This survey is ancient in terms of the progression of COVID-19, but there’s still interesting figures in this survey from @nifty conducted at the end of March into COVID-19. This survey was conducted before the Olympics were postponed and the state of emergency declared. So far I’d put myself in the not really worried category; […]

Gestern gab es auf der „Bild“-Titelseite mal wieder Wut, Verzeihung, „WUT“: Keine Frage, die Wirtinnen und Wirte, die sich in der „Bild“-Zeitung und bei Bild.de vor allem über die Bundesregierung, die Bundeskanzlerin und die Corona-Maßnahmen beschweren, haben aktuell ganz bestimmt ernstzunehmende wirtschaftliche Sorgen. Sie stecken in einer misslichen Lage. Der Mann ganz rechts, dessen Wut […]

1. „Mit Totschlägern auf das Team los“ (zdf.de) Am vergangenen Freitag wurde ein Kamerateam der ZDF-Satiresendung „heute-show“ bei Dreharbeiten in Berlin-Mitte von Unbekannten angegriffen. Mehrere Teammitglieder, darunter auch drei Security-Mitarbeiter, mussten ins Krankenhaus, wurden jedoch nach der Behandlung am selben Abend wieder entlassen. Die Motive der Täter seien noch unklar, so die Berliner Polizeipräsidentin Barbara […]

Am vergangenen Donnerstag schoben sie sogar die Kanzlerin vor: Seit Wochen schon versucht die „Bild“-Redaktion, den Virologen der Berliner Charité Christian Drosten schlecht dastehen zu lassen. Sie bemüht sich, Drostens Autorität als Wissenschaftler zu untergraben, arbeitet genüsslich frühere Fehleinschätzungen heraus, stellt ihn als Einflüsterer dar, macht ihn zum Kollegenschwein. Damit dieses negative Bild irgendwie passt, […]

1. Kommentar: Die Kritik an Rezo und dem Nannen-Preis zeigt ein Grundproblem des alten Journalismus (meedia.de, Tobias Singer) Als der Youtuber Rezo mit dem Nannen-Preis ausgezeichnet wurde, gab es nicht nur Glückwünsche, sondern auch Kritik. An manchen Stellen hieß es, die Wahl der Jury sei ein Fehler gewesen. Der Hauptvorwurf: Rezo sei kein Journalist und […]

Es geht um den Begriff „Ausgangsbeschränkungen“. Und wer jetzt befürchtet, es wird hier allzu wortklauberisch, der oder die sei beruhigt: Es geht um deutlich mehr. Es geht darum, wie die „Bild“-Redaktion ein Urteil eines Verfassungsgerichts falsch wiedergibt und so die eigene Agenda in der Corona-Krise vorantreibt. „Bild“-Redakteur Filipp Piatov schrieb vergangene Woche über einen Beschluss […]

Zeitknappheit, Personalmangel, begrenzte Ressourcen … Wir kennen die Probleme der Redaktionen nur allzu gut und haben dafür die Lösung: Mit unserem Würfelspiel „Kurz vor Redaktionsschluss“ lassen sich, jawoll, auch kurz vor Redaktionsschluss auf die Schnelle druckreife Teaser, kurze Artikel und Besprechungen ganzer Kunstausstellungen erstellen. Folge 9 unserer 16-teiligen Serie: Kunstkritiken. Hier gibt es ein größeres […]

Robert Ross (a.k.a. Bobby Tables) will be the speaker at the next nycdevops meetup on Wed, une 19, 2019.

Full details and RSVP info: https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/261842702/

NOTE: Different day and location!

• Title: Staying Informed with Kubernetes Informers
• Speaker: Robert Ross (Bobby Tables) from FireHydrant
• Date: Wed, June 19, 2019
• Location: Compass, 90 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10011

Kubernetes state is changing all the time. Pods are being created. Deployments are adding more replicas. Load balancers are being created from services. All of these things can happen without anyone noticing. But sometimes we need to notice, however, for when we need to react to such events. What if we need to push the change to an audit log? When if we want to inform a Slack room about a new deployment? In Kubernetes, this is possible with the informers that are baked into the API and Go client. In this talk we'll learn how informers work, and how to receive updates when resources change using a simple Go application.

SPEAKER BIO:

Bobby is the founder of FireHydrant.io, and also previously worked as a staff software engineer at Namely, and also built things at DigitalOcean. He likes bleeding edge tech and making software that helps teams build better better systems. From deploying Spinnaker, Istio, and Kubernetes, he has cursed at a lack of docs and code spelunked through the code and loves telling the war stories about them.

Full details and RSVP info: https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/261842702/

DevOpsDays is about 2 weeks away! Commencing on Tuesday, March 3 and lasting for 2 days, this is the best NYC-area DevOps conference you can attend. The speaker lineup is very impressive (if I say so myself :-) ).

• Tickets: Eventbrite
• Website: https://devopsdays.org/events/2020-new-york-city/welcome/
• Location: New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029

The best part about attending a local conference is that your boss only has to approve the ticket price (no hotel or flights, eh?).

Looking forward to seeing you there!

P.S. I'm speaking on the last day. It will be all new material that I haven't presented before. Please check it out!

We're hiring!

Come join my team at Stack Overflow, Inc. and help maintain one of the most visited websites on the internet!

• SREs with a Linux and web hosting focus (load balancers, Redis, web servers, etc.)
• Windows SRE w/focus on Developer Tools: If you know the Microsoft developer ecosystem, love Azure Pipelines + GitHub Actions, and want to help Stack Overflow build the world, apply today.
• SREs with Azure experience (or equiv) to help run our SaaS version of Stack Overflow

Apply at the links!

  Posted to Flickr – at the window, lower right margin. Or here.

HELLO! FOLLOW @LAMEBOOK ON INSTAGRAM! THANKS!!

Not sure if you have been playing board games or card games during the quarantine. The worst part of learning a new game is having 4 people loudly yell the rules at you at the same time. And they never give the rules in the right order. “EVERYONE GETS 5 CARDS! DON’T EAT THE POTATO […]

HEY! PLEASE FOLLOW @LAMEBOOK ON INSTAGRAM! THANKS!

HEY! FOLLOW @LAMEBOOK ON INSTAGRAM! THANKS!

The Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women introduced a ‘feminist economic recovery plan’ that is designed to help women recover from the economic hardships created by the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is the first of its’ kind in the nation. The plan, called “Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19,” centers women from the most marginalized groups that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The plan not only proposes measures that will help aid in recovery from the economic fallout of the virus, but also introduces fundamental changes to the way women’s work is valued and compensated. “I have not seen any state or nation propose a feminist economic recovery, a recovery that explicitly centers women or attempts to counteract patriarchy,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the commission. “Even proposals from left movements in the U.S. are missing this. They are bold on race and class, but gender is taken for granted. People don’t seem to understand the fundamental role of patriarchy, and how to tie gender in with race and class. So, I turned to the people with real power — women organizing in our communities who are active inside […]

A federal judge dealt a significant blow to the U.S. Women’s national team’s fight for equality on Friday. While the U.S. women’s team’s claim of unequal working conditions can go forward, a federal judge rejected the player’s claims of pay inequality. In March 2019, the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The suit alleges the U.S. Soccer Federation’s has federally discriminatory payment practices, arguing that they pay women less than men “for substantially equal work and by denying them at least equal playing, training, and travel conditions; equal promotion of their games; equal support and development for their games; and other terms and conditions of employment equal to the MNT.” Judge R. Gary Klausner wrote in his decision that USWNT members did not prove wage discrimination under the Equal Pay Act because the women’s team played more games and made more money than the men’s team. Furthermore, the women’s team also rejected a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) where they would have an identical pay structure to the men’s team in favor of a different CBA. This CBA guarantees players are compensated regardless of whether they play, while the men’s CBA does not. “This approach — merely comparing […]

Amidst great economic and political pressure to reopen in the fall, American colleges and universities must choose between enormous risk and liability if they do open and bankruptcy if they do not. Colleges and universities are among the most vulnerable institutions to disease outbreaks and would serve as efficient grounds the spread of coronavirus as students on campus share close spaces. Students are in close contact in classes, dining halls, clubs, sports, dorms, parties, events, games, assemblies, and meetings. Students could bring the virus to campus upon arrival and bring it home during breaks and holidays. Schools are worried about lawsuits in the case of outbreaks on campus, adding to the risk of reopening in the fall. If schools choose not to reopen this fall, they could lose half of their revenue and ultimately not recover, either filing for bankruptcy or closing permanently. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are being hit the hardest by the financial burden of the pandemic and because African Americans are bearing a disproportionate share of the pandemic, school populations of HBCUs are more likely to be impacted by Covid-19. In response to political pressure from the GOP to reopen in the fall, schools are […]

On Sunday, May 3rd, the body of 28-year-old transgender woman Nina Pop was found in her apartment in Sikestown, Missouri. She had been stabbed multiple times, according to police. While police have not determined a motive, they are looking into the possibility of a hate crime. The LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign reported that Pop’s murder is at least the 10th violent death of a transgender or gender nonconforming person this year, and the fifth in the past month. All five of the recent victims were transgender women of color. Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, wrote in a blog post, “for the past four weeks, we have seen the deaths of five transgender women of color in this country. We are seeing an epidemic of violence that can no longer be ignored. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people, especially trans women of color, risk our lives by living as our true selves — and we are being violently killed for doing so”. Transgender and gender nonconforming people lack expansive, explicit federal legal protections to safeguard against the vast discrimination they receive. While they are covered under the state’s hate crimes legislation, they are not explicitly […]

 A 57-year-old man from El Salvador who was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California died from Covid-19 on Wednesday. This is the first confirmed death from the coronavirus at an ICE detention center. Carlos Escobar-Mejia has been detained at the center since Jan. 10 after having lived in the U.S. for 40 years. While at the detention center, he was on a list of people who are medically vulnerable to the virus and are therefore eligible for immediate release but was hospitalized before the list was fully put together. According to ICE, 705 out of 1,460 detainees tested positive for Covid-19. At the Otay Mesa center alone, there are 140 cases of Covid-19 out of the 649 detainees there, making it the facility with the largest number of positive tests among detainees. The Otay Mesa center is owned by the private prison company CoreCivic, which has not commented on the situation there. ICE maintains that it is caring for its detainees in light of the pandemic, but detainees have said that they do not have enough space to socially distance, that they do not have enough clean masks, and that guards are not adhering to CDC […]

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has issued the final version of a new rule governing how schools must handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The new 2,033-page regulation increases privileges for students and faculty accused of assault and requires colleges to conduct live hearings to adjudicate allegations, a drastic change from the more survivor-friendly Obama-era policies. “This new regulation requires schools to act in meaningful ways to support survivors of sexual misconduct, without sacrificing important safeguards to ensure a fair and transparent process,” said DeVos in a statement. But women’s rights and survivor advocacy groups have condemned the rule changes since they were first proposed in 2018. They argue that the new rule unfairly favors those accused of assault, reduces schools’ responsibility for addressing harassment, and discourages survivors from coming forward. The regulation gives college students accused of assault the right to have representatives cross-examine their accusers in a live hearing, which advocacy organizations say will discourage survivors from coming forward. The regulation also reduces colleges’ responsibility to investigate allegations, only requiring investigations for complaints made to certain designated employees such as Title IX Coordinators, through a formal process. […]

Oswin sleeping on my desk. #cat https://ift.tt/30d1MCx

Oswin: a portrait. #cat https://ift.tt/3adw6l1

I love them both about as much as they love each other. We were extraordinarily lucky with this generation of cat friends. https://ift.tt/3alml4y

Oswin enjoying her first supervised enrichment activity. It ended when the nearby construction made a loud upsetting bang. #cat https://ift.tt/2TSjmef

We made it a lot further into the yard in our second try. https://ift.tt/2GldjH7

Oswin is starting to enjoy her backyard walks. #cat https://ift.tt/2uRzodQ

Watching the Superb Owl with this magnificent fluffer Frank. https://ift.tt/2Ok6r0O

Current status: no power at home, so an early dinner out with David instead of our planned cooking. https://ift.tt/2T0Cx3j

A bowlful of Fezzik. #cat https://ift.tt/2SWBbrF

A bowlful of Oswin. #cat https://ift.tt/380irvF

Warming up with some light deadlifts. Hashtag flex https://ift.tt/39qt7oR

Violent mutual grooming #catsofinstagram https://ift.tt/2wGSDaB

I bless your timeline with inside out Fezzik! #cat https://ift.tt/39Q0Esz

Oswin’s in the laundry basket. https://ift.tt/2IWsKXi

Today’s walk ended just as a few drops of rain fell. https://ift.tt/2xhdL7X

The best way to get young people to invest their time in reading is being willing to invest time in it ourselves.

At the beginning of every year, I reevaluate my reading habits. I love to read but sometimes I find that reading gets put on the back burner more often while other activities take priority. Sometimes these activities, especially family-related and work-related, NEED to take priority, but I find there are still ways to find more time to read. How do YOU make more time to read? Answer my survey here. I'll post results in this blog.

This year, I've signed up for Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge. I'm starting out with a goal of 100 books. This includes picture books, so I'm actually aiming for MORE than 100. In addition to being realistic, however, I also don't want to be tempted to speed-read. With picture books, for example, I want to start going through new and not-so-new picture books and read them more thoughtfully, both for enjoyment but also more analytically (how the text and illustrations interact, etc).

Anyway....I've updated my post below in case one or more tips might help others. You might also want to check out what parents suggested in my "Finding Time To Write (Even If You Have Kids)" survey.

1. I have multiple print books on the go, and keep them around the house. I usually have print books that I'm in the midst of reading in our bedroom, my office, living room, dining room, etc. Print books have the advantage over ebooks here in that just SEEING them reminds me to read them.

2. I read books on my iPhone. Yes, the screen is small but I enlarge the text to make reading comfortable. This is super-handy for reading when I may only have a few minutes, like when I'm in a line-up or waiting for someone. Or when I'm in a super-crowded subway train and am holding onto a support pole with one hand....but I can easily reach into my purse, pull out my iPhone and flip through pages with my other hand.

3. I read books on my iPad. I have an iPad Pro and find it a bit too heavy to hold for reading unless it's propped up somehow, but I find that using a pillow or my knees works fine. I prefer print books for the esthetic experience (turning print pages, feel of of a physical book etc.) but I do find that the backlit screen on my iPad enables me to read even in places with dim lighting. Some are ebooks I've bought, some are borrowed from the Toronto Public Library.

4. I read books on my Kindle. Because the Kindle is lightweight and loaded up with a lot of my ebooks, I can avoid angsting over what book to take on out-of-town trips ("I'm 3/4 of way through this book so if I finish it on the plane, what do I read next? Should I bring an extra just in case? But I'm trying to travel with just carry-on augh" etc.), I just take my Kindle and I have access to many books-on-the-go.

5. I listen to audiobooks. I remember avoiding audiobooks in the beginning because I never considered it REAL reading, plus I didn't think I could really enjoy a book by just listening to it. Then my husband played an audiobook (I can't remember the title...something about divers and scavenging in deep waters) on a long car trip and I was surprised to find it an immersive reading experience. The narration is important, though -- a bad narrator will totally turn me off a book, so I make it a habit of always listening to a sample first. I have an Audible subscription but I also borrow audiobooks from the Toronto Public Library. Whenever I'm at certain stages in book illustration, I listening to audiobooks as I draw.

SUMMARY:

As long as the story is good, I am willing to read it in any format. I do make a point of buying books from indie bookstores but I have found that my appetite for reading makes it impractical (from a budget standpoint) to buy all my reading material. The Toronto Public Library is a wonderful resource, with print and ebook and audiobooks available.

Also, I squeeze in reading whenever I can. While I'd love to save my reading stints for when I have an entire afternoon to curl up on the couch with a good book, reality is that if I always waited for The Perfect Reading Day, I wouldn't be reading nearly as many books as I do now. Before my recent eye surgery, I also found it a challenge to read a regular print book.

And as summer approaches, consider participating in Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge!

SURVEY:

How do YOU make time to read? Answer my 3-question poll here.

OTHER RESOURCES ON HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR READING TIME:

11 Ways Busy People Make Time To Read - by Eva Lantsoght on Lifehack.org

The Best Way To Find More TIme To Read - on FS Farnam Street's blog

How To Read Even More In 2019 by Strand bookstore

5 Ways To Find More Time To Read - by Kristin Wong on Mentalfloss.com

25 Expert Tips To Reading WAY More Books This Year - by John Rampton on Inc.com

Finding it a challenge to carve out time for your writing because of other work or life commitments? I encourage you to join me in my Daily Writing Challenge. Even 100 words a day adds up! I also have an Inkygirl Daily Writing Challenge Facebook Page.

One of my goals in 2020 is to not only be more diligent about writing something FIRST THING in the day, but also not to be so picky about what I write (social media posts don't count, though :-)).

Reason: Last year, I was always trying to work on my middle grade novel first thing in the morning. While my goal of morning writing worked sometimes, there were many mornings when I just had too much going on. I'd be distracted because I'd be on the road, or have morning appointments, be stressed about book illustration deadlines.

As a result, I ended up NOT writing many mornings. That fed into my growing overall frustration at my lack of progress, and eventually I just gave up.

Keep in mind that I never have trouble focusing on contracted book work. If someone is expecting work from me and I have a deadline, that's one thing. My middle grade novel project, however, tend to always be shoved to the back burner. Part of the reason, I know, is psychological. In the stupid part of my brain: "Once I finish writing and revising, I'll have to start sending them out into the world, and what if I end up getting nothing but rejections again?" 

But I'm also aware that I've spent so many years focusing on illustration work that my writing muscles still feel rusty, and that's feeding into my whole "but what if I can't write anymore" insecurities.

The solution, I think, is that I need to write a LOT more, and on a daily basis, even if it's not writing for my middle grade novels. I like what Jeff Goins said in his post, My Morning Routine In 10 Simple Steps. After breakfast every morning, he writes something.

From the Goinswriter.com article on a morning routine:

This can be a blog post, book chapter, article, or just some random notes to myself. For me, it’s not about what I write as much as it is important just to write. Usually, I wrote around 1000 words; sometimes less, sometimes more.

I've started to do this as well. Sometimes I write by hand in one of my Rhodia hardbound journals (also an excuse to use one of my fountain pens), sometimes I write on the computer. Sometimes poetry, a sentence or two from an imaginary story that doesn't (yet) exist, stream-of-consciousness first-person of one of the characters in my book, sometimes a blog post.

Do you do morning writing? Do you have a life that makes finding writing time a challenge? Feel free to post below.

Advice for those who are trying to get published or who want a longterm career in the publishing industry: you need to develop a thick hide when it comes to criticism. 

No matter what stage you are in your career, if you are putting yourself and your work out there for people to see (whether it's agents or editors or art directors or reviewers or other readers), you WILL get criticism. It might be criticism in the form of critiques from a trusted group of writer or illustrator friends. It might be a form rejection letter or detailed rejection letter. Even after you get a contract, you will be getting feedback and change requests from your editor or art director. After your book comes out, some people will not like your book -- and some of those people may be reviewers.

If you are sensitive to harsh judgement, you need to find a way to cope with this early on if you want to stay in the game. Just don't do it in public!

For critiques of your work, never make changes right away. This is especially important for those who are insecure about their own skills! Let the feedback sit for at least a day or two (longer if you can wait), THEN come back to it with more objectivity. Do you agree with the feedback? Don't blindly make a change to your manuscript if you don't agree or understand why.

And never, ever respond to negative reviews in public.

Some useful resources:

Gail Carson Levine has great advice about how to take criticism, particularly from a critique.

11 Writers On How They Deal With Criticism - by Jason Diamond.

6 Top Tips For Dealing With Criticism Of Your Writing - from WritersEdit. This piece advises AGAINST reading all (if any) of your reviews in Goodreads and other places geared toward readers; I've heard this piece of advice from a prominent author in her workshop as well.

Deal With Criticism Like A Pro - by Bryan Collins on WritetoDone. This advice is mainly geared toward negative feedback from an editor; Bryan is a nonfiction freelance writer.

Happy launch day to Marcie Colleen, whose THE BEAR'S GARDEN with Alison Oliver launches from Imprint/Macmillan today!

Marcie Colleen is the award-winning picture book author of Penguinaut! (illustrated by Emma Yarlett) and Love, Triangle (illustrated by Bob Shea), as well as the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series. She teaches Writing Children’s Picture Books for the University of California at San Diego both online and on campus, and runs her own Study Hall conducting a month-long online critique group dedicated to the crafting picture books. Find out more about how you can study with Marcie at thisismarciecolleen.com and on Twitter at @MarcieColleen1.

*UPDATE: Marcie has also launched her SUPER HAPPY Book Club on her YouTube channel, especially for families at home during school closures!

Launching March 24, 2020, THE BEAR'S GARDEN is written by Marcie Colleen and illustrated by Alison Oliver. You can read reviews of the book on Kirkus (starred review!) and Bookroo.

Author: Marcie Colleen
Illustrator: Alison Oliver
Publisher: Imprint/Macmillan Children’s

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the true story of a community garden in Brooklyn, New York, picture book The Bear’s Garden is a testament to how imagination and dedication can transform communities and create beauty for everyone in unexpected places.

A little girl sees an empty lot in a city and imagines what it can be:

a place to grow,
a place to play,
and a place to love.

With the help of her stuffed bear, the girl brings her community together to create a beautiful garden.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

The Bear’s Garden was inspired by the real-life Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden in my former neighborhood in New York City. The name always puzzled me—I mean, we didn’t have bears wandering around Brooklyn last I checked!

Come to find out, the garden was named for a teddy bear that was found in the weeds when the workers began to create a garden in the abandoned lot. Of course, immediately I started thinking of that little bear. How did he get there? Did he belong to anyone? Was he placed there on purpose?

The Bear’s Garden is my imaginative story about how the teddy bear came to be in those weeds. It’s also a love letter to my former neighborhood and the power of community that I felt while living there. I am the girl who finds love and beauty in every inch of that urban paradise

Q. As an experienced author, how do you manage your time in terms of balancing your creative work time with the business side (promotion, admin, school visits etc), yet still have a life outside work?

While everything I do, such as teaching and creating Teacher’s Guides, falls under the umbrella of being a full-time children’s author, I have struggled in the past to find time for my own creative writing. It seems my days get quickly overrun.

However, about a year ago I paired up with a fellow author friend, Kirsten Larson, to prioritize our writing projects. We get up at 5:20 every morning to write for an hour. The alarm goes off, we text each other a quick “Good Morning” and share our project goals for that session, grab our coffee, and set to write until 6:30 without distraction. At 6:30 we check in again with our progress. It’s been a game-changer. I think I have written more in the last year because of it. And it’s a fantastic way to feel accomplished no matter what the rest of the day brings.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

I have always loved reading and writing stories.

A few years back I found a book I had written in elementary school. It’s called Rainbow Hunt. And in the back of the book I found an Author’s Note I had written. It said,

“Marcie Goldstein lives in Liverpool, NY and loves to write books. Someday she hopes to be a successful author.”

So, my advice to young writers everywhere would be, know that your dreams can come true. Even if people say it’s a long-shot. I’m living proof. So keep reading, keep writing, and never stop dreaming.

Q. Anything else you'd like to mention? What are you excited about these days?

Despite the recent global health crisis that has left us all indoors, I am excited to see how we will learn to build more community within our lives—even virtually. The creativity and innovation that has developed in the last few weeks has been extraordinarily inspiring. Like flowers between the pavement cracks, we will find ways. And a lot of beauty is going to grow from this.

 --

For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive. Also see Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, a compilation of tips generously offered by children's book creators I've interviewed over the years.

GIVEAWAY (U.S. only): Karla is giving away a copy of Marie Curie And The Power Of Persistence, written by Karla Valenti and illustrated by Annalisa Beghelli! *** ENTER HERE ***

Karla Arenas Valenti was born and raised in Mexico. Since then she has put down roots in a number of countries she now calls home: Japan, France, Germany, and the U.S. where she lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband and three kids. She writes picture books and middle grade novels. You can find out more about Karla at www.karlavalenti.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @KV_writes.

I asked Karla to describe her book, and here's what she replied:

My Super Science Heroes is a picture book series for children ages 4-8. The series focuses on key scientists, but rather than defining those scientists by what they did (their achievements), we are choosing to highlight who they were (the traits that made those achievements possible).

This distinction is important as it allows readers (young and old) to re-frame what it means to “succeed” - in other words, you do not need to be a genius or Nobel-prize winner in order to be a hero in your own life. Arguably, what makes someone a hero is how they make use of their own “super powers” in pursuit of their dreams.

And what are these super powers?

The first one we chose to highlight is persistence.

Throughout her personal and professional life, Marie Curie encountered many societal and institutional limitations that threatened to block her progress. Rather than telling our young readers about these challenges, however, we chose to show them. Enter Mr. Opposition, a character designed to embody these counterforces and give Marie a chance to prove her persistence to all her fans and readers.

In this way, Marie’s ultimate success and notable achievements are not presented as the inevitable result of a gifted mind. Rather, we are honoring the tremendous effort she exhibited in never giving up on her dreams, a super power indeed.

Our next book focuses on the power of curiosity, exemplified by Alan Turing and his minion, Miss Enigma (due out Jan 2021).

My Super Science Heroes is unlike any other children’s book series focusing on historical figures, and we hope it will inspire countless of young scientists (and non-scientists) as they develop their own super powers.

Q: How did MARIE CURIE AND THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE get published?

This is a story about the unexpected surprises that come our way when we are open to any (and sometimes unconventional) opportunities.

I was living in Europe at the time, and a friend forwarded an open call for story submissions run by a non-profit science association. The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) was looking for a creative way to raise funds to support their science initiatives, so they launched a contest for picture book submissions. The topic was a story about Marie Curie, but told in a way that would excite young readers about science

As a fiction writer, I was hesitant at first to submit a story on a non-fiction topic. However, I also viewed this as an opportunity to flex my creative wings, so I took the challenge and wrote a story about Marie Curie... the super hero.

As I researched her life, it became clear that, while she certainly accomplished a great deal as a scientist, her most notable achievement was her unwavering persistence in facing a number of challenges throughout her life. Persistence! A skill highly valued in the scientific community (and one present in all of us).

What if the book was about Marie Curie using her power of persistence to achieve great things in the scientific world?

What if she had an evil nemesis who lived in a craggy cave deep underground, and whose sole purpose was preventing the spread of knowledge?

What if he sent his minion, Mr. Opposition, to stop Marie in her heroic journey?

Thus was born the My Super Science Heroes series.

It was an unconventional premise, but I decided to submit the story. To my tremendous surprise, I won!

Working with Micaela Crespo Quesada (a super scientist herself) and the MCAA association, we identified the perfect illustrator for the project, Annalisa Beghelli. Her artwork brilliantly captured the super hero themes we wanted to explore. In a true collaboration, the three of us worked to bring this project to life.

Initially, the project was going to be funded exclusively through a global crowdsourcing campaign. Not only did we exceed our goal by 20%, but a couple weeks into the campaign, we received an offer by Kelly Barrales-Saylor at Sourcebooks for world rights.

Fast forward to today as we celebrate the world publication on April 7th of Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

In a perhaps not-so-ironic twist, the most valuable piece of advice I can offer is to believe in the power of persistence. And I hesitate to say this is only relevant to young writers (since I myself only learned this as a writer after many years).

The journey I have taken to get to this point has not been a short (or always-joyful) one. Indeed, it has been more agonizing than not, more heart-breaking than uplifting, and certainly taken a lot longer than I expected.

There have been plenty of opportunities for me to give up and walk away (and if I'm honest, there have been moments in my life where I've had to do that). However, I am fiercely proud of this story because it feels like a real badge of honor; a testament to the courage it takes to pick up your "pen" and keep putting words to paper, despite everything standing in your way.

The truth is, we all have our own version of Mr. Opposition, and we all must do battle with the nemesis that intends to bring us down. But word by word, line by line, we can persist. That is no small thing.

--

For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive. Also see Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, a compilation of tips generously offered by children's book creators I've interviewed over the years.

Here's where we're playing....
Aug. 19 Pittsburgh with Surrender. at Zach's house. I'm not sure of the address
Aug 20 (maybe)Athens OH 35 Brown St
Sept 16 Baria KY, maybe
Sept 19 Ida work party, Tennesse (they need more people to come to this work party. check it out at www.workhardstayhard.com
Sept 21 Chatanooga - probably at Sluggos
Sept 23 Asheville NC, Buccannen St house (I don't know how to spell it)

I have a bunch of new zines and some new books for the distro! at riot grrrr distro
Including SCAM! The First 4 Issues!

Also, I just looked at Mimi Distro, and it is so great! Check it out at mimizinedistro.wordpress.com

I'll be teaching a workshop Nov. 13 at the Queer Influx conference in Columbus!
Check it out at http://queerinflux.wordpress.com/convergence-schedule/

new zines to my distro!

Keep Track: Pocket Calender
This is my little calender. It should be out by Dec 15! Fits in your pocket! You write in the dates. There are two pages for each month, then four pages for notes between months. Perfect for if the Slingshot calender has too much space for you.

All I Want is Everything #1
Well written, articulate personal/feminist zine. The first article is about getting out of a long-term abusive relationship. There are articles about victim blaming, refusing to live in the past, pop culture, and much more. It's really good!

Love Letters to Monsters #3 / Alabama Grrrl #9 split
I haven't even finished this yet, but it is my favorite loveletters zine so far, and I'm so excited about Alabama Grrrl too!
Ciara's side is more memoir like than usual, still political, but not as much indignation. The first story is partially about her mom. I have a number of friends who's mom's are homeless or close to homeless, kind of crazy or really crazy, and there is something so confusing about mothers needing care, and when to draw the line. I struggled with it a lot with my mom, and felt so alone. I am always really grateful when people get the courage to write about their complicated relationships like this.
She writes about community and how overused that word is, and wanting laughter. writing, mental and physical health, running a distro. It's like a long story. It's good.

Alabama Grrrl is about being queer and punk in the late 90's in Pittsburgh, "Things I wished I would've known before going to grad school," a love-letter breakup letter to the violent/misogynistic scene that is happening in her town, hoping it will energize new kids to create a safer place.


Cometbus #51 The Lonliness of the Electric Menorah
A story about two bookstores in Berkeley that were started in the underground in the 60's, and we were forever trying to get our zines into. Why didn't they support us? It was strange.
This zine is almost like a fable, and is about a lot more than just these two bookstores. It's about how partnerships come together and how they get subverted. Based on long interviews with a zillion people.

Cometbus #52 The Spirit of St Louis
a story of a group of punks, how they try to make or unmake a life and scene. It's second title is "How to Break Your Own Heart, a tragedy in 24 parts.

Kerbloom 85These little pretty zines have been coming out forever, every two months. They are done on letterpress, which is the kind of printing press where you have to put each letter in one at a time.
This is my favorite one in awhile. "I would say that each of us is a star, that we form constellations, and that these constellations change."

at my distro click here for distro

the ovens. CDR
Featured band of the season! The Ovens! Two peice feminist band from Chicago! Check it out by clicking here!listen to This Disaster Was Brought To You By Heterosexuality

Keep Track: Pocket Calender
This is my little calender and pocket organizer! Cute drawings! Fits in your pocket! There are two pages for each month, with four blank pages with little drawings for taking notes and making lists.
The calender part has blank spots for you to fill in the dates, so that you can start at any time, but if you want me to fill it in, I will.

When the Crash Meets Something Solid Issue #002: Hewers of Water
stories, essays, and poetry about drug addiction; sex work - which she did at first by choice, and then how it got twisted; abuse, and survival
powerful and good

The Worst: A Compilation Zine on Grief and Loss: Issue 2
A new issue of this beautiful zine, thick and full of stories and articles about grief and dealing with death.
I read it a month ago, and I can't remember for sure, but it seemed like this one had more stories from people who were a little older and had more time/distance from the deaths they were writing about, where as the first issue seemed more immediate. Both are so useful! Both have a wide variety of stories.

Truckface #14
Excellent zine! about her second year of teaching high-school. very funny, extremely tragic, inspiring, depressing, politics, comics, everything you could ask for. I love this zine!
It also has stories about life outside of school - starting a feminist band (the Ovens), bad roommates, and more!
Every new teacher and everyone thinking of becoming a teacher should read this, plus everyone else should too!

Truckface #13
Thick little zine about LB's first (hellish) year of teaching highschool. In which she gets named "The Nose" by her students. Deals with a class of 8 bad apples - and how to teach, how to stay sane. Almost decided to not continue teaching. Deals with the religious right protesting at the school (for having a Gay-Straight Alliance), this zine is great and has a million funny/sad stories.
I wish all my friends who were going into their first year of teaching could read this zine! and everyone else too!

Truckface #12
"How do you become an authority figure when you yourself are anti-authoritarian? Questions that should have been asked prior to enrolling in teaching school."

student teaching in Chicago - dealing with bitter, assimilationist teachers; desperation and violence among students (24 students murdered this school year... and school authorities decided that tucking in shirts is the solution); dancing in class with the students, students talking about racism and discrimination, immigration, bravery.

When Lanugage Runs Dry #3:A Zine for People with Chronic Pain and Their Allies
another issue of this great zine. Issue #3 has a beautifully written peice about brain injury; an article about parenting with chronic pain; a comic/theory about Fibromyalgia and invisible illness; a conversation/interview between a step-mother and daughtor about what it was like to have a step-mother who was experiencing chronic pain; and an article about the workbook Living Beyond Your Pain: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Ease Chronic Pain

Here is Microcosm's statement and my response.

Microcosm's Statement:
It has been way too long since Cindy Crabb asked us to write a public statement regarding allegations of Joe Biel’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. It is not because we have chosen to ignore this issue. On the contrary, we have spent many hours discussing this topic. But we are not writing today to provide excuses. We hope to provide some answers and to encourage more questions.

Cindy is right that collectives need to confront abuse in all its forms by members within their collectives, even if it is just a collectively-ran business, but especially when that business lays claim to radical politics. It is for this reason that we want to say that we do recognize Joe’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. Not just with Alex, but within other relationships as well. We know that Joe has been involved in one failed mediation attempt with Alex. We also know that he was involved in a more recent process that fell apart (this was outlined in posts by Cindy and Alex). Unfortunately, the collective was made aware of this latter accountability process only shortly before it fell apart. We, the collective and Joe, have recently started working with a counselor who is helping us to reconcile many issues within the collective. We do not believe this is a replacement for a larger accountability process, but we do see it as an important first step for our involvement and for the betterment of Microcosm as a collectively-ran company.

We recognize and agree with the statement put out by the Athens Support Network, who mediated the last accountability process.

“Joe is in therapy, and we feel that he is making progress through therapy. He has identified a large number of behavior issues and has done work and continues to do work to change them. He believes that he honors Alex’s experience. We, however, feel that he still has extreme problems with control, manipulation, defensiveness, and portraying himself as the victim.”
We have noticed some positive improvements in Joe’s behavior, but he does have a long way to go. We do believe that he can work through this and therefore choose, at this time, to continue working with him. We welcome suggestions on how we, the collective, can better facilitate this process. In the meantime, we will continue to work through this and figure things out as we go.

Cindy also pointed out that she would like more transparency about how things are run at microcosm. For that reason, we will soon be releasing some information on our website about how we run things. We honestly want to be a more transparent organization (which is why we’ve started posting annual financial statements). Over the past year, we have begun to change and implement a lot of new policies to help spread power among all of the collective members. We are excited about these changes and equally excited to share them with you.

Alex was right in that we need to hear from you. We know that Microcosm could be better and we want it to be so. For that reason, we need to know what it is that you think we need to fix. We’ve already heard some great things and we’ve worked to improve those. We’ll share more about that later, though. We want the focus to stay where Cindy and others have asked us to focus it for now - on Joe’s accountability.

Thank you Cindy, Alex, Ciara, and everyone who has put pressure on us to make change. It is a wonderful example of collective action. And we hope it proves that while we may be relatively large in the zine world, we are still just a small group of people who still love the community we are a part of and hope to make it a better place.

With sincerity and humility,
The Microcosm Collective


In response to Microcosms statement about Joes manipulative and abusive behavior.

This statement is to let it be known that despite Microcosms recent public statement finally acknowledging Joe Biel’s abusive and manipulative behavior, I will not be distributing Doris though Microcosm any longer. They published Doris 23, the Doris Anthology, the Support zine and Learning Good Consent, so I don’t have control of those publications.

In July, 2010, I asked Microcosm to write a statement, or have each collective member contact me with a personal statement, as a precondition to my continuing to work with them. I was following my sincere belief that organizations should have a chance to admit to the abusive behaviors of members, and that as long as they show a commitment to change, they should not necessarily be shunned. Below is part of the statement I made.

I believe that collectives, even when they are just collective businesses, are responsible for confronting issues of patriarchy (and other forms of domination) within their collectives, and working on change and transparency. I believe that Joe's behavior stems from patriarchy … the communication/manipulation models he uses are … patriarchtical.
In order to feel comfortable continuing to be published by Microcosm, I would need to know either from each collective member or from the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion) that they don't think Alex was crazy or that the attempts to deal with the situation are a witch-hunt. I would need to know from each member, or the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion,) that the collective recognizes that Joe still has issues with control and manipulation… I need to feel like the collective takes this seriously and does not put the burden of instigating change on the survivor/s, or on people negatively affected by Joe's behavior.

I do believe there are good people who work at Microcosm. I don’t want those people to suffer because of Joe’s behavior. I wanted to give the workers at Microcosm a chance to show their commitment to confronting Joe’s manipulative behavior, and a chance to make a strong stance against abuse. The statement that was recently released by Microcosm is too little, too late. I can’t believe it took 6 months to write a statement that could easily be summed up as “we agree with the statement made by the Athens Support Network.” Microcosm’s statement gives the impression that Joe has made more changes than he has.

I was hopeful that Microcosm might be able to take a strong stand against abuse. I feel like they failed. If this statement had come out immediately, and they had followed up with concrete examples of change months later, that would have been great. If they had waited six months and come up with a statement that firmly placed the responsibility of change on Joe’s feet, discussed concrete changes the collective was making to deal with his abusive behavior, and took a strong stand against abuse, that would have been great. This statement is very weak, particularly considering that Joe’s abuse has been known for years.

There have also been a number of incidents and issues that have come up since I made my request for a public statement that have contributed to my decision to not work with Microcosm anymore:

- I had asked that a public statement be made or that each collective member contact me with a statement about their beliefs. I received two statements, both of which referred to problems between Joe and Alex; neither called it abuse.

- Joe wrote a statement about his behavior, which I found extremely disturbing. Among other problems, it was very minimizing of Alex’s experiences of abuse, and minimizing of the extent of his current manipulative behavioral problems.

- I had a number of business discussions with people at Microcosm, where the communication was unclear and I felt like I was being manipulated.

- I was told by someone at Microcosm that they were unclear what exactly Microcosm would need to do for me to continue working with them. This was months after I had made these conditions known. Often, in accountability situations, the perpetrator and the people who benefit from continued friendship/relationship with the perpetrator want to know exactly what needs to be done to fix it. This need for an exact recipe puts the burden back on the survivor/people who support the survivor.

All of these things have added to my feeling that the collective is not taking Joe’s abusive patterns seriously.

I would like to take this chance to clear up some misconceptions about the accountability process I was involved in with Joe:

In late 2009, Joe told me that he had been in intensive therapy, had changed, and had no way of clearing his name. I helped set up an accountability team that was designed to confirm that Joe had recognized and changed his behavior; to help him deal with rumors, and to help him make amends. It was not designed to be a full accountability process.

Early on, it became clear that Joe still had very abusive/manipulative behaviors and that he was unwilling to own up to most of it. Joe had lied about the level of changes he had made. Because of this, the accountability process was disbanded.

I am disgusted by Joe’s abuse of his former partner, disgusted by his continuing manipulative behavior. I do not think he has even begun to make the kinds of fundamental changes necessary. I take abuse very seriously and while I think there are some people in Microcosm who are committed to working for a world without abuse, I also think there is complicity within the organization. I have been disturbed by my recent interactions with people working at Microcosm. I am glad they made a public statement, and that they have a counselor helping them deal with internal issues but am skeptical about their priorities, since they have not posted their public statement on their website. I feel mistrustful of the organization. I have a hard time not thinking that most people just signed on to the statement, hoping to save their pants. I understand that they have been working to be more transparent. I hope that they are able to change. I, however, will not be working with Microcosm any longer.