Author to his agent: “What’s the latest on my manuscript?”
Agent to author: “I sent it out to six publishers at the same time hoping to stir up the most interest in the shortest amount of time. But no response yet.”
Author, thinking the agent is trying to start a bidding war for his masterpiece. “Maybe you’re asking too much.”
Agent to author: “I offered it to them for free.”
Filed under 2017, joke by author, Monday morning writing joke
Source: Librarians take up arms against fake news | Family | herald-review.com
SEATTLE — Janelle Hagen is a school librarian whose job goes far beyond checking out books. She and many other librarians are equipping students to fight through lies, distortion and trickery to find their way to truth.
Helping students become smarter evaluators of the information that floods into their lives has become increasingly necessary in an era in which fake news is a constant.
Two University of Washington professors recently announced a new class that will focus on the ways data are misused to mislead the public. Younger students may need guidance even more.
Hagen, the middle-school librarian at Lakeside School in Seattle, said the students she serves are online every day, and they need to be able to figure out what’s trustworthy and what isn’t.
Besides running the library, Hagen said, she teaches a class called “digital life.” She meets with fifth-graders twice a week and with eighth-graders once a week. The classes are a mix of technology and information-literacy skills, but since the presidential election, she’s increased the focus on the latter.”It was because of all of the buzz (about fake news). You can look at the Google analytics, and the search for ‘fake news’ was unprecedented.” she said. “It’s our job as teachers to address what’s going on in the world.”
One Monday morning, her eighth-graders took a group quiz in which they were asked to identify different kinds of information — advertising, publicity, propaganda, news, opinion pieces. They worked on their laptops choosing from multiple options, and their choices showed up on a big screen at the front of the classroom. There was discussion after each question, especially when not everyone got the answer right.
Hagen introduced the new focus to students by showing them the results of a Stanford History Education Group study in which students from college, high school and middle school were tested on their understanding of various types of information.
Most middle-school students were able to distinguish advertisements from news stories, but more than 80 percent confused native advertisements with news stories. Native advertisements are designed to look like news stories, but they carry a label that sets them apart, usually “sponsored content.” That wasn’t enough.
There is a great need for more education in the critical-thinking skills that are part of information literacy.
Remember when many people thought librarians were going to become obsolete because the world of information was migrating to the web? But then we became enthralled by the possibilities of big data, and library schools became information schools, turning out people who could help navigate vast troves of online data. That’s where the discipline was when Hagen graduated from the University of Washington Information School in 2011.
Librarians and libraries are still with us, and those new data skills are increasingly valuable, but an older skill is now rising in importance. Hagen said librarians have always helped people sort fact from fiction, reliable sources from deceptive ones. Usually that happened as students worked on research papers, but now those lessons need to cover daily life.
“It’s a difficult time to work in education because we are seeing what’s happening in the world and how opinions are really first and foremost rather than facts,” Hagen said.
Lakeside’s high-school librarians put up a display in the entrance to their building that offers several tips for spotting fake news. One says: “What’s the evidence?” Underneath a flap there’s more detail: “As you read an article, make sure to see if they have any evidence to back up their claims. Furthermore, research the evidence to see if it is real, made up, or used in a way not intended by its creators.”
Are claims in an article backed up by verifiable facts? Check the authors’ backgrounds to see if they have credibility on the topic they are writing about.
Hagen likes The News Literacy Project, a collaboration between journalists and educators to improve students’ information literacy through lessons in the classroom and its online program Checkology.
Hagen’s eighth-graders use AllSides, a website that rates the bias of news stories and other articles, labeling them according to where they fit on a political spectrum from left to center to right. And it posts multiple versions of major stories and their ratings. Readers can test their own biases on the site.
As the site says, “if you have a pulse, you have a bias.” And Hagen tells her students that even the most honest media have biases, but they also try hard to be fair, and articles must past muster with layers of editors, so a reader or viewer is more likely to get a more reliable version of a given story.
Awareness is the key, she said. And it is. Read, listen, watch with an active, questioning mind.
Librarians can play a vital role in helping everyone, of any age, fight fake news and become critical and reflective media consumers.
Source: Fighting Fake News | American Libraries Magazine
Librarians—whether public, school, academic, or special—all seek to ensure that patrons who ask for help get accurate information.
Given the care that librarians bring to this task, the recent explosion in unverified, unsourced, and sometimes completely untrue news has been discouraging, to say the least. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of US adults are getting their news in real time from their social media feeds. These are often uncurated spaces in which falsehoods thrive, as revealed during the 2016 election. To take just one example, Pope Francis did not endorse Donald Trump, but thousands of people shared the “news” that he had done so.
Completely fake news is at the extreme end of a continuum. Less blatant falsehoods involve only sharing the data that puts a proposal in its best light, a practice of which most politicians and interest group spokespeople are guilty.
The news-savvy consumer is able to distinguish fact from opinion and to discern the hallmarks of evasive language and half-truths. But growing evidence suggests that these skills are becoming rarer. A November 2016 study by the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) showed that students have difficulty separating paid advertising from news reporting, and they are apt to overlook clear evidence of bias in the claims they encounter. These challenges persist from middle school to college.
According to SHEG Director Sam Wineburg, professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, “nothing less than our capacity for online civic reasoning is at risk.”
Librarians and journalists: natural allies
Librarians can help change this trend. “Librarians are natural allies for educators in helping students become critical news consumers,” says Wineburg. The profession’s deep commitment to verified sources and reliable information mirrors similar values—accountability for accuracy, careful research before drawing firm conclusions, and a willingness to correct errors—that drive responsible journalism.
One emerging solution among journalists is the Trust Project, an initiative of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara (Calif.) University.
Headed by longtime reporter Sally Lehrman, director of Santa Clara’s journalism ethics program, the Trust Project has partnered with nearly 70 media organizations to develop a collection of color-coded digital “Trust Indicators” that signify reliable and responsible reporting. Indicators include a commitment to seeking diverse perspectives, linking out to credible sources of further information, offering clear markers regarding whether an article presents opinion or news, and providing information about an article’s author. The complete set is available at the Trust Project website.
Still in the works for the project is computer code that will allow partner media organizations to note when they have achieved a Trust Indicator, which serves as a proxy for reliable journalism. This code should be broadly available by mid-2017. Services such as Facebook and Google would surface these materials more prominently in news feeds and search results, while readers would see clear visual icons that demonstrate fulfillment of the Trust Indicators. As Lehrman explains, “These icons would be cognitive shortcuts to route readers to more reliable sources of news.”
She also notes a strong desire by consumers to be active participants in the shaping of the news, rather than merely a passive audience. In that spirit, she welcomes input and feedback from librarians about how to best achieve the aims of the Trust Project.
Direct collaboration with journalists is another route to increasing media literacy. For example, the Dallas Public Library (DPL) will host an eight-week training course in community journalism for high school students. Its “Storytellers without Borders” project, one of the winners of the 2016 Knight News Challenge, includes oversight from professional librarians as well as reporters at the Dallas Morning News. Students will rotate among three DPL branch locations that represent the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the city. Journalists will mentor students on how to ask focused questions, while librarians will describe how to use research databases to find accurate information. Library staffers will also provide instruction on how to use multimedia editing tools. In April 2017 these budding digital journalists, with their new skills in the art of providing credible and engaging content, will showcase their efforts at the Dallas Book Festival.
Information literacy at your library
The Trust Project and “Storytellers without Borders” are high-profile efforts, but any library can lead educational programs about the importance of media literacy.
As the SHEG study reveals, this training should begin with young students and continue through college. Resources that range from free LibGuides to enhanced school curricula are available for libraries around the country.
Librarians at Indiana University East in Richmond have developed a LibGuide about how to identify fake news, complete with detailed images of what questions to ask while perusing a site. The News Literacy Project, founded by former Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Miller, offers a comprehensive curriculum of classroom, after-school, and e-learning programs for middle and high school students; the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University offers similar resources for teaching college students.
Despite the clear need for increased media literacy, one risk is that this topic will always be perceived as optional—nice to know but not essential. Wineburg argues that this is misguided. “Online civic literacy is a core skill that should be insinuated into the warp and woof of education as much as possible,” he says. In a paper for College & Research Libraries News, Brian T. Sullivan, information literacy librarian, and Karen L. Porter, sociology professor, of Alfred (N.Y.) University map out how to convert those one-shot information literacy training sessions into full programs with embedded librarians.
Librarians can play a vital role in helping everyone, of any age, become critical and reflective news consumers. One positive outcome of the current furor about fake news may be that information literacy, for media and other types of content, will finally be recognized as a central skill of the digital age.
Sometimes the stairs in your own back yard seem a bit strange.
Filed under 2017, photo by David E. Booker, Photo Finish Friday
Dark blooms the heart. /
Empty shines the unmade mind. /
Crisp, cold, slow night.
Filed under 2017, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
How to Write Better Villains: 5 Ways to Get Into the Mind of a Psychopath
By Peter James
1. Where to find a psychopath who will talk to you – the importance of meeting your monster.
Over my years of research for my Roy Grace mystery novels I’ve given many talks in prisons for the charity, The Reading Agency, which encourages literacy in UK prisons, as it gives me the opportunity to meet many different kinds of criminal face to face.
I had been wanting to write about a female “black widow” character for some time, and had been studying past cases, and thinking hard about creating a convincing character. Three years ago I was talking in a women’s prison and there was a well-spoken middle-aged woman in the audience who was asking particularly smart questions about literature. She fascinated me, being clearly well educated and I wondered what crime she had committed. Perhaps she killed someone drunk driving, or something like that, I wondered?
One big perk of my talks is that I get to mingle with the prisoners after and chat to them one-on-one. I made a beeline for her. I never ask a prisoner outright what they have done – it’s not proper etiquette! So as an icebreaker I said, ‘How much longer do you have to serve?’
She replied, in a booming voice, ‘Nine and a half more bloody years – and it’s just not fair! A woman did exactly what I did, in London, and she’s only got six more years to go.’
‘So, what brought you in here?’ I asked, somewhat startled.
‘I poisoned my mother-in-law, the old bag!’
‘OK,’ I replied, somewhat astonished. Then she went on.
‘The thing was, she went into hospital to die, so I embezzled her bank account. Then the bloody woman didn’t die – she came home. I realized she would find out so I had to poison her. Then I realized my husband would find out so I had to poison him, too. And it’s just not fair – this woman in London did exactly what I did and she’s only got six more years!’
As I was being taken back out by a prison officer I said to him, ‘Is this woman for real?’
‘Oh yes sir, he replied. ‘Her husband was three months on life support and he has permanent brain damage – and she’s just angry about the length of her sentence…’
I knew at once I had found my character for Love You Dead!
2. Make your monsters lovable.
If you think about the most endearing – and enduring – characters in the history of literature they are the ones that are not simply portrayed as black and white evil, but with shades of coloring. Think about Dracula – he is a monster but he has huge charisma and charm. Frankenstein’s monster turns to his creator, Dr Frankenstein and tells him he never wanted to be born. Hannibal Lecter, perhaps the most success monster in all of modern literature, is enormously charming, charismatic, he has style and people find themselves rooting for him, despite knowing just how utterly evil he really is.
3. Avoid stereotypes. A psychopath isn’t always a man in black in a dark alley with a sharp knife.
It may be a surprise to some people, but yes, there really are good psychopaths as well as bad ones. Or perhaps, paraphrasing from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, puts it into better perspective: Some psychopaths are less evil than others. He could be a past or a President of the United States? The CEO of a Fortune 100 company? Being a psychopath is the best qualification to get you to the top of a chosen path in life, but the worst to have once you are there: The reason most serial killers get away with it so long is that they are bright and cunning – and often total chameleons, able to blend into society. Ted Bundy, America’s worst to date is a classic example. A good-looking, charismatic former law student, estimated to have killed and raped over 100 young women. But it’s not just a good qualification if you want to be a serial killer, it’s a great one if you want to become a captain of industry or a top politician. The combination of charm, intelligence and utter ruthlessness is potent. The psychopath is capable of saying anything just to get to the top – how many politicians do we all know who’ve said totally opposing things many times during their climb up the greasy pole. But ultimately it is hubris that can be their downfall because their lack of empathy means they fail to read the warning signs. President Richard Nixon is a classic; Idi Amin; Saddam Hussein; Gadhafi. And how many CEOs of major companies, like Bernie Madoff and the late Robert Maxwell?
4. How to come up with a well-developed backstory for your psychopathic character.
Some years ago I spent a day at Broadmoor, the UK’s premier high-security psychiatric hospital. It took me a year before my request was accepted, but it was worthwhile because what I saw and learned there has helped me with so many subsequent characters. The qualification for admission to Broadmoor is, essentially, to be violently criminally insane. I asked the resident chaplain if he felt that there were some people who were born evil, or did something happen in their lives to turn them that way?
He replied that the inmates were divided roughly 50/50 into schizophrenics and psychopaths. Schizophrenia was a chemically treatable mental illness, and provided they took their medication, around 70% of the inmates in this category could eventually go back into the world and live ordinary lives. But for the psychopaths, it was very different.
He explained a psychopath is likely to first present symptoms at around the age of four. The majority is male but there are female ones also – as we will see. The earliest signs are likely to be a lack of empathy and no real sense of a moral code of right or wrong. A boy steals his best friend’s favourite toy – with absolutely zero guilt. He will also from an early age be an accomplished liar – and rarely found out.
The psychopath brought up in a loving, stable family may well go on to become a hugely successful businessman or politician. But the one brought up in a broken home, or a violent, abusive situation, is likely to become dangerously warped. Many serial killers come from such latter backgrounds, as did Adolf Hitler who had a bullying father who would not let him pursue the career as a painter he wanted in life.
5. Talk through any major villain you are creating with a forensic psychiatrist or psychologist.
I was chatting at lunch with former armed serial bank robber, and self-confessed psychopath, Steve Tulley. As a teenager in prison, for his first robbery, he met criminal legend Reggie Kray, and persuaded him to let him be his pupil and teach him everything he knew. At 58, broke, Tulley is living in a bedsit in Brighton and has spent more of his life in jail than free. I asked him what was the largest sum he had ever got away with. He told me it was £50k in a bank job. So what did he do with the money? He replied, excitedly that he’d rented a suite in Brighton’s Metropole Hotel and, in his words, ‘Larged it for six months until it was all gone.”
I asked Steve if he had the chance to live his life over again would he have done it differently? ‘No,’ he replied with a gleam in his eyes. ‘I’d do it all again. It’s the adrenaline, you see!’
From subsequently talking to forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, I’ve learned that this “adrenaline” buzz that Steve talks of goes hand-in-hand, with some criminals, with the ruthless, chaotic, hand-to-mouth existence they lead. One of the most chilling things I ever saw was the police video of Dennis Rader – the BTK Strangler– confessing. When asked why he had bound, tortured and killed – horrifically – his victims he replied, simply and matter-of-factly, ‘It was erotic, I got a buzz from it.”
Filed under 2017, writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday, writing tips
Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers.
One evening, they chatted after having dinner together. They discussed the 95th birthday gifts they were able to give their elderly mother who moved to Florida.
The first said, “You know I had a big house built for Mama.”
The second said, “And I had a large theater built in the house.”
The third said, “And I had my Mercedes dealer deliver an SL600 to her.”
The fourth said, “You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can’t read anymore because she can’t see very well. I met this preacher who told me about a parrot who could recite the entire Bible. It took ten preachers almost 8 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $50,000 a year for five years to the church, but it was worth it Mama only has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot will recite it.”
The other brothers were impressed. After the celebration Mama sent out her “Thank You” notes.
She wrote: Milton, the house you built is so huge that I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway.”
“Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home; I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks.”
“Michael, you gave me an expensive theater with Dolby sound and it can hold 50 people, but all of my friends are dead, I’ve lost my hearing, and I’m nearly blind. I’ll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same.”
“Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift. The chicken was delicious Thank you so much.”
Love, Mama
Filed under 2017, Monday morning writing joke
Booker's Blog 
J.K. Rowling’s Twitter feud with Trump supporters is so bad she’s now fighting some of her fans – The Washington Post
Rowling’s brushes with political controversy are nothing new. She’s just more open about her views now.
Source: J.K. Rowling’s Twitter feud with Trump supporters is so bad she’s now fighting some of her fans – The Washington Post
If there’s any doubt left that we live in divisive political times, know this: Some fans of Harry Potter are burning their copies of the books to protest author J.K. Rowling’s views of the U.S. president. And she’s fighting back on Twitter, insulting those very fans.
That’s right, one of the most beloved series of books in modern history has now become a political prop. Is nothing safe?
Rowling has been vocal about her feelings concerning President Trump for some time. She has mostly used Trump’s favorite platform, Twitter, to share her criticisms.
These tweets have generated a Facebook page’s worth of headlines. But Rowling’s brushes with political controversy are nothing new.
Rowling is a dedicated progressive. She’s a strong believer in welfare, which she relied on during a particularly rough period in her life. As she said during a 2008 Harvard commencement speech, “An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless … By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
More recently, Rowling found herself in the midst of a Twitter battle surrounding Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, referred to as Brexit, which she staunchly opposed.
Much of this now seemingly endless debate was absent during the height of the Harry Potter craze because the author didn’t publicly discuss her views until the publication of the final book in the series. In 2008, a year after “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” hit bookshelves, Rowling gave 1 million pounds to Britain’s Labour Party.
That same year, speaking to El Pais, she said of the U.S. presidential campaign in which Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were battling for the Democratic nomination: “I want a Democrat in the White House. It seems a pity that Clinton and Obama have to be rivals, because both are extraordinary.”
Anyone who gave the Harry Potter books a close reading likely wouldn’t have been surprised by Rowling’s politics.
Most of the subplots involve the triumph of marginalized peoples, be it the mixed-heritage Hermione, a “mudbl–d,” the poverty-stricken Weasleys, the stigmatized Hagrid (essentially an ex-offender reintroduced to society who can no longer practice magic as a result) or the “lower class” house elf named Dobby (the most obvious analogue to American slavery).
Harry himself, after all, was an orphan and survivor of attempted infanticide.
In his book “Harry Potter and the Millennials,” Anthony Gierzynski wrote that, “the evidence indicates that Harry Potter fans are more open to diversity and are more politically tolerant than nonfans; fans are also less authoritarian, less likely to support the use of deadly force or torture, more politically active, and more likely to have had a negative view of the Bush administration.”
Rowling invites anyone to challenge her.
Once Rowling opened up about her beliefs, it has been a steady stream ever since. And while attacking her own fans might seem like a poor marketing choice, it’s important to note one of the values that Rowling holds most dear: freedom of speech.
“Intolerance of alternative viewpoints is spreading to places that make me, a moderate and a liberal, most uncomfortable. Only last year, we saw an online petition to ban Donald Trump from entry to the U.K. It garnered half a million signatures,” she said during the 2016 PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “I find almost everything that Mr. Trump says objectionable. I consider him offensive and bigoted. But he has my full support to come to my country and be offensive and bigoted there. His freedom to speak protects my freedom to call him a bigot. His freedom guarantees mine.”
Rowling had already faced some conflict before she publicly expressed her political views. Her Harry Potter books were maligned by some Christian groups, making it one of the most challenged books in 2000, as tracked by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, according to the New York Times.
“The challenges seem to be objecting to occult or supernatural content in the books and are being made largely by traditional Christians who believe the Bible is a literal document,” Virginia Walter, president of the ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children, told the newspaper. “Any exposure to witches or wizards shown in a positive light is anathema to them. Many of these people feel that the books are door-openers to topics that desensitize children to very real evils in the world.”
The outcry didn’t come only from fringe, radical sects of Christianity, either. As noted in the Christian Post, when Pope Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he condemned the books for their “subtle seductions, which act unnoticed … deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly.”
There’s a certain irony to this, considering Rowling has said that Christianity was a great inspiration for the books.
“To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” she said at a 2007 news conference. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
There were Christian references throughout the series. When Harry visits his parents’ graves in one book, the headstone reads, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” — an abridged version of 1 Corinthians 15:26.
The graveyard is also the final resting place of headmaster Albus Dumbledore’s mother and sister, whose tombstone bears the inscription, “Where your treasure is, there your heart be also” — a direct quote from Matthew 6:19.
“I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric’s Hollow, they sum up — they almost epitomize the whole series,” Rowling said at the news conference.
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Filed under 2017, author commentary
Tagged as fan feud, J.K. Rowling, Sunday, The Washington Post, Trump