Censorship in America

Although today we tend to think of censorship as a modern problem, it isn't new at all. You might be surprised to discover just how far back the tradition extends. In ancient times, banning books meant burning books. Books were hand-written, with few copies and burning was a very effective method of eradicating all traces of an idea. However, the advent of the printing press in 1450 made it so much easier to produce a book that it has become virtually impossible to destroy any book completely. (In a side note, the first list of censored books was published in 1559 by the Roman Catholic Church - a list that continued to be printed until 1966.)

  In 1650, 125 years before Thomas Jefferson put pen to paper and laid out the Bill of Rights, The Meritorious Price of our Redemption, Justification, & c. by William Pynchon became the first book banned in America. The book opposed the Purtanical teachings of the day and was immediately banned. It was ordered burned and a day of "fasting and humiliation" followed in order for the citizens to contemplate the role Satan had played in these wild ideas. Only 4 copies of the book survived.


  Although this was the first, it wouldn't be the last time a book was banned in America. Modern censorship was pioneered by Anthony Comstock, founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1872. He was responsible for the "Comstock Law," passed a year later by Congress, which banned the mailing of works deemed to be obscene. Over the next 40 years, it is estimated that over 120 tons of printed works were confiscated. The "obscene" works that were so dangerous? Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights and works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, to name a few.

It took the specter of Nazi book-burning to show Congress how wrong the law was. It was repealed in 1933.

Of course, we know that the possibility of censorship continues to exist, even today. And although we celebrate our right to read every year with Banned Books Week, the fight continues. When Judith Krug founded BBW, she wasn't only fighting against the public challenges to ban books. Because a public challenge draws attention, and with enough attention a book may not be banned. Ms. Krug was also fighting against the silent banning of books. You know, the teacher, librarian or parent who will quietly remove a book for someone else's "protection." She estimated that for every one publicly challenged book (and there have been over 4,000 challenges in the last decade alone), there are four to five that go unreported. That's four or five books that disappear from the shelf and no one notices.

Although today burning a book is mostly symbolic - or a way to garner free publicity -when the public doesn't have free access to any book, any idea, it's like that book has been burned. And maybe we didn't start the fire, but when we don't stand up and demand the book's return - demand that censorship stop - it's like we didn't put it out.

We should all celebrate our right to read - anything we want, any time we want. And we should exercise these rights often!

Banned Books Week: Judith Krug's Legacy

Banned Books Week is an event that is observed every year during the last week of the month of September. This year, Banned Books Week runs from September 25 to October 2.

In 1982, librarian Judith Krug helped establish the first Banned Books Week. At the time, Ms. Krug was the director of the American Library’s Association Office for Intellectual Freedom. Ms. Krug is quoted as saying, “…libraries serve the information needs of all of the people in the community — not just the loudest, not just the most powerful, not even just the majority. Libraries serve everyone.”

In fact, Ms. Krug argued that books even she herself found offensive should not be banned from the public at large, and that “My personal proclivities have nothing to do with how I react as a librarian.”

In 2002, Krug related this humorous story to The Chicago Tribune, acknowledging her parents as the people who first instilled in her an appreciation for freedom of speech:

At about the age of twelve, young Judith was caught late one night by her mother with a flashlight and a sex education book.

“It was a hot book; I was just panting,” Krug recalled.

When her mother walked in and asked what she was doing, Krug was forced to show her the book.

“She said, ‘For God’s sake, turn on your bedroom light so you don’t hurt your eyes.’ And that was that,” Ms. Krug said.

Judith Krug died of stomach cancer on April 11, 2009 at the age of 69, but she left a lasting legacy – Banned Books Week celebrates our freedom of expression and our right to read whatever we, as individuals, should so choose.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK

Celebrate Banned Books Week by exercising your right to read.

Check out the list below of the Top 25 Banned/Challenged Books. Which ones have you already read? Which ones do you want to read? This is the perfect opportunity to choose a book from the list and find out what's inside that has everyone in such an uproar.

1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12 It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25 Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan

List compiled by the ALA.  Want to see more Banned Books?  Check out the ALA website for the Top 100
 
As you look through the titles, keep in mind that this isn't an "All Time" list - oh no, this list is the most frequently banned or challenged books from 2000-2009!  All of these books have been banned, or attempted to be banned in the last 10 years.
 
What is your opinion on banning or restricting access to books?

E-Books: Blessing or Curse?

Admittedly, I live in a two e-reader household.  I bought a Kindle for my husband as a gift, and about six months later I purchased a Barnes and Noble Nook for myself.  I have stacks and stacks of traditional books that I have purchased over the last few years, some read, some not, but they take up so much space.  That's what attracted me to the world of e-readers.  You can download around 1,500 books to your e-reader, and if that's not enough, you can add a memory card so that you can add to your library.

I'll dispense with the Kindle vs. Nook debate.  The main difference is that the Nook has a touch screen menu at the bottom, whereas the Kindle has a little button-like keyboard.  As far as design, I slightly prefer the Nook for its touchscreen, but the usability is similar to the Kindle.  You can adjust the font size on the screen, so you don't have to worry about text being too small.  Additionally, the screen has no glare and really does appear very similar to a printed page.  I've not yet seen an iPad in use, but I understand it's pretty cool. 

A major advantage to purchasing e-books over printed books is price.  Many e-books can be purchased for $9.99 or less compared to $15 to $20 for the print version.  Both Amazon and Barnes and  Noble offer a selection of free books as well, including many of the classics.  Additionally, you can lend and borrow books from your friends who also own e-readers.  Another great feature is that you can usually download the first chapter or two to see if you like the book before you purchase it.  And, you can shop from home and get the book almost instantly.

By the time my daughters are in college, I'm hopeful that most textbooks can be downloaded onto an e-reader, which is a trend that has already begun.   You know how outrageously expensive hard cover text books are.  Plus, with e-textbooks, they won't have to lug all those heavy books around in a backpack!

As a reader, I'm a fan of the e-book.  They do lack a certain tactile quality that you get from a printed book, but for me, the benefits of e-readers outweigh the comfort I get from cracking open a new printed book.

As a writer, however, I'm wondering how I feel about e-books. I haven't published a book...yet. When I do, however, the reduced royalty in e-book sales versus traditional book sales is disturbing.  With e-books, the publisher takes a greater chunk of the profit and the author and the retailer get the shaft.  If the author can make up the difference by selling a larger volume of books in electronic form, that's fine.  But there are no guarantees for increased sales if your book is released in both electronic and traditional forms.


Collectively, authors should certainly be savvy in negotiations with publishers when it comes to e-book royalties.  In this pivotal time in the publishing industry, authors should bare their backbones to try to shape a future industry that will treat authors equitably. Of course, that's easy for me to say, as someone who's never negotiated a publishing deal.

What are your thoughts on e-books?  Do you feel differently about them from a reader's perspective than you do from a writer's perspective?  I'd love to know your thoughts on e-books in general. 

Writing Dialogue

You can walk the walk, but can you talk the talk?

You do it every day. Women do it more than men. You probably started doing it in you crib. What is it? Talking! All of us speak, but we probably give the question “what’s for dinner” more consideration than we do to our ability for speech – or at least we spend more time talking about it, anyway! We simply take conversation for granted. So why is it, then, that creating believable dialogue is such a conundrum for so many talented writers? Ever pick up a book, get enchanted by the plot, then completely lose interest the moment the character opens his or her mouth? Sure, it happens all the time. You can imagine the setting in your mind, feel the scene unfolding – then wham – out of nowhere, the character’s tone or style of speech or stilted language jolt you right out of the story.

Here are some ideas for winning dialogue: 

If you have taken the time to really get to know your Main Character (MC) then you should also take the time to listen to how he/she speaks. Does he/she have a dialect? Use a lot of slang? Talk with the Queen’s English or use more street lingo? Make the dialogue match the MC.

Beware of the “information dump.” Sure, it seems easy enough – you’ve got to work that back story in there somewhere; right? Why not just have your MC give a grand soliloquy and fill all that boring stuff in? Because it is boring is why. It’s a chore to read through a big clump of information. If it’s that important for the reader to know, find a more creative way to weave it into your story.

Limit the adverbs. Yes, your MC might say things “softly,” “loudly,” “proudly,” “bravely,” and a whole host of other “-ly” ending ways. Some editors will advise you to remove all such tags. I come from a poetic background and can’t quite help myself when it comes to adding color. Just watch that you don’t abuse the adverbs. 

A lot of authors read their work out loud. To themselves. Okay, that’s great and all, but honestly, you just don’t hear yourself the way others hear you. Have you ever caught yourself on an answering machine or voice mail, for example, and thought, “Geez, who the hell was that? Oh yeah, that’s me!” Well, it’s like that. So have someone else read your work to you. You get an added bonus from this one – stuff that sounds good/makes perfect sense in your head may not translate so great after you hear it from someone else’s lips.

Be careful not to limit your character. You are not your MC. This is probably the most important thing I can say, so I will repeat it:  You are not your Main Character.  Your MC may say things that offend you – or that you (as an author) are afraid may offend others. Stay true to your MC and let their character unfold through their speech. Give your MC freedom of speech and you will be surprised at how much growth your entire work will receive in return from this.

Lastly, have fun writing! Writing anything – dialogue included – should never be something that you fear or worry over. Submerse yourself in your story. Close your eyes. Let the time and place wash over you, and then open your ears. What do you hear? What are they saying? Write it down! You will soon find that Main Characters have quite a unique way of telling you exactly what they want to say!

World Building

Both in fiction and nonfiction writing alike, your work should – in some form or another – answer the “big six”:

*Who?

*What?

*When?

*Where?

*How?

*Why?

Like a good recipe, you should add a splash of character, a dollop of plot and a dash of descriptive detail. We have discussed a number of these “ingredients” previously here at Fiction Flurry. Today, we are going to focus on the where.

As fiction writers, we have far greater latitude on this particular point than our fellow nonfiction writers who must stick to “just the facts, ma’am.” Rather than simply confining ourselves to the basic relaying of information like a police blotter (the event occurred at 1:00 p.m. on 123 Main Street), we have the license to create entire universes for our characters to play in, for their lives to unfold in.

However, when creating a brand new world, as a writer you must make the rules and norms of this foreign land familiar to your reader. If all the residents of Land Xulu are purple, for example, then you must show your reader this fact and reinforce it often enough so that Xulu soon becomes equated with blueberry-tinted folks in the reader’s mind. Ultimately, the imaginary world that you have created should be very much real in the mind’s eye of your reader. If you cannot achieve this from the outset, you lose credibility – and ultimately, your reader will be less likely to follow you into the land of make believe. The technical term for this is the suspension of disbelief. When you create a new universe with unique facts and laws of nature, a place that would not otherwise exist in reality, then your reader must pause, set down their preconceived notion of what is and what is not possible, then follow you as you guide them on this voyage.

Let’s look at an example from modern literature. If I were to say to you "Hogwarts," then the majority of you would be able to immediately conjure a fantastical place populated by Wizards, Muggles, and Dementors; with lessons on Divination and Occlumency; and where games of Quidditch break up the long days of studying. If any of these foreign words sound familiar to you, then you know I am talking about the world of Harry Potter as brought to life by author J.K. Rowling. Of course, none of these things exist in real life, yet within the pages of Ms. Rowling’s novels, we are immersed in a new and exciting universe that takes us away, and we go happily along for the ride. This is the wonder of the suspension of disbelief, and what is possible when you invest in solid world building.

World building is just one more tool in the writer’s kit. Even if you are not creating an entirely new universe, as an author you should make sure and certain that your characters, plot and storyline are all feasible within the confines of your particular novel, short story or poem. Immerse your reader into this world, and just see where the imagination can take you!

Get to Know the Members of Fiction Flurry

Wow, what a great response we had from BlogFest!  Welcome to everyone new, and welcome back to those of you who have followed Fiction Flurry for a while.  Your comments provided a wealth of ideas for future posts.  I had intended on doing a post on banned books, which some of you suggested.  However, when I was researching, I learned that "Banned Book Week" is less than two weeks away, so I'll reserve that post to coincide with that week.

In the alternative, since we have so many new followers, I thought I'd give you a general introduction to the contributors.  Fiction Flurry is comprised of the members of a local writers group in Marysville, Ohio, spear-headed by yours truly.  We meet for two hours every other week to discuss writing tips, offer each other suggestions for agents and conferences, and most of all, to critique each other's work. 

We've turned what other groups might consider a challenge into one of our strengths.  We all write in different genres.  Though we may not know the particular requirements of each other's genres, we've decided that a good story is a good story, no matter the genre.  There should be conflict, engaging characters, strong dialogue, a descriptive sense of place and time, an ebb and flow to the pacing, and a plot that holds the readers interest from the first to the last page.  Simple!  (Ha)

I don't want to speak for our contributors.  Each of them might choose to do a post, or at least an opening to a post, introducing themselves in detail.  I'll start the introductions with little old me, and then give you a general introduction to our other wonderful contributors.

I'm Rachel Dilley, and I spend most of my time as a wife, mother, full time paralegal, amateur genealogist, wanna-be historian, and slowly developing writer.  I obtained my B.A. degree in English, but ended up in the legal profession.  There is a lot of writing involved in my job as a paralegal...dry, boring pieces with words such as heretofore, therefrom, and adjudication.  That's part of the reason I decided to start a writers group.  I enjoy writing, but my experience was limited to legal briefs.  I needed motivation to write artful things.  (Artful, not awful.  OK, perhaps some of my stories have been awful.)

My writing for the past two years has primarily consisted of short stories and personal essays.  I try, unsuccessfully, to maintain my own blog, which you can see here.  This year, I've had a little bit of publishing success with my personal essays.  You can see my essay published in the Columbus Dispatch here, and my essay in BGSU Magazine here.  Hopefully, there will be more publications to come.

Now, meet the rest of our regular contributors:

Michele Downey writes mainly paranormal romance and is a stickler for proper grammar and punctuation, to our benefit.  She is a great proofreader with a keen attention to detail.  The heroes in her fiction are always dark and handsome, just the way they should be in romance.  Michele is married to a history buff and can recite Ken Burns's miniseries "The Civil War" by memory, if not by choice.  Check out her blog here.

John Kershaw is the newest member of Fiction Flurry.  He is a seasoned character who has spent time in the Ukraine teaching English.  He has published a novel based on his experiences there.  John likes historical fiction of the 20th century variety.  He is married with grown children.  Here is a link to his book:  The Farm at Novestroka

Annie McElfresh is the baby of the group.  She writes in the Young Adult genre specializing in paranormal.  Annie is very active in the YA community and is "in the know" regarding agents and publishing deals in her genre.  Plus, she reads more books than anyone I know.  Check out her blog here.

Colleen Scott is our resident Wonder Woman.  She home schools her four children and still has time to be a prolific writer.  Colleen focuses on Christian/Inspirational fiction specializing in romance/suspense.  She is the queen of pacing in her fictional works, and in life.

Beth Zellner allows her accomplished skill in poetry to spill over into her fiction.  The result is beautifully written prose that can be classified as literary fiction.  She is very close to finishing her first novel, which is set in the mountains of West Virginia in the early 20th century.  Beth's blog can be found here.

Additionally, we have a contributor emeritus, Regency romance author Susan Gee Heino.  Susan has just published her second book, Damsel in Disguise (Berkley Sensation).  Her first book, Mistress by Mistake (Berkley Sensation), was released in late 2009.  Susan's books feature a wit and sense of humor not always seen in romance novels.  Check out her blog here.

That's all, folks.  We're glad you're here.  Stop by our comment section and let us know a little bit about YOU!