It isn’t until after we’ve had dinner that, I go to my room and leave the Boy to get his cartoon fix before going to bed. But last night he came to me and asked if he could watch TV together instead of separate. I was watching The Constant Gardener and hadn’t seen anything in it so far that I thought inappropriate, so I continued to watch it.

After watching for about 15 minutes, the Boy turned his head and said he couldn’t watch the movie anymore. It was disturbing.

I was surprised. There had been very little foul language, no violence or no sexual content. Just a privileged white couple that was becoming increasingly fractured over the wife’s desire to help the impoverished people in an African country.

But I stopped the movie anyway and realized that the Boy was crying.

“What’s wrong honey? What were you disturbed by?”

“Its just…Its disturbing,” he said. “A 15-year-old dying?”

He shook his head as the tears slowly made their way down his cheeks.

There it was, he was disturbed by the depiction of the poverty. The 15-year-old mother of three, who was dying (probably of AIDS) had been just too much for him to handle. And while I realized that he was not yet mature enough for this particular movie, he was mature enough for a little talk about empathy — because that’s what he was feeling.

So I told him that while sometimes we have had some financial struggles, we are very fortunate. We have food, we have shelter, we have nice clothes, and clean water to drink and bathe with. But there are people in other parts of the world who sleep on dirt floors and drink the same water other people shit in. There are people who don’t have the privileged of attending public schools and for many of the children in third world countries, the lunch they get at school is their only meal of the day.

We are fortunate.

I held him close and told him that his empathy was a good thing. People who feel empathy are often compelled to help others. Empathy drives people to make it so that people don’t have to drink shitty water, eat rice mush and sleep on dirt floors. Empathy drives people to work to make it so that 15-year-olds don’t have to die of AIDS.

He nodded his understanding as I wiped away his tears and gave him a big hug.

And then I put on Kick-Ass, a movie with gratuitous violence and foul language, but one that I knew would not leave him feeling sad about the human condition. There will be enough for that when he gets older.

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The idea, which I’ve discussed here before, is that giving kids age appropriate freedom is good for their development, good for parents, good for communities. She advocates that parents teach their kids about freedom and responsibility, give them the tools they need to confidently explore the world, starting first with their local neighborhoods. And I agree.

Skenazy is hilariously irreverent and equipped with the stats anyone needs to combat the fear that makes us want to lock our kids in the house. I’m already planning to buy a copy for my sister (who is raising three boys she’s afraid to let out of her sight) so that when her boys are old enough, she’ll have a tool to help her break free of her fear and teach them independence.

My feeling is that parents are afraid and want to give their kids freedom, but don’t know how. In Free-Range Kids, Lenore addresses those fears and provides ideas for taking baby steps or a big leap into going free-range. She also makes in clear that this concept isn’t about being lazy and uninvolved. Quite the contrary. If we’re going to send out kids out into the world, its our job as parents to prepare them. We shouldn’t live in fear and neither should they. This book is a gateway to reversing the trend of childhood lock-down and distrust of our neighbors.

Lenore Skenazy helped me gain perspective and I have watched my son develop in such an amazing way as a result of our free-range practice. As far as I’m concerned, Free-Range Kids is a must read for any parent, especially those who want their kids to grow up competent, confident and ready to take on the world.

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And I really didn’t want to like her at first. I would get angry when the dreaded earworm, Poker Face, got stuck in my head. I thought she came out of no where and was just another no-talent packed pop princess. Then I was cleaning The Boy’s room one day and the Poker Face came on. I was so focused on the task at home, I didn’t realize I was singing and dancing and before I knew it the song was over and I wanted to hear it again. And again.

That’s when I acknowledged that Poker Face was a great pop song.

I was still poking fun at it though.

Then one day I happened upon a link to Lady Gaga performing live, acoustic, ridiculous elephant on her head. Sure the head-dress was distracting but not enough for me to notice that she could really play that piano (with a compelling level of drama, I might add) and she could actually sing.

That’s when I admitted she was talented.

Combine talent and great pop music and what do you get? An entertainer. Toss in a little media savvy, crazy costumes and escalating eccentricity (I really think she has an more tame alter ego) and there is the story of Lady Gaga’s claim to fame.

The question remains, will Gaga be able to maintain the level of constant buzz and relevance that she has over the last two years? Let’s be real, how may artists–pop or otherwise–can you name that have had real staying power over the last decade? They are few and far between for sure. Even some of the most influential of the artists I grew up on have disappeared, had public melt downs or really need to just let it go. Perhaps the one who stayed on top the longest, without appearing to crash-and-burn or try too hard, was Madonna.

I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to make that kind of comparison. It’s no secret Madonna was always able to manipulate the media and reinvent herself for the times. She has always seemed poised and in complete control. You can argue that she’s probably a Queen-B who rules her circle of influence with an iron fist, I say she’s a shrewd business woman.

The only way for Gaga to sustain a long career arch, is to grow. That doesn’t mean continue to grow weird–in fact I think its quite the opposite. The weird will only take her so far; talent and savvy could take her all the way. If she can successfully transfer our focus from her eccentricity to her talent, Gaga could well be around 10 years from now with no sign of being toppled from her throne.

Dear Diary,

I was five months pregnant when I graduated from high school. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had a plan. I was going to college and I was going to make something of myself. For a while the plan worked and I worked the plan. Spring semester came around and I jumped in full speed ahead, ready to conquer the world. But as time went on, and the plan didn’t seem to be taking me any closer to my goal of graduating from college, my vision started to grow dimmer and dimmer.

It was 30 minutes before my intro to mass media class; a course from which I was on the verge of being dropped because I was either late or absent on a regular basis. I spent the previous 30 minutes trying to scrounge up a few bucks to put gas in my car. I dumped my change jar and counted almost four dollars in pennies. Then I dug in the couch, under beds, in junk drawers, in my purse, and checked every pants or coat pocket until I had exactly five dollars. I put them in a ziplock bag and headed to the gas station, hoping I could get to class on time.

“I can’t take that,” said the little Asian woman, when I went to hand her the bag. She didn’t even move to it. “How do I know it’s five dollars?”

“I counted it,” I said, humiliated by being so abruptly rebuffed. “I’ll count it here if you want.”

“You have to roll,” she said with a thick accent. “I can’t take them like that.”

“Where am I supposed to get penny wrappers?” I quipped, still holding the bag before her.

She glared at me, reached under the counter and handed me 10 penny wrappers. “You roll them and you can get gas.”

I didn’t have time to argue and roll the pennies, so I walked back to my car and began shoving the pennies into the wrappers. By the time I finished, I was down to 15 minutes to get to class, and the baby was still in the back seat. As I walked back to the cashier to pay for the gas, I realized I was not going to make it to the class. I got the gas, went home and my vision faded to black. I dropped the rest of my classes for the semester. How was I going to get through college and I could barely afford to buy diapers, let alone pay a babysitter and buy books.

When I had my second child a few years later, and my boyfriend asked me what I was going to do, I was afraid to answer. I wanted to go back to college but I was still haunted by that day at the gas station that I did not want to go back only to fail again. But what was I to do? It was in my longest period of unemployment since joining the workforce. After looking for work for almost six months, I was either overqualified for jobs I didn’t really want or didn’t have a degree to prove I could do jobs I did want.

As a last ditch effort to develop a skill and get started with some sort of career, I made up my mind that my future, my life and the lives of my children depended on me getting an education. I saw a commercial for an interior design program at a local design school and went down for a visit; it looked like fun creative work so I signed up. I was in my second term at design school when I ran into a Freedom Writer I hadn’t seen in a while. She told me our teacher Ms. Gruwell was trying to gather some of us together for a pilot run of a Freedom Writer Scholarship. I have to admit that I was conflicted; I knew this was the opportunity I had been in such desperate need of before but it also meant revising my plan…again. There was no way I could pass though, so I took the plunge and began to see a light in the fog. My dream was back within my reach.

There was always so much to do: work, school, parent teacher conferences, not to mention the speaking engagements and workshops that were included in my scholarship. It didn’t take long for my fiancé to begin showing signs of resentment, finding ways to reminding me that I was always gone and the kids missed me. Like I didn’t already feel bad about not being around to help my kids with their homework or tuck them in at bedtime. But hell, I busted my ass every day, dragging two kids along for rides on multiple buses to get them to school or to the sitter. Sometimes when I was having a debate with a mindless 19-year-old blond for whom college was just something to check off a list, I thought about my kids and remembered that for me, this was do-or-die time.

My final year was still a blast. I picked up a minor in journalism, wrote for the school paper and got a job on campus. Finally I had was able to enjoy the college experience I had always wanted but had lost hope of that day at the gas station. When I heard my name called and walked across the stage, I looked out and knew that despite all of the challenges, I had beaten the odds. I was no longer just the statistic – the single teenage mother who with no options – I was a college graduate with an entire world of possibilities ahead of me. It was time for my life to begin.

Visit the Freedom Writers Foundation for more info on the Freedom Writers and to purchase a copy of The Freedom Writer’s Diary

Fearless was a vulnerable true story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia Huo Yuan Jia (Li) and his spiritual journey in which he learned the true meaning of honor and sportsmanship at a tragically high price.

As he became a more famed master, Huo Yuanjia’s pride grew. Slowly his pride became his fall. In his thirst for fame and championship, Yuanjia eventually had to face the lesson he hadn’t heeded as a child; winning at all costs is not winning at all.

This movie is thrilling, heart breaking, inspiring and vulnerable.

And absolutely epic.

I won’t go through a full run-down of everything I’ve been doing lately, I’ll just say that I’ve been tired all week because I’ve been super busy. And not just with work; my social calendar has been full. I was almost wondering what happened that could cause such a change. Maybe it was just me deciding I was tired of being sad and lonely. I started accepting invitations even when I thought I was tired.

Today was awesome. Y’know, some people you work with are just co-workers but I’ve actually become friends with some of the girls I work with. I mean, why not? We’ve been sitting right next to each other for almost a year and while we all started at the same time, we are the survivors of the turmoil that had our department in a stranglehold. After all of the craziness, we actually like to get together outside of work and its becoming more frequent.

So, today I went to San Diego with one of the girls Art Walk at the Bay and a class at Culture Shock Dance Center. The dance class was fantastic; we got sweaty and started our day right with an aerobic workout. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but I’m also pretty sure I’m going to sign up for more classes so we can go back again.

Art walk was alright…Mind you I love the arts, but most of the stuff presented was so…unoriginal. That’s not to say that there weren’t any talented artists, because there certainly were. However, most of what was being shown just looked like I had seen it before. One artist and a friend of the friend with whom I was traveling today, Corey Rice, had quite possibly the most unique paintings and prints at the festival. His work is at once humorous, quirky and surreal. The little guy to the left is one from a multi-frame piece one of which depicted the wooden doll, dancing.

Anyway, I’m tired, but in a great mood because I spent all day in the sun walking around along the bay. It was great; now I’m going to crash.

From beginning to end, you are pulled into this intriguing story of Alex “The Fey;” a femme fatal intelligence expert, trying to pull together the shattered pieces of her life, while enduring continued psychological torture.

Truthfully, I’ve never been much into mysteries or even fiction for that matter. But The Fey’s quick pace with harrowing details, romantic subplots, and remarkable clarity made it an intensely compelling read.

I couldn’t put it down!

Every time I stopped reading, even for a second, I wandered what was coming next. Once after I had already gone to bed, I was so curious that I turned the light back on to read just one more chapter…

Claudia Hall Christian has a gift for intrigue and for creating intricate yet easy to read story lines. For anyone looking for something fun to read, The Fey is a page turner that will make your heart race and even when it’s over, you’ll want to know more about the dynamic cast of characters you’ll no doubt have grown to love.

You can read The Fey online or purchase a hard copy (don’t forget the discount code: XQGB8SVR). Whatever you do, make sure you set aside a good block of time; once you get started, you won’t want to put The Fey down.

They had the information, knew it was correct and reported the news of Michael Jackson’s death first.

I suppose there are people who don’t “expect” TMZ to have accurate information. Those people either forget or don’t know that Harvey Levin–the man behind TMZ–is both a lawyer and entertainment journalist.

That story would not have run if it were not accurate.

Granted, the LA Times and CNN perhaps have a bit more credibility than a celebrity gossip site like TMZ; unless of course you know Levin’s credentials. It has been my experience though that Harvey Levin is a good journalist and expects the same from his team.

It would seem that TMZ was the dark horse in a race for quick and accurate information. He came out on top and the only defense the other mainstream media (as if anyone who’s into US pop culture and celebrity gossip doesn’t consider TMZ kinda mainstream and the whole idea of people in the media being surprised that TMZ broke the story accurately is such bullshit) has is, “but what if they had gotten it wrong?”

TMZ got it first, got it right, and you–dear “mainstream media”–had your ass handed to you. `

Related articles: My tribute to Michael Jackson.

I haven’t read the book yet – I’m anxiously awaiting the hard copy. I read online all day every day, a hard copy will be a welcome escape for the internets – but every review I have read thus far has been supremely positive and Mrs. Christian is developing a cult following. She’s done this by using building an online community of both readers and writers and by leveraging the power of social networking.

I asked her about her journey to becoming a successful book author but before we get to that, a few goodies for you my dear readers:

• Win a free copy of The Fey. The lucky winner selected from comments on this post. I don’t get many comments, so anyone who comments has a pretty good chance of getting a free copy of the book.
• Purchase the book from Create Space and get a 10% discount. Just enter this discount code: XQGB8SVR.

And now, without further ado, inspirational words from author, Claudia Hall Christian.

Your blog mentioned giving up everything familiar to pursue your dream of being a writer. What has that journey been like and what have you learned in your pursuit?
It’s been a long and winding journey to become an author. When I started working on the first edition of The Fey, I was simply filling my time on sabbatical with a good story. I figured writing a book was a worthy pursuit for a year long sabbatical. It never occurred to me that writing fiction would become my life. I completed a draft and left for a month long backpacking trip down the Colorado Trail.

Certainly, like a lot of people, I loved writing and reading as a child. I had planned on becoming an author, but life intervened. I forgot that dream until we were about a hundred miles into the Colorado Trail trip. We were miles from anything familiar. Sitting around our camp stove, my husband and I began talking about what we wanted in our lives.

This trail trip was an amazing experience. The trail is steep, treacherous and, in many places, over ten thousand feet. We faced the mountain every day. And every day, we were forced to face ourselves, our attitudes, and beliefs about ourselves.

It’s possible that I was hallucinating when I said that I wanted to pursue a career in writing. My husband said he wanted to go back to school to get a Master’s degree. Snowed out after one hundred and fifty miles, we returned to our home in Denver and began pursuing our dreams.

My husband is almost done with his Master’s degree. The Fey is published and Denver Cereal, my serial romantic fiction, is almost a year old.

How did you go from publishing your books online to getting a signed with a publisher? What were the advantages of publishing online first?

This is a complicated question because we actually chose to form our own publishing company. I don’t talk about it much because I’ve been inundated with manuscripts.

We felt that traditional publishing was missing the boat on modern, easily accessible modes of publishing. We wanted to pursue a new model of publishing that included releasing the novels on the Internet in a blog format. Because The Fey is the first in a series of books, we expected the series to take a fairly traditional path for thriller series. (The first book sells some copies, the second does a little better and the whole series takes off with the third book.) This type of series is currently not supported by traditional publishing houses.

The model of releasing books electronically, as well as in paperback, was initiated by Cory Doctorow, one of the founders of the Creative Commons movement. He believes that authors suffer more from obscurity than from plagiarism. Further, in his experience, people want to try out a novel, see if they like it, before they commit to purchasing. Using his model, we released Denver Cereal in paperback as well as electronic .pdf. So far, we have had over twenty thousand downloads. The Fey is released a chapter a week at AlextheFey.com. An electronic version of The Fey will be available near the end of November.

How important was building a reading/writing community to your success? How did you build that community and where should other up-and-coming writers start building their own?
There are two processes for my writing: the banging out of the words and making sure that people understand what I’m writing. When I had completed the first edition of The Fey, I asked twelve of the most critical people I know if they would mind reading it. I was overwhelmed at their generosity. As I worked through the second edition, then the third, I asked a few different people and some of the original people.

The Fey is a better book at the insistence of these readers. For example, one woman said, “These are great characters. They deserve a better story.” Talk about a call to battle! I went straight to work to create a story worthy of these characters.

As for starting your own reading group, there’s a couple things you have to decide first. I wanted to write books for real people, so I chose real people to be in my reading group. If you want to write great literature, you will need to find people who appreciate great literature. If you want to write mass marketed books, you’ll need to find people who read mass market.

More than anything, listen to your readers. I’ve been asked to read a few novels. When I attempt to give feedback, the author doesn’t really want to hear it. My readers guided me, helped me, and made my work better. I have little ego when it comes to my work. I want it to be the very best it can possibly be. So I listen to any and all feedback. Sure, some people are jerks. But most people really want to help.

How did you come up with the idea of a blog book tour for your new book The Fey? What is the goal of this blog tour? How many blogs have you visited thus far? How will you measure the success of the tour?

I noticed other authors were doing book blog tours. I was curious about how they were set up so I followed a few authors doing them via GoodReads. Many authors pay marketing people set up their blog visits. I’m fortunate to know so many bloggers. I’ve visited only friend’s blogs for this tour.

I’ve been on seventeen blogs for a total of twenty days. The posts have ranged from interviews to reviews of the book. A few people have posted side stories from The Fey. I even did a crayola stick figure synopsis of The Fey.

My hope was to raise awareness of The Fey and the Alex the Fey thriller series. Unlike a single book tour, I’m hoping to introduce people to the world of The Fey as well as the novel. The blog tour has generated a lot of interest in The Fey. I’ve received some amazing reviews which encourage and support me to continue working on the series. Overall, it’s been a wonderful experience.

We keep hearing that the print publishing industry is dead or dying. What words of encouragement can you offer other aspiring writers looking for book deals in today’s publishing industry environment?

Right at this moment, there are more people capable of reading than in any other time in history. People want to read good stories. In many parts of the world, people are desperate to read fiction in English. Fiction provides not only an escape but a look into the customs and culture of a society.

If you are an aspiring writer, go down the list of your favorite authors. Then ask yourself – Did they have more people capable of reading their work? Or less?

Remember that the great authors – Mark Twain, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, Willa Cather – never made it to any best sellers list. And they still made a living by writing fiction that people wanted to read.

If you have one book in you? Go for the best sellers list. You don’t have a choice but to hold on to your story. It’s the only one you have to tell.

If you want to be a author, write fiction that people want to read. There’s lots and lots and lots of stories to be told. Tell them. Then let people read it. Set up a blog for your short fiction. Start a serial fiction. (I’ll tell you, writing Denver Cereal, my romantic serial fiction, is the best thing I’ve ever done.) Get your work out there. Dig out that novel that’s languishing in your drawer and release it into the world. See what people have to say.

Stop focusing on large paychecks, movie contracts, and best sellers lists. Just write and let people read. Go for it.

I always dug her sexy style but kinda wrote her off as another flash in the pan. She’s on her third album and while she may not be in the tabloids constantly, the girl is hot hot hot. And the way she moves reminds me of a slim young Janet with the sensuality kicked way up.

This weekend she was on SNL and her performance was melt you into your chair sexy. That is all. You check it out yourself.