It’s been over a year since I updated this site. In that time, I had a baby, I nearly died, I had my heart broken and I got to scratch one more thing off my bucket list. That’s a lot of living and feeling and doing for thirteen months. My absence from here, however, was mostly about the baby. She’s awesome. Now, I have returned and some much needed sprucing is commencing. Consider yourselves warned.
Blog
So Much Wrong Here
There is so much wrong with this dismissive, judgmental article about people’s reading tastes/habits that it’s hard to know where to start, so it’s time for a list!
1) A good story is a good story, regardless if it is written for a child, a teenager or an adult; powerful themes/narratives transcend age/demographics.
2) The quick and blunt dismissal of genre fiction as “trashy” is woefully misguided (as someone who ekes out a living intelligently writing about and investigating horror, this makes me want to sit this journalist down and give ’em a literary lesson or two).
3) Books take us on adventures: sometimes they take us back in time to our younger, more naive years; sometimes they take us to places in the world (or on other worlds) we have no chance of ever experiencing; sometimes they guide us through tragedies and traumas we may never have to face first-hand. By limiting the scope of what we read, we are limiting our experiences and our ability to think/perceive/imagine things outside of our immediate reality, gender, age, creed, etc.
4) We should honestly be happy (and celebrate the fact) that some people still love books.
5) As an adult, it’s not particular mature to put down other adults’ interests and tastes. That’s petty grade school playground stuff.
New Interview up at Between the Lines!
New interview with me hits the web! I talk about how I got started writing, why I’m so drawn to the dark stuff, and offer some (hopefully helpful) advice to aspiring scribes. Read it at http://www.betweenthe-lines.com/#!deathofcool/c210v.
If I Was Stupid Rich…
A few weeks ago, while we were having our Valentine’s Day dinner, my husband asked me what I would do with my money if I was extremely wealthy. I said, after buying a modest house and modest car and setting enough aside that I could live comfortably off the interest for the rest of my life (so I could write fiction full time), I’d participate heavily in charitable actions. But not by actually giving money to charities, instead I’d keep my eye out for news stories like this one, where society has either let someone down or a family has stumbled upon a patch of insurmountable bad luck and I would anonymously give them the money that would once again improve their quality of life. As I explained, that would be a million times more meaningful to me than some stupid $10,000 handbag or a lot of the other dumb things the tremendously rich waste their money on.
Extra Life 2013 – Details For Tomorrow
Tomorrow is gaming marathon day. Me + a whole bunch of gamers from around the world will be aiming to play for 25 hours straight to raise funds for sick and injured kids. As promised I will be doing hourly updates on my progress, mental/physical condition, and what exactly I’m up to, but I won’t be doing them here.
The best way to follow along is to subscribe to my Tumblr (http://monicaskuebler.tumblr.com/) or to my Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/deathofcool).
If you’d like to sponsor me (and help out the SickKids Foundation here in Toronto) – it’s not too late! – visit http://www.extra-life.org/participant/monicaskuebler
This is going to be fun…
Extra Life Achieved!
Holy smokes! I just met my Extra-Life 2013 fundraising goal! Thank you everyone who has supported me in this effort. Please stay tuned for all the wacky posts and updates during this Saturday’s 25-hour game-a-thon. Love you all!