in Toronto, I will be with fellow authors discussing important issues of representation as well as signing books and -- the best part -- meeting and chatting with readers.

The first Toronto event is at the Toronto Women's Bookstore and, as mentioned, I will be discussing issues of representation and how changes in the publishing industry are affecting under-represented voices with fellow authors Zetta Elliott (A Wish After Midnight, 2009) and Vivek Shraya (God Loves Hair, 2010).

And the second event is at the Chapters/Indigo bookstore in Yorkdale Mall. I will be signing copies of Jazz in Love along with fellow authors Mahtab Narsimhan (The Deadly Conch, 2011), Helene Boudreau (Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings, 2010), and Cheryl Rainfield (Scars, 2010) who will all be signing copies of their recent releases.

If you're in or around the GTA area, please come by to either/both event/s!

Queens Reading & A Quote

Wanted to share this wonderful quote I saw in an email today from an amazing feminist teacher. I did not ask if I could mention her name, so you will just have to trust me when I say that she is fantastic beyond words :):

"I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever, but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement."  – Angela Davis 

What an absolutely lovely way to start off the day! That quote encompasses everything writing is for me. Personal achievement means little if everything around me stays the same. My kids still have to grow up in the mess and the beauty that is this world and if I can do something to elevate the beauty and reduce the mess . . . that is accomplishment enough for me.

In other news -- I have been very excited to read in Queens, NY, because it is home to one of the largest Asian/South Asian populations in the city. When I volunteered at SAYA! (South Asian Youth Action), I was lucky enough to work with some of those diverse Queens teens and it was always the highlight of my week. 

As part of the Teen Author Fest, I will be reading with Melina Marchetta, Barry Lyga and Brent Crawford on Thursday, March 17th from 10-12 at the Long Island City branch (37-44 21st Street, LIC, NY 11101), then signing books that Sunday (the 21st) at Books of Wonder in Manhattan. If you're in or around any of those locations, please come and say hi!

Upcoming Events & Signings

I'm in the revision cave, but here is a list of events where I'll be signing and/or reading for the next few months. This is a pretty solid schedule, but some things are still subject to change. More info will be posted closer to the events . . .

Thursday, March 17th, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., Teen Author Festival, NYC - Reading from Jazz in Love at a Queens library (location to be announced).

Sunday, March 20th, Books of Wonder, 1:45 p.m.

Thursday, April 14th, keynote speech at San Gabrielino High School, San Gabriel, CA

Thursday, April 21st, 6:30 p.m. Toronto Women's Bookstore - Discussion with authors Zetta Elliott and Vivek Shraya on publishing options for under-represented voices. This discussion will be live-streamed from the bookstore, so even if you cannot attend IRL (in real life), you can attend virtually!

Saturday, April 23rd, 1:00 p.m. Booksigning at Yorkdale's Chapters/Indigo bookstore with authors Helene Boudreau, Mahtab Narsimhan, and Cheryl Rainfield.

Saturday, May 14th, 1 p.m. Diversity in YA tour with Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Jacqueline Woodson, Rita Williams Garcia, Matt De La Pena, and Kekla Magoon.

If you're in any of the above areas, please stop by and say hello!

Links, Upcoming Events, Awesome Video

I shared this video on Facebook, but love it so much I want to share it here, too. It was created by my partner-in-crime, Hollis, and it ROCKS.



Interview
If you're not sick of me like I am, you can check out a recent interview on Sayantini Dasgupta's blog. I'm not doing many interviews these days, but Sayantani had the best, thought-provoking questions, and I cleared off some space to answer them. Check that out here.

Events
I'm going to be in Albuquerque, New Mexico from November 5-7th for YALSA (the Young Adult Literature Symposium of the American Library Association)'s conference on diversity, and on November 22nd, I'll be in Orlando, Florida for the ALAN conference (the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, a branch of the National Council of Teachers of English). If you're in or around either of those, please come by and say hello!

Discussing Hybridity

Growing up bi-cultural and/or raising bi-cultural/multi-cultural kids. What is lost in the hybridization of cultures; what is gained? This Saturday, June 12th, from 2-4pm, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I'll be reading from my book and having a discussion on that very topic. If you're interested in joining us, please email me for details.

Have a wonderful week!

Wiscon Pics

It was amazing. Here are a few pics . . .

Here I am with Guest of Honor, Mary Anne Mohanraj. I first met Maryann over six years ago when we were both panelists at a South Asian women's lit fest. That was before she was a mom - still a powerhouse, but not yet a mom ;).

Haitian SFF writer, Ibi Zoboi, is sandwiched between me and Nora (N.K. Jemison). Apparently, "N" names are very popular among women of color - at least at Wiscon - Neesha, Nora, Nnedi, Nisi, Nalo . . .

Guest of Honor Nnedi Okorafor with Ibi and I after our lunch on day one of the con. I was both delighted and relieved to discover that Nnedi and I share similar (unpopular) views on Avatar, sheltering children from violence, and roles of creation versus destruction in the universe.

Here is my Wiscon roommate, Hiromi Goto, author of the incredible HALF WORLD. She is a brilliant mind, a warm and connected spirit, and a generous, creative soul. She is also a fellow Canadian, fellow child of mushroom farmers, and fellow fierce author of color.

Sheltering Children

This Friday, I head off to Wiscon for three panels. One of them is called "Should Children be Sheltered from Violence?" In a previous post, someone asked me what my views were on this subject. I started to respond to her, but soon realized I'd need to write an entire post. So here are a few quick thoughts . . .

I grew up in a home where no one was allowed to talk about sex . We all acted like it didn't actually exist. I couldn't even say the word b-o-y without someone interrogating me for a good month or two afterward. We (my brother and I) couldn't date, and we couldn't be seen in public with anyone of the opposite sex. And yet, no one ever considered sheltering us from the violence we watched on a regular basis on television. My parents let us watch everything - evening news, horror films, all kinds of violent and bloody epic battles on TV.

It got to the point where I started self-censoring the images I consumed because they would flash through my mind constantly, and I was in a perpetual state of anxiety. I was afraid to be alone in any room of the house, even the bathroom. To this day, I have to cover my eyes when the scary music comes on at movies. There have been numerous studies about the long-term effects of violent media images on children. Nancy Carlsson Paige has an entire site devoted to the subject, and makes some interesting points about the relationship between deregulation of the entertainment industry in the '80s, and increased marketing of violent films directly toward children.

I know "protecting children" is the official line of most censorship boards, but to me censoring is NOT the same as protecting. Censoring is about control. It is a blanket prohibition of all things related to the material considered offensive, rather than looking at the context of the material and the possible benefits of exposing young minds to said material. Sheltering/protecting, however, connotes providing guidelines, looking at material with young people and having thoughtful, honest dialogue during and/or afterward. "Sheltering" (I'm sure there's a better term), in my view, is more of a response to caring about the emotional and psychological health of young people - not wanting to control or contain them.

The censorship of books like Judy Blume's, Chris Crutcher's, J.K. Rowling's, Ellen Hopkins', and a whole list of others is more about the fear of the adults doing the censoring - not about what kids can handle. Reading those books never damaged me as a child, and children reading them today are not being subjected to long-term emotional or psychological damage caused by the content within their pages.

Then I think about the MIA video I blogged about earlier and how shaken up I was by it. It depicted brutal violence at its most graphic. I'm glad I saw it because it really is a remarkable statement about the fallacy of using violence to "end" violence, and the whole concept of profiling terrorists, but I couldn't eat for the rest of the day after I watched it. The images made their way into my dreams and I was jittery for days. And I would NEVER watch it again.

I don't think children should be kept away from what is real and what affects them in their daily lives. Things like cursing (there are words a hundred times more painful to hear than some curse words), poverty, racism, sexuality, gender issues, etc. are around us all the time and should be honestly discussed - not hidden, softened, or prettied up. Children aren't dumb and selectively blind. They see things, hear things, are highly sensitive witnesses. They want and deserve the truth. They need to understand and we, as the adults in their lives, are their primary source of information.

At the same time, witnessing acts of extreme violence and brutality can be traumatizing to adults, never mind young people. Within the context of a film or television show (or music video!), the viewer is expected to suspend his/her disbelief. Children do this far more readily than adults. When you suspend your disbelief, you immerse yourself in the narrative. You become part of the emerging story. And if that story is violent and scary, you actually LIVE it. You experience it fully. It's why we're on the edge of our seats and our hearts are in our throats as we read a book or watch a film.

Ultimately, I think we have to know what children are seeing and/or reading (especially since children tend to read "up" from their age/grade level), we have to be prepared to talk about it and answer the tough questions, and we have to be comfortable with the discomfort.

I have a lot more to add on this topic - particularly from the perspective of writers and artists who create work about (or that includes) violence, but I will save it for the panel at Wiscon. If you have thoughts you'd like to add, I'd love to read them.

I will do a post after the conference, too, so hopefully I can cover more of the discussion points then.

Time Keeps On Slipping...

This week is already shot. How does all that time just slip away like that? I'm working on my third book in the romance series - and by "working on," I actually mean "not writing". I did a school visit this morning (*totally* fun - one of the questions I got was, "Can you write a story for my sister?" So. Cute.), will be working on edits this week and next, and there are two conferences next week. I'm only going to one, but one of my closest friends EVER is coming in from San Francisco for BEA, so I will, obviously, need to gallivant around town with her before heading off to Wiscon at the end of the month.

And then we're into June! SHINE comes out in paperback June 15th (yay!), and I'll be in Brooklyn for a reading/discussion to celebrate. Don't know if this will be a public event, or geared for a private audience, but will post more details as soon as I have them.

How are we already half way through the year???

May Happenings

Okay, May is zooming by. Earlier this month, I was at the Hudson Children's Book Festival - which was great fun. I blogged about it here. Since I came back, I got romance novel number two (written under a pen name) on contract and am waiting for the edit letter from my lovely editor for that - should have it any day now. I have a manuscript on sub and am working on romance number three while waiting patiently :). BEA is in a couple weeks, and events at my kids' school are revving up as we start winding down the school year.

At the end of the month, I will be at Wiscon, [deep, movie-announcer voice] the leading feminist sci-fi convention [/deep, movie-announcer voice]. I'll be on three panels - Race Basics; What is Feminist Romance?; and Should Children Be Sheltered from Violence?. That last one I am moderating. So, if you are in or around Madison, WI, please send me an email! I'd love to meet you if my schedule permits.

Hudson Recap

Hudson was a blast. Of course, how can you go wrong spending the day with a whole bunch of women (and a smattering of men) who write stories for young people? Here are some quick highlights:

1. Amanda Marrone's giant, LIVE hissing cockroach
2. the "author handlers" who asked us at regular intervals if we needed anything. Thinking of ways I can something like this at home
3. lunch delivered to the table. Ditto above comment
4. sitting next to Siobhan Vivian who has to be kin somewhere down the line
5. seeing Ellen Jensen Abbott again (who, by the way, is a far wilder lady than you might guess)
6. seeing familiar Debs, Michelle Zink and Danielle Cohen Joseph, and meeting new ones - always a treat. I was speaking with Megan Frazer for a good half hour with my "author face" on before I realized I'd been interacting with her for, like, two years online
7. seeing Olugbemisola's beautiful posse come out in full support of Superstar Author Mom
8. meeting an Italian teacher who grew up with similar cultural/traditional restrictions as I did as a Punjabi, Sikh girl (!! - who knew?)
9. having Sarah Darer Littman yell, "ARE YOU SERIOUS????" in my ear
10. cozy panel discussion on Writing About Social/Political issues with Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Zetta Elliott and Sarah Darer Littman. Audience members asked some great questions and we touched on some very important points

Bonus:
11. meeting amazing, committed, and dedicated teachers, librarians, parents, and young people

There were so many more, but I need an iced latte. NYC is a steam bath today. Have a great rest-of-the-weekend, all!

Happenings

This Saturday, May 1st, I will be on a panel called Writing About Social/Political Issues at the Hudson Children's Book Festival in, er, Hudson. If you're in or around the area, please come by - it's a huge festival with tons of great workshops and books and authors and FUN. The festival is from 10-4 and our panel is at 1:30. Hope to see you there!

Diasporic Discussions

Yesterday, I did a school visit with Kavitha Rajagopalan, author of MUSLIMS OF METROPOLIS (non-fiction). When she and I were chatting about our families' journeys from South Asia to the west, she said, "Wow, how diaspora!" Indeed. In the pic below are Marina Budhos, whose upcoming YA release, TELL US WE'RE HOME, just got a starred review from *Kirkus* (most of us know how elusive that star is), yours truly in the middle, and Kavitha on the right. Unlike the panel discussion with Rita Williams-Garcia, this time I actually remembered my camera!

The discussion on South Asians in the U.S. - in a post-9/11 world - was fascinating, with Ms. Rajagopalan's foreign policy expertise and our alternating fiction/non-fiction narratives. One thing I learned was that the highest number of folks rounded up under suspicion of "terrorism" (those who had Muslim names, or otherwise fit a profile) after the September 11th attacks was in New Jersey. People who'd been in the U.S. for years, working and paying taxes, woke up in the middle of the night to authorities banging on their doors and were dragged away for "questioning" or worse. These were some of the most vulnerable members of the community - low-resourced, undocumented, working class folks who wouldn't have the funds or the necessary time off work to defend themselves in court. The irony, as Ms. Rajagopalan pointed out, is that those individuals who did carry out actual acts of terrorism were often well-resourced, well financed, here on legal visas (*if* they were foreign-born), and fluent in English.

Budhos (left), Meminger (center), Rajagopalan (right)

Marina's book, a YA about three teen friends who are daughters of maids and nannies, comes out next month. It's a twist on the usual teen girl friendship tale - definitely be sure to check it out! And Kavitha's book is available now at the link above. Her non-fiction flows beautifully and is as powerful and evocative as any fiction I've ever read - an important book for anyone who wants insight into an important chapter in recent American history.

What's Coming Up

This weekend I'll be on a panel with YA authors Rita Williams-Garcia and Marina Budhos, then two school visits next week including one with Kavitha Rajagopalan, a class trip with my six-year-old, and supporting my mentee's reading performance at the Chapters' Reading Series for Girls Write Now. After that, writing to a deadline. Writing, writing, writing. Then the Hudson Children's Book Fest and we're on to May!

Gosh. These months are passing like wisps of smoke. <-- See that? Writerly stuff. Real proof that I can right. :D

April Happenings

Book club tonight, Girl Write Now tomorrow, then a panel on Sunday. April is jam-packed, y'all. Not to mention my alter-ego's romance novel releases today and I have a fluttery stomach about that :P.

Will post on the upcoming public events soon so folks can attend if they want to.

Hope you're all enjoying the spring weather!

Links and Upcoming Events

An online friend and reviewer recently posted this link on one of the listservs I'm on. Talk about re-writing history. Worth a read, if you're interested in what's being taught in classrooms and how that impacts the stories our children grow up hearing about themselves and the world around them.

Events This Week

Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 17th, at 9:30 pm, catch a half hour interview with me on Jus Punjabi's AMERICAN VISIONS program on these networks -
DISH, channel 809
Time Warner NY/NJ, channel 373
Verizon FIOS, channel 1757
Cablevision-io NY/NJ/CT, channel 248

Thursday, March 18th, I will be reading from my book at the Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Rd (in the Bronx, obviously), from 10-11:30 am. This event is part of the giant, second annual Teen Author Festival.

Sunday, March 21st, I'll be signing copies of SHINE, COCONUT MOON at Books of Wonder in Manhattan, from 3:15-4pm. Fellow authors (and friends) Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Coe Booth, Sarah MacLean, Jon Skovron and many others will be signing as well. This is one of the author finales for the aforementioned Teen Author Festival.

More events in April; stay tuned...

Have a great day!

2010 NYC Teen Author Festival

The 2010 New York City Teen Author Festival runs March 15th through the 21st. If you missed it last year, definitely try to check it out this year.

I will be reading and signing books in the Bronx with Coe Booth, Sarah Darer Littman, and Maryrose Wood on the 18th from 10-11:30am at the Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road. Then, on Sunday the 21st, there will be a huge bunch of authors signing their books at Books of Wonder in Manhattan. The mega-event will go from 2-6pm and authors will sign in shifts as before. It was a lot of fun (and jam-packed!) last year, so you won't want to miss it!

Here is the list of authors and their time slots for Sunday's mega-booksigning. I'm in the 3:30-4:15 slot, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is in the slot right after mine, along with Debs Jon Skovron and Shani Petroff...

2:00-2:45
Alma Alexander Nora Baskin Cathleen Davitt Bell Judy Blundell Libba Bray Coe Booth Elise Broach Alexandra Bullen Nick Burd Sarah Burningham Susane Colasanti Matt De La Pena Violet Haberdasher Maggie Stiefvater

2:45-3:30
Tom Dolby Heather Duffy-Stone Sarah Beth Durst Elizabeth Eulberg Gayle Forman Aimee Friedman Jenny Han Alice Hoffman Carla Jablonksi Melissa Kantor Kristen Kemp Michelle Knudsen Peter Lerangis David Levithan

3:30-4:15
Sarah Darer Littman Barry Lyga Robin MacCready Carolyn Mackler Sarah Maclean Marianne Mancusi Amanda Marrone Wendy Mass Lauren McLaughlin Neesha Meminger Sarah Mlynowski Michael Northrup Robin Palmer

4:15-5:00
Diana Peterfreund Shani Petroff O.Rhuday-Perkovich Matthue Roth Marie Rutkoski Lisa Ann Sandell Samantha Schutz Elizabeth Scott Kieran ScottCourtney Sheinmel Sara Shepard Abby Sher Jon Skovron

5:00-5:45
Jennifer Smith Natalie Standiford Rachel Vail David Van Etten Siobhan Vivian Adrienne Maria Vrettos Melissa Walker Robin Wasserman Suzanne Weyn Lynn Weingarten Martin Wilson Jake Wizner Maryrose Wood Michelle Zink

Women in Publishing Event

On Tuesday, February 23, SAWLF (South Asian Women's Leadership Forum) will bring together leading women writers, journalists and industry professionals for a dynamic conversation on the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of writing for print and publication.

6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

This special SAWLF event will take place at the downtown Manhattan offices of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP*

One New York Plaza, NY, NY 10004
(Broad St between Water and South Streets)
*Photo ID is required for event admittance.

Registration: On-line registration will open on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 on a first-come, first-serve basis. All participants are welcome. Limited seating available.

Special Guest Panelists
Sarita Varma, Director of Publicity, Farrar Straus and Giroux

Sarah Ellison, Journalist and Author

Richa Gulati, Freelance Writer, Dancer, and Lawyer

Literary Agent, Kirsten Neuhaus

Megan Deem, Fashion Features Editor, InStyle

The moderator is author Saira Rao

For additional event details, contact Kaumudi Goda, Esq. at kaumudigoda [at] gmail [dot] com.

South Asian Women's Leadership Forum (SAWLF) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of South Asian women and girls in the marketplace. www.southasianwomen.org.

Save The Dates

The organization that I mentor for, Girls Write Now, is having a series of readings* throughout the spring. You are NOT going to want to miss them, I promise. Besides the amazing teens who will be reading (including my awesome mentee who is working an a kickbutt poem right this MINUTE), check out this stunning array of guests who will join us:

Friday (each reading is on a Friday), Feb. 26th: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of WENCH
March 26th: Nami Mun, author of MILES FROM NOWHERE
April 23rd: Lizzie Skurnick, author of SHELF DISCOVERY
May 21st: Ru Freeman, author of A DISOBEDIENT GIRL
June 18th: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK

All events are at The Center for Fiction, 17 East 47th Street (between Fifth and Madison), NYC, 6-8pm.

Please join us on any or all of the above dates, and help support a really special organization.

*Curated by Maud Newton