The Two Year Novel Writing course at Forward Motion

I just realized that this was the perfect place to post a link to Forward Motion for Writers, and in particular the two year novel writing course that is due to begin again in 2010. It's free, it's highly structured, and this may be the last year it is available to everyone for free. I've done it once before, petered out a bit before it was all done, but still have material I want to work on from it. I'm planning to start 2010 off with a bang, and this looks like a good way to do it. The Two Year Novel course is here. Check it out.

But don't wait too long to decide, because January is upon us.

Fifty Best Lit Blogs

Emerging Writers Network, one of the blogs I watch (though not in as thorough a way as I'd like), posted a link to this "best of blogs" sort of list. EWN made that list. There's a lot here for the literarily minded. I post it now mainly because it makes it easy for me to return to it once I have an hour or two.

Of course, most of my favorite blogs aren't on it...

Jamal Place

Although this blog was not originally started as a site of humanitarian postings, lately it's become such. Here's one more thing you probably have missed, and it's one that has a special place in my heart. Take a look at the website for Jamal Place, a home for at risk boys on the South Side of Chicago.

What's a Californian's connection to the South Side of Chicago, you ask? Good question. The short answer is that this is my Illinois cousin Ann Deuel's brain child--and in many ways, her heart child. After stints as both teacher and principal in various educational settings, she had a vision of building a place in one of the most challenged parts of the city, and making this house a home in a true sense to a small number of boys out of some of the most troubled family situations that any kid is asked to face.

It's hard for me to believe that Jamal Place opened its doors in 1995. The years do go by pretty fast. If you read her current director's letter, you will see that the organization has endured its share of challenges. But you will also see the amount of good and the difference it has made in some young lives.

One of the things I like most about Jamal Place is its philosophy of being involved with and giving back to the hard-pressed community it stands in. It has never viewed itself as something apart from the place which it stands, and the kids are often asked to do volunteer outreach themselves.

Of course for any readers who don't know me from Adam, my endorsement of this program doesn't mean much. But if you are looking for somewhere truly valuable to make those end of year donations, I will vouch for Jamal Place.

Although no one who knows Ann Deuel would question her convictions, her capacity for hard work, and her fundamental honesty and concern, one mystery does remain:

After growing up in a farmhouse with five brothers and no sisters--and suffice to say, she was neither a tomboy or agriculturely inclined--and then having four boy cousins as her closest and really only neighbors, what made her find her vocation challenging boys with few options to be their very best selves?

Hmm. "Challenging". I think I just answered my own question.

Amnesty International Global Write-a-Thon, Dec. 5-13

The weekend is almost upon us, but there is just time to put in a quick plug for Amnesty International's annual Global Write-a-thon, which is starting up this weekend.

Although I kind of miss the past focus of sending greetings to individuals and not so much notifying the powers that be of their situation, it's still a very cool thing to do at this time of year and kind of reminds you of the season's real priorities, whatever your faith--or lack thereof.


Here's the AI website.

Write one letter. What can it hurt?

Yoani Sanchez

Although, I follow the blog of Yoani Sanchez on a regular basis, and anyone who happens to read my Confessions of Ignorance blog has been able to see new updates from it for quite some time, I must admit that I hadn't kept up to speed recently, so it was through Adrian McKinty's post that I learned of her recent abduction by Cuba's secret police, which I then read her own first person account of here . I have also just tonight added her blog to my blog roll here, on the off chance that that will gain her a few more readers.

For any of us in the blogosphere who post our thoughts as freely and perhaps frivolously as I do, it is good to sometimes be reminded that not everyone using this medium uses it lightly or without forethought, and that there are people who speak their truths, just as you or I would, yet face the constant fear that not only their speech may be summarily blocked, but their actual liberty to walk around unimpeded on the earth may be curtailed. Abruptly.

If you enjoy your own free speech, you might want to consider visiting these two blogs,and then if you are persuaded that Yoani's own right to dissent is being blocked, send an email to the Cuban Embassy in London at embacuba@cubaldn.com.

edited to add: as this first email didn't seem to bear much fruit, I have also tried cuba@un.int, where Amnesty International has frequently requested people send their responses. Good luck.

Thank you.

Derrick Jensen in Orion

I first learned about this article by Jensen in an Utne recap, and was surprised enough by its drift to want to read the whole thing, so was happy to find that Orion has published it in its entirety on line. Jensen's point is essentially this--people alarmed by the environmental crisis the world faces have wandered down a false alley in thinking that their personal consumer choices actually matter significantly as political statements. The reason is that individual human consumption is dwarfed by the consumption of industry, government, agribusiness, the military and so on.

Jensen has nothing against people simplifying their life, but he's saying it is inadequate to the bigger picture. He also thinks it leads people into the false impression that a human being can only be a harmful presence and never a helpful one.

Anyway, what are you waiting for? Check it out.

Nanowrimo 2009

Well, October has hit and the question is upon us: Nanowrimo--am I in or out.

Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month for those who don't want to be bothered to click on the link (who are you?) is a one month extravaganza of suffering, perversely fun, in which anyone who chooses to participate attempts to write a 50,000 word novel--okay, novella--for no reason except for the pleasure/agony of the thing itself. You can do it all alone, you can reach out to online pals for support, you can even connect up with people in your very own region and sweat it out together.

I have participated in this oddly exhilerating month three times and have just about made my mind up to a fourth. I highly recommend it to a few groups of people: the essentially lazy (that would be me), those who have always wanted to tackle a larger project but keep coming up with some excuse about time or whatever, and those who basically feel terrified--but intrigued--by the whole idea would be on the short list.

The animating force behind this whole enterprise is Chris Baty, and it's worth the price of the ticket (though it's actually free, unless you want to be generous and donate something) to get his pep talks once a week and be boosted by his characteristic humility and 'we can do it!' attitude.

Come on--at least take a look at the website. If you're wondering if this is for you, well, it is.