Differing views

Once upon a time, in a far away land called Redmond, I was a school librarian.

As a school librarian I would often write reviews about the books that I acquired for the library and post them on the Web. I did my best to give my honest opinion, always from the prospective of a librarian in charge choosing appropriate books for the students of the school.

The filter for purchasing books used in schools is quite different than that used in public libraries. School librarians are more focused on the particular needs of the school population, and thought has to be given to what is needed to support the curriculum. Public librarians must purchase for a much broader audience.

So I happily wrote my reviews, always stating that I was a librarian in a K-12 christian school.

When I left the school I gave up the account I was using to post the reviews. But I did set it up so that I'd be notified if anyone left a comment on one of my reviews. Out of curiosity.

I just received a comment on a review I wrote in 2008 about The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman.

Nothing like posting a comment on something written five years ago!

The comment is a perfect example of the problem many people have when they post things on the web.  The distance created by the digital world often loosens tongues in a way that is beneficial to no one.

Chances are that if I met the woman (it's a woman's name, although that means nothing) face-to-face she probably would not be quite so bitter that I wrote a good review about a book that she obviously dislikes.

I'm also pretty sure she wouldn't accuse me of brainwashing children to hate God by promoting the book.

Me, all my librarian buddies, and most schools, by the way. We are all alike, according to her. Bent on destroying the world, one child at a time.

As I said, I gave up the account so I can't respond back. I don't really know if I would anyway. What would be the point.

It's obvious that she is of the mindset that a book about a subject must be promoting it.

I guess she thinks we all live in a vacuum and none of us have ever been motivated to talk about something we've seen, or heard, or read about.

Oh, well. I can only hope that one day she reads something that inspires her to think a little harder about a subject she had formerly taken for granted.

Then she'll get it.

Maybe.

Cyberbully-in-the-making

An odd thing happened this weekend.

I was very happy to receive another donation to the Indiegogo campaign for Gray Zone, so I made the following post to my author Facebook page (the public one):

"Yipee! Another good person has contributed to the Indiegogo campaign. Happy, happy!"

Seems harmless enough, right?

Someone thought not.

He sent me a private message saying that he didn't like the post and that I had to delete it. To make sure I got the message, he sent it three times.

Translated to physical world terms it equates to a stranger walking up to me and saying he doesn't like what I'm saying so I should just shut up.

Now, just to be clear, know that I have no clue who this person is. He's a total stranger, and as far as I can remember he hasn't even commented on my Facebook page before.

He could be a normal person who is confused about Web etiquette, or he could be a cyberbully-in-the-making who's dipping his toes in to see how it feels.

Personally, I believe it's the latter. Here's a person who certainly appears to be emboldened by the anonymity of the Internet. Someone who seems to enjoy bossing around whoever he wants, saying whatever he feels, and throwing his weight around--all because he's hidden behind a screen name.

Fortunately for me, I don't make a very good bullying victim. I'm not easily intimidated and I understand the cyberbully mentality.

Which is that it's easy to be mean when no one can see your face.

From 0 to 1

We all have our ups and downs. Just recently I've been a bit more on the down side.

Putting up that Indiegogo campaign certainly did a lot to bring me down. I created the video, wrote the blurb, launched the campaign, and posted to Facebook and Twitter. Every day I excitedly checked to see how much money had been raised, anxious to reach the 100% mark as soon as possible.

Only then could I breathe a sigh of relief. Only then would I have the funds necessary to make Gray Zone visible and noticed. Only then would Gray Zone have a chance among the multitude of newly published books.

One week went by. Two weeks went by. Still it was stuck at 0%.
Really?
0%?

The logical part of me knew I should not to care so much. People are busy living their own lives. They may not have noticed the campaign, or taken the time to find out what the book is really about.

But the emotional part of me cried out "Gray Zone is special! It has a purpose!"

You see, I wrote Gray Zone to educate as it entertains. To make the reader think, really think, about the different aspects of bullying and what it does to our society.

I wrote it to open eyes and loosen tongues.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not naive enough to think that one little book will stop cyberbullying by itself.

It's the dialog that Gray Zone will inspire that will make the difference. It's all about the conversations that will happen after the book is read.

So I was very down as the marker remained stuck at 0%. I couldn't understand, just couldn't understand, why others didn't care about the bully/cyberbully problem as much as I do.

But then a miracle happened in the form of contributions. Joy filled my heart as the marker moved away from that horrible 0% and skyrocketed all the way up to 1%.

That may sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not. I truly felt elated. The generosity of the contributors restored my faith in humanity.

The world is once again a good place.

Gray Zone (coming soon)

Here's the preliminary cover design for Gray Zone. There will probably be a few changes.

I'll also share the official publisher's text. I haven't had it very long, so I'm still absorbing it. It's always a little odd the first time I see my work through someone else's eyes.

I'll add it to the site somewhere, but in the meantime I thought I'd post it here:

The victim of a cyber-prank gone viral, Autumn was forced to transfer schools—not exactly what she wanted to do as a sophomore. But what choice did she have when all her personal information was posted all over the web for anyone to see? When threatening comments started to trickle in, the police said her only chance to avoid stalkers was to move schools and start over.

Determined to make the best of her situation, Autumn realized that she had been given an opportunity to reinvent herself; to become the outgoing, popular, not-at-all-shy girl she'd always wanted to be. Something that was impossible while surrounded by lifelong friends who thought they knew her better than she knew herself.

But even the best plans go awry. As soon as Autumn arrives at her new school, she meets Maurice—a bully of monumental proportions who steps on toes, beats up kids, and generally makes life miserable for everyone. Things seem to be looking up when Autumn learns that her best friend Sophie Rose is transferring to her new school, too—but then Sophie starts keeping her distance from Autumn. Soon, Autumn feels those old, familiar feelings of sadness and inadequacy returning, as she wonders if Sophie Rose felt Autumn was no longer good enough to be her friend.

Bullied at school and online, adrift without the support of her best friend in the murky waters of high school, where one wrong move can earn an unflattering nickname that will stick until graduation, Autumn believes she failed miserably at changing the old habits that had given her that shy girl reputation in the first place. Not only could she not move from reserved to rambunctious, she couldn't even get to normal.

But when a tragedy shakes Autumn's world, she stops feeling sad about what happened to her. Now she's angry—and she's determined to put a stop to this cyber-torture and bullying of herself and the people she loves in this powerful and poignant novel.

Veronica Tabares had many opportunities to witness the effects of bullying while working as head librarian at a private school. When she realized that modern technology had enhanced the bully's ability to cause pain—with students seemingly unaware of the true danger of the electronic toys that ruled their days—she designed an anti-bullying curriculum to incorporate into her lessons.  As a librarian, Veronica is aware that young people need a user-friendly way to understand the problem. They need to easily grasp both how a bully works and how to recognize the signs that someone is a bullying victim. Gray Zone was written to give them that knowledge and to open a much-needed dialog. Veronica has a master of library and information science and a bachelor of arts in anthropology, both from the University of Washington. She also has a master of fine arts in creative writing from Full Sail University.