A May 2023 PEN America analysis of “book ban” requests found that most were filed by just eleven people.
… just think of the dozen people who have single-handedly gotten hundreds of books banned across the US! 🙃
One person can do a lot of harm as the squeaky wheel. How can you be a squeaky wheel for good?
See also:
But that also means, that if they are not willing to provide the context, I can decide to recommend whatever I want.
One good thing would be, if I could recommend the books, that are not normally read by other people.
It’s so hard to recommend books to people who haven’t read much and don’t know what they like! I love Sara’s perspective to see it as an opportunity to recommend less-read books outside of the usual titles you’d find on a booklist, or that “everyone” has read. And really, isn’t that what people are looking for — a book they can love, a story that really resonated with someone else? Book lists are a shortcut to taste, but have traditionally not been good at including titles written by women, queer folk, and people of color — so that’s another opportunity to point people to more diverse authors than the standard bestseller list too 🙂
(Like Sara, I would usually also recommend Uprooted 😉 My less popular readalike might be Swordheart by T. Kingfisher.)
Over a year since being entrusted with Ginseng’s care, Greta still can’t chase away the cloud of mourning that hangs over the timid Tea Dragon. As she struggles to create something spectacular enough to impress a master blacksmith in search of an apprentice, she questions the true meaning of crafting, and the true meaning of caring for someone in grief. Meanwhile, Minette receives a surprise package from the monastery where she was once training to be a prophetess. Thrown into confusion about her path in life, the shy and reserved Minette finds that the more she opens her heart to others, the more clearly she can see what was always inside.
Another charming entry in the series. I didn’t follow the plot about Minette’s past — was she previously a fish? — but it didn’t really matter because the emotions were the important part. I liked how the adults were all supportive when the kids wanted help but also let them make their own decisions. I appreciate that everyone in this had something meaningful to contribute even though they had few lines.
You finished a rough draft: Now what?? I know so many of us struggle with how to take our first draft from where it is now to where we want it to be.
How do you work with beta readers for your novel? In today’s video, I’m going to answer all your questions about beta readers!
Looking for someone who understands the book is incomplete, that you’re looking for feedback, needs to provide constructive criticism and be honest
She recommends line editor before beta read — beta read is one of the final steps
Most beta readers are not paid in $$$ — get to read book early and participate in process, behind the scenes working with the author — but be super thankful
How do you find beta readers? Hard when you’re a new author without fans 🤷♀️ Consider friends and family? Start building a relationship with people — Goodreads groups?
Writers can be tricky beta readers, but an option — beta read swap
Don’t have to have a beta reader — if you can at least have one other person read it (even a copyeditor)
She gets feedback on Google Docs — makes a beta reader version and gets comments on same copy
Also sends a form with questions or a list of questions to guide them through the process
Gives them a copy of the final book
Beta readers will take as long as you give them 😉 Try to give them plenty of time — two weeks to a month?
(She has list of suggested questions for beta readers)
Though touting its “remarkable precision and efficiency, providing urban planners and decision-makers with valuable insights and recommendations” the actual output of ChatGPT’s attempt to write a zoning ordinance will assure every planner that their job is safe.
I wasn’t expecting the urban advocacy blog I follow to get in on the AI debate 😂
The exercise, however, is quite useful. It uses the weaknesses of natural language processors like ChatGPT to highlight the weaknesses of planners.
So the bot is not drawing words from ordinances that successfully built cities. It’s drawing words from ordinances that successfully ran today’s political gauntlet and got adopted. There is no tie between the success of these words and the successful development of good neighborhoods. This is a best practices document in politics, not in urbanism.
Emphasis mine.
“We have created this podcast as an easy way for any parent, citizen, or interested party to get the highlights, and our take, on what happened last night at School Committee.”
Also the organization Documenters provides training for community journalists (they use the word citizen a lot on their website which makes sense from the “civic” standpoint of participation in representative government, but the word also has connotations about immigration status so I try to avoid using it outside of that definition)
This is a cool idea — but also having worked in government I know how long those meetings are 💤💤💤 More power to these reporters! I have appreciated a local reporter who live tweets local council meetings related to transportation (and am recalling they’re someone who I’m hoping has moved to another platform where I follow people?)
Jeremy (weblog.restlesslens.me)Like the Inuit with all their words for snow and the Scots with all their words for rain, I wonder if, as we confront the tumult inside of us, we need an expanded vocabulary to describe the subtle differences among the environments of our selves. I think the LGBTQIA+ community, using a string of letters that marches on toward a plus implying always more, has made an important contribution here: recognition that once we begin to focus our honest attention inward, we find a world as diverse and worthy of vocabulary as the one outside…
Neither natural winemakers or drinkers nor vegans are the powerful ones here. If you’ve been thinking they are, perhaps it’s time to interrogate why you feel that way—to ask how we can move forward for a better world, instead of mocking anyone trying to do things a bit differently.
The actual similarities between natural wine and veganism are, at the end of the day, about giving a shit.
If there is a commonality between natural wine and “the vegan movement”…, it is that people who do not participate in them overstate the influence and strength of both of these concepts. They are threatening because of the perceived “aggression” of the believers, forcing bottles imported by Jenny & Francois and Impossible Burgers down everyone’s throats! (This is not happening.)