The Final Word

I've posted about this at least once before, but I thought this letter deserved a reply. Number one: the writer took the time to write to me rather than just putting up a screed on Amazon (which she may have also done, but whatever). And two, the writer used this cool, glittery orange ink. And so there's something about glittery orange ink that takes the sting out of someone talking about burning your book. These will be my final words on the whole homeschooling issue! See notes in brackets.

The Letter

I read your book Alice, I Think. You're an excellent writer and very talented with lots of potential. [Thanks! Hey! A fan letter. I love fan letters!] But your description of homeschools was so far-fetched in my opinion that it was hard to believe the otherwise funny homeschool freak parts. Maybe homeschoolers are like that in Canada, and a couple in America, but not all of them. I should know. I'm a homeschooler. [Darn. Not a fan letter.]

Sure, I've met a couple of those homeschool families with a dozen kids who all wear denim jumpers (the girls) or nice slacks and button-up collared shirts (the boys), and all the girls wear their waist-length hair straight, parted in the middle, with maybe a headband or a low braid, and they all graduate from college at fourteen or something, but seriously, not all are like that. Most homeschoolers I've met are normal; they (can) use bad language, be aggressively mean, talk about boys, and some are the opposite. Sure, some are really weird, but so are some public school kids. [You know, Erin, you have a good eye for detail and a way with description. I hope you write stories. Oh, and as for your point about both homeschoolers and public school kids being weird, point taken. But when you read Alice's descriptions of homeschoolers, consider the source. Does Alice seem like an entirely reliable narrator to you? No. She's kind of strange and so is everyone in the book. She makes equal fun of homeschooling, public schooling and alternative schooling. She's just like that. But don't worry, as she matures, as she does in my third book, Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last, which will be out in May, she's considerably less judgmental. Please be assured that I know not all homeschool kids are weird. Although it is my inner conviction that all the most interesting people are a bit weird, no matter what type of schooling they receive. My favorite family of all time homeschooled: the Durrell family from My Family and Other Animals. Man, I was so jealous of Gerry Durrell. And my husband and I would consider homeschooling any offspring, at least until it was time to teach Grade 8 math, at which point I'd have to call in a professional because my skills would be tapped out. We would probably homeschool until our offspring decided we were too irritating and demanded to be sent to a regular school. So yeah. Anyway. Sorry.]

After I read your book, my first impulse was to tear it up so I wouldn't be able to read it again, namely that whole tent of womanhood thing. [I'm not sure what to make of this. What's the problem with the womanhood tent? Oh, never mind. Sorry about that too. But you have to admit it has nothing to do with homeschooling!] I did that. [You mean you tore it up? Geez. I wish you just gave it away to a charity. Maybe one with people that you don't particularly like. That way you'd be getting rid of my book AND taking revenge!] Then, since you presented homeschoolers as psychos, I thought about burning it and sending you the ashes, something I can imagine someone from your book doing. [I'm thanking my Big Daddy Chakras that you didn't send me an envelope full of ashes because that would have freaked me out. I might have thought it was anthrax and called in a Hazmat team and then our entire house would be swathed in white plastic right now and we'd have white plastic tunnels all over. But at least the white plastic would stop that woodpecker from pecking our siding. So there would be a silver lining. Still and all, I'm glad you didn't send me an envelope full of ashes. Because that would be so negative.] But then I changed my mind and chose instead to just write you a letter like a normal person would do. [Excellent call on your part. Thanks.]

Okay, before I end this letter, I'd like to add that although homeschoolers aren't all locked up in their houses (I hate that type of stereotype!!) the thing with the Miss Something [that would be Miss Homeschooling, whom you will note is the outgoing Miss Smithers, proving that homeschoolers are a diverse group that includes antler wearers, religious people, beauty queens, good letter writers and incredibly lucky junior naturalists like Gerald Durrell, and everybody in between] at the beginning of the book after Alice was really funny, because it was more realistic. Not totally, but closer, and that takes your mind off how wrong it is so you can think about the humor instead. [Fair enough. I have to tell you, after the backlash I received from Alice, I Think I was sweating about even mentioning the word homeschooling in Miss Smithers with anything other than reverential respect. There's only so much angry mail one writer can take!]

Keep up the writing, and I look forward to seeing what you'll come up with next. [Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to write to me. I think it's quite interesting that you could be offended enough to tear up my book, then burn the pieces but still write me a thoughtful letter with quite an insightful critique. It's a mark of a sophisticated mind that you are able to hold opposing thoughts in your mind and look rationally at your reactions and why you are having them. Seriously. It's actually a good quality for a writer to have. Also, I like your pen.]

Yours truly,

Erin

[Thanks, Erin. Keep in touch.]

Books and Beach Dogs

I'm not blogging much because I'm in the final stages of completing the new book and that is taking all of my energy. The story is a comedy/drama about two young riders, Alex and Cleo. It's about horses and the sport of dressage and coming out and coming of age and I'm completely and totally obsessed with it. It feels a little scary but also exciting to work on something that is not an Alice book. Look for excerpts here sometime in the next couple of months. Also, if you'd like to receive notices of new books, excerpts from upcoming projects, and information about my tour schedule, send your name and email address to andfurthermore@shaw.ca (link on sidebar) to become part of my mailing list. (Which is theoretical at the moment but will be a reality soon!)

In lieu of a long blog here are a few photos of Mexican beach dogs. They are live-fast, die-young creatures and only the strong survive. They are also supernaturally cute. If certain people hadn't laid down the law, all of these dogs would currently be residing here at our home in Nanaimo. Or, more likely, we would still be in Mexico trying to get papers to bring them home.

Writing

the blood sport for squeamish people

http://www.nytimes.com

And Gawker's take:
(Warning for Eileen: language!)

http://www.gawker.com

If EVERY tree falls in the forest

A Rant

Several times a week I have to drive from Nanaimo out to Yellow Point along the Inland Island Highway. I used to see four or five fully loaded logging trucks. Lately, I've been seeing ten or more. You can't tell me that's a sustainable rate of cut.

I'm certainly not anti-logging. I grew up in a logging town and the forest industry put food on our table. My step-dad was a faller until he broke his back on the job, then he was a kiln-manager at a local mill. My brother Trevor is a millwright. My brothers Aaron and Scott are furniture makers. My aunt and uncle were both in forestry. But when the logging companies, with the blessing of the provincial government, are destroying not only the forests, but the communities around them, it breaks my heart.

If you ask any logger in a thoughtful moment what they think about the rate of cut in BC forests you'll find out that they aren't comfortable with it either. A friend of mine who works in the industry described what they are doing, out of sight of the highways and prying eyes, as "nuking" the forest. People go to work in the bush because they love it. Big city environmentalists would do well to remember that. But we are all caught in a trap when government regulation makes greed the priority.

Most of the logs I see on those trucks on the highway aren't staying in B.C. to be milled or processed. Those bad boys are headed straight overseas or to the U.S. That's why you see those stickers: "Stop Raw Log Exports". When all the timber is gone, the forests destroyed, the logging companies will move on. Head offices aren't located in logging towns. They are located in places like Toronto and Seattle. Our railroads have been sold, and most of B.C. Hydro. And by the time the next election comes around, I'm willing to bet the damage from this round of deregulation in the forests will be irreparable.

As the weather gets hotter and drier, partly as a result of deforestation, new seedlings die in the ongoing drought and whole communities, human and otherwise, that depend on healthy forests are destroyed. Don't think we can't end up living on barren rock and sand here. After all, Iraq, to take one extreme example, used to be home to great stands of cedar.

Some links for those who are interested:

http://www.conservationvoters.ca

http://www.BCFacts.Org

A recent article by Malcom Gladwell about the end of the Vikings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/123004G.shtml

A series of essays: A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright
http://www.amazon.ca

Lines like this

are why Miss Alli, on Television Without Pity, is one of the funniest writers anywhere:

"it's like he's 37 percent girl, and it's the kind of girl who's 74 percent nail polish"

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com

Horses of Mexico

Here are a few of the horses we saw on our travels. These are some of the larger of the pack horses used to carry tourists to a waterfall in Quimixto (sp?). There was some kind of strange correlation at work: the larger the tourist, the smaller and bonier the horse. I took no pictures of the seriously skinny horses because I found them a little depressing. However, I would like to find myself a horse that can survive on the kind of hay they feed at some of the ranches. That way I could just go round and tear up dead annuals from people's gardens and take the odd dried bit of lawn clipping and the horse would thrive! Those are some hardy little horses in Quimixto...











Okay, now I will get back to the backlog of work that seems to have piled up while I was away.